Unit 1. How to Handle Problems

Министерство образования Республики Беларусь

Минский государственный лингвистический университет

Т.В. Поплавская Т.А. Сысоева

Читай и обсуждай

Учебно-методическое пособие к курсу «Практикум по культуре речевого общения»

В двух частях

Часть первая

Минск 2004

УДК 802.0-06 (075.8)

ББК 81.2 Ан

П 577

Рецензенты: кандидат филологических наук, доцент С.А. Дубинко (БГУ); кандидат филологических наук, доцент С.А. Хоменко (БНТУ).

Рекомендовано Редакционным советом Минского государственного лингвистического университета

Поплавская Т.В., Сысоева Т.А.

П577 Читай и обсуждай = Read and Talk: Учеб.-метод. пособие. В двух частях. – Мн.: МГЛУ, 2004. Ч.1. – 129 с.

Пособие по чтению и устной практике «Read and Talk» относится к курсу «Практикум по культуре речевого общения». Авторы рассматривают чтение как предпосылку дискуссии, а не как методический прием обучения пониманию. Книга является универсальным пособием по развитию речи на базе чтения на продвинутом этапе обучения иностранному языку. Тексты в ней принадлежат к различным жанрам, стилям, типам и видам (это и неадаптированные рассказы, и отрывки из крупных художественных произведений, публицистические произведения, инструкции, искусствоведческие тексты и др.). Тексты сформированы в четыре тематических блока, каждый из которых состоит из трех–пяти разделов.

УДК 802.0-06 (075.8)

ББК 81.2 Ан

© Т.В. Поплавская, Т.А. Сысоева, 2004

© Минский государственный лингвистический университет, 2004

Contents

Section 1. Education…………………………………………………………..4

Unit 1. How to Handle Problems……………………………………………….4

Unit 2. School…………………………………………………………………..8

Unit 3. University……………………………………………………………..19

Unit 4. The British Waste Line (by Cyril Northcote Parkinson)………………29

Section 2. Family Relations………………………………………………….35

Unit 5. Theatre (By W. S. Maugham)…………………………………………35

Unit 6. The Square Root of Wonderful (by McCullers)………………………39

Unit 7. The Unicorn in the Garden (by James Thurber)………………………46

Unit 8. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (by James Thurber)…………………..50

Unit 9. Bridget Jones’s Diary (by Helen Fielding)…………………………….56

Section 3. Crime………………………………………………………………73

Unit 10. The Inspiration of Mr Budd (by Dorothy L. Sayers)………………...73

Unit 11. Crime…………………………………………………………………80

Unit 12. Terrified (by C. B. Gilford)…………………………………………..88

Unit 13. “Take the Witness! ” (by Robert Charles Benchley)…………………98

Section 4. The Arts………………………………………………………….105

Unit 14. William Hogarth……………………………………………………105

Unit 15. Modernism………………………………………………………….112

Unit 16. The Eloquence of Silence (by Julia Marlowe)……………………..120

Bibliography………………………………………………………………….128

Section 1. Education

Unit 1. How to Handle Problems

I 1.Imagine that you are studying at a University abroad and staying with a family there. What problems will you have? Will you try to solve them on your own or will you ask for help? Who will you ask?

2.Look at the title of the text and the sub-titles. What is the text about? What is the aim of this text?

3.Are these word combinations familiar to you? What do they mean?

II 1. Read the text and say, whom it was written for and with what aim.

How to Handle Problems

We expect exchange students to handle problems in a mature, adult way. P.I.E. (Pacific Intercultural Exchange) representatives are here to help you when needed. When confronted with a problem, an immature person will discuss the problem with everyone, except the people who are actually involved. Exchange students do this because:

(a)They think that they will hurt the person’s or family’s feeling if they mention their problem to the people directly involved, or

(b)They have a real problem and they do not know how to handle it themselves, so they talk to everyone else about it.

When you have a problem, talk to the person or persons involved. If you need help, ask the P.I.E. representative for assistance.

For example, think for a moment what would happen if your own family invited a foreign student into their home and you were providing the student with a bed to sleep in, food to eat, and a family atmosphere. The student becomes bothered by something in your home, perhaps he is not used to the food or some family customs, so he tells neighbors or friends at school about it. The neighbors and friends are concerned about the student, and they proceed to tell their friends and neighbors. The entire community eventually knows about the “strange food” and “strange customs”. The story would come back to your own family and you would feel hurt and disappointed. The exchange student did not come to you first because he was afraid that he would hurt your feelings or embarrass you.

A variation of this story happens every time you “talk behind the family’s back”. If the student in this case did not feel comfortable discussing the problem with the family, he should have asked his area representative for help. This is the one person whose job it is to see that you and your family are getting along together.

What if you cannot expect your family to change their ways on account of you, but they have some “strange behavior” that you need to talk about? Tell your representative. After you discuss it, you will feel much better and what you have told him or her will never go past that one person. Remember that many of your own family’s customs would seem “strange” in another country.