I UNIT 4

I THE ENGLISH NATIONAL CHARACTER'

———— 4.1. Listening comprehension ————■

4.1.1. Listen to Audio-Target 2. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the text about? Formulate the main idea of the text in a few words.

2. What are the main characteristics of the English national psychology as they are described in the text?

3. How could the physical appearance of English town and country affect the English national character?

4. How can you account for 'that special feeling for the sea' that distinguishes English people?

5. What is actually meant by the cliche that 'Britain is an island'?

4.1.2. Listen to Audio-Target 2 once more with the help of the text below:

Some English characteristics, upon which both natives and visitors have tended to agree, have to do with national psychology: egoism, self-confidence, intolerance of outsiders, ostentatious wealth, independence, social mobility, love of comfort, and a strong belief in private property. Others, equally marked, have to do with the physical appearance of English town and country, and are more easily illustrated than described. These are: an urge to wander over the earth, and bring back its products, to make England a 'microcosm of the world'; a preoccupation with home that has led to the evolution of both the English 'home' — informal, relaxed, and domestic — and its landscape setting; a love of games, in which (until the rise of spectator sports) competition was less important than enjoyment; and that special feeling for the sea that made Englishmen not only great sailors and explorers, but also the inventors of the seaside holiday.

We come back to the cliche that Britain is an island — a fact that has been subtly decisive in so many aspects of her history: in the Reformation, which determined the course of religion in England; in the pattern of trade, which led to the formation of the Empire; in the growth of a navy at the expense of an army, with its repercussions on the political system; and, last but by no means least, in the well-known 'insularity' of English art and English music. The cultural moat has often been wider than the twenty-one miles of water that separate Dover from Calais.

Translate the text into Russian with the help of the dictionary.

Make up five questions about the text beginning with

'What'

'Who'

'Why'

'Where'

'How'

'When'

——■ 4.2. Syllables. Stress. Rhythm. Prosody ——

<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Study the following sentences, focusing on the use of 'would' in each case.	\|	Divide the words of the text into fully-meaningful and syn-categorematic ones.

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