A typical American / Типичный американец

Few of us like to be told we are average. Americans are no exception. Generalizations about nationalities (like, Americans are optimists, or Germans are professional pessimists) are not usually welcomed, even if they are truthful.

One generalization often made about Americans is that they value their individualism quite high. They pay great attention to their individual differences; to a great number of various choices in their lives; and to the opportunity to do things their own way.

On a daily basis, an American wakes up at 5 am for jogging, then comes back home and rushes to the bathroom to take a shower. As the working day starts at 8 am or 8.30, he/she gets a quick breakfast meal and gets dressed fast. After a morning make-up, for American ladies, and a morning shirt pressing, for American men, he/she runs to their car and heads to the working place. The usual working schedule during a week is from 8 am till 5 pm or 6 p.m. In the evening, he or she drives home and starts preparing an evening meal, called dinner. The leisure time in the evening is spent either with children, or in the night clubs with friends, or at a restaurant with a beloved person. During the weekends Americans go to a church, visit their relatives, meet with their friends, or do anything else that makes them relax.

Nowadays American habits have changed much. Americans buy smaller cars and walk more. More and more of them are cooking "from scratch", instead of using frozen or half-prepared foods. Italian fashion, French wines. German cars, and Dutch cheese are selling well in the U.S. Overall, trends in lifestyles have moved and still move across the Atlantic from Europe.

As a result a typical European may say: "what they are doing in California today, we’ll probably be trying to do in Europe tomorrow".

Словарь

average — средний, среднестатистический

to be truthful — правдивый, верный, точный

on a daily basis — ежедневно

jogging — утренняя пробежка; оздоровительный бег

to rush to the bathroom — спешить в ванную

to take a shower — принимать душ

a beloved person — возлюбленный; возлюбленная

Dutch cheese — голландский сыр

frozen foods — замороженные полуфабрикаты

At an American home / В американском доме

The lives of most Americans spin around their homes. The number of Americans who own their houses is the highest among western nations. Most Americans live in "single-family-dwellings", They are houses with front and backyard.

There are four seasons almost everywhere in America. The rhythm of life around an American home tends to follow the seasons pattern. Spring means that the storm windows must be taken down, in those areas where it gets cold in winter. The screen windows, the ones that keep the American home from insects and mosquitoes, need to be cleaned or painted or put up in their places. After winter, the garden needs a lot of work, in summer, the lawn must be mown every week or so. It’s a good time to scrape and paint whatever is wood in the house. As soon as autumn leaves begin to fall, they must be raked, and the storm windows need to be ready and put up again. What an American wants to do — put in a new patio, or build on a new room, or finish the attic — will have to wait until next summer

There is always something that needs to be done at home. The majority of American home-owners do everything around their homes themselves.

Словарь

to spin around smth — вращаться вокруг чего-либо

a single-family-dwelling — жилье, жилище для одной семьи

to tend to follow smth — быть склонным следовать чему-либо

insects and mosquitoes — насекомые и комары

to mow the lawn — (to mow — mowed — mown) — косить газон

to rake the autumn leaves — сгребать граблями осенние листья

a new patio — новое патио, новый дворик

to finish the attic — закончить чердак или мансарду

Словарь

the number of inhabitants — численность населения

ethnic restaurants — рестораны этнической кухни

a skyline — горизонт; силуэт

residential quarters — жилые кварталы

a parking lot (s) — место для парковки машин

the Statue of Liberty — статуя Свободы

Education in the USA / Образование в США

American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Children are required in most states to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through 12th grade, the end of high school). Some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.

About 12 % of children are enrolled in parochial or non-sectarian private schools. Just over 2 % of children are homeschooled. The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education, as well as local community colleges of varying quality with open admission policies. Americans of twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school. 52.6 % attended some college, 27.2 % earned a bachelor’s degree, and 9.6 % earned graduate degrees. The basic literacy rate is approximately 99 %. The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for twelfth-best in the world.

The most notable characteristic of the American education system is the large number of people it serves. In 1995, 87 percent of Americans between age 25 and 29 graduated from high school. Among those who completed high school, 62 percent completed at least some college, and 28 percent earned at least a bachelor’s degree.

Expanding access to college education is an important priority for the U.S. government. In his 1997 State of the Union address U.S. president Bill Clinton called for the creation of new public policy to enable virtually every night school graduate to receive some form of college education.

Словарь

to be operated by smb/smth — управляемый кем-либо

a kindergarten — детский сад

to be enrolled in a school — быть зачисленным в школу

parochial — приходский

a non-sectarian private school — межконфессиональная частная школа

admission policies — правила поступления; правила приема абитуриентов

to graduate from high school — выпуститься или закончить среднеобразовательную школу (в амер. англ.)

the basic literacy rate — общий уровень грамотности

a bachelor’s degree — степень бакалавра

to expand access to college education — расширить доступ к образованию в колледже

Словарь

a board member of the Indiana Foundation for Home Schooling

to occur — происходить, иметь место

a boundless curriculum — безграничная (свободная) программа обучения

hands-on — на практике, практически

a field trip — учебная экскурсия

a wealth of information — изобилие информации

at a convenient time — в удобное время

to experience smth first hand — испытать что-то на практике; испытать что-то на себе; знать по собственному опыту

to treasure memories — бережно хранить воспоминания

Словарь

a jailer — тюремщик

Shrove Tuesday — вторник на Масляной неделе

the Middle Ages — Средние века

Easter — Пасха

Словарь

flamboyant — броский, яркий, показной

fast-paced actions — быстро сменяющие одна другую сцены фильма

high-tech — высокотехнологичный

disturbing films — волнующие фильмы

to appeal to smb — обращаться к кому либо, привлекать чье-либо внимание

to be remarkable — замечательный

entertainment — развлечение

artistry — мастерство

Словарь

hard — тяжело
to achieve — достигать
to need — нуждаться
communication — общение
favourite — любимый
to gather together — собираться вместе
to do sports — заниматься спортом
desire — желание

Словарь

to suffer some serious crisis — переживать серьезный кризис

to recover — выздоравливать

to execute smb — казнить кого-то

a half-sister — единокровная сестра (по матери или отцу)

to be secretly in love with smb — быть тайно влюбленным в кого-то

rich and strong — богатый и сильный (-ая)

to invade smth — вторгаться, захватывать

a long period of peace — долгое время мира

a successful woman — успешная женщина

in a man’s world — в мире мужчин

Словарь

ВС ("before Christ") — до нашей эры

AD (Anno Domini, Latin — "in the year of Christ") — нашей эры

to occupy — занимать

an invasion — вторжение

a restriction — ограничение

unemployment — безработица

a strike — забастовка

Celtic — кельтский

Roman — римский

Словарь

a feature of English life — характерная черта английской жизни

soft drink (s) — безалкогольный напиток

a snack bar — закусочная, буфет

a veal-and-ham pie — пирог из телятины и ветчины

toasted sandwiches — поджаренные бутерброды

a saloon bar — бар, салон-бар

a dart board — мишень для метания дротиков

plain — простой, без специй, без начинки

reputable — уважаемый, почтенный

brewed — сваренный (о напитке)

stout — крепкий портер (.вид пива)

Continental beer — легкое пиво

increasingly — все больше и больше

Словарь

mass transportation — средство массового передвижения

interstate — междуштатный

to account for — давать отчет

civilian aircraft — гражданская авиация

the world’s ten busiest airports — 10 самых загруженных (переполненных, постоянно работающих) аэропортов мира

in one’s whereabouts — в местонахождении кого-либо, в окружении кого-либо

official procedures — официальные процедуры или мероприятия

to deny smth — опровергать что-либо

The Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is one of the most ancient lakes on Earth, with a history of 3,500 years. It was also the fourth largest lake in the world until the late 1950s.

It is dying now. The sea has dropped by 16 metres and the water has become too salty. There are now three million hectares of land which were once covered by water. The climate has been affected and changed this land into desert.

The Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers feed the Aral Sea. They travel through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In the 1920s new irrigation technologies were introduced and larger-scale cotton cultivation was begun. Water from the rivers was diverted for agricultural and population needs.

Until the 1950s, between 50 and 60 cubic kilometres of water reached the Aral Sea each year. Since the 1960s the Aral Sea has lost almost 75 per cent of its volume, and has shrunk to 50 per cent of its size. In some dry years in the 1980s no water flowed into the sea at all. The water has become over-salty and lost most of its natural plant and animal life. The low quality of water has caused many diseases.

Annually thousands of tons of dust, sand and salt are taken into the atmosphere from the deserted floor of the Aral Sea and some of the particles are found as far away as Canada.

National Geographic summed up the situation best by saying: ‘It has never happened within the time frame of a single generation, the disappearance of such a large body of water.’

Advertising as persuasion

Advertisements want to persuade us to buy particular products How do they do it?

Let’s imagine …You’re watching TV. It’s a hot evening: You feel thirsty. You see an advert for a refreshing drink. You see people looking cool and relaxed. You notice the name of the refreshing drink because you think it could be useful for you to satisfy your thirst.

Advertisers study how people learn so that they can ‘teach’ them to respond to their advertising. They want us to be interested, to try something, and then to do it again. These are the elements of learning: interest, experience and repetition. If an advert can achieve this, it is successful. If an advert works well, the same technique can be used to advertise different things. So, for example, in winter if the weather is cold and you see a family having a warming cup of tea and feeling cosy, you may be interested and note the name of the tea … Here the same technique is being used as with the cool, refreshing drink.

If advertisements are to he learned, there is a need for lots of repetition. But advertisers have to be careful because too much repetition can result in consumer tiredness and the message may fall on’deal ears’.

Consumers learn to generalize from what they have learned. So advertisers sometimes copy a highly successful idea that has been well learned by consumers. For example, the highly successful ‘Weston Tea Country’ advertising for different tea has led to ‘DAEWOO Country’ for automobile dealers and ‘Cadbury Country’ for chocolate bars.

A typical American / Типичный американец

As a result a typical European may say: "what they are doing in California today, we’ll probably be trying to do in Europe tomorrow".

Словарь

average — средний, среднестатистический

to be truthful — правдивый, верный, точный

on a daily basis — ежедневно

jogging — утренняя пробежка; оздоровительный бег

to rush to the bathroom — спешить в ванную

to take a shower — принимать душ

a beloved person — возлюбленный; возлюбленная

Dutch cheese — голландский сыр

frozen foods — замороженные полуфабрикаты