Топики по английскому языку. Топики Тексты для чтения Экзаменационные вопросы Цветкова И. В. Клепальченко И. А
 Скачать 1.02 Mb.
|
|
HOLIDAYS IN RUSSIA There are many national holidays in Russia, when people all over the country do not work and have special celebrations. The major holidays are: New Year's Day, Women's Day, May Day, Victory Day, and Independence Day. The first holiday of the year is New Year's Day. People see the new year in at midnight on the 31st of December. They greet the new year with champagne and listen to the Kremlin chimes beating 12 o'clock. There are lots of New Year traditions in Russia. In every home there is a New Year tree glittering with coloured lights and decorations. Children always wait for Father Frost to come and give them a present. Many people consider New Year's Day to be a family holiday. But the young prefer to have New Year parties of their own. A renewed holiday in our country is Christmas. It is celebrated on the 7th of January. It's a religious holiday and a lot of people go to church services on that day. On the 8th of March we celebrate Women's Day when men are supposed to do everything about the house, cook all the meals and give women flowers. The greatest national holiday in our country is Victory Day. On the 9th of May, 1945, our army completely defeated the German fascists and the Great Patriotic War ended. We'll never forget our grandfathers and grandmothers who died to defend our Motherland. We honour their memory with a minute of silence and put flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Independence Day is a new holiday in our country. On the 12th of June, 1992, the first President of Russia was elected. We also celebrate Day of the Defender of Motherland on the 23d of February, Easter, Day of Knowledge and lots of professional holidays which are not public holidays and banks, offices and schools do not close. Names Independence [Jndi'pendans] Day День независимости Father Frost Дед Мороз Christmas f'krismes] Рождество Easter ['i:sta] Пасха Day of the Defender [di'fenda] of Motherland День защитника Отечества Day of Knowledge ['пэМз] День знаний Vocabulary celebration [,seli'breijn] празднование major ['meidja] главный to see the new year in встречать новый год to greet [gri:t] встречать (возгласами, аплодисментами) champagne [Jxnrpein] шампанское chimes [tjaimz] куранты to beat [bi:t] (beat, beaten) бить, отбивать a New Year tree новогодняя елка to glitter ['glita] блестеть, сверкать to consider [kan'sida] считать the young молодежь, молодые люди renewed [ri'nju:d] возобновленный, восстановленный religious [ri'lidsas] религиозный service ['sa:vis] служба men are supposed [sa'pauzd] to... предполага- ется (подразумевается), что мужчины... to defeat [di'fi-.t] наносить поражение, разбивать fascist ['fsejist] фашист to elect [i'lekt] избирать public ['рлЬНк] общенародный, общественный Questions 1. What public holidays are celebrated in Russia? 2. What is your favourite holiday? 3. How is New Year's Day celebrated in your family? 4. Do you see the new year in at home? 5. What New Year traditions do you know? 6. When is Christmas celebrated? 7. What holiday do we celebrate on the 8th of March? 8. What is the greatest national holiday in our country? 9. Why is the 9th of May so sacred (священный) for the Russian people? 10. What other Russian holidays do you know? SUPPLEMENTARY READER THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH Have you ever wondered how many people there are who speak English? It's quite a number! Geographically, English is the most widespread language on earth, and it is second only to Chinese in the number of people who speak it. It is spoken in the British Isles, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and much of Canada and South Africa. That"s about 400 million people. English is also a second language of another 300 million people living in more than 60 countries. If you add to this the enormous number of people who learn to understand and speak English (like yourself), you will realise that English is indeed a "world language". In Shakespeare's time only a few million people spoke English. All of them lived in what is now Great Britain. Through the centuries, as a result of various historical events, English spread throughout the world. Five hundred years ago they didn't speak English in North America: the American Indians had their own languages. So did the Eskimos in Canada, the aborigines in Australia, and the Maoris in New Zealand. The English arrived and set up their colonies ... Today, English is represented in every continent and in the three main oceans — the Atlantic, the Indian and the Pacific. English is mixing with and marrying other languages around the world. It is probably the most insatiable borrower. Words newly coined or in vogue in one language are very often added to English as well. There are words from 120 languages in its vocabulary, including Arabic, French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. Other languages absorb English words too, often giving them new forms and new meanings. So many Japanese, French and Germans mix English words with their mother tongues that the resulting hybrids are called Japlish, Franglais and Denglish. In Japanese, for example, there is a verb Makudonaru, to eat at McDonald's. One of the many "Englishes" spoken and written today is Euro-English. Euro- English has its origins in the political arena of the European community. A century ago, some linguists predicted that one day England, America, Australia and Canada would be speaking different languages. However, with the advent of records, cinema, radio, and television, the two brands of English have even begun to draw back together again. Britons and Americans probably speak more alike today than they did 50 or 60 years ago. (In the 1930s and 1940s, for example, American films were dubbed in England. It's no longer the practice today). People have long been interested in having one language that could be spoken throughout the world. Such a language would help to increase cultural and economic ties and simplify communication between people. Through the years, at least 600 universal languages have been proposed, including Esperanto. About 10 million people have learned Esperanto since its creation in 1887, but English, according to specialists, has better chances to become a global language. So why not learn it? (from Speak Out, abridged) SOME FACTS ABOUT ENGLISH • There were only 30,000 words in Old English. Modern English has the largest vocabulary in the world — more than 600,000 words. • There are about 60,000 words in common use. • About 450-500 words are added to the English vocabulary every year. • 70 per cent of the English vocabulary are loan words and only 30 per cent of the words are native. • There are are words from 120 languages in English, including Russian. • The most frequently used words in written English are: the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, I, it, for and as. • The most frequently used word in conversation is I. • The longest word in the English language is: Pneumonoultamicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (a lung disease). • The commonest letter is "e". • More words begin with the letter "s" than any other. • The most overworked word in English is the word set. It has 126 verbal uses and 58 noun uses. • The newest letters added to the English alphabet are "j" and "v", which are of post- Shakespearean use. • The largest English-language dictionary is the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, with 21,728 pages. • The commonest English name is Smith. There are about 800,00 people called Smith in England and Wales, and about 1,700,000 in the USA. (from Speak Out, abridged) HOT ISSUES WHAT WILL OUR LIFE BE LIKE? Can you imagine what our life will be like in the year 2050? What will our cities be like in the future? How will we live and behave? Will medical science win its battle against the terrible illnesses that mankind continues to suffer from? If things go as researchers plan, by 2050 computers and Internet connections will be in every room in the home, and so will robots! By 2010 most of us will be working on the move. Your office will be wherever you are. It'll be possible to have a virtual meeting instantly. Simply say to your computer "I want to have a meeting with my team at 11 o'clock" and they'll appear before your eyes on the screen of your wearable computer. By 2025 we will have cars that drive themselves. By 2040 we could be driving on fully automated highways. Some scientists believe one day there will be flying cars, too. Our power will come from sources cleaner than coal, oil and gas. In the near future, progress in technology, electronics and genetic engineering will make it possible to regulate DNA. We'll become healthier and will be able to live longer. In the next thirty years, we may all know someone who has travelled in space. Space travel is really expensive at the moment, but scientists are trying to find a solution. "Fly me to the moon" may become a common demand, with package tours to lunar resorts. By the end of the century we could travel to Mars as easily as we do to New York. Mars could be the base for space exploration into the outer regions of the solar system and the Earth may even become a quieter planet CHIPS ARE CHANGING THE WORLD Modern man appeared perhaps 70,000 years ago — a very short period of time if you consider that life has existed on earth for more than 3,000 million years. Still, it took man thousands of years to learn how to control fire. And again, thousands of years passed before he invented the wheel. This great invention, which revolutionized travelling, transport and industry, is not more than 5,000 years old. And it was only 200 years ago that the age of inventions started, when man invented the steam engine, electricity and a lot of other clever machines that have completely changed our way of life. Now we cannot imagine how it was possible to live without cars, television, the telephone, the plane and the computer and thousands of other machines that make our life easy. Today, silicon chips half the size of a fingernail can book seats on jumbo (and keep the planes working smoothly in the air), help children learn to spell, and play chess well enough to beat even very good players. Computers that used to be large enough to fill a room are now toys on our children's desks. There are hardly any field of human activity which has not been invaded by computers. And in the end, the machine revolution will do far more to enrich life than most people realise. These machines will not only control space travel and help businesses by evolutionizing office work, they will also offer solutions to our most difficult problems — the sharing of energy resources, finding enough food for all, and the worldwide improvement of health care. (from English for Business and Everyday Use, abridged) WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? What does the future hold? What is our life going to be like in the 21st century? Some people are rather optimistic about the future, others predict the end of the world. Here is what pessimists say • Our planet will be invaded by aliens. Those who survive will become their slaves. • There will be a nuclear war and our planet will become uninhabitable. • Atmospheric pollution will be so awful that people will have to live in underground cities. • People will be replaced by robots. There will be more unemployed. Life will be harder. • There will be more criminals. Terrorist groups will be more powerful. It will be dangerous to go out. People will be killed by remote control. • Our simple pleasures will become a thing of the past. We'll take food in the form of capsules, tablets and pills. Here is what optimists say • People will be able to travel in space. They will be able to spend their holidays on other planets. • We'll be stronger and healthier. Scientists will invent anti-ageing pills and people will live much longer than now. • Air pollution will be stopped. Special underground pipes will carry smoke and fumes from factories to air-cleaning plants. • Robots will do all the dangerous and dirty jobs. Our working hours will be shorter and our holidays will be longer. • There will be no more wars, no more criminals. The world will become more democratic. • Our daily life will become easier. Everything will be automated. We'll shop, pay our bills and even cook with the help of computers. And what do you think of the future? (from Speak Out, abridged) WHY ARE WE SO EXCITED ABOUT THE INTERNET? What exactly is it that gets us all so excited about the Internet? As well as being a global network of networks, the Internet is a global network of people, ideas and information. The Net is as interesting and exciting as the people, organisations, companies, governments and weirdoes that are connected to it. There is another thing that's exciting about the Internet. Like love and life, the Net is what you make it. If you don't like what's happening on one part of the network, you can build yourself a whole new cybercity, appoint yourself as mayor and run it exactly as you want. The Internet enables you to do a lot of things simultaneously. You can read the latest copy of your favourite newspaper while planning your night's TV viewing and ordering some cheap CDs from an American discount disc store. You can send e-mail to someone you've never met before ... Some people have "met" over the Internet and got married. The first web browsers only supported simple texts and images, but now a multitude of multimedia plug-ins enables webpages to sing and dance. From PC banking to online shopping and chats with celebrities, the Internet is already changing our lives. The arrival of digital TV promises even more exciting things. WE MAY HAVE NO CHOICE We've climbed the highest mountains, conquered the deepest oceans and crossed the widest deserts. It seems there's little left for us to see on this planet. So what's next? Space, of course. The idea of living on a space station or in a lunar city may sound like science fiction, but a hundred years ago no one even heard of an aeroplane — yet today more than 500 million people a year travel by air. We may have no choice, in any case. The world's population is growing at a rate of 97 million a year. It means that by the middle of the century there will so many people on our planet that if everyone in India jumped up and down at the same time, it would cause a tidal wave big enough to cover Europe. Greenpeace warns that if we continue to burn fossil fuels at the same rate as we do today, global warming will reach catastrophic levels. They predict sinking continents and severe drought. Add to that the problems caused by hunger, disease, war and natural disasters, and you will see why space agencies across the globe are pouring millions of dollars into space research. The first pieces of the International Space Station have been launched — a giant project which will allow scientists to carry out ground-breaking research in technology and medicine and see just how long people can live in space. So sometime in this century we might very well see the emergence of a space generation — that means humans born and raised somewhere other than Earth. ARTHUR CLARKE PREDICTS Space travel has inspired thousands of science fiction writers. Here is what Arthur Clarke, many of whose predictions have come true, writes about space. I think I became interested in space through the early science fiction magazines. And I can still vividly remember some of those bright covers. That was in 1930 I think I saw my first. And it wasn't until quite some time later — a few years — that I came across a book which really changed my life. It was called The Conquest of Space. And that was the first book on the subject which took it seriously. And I then realised: this could be for real. And from then on, of course, I was hooked. Until the Russians put up Sputnik 1, in 1957,1 suppose 90 per cent of the public thought it was all nonsense. But after Sputnik people realised that the space age had started. But nobody — not even us enthusiastic space cadets — realised that things would happen as quickly as they have. It was back in 1945 that I wrote the paper suggesting that satellites could be used for communication. So I'm rather proud of that. Though sometimes, when I see some of the things that come down from satellites, I feel a certain kinship with the great Dr Frankenstein. After the war I became interested in space stations. The idea which I'm most interested in today — and which I wrote a novel about, The Phantoms of Paradise, is the Space Elevator. The idea of building an elevator from the Earth's surface right up to the stationary orbit, twenty-six thousand miles above, seems fantastic. But it's theoretically possible. The material that can make it possible is Buckminster Fullerine, the C60 molecule — which is maybe a hundred times stronger than steel in some of its forms. And here's a strange thing. Bucky Fuller was a good friend. When I recorded The Phantoms of Paradise, he drew a picture of the Space Elevator. Yet Bucky never lived to see the discovery of the material named after him — which will, I think, make the Space Elevator possible. |