Unit 1. How to Handle Problems
I 1.Imagine that you are studying at a University abroad and staying with a family there. What problems will you have? Will you try to solve them on your own or will you ask for help? Who will you ask?
2.Look at the title of the text and the sub-titles. What is the text about? What is the aim of this text?
3.Are these word combinations familiar to you? What do they mean?
| exchange students to talk behind smb’s back to change one’s way on account of smb smth will never go past smb to step up one’s activities not to do one’s share | to fight back natural parents squeaky clean a taboo subject conservation-minded (people) |
II1. Read the text and say, whom it was written for and with what aim.
How to Handle Problems
We expect exchange students to handle problems in a mature, adult way. P.I.E. (Pacific Intercultural Exchange) representatives are here to help you when needed. When confronted with a problem, an immature person will discuss the problem with everyone, except the people who are actually involved. Exchange students do this because:
(a)They think that they will hurt the person’s or family’s feeling if they mention their problem to the people directly involved, or
(b)They have a real problem and they do not know how to handle it themselves, so they talk to everyone else about it.
When you have a problem, talk to the person or persons involved. If you need help, ask the P.I.E. representative for assistance.
For example, think for a moment what would happen if your own family invited a foreign student into their home and you were providing the student with a bed to sleep in, food to eat, and a family atmosphere. The student becomes bothered by something in your home, perhaps he is not used to the food or some family customs, so he tells neighbors or friends at school about it. The neighbors and friends are concerned about the student, and they proceed to tell their friends and neighbors. The entire community eventually knows about the “strange food” and “strange customs”. The story would come back to your own family and you would feel hurt and disappointed. The exchange student did not come to you first because he was afraid that he would hurt your feelings or embarrass you.
A variation of this story happens every time you “talk behind the family’s back”. If the student in this case did not feel comfortable discussing the problem with the family, he should have asked his area representative for help. This is the one person whose job it is to see that you and your family are getting along together.
What if you cannot expect your family to change their ways on account of you, but they have some “strange behavior” that you need to talk about? Tell your representative. After you discuss it, you will feel much better and what you have told him or her will never go past that one person. Remember that many of your own family’s customs would seem “strange” in another country.
Problems You Can Expect
Homesickness
If you find yourself going to bed early, getting up late, writing long letters daily, feeling melancholic, and thinking about your home, you will know that you have reached the homesick stage. You must do something to bring yourself out of it. The wrong thing to do is to give way to your feelings and sit around the house brooding about home. The right thing to do is to step up your activities, assay to speak English to your family, make friends, and spend more time studying. The homesickness is real and you should not brush it aside. Acknowledge it, become more restless, and enjoy your experience as an exchange student. The homesickness will soon pass.
Jealousy
The children in your host family will probably be jealous of you at some point during your homestay. Younger children will be very excited to have a new brother or sister but when they notice that their parents are paying attention to the newcomer, they become resentful, which is normal behavior in any family. Think how you would feel if your own mother and father started to pay that much attention to a new member of the family. You are now sharing the parental affection that was formerly given only to them. Jealousy is expressed in different ways by children of different ages; you will be able to sense their feelings or resentment to you. When your host brothers or sisters make remarks about you, or complain that you “do not do your share”, the wrong thing to do is to “fight back”.
The situation was caused by the attention you received, or the fact that you seem “too special”. The right thing to do is to slow down and observe yourself and your family. Turn your host parents’ attention toward their own children’s achievements, and do not talk too much about your own accomplishments. You may want to discuss the problem with your host parents so that they can handle the children. This situation will not persist if you do not compete with the other children for attention. Let them have it if they need it, and remember that anything they may have said about you while they were feeling jealous of you was not really meant. They will soon forget it and you should too.
Money
Your natural parents are responsible for providing you with the spending money that you need during your homestay. At first, you will probably need some assistance from your host parents in working out a budget. You are used to different currency and prices for goods, so it is best to have some help until you are thoroughly familiar with our dollar and its value. Let your natural parents know well in advance when you are running out of money so that you will not have to live on borrowed funds until your money arrives. It is a very bad idea to borrow money from your host family. Plan ahead so the need will not arise.
When you arrive in your host city, find a bank which has a corresponding branch in the city where your parents live. Your parents can then wire money directly into your account. Sending money through the mail or through non-corresponding banks can cause considerable delays.
If your natural parents have provided you with large amounts of money, you should spend it conservatively, and in accordance with the customs and habits of the other children in your family. If you spend extravagantly throughout your homestay, your American family may resent it. On many occasions they have to reduce their spending in order to provide certain things for you. Please be sensitive to this.
Hygiene
Every culture and every family within that culture have its own customs regarding personal hygiene and cleanliness. It is up to you to learn and observe the habits of your host family, and adapt yourself accordingly.
In general, the people of the United States are fanatics when it comes to keeping their bodies clean. It is customary in most families to take a shower or bath daily. We keep our hair “squeaky clean” and use deodorizers under our arms, in our mouths, and on our feet. Any body odor is generally considered offensive, and despite numerous television and magazine advertisements, it is a “taboo” subject for person-to-person discussion. If you are used to bathing only once a week, and if you are not used to washing your hair very often, you should change your habits so that you are not offensive to your new friends and family.
On the other hand, Americans are also conservation-minded. If you take several showers a day, or stay in the shower until the water runs cold, your host parents will most likely ask you to curtail your showers. You will have to keep clean and free of odors while using a moderate amount of water. Observation and imitation of your host family’s personal habits should be your guide.
2.Go back to Ex. I 3. and see if you were right.
3.In the text find derivatives from these words: mature, assist, homesick, resent (two words).
4.Complete the sentences with the necessary prepositions.
a)Exchange students are often confronted __ a problem.
b)Exchange students might be bothered __ something when staying with a host family.
c)If you have any problems, ask your area representative __ help.
d)The children in your host family might be jealous __ you.
e)I can’t bear their resentment __ me.
f)Don’t compete with other children __ attention.
g)Try to avoid living __ borrowed funds.
5.In the text the word ’homesickness’ is used. It’s an example of a compound word. How many compounds can you make by combining a word on the left with a word on the right?
| home house | work made trained wife sick plant proud town coming less grown bound keeping warming |
6. Fill in the gaps with a compound from the chart below.
a)-Aah! He’s gorgeous! Look at those big, golden paws. When did you get him?
-Yesterday. It’s a she actually.
-Oh, right. What kind is she?
-A Labrador.
-She’s so cute. Is she __ yet?
-No, of course not. She’s only seven weeks old.
b)-Do you think you could possibly water my __ for me? I’m away on business for two weeks.
-No problem. I’ll be glad to. I’ll keep an eye on your whole flat if you like.
-That would be great.
-Don’t worry, I know how __ you are. I’ll make sure everything stays clean and tidy.
-I’ll do the same for you any time, you know.
-Thanks.
c)-Julie, have you heard? Anna’s just been made managing director of the UK branch of her firm, so she’s coming back from the States!
-Oh, Mum, that’s wonderful news. Let’s give her a spectacular __ party when she gets back. Hmmm. She’s certainly the career girl of the family.
-My love, you don’t envy her, do you?
-Not me. I’m the original happy __, remember? Four kids, __ cakes, __ vegetables!
-And how are my fabulous grandchildren?
d)-We’re having a __ party on the 12th. Can you come?
-Yes, you bet. We’d love to! But I didn’t know you’d moved.
-Yeah, two weeks ago. It’s much bigger than the old one. A huge kitchen and three big bedrooms.
-It sounds wonderful.
-Yeah. Mind you, there’s much more __ to do!
-That’s a drag!
e)-Mum? Mum, I want to come home. I don’t like it here.
-Oh, Simon. Come on now. You were so looking forward to scout camp.
-But…but…oh, Mum, I hate it here. Why won’t you and Dad come and get me?
-Simon, we can’t. I never thought you’d be so __, and you’ll be home in two days.
-Two more days! Oh, no!
| house-trained homesick house-plants housework house-proud house-warming house-coming home-grown housewife home-made |
7.Read the second paragraph of the text (“Homesickness”) once again and find words that are inadequately used. Replace them with more suitable words.
8.In the text you have read there is no concluding paragraph. Write a short paragraph to finish the text and think of a suitable sub-heading for it.
9.The text you have read is a guide for exchange students. If this text were written as a newspaper article about the problems exchange students face, would the vocabulary, grammar and the composition of the text be different?
III1.You are an exchange student living with a family in the USA. Write a letter to your parents complaining of the problems you have. Ask your parents for advice.
2.Make up a dialogue between an exchange student and his/her representative. Discuss the problems and possible ways out.
3.Speak of the importance of observing ’strange customs’ if you are an exchange student. Refer to the following aphoristic poem:
That is the Question
Hamlet Anno Dominy
Co-existence
or no existence.
4.Write a guide for foreign students living with Belarusian families. Describe possible problems and give advice on how to handle them.
Unit 2. School
Text 1. Alice in Wonderland
I1.You must have read the book “Alice in Wonderland” when a child. Did you like it? If yes, what exactly? What characters of the story do you remember?
2.Study the words.
| Mock Turtle – Фальшивая Черепаха ledge – выступ, край turtle – морская черепаха tortoise – черепаха reel – крутиться, вертеться extras – необязательные предметы | conger-eel – угорь writhe – корчиться derision – высмеивание, насмешка flappers – ласты drawl – говорить медленно |
II1.Read the chapter about the Mock Turtle.
They had not gone far before they saw the Mock Turtle in the distance, sitting sad and lonely on a little ledge of rock, and, as they came nearer, Alice could hear him sighing as if his heart would break. She pitied him deeply. “What is his sorrow?” she asked the Gryphon, and the Gryphon answered, very nearly in the same words as before, “It’s all his fancy, that: he hasn’t got no sorrow, you know. Come on!”
So they went up to the Mock Turtle, who looked at them with large eyes full of tears, but said nothing.
“This here young lady,” said the Gryphon, “she wants for to know your history, she do.”
“I’ll tell it her,” said the Mock Turtle in a deep, hollow tone: “Sit down both of you, and don’t speak a word till I’ve finished.”
So they sat down, and nobody spoke for some minutes. Alice thought to herself, “I don’t see how he can ever finish, if he doesn’t begin.” But she waited patiently.
“Once,” said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, “I was a real Turtle.”
These words were followed by a very long silence, broken only by an occasional exclamation of “Hjckrrh!” from the Gryphon, and the constant heavy sighing of the Mock Turtle. Alice was very nearly getting up and saying, “Thank you, sir, for your interesting story”, but she could not help thinking there must be more to come, so she sat still and said nothing.
“When we were little,” the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, “we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle - we used to call him Tortoise -“
“Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn’t one?” Alice asked.
“We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily; “really you are very dull!”
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question,” added the Gryphon; and then they both sat silent and looked at poor Alice, who felt ready to sink into the earth. At last the Gryphon said to the Mock Turtle, “Drive on, old fellow! Don’t be all day about it!” and he went on in these words:
“Yes, we went to school in the sea, though you mayn’t believe it -“
“I never said I didn’t!” interrupted Alice.
“You did,” said the Mock Turtle.
“Hold your tongue!” added the Gryphon, before Alice could speak again. The Mock Turtle went on.
“We had the best of educations – in fact, we went to school every day –“
“I’ve been to a day-school too,” said Alice; “you needn’t be so proud as all that.”
“With extras?” asked the Mock Turtle a little anxiously.
“Yes,” said Alice, “we learned French and music.”
“And washing?” said the Mock Turtle.
“Certainly not!” said Alice indignantly.
“Ah! then yours wasn’t a really good school,” said the Mock Turtle in a tone of great relief. “Now at ours they had at the end of the bill, ‘French, music, and washing - extra’.”
“You couldn’t have wanted it much,” said Alice; “living at the bottom of the sea.”
“I couldn’t afford to learn it,” said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. “I only took the regular course.”
“What was that?” inquired Alice.
“Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,” the Mock Turtle replied: “and then the different branches of Arithmetic – Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
“I never heard of ’Uglification’,” Alice ventured to say. “What is it?”
The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. “Never heard of uglifying!” it exclaimed. “You know what to beautify is, I suppose. Don’t you?”
“Yes,” said Alice, doubtfully: “it means – to – make – anything – prettier.”
“Well then,” the Gryphon went on, “if you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton.”
Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she turned to the Mock Turtle, and said, “What else had you to learn?”
“Well, there was Mystery,” the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on his flappers – “Mystery, ancient and modern, with Seaography: then Drawling – the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that used to come once a week: he taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.”
“What was that like?” said Alice.
“Well, I can’t show it you, myself,” the Mock Turtle said: “I’m too stiff. And the Gryphon never learned it.”
“Hadn’t time,” said the Gryphon: “I went to the Classical master, though. He was an old crab, he was.”
“I never went to him,” the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: “he taught us Laughing and Grief, they used to say.”
“So he did, so he did,” said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn, and both creatures hid their faces in their paws.
“And how many hours a day did you do lessons?” said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
“Ten hours the first day,” said the Mock Turtle: “nine the next, and so on.”
“What a curious plan!” exclaimed Alice.
“That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.”
This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over a little before she made her next remark. “Then the eleventh day must have been a holiday?”
“Of course it was,” said the Mock Turtle.
“And how did you manage on the twelfth?” Alice went on eagerly.
“That’s enough about lessons,” the Gryphon interrupted in a very decided tone: “Tell her something about the games now.”
2.Go back to the text and write out the subjects that the Mock Turtle learnt at school. Can you guess what “real” subjects taught at school they correspond to?
3.Explain the reason for the “lessons” being called so.
4.Read the text once again paying attention to the speech of the three characters. Are there any peculiar lexical and grammatical features in their speech? How do these features characterize Alice, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle? Give examples from the text and comment on them.
5.Things people say give an idea about their attitudes, views and behaviour. Who might have made the following statements? Can any of these names be applied to the characters of the story you have read?
| sadist agnostic racist patriot cynic idealist fatalist | romantic optimist nationalist activist atheist pessimist masochist | anarchist perfectionist disciplinarian philanthropist fanatic realist nonconformist |
1)I don’t believe in God.
2)I don’t think I believe in God.
3)I don’t believe that anyone really believes in anything.
4)Love makes the world go round.
5)Face facts: love doesn’t make the world go round – the sun does.
6)Any player not on time for training will be fined $10 for every minute he’s late.
7)Me, emigrate? You must be joking. It would break my heart.
8)I’m not a bad sort of person. I just happen to believe that my country is superior to and more important than any other.
9)I’ll concede that 99.9% is a good examination result. I just want to know why you failed to get 100%.
10)Honestly, I’ve nothing against foreigners, as long as they don’t come and live next door to me or try and marry my daughter.
11)What will be will be.
12)I don’t know why you bother to talk about the next World Cup. There will probably have been a nuclear war by then.
13)It’s no good just sitting and talking about social injustice. The time has come to do something about it.
14)We shall achieve our aims by any means available; if that includes bloodshed and suffering for innocent people, that’s the way it’ll have to be.
15)I ran fifty kilometers in the midday sun today. Every kilometer hurt more than the last, so I feel really good about it. It must have done me good.
16)You might not enjoy this, but I’m certainly going to enjoy watching you suffer.
17)What did those politicians, lawyers and priests ever do for me? We should all follow our own ideas on government, law and church.
18)Just because you’re losing 0-6, 0-6, 0-5 and 0-40 doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to lose.
19)I don’t care what they say – palace or not, royalty or not, hundredth anniversary or not, I am not going to wear a tie.
20)It’s the moral duty of all of us to do what we can to reduce the amount of human suffering in the world. At least, that’s the way I look at things.
21)I am convinced that we are capable of creating paradise here on earth.
6.Recall the situations from the text in which the following sentences were used, identify the speaker (Try to avoid looking in the text).
a)Drive on, old fellow!
b)You couldn’t have wanted it much.
c)Really you are very dull!
d)You needn’t be so proud of all that.
e)You are a simpleton.
f)What a curious plan!
g)It’s all his fancy.
h)I couldn’t afford to learn it.
i)I went to the classical master.
j)You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question.
7.In the story the Gryphon says “Drive on, old fellow! Don’t be all day about it”. These are colloquial phrases. Moreover, the second is an exaggeration. Here are some more examples of the kind. Match a line in A with the line in B.
| A | B |
| a)I’m starving. I could eat a horse. b)I’m absolutely dying for a drink. c)His family are pretty well off, aren’t they? d)You must have hit the roof when she told you she’d crashed your car. e)I think Tony was a bit tipsy last night. f)I can’t stand the sight of him. g)He isn’t very bright, is he? h)Look at the weather! It’s bright again. i)What a fantastic holiday! j)I’m knackered. Can we stop for a rest? k)He invited quite a few friends to his party. l)Well, that journey was absolute hell! m)They’ve got this huge great dog called Wizzer. I’m terrified of it. | 1)Yes, it was a nice little break, but all good things must come to an end. 2)You’re not kidding. He’s as thick as two short planks. 3)Yes, my throat’s a bit dry, I must say. 4)What! He was totally smashed out of his brain! 5)What? That little thing wouldn’t hurt a fly! 6)I know. It is a bit wet, but we mustn’t grumble, must we? 7)I’ll say. We had to fight our way through millions of people to get to the drinks. 8)OK. I feel a bit out of breath, too. 9)Well, yes, I was a bit upset. 10)I suppose it did take rather a long time to get here. 11)You can say that again. They’re absolutely loaded! 12)I must admit, I’m not too keen on him, either. 13)Yes, I’m a little peckish, too. |
III 1.Read the following jokes based on the play upon grammatical and phonetic structures. Find a similar example in the text.
1)Teacher (paying a visit). Are your Father and Mother in, Morton?
Morton. They was in, but they is out.
Teacher. Why, Morton! ‘They was in!’ ‘They is out!’ Where’s your grammar?
Morton. She’s upstairs taking a nap.
2)The professor rapped on his desk and shouted: “Gentlemen, order!” The entire class yelled: “Beer!”
3)Professor. Take this sentence, ‘Let the cow be taken to the pasture.’ What mood?
Student. The cow.
2.Compare the schools the Mock Turtle, the Gryphon and Alice went to. What are the similarities and differences?
3.The Mock Turtle describes a very peculiar system of organizing lessons – each day you study less and less. In the following article another idea is expressed – children actually don’t have time to study. How so? Read the story and try to spot the lie.
No Time to Go to School
Nine-year-old Susie refuses to go to school. She says she hasn’t got time. This is how she proved it:
“There are 365 days in a year. I sleep eight hours a day so we have to subtract 122 days for sleeping. I eat three times a day and it takes about an hour each time, so we have to subtract 45 days for that. From the remaining 198 days, take away 90 for summer holidays and 21 for Christmas and Easter holidays. That leaves only 87 days for going to school but we haven’t yet talked about Saturdays and Sundays.”
4.Act out the dialogue between Alice, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle (beginning with “When we were little…”). Be ready to justify your choice of intonation patterns and comment on the behaviour of the characters.
5.Prepare to describe the course you took at school, its advantages and disadvantages.
Text 2. School
I1.Study the words.
secular – светский, мирской
staple – основной
provision –положение, условие, мера предосторожности
convent – монастырь
cram – впихивать, переполнять
confined – ограниченный
herald – предвещать
scrutiny – внимательное изучение
to pull smb up to scratch – подготовить к сдаче экзаменов
two-tier – состоящий из двух слоев, ярусов, классов
II 1.Read the following text.