READING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES

 

1. Consult a dictionary and practise the pronunciation of the following words:

 

dewy, meadow, cartoon, Captain Kangaroo, episode, mass media, influential, environment, catalogue, brochure, credulous, sophisticated, deliberate, addictive, subtle, vicious, altruistic, stimulate, control, advertise, permissible, digest, identify, ab­breviate, programme, persuasively, agency, intellect, design, available, intricate, isolate, giant, conglomerate, audio, contrib­ute, charitable.

 

2. Practise the pronunciation of the following polysyllabic words paying attention to the principal and secondary stresses:

 

magazine, influential, psychologically, altruistic, motiva­tion, consideration, entertainment, regularity, information, so­phistication, appreciation, disapproval, individually, intertwin­ing, governmental, philosophical, educational, intellectually.

 

3. a) Read out the following observing all the phonetic phenomena of con­nected speech (assimilation, lateral and nasal plosions, the loss of plosion, the linking”r”).

 

you accept the media; at the same time; with all this; the permissible and the forbidden; look back at the first two para­graphs; words introduced in the media; even that part of media output; commercial messages inserted throughout; or a news­paper or magazine article; around the advertisements; in either print or electronic media; what the boss's policies are.

 

b) Practise the pronunciation of the following word combinations contain­ing the nasal sonant [ŋ ] in the intervocalic position:

 

sitting in the kitchen; involving subtle conditioning and brain-washing; all these negative aspects of growing up with the media; what's going on in the world; the fun of trying out a new product; but there is always that string of jokes; just stand­ing or wandering about a stage; when you were young and ab­sorbing uncritically; accepting a job.

 

 

c) Read the following passages: 1) from " the major media can be divided..." up to "... or pictures demanding attention? " and 2) from " whole new vocabularies come into existence...'' up to "... at an advertising agency." Observe the intona­tion group division, stress, rhythm and tempo.

 

4. Change the sentences below according to the models:

 

Model 1: The lady lacked tact and manners.

What the lady lacked was tact and manners.

1. He longed for the title of a champion. 2. The man didn't care to go back to his wife. He was afraid she'd talk him to death. 3. The doctor should have tested him for suicidal ten­dencies.

 

Model 2: We had no idea where he had come from.

Little did we know where he had come from.

1. We had no suspicion what he was involved in. 2. She had no idea what made him lose his temper. 3. We did not under­stand why she was so annoyed. 4. We could not see the point of his coming here.

 

5. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Чего ему действительно не хватало, так это чувства меры. 2. Что меня больше всего удивило в Джейн, так это ее самообладание. 3. Ему просто не хватало знаний по истории этой страны. 4. Надо отдать ей должное, она была на редкость трудолюбива. 5. Надо отдать ему дол­жное, он сделал все, чтобы овладеть испанским языком. 6. Надо от­дать ей должное, она очень интересуется благополучием своих род­ных. 7. Надо отдать ему должное, он с любым европейцем может го­ворить на его родном языке. 8. Я и понятия не имел, куда он метит. 9. Он и не подозревал, что ей нужно. 10. Она и не догадывалась, чем все это кончится.

 

Make up two sentences of your own on each pattern (p. 169).

 

Make up a short situation using the speech patterns.

 

Note down from the text (p. 165) the sentences containing the phrases and word combinations (p. 169) and translate them into Russian.

 

9. Paraphrase the following sentences using the phrases and word combi­nations:

 

1. Who won the race? 2. This is the latest information on the situation. 3. His illness started after that awful accident he was

 

involved in. 4. Teachers are always complaining that many of their pupils have no manners. 5. Once she'd started eating junk food she couldn't stop. 6. The new one-pound coin was first used in 1984.

 

10. Consult a dictionary and make up a list of adjectives beginning with " ill-", e. g. " ill-bred". Give the Russian equivalents.

 

11. Make up two sentences of your own on each phrase and word combi­nation.

 

12. Translate the following sentences into English using the phrases and word combinations:

1. Когда мне нужно принять какое-либо решение, я всегда снача­ла думаю о семье, а потом уже о карьере. 2. Они используют самое современное оборудование и вычислительные машины. 3. Эта руко­пись восходит к ХШ веку. 4. Учителя в Англии жалуются на то, что им мало платят и к ним плохо относятся. 5. К сожалению, вас невер­но информировали. 6. Сначала он был уверен, что сможет бросить курить, как только захочет, но потом понял, что он уже очень сильно пристрастился к сигаретам. 7. Закон вступил в действие в 1976 году. 8. Я не умею шить, да и к тому же я не вяжу.

 

Pair work. Make up and practise a dialogue using the phrases and word combinations.

 

14. Explain what is meant by:

 

watching television is psychologically addictive; questions involving subtle conditioning and brainwashing; friendly or vicious, altruistic or self-serving; increasing sophistication of taste and appreciation of technical skills; they (ideas) are digested emotionally at psychological depths; behaviour patterns; words introduced in the media frequently enlarge their meanings far beyond the scope originally intended for them; a predetermined response.

 

Answer the following questions and do the given assignment.

 

a) 1. How influential a part does the TV play in children's lives? Do recollections of TV programmes provide the most part of the majority of young people's childhood memories? 2. Why do you think people often refer to " the media" when talking

 

 

about television? 3. Why do the modern media tend to cause more problems than the printed media? 4. Are the additional implications of the word " mass" accurate? 5. How do you think watching television can become addictive? 6. Comment on the meaning of " global village" and how it's connected with the TV. 7. What does television impart to an uncritical audience? 8. How is ittcnown that some attitudes are absorbed indirectly from the television and then retained? 9. Does the television al­ways achieve its intended predetermined response from its au­dience? Is it more successful than the other forms of media? 10. How independent are those people working for the tele­vision companies? 11. In the last sentence the pros and cons of television are put rather bluntly. Which outweigh the other?

 

b) The text under discussion is an essay. Behind the essay lie the traditions of oratory and debate. From them all essays inherit their persuasive techniques. The essay may usually be identified by certain characteristics of tone, language, and structure. Keeping all the above mentioned in mind, study the text and providing illustrations from it discuss the main charac­teristics of the essay: 1) tone: personal and conversational or highbrow and formal; 2) language: informal and colloquial or official and stylized; 3) structure: loose, flexible or strictly and logically organized.

What persuasion techniques does the author use?

 

Give a summary of the text.

 

17. l) Media inventory.

 

a) List all the media yon observe in an hour or two in the following places:

 

1. in the community in general — in the shopping centre or downtown area that you use the most, in the supermarket or grocery store, in any clothing or department store, at the cafe where you stop for meals or snacks. Include signs, billboards, posters, magazines, displays, radios, TVs, and public address system. 2. at school or college/institute, in classrooms, in general areas such as the cafeteria and hallways. (Don't in­clude the library. We all know how loaded it is.) 3. at home — in your bedroom, living-room, kitchen.

 

b) Bring your information to class; sort the material into groups and compile your information. Write a list of categories, such as TVs, radios, newspapers, magazines, signs, posters, displays — whatever you discovered — and record the number of each, regardless of where you noticed them. When yon have complet­ed the whole inventory, add the number in each category, then add them all for a grand total of the media in your life.

2) Discussion While you were compiling your inventory, answers to the following questions no doubt presented themselves. Nowis a good time to share them with the whole class.

 

1. Was it difficult to remember to notice each medium? 2. Did you find more than you anticipated? 3. Where did you find the most? 4. Which medium predominates in your inventory — print or electronic? 5. What general conclusions did yott reach about media?

 

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