Try to decide which proverb could help you express yourself in the following situations

1. You make an appointment with your doctor for 6 pm. You arrive at 6.15. He complains that he has been waiting for 15 minutes. What would you say?

2. Your boss calls you into his office to ask you why you haven’t finished the task that he asked you to do earlier and he complains that you are slow. What would you say to him (you are being cheeky)?

3. Your best friend gets married to a very ugly fat person who has a very kind, pleasant personality. Your spouse asks you how he could have possibly married her. What would you say?

4. Your friend smokes 60 cigarettes a day. He has a bad cough and he is always whining (complaining) that he would like to give up smoking. You offer to pay for expensive anti-smoking therapy. He says that he doesn’t want to do it because he will miss his favourite television serial. What do you think to yourself?

Topics for Presentation

· Structural-semantic classification of phraseological units by prof. A.V. Koonin (Кунин, А.В. Курс фразеологии современного английского языка, 1986)

· Familiar quotations and maxims

Seminar 13. Variants and Dialects of the English Language

The causes of the development of varieties and variants of the English language. Language – dialect – variant. Some peculiarities of British English and American English: spelling, pronunciation, punctuation, vocabulary, grammar. Vocabulary of American English: the general English vocabulary, historical Americanisms, proper Americanisms, American borrowings. Affixation, shortening and postpositivation as highly productive ways of word-building in American English. American idioms. The grammar system of American English. Canadian English. Australian English. New Zealand English. Indian English. Local dialects in Great Britain and the USA. Cockney. Black English (Ebonics).