VIII. In the examples given below identify the phraseological units and classify them on the semantic principle.

1. The operation started badly and everyone was in a temper throughout. 2.1 know a man who would love meeting you. The perfect nut for you to crack your teeth on. 3.1 wish I had you for Maths (my favourite subject). But alas, we cannot have our cake and eat it too. 4. He said: "Well, never mind, Nurse. Don't make such heavy weather about it." 5. Did you know that 50% of the time I've been barking up all the wrong trees. 6. However, while appreciating that the best way to deal with a bully is to bully back, I never quite had the nerve. 7. What is it — First Aid? All you need know is how to treat shock and how to stop haemorrhage, which I've drummed into you till I'm blue in the face. 8. Don't let them (pupils) lead you by the nose. 9. But I thought he was afraid I might take him at his word. 10. Ruth made no bones about the time she was accustomed to have her dinner. 11. Poor Eleanor — what a mess she made of her life, marrying that man Grey! 12. There was a list of diets up in the kitchen, but Auntie had it all at her finger-tips. 13. "Bob, give me a hand with the screen," Diana said. "Now be very careful, won't you, sweetie?" 14. My common sense tells me that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. 15. She thought, he's obviously a very sensitive man, he can read between the lines. 16. Oh, said Arthur, someone might've bought the things cheap at an auction and put them by for a rainy day. 17. "I played like a fool," said Guy, breaking a silence. "I'm feeling a bit under the weather."

IX. In the examples given below identify the phraseological units and classify them on the structural principle. Translate the phraseological units into Russian.

1. Ella Friedenberg thinks she's Freud, but actually she's Peeping Tom. 2. What it symbolized was a fact of banking-corporate life: You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. 3. There was a man I cared about, and this afternoon he told me out of a clear sky that he was poor as a churchmouse. 4. Finally he asked me out of the blue if I could drive a car. 5. But Nelson did not believe in letting the grass grow under his feet and applied for the headmastership of a Mission School that was being started in New Guinea. 6. He took his ideas from "Daily Telegraph" and the books in prep-school library, and his guiding rule in life was to play safe. 7. By God! I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me. They meet all kinds of crazy fish. 8. Then I got a shock that stiffened me from head to toe.

X. Read the following jokes. Classify the italicized word-groups, using Professor Smirnitsky's classification system for phraseological units.

Out of the Fire Into the Frying Pan

A fighter pilot bailed out of his aircraft which had suddenly caught fire. He safely landed in an orchard on an apple tree and climbed down without a scratch, but a few minutes later he was taken to hospital. The gardener's fierce and vigilant dog had been waiting for him under the tree.

More Precise

Two aviation meteorologists were engaged in shop talk.

"No, I don't watch the TV weather commentary. I reckon you get better weather on the radio," said one of them thoughtfully.

XI. Group the following italicized phraseological units, using Professor Koonin's classification system. Translate them into Russian.

1. Margot brightened "Now you are talking! That would be a step up for women's lib (= liberation)." 2. Why was I more interested in the one black sheep than in all the white lambs in my care? 3. To the young, cliches seem freshly minted. Hitch your wagon to the star! 4. Out of sight out of mind. Anyway it'll do you good to have a rest from me. 5. In a sense it could be said that the ice was broken between us. 6. Rose Water-ford smothered a giggle, but the others preserved a stony silence. Mrs. Forrester's smile froze on her lips. Albert had dropped a brick. 7. "The fact is that Albert Forrester has made you all look a lot of damned fools." "All," said Clifford Boyleston. "We're all in the same boat." 8. It's no good crying over spilt milk. 9. Like many serious patriots, in her inability to know for certain which way the cat would jump she held her political opinions in suspense. 10. "How long do you want to go for? For always?" "Yes, for always." "Oh, my God!" 11. That also was a gentleman's paper, but it had bees in its bonnet. Bees in bonnets were respectable things, but personally Soames did not care for them.

CHAPTER 14

Do Americans Speak English

Or American?

In one of his stories Oscar Wilde said that the English "have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language."

Bernard Shaw, on the contrary, seemed to hold a different opinion on the point, but he expressed it in such an ambiguous way that, if one gives it some thought, the idea is rather the same as that of Wilde. Shaw said that America and England are two great nations separated by the same language.

Of course, both these statements were meant as jokes, but the insistence on a certain difference of the language used in the United States of America to the language spoken in. England is emphasized quite seriously.

Viewed linguistically, the problem maybe put in this way: do the English and the Americans speak the same language or two different languages? Do the United States of America possess their own language?

The hypothesis of the so-called "American language" has had several champions and supporters, especially in the United States (H. L. Mencken. The American Language. N.-Y., 1957).

Yet, there are also other points of view. There are scholars who regard American English as one of the dialects of the English language. This theory can hardly be accepted because a dialect is usually opposed to the literary variety of the language whereas American English possesses a literary variety of its own. Other scholars label American English "a regional variety" of the English language.

Before accepting this point of view, though, it is necessary to find out whether or not American English, in its modern stage of development, possesses those characteristics which would support its status as an independent language.

A language is supposed to possess a vocabulary and a grammar system of its own. Let us try and see if American English can boast such.