Ex 49. Subjects for oral and written composition

1. Moscow—the capital of the USSR.

2. The state and political system of the USSR.

3. The story of the capital of one of the Union Republics.

4. The state and political system of (a) Great Britain; (b) the USA.

5. Places of interest in London (Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, Sofia, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Washington, etc).

6. My home town.

7. Places of interest in your home town.

8. Describe a busy street, a shopping centre, a building of historical importance.

9. Your home town now and what it was like ten years ago.

10. New cities on the map of the USSR.

11. Write a letter to your friend who has left the town and has gone to live in another. Ask him to describe it.

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LESSON TWO

Text: An Englishman's Diary (after Stephanie Andrews).

Grammar: The Indefinite Tense Forms (Present, Past and Future). Reported Speech. Sequence of Tenses.

AN ENGLISHMAN'S DIARY

An Englishman's day — and who can describe it better than an Englishman's wife? It begins when he sits down to breakfast with his morning newspaper.

As he looks through the headlines there is nothing he likes better than his favourite breakfast of cornflakes with milk and sugar (porridge if he lives in the North), fried bacon and eggs, marmalade¹ on toast² and tea (with milk, of course) or coffee.

He in fact gets such a meal if there is enough money in the family to buy it.

After breakfast, except on Saturdays and Sundays which are holidays, he goes to work by train, tube,³ bus, car, motor scooter, motor bike⁴ or walks there. He leaves home at about 7:30.

At offices or factories there is a tea or coffee break at eleven. Then at mid-day everything stops for lunch.⁵ Most offices and shops close for an hour from one to two.

Englishmen are fond of good plain food, and they usually want to know what they eat. They like beefsteaks, chops, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding,⁶ fried fish and chipped potatoes.

There are usually two courses⁷ in the mid-day meal — a meat course with a lot of vegetables, a sweet dish,⁸ perhaps fruit pudding and custard⁹ with tea or coffee to finish.

Then back to work again with another break in the middle of the afternoon, once again for tea or coffee, sometimes with a cake or biscuit.¹⁰

The working day finishes at any time between four and six. When an Englishman gets home he likes to inspect his garden before the evening meal: tea, high tea,¹¹ dinner or supper. When his evening meal is over, the Englishman may do a little gardening and then have a walk to the "local"¹² (the nearest beerhouse) for a "quick one" (a drink, alcoholic, of course!). There are a lot of people at the "local" and he can play darts, dominoes, billiards or discuss the weather, the local events or the current situation. But if the Englishman stays at home, he may listen to the radio, watch television, talk or read.

Then at any time between 10 and 12 he has his "nightcap" — a drink with a snack — and then off to bed ready for tomorrow.

NOTES

1. marmalade: a kind of jam made of citrus fruit джем (особ. апельсинный или лимонный). Note that the English for мармелад is "candied fruit jelly".

2. toast: (a slice/piece of) bread made brown and crisp by heating at a fire ломтик хлеба, подрумяненный на огне; гренок. In English this noun is uncountable, always used in the singular.

3. tube (coll): the London underground railway (from the shape of the tunnels, which look like large tubes into which the trains fit very neatly; similarly a tube train, a tube station).

4. motor bike (coll): motor cycle

5. lunch: any light meal, especially the regular mid-day meal between breakfast and dinner. For the working people "lunch" is "dinner" and the evening meal "supper". Dinner, whether eaten at mid-day or in the evening, is a formal meal with several courses.

6. Yorkshire pudding: пирог из жидкого теста (приправа к мясу). The dish comes from Yorkshire, England's largest county. Yorkshiremen eat it separately before a meal.

7. course; a part of a meal. Eg We usually have a three-course dinner.

8. dish: a particular kind of food блюдо. Eg My favourite dish is spaghetti with cheese.

9. custard: a kind of sauce made of milk, sugar, eggs, etc сладкий крем (из яиц, молока, муки и т. д.)

10. biscuit: сухое печенье, галета. Note that the English for бисквит is "sponge cake".

11. high tea: an evening meal with tea and usually meat, eggs, etc плотный ужин с чаем

12. local (coll): the local public house, or "pub"