2015-10-22
1340
In England everything is the other way round.
On Sundays on the Continent even the poorest person puts on his best suit, tries to look respectable, and at the same time the life of the country becomes gay and cheerful; in England even the richest lord or motor-manufacturer dresses in rags, does not shave, and the country becomes dull and sad. On the Continent there is one subject you must never discuss — the weather; in England, if you do not repeat the phrase "Lovely day, isn't it?" about two hundred times a day, people will say you are a bit dull.
On the Continent some street cats are loved, others are only respected; in England they are universally worshipped as in ancient Egypt. On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners.
On the Continent learned persons love to quote Aristotle, Horace, Montaigne* and show off their knowledge; in England only uneducated people show off their knowledge, nobody quotes Latin and Greek authors in the course of a conversation, unless he has never read them.
On the Continent almost every nation whether little or great has openly declared at one time or another that it is superior to all other nations; the English fight heroic wars to combat these dangerous ideas without ever mentioning which isreally the most superior race in the world. On the Continent the population consists of a small percentage of criminals and the rest are honest people. On the other hand, people on the Continent either tell you the truth or lie; in England they hardly ever lie, but they never tell the truth.
Many Continentals think life is a game; the English think cricket is a game.
(After "How to Be an Alien" by G. Mikes)
Assignments
(a) Quickly look through the list and mark the lettered phrase nearest In meaning to the word or phrase tested.
1. Rags: (i) fashionable clothes worn by English aristocrats; (ii) a special sort of dress worn by bus conductors; (iii) old torn clothes.
2. Worship: (i) be fond of; (ii) make an idol of; (iii) hate.
3. Learned person: (i) an expert; (ii) a first-year student; (iii) a person having much knowledge.
4. Quote: (i) repeat the exact words (from a book): (ii) mention some interesting facts from a book; (iii) read books by these authors.
5. Show off: (i) discuss topics of general interest; (ii) try to show others that one knows more than they do; (iii) discuss personal matters.
6. Uneducated people: (i) people who never went to school; (ii) people who can only read and write; (iii) people without a university education.
7. Superior: (i) no different from others; (ii) just as good as everybody else; (iii) much better than others.
8. Dangerous: (i) unsafe; (ii) interesting; (iii) exotic.
9. Hardly ever: (i) almost never; (ii) never; (iii) nearly always.
(b) Complete the following.
1. "Fight" is synonymous with —. 2. "To tell the truth" is the opposite of —. 3. The opposite of "criminals" is —. 4. The difference between a "learned" person and an "educated" one is that —.
(c) Choose the answer that expresses most accurately what is stated in the passage. Only one answer is correct.
1. To the English the Continent is: (i) Europe; (ii) Europe and Asia; (iii) Europe without Britain.
2. In England they worship: (i) all street cats; (ii) some cats; (iii) cats from Egypt.
3. In England Latin and Greek authors are quoted by: (i) educated people; (ii) learned persons; (iii) people who have never read these authors.
4. The idea behind the sentence "The English fight heroic wars to combat these dangerous ideas without ever mentioning which is really the most superior race in the world" is that: (i) the English are more heroic than other nations; (ii) the English think they are the most superior race; (iii) the English have a bad reputation.
5. On the Continent the population mostly consists of: (i) criminals; (ii) honest people; (iii) people who are neither honest nor criminal.
6. "In England they hardly ever lie, but they never tell the truth" means that English people: (i) neither lie nor tell the truth; (ii) never lie; (iii) always lie.
7. "The English think cricket is a game" means: (i) the English take life seriously; (ii) the English like to play cricket; (iii) the English think life is like a game of cricket.
8. "The other way round" means: (i) very much the same; (ii) just the opposite; (iii) with some differences.
(d) Sum up what the text has to say on each of the following points.
1. Sundays on the Continent and in England. 2. The Englishman's favourite subject of conversation. 3. The fondness of the English for animals in general and cats in particular. 4. Food and cooking on the Continent and in England. 5. What the English think of foreigners. 6. How the English take life.
(e) Discuss the following.
1. What the English think of themselves.
2. The reputation the English have among foreigners.
3. What the author thinks about the English.
(f) Say if, in the author's opinion, the English have a sense of humour, or not. Quote examples from the text to prove your statement.
(g) Make a list of all the different ways in which the English differ from the Continentals.
(h) The humorous effect of the passage depends a good deal on exaggeration. Quote examples of exaggeration you have noticed in it.
(i) Ask questions, covering the contents of the text.
(j) Give a talk, stating your agreement (or disagreement) with the author's arguments and conclusions.
Ex 54 Read the passage as rapidly as you can. Time yourself. During the second reading, pay special attention to the words you don't know: look carefully at the context and see if you can get an idea of what they mean. Make an outline of the passage.
There are four climatic zones in the Soviet Union: arctic, subarctic, continental and subtropical. The climate is the coldest in the Arctic, where there are several months of the polar night in the winter. But the nearness of the ocean is very important. In the summer, even in the sunny months, the weather is cloudy with damp snow and temperatures seldom above freezing point.
The European areas of the USSR have a milder climate. The winter is not so cold and the summer is not very hot. In the East-European part of Russia the climate is continental. To the east of the Baltic and Black Seas the winter is colder and the summer is hotter. The southern coast of the Crimea has the warmest winter with no frosts.
Because of the warm Black Sea the summer in the Caucasus is hot and the winter is mild. Farther east to the shores of the Caspian the summer is hotter and the winter is a little colder. This is, in fact, a dry subtropical region!
Soviet Central Asia is the hottest and driest region of the country. Here there is no cloud for weeks on end and because of the hot surTthere is practically no vegetation.
