Listening: Spiritual supermarket

 

1. Read the names:

 

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, Zoroastianism, Christianity, New Age.

 

2. Learn the notions:

 

- bhajans – religious songs;

- nirvana – salvation;

- Mahabharata, Ramayana – Hindu epics;

- Gurus – spiritual leaders.

 

3. Listen to the tape and answer the questions:

 

1/ What kind of state is India according to its constitution?

2/ What religions are represented in India?

3/ How have many religious Practices changed? (use the words: to blare out on loudspeaker; to be marked up, as in supermarket; to be promised via special phone lines; to be serialized on TV)

4/ What has India always exported?

 

 

Reading: Literary Traditions

 

1. Read the names:

 

Rigveda-sanhita, the Aryans, the Vedic language, Mahabharata, Tulsidas, Ramcharitamanas, the Hindu God-king Rama, Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal, the Nobel Prize, Bengali.

2. Translate into English:

Один из самых ранних текстов, арийский сборник божественных гимнов, самая длинная поэма в мире, поэт шестнадцатого века, получил нобелевскую премию по литературе, рассказ о мистическом индусском бого-царе Раме, родился в Бенгале.

 

3. Explain the names in ex/1, using ex.2.

4. Read the text and ask questions.  

 

 

Listening: Literary Traditions

1. Read the names:

Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, Anita, Desai, Vikram Ghandra, Robinson Mistry, The God of Small Things, Midnight’s Children, A Suitable Boy.

 

2. Find the proper explanation:

Nickname                                 - search;

Hardback                                 - description of something made by comparing it with

                                               Something of similar qualities;

Metaphor                               - name given to a person or thing which is not its real

                                                        name;

Paperback                              - the situation or circumstance which forms the setting

                                               of events;

quest                                      - a book with a hard cover;

backdrop                                         - a book with a soft, paper cover.

 

3. Listen to the text and name the writers and their books using ex. 1.

4. Answer the questions after listening to it for the second time:

 

1/ Why do Indian writers feel free to use English?

2/ What is nicknamed by the name of Salman Rushdie’s book?

3/ What did the Indian writers do to make English sound in their own way?

4/ What is Vikram Seth’s book “A Suitable Boy” about?

5/ What sum of money did Arundhati Roy receive as an advance for her first novel “The God of Small Things”?

 

 

Reading: Starting from zero

 

1. Read the names:

a/ Ariabhatta, J.C. Bose, C.V. Raman, Rajiv Gandhi;

b/ biochemist, Prime Minister, astronomer, psysicist;

c/ calculated the value of pi to be 3.1416 and the length of the solar year as 365, promised to take India into the computer age, won the Nobel Prize for discoveries in light diffusion, researched plant behaviour.

 

2. Speak of the following well-known people and their works using ex.1.

3. Read the text and ask questions to it.

4. Read the text “Indiasoft” and retell it.

 

 

Reading: Savouring India

 

1. Read the names:

Milagu-tannir, samosa, naan, biryani, korma, dosas, idlis, sambhar, dohi maach.

2. Explain the meaning of these dishes after reading the text.

3. What food is typical of the following parts:

the north of India, the south and Calcutta?

4. Why do the British still love Indian food? Which of the dishes mentioned in the text would you like to try? Why?

 

 

Reading: Pakistan: Land of the Pure

A difficult birth

 

1. Read the names:

The Land of Pure, Pakistan, Muslims, Quaid –e- Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Sikhs, Hindus, mohajirs, Benazir Bhutto, Karachi.

2. Match the following and put in a correct order:

 

Land of the Pure was the name given                               Muslims

In some areas of India the majority of the people were    mohajirs

Millions of Sikhs and Hindus moved to the Indian side   to Pakistan

Millions of Muslims moved                                         little in common with other

They had                                                                          Pakistanis, except their religion                               

                                                                                           Moved to the Indian side

 

3. Read the text, check your answers and retell the text.

 

 

Listening: Borrowing language

1. Read the names:

Urdu, the British Raj, jodhpurs, bazaar.

2. Listen to the text and fill in the gaps:

1/. The national language of Pakistan is…and there are many regional languages, but English is used extensively in…

2/. English is also the medium of instruction in …

3/. Many people want to learn English and go …

4/. During …, the colonizers borrowed many Urdu words …

5/. Urdu in turn, has borrowed many English words, such as…

3. Read the text, correct your mistakes and retell it.