Маклакова Елена Владимировна

Кафедра иностранных языков

Дистанционное

Обучение

Английский язык

(Тексты для чтения)

Для студентов

Курса всех специальностей

Заочной формы обучения

Www.msta.ru

5017

Москва – 2005

УДК 811.111 Англ.

Данная работа предназначена для студентов 1 курса всех специальностей заочной формы обучения.

Составитель:

Маклакова Елена Владимировна,к.п.н., доцент

Рецензент: Давыдова Людмила Петровна, к.п.н., профессор

Редактор: Свешникова Н.И.

109004, Москва, Земляной вал, 73

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Текст 1

GREAT BRITAIN

Approximately 350 million people speak English as their first language. About the same number use it as a second language. It is a language of aviation, international sport and pop music. 75% of the world's mail is in English, 60% of the world's radio stations broadcast in English and more than half of the world's periodicals are printed in English. It is an official language in 44 countries. In many others it is the language of business, commerce and technology. There are many varieties of English, but Scottish, Australian, Indian and Jamaican speakers of English, will recognize that they all speak the same basic language.

Great Britain is formed of the following parts: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and is situated on the British Isles which lie to the west of the continent of Europe. Great Britain is washed on the western coast by the Atlantic Ocean and by the Irish Sea which separates England from Ireland. The English Channel separates England's south coast from France's north coast stretches 350 miles, from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea. On a clear day, you can see the white cliffs of Dover from the French coast. For centuries, the Channel was the way to the Continent, a highway crowded with ships.

The English Channel is perhaps the most dangerous sea channel in Europe. Half of all the world's ship collisions take place here. Now, after the construction of the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel, completed in 1994, the crossing of the Channel has become much faster, safer and more comfortable.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

How many people speak English language today?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

What’s happened in 1994 on English Channel?

a) the collision of ships

b) the construction of new bridge between England and France

c) the construction of tunnel was completed

Текст 2

CLIMATE IN BRITAIN

Great Britain is an island and its climate is rather mild. The weather, which is greatly influenced by the cool wind that blows from the sea, is cooler in summer and warmer in winter than in most other countries of Northern Europe. There is not a single point in Great Britain which is more than 120 kilometers away from the sea.

The weather in England changes very often. In spring the weather is generally mild but sometimes they have really cool days. In summer it is not so hot as on the continent. In winter they have all sorts of weather. Sometimes it rains and sometimes it snows. In England it is never so cold in winter as on the continent, the rivers and lakes are seldom covered with ice.

But the worst thing about the climate in England is the thick fog which they so often have in autumn and in winter. In London the fog is sometimes so thick that cars run into one another. The fog is one of the worst typical features of London and Londoners cannot imagine their capital without it, as we cannot picture winter in St. Petersburg without snow.

The climate influences British architecture very much. British houses have large windows to let through more light during winter. Sunshine is a welcome visitor for the British people, and it is not usually from the heat of the sun that they seek shelter, but from wind and rain and cold.

The country's landscape is rich and varied. You will find here mountains and lowland, hills and valleys, lakes and rivers within short distances. There are many rivers in Britain: the Thames, the Severn, the Mersey and others but none of them is very long. Many of the rivers are joined by canals, so it is quite possible to travel by water from one end of England to the other.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

What is the worst thing in English climate?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

From what the English people seek shelter?

d) The heat and the sun

e) The snow and the fog

f) The rain and the cold

Текст 3

HIGHER EDUCATION IN BRITAIN

There are now 44 universities in the United Kingdom and over 700 technical colleges. All British universities are private, that is no state-controlled institutions. Each has its own governing council, including some local businessmen and politicians as well as a few academics.

British universities can be divided into three main groups: the old universities; the provincial universities of the period 1850-1930, as well as London University; the new universities, founded after the Second World War.

In the group of old universities Oxford (1167) and Cambridge (1209) are the oldest ones. Although they have together less than a tenth of the whole student population (each having about 12,000 students), they have special position. A number of well-known scientists and writers, among them Newton, Darwin and Byron, were educated in Cambridge.

These two universities differ greatly from all others in general organization, methods of instructions, traditions, history, etc. They are based on colleges (law, music, natural science, economics, agriculture, engineering, commerce, education, etc.), each college has about 300 students.

The course of study at a university lasts three or four years. In general Bachelor's degree, the first academic degree, is given to the students who pass their examination at the end of the course: Bachelor of Arts, for history, philosophy, language and literature, etc.. Bachelor of Science or Commerce or Music. In 1971 the Open University was set up for the people who do not have time or the qualifications to study at a conventional university. The students of the Open University need to study about ten hours a week, to write essays, and to prepare for exams. There are weekly Open University lectures broadcast on BBC television and radio. It takes six years to get a degree. One who gets a degree may have a better job, higher pay or post-graduate studies.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

How many groups of universities are in Great Britain?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

How the Open University broadcasts?

a) in Internet

b) on cable television

c) on BBC and radio

Текст 4

LONDON'S UNDERGROUND AND PORT

In 1863 30,000 Londoners used a new and strange mode of travel — the first underground railway in the world. The first train covered the distance of almost four miles.

Some engineers said, that the tunnels will fall in because of the weight of the traffic in the streets above and Londoners will be poisoned by the fumes from the engine. But the fantastic railway was completed and opened.

Now there are different trains going in many different directions. There is the Old Tube across the centre with many and frequent stops and there are trains going out to the suburbs and stopping at a very few stations on the way. And there are the non-express trains going a very long way out into the country. The fares are all different and even the carriages are not alike.

Underground’s safety was always one of the main concerns of London Transport. In general trains often follow each other within seconds and the London Tube is the safest form of transport. A programme machine controls routes: it makes any changes automatically with great speed.

The Port and the Docks arc also called the Pool of London.The port is probably the largest in the world, it is 100 kilometers long, from London Bridge to the sea. Ships bring their cargoes daily from the four corners of the world. They come with butter and meat, sugar and fruit, tea and coffee, copper and wood from the far-away North and from the tropics. In the port there are ships, masts, cranes. The smoke hangs dark in the sky.

The Port is full of workers of every nationality and race: you see British sailors, Scandinavians, Africans.

Most Londoners do not know the Pool of London, they do not know the East End that is round the Port and the Docks. They know Paris or New York better than this part of the town. But, the East End people feed them, give them all they need.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

When the London Tube was built?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

What is the big concern of the London Tube?

a)the speed of the trains

b) the underground’s safety

c) the new technologies

Текст 5

NEWSPAPERS IN GREAT BRITAIN

The population of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is now over 56,000,000. About 30,000,000 newspapers are sold every day. The British people, therefore, are great readers of newspapers.

Daily papers are published daily from Monday to Saturday. The morning papers are on sale early in the morning. The evening papers, such as the Evening News, the Star, the Evening Standard and others begin to appear during the morning, and new editions appear every two or three hours until the final edition comes out in the evening. They sell well because they print, the latest sports results of the day.

The London newspaper that people know the best outside Great Britain is probably The Times, the leading conservative newspaper. It began in 1785, and has a high reputation for reliable news and serious comment on the news.

The popular newspapers naturally have much larger circulation than the serious ones. The news that appears in the pages of the Daily Mirror and the Daily Sketch, for example, are not always the most important news. On the pages you find the news of sport — football, boxing and racing, with stories of film stars, photographs of actors and actresses, etc.

In addition to London newspapers, there are other papers, published in the provinces as, for example, the Manchester Guardian, the Yorkshire Post (published in Leeds), and the Scotsman (Edinburgh). They sell in the whole country, in competition tothe London papers. Provincial newspapers give very full attention to local as well as to national affairs.

A modern newspaper could not be sold at a profit without advertisements. A single copy costs more to produce than the price paid by the reader. A newspaper with a large circulation may cost about £100,000.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

What types of newspapers are published in UK?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

The British people are:

a)the great sport fans

b) the great readers

c) the great travelers

Текст 6

SPORTS IN BRITAIN

The English are great lovers of sports and if they are not playing or watching games they like to talk about them.

The game especially associated with England is cricket. Organized amateur cricket is played between club teams. But for the great mass of the British people the eight months of the football season are more important than the four months of cricket. The British people are very fond of football it’s their favorite sport. There are plenty of amateur football (or soccer) clubs, but professional football is big business. Every large town has at least one professional football club. The players don’t necessarily have any personal connections with the town where they play. They are bought and sold between the clubs, and the "transfer fees" can be much more than £ 30,000. The Cup Final, played in May each year in London, is the final event of the season.

Rugby football (or rugger) is played with the egg-shaped ball, which players carry and throw. Rugby is mostly played by amateurs. It is also the game played at the great majority of schools and universities. International matches, involving England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France, are played in capital cities.

Most secondary schools have playing fields, and boys normally play rugger or soccer in winter and cricket in summer; schoolgirls play tennis and rounders (a sort of baseball) in summer and hockey in winter though hockey now becomes more and more popular also at boys' schools, and there are many men's amateur hockey clubs in England.

Great numbers of people play golf and tennis. There are plenty of tennis clubs in Great Britain. The most famous tennis championship is Wimbledon.

Next to football, the chief spectator sport in English life is horse racing. The horse racing is an aristocratic sport, the Queen often goes to Ascot to watch the competition.

Athletic sports and gymnastics are practiced at schools, but not many towns have running tracks for public use. Rowing occupies a leading place in the sporting life of schools and universities which have suitable water nearby.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

Which sport is the most popular in England?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

What kind of ball is used in rugby?

a)round ball

b) tennis ball

c) egg-shaped ball

Текст 7

FAMOUS ENGLISH PAINTERS

Some of the greatest foreign masters were attracted to England by the nobility from the other European countries. Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck were almost English painters during a longer or shorter period of their lives. Van Dyck lived the most part of his life and died in London. He is really the father of the English portrait school.

Till William Hogarth (1697 — 1764) we can’t find a painter truly English. Hogarth was a curious observer of men and manners. His first works date from 1730. For more than a century England saw a lot of geniuses: Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence, Constable and Turner. No country in Europe marked a love of the portrait.

J. Reynolds (1723 — 1792) is one of the outstanding British portraitists and has an important influence on his contemporaries. By the age of twenty he had set himself up as a portraitist in his native town. In 1749 he went to Rome and stayed there three years. He returned to London and in a short time had achieved a considerable success. In 1755 for example, he did 120 portraits. His models included the socially important people of the time and when the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, he naturally became its first president. His portraits are effective because their expression is related to the type of model. His colors are difficult to judge today because they were not scientifically applied, and many paintings faded.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727 — 1788) also succeeded and succeeded brilliantly, as a portrait painter. All the society went to him for portraits, his skills and special talent made him essentially the woman's painter. Gainsborough was an artistic person. One of his greatest friends was Sheridan, the dramatist; and his portraits of actors and actresses are among his most famous. He also painted the English country which had his heart.

John Constable (1776 — 1837) was the first British painter to paint only English landscape. He considered it a first and essential task to make sketches direct from nature at a single working day. He discovered the complete abundance of life in the simplest country places.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

What kind of painting preferred Gainsborough?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

John Constable was the first painter to paint:

a)woman’s portraits

b)children

c)English landscape

Текст 8

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Benjamin Franklin was a man of many identities: printer, writer, statesman, inventor, thinker, and revolutionary. He was the only American who signed the four major documents which shaped the American republic: the Declaration of Independence (1776); the Treaty of Alliance with France which joined America and France together in the war against England (1778): the Treaty of Paris signed by England and America which ended the Revolutionary War (1783): and the Constitution of the United States (1788).

Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1706, the fifteenth child of a poor maker of candles and soap. His parents emigrated from England in 1683. He worked for his brother's Boston newspaper, and then moved to Philadelphia where he became one of the leading printers in colonial America.

When he wasn't busy at his business, he spent his free time trying to improve the quality of life in America. He conducted important experiments on the nature of electricity. He designed a more efficient stove for heating houses. He founded the first library in the United States.

One of Franklin's most famous publications was Poor Richard's Almanac, a calendar filled with useful information as well as proverbs which have become a part of the American identity. "A penny saved is a penny earned". "The sleeping fox doesn’t catch a chicken". "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". "Lost time is never found again". These sayings passed from generation to generation by Americans.

During the Revolutionary War, Franklin played an important role as statesman to France. When he was not active in colonial politics, Franklin was in Paris, he wanted to be sure that France was together with America in its war for independence. He always represented America's interests.

Americans remember Benjamin Franklin as the example of the self-made man. Born in poverty, Franklin became one of the most significant colonial Americans. He shaped the direction of American democracy and gave his energy and time to a young nation. Franklin symbolizes for Americans what a person can be if he or she works hard and is dedicated to his work.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

What is the most famous publication of Franklin?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

Why Americans remember Franklin?

a) he was a revolutionary

b) he was a thinker

c) he was a self made man

Текст 9

NEW YORK

Today New York is the largest city in the US and one of the largest cities in the world. It consists of five districts: Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Richmond. The heart of the city is Manhattan. It's the business and financial centre of the nation. It's the most beautiful part of New York - its tall buildings reach the sky. The most famous skyscraper in the world is Empire State Building with 102 floors. But the tallest building in New York was the World Trade Centre which has 110 floors. From the top floor you can see the whole of New York.

The bronze Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island. It was presented to the United States by France in 1886 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of American independence. Manhattan is crossed from north to south by avenues and from east to west by streets. There are eleven avenues and about 300 streets. Broadway near Times Square is a place where most famous theatres are situated. Wall Street is America's financial centre, it symbolizes the money market and financiers of the US. The United Nations Headquarters occupies the area from 42 to 48th Streets. Bridges and tunnels link Manhattan with the other districts of New York.

Among the places of interest that visitors can see is New York Public Library, the biggest library in New York. It also houses exhibition rooms and two art galleries. The geographic centre of New York is Columbus Circle, in the centre of which is Memorial to Christopher Columbus. There are some museums and art galleries in New York. The most famous are American Museum of Natural History and Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has a magnificent collection of American and European paintings. The most important educational institutions in New York are New York University and Columbia University.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

What gift was presented to USA in 1886?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

What is the financial center of America?

a) Columbus Circle

b) Broadway

c) Wall street

Текст 10

BRITAIN AND EUROPEAN COMMUNITY (EC)

As a member of the European Community, Britain is part of the world's largest trading area. The Community abolished internal tariffs and certain other trade barriers, established a common customs tariff and a common policy for agriculture and made provision for the free movement of labor, capital and services. Other countries which have special links with the Community, especially the 60 developing countries have special privileges for the development of trade. Since it joined the European Union, Britain accepted the Community legislation. The Council of Ministers, the Commission and the European Parliament are the EC’s three legislative organs.

Through the development of political cooperation machinery, to which Britain attaches considerable importance, European Community members seek to co-ordinate their foreign policies and adopted common positions on a number of issues.

Membership in EC has its critics in Britain but the Government wants to play a full role in the European Community's development. In a referendum in 1975, after the adoption of membership, the British people voted to stay in the Community by a majority.

Now Britain is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch as head of State. Its formal title is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. "Great Britain" (England, Wales, and Scotland) came into existence when the English and Scottish crowns were united at the beginning of the seventeenth century and their parliaments a century later. Wales had come under the English crown in medieval times. So did Ireland, but the British and Irish parliaments were not united until 1801. In 1922 the southern part of Ireland, Roman Catholic, became a separate state. Northern Ireland, with its Protestant majority, chose to continue as part of the United Kingdom and had its own parliament between 1921 and 1972.

ТЕСТЫ

1.Ответьте на вопрос по содержанию текста

What are the three main organs of European Community?

2.Выберите правильный вариант ответа

What is it Britain now?

a) democratic republic

b) parliamentary monarchy

c) federation

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Маклакова Елена Владимировна

Английский язык

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