2020-04-20
107
Stereotyping: A Shorthand Way of Thinking
A stereotype is a standardized conception or image of a specific group of people or objects. Stereotypes are ‘mental cookie cutters’ – they force a simple pattern upon a complex mass and assign a limited number of characteristics to all members of a group. While we commonly use the term as it is applied to human beings, it is quite possible to stereotype objects as well. In popular cultures we can examine both types of stereotypes so that we often find people stereotyped around characteristics of age (“All teenagers love rock and roll and have no respect for their elders.”), religion (“All Catholics love the Pope more than their country.”), vocation(“All lawyers are greedy weasels.”) and nationality (“All Germans are Nazi warmongers.”). Objects can be stereotyped around characteristics of places (“All cities are corrupt and sinful.” “Small towns are safe and clean.” “In England it rains all the time.”) and things (“All American cars are cheaply and ineptly made.” “A good house has a large lawn, big garage, and at least two bathrooms.”).
(Based on a text by Paul Martin Lester)
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"Зеленое кольцо"
"Зеленое кольцо" Москвы включает в себя семь охраняемых природных территорий: три заповедника – Окский, Приокско-террасный, Центрально-Лесной и четыре национальных парка – Угра, Мещера, Плещеево озеро и Смоленское Поозерье.
Реликтовые старовозрастные ельники, дубравы и сосняки, редкие и красивые растения, животные и птицы, живописные ландшафты, зубровые питомники, центр по реабилитации медвежат-сирот и питомник редких видов журавлей, музеи и монастыри – у каждой территории свои неповторимые черты. Путешествия по "Зеленому кольцу" Москвы не требуют специальной физической подготовки и особого снаряжения.
Card 32
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Bampfylde Moore Carew’s Lifestyle
Bampfylde Moore Carew came from an aristocratic family. Yet for sixty years he chose to live as a beggar and confidence trickster. He assumed a variety of inventive disguises, studying each role with the dedicated approach of a great actor. The characters he chose to play were all people who had suffered some terrible misfortune- a shipwrecked sailor, a ruined farmer, even a poverty-stricken mother who had been deserted by her husband. His technique was simple but effective. He would present himself at the door of the local great house and, using his knowledge of how such households were organized, would ensure that he got past servants and was able to pour out his tragic story to the master or mistress. But it was not this flair for deceit that made Carew remarkable –there were many beggars wandering the country who relied upon fraud to soften the hearts of their victims. Carew stands apart from them by his sheer audacity. Most beggars were driven to a life of petty crime by poverty. Carew took it up deliberately because he loved fooling people. He took quite unnecessary risks, even trying out his skill upon people who knew him and his family. One day he talked his way into the house of a landowner, disguised as a rat-catcher. There he discovered among the guests several old acquaintances.
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Барнаул - столица Алтайского края
Город Барнаул, столица Алтайского края, основан в 1730 году.
Место у впадения в Обь реки Барнаулки облюбовали приказчики уральского горнозаводчика Акинфия Демидова для строительства плавильного завода. Расположение оказалось очень удачным - Барнаульский сереброплавильный завод быстро набирал силу и темпы. Но вскоре производство серебра - валютного металла - частным заводчикам было запрещено, и Демидов лишился алтайских предприятий. Они перешли в ведение Кабинета ее Императорского Величества Елизаветы Петровны и стали собственностью царской фамилии. В 1771 году Барнаул получил статус горного города, единственного в Сибири и второго в России после Екатеринбурга. В середине 19 века П. П. Семенов-Тянь-Шанский восторженно назвал Барнаул "сибирскими Афинами".
Card33.
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The Television Evangelist
The most visible effects of the evangelical revival of the 1980s were religious radio and TV programs. These programs featured fundamentalist preaches whose preaching is a mixture of quotations from the Bible, endless warnings against the evils of “secular humanism” and unceasing requests for financial contributions from viewers.
With an estimated total viewership of ten million, the money these preachers raked in was, by any reckoning, immense. In this hay day, the preacher Jimmy Swaggart was making close to $140 million a year. The Bakkers were close behind with an estimated yearly income of $130 million. Jerry Falwell netted, by his own reckoning, about $60 million a year.
The money, which was meant for their ministries, went to maintain their extravagant lifestyles. Swaggart bought himself a $1.5 million mansion. In his show of fatherly affection, he bought another mansion, worth $700,000, for his son Donnie. The Bakkers bought mansion and luxury cars. As a measure of their decadent lifestyle, it should be mentioned that even the doghouse was air-conditioned. Rat Roertson owned a Georgian mansion and a country house.
(An American Patchwork by I.V.Zubanova and A.I. Nikolskaya)
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Сибирский кедр
Сибирский кедр - это краса и национальная гордость России, это богатство нашей страны, это символ силы, здоровья и мощи, это символ устойчивости и долголетия. Первая культура сибирского кедра в европейской части России, о которой есть документальные данные, относится ко второй половине XVI века, когда была заложена Толгоская кедровая роща близ Ярославля, в 8 километрах от города. Прекрасен кедровый лес в любое время года. Из-за густых, плотных крон деревьев в таком лесу довольно темно, а пушистые ветви великанов и молодой поросли придают лесному полумраку таинственное очарование. Русский писатель Дмитрий Мамин-Сибиряк, восхищаясь кедрами, сравнивал их с "боярами в бархатных шубах".
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