1. A postal system which works. Most first-class letters arrive within 24 hours of posting. Delays of more than 48 hours are taken as evidence of social breakdown, and the Government offers to resign.
2. Understanding of the restorative value of tea with milk at teatime.
3. London’s black cabs. Clean, plenty of headroom, all doors convincingly attached, and drivers who know the way.
4. Wake-up alarm calls which can be booked.
5. World’s cleverest shop-window displays.
6. World’s best and most stylish TV commercials.
7. Milk delivered daily to the doorstep.
8. Doctors who still make housecalls (off-set by chemists who won’t open at night or on weekends so you can fill the prescription).
9. World’s grooviest and most inventive hairdressers (pink highlights, madame?).
10. Upholstered seats in London tubes.
11. Best Italian restaurants of any city in the world, including Rome.
12. Best Indian restaurants of any city in the world, including Delhi.
13. Some of the world’s best theatres, and tickets which are still cheap(ish)
14. Great bookstores, cut-price paperbacks.
15. City streets which are safe(ish).
16. The survival of the traditional English nanny (which has ensured the survival of the 2-career family).
17. The only significant gay population not yet decimated by AIDS.
18. Police who, as a rule, do not carry guns, and have lots of friends who help them with their inquiries.
19. High interest-rates on ordinary deposit accounts.
20. Real town-houses in the centres of big cities, some still in single-family occupation.
21. Truly prurient gossip-columns appearing daily in respectable national newspapers.
22. National newspapers.
23. Public transport systems that do.
24. Preference for real wool carpet (100%) at prices which stop just short of ludicrous.
25. Wonderful parks, where civic authorities indulge the public fascination for plant-life.
26. World’s most beautiful traditional ‘prams’. Won’t fold away and store in cars, but perfect for wheeling baby-Brits through world’s most beautiful parks.
27. Appreciation of cream. Cream cakes, clotted cream teas, coffee with real cream, strawbs with cream at Wimbledon. Liquid double cream poured liberally over your already obscenely fattening fudge cake.
28. Harrods and Harvey Nichols (where most British women would like to be forced to remain under house-arrest).
CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION............................................................................. 4
UNIT 1. THINK GLOBAL, SPEAK LOCAL (Tape) 6
UNIT 2. BASIC BRIT-THINK AND AMERI-THINK.. 6
UNIT 3. BRITS AND YANKS ABROAD.. 15
UNIT 4. STRICTLY BUSINESS. 23
UNIT 5. BRITS AND YANKS AT HOME. 28
UNIT 6. GOING PLACES (Film) 35
UNIT 7. WHAT DO THEY ASPIRE TO?. 36
UNIT 8. REGIONALISM AND OTHER LOCAL PROBLEMS
(Multi-media support and maps available) 45
UNIT 9. PATRIOTISM (Multi-media support available) 52
UNIT 10.THE ESTABLISHMENT. 58
UNIT 11.YES, PRIME MINISTER. THE SMOKE SCREEN (Film) 61
UNIT 12.A BETTER CLASS OF FOREIGNER.. 63
UNIT 13.CLASS. 67
UNIT 14.ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES (Film) 72
UNIT 15.THE FOOD CONNECTION.. 72
UNIT 16.FAWLTY TOWERS – GOURMET NIGHT (Film) 77
UNIT 17.THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING CUTE. 78
UNIT 18.GOODS AND SERVICES. 82
UNIT 19.DOCTOR DOCTOR.. 90
UNIT 20.LAWS OF THE LANDS. 96
UNIT 21.RUMPOLE AND THE AGE OF MIRACLES (Film) 97
UNIT 22.JUDGING A NATION BY ITS TELEVISION.. 97
UNIT 23.GOOD SPORT. 97
UNIT 24.OXFORD BLUES (Film) 97
UNIT 25.HUMOUR TRAVELS?. 97
UNIT 26.CHANGING PLACES (Film) 97
UNIT 27.KEEPING UP APPEARANCES (Film) 97
UNIT 28.ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE (Film) 97
UNIT 29.EAST-ENDERS (Film) 97
UNIT 30.THE FINAL SOLUTION:
OR, WHAT REALLY COUNTS. 97
APPENDIX I 97
APPENDIX II 97
APPENDIX III 97
APPENDIX IV.. 97
Учебное пособие
«ЛИНГВОСТРАНОВЕДЕНИЕ ВЕЛКИОБРИТАНИИ И США»
(для студентов V курса п/о факультета гуманитарных
и прикладных наук)
Компьютерная верстка Г.П.Лопатиной
Издание подготовлено в авторской редакции
Московский государственный лингвистический университет
Подписано в печать 23.10.02
Объем 8,6 п.л. Формат 60х90/16. Тираж 300 экз.
Заказ №____
Адрес редакции:
Москва, Остоженка, 38
