Use the following links to prepare your presentation. Remember the rules of working with online sources.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world/health

http://news.discovery.com/human

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/lifeandstyle

Writing

Essay (argumentation)

Consider statements for and against living healthy lifestyle. Brainstorm all you know about the topic, make a list of possible arguments. To write an argumentative essay see Appendix II. Then write an argumentative essay on one of the following topics.

 

 Possible topics for essay writing:

1. Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live?

2. Some people prefer to eat at food stands and restaurants. Other people prefer to prepare and eat food at home. Which do you prefer and why?

3. In general, people are living longer now. Discuss the causes of this phenomenon.

Reading for Fun

You are going to read the following extract from “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll. What do you know about the author and this story?

After reading the text discuss the following: Was the tea party really enjoyable? How did the participants of the party behave? Does the described situation have anything in common with real English etiquette?

 

A Mad Tea-Party

 

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and the talking over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; `only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.'

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: `No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice coming. `There's PLENTY of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

`Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. `I don't see any wine,' she remarked.

`There isn't any,' said the March Hare.

`Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily.

`It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited,' said the March Hare.

`I didn't know it was YOUR table,' said Alice; `it's laid for a great many more than three.'

`Your hair wants cutting,' said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.

`You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said with some severity; `it's very rude.'

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he SAID was, `Why is a raven like a writing-desk?'

`Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. `I'm glad they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud.

`Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare.

`Exactly so,' said Alice <...>.

`What day of the month is it?' said The Hatter, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.

Alice considered a little, and then said `The fourth.'

`Two days wrong!' sighed the Hatter. `I told you butter wouldn't suit the works!' he added looking angrily at the March Hare.

`It was the BEST butter,' the March Hare meekly replied.

`Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,' the Hatter grumbled: `you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife.'

The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, `It was the BEST butter, you know.'<...>

`The Dormouse is asleep again,' said the Hatter, and he poured a little hot tea upon its nose.

The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without opening its eyes, `Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself.'

`Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.

`No, I give it up,' Alice replied: `what's the answer?'

`I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter.

`Nor I,' said the March Hare.

Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better with the time,' she said, `than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.'

`If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you wouldn't talk about wasting IT. It's HIM.'

`I don't know what you mean,' said Alice.

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `We quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,) `--it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at!"

You know the song, perhaps?'

`I've heard something like it,' said Alice.

`Well, I'd hardly finished the first verse,' said the Hatter, `when the Queen jumped up and bawled out, "He's murdering the time! Off with his head!"'

`How dreadfully savage!' exclaimed Alice.

`And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask! It's always six o'clock now.'

A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked.

`Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.'

`Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice.

`Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.'

`But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask.

`Suppose we change the subject,' the March Hare interrupted, yawning.

`Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so I can't take more.'

`You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter: `it's very easy to take MORE than nothing.'

`Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice.

`Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked triumphantly.

Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to some tea and bread-and-butter. <...>

`Really, now you ask me,' said Alice, very much confused, `I don't think--'

`Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter.

This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in great disgust, and walked off; the Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she looked back once or twice, half hoping that they would call after her: the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot.

`At any rate I'll never go THERE again!' said Alice as she picked her way through the wood. `It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!'

Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a door leading right into it. `That's very curious!' she thought. `But everything's curious today. I think I may as well go in at once.' And in she went.

Once more she found herself in the long hall, and close to the little glass table. `Now, I'll manage better this time,' she said to herself, and began by taking the little golden key, and unlocking the door that led into the garden. Then she went to work nibbling at the mushroom (she had kept a piece of it in her pocked) till she was about a foot high: then she walked down the little passage: and THEN--she found herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains.

(Abridged from “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll)

 

Tongue twisters

1) Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, if Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? 2) There's no need to light a night light on a light night like tonight, for a night light's a slight light on a night like tonight. 3) Amidst the mists and coldest frosts, with stoutest wrists and loudest boasts, he thrusts his fist against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts. 4) Betty bought a bit of butter        But the butter Betty bought was bitter,        So Betty bought a bit of better butter To make the bitter butter better!

 

Unit VI

CULTURE AND TRADITIONS

Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.

(Oscar Wilde)

Warm-up

Discuss the following questions with your partner:

1. What are the first three things which come into your mind when you hear the words 'England' or 'the English’?

2. What are the main distinct features of the English people and Russians in your opinion?

3.  How many countries are there in Great Britain and the United Kingdom?

4.  Have you ever heard, watch or read about any tourist attractions of the UK?

5. What places in GB do you consider the most interesting to visit and why?

Reading and Speaking

Read the following text and think about a possible title for it. Make sure you know all words in bold and be ready to explain them in English. Make up sentences of your own with these words. Complete the tasks below.

 

The name of the country and the term "English" derive from the Old English word for one of the three Germanic peoples that invaded the British Isles in the fifth century B.C. the Angles. "Britain" and "British" derive from a Roman term for the inhabitants' language of the British Isles, called "Brythonic" or Celtic.

Englishness is highly regionalized. The most important regional divide is between the south and the north. The south, chiefly represented by the regions of the southeast, southwest, East Anglia, and the Midlands, now contains the economically most dynamic sectors of the country, including the City (the chief financial center of the United Kingdom) and the seat of the national government, both in London. The north, the cradle of industrialization and the site of traditional smokestack industries, includes Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northumberland, Cumbria, Durham, Merseyside, and Cheshire. Especially in the last decades of the twentieth century, the north has experienced deindustrialization, severe economic hardship, and cultural balkanization. England is also a culture of many smaller regionalisms, still centered on the old governmental unit of the county and the local villages and towns. Local products, such as ale, and regional rituals and art forms, such as Morris dancing and folk music, many of which date back to the preindustrial era, allow people to shape their attachments to their communities and the nation. Merged with the north–south divide and regionalism are notions of working class, middle class, and upper class as well as rich versus poor.

England's role as a destination for migration also has influenced conceptions of Englishness. Historically, the most prominent immigrant group has been the Irish, who came in two major waves in the modern era: 1847 and 1848 after the potato famine, and during and after World War II. Scots were present in England by the 1700s and settled in England in large numbers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, often for economic reasons. Welsh in-migration came to prominence when deindustrialization began in Wales in the 1920s. This immigration has brought the so-called Celtic fringe into English culture in a host of ways. There has also been the impact of Jewish, Flemish, Dutch, French Huguenot, German, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Cypriot, and Chinese cultures since the twelfth century. The loss of Britain's colonies has brought Afro-Caribbeans, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, and migrants from northwestern and eastern Africa in significant numbers. Judgments of whether England's newcomers feel themselves to be "English" vary by group and even by individual.

England covers 50,357 square miles (130,423 square kilometers) of the main island of the British Isles and lies off the northwestern coast of Europe, separated from the mainland by the English Channel. The Gulf Stream makes the climate mild and rainy. The country is also divided into a highland zone and a lowland zone along a line from the mouth of the River Exe in the southwest to the mouth of the River Tees in the northeast. The highland zone's soil is poor and rocky, mainly suitable for raising livestock, but in the lowlands the land is flatter, the soil is fertile, and there are many navigable rivers. As a result of its favorable topography, the lowland region has always had the majority of the population, supported most agriculture and trade, and had the largest cities including the capital, London. The highland zone did not develop rapidly until the nineteenth century, when its coal and iron deposits allowed it to surge to prominence in the industrial revolution.

(From http://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/England.html#ixzz42m68TijG)

True or False?

1.The north of BG contains the most dynamic sectors of the country’s economy.

2. Local traditions, foods and drinks make no difference in shaping people’s attachments to their communities.

3. Conceptions of Englishness is highly influenced by England’s role as a destination for migration.

4. The loss of Britain's colonies has brought Afro-Caribbeans, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, and migrants from northwestern and eastern Africa in significant numbers.

5. The highland zone's soil is rich and rocky.

6. Industrial revolution started because of revealing coal and iron deposits.

2. Discuss the following questions with your partner:

1. How can we understand the notion “Englishness”? What other concepts are associated with it?

2. Have you ever heard about the “Russian soul”? What does come into your mind when you think about it?

3. Can the climate influence peoples’ appearance and mentality? If so, in what way?

4. Immigration is a necessary and unstoppable process in our society. Do you agree with this statement? Give your grounds.

Quiz

Look through the given English set phrases and collocations and chose the most suitable variant. Discuss your choice with your partner then check the meanings in the dictionary. Finally, make a list of famous Russian set phrases and collocations about the weather, work, personal characteristics of people etc. and try to explain their meaning in English.

1. To hear such news must be a …

1. An Indian summer

2. Music to one’s ears

3. An ivory tower

2. Mike’scomments … everytime.

1. Hit the marks

2. Sound the alarm

3. Put the hole in one’s pocketbook

3. They became … during the last war.

1. Storm in a tea – cup

2. Brothers in arms

3. Prodigalson

4. The killers are …, but it is only a question of time before they are caught.

1. In the longrun

2. Once in a bluemoon

3. On the run

5. Jack is always … of the party.

1. The evileye

2. The body and soul

3. The life and soul

6. The picture went … because the painter had to raise money quickly.

1. For a song

2. In the air

3. On the samestring

7. “Never to be late is …”.

1. The Golden Age

2. A heart of gold

3. The goldenrule

(From busyteacher.org)

Reading and Speaking