The english and the weather
The weather in England explains much about the English. The umbrella is carried even if it does not rain, for good luck with the weather. The well-dressed man-about-town in England always carries his umbrella tightly rolled. If it rains he takes a taxi in which he finds his refuge1, with his umbrella still tightly rolled. To many English people the word "weather" means "good weather". Seaside landladies say, during a season of rain: "Not having much weather, are we?"
The weather in England, wet, dry, hot, cold, tropical or arctic, is the conversational topic for all classes of English society. The weather has given a start for many of the largest English manufacturing business. Apart from umbrellas, there is an increasing demand for burberries, plastic coverings, gumboots etc.
The uncertainty of the weather has made the English patient, enduring and wary. Because of its geographical position in a deep river valley London is occasionally enveloped by unusually thick fog. The worst of these fogs began on the 4th of December, 1952 and there was a similar one in December, 1962. The streets near the centre of London were jammed with buses crawling along at two miles per hour. People who usually travelled by road decided to take the underground. People caught in the fog literally felt their way with one hand along the walls of buildings, holding the other out before them to avoid colliding with other people.
At Covent Garden Theatre a performance of La Traviata had to be abandoned after the first act because so much fog had penetrated into the building that the audience could no longer see the singers clearly. It was a terrible fog that caused the death of some 4,000 people in London.
As a matter of fact, this "deadly" kind of fog is called by Londoners "smog". It is the kind of fog you get only in towns — particularly in the industrial areas. It is a mixture of smoke and fog together, and it is dangerous and deadly especially for people who are suffering from any kind of respiratory troubles. In the big towns and cities you get very much smoke, it is more concentrated because it doesn't come from household chimneys only, but from all the factories too. Even ordinary fog is pretty nasty.
2. Говорение.
| Книги имеют положительное влияние на многих людей: - какую роль книги играют в Вашей жизни? - какая Ваша любимая книга? - каким литературным героем Вы бы хотели стать? Почему? | Books have a positive influence on many people’s lives - What is the role of book in your life? - What is your favourite book? - If you could be any character of a book who would you be and why? |
Билет №12
1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.
Millions of people tune into the weather forecast each evening on television. Most of them imagine that the presenter does little more than arriving at the studio a few minutes before the broadcast, reading the weather, and then going home.
In fact, this image is far from the truth. The two-minute bulletin which we all rely on when we need to know tomorrow's weather is the result of a hard day's work by the presenter, who is actually a highly-qualified meteorologist.
Every morning after arriving at the TV studios, the first task of the day is to collect the latest data from the National Meteorological Office. This office provides up-to-the- minute information about weather conditions throughout the day, both in Britain and around the world. The information is very detailed and includes predictions, satellite and radar pictures, as well as more technical data. After gathering all the relevant material from this office, the forecaster has to translate the scientific terminology and maps into images and words which viewers can easily understand.
The final broadcast is then carefully planned. It is prepared in the same way as other programmes. The presenter decides what to say and in what order to say it. Next a "story board" is drawn up which lays out the script word for word. What makes a weather forecast more complicated than other programmes are the maps and electronic images which are required. The computer has to be programmed so that the pictures appear in the correct order during the bulletin.
2. Говорение.
| У Вас есть мобильный телефон, но у ваших родителей его не было, когда они были подростками: - как технологический процесс изменил общение на протяжении истории? - каковы преимущества и недостатки использования мобильного телефона? | You have a mobile phone but your parents didn’t have mobile phones when they were teenagers - How has technology changed communication throughout history? - What are pros and cons of using mobile phones? |
Билет №13
1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.
For thousands of years comets have been a mystery to a man. They travel across the sky very fast and have a bright 'tail' of burning gas. The comet Tempel 1 has an orbit far outside the orbit of the furthest planet in our solar system, Pluto. It has been there for 4.6 billion years, 133 million kilometres from Earth. Last week a little American spacecraft crashed into Tempel 1. The spacecraft had a camera and it took a photograph of the comet every minute before it finally crashed into its surface.
The space mission to Tempel 1 cost $335 million and was called Deep Impact. The spacecraft was travelling at 37,000 kilometres per hour when it hit the comet and the crash completely destroyed the spacecraft. But before it hit the comet, the spacecraft took some amazing photographs. The last one was a close-up picture which the spacecraft took just 3 seconds before it crashed into the comet.
"Right now we have lost one spacecraft," said a delighted NASA engineer. Deep Impact was like an American Independence Day fireworks display. It took many years to plan and ended in an enormous explosion.
Comets like Halley's Comet which visit the Earth frequently are not so interesting for scientists. But comets like Tempel are so distant that they could hold the secrets of the planets, the Earth's oceans and even of the original organic chemistry from which life developed. "If you are thinking of comets as possible sources of organic material, then you are looking for the organic elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen," said John Zarnecki of the Open University.
Taken from "NASA Gladly Loses a Spacecraft" by Tim Radford, The Guardian Weekly, 2005.
2. Говорение.
| Интернет обеспечил мировое сообщество удивительным средством коммуникации: - как Интернет позволил людям разных культур общаться? - каковы преимущества и недостатки Интернета? - каким образом Интернет изменил современное общество? | The Internet has provided the world with a wonderful tool of communication - How has the Internet allowed people from different cultures to interact? - What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet? - In what way has the Internet changed the modern society? |
Билет №14
1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.
MY MEALS ON WHEELS
Looking back on things now, perhaps my being a 'van-vendor' or a mobile canteen owner was meant to be.I've pretty much always been on the road. My father's work involved moving around a lot, so by the time I was fifteen, I had been to six different schools! When I was at college studying Hospitality, I began to work part-time for a programme called 'Meals On Wheels'.
I was a volunteer who drove a van stocked with prepared food. I handed out the food to various elderly or ill people who couldn't prepare meals for themselves. The meals were really good. All well prepared, with hygiene and nutrition taking priority, and people even had choices of vegetarian, diabetic or particular types of ethnic cuisine.
I had to stop working there when I got a full-time job for a catering business. I learnt many tricks of the food trade there as well, but my goal was to become my own boss. I didn't have enough money to open up a restaurant though, and I was still young and unsure of exactly what I wanted to do.
A trip to Japan was the inspiration for my current mobile food business. I loved trying the variety of foods at the 'yatai' or street stalls. One of the owners told me that 'yatai' actually means 'a cart with a roof', and I even saw some of these traditional food pushcarts being towed around. What I also saw were the modern equivalents, large vans that had been converted into mobile kitchens with a large serving window in their side. Customers would line up by the dozens to buy their range of offerings.
2. Говорение.
| Вы хотите поехать в англоязычную страну. Расскажите о: - системе образования в этой стране; - возможности получения высшего образования; - какое образование Вы хотите получить в этой стране и почему? | You want to visit an English-speaking country. Talk about: - the system of education in this country; - possibilities of getting university education; - what education do you want to get in this country and why? |
Билет №15
1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.
REACH FOR THE STARS
What is success? It could be many things and often means different things to different people.For example, money, fame, academic achievement, overcoming a physical disability or discovering the secrets of the universe. A person who has achieved any of these could be considered successful, so if one person has accomplished all of them, what word would you use to describe him? Well, there are two actually - Stephen Hawking.
Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist. This means that he works on the basic laws that rule the universe. He has made some remarkable discoveries and has published his findings in books and magazines. Stephen has received numerous awards and medals and is a member of many Royal Societies. He is highly educated and has twelve honourary degrees. He even holds the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics which previously belonged to Isaac Newton. All this by someone who has motor neuron disease, is confined to a wheelchair and can't speak without the aid of a computer!
When talking about his illness, Stephen describes it as little more than an inconvenience. Recently, when asked if he would still have been involved in Physics if he hadn't been disabled, he simply said that the only difference would be that he would have worked more withnumbers and equations.
When we consider how one man has excelled in all areas of life despite being- severely disabled, we learn that we can overcome almost any difficulty to achieve our goals.
Success is within our reach, we just have to go for it!
2. Говорение.
| Музыка влияет на разных людей не одинаково: - Какие жанры музыкального искусства производят на Вас наибольшее впечатление? - Какие музыкальные группы (солистов) Вы любите больше всего? Почему? - Как музыка вашего поколения отличается от музыки, которую слушали ваши родители? | Music influences different people in different ways: - What type of music influences you the most? - What musical bands( singers) have had the greatest impact on you? Why? - How is the music of your generation different from the music your parents listened to? |
Билет №16
1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.
THE DEVOTED FRIEND
Once upon a time there was a young man whose , name was Hans. He had a very kind heart. He lived alone in a little house. He had a lovely garden where he worked every day. His garden was the best in the village and there were a lot of beautiful flowers in it. Little Hans had a devoted friend, big Hugh the Miller. Indeed the rich Miller was so devoted to little Hans, that he always picked some flowers or took some fruit when he was passing Hans's garden. "Real friends must have everything in common," the Miller used to say, and little Hans smiled and felt very proud that he had a friend with such noble ideas.
Sometimes the neighbours were surprised that the rich Miller never gave little Hans anything, but Hans never thought about these things. He worked and worked in his garden. In spring, summer and autumn he was very happy. But in winter he had no flowers or fruit to sell at the market, and he was often very hungry and cold. He was also very lonely, because the Miller never came to visit him in winter.
"There is no good in my going to see little Hans in winter," the Miller used to say to his Wife, "because when people are in trouble, you must leave them alone. That is my idea about friendship, and I am sure I am right. So I shall wait till spring comes, and then I shall go to see him, and he will give me a large basket of flowers, and that will make him happy."
The Miller's Wife sat in her comfortable arm-chair near the fire. "It is very pleasant," she said, "to hear how you talk about friendship."
"But can't we invite little Hans to our house?" said the Miller's son. "If poor Hans is in trouble, I will give him half my supper and show him my white rabbits."
"What a silly boy you are!" cried the Miller. "If Hans comes here and sees our warm fire and our good supper, he may get envious, and envy is a terrible thing. Besides, maybe he will ask me to give him some flour, and I cannot do that! Flour is one thing and friendship is another."
"How well you talk," said the Miller's Wife.
2. Говорение.
| Вас попросили подготовить реферат об известном писателе страны, язык которой Вы изучаете. Расскажите своим товарищам о: - наиболее интересных (с Вашей точки зрения) периодах жизни этого писателя; - проинформируйте о роли писателя в мировой литературе; - коротко расскажите о наиболее известных произведениях этого писателя. | You were asked to make a report about a famous writer from the English-speaking country. Talk about: - the most interesting periods of his life - inform about the place of this writer in the world literature. - give short information about his most famous works. |
Билет №17
1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.
MY MALADIES
There were four of us — George, and William Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room and talking about how bad we were — bad from a medical point of view, I mean, of course.
We were all feeling unwell, and we were quite nervous about it. Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of giddiness come over him at times, that he hardly knew what he was doing; and then George said that he had fits of giddiness too, and hardly knew what he was doing. As for me, it was my liver that was out of order, I knew it was my liver that was out of order, because I had just been reading a patent liver-pill advertisement, in which were detailed the various symptoms by which a man could tell when his liver was out of order. I had them all.
I remember going to the British Museum library one day to read up the treatment for some slight ailment — hay fever, I think it was. I took the book and read all about it; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves and began to study diseases, generally. I forgot which was the first, but before I had glanced half down the list of "premonitory symptoms",
I was sure that I had got it.
I sat for a while frozen with horror; and then in despair, I again turned over the pages.
I саmе to typhoid fever — read the symptoms — discovered that I had typhoid fever; turned up St. Vitus's Dance — found, as I expected, that I had that too — began to get interested in my case, so started alphabetically and learned that I was sickening for it, and that the acute stage would start in about a fortnight. Bright's disease,1 was glad to find, I had only in a modified form and, as for that, I might live for years. Cholera I had, with severe complications; and diphtheria I seemed to have been born with. I looked through the twenty-six letters, and the only malady I had not got was housemaid's knee.
After "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome
2. Говорение.
| Расскажи о городе, в котором Вы живете: - какие интересные факты из его истории Вы знаете? - какие Ваши любимые места отдыха в этом городе? - расскажите о достопримечательностях своего города. | Talk about the city you live in · What interesting facts from its history do you know? · What are your favourite places for recreation in this city? · Speak about places of interest in your city. |
Билет №18
1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.