Divided by a Common Language

It’s not a secret that British English is quite different from American English. Let’s have a look at some of these differences!

· In speech, Americans sometimes specify the country in which well-known cities are located and say Paris, France or Rome, Italy rather than just Paris or Rome. This may be in order to avoid confusion, since many towns in the US have been named after European cities.

· The Brits clean their teeth, whereas the Americans brush their teeth. Teeth cleaning in the US is done at the dentist’s office.

· The word café in American English can mean «nightclub» as well as «coffee shop».

· If used in the plural the word guy can refer to men and women in the US.

· In the US, the floor of a building level with the ground is known as the first floor; in Britain it is called the ground floor. What is known in the US as the second floor is called the first floor in Britain; the third floor in the US is called the second floor in Britain.

· Americans will often say «two times» rather than «twice», as in «We saw the show two times».

· The date on a form of a letter in Britain is expressed by putting the day, the month, then the year (14 February 2014). In the US the month comes first, followed by the day and then the year (February 14, 2014).

· Hours and minutes are divided by a full stop in Britain, but by a colon in the US (9:30 a.m. in the US, 9.30 a.m. in the UK).

· When spelling a word aloud that has two double letters, most Britons will use the word double. For example, to spell canned, Britons will say «c-a-double n-e-d». Most Americans, however, will pronounce each letter separately: «c-a-n-n-e-d».

· In Britain, the expression to wash up means «to wash the dishes». In the US this expression means «to wash face and/ or hands».

UNIT 2. PERSONALITY AND FAMILY ITEMS

Learn the following words and word combinations

Vocabulary List

siblings братья и сестры	divorce/to divorceразвод/разводиться
to supportподдерживать	appearanceвнешность
attentionвнимание	attractiveпривлекательный
jealousyревность	to guaranteeгарантировать
to share smth. with smb. разделять что-либо с чем-либо	quality/feature качество/черта
to get on (along) well/to be on good termsхорошо ладить/быть в хороших отношениях	to neglect (negligence)пренебрегать, игнорировать, запускать (пренебрежение)
to respect уважать	overindulgence чрезмерное потакание
to treat относиться	to rebel against smth. восставать против чего-либо
to trustдоверять	to be good atпреуспевать в чем-либо
to satisfy удовлетворять	to be keen on/to be fond ofувлекаться
to compare сравнивать	to be mad/crazy aboutбыть помешанным на чем-либо
to bring up (upbringing)воспитывать (воспитание)	to prefer предпочитать
generation gapконфликт поколений	to socializeобщаться
relations/relationshipsсвязи/(взаимо)отношения	to broaden world outlook расширять кругозор
relativesродственники	to gather togetherсобираться вместе
patienceтерпение	flatквартира
to marry/to get married жениться, выходить замуж	cosy уютный
spouseсупруг(а)	conveniencesудобства
adult взрослый	well-equipped хорошо оборудованный
behaviorповедение	living standard жизненный уровень

TEXT 1. Read and translate the texts. Remember words describing

Appearance.

Appearance: Beauty

How important is your appearance? Although everyone wants to be good-looking, are beautiful people always happier people? For example, it must be a problem to be a really beautiful woman, because some men may be more interested in looking at you than talking to you.

They think of you as a picture rather than a person. There are also some people who think that women who are exceptionally pretty and men who are particularly handsome must be stupid. They believe that only unattractive people can be intelligent.

On the other hand, no one wants to be really ugly, and have a face that nobody wants to look at; and no one wants to be plain either — that is to be neither attractive nor unattractive, and have a face that is easily forgotten.

Being attractive is like being rich — it can help you find happiness, but it doesn't always make you happy. So maybe the best thing is to try to be interesting person. For interesting people have interesting faces, and interesting faces are almost always attractive.

Appearance: Parts of the Face

People who can't hear often learn to understand a spoken language with their eyes. They watch the mouth of the person talking and follow the movement of his lips. This is called lip-reading.

Some people think the distance between your hair and your eyebrow is a sign of how intelligent you are. The bigger your forehead is, the more intelligent you are supposed to be.

Nowadays, a person who doesn't like his or her nose can have it changed with plastic surgery. Plastic surgeons can change your face in many other ways too. They can make your cheeks a little rounder. If you don't like your chin, a plastic surgeon can break your jaw and re-make the whole lower half of your face. If you think your skin looks too old and wrinkled, he can take the wrinkles away and make you look twenty years younger.

Women often disagree about men having beards and moustache. But some women think that hair on a man's chin makes him look more attractive.

Usually, only women wear make-up. They are lucky. They can put a little black mascara on their eyelashes and some eyeshadow on their eyelids, and look fresh and attractive, even when they are really tired.