Exercise 8. Work in pairs. Student A makes a statement. Student B expresses agreement or disagreement
Student A:
| I think that | learning grammar having a talk with an Englishman working in groups reading a lot listening to tape-recordings speaking English in class watching films, videotapes doing language activities outside the classroom | is the best way to learn English |
Student B:Yes, I agree with you. / You’re right. / That’s true.
I completely agree with you
No, I don’t agree with you. / Sorry, I don’t think so
Student A:
I think that | education health honesty love money | is the most important thing in life. |
Student B:I think you are right.
That’s nonsense!
I think your opinion is absolute nonsense.
I suppose you are right.
I am afraid I don’t agree with you.
I am afraid you are mistaken/wrong.
I don’t think so.
Greetings and Introductions
Exercise 9. Read the dialogue in pairs. Act out your own dialogues choosing some expressions from the list below.
H: Hello, Mary! How are you?
M: I am fine, thanks. And you, Helen?
H: Not so bad. Mary, I want to introduce you to my boyfriend.
He is on business here.
M: What is he?
H: He is a computer engineer at a bank. He is coming. Alex, this is
Mary.
A: Hi, Mary? Nice to meet you.
M: Nice to meet you too. Are you a university graduate, Alex?
A: Yes, I am. I graduated from this university last year.
M: Do you like your job?
A: I like it very much. It’s been my idea of a job since my school days.
 |
1. I am glad to meet you. 2. You are welcome at our university. 3. Let me introduce her/ him to you. 4. She/ he is my close friend. 5. How do you spell your name? 6. What’s your first/ last name?
READING
Practise reading the following words from TEXT B giving special attention to the pronunciation of sounds in stressed position.
| varieties style revise science private precise | phrasal conversation native communication change situation | vocabulary language | vary area |
Remember the following negative PREFIXES of the words in the right hand column:
formal informal
direct indirect (taxation)
limited unlimited (company)
social unsocial
agreement disagreement
voting nonvoting (shares)
Introductory Note
TEXT B contains many INTERNATIONAL WORDS, such as FORMAL – формальный, EMOTIONAL – эмоциональный. International words are easy to recognize and their meanings are easy to guess in context. Remember: they have often several possible translations. E.g. “formal politeness” – формальная вежливость, “formal language” – официальный, сухой язык, “formal agreement” – официальное соглашение.
TEXT B
Read TEXT B quickly. Try to guess the meaning of the underlined
International words.
Varieties of English
English is not a single language, it varies according to forms ofcommunication (spoken – written), speech situations (formal – informal), functional styles (language of science – literary language), geographical areas (British English – American English).
In writing we usually have time to plan our message, to think about it carefully and revise it if necessary.
The language of science belongs mostly to formal written communication, it is usually objective, precise and unemotional. Some of the common features of the language of science are passive constructions, sentences beginning with introductory “it” (e.g. It is important to remember).
Formal language is the type of language we use publicly for some serious purpose, for example, in officialreports and business letters. Informal language is the language of private conversation, of popular newspapers, of personal letters. In English there are many differences of vocabulary between formal and informal language. Much of the vocabulary of formal English is of French, Latin and Greek origin. Many phrasal verbs are characteristic of informal style:
to discover to find out
to investigate to look into
to educate to bring up
English is spoken as a native language by nearly three hundred million people. The varieties of English used in Great Britain and the USA are the most important in terms of population and influence.
English presents a great difficulty for a learner because of disagreement between pronunciation and spelling. There are many suggestions to simplify English by changing the spelling system. But people think that there are too many problems connected with the change of the spelling rules.