Наше судно покинет Одессу через 3 месяца.

a) Our vessel will leave Odessa in 3 months;

b) b) Our vessel is leaving Odessa in 3 months;

c) c) Our vessel will be leaving Odessa in 3 months.

Таможенник не собирается проверять содержимое (contents) контейнеров.

a) The Customs Officer won’t check contents of containers;

b) b) The Customs Officer doesn’t want to check contents of containers;

c) c) The Customs Officer isn’t going to check contents of containers.

Кто будет вести переговоры, если агент опоздает?

a) Who will carry on negotiations if the Agent will be late;

b) b) Who will carry on negotiations if the Agent is late;

c) c) Who will be carrying on negotiations if the Agent is late.

Трюмы будут готовы через 20 минут.

a) Holds are ready in 20 minutes;

b) b) Holds will ready in 20 minutes;

c) c) Holds will be ready in 20 minutes.

Что вы делаете сегодня вечером?

a) What are you doing tonight?

b) b) What will you do tonight?

c) c) What do you do tonight?

Я думаю, завтра будет дождь.

a) I think it will rain tomorrow;

b) b) I think it will be rain tomorrow;

c) c) I think it rains tomorrow.

Unit 4.Why do we study English?

1. Before reading the text answer these questions:

1) How long have you been learning English?

2) Did you learn English only at school?

3) Where else is it possible to learn a foreign language?

4) Have you ever tried to learn English on your own (reading books, watching educational programmes on TV, videos and films in English, listening to radio pragrammes, taking an English course outside school, etc.)?

5) Which of these ways of learning a language do you find most effective? Why?

6) How much time do you think a person should learn a foreign language to be able to say: a) “I can speak English”, b) “My English is fluent”?

7) Do you think it is possible to know a second language as well as native speakers do?

8) Why are you learning English? Do you find it interesting? Hard? Useful? How can it be useful?

2. Read the text and speak about English as an international commercial language:

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Learning a foreign language is not an easy thing. It is long and slow process that takes a lot of time and efforts. Nowadays it is especially important to know foreign languages. Some people learn languages because they need them for their work, others travel abroad, for some people studying languages is just a hobby. Everyone who knows foreign languages can speak to people from other countries, read foreign authors in original. It’s fun. It is not surprising that many intellectuals and well educated people are polyglots. The great German poet Goethe once said: “He, who knows no foreign language, does not know his own one.” That’s absolutely right. If we want to understand ourselves and environment we should study foreign languages.

As for me, I study English. English is an international language, it is the main language of business, science, politics and cultural relations. Nowadays 750 million people all over the world use it. Over 300 million people speak it as a mother tongue. The native speakers of English live in Great Britain, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Besides, English is one of the official languages of the Irish Republic, Canada, the South Africa, India and many other countries of the world.

English is the main language of computers and technology. Three quarters of the world’s mail are in English. It is the language of sports. I should say that English is a wonderful language, it is the language of great literature, the language of William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Walter Scott, Charles Dickens.

There are many ways of learning a language. In order to master English, to brush it up and to keep it up we practise grammar together with vocabulary, we have a lot of drills at our English lessons. Practice helps us to memorise words, up-to-date idioms and phrasal verbs. We also read texts, translate them, write tests and dictations, make up and act out dialogues, speak about different things and we learn social English to know what sort of English to use in different situations. At our English lessons we pay much attention to English intonation and pronunciation because if you get it wrong, people think you are rude. It is important to learn how to ask for information, how to be polite.

I guess it is helpful to read English books, to watch English films, to have private lessons, to use educational computer programmes and it seems to me that the most effective way is going to English speaking country. I want to know English because I like speaking English.

I want to use English in my future job. I want to use computer programmes in English, besides I want to travel to Britain or to the USA and meet a lot of people and to talk to them in English.