At an International Conference of Language Teachers (during the break)

Bob Bennett (a British teacher of Russian)

Svetlana Pavlova (a Russian teacher of English)

B.B. You are an English teacher, aren't you?

S.P. Quite right. I've been teaching English since I graduated from Univer­sity and that was nearly 20 years ago.

B.B. I wonder how long English has been the most popular foreign lan­guage in Russia.

S.P. I think English began to gain popularity right after World War II.

B.B. That's very interesting! And what was the situation before the war?

S.P. I know from my parents who were both school teachers that in pre-war years it was German that was taught in most Soviet schools, some­times French and very rarely English. In general there was a time when the most prestigious foreign language in Russia was French. This can be seen from Tolstoy's novels. Pushkin's Tatiana, by the way, wrote her love letter to Onegin in French, because her Russian wasn't good enough to write such a vitally important message.

B.B. We in Britain don't often try to learn foreign languages. I believe that in this regard we are a bit spoilt, because we are sure that no matter where we find ourselves, there will always be someone who can speak English.

S.P. I'm afraid you're right. We, here in Russia, on the contrary, have always tried to learn languages, though now I find our mother tongue is gain­ing popularity and good progress has been made in learning how to teach it.

6. Complete the sentences choosing the words from the boxes. A.

few, a few, quite a few

1. He's got... friends; he's very popular at his college.

2. He's got too... friends and he often feels lonely.

3. Very... German engineers could speak Chinese when Volkswagen set
up a factory in Shanghai.

4.... German engineers and Chinese managers could speak English, so
they were able to communicate in English.

5. There are very... people who will agree to low-paid jobs.

Unit one

6. There are... people who may apply for this job. It's prestigious and well
paid.

7. The meals are awful, but strangely enough, very... people complain.

8. The meals are awful. No wonder quite... people complain.

9. The text was easy to translate. There were very... words I had to look
up in the dictionary.

 

10. The text only seems easy to translate. There are... booby-traps in it!

11. Ladies and Gentlemen! Let me say... words about the main advantages
of the new method.

B.

little, a little

1. ... is known about that old civilization!

2. Wait...!

3. I'm afraid, too... time is left to discuss everything in detail.

4. I'm sorry, you can't stay... longer.

5.... was left of that lovely place after the earthquake.

' Put in the correct article a / an or the.

Before you begin reading... story learn... few words you might not know. Without it... humour of... story is likely to be lost on you.

... story is about... importance of punctuation [, pAnktju'eiJn]. You must have guessed... meaning of... word.... corresponding verb is 'to punctuate' ['рлпк-tjueit].... wildlife manual is... reference book about animals. To toss means to throw.... mammal is... animal that feeds its babies with its own milk. Now you can begin reading... story.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves*

... panda walks into... cafe. He orders... sandwich, eats it, then draws... gun and fires two shots in... air.

" Why? " asks... confused waiter, as... panda makes towards... exit.... panda produces... badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

" I'm... panda, " he says, at... door. " Look it up."

... waiter turns to... relevant entry** and, sure enough, finds... explanation:

" Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

* Based on " Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss. Profile Books Ltd, 2003. ** Entry ['entn] n зд. запись в справочнике.

Can you explain why... panda took... gun and fired two shots in... air?

Do you understand what makes... story funny? If you don't, you won't even smile after reading it. Well, look at... last sentence carefully. There is... comma in it, isn't there? ... comma makes... word shoots... verb, meaning «стреляет» in Russian. Then... Russian translation of leaves would be «уходит». You cer­tainly know... Russian for leaves as a noun, don't you? It's «листья». But you may not know... meaning of shoots as... noun. It's... rare word and you are unlikely to find it in... small dictionary. So look it up in... big one. Shoots as... noun in... plural means «ростки», «побеги», «веточки». Then... story will become funny, won't it?

These are the answers. What were the questions?

1. Every pilot and ship's captain has to speak English because it's an
agreed international language of communication in the air and the sea.

2. Many European multi-national companies now use English as a
common language.

3. Many important inventions made in recent years have become an
integral part of modern life.

4. English has been the language of rock and pop music ever since rock
and roll began in America in the 1950s.

Here are some English proverbs. Can you find Russian equivalents?

1. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

2. Rome was not built in a day.

3. Take the bull by the horns.

4. Tastes differ.

5. There is no place like home.

6. A bird in the hands is worth two in the bush.

7. Every medal has two sides.

8. Speech is silver, silence is gold.

9. The best is often the enemy of the good.

Оборот 'be likely (unlikely) + infinitive with to' выражает предполо­жение в отношении будущего. Возможные варианты перевода на русский язык: be likely to... - вероятно, скорее всего, похоже на то, что... + рус­ский глагол в будущем времени

be unlikely to... - вряд ли, скорее всего не, не похоже на то, что... + + русский глагол в будущем времени Не is likely to be late. - Он, скорее всего, опоздает. The weather is unlikely to change. - Вряд ли погода изменится.

23

Unit one

10. Which of the existing languages is most likely to take over the status of an international language? This table will help you to make your predictions.

 

Language (country)	Reasons
Spanish (Spain)	economic
Italian (Italy)	political
French (France)	numerical
German (Germany)	military
Danish (Denmark)	linguistic
Dutch (Holland)	sociological
American English (USA)	cultural
British English (Great Britain)	demographic
Russian (Russia)	technological
Ukrainian (Ukraine)	geographical
Chinese (China)	ecological
Japanese(Japan)
Esperanto

Example In my opinion Chinese is likely to take over as a world language for numerical reasons.

I think English is likely to preserve its status for economic and poli­tical reasons.

1. Translate the following into English using 'be likely (unlikely)'.

1. Погода вряд ли изменится.

2. Погода, скорее всего, изменится к лучшему.

3. Я, скорее всего, поеду на юг летом.

4. Эта пьеса вряд ли будет иметь успех.

12. Fill in the spaces with prepositions from the box. Discuss part В in class. A.

in, on, between, over, by, of, at

24

 

1. Children under 14 must be accompanied... an adult.

2. He is very interested... modern art. He's got a lot of books... art at
home.

3. The heroine of the book was forced to choose... happiness and duty.

4. Do you agree that wood has advantages... plastic?

5. Children learn... a different rate.

6. We can rely... him. He always keeps his promise.

7. That happened... my first day at school.

8. He said that on hearing that he felt free... any obligations.

B.

of, for, in, on, up, by, out, to

If you have decided, ... some reason or another, to learn a foreign lan­guage, you must first... all have a very clear idea... what you need it.... If it is a matter... a two-week tourist trip, then it isn't worth spending your time and effort trying to learn grammar and looking... the words you want to know... the dictionary. All you need is a reliable phrase-book (Italian-Russian, French-Russian, etc.), depending... the country you are going to visit. Choose the situations you are most likely to find yourself..., and learn the necessary phrases, practising... loud, of course. Ideally, your phrase-book should be accompanied... a disc... which these phrases are recorded... a native speaker... the language you are interested.... The disc will help you to avoid mispronunciation and not to be baffled... the spelling. Believe it or not, you are most unlikely to forget the phrases you have learnt... this way. They will remain... your long-term memory... a long time.

A much more difficult thing is learning to understand the people you might want to talk.... In all probability, you won't be able to learn that before your tourist trip.

An absolutely different method is unavoidable if you need a foreign language... your profession.... this case you should be prepared... a course that will, probably, take not less than a year, or even longer. A modern course... this type usually comprises course books, workbooks and is accompanied... a lot... taped material. It would be most misleading to assert that it will be easy, but it's very interesting, indeed, and is, no doubt, worth trying.

. A. These words are jumbled. Put them in the correct order.

1. has / been / expanding / economy / That / country's / in / the / last /
few / years / rapidly / very.

2. some / entertainment / was / followed / The / by / meeting.

3. over / gave / The / dominance / numerical / of / took / part / in /
the / voting / those / who / the / ruling / party / an / the / advantage /
opposition / actually / to.

4. not / often / are / used / Proverbs / speech / writing / or / in /
ordinary.

5. was / to emerge / from / his / limousine / Director / General / the /
first / The.

Unit one

В. Translate into English, paying special attention to the word order.

1. Численное превосходство тех, кто фактически принял участие
в голосовании, дало преимущество правящей партии над оппози­
цией.

2. Первым появился из своего лимузина генеральный директор.

3. За собранием последовал концерт.

4. В течение последних нескольких лет экономика этой страны раз­
вивалась очень быстро.

5. В обычной (устной) речи или письме пословицы употребляются
редко.

14. Here are two reports made by a British professor of linguistics and his Russian colleague during a discussion of relevant problems at Moscow University. You are an interpreter and have to translate the first report into Russian and the other into English. (It's a paid job! )

1. It is sometimes thought that English has achieved its worldwide status
because of its linguistic features. Some people assert that it is a more logical
or more beautiful language than others, simpler in grammatical structure, or
larger in vocabulary. This kind of reasoning is an example of naive linguistic
thinking: there are no objective standards of logic or beauty in comparing
different languages, and questions of phonetic, grammatical, or lexical
complexity can never be given simple answers. For example, English may not
have many inflectional endings (which is what most people are thinking of
when they talk about English as grammatically 'simple'), but it has a highly
complex syntax; and the number of endings has nothing to do with the
language being used worldwide (as can be seen from the former success of
Latin). Languages rise and fall as world languages for many kinds of reasons -
political, economic, social, religious, literary - but linguistic reasons do not
rank highly among them.

2....И все же я думаю, что английский язык, вероятнее всего, со­
хранит свой статус международного языка на ближайшие сто лет или
около того. Сейчас мне бы хотелось сказать несколько слов об одной
его черте, которая пока что не упоминалась. Он лаконичен. Прежде
всего, в нем множество коротких слов. Есть, конечно, и длинные, та­
кие, как, 'consistency', 'legislation¹, 'financial', 'unequal', 'misinterpre­
tation', и многие другие, но в обычных ситуациях численное превос­
ходство коротких слов над длинными совершенно ясно. Это огромное
преимущество в повседневных разговорах, когда вы должны сказать
многое, к тому же ясно и точно, а времени у вас мало. Например,
в переговорах между пилотами двух самолетов в небе или капитанами

двух судов в море. Вот почему английский стал согласованным языком общения для большинства международных авиалиний и служб чрез­вычайных ситуаций.

При всех своих неприятных «ловушках» английский синтаксис позво­ляет обойтись одним-двумя словами там, где в других языках вам понадо­бится несколько слов, возможно, даже целое предложение.

Постарайтесь перевести 'fitness' или 'PR officer' на русский язык, и вы получите что-нибудь вроде «хорошая физическая форма» и «сотрудник, отвечающий за связи с общественностью». Как перевести 'talk-show'? Вы­ход уже найден - слово было просто заимствовано.

Если вы сравните английскую книгу (по-настоящему хорошую, конеч­но) с ее русским переводом (тоже по-настоящему хорошим), вы увидите, что последний гораздо толще. Книга толще! Почему? Просто подумайте об этом. Это интересно.

Все это не значит, однако, что английский язык превосходит все другие языки или что его литература является непревзойденной нигде в мире. И все же приходится признать, что, к лучшему или к худшему, ан­глийский язык стал наиболее «глобальным» языком сегодняшнего дня. Сохранит ли он этот статус в будущем? Прогнозы делать трудно!

5. Read the poem. You needn't learn the new words. They are just an illus­tration of the proverbial inconsistency of English spelling.

12345678910Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: