Аракин. Учебник английского языка для студентов языковых специальностей. Аракин. Учебник английского языка для студентов языковых специал. Практический курс английского языка 4 курс Под редакцией В. Д. Аракина
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c) Consider the following "Being married or being single". You should: 1. discuss the differences between them; 2. discuss the advantages and disadvantages they have; 3. say what you would do if you were given the choice (use the topical vocabulary). 3. Marriage has always been argued about. Below are statements about marriage which express different opinions. Imagine that they are your opinions, and change them into subjective arguments: 1. Society would not exist without marriage. 2. Marriage is unnecessary. 3. Marriage is important for the children. 4. Marriage keeps couples together. 5. A marriage licence is a worthless piece of paper. 6. Marriage restricts freedom. 7. A lot of married people get divorced. 4. Choose one of the following topics and prepare to give your views on it for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. You may make notes, but do not try to write out a whole speech. (The students are allowed 15 minutes to prepare this beforehand): 1. Husbands and wives who both work should share domestic chores. 2. The problems of having a granny in the family. 3. Courses on marriage and family matters in secondary school might be helpful in preserving the family. 4. Home life feels the stress of social life. 5. Divorce is morally wrong and marriage should be preserved at all costs. 6. Marriages at later ages are more stable. 7. Love begins at home. 5. What are the characteristics of a wife/husband and a mother-in-law? a) Study the following characteristics of: 1. Wife or husband: tolerant, considerate, faithful, affectionate to husband/wife, affectionate to children, hard-working, tidy, home-loving, good-looking, rich, thrifty, quiet, well-educated. 2. Mother-in-law: willing to baby-sit, attractive, generous, young (relatively), well-dressed, rich, good at organizing home, has telephone, has many interests, does not interfere, has other married children, lives nearby. b) Put the characteristics in order of priority. c) Cut them down to the five most important. d) Expand them to describe exhaustively the most perfect wife / husband and mother-to-law. 8. One of the main problems of family life is the relationship between young adults and parents. Discuss the problem considering the following: 1. When do usually young people move out of their parents' home and start living in their own place? Is it different for sons and daughters? How and why? 2. What are the advantages of living with parents? What are the disadvantages? What kind of problems do young adults have when they live with their parents? 3. Should young adults live with their parents until they get married? Why or why not? When should they move out, in your opinion? 4. Are you living with your parents or relatives now? Would you rather be living in your own apartment? Why or why not? 5. In many countries young married couples live with their in-laws after marriage. Is this good? Why or why not? 6. If you are a parent, do you want your children to continue living with you until they get married? When do you think your children should leave home? 7. Pair work. Read the quotations given below and agree or disagree with them. Your opinion should be followed by some appropriate comment where possible: 1. Love is just like the measles; we all have to go through it (Jerome K. Jerome) 2. A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband. (Montaigne) 3. All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (Leo Tolstoy) 4. Man for the field and woman for the hearth; Man for the sword and for the needle she; Man with the head and woman with the heart; Man to command and woman to obey; All else confusion. (Lord Tennyson) 5. Home is the girl's prison and the woman's workhouse. (G. B. Shaw) 6. Marriage is like life in this — that it is a field of battle, and not a bed of roses. (R. L. Stevenson) 8. Work in groups of three or four. Decide which of the following statements yon agree with and which statements you disagree with. Discuss these with the other members of your group. Be ready to report your discussion to other groups: 1. You should always ask your parents for permission to marry. 2. Children should only leave home after they are married. 3. You should always be ready to help a member of the family. 4. The members of a family should live in the same area so that it is easy for them to visit each other. 5. Old people should be encouraged to stay in old people's homes rather than with the family. 6. Family life is less important in the modern world than it was in the past. 9. In many women's magazines there is a column on personal problems where a journalist running the column tries to answer the readers' letters. Below you'll find a woman's letter to Mr Know-It-All and a stereotyped reply to the letter, imitating the kind of "sensible", inoffensive advice offered hi such columns in women's magazines. a) Read the letter and the reply. The expressions in bold type show the ways English people give advice. Note them down: Dear Mr Know-It-All, My father-in-law died about two years ago. Of course my mother-in-law was very upset and lonely, so my husband invited her to live with us. I don't know what to do — I'm going crazy. My mother-in-law and I don't get along very well. She's a wonderful person and is very helpful to me in many ways, but she thinks she's the boss in our home. If I try to discipline the children and tell them that they can't do something, they go running to their grandmother and she tells them they can do it! My husband and I have no privacy. What's worse is that she constantly criticizes me to my husband behind my back. I'm afraid this is going to break up our marriage. What should I do? Jean Dear Jean, Do you think you could bring yourself to ask mother-in-law to leave? (Maybe explaining that now the children are growing up they need more space.) If you think that the old lady would then be too lonely don't you think it would be a good idea at least to ask somebody, probably some of your husband's relatives, to invite her for a couple of weeks. It would somehow release tension in your family and entertain the old lady. I realize it's much easier to give advice than really tackle the problem, but if I were you I'd think of some regular house chores that would keep her busy. And, Jean, why don't you try to show now and then that you appreciate her help. However it is very important for your mother-in-law to feel that she is needed in the house, but let her know that the children are your responsibility. Your husband will no doubt be grateful for your effort and things will turn out for the best I hope. b) Turn the above situation into a dialogue and act it out. 10. Look at the following ways of giving advice (some of which appear in the text) and accepting advice or rejecting it: Giving advice  I would advise you to DO... Personally, I think your best course would be to DO... (slightly formal) It might be a good idea if you DID... (tentative) Your best bet would be to DO... I suggest you DO... Why don't/can't you DO... (direct) I think you should DO... (If I were you) I'd DO… (direct: informal) Accepting advice T  hat sounds a good idea (certainly) seems like good advice) Thank you. That's certainly a possibility. (slightly tentative) R   ight. doI’ll that. Thanks. (direct: informal) Yes. try Rejecting advice can I'mnot sure I do that. You see+EXCUSE ‘d be able to Isn't there anything else I can/could DO...? I'm sure that's excellent advice, only + EXCUSE (tentative) that's not really possible. (direct) I’m afraid, that’s out of the question. (direct: strong) 11. Here four people are presented, each of whom has written about a personal problem. Please, write each a letter of advice: 1. A twenty-year-old girl who has married a man of thirty. He works too hard and comes home very tired and bad-tempered. 2. A twenty-five-year-old girl, a university graduate. She has met a man who is impatient to marry her, but she wants to finish a year's post-graduate study first. 3. A thirty-five-year-old man Whose wife is a business-woman with a very successful career. She frequently comes home from work very late because she has meetings. 4. A woman of sixty who is a divorcee herself, comes to know that her son-in-law has committed adultery. Her daughter is still unaware of it. 12. Pair work. Below are situations for dialogues where one of the participants is facing some problem in his/her family. The other partner should give him/her some advice. Act out the dialogues using appropriate cliches of giving advice: 1. The wife complains that the husband doesn't pay enough attention to the children. 2. The husband thinks the seventeen-year-old daughter is too young to go out on dates. The wife disagrees. 3. The wife has a full-time job and is angry because the husband does not help around the house. 4. The husband complains about his wife's mother interfering in. 13. Group work. Split into two groups of four to six students: 1. One of the groups has to prepare the role of the interviewers and write down questions each interviewer could ask the members of the "ideal family". The other group represents an "ideal family"; they should allocate the different roles within the group and talk about the personalities, ways of behaviour and ideas of the people in their family and give advice to other families. 2. The "ideal family" is interviewed by a different interviewer in turn in front of the class. At the beginning each member of the family introduces either himself or another family member. 3. Since a lot of the students' values and ideals regarding families will have become obvious, they should discuss them afterwards. 14. Role play the following scene with other members of your group. Each person plays a different role in the family. Make a decision as a family group: A mother has just enrolled into evening language classes. She has a lot of studying to do and cannot do all the housework any more. Her husband and two teenage children want her to be happy, but they are not used to helping with the housework much. However, they do not like TV dinners and dirty clothes. What can they do? 15. Group discussion. "What are the changes in family life?" Sociologists say that the relationship between men and women is changing rapidly nowadays. Dating customs are changing. More women are working. Family life is changing. Men are helping more in the home. At the same time, the divorce rate is rising. More and more single parents are raising children nowadays. Discuss the following: What changes are taking place in family life? What are your predictions for the future? What changes in behaviour will become acceptable the future? Will more women work? Will divorce become more common? Will the size of the average family change? What things won't change? 16. Here are some English proverbs dealing with marriage and family life. Illustrate them with a short story: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard. Men make houses, women make homes. It's a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock. 17. Do library research and prepare an essay on one of the following topics: 1. Major problems young couples face. 2. The impact of social changes in modem society on family life. 3. Women's movements in the USA. APPENDIX Unit One ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE OF THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN THE USA The school year is usually nine months, from early September to mid-June. The common pattern of organization, referred to as the 6-3-3 plan, includes elementary school in grades 1 through 6, junior high school in grades 7 through 9 and senior high school in grades 10 through 12. The older 8-4 plan, however, in which grades 1 through 8 were the elementary school and 9 through 12 the high school, continues in many localities. There is also a 6-6 plan, grades 1 through 6 in elementary school and 7 through 12 in the secondary school. Today, unified systems operating both elementary and secondary schools most commonly use the 6-3-3 plan or a 6-2-4 variation. However, many variations on the patterns exist in the United States. Preschool education: A child's introduction to formal education is usually in kindergarten classes operated in most public school systems. Many systems also provide nursery schools. The age group is commonly four and five years. These preschool education programs maintain a close relationship with the home and parents, and aim to give children useful experiences which will prepare them for elementary school. The programs are flexible and are designed to help the child grow in self-reliance, learn to get along with others, and form good work and play habits. Elementary school: The main purpose of the elementary school is the general intellectual and social development of the child from 6 to 12 or 15 years of age. Curricula vary with the organization and educational aims of individual schools and communities. The more or less traditional program consists of teaching prescribed subject matter. Promotion from one grade to the next is based on the pupil's achievement of specified skills in reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, history, geography, music and art. Secondary school: Most pupils follow a course that includes English, science, social studies, mathematics and physical education. Elective subjects may be chosen in the fields of foreign languages, fine arts and vocational training. Pupils usually elect about half their work in grades nine through twelve. Most young Americans graduate from school with a high school diploma upon satisfactory completion of a specified number of courses. Students are usually graded from A (excellent) to F (failing) in each course they take on the basis of performance in tests given at intervals throughout the year, participation in class discussions and completion of written and oral assignments. Locally developed end-of-the-year examinations are given in many schools. Some states, such as New York, give statewide examinations which are prepared by the state department of education. Students receive "report cards" at least twice a year (in some school districts, up to six times) which indicate the grades they have received in each of the subjects they are studying. High schools maintain a school "transcript" which summarizes the courses taken and the grades obtained for each student. A copy of the transcript is normally submitted to colleges when a student applies for admission. College-bound students generally take college admission tests during their last two years of high school. 1. College and university admission/entrance requirements: 1) application including personal information; 2) high school report including class rank, a transcript witn the list of all the courses taken and all grades received in high school with courses failed or repeated, test results,. SAT, Achievement Test and ACT scores and a general assessment of the applicant's character such as academic motivation, creativity, self-discipline, leadership, self-confidence, warmth of personality, sense of humor, etc.; 3) one or more recommendations by school teachers; 4) personal commentary such as major extra-curricular activities, hobbies, special awards or prizes, work or travel experiences, educational and/or career goals and the reasons for the choice of this particular university; 5) personal interview. 2. Administration and organization: The head of the university is usually called President, sometimes Chancellor. His principal assistants are Vice-presidents, directors, deans and business managers. Each university consists of a number of units called either College or School. There is always a College of Arts and Sciences and several professional schools, e. g. one unit of a university may be called College of Medicine, whereas another one of the same university may be called Law School, i. e. the units of a university providing professional education may be called either colleges or schools, without any difference in meaning. 3. Faculty members: The teaching staff of an Amerian university is called the faculty. Full-time faculty consists of professors and instructors. The rank of associate professors, assistant professors corresponds to the British rank of readers or senior lecturers. 4. Tenure — signifies that a faculty member has become a full and permanent member of the academic body of the university and provides the faculty member with the right of continued employment without discriminatory reduction in salary unless there be grave reasons for dismissal. Normally tenure is attached to the ranks of Associate Professor and Professor who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and service. 5. Career development and job placement — an academic advising service which provides up-to-date information on career areas and individual career counseling and planning. Job placement is not guaranteed in universities of the USA. 6. Counselor — a person on a university staff who provides counseling and consultation service to help in decisions regarding courses, majors, vocational plans, career opportunities and personal matters. Services are free to all students. 7. Teacher training: All states require a bachelor's degree for teaching elementary grades. Forty seven states require a bachelor's degree as the minimum preparation for teaching in the secondary schools; three states and the District of Columbia require five years or a master's degree. Many public and private colleges and universities are approved and accredited for teacher education. At the undergraduate level, the typical teacher education program is four or five years in length. It comprises a combination of traditional academic subjects and professional courses such as methods of teaching and educational psychology. Practice-teaching for four or six months, either in the college laboratory school or in a public school system, is often included. Graduate of liberal arts colleges which  do not have a teacher education program may usually qualify through a fifth year master's degree program. |