Сократите текст, опустив несущественные детали.

1.1.7. Составьте план и передайте содержание текста.

 

Сообщите вашему собеседнику информацию по данным вопросам.

- What is the role of the English language in your country?

- What other languages are spoken in your country?

 

 

Раздел 1.2.

Отработайте произношение данных слов и словосочетаний, уточнив транскрипцию по словарю.

diversity n	разнообразие
arrival n	прибытие
co-existence n	сосуществование
settle v	поселяться
eventually adv	со временем
shift n	сдвиг, изменение, перемещение
numerical adj	численный, числовой
substantial adj	значительный
significance n	значение
ratio n	отношение, соотношение
count v	иметь значение
lingua franca	язык межъязыкового общения
supremacy n	господство, превосходство
piecemeal adv	по частям
maintain v	поддерживать, сохранять, продолжать
trek v	совершать длительный поход, переход

1.2.2. Прочитайте данный текст и дайте ответ на вопрос:

“What is the main idea of the text?”

WHY DOES AMERICA SPEAK ONE LANGUAGE?

America was – and is- a melting-pot of peoples and of languages. But why, given the astonishing diversity of the immigrant arrivals from almost the earliest days, the country did not become a linguistic jigsaw in which none of the pieces would fit together. Why didn’t languages compete in those places, where, for instance, German and English speakers rubbed up against each other? Or what about simple co-existence? And how was it that the isolated groups, for example, the Scandinavian countries who settled in remote Minnesota or Nebraska would eventually make the shift away from their own languages?

The simplest answer is probably the numerical one. By the end of the 18^th century there were more than 2 million people of English and Welsh extraction recorded in 16 states. To this must be added a substantial quantity of Scots-Irish. The total of the other principle language speakers – German, Dutch and French in the order of their numerical significance – hardly exceeded 200,000. It was the ratio of English speakers to non-English that counted.

The new non-English-speaking immigrants contributed much to America, including (sometimes) hundreds of terms from their own languages. The very variety of the immigrant tongues would have helped establish English as the lingua franca. There was no single rival for supremacy, rather a diverse group of (mostly) European languages arriving in piecemeal fashion, each of which brought something to the table but none of which had the desire or capacity to sit at the top place.

Of course, many ethnic and linguistic groups did maintain their identity for a long time after their arrival, as is shown by the existence of well over 100 German-language newspapers in mid-19^th-century America or the publication of up to a dozen Yiddish newspapers in 1930s New York. There were isolated groups who preserved their own tongue, as is still the case to an extent with the Amish. But the literal mobility of American society, from the earliest days of the pioneers trekking westward to the age of the freeway, has been a powerful counterforce against the closed community and thus the long-term preservation of any language other than English.

More important than mobility, perhaps, was the aspirational nature of the new society, later to be formalized and glamourized in phrases like the “American Dream”. Success was achievable not so much as a prize for conformity but for adaptation to challenging new conditions, among which would be acquiring enough of the dominant language to get by – before getting ahead.

 

1.2.3. Прочитайте текст еще раз. Найдите в тексте ответы на данные вопросы (работа в парах).

1. What made America the melting pot of languages?

2. What countries contributed to the prevailence of the English language in America?

3. In what way did immigrant tongues exist in America?

4. What did literal mobility result in?

5. What did challenging to new conditions bring to?

6. How can the phrase the “American Dream” be explained?

Выпишите из текста слова, отражающие основную тему текста.

 

1.2.5. Составьте план текста на английском языке.

 

Напишите небольшое сообщение на английском языке по теме текста.

Раздел 1.3.