The discovery of gold in California
(continued)
Each miner had his piece of land and his own tent or cabin and had to do his own cooking, or sometimes two lived together. The only cooking implements were a frying-pan and a coffeepot. In the early days there were few women or children at the mines.
At the camps the only amusements provided1 were drinking and gambling.
It was a rough life. The men had to go armed to protect themselves. Fighting was common2, and men were often killed.
After the first year few of the gold-diggers became rich. The gold that lay on the top of the ground or near the surface had been dug out, and the men had no machinery for deep digging. Many grew discouraged and turned to other work.
When gold was first discovered, the small towns in California were quickly emptied of people. But soon it was found that men could often make more money3 in the towns than they could in the mines.
The towns were made up mainly of canvas tents, which were used as hotels, and gambling houses. The streets were always deep in dust or mud. When these streets grew so bad that men were drowned by falling into pools of water, and horses sank out of sight4 in the mud, the townspeople at last had to cover them with planks (доски) laid side by side5.
California drew up its own constitution and was admitted later to the Union as a state6. The first great gold rush was soon over.
Примечания
1 the only amusements provided= the only amusements that were provided -единственными (имевшимися) развлечениями были ... Onlyздесь значит единственный.Provided—зд.причастие II от глагола provideснабжать, обеспечивать.Определение после определяемого слова (amusements provided)— явление сравнительно редкое в английском языке. См. также союз providedв разделе об условных предложениях.
2 Fighting was common— Драки были обычным явлением. Здесь fighting— герундий (урок 13)
3make money— зарабатывать деньги
4sank out of sight— погружались с головой («скрывались из виду» — см. аналогичное выражение в тексте урока 19)
5 laid side by side— уложенные рядами side by sideбуквально значит бок о бок.
6 admitted...as a state— принята в качестве штата
УПРАЖНЕНИЯ
1.Переведите на русский язык:
The Сalɪfornian miners would let their hair and beards grow long.
Would you protect us?
I would not repeat this story, it is not true.
It would be better for you to set out immediately.
He said that their farm would soon have more sheep, cows and pigs.
I would like to buy boots and a knife.
The sailor's English is perfect, one would think he was born in England.
I would not hurry to send the report, we have not made enough tests.
Would you like me to wear this hat?
2.Пользуясь общим англо-русским словарем,переведите предложения с многозначным глаголом:
Set the pan on the table.
My wife knows how to set the table.
We must set the bird free.
He sets a bad example to his younger brother.
The sun sets at 8.10.
I never set eyes on this picture.
The soldier has set his heart on this plan.
3.Переведите предложения устно:
Don't pull until I tell you.
If the river rises much higher, we will not be able to cross it.
I won't go any further until I see the green light.
When you see the red light, stop your car.
I will finish the experiment tomorrow if all goes well.
Write a report as soon as new facts are discovered.
4.Ответьте письменно на вопросы по-английски.Формулировки берите из текста:
1. When was gold discovered in California?
2. Why were the first gold-miners called "Forty-Nɪners"?
3. What did Sutter own?
4. How did the miners dress?
5. How did they mine gold?
6. Was their work easy?
7. When did the Mexican War end?
8. Why did some farmers leave their crops standing in the fields?
9. How much gold did some miners dig in a day?
КОНТРОЛЬНАЯ РАБОТА
1.Найдите в тексте урока два предложения со словом would,определите его значение и переведите предложения.
2. Найдите в первом абзаце текста предложение со словом if,определите его значение и переведите предложение.
3. Переведите на английский язык:
Я куплю новую рубашку, как только получу деньги.
Если вы согласитесь, мы немедленно начнем поиски.
Мы вам напишем, когда испытания будут закончены.
Я дам тебе словарь, когда ты начнешь переводить статью.
Сделайте это до того, как они придут.
4.Переведите на английский язык,употребляя оборот to be going to:
Я куплю шесть ножей, две кастрюли и пару обуви.
Он будет моряком.
Я не собираюсь повторять свою ошибку.
Он не собирался продолжать (to continue) поиски.
Он сказал, что придет немедленно.
Он сказал, что не будет торопиться.
5.Переведите слова:
to discover, German, agree, sheep, shirt, behind, discovery, belt, hair, knife, sailor, cow, hurry, waist, boot, farther, repeat, search, immediately, wear, cattle, mill, within, rush, soldier, wheat, mine, chiefly, shoe, pan, sand, trousers, wet, worth
6.Назовите английские слова,имеющие значение:
скот, корова, овца, соглашаться, волосы, нож, позади, рубашка, солдат, обувь, мокрый, повторять, шляпа, торопиться, кастрюля, песок, немедленно, пояс, немецкий
Повторение
Поскольку вы заканчиваете курс,начните систематическое повторение пройденного.По таблице в приложении № 2 повторите образование времен глагола,возвращаясь к забытым разделам.По таблице нестандартных глаголов(приложение № 3)повторяйте их формы.Перечитывайте забытые тексты,проверяйте знание слов по последним двум заданиям контрольной работы к каждому уроку.До перехода к уроку 25 просмотрите,таким образом,уроки 2-12.
READING
News in brief
1.Dinosaur skulls solve mystery
Palaeontologists have unearthed two rare titanosaur skulls in Madagascar, finally putting a face on one of the most common yet least understood dinosaurs.
2.Prison praised
Wandsworth prison in South London, which was branded "nasty and racist" two years ago, has improved rapidly because of good leadership and good ideas from staff, says a report by Sir ..., who has just retired as the Chief Inspector of Prisons.
3.Hats off to 82-year-old Australian ..., who travelled around the world to Norway to visit the beautiful North Cape plateau, which attracts 200,000 tourists a year. He refused to go in when he found there was an entry fee of £ 13.50. "Scenery should be free to look at," he stormed - and booked a flight home to Perth.
4.Canal plunge ends in death
A woman died yesterday after her car plunged into the Forth and Clyde canal in Maryhill, Glasgow: A police officer dived in to rescue her, but she died at Glasgow's Western infirmary.
5.Climber loses life in Alps
A British mountaineer, 32, died yesterday in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, after being hit by a falling rock while climbing the Jungfrau peak in the Bernese Oberland with another mountaineer, who was not hurt.
6.Golden find
More than 400 gold and silver coins, worth £ 30,000 and dating from the reign of Mary I, in 1553, through Elizabeth I and James I to 1649, when Charles I was executed, have been found during renovation of a farmhouse at Abbotsham, Devon.
7.Student pilot lands in Cuba
A student pilot on his first solo flight stole the plane and flew from an airport in the Florida Keys to Cuba, landing on rocks in eastern Havana. He was led away by the Cuban authorities.
His flying instructor, Ed Steigerwald, said John Reese, a driver for a Pizza Hut restaurant, was supposed "just to take off, stay in the traffic pattern and come right back around and land".
8.King dons mufti to meet subjects
DISGUISED IN worn-out clothes, Jordan's King Abdullah II posed as a taxi driver to hear complaints from his countrymen. Royal Palace officials said. This is the second time within a week that the monarch has gone undercover in an attempt to fight bureaucracy.
9.Import Duties Slashed
MOSCOW (Prime Tass) - The government has cut import duties on some types of digital audio and video equipment to 10 percent of their customs value from 15-20 percent, the government's press service said Tuesday.
The press service said that the government had also abolished import duties on some types of technological equipment for the light and textile industries.
10.Cockroach Funeral
BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuters) - Thailand will burn alive more than 1,000 pet cockroaches Friday that health officials say are pests, but will then hold a traditional Buddhist funeral for them to please their former owners.
The 10-centimeter Madagascan Giant Hissing Cockroaches are popular pets in Thailand, but were banned last year after officials became concerned they might breed and spread disease.
"They will be put in big plastic bags and chucked onto the fire alive," said..., head of the Health Ministry's department of disease control. " But then we will hold a Buddhist funeral rite for them."
11.Novoгossiisk Expansion
NOVOROSSIISK, Novorossiisk Trade Sea Port, the largest seaport in the former Soviet Union, expects oil loadings to slow in 2004 for the third straight year as the port has used up almost all of its spare capacity.
The Black Sea port, which also handles metal exports, and raw sugar imports, plans a $70 million expansion as loadings are set to increase 3.9 percent this year to 53.5 million tons of oil and oil products, said general director Vladimir...
12.Turin Shroud boost for believers
A NEW study has given a boost to those who believe the Turin Shroud is the burial cloth of Jesus. Researchers who used pollen and plant images concluded that it dated from Jerusalem before the 8th century. An earlier study said the shroud was made between 1260 and l 390.
PARADOXES
В английской художественной литературе и публицистике часто встречаются парадоксы, т.е. своеобразно выраженное мнение, резко расходящееся с общепринятым (иногда только внешне). Прочтите несколько образцов широко известных парадоксов:
’Tis strange but true; for truth is always strange, — Stranger than fiction (выдумка).
George Gordon Byron (England, 1788-1824)
I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
Abraham Lincoln (USA, 1809-1865)
True love is like ghosts (привидения), which everybody talks about but few have seen.
Francois de la Rochefoucauld (France, 1613-1680)
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other getting it.
Oscar Wilde (England, 1856-1900)
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance (роман).
Oscar Wilde
Animals are such agreeable friends; they ask no questions, pass no criticisms (не наводят критику).
George Eliot (England, 1819-1880)
Never work before breakfast; if you have to work before breakfast, get your breakfast first.
Josh Billings (USA, 1818-1885)
Good breeding (хорошее воспитание) consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.
Mark Twain (USA, 1835-1910)
Fish stories
The Scales
A man who always boasted about the fish he had caught soon found that his neighbours did not believe him. So he bought a pair of scales (весы), installed it in his library and had his friends watch him while he weighed the fish.
One evening a neighbour ran in to borrow (взять взаймы) his scales. He was back almost immediately, smiling and proud. "Congratulate me (поздравьте меня)," he cried. "I am the father of a 24-pound baby boy."
Bigger and Better
Everybody knows that Texans (техасцы) are very proud of their State. It is the biggest State in the United States, so they think that everything is bigger and better in Texas than in other places under the sun.
An old Texan was attending a fishermen's conference in California. Speaker after speaker rose and spoke about remarkable West Coast fish. The Texan felt his anger rise, and when his turn to speak came, he began very quietly: "Well, we don't have any fish in Texas worth boasting about." Then he showed with his hands a length about l2 inches. "I never saw any bigger than that." He stopped briefly, looked at his audience and added: "Of course you have to remember that we always measure our fish between the eyes."
It Could Be Worse
A traveller came up to a fisherman.
"Having any luck?" (везет или нет?)
"Not so bad," replied the fisherman. "I haven't had a bite (клeв) in three hours."
"What is so good about that?" asked the traveller in surprise (удивление).
"You see that fellow over there? Well he hasn't had a bite in six hours."
Fisherman's Wife
Woman cleaning fish at sink (кухонная раковина) to fisherman husband:
"Why can't you be like other men? They never catch anything."