Topics for Discussion

1. Are there any foreign languages used in your country? What are they? Are they, for example, used for trade, education, international relations, and so on?

1. State several reasons why you are studying English as a second language.

1. Give several examples of foreign words that are commonly used in your native language. State the languages the words have been borrowed from. Group the foreign words into categories, such as business, food, clothing, science, and so on.

7.2 For more practice use the videos “Kigeki Comedy” and “The History of English in Ten Minutes”. Check you understanding, answering the following questions:

a) “Kigeki Comedy”

• What country did the story take place?
• What did books symbolize after script was invented? What did they do with them?
• How old was the girl when all of this happened?
• How far from the village did the Black Forest lie?

· What was the name of the ruins?

· Who lived there? What did he look like? What were his uncommon features?

What did she plead him for?

b) “The History of English in Ten Minutes”

Vocabulary:

Doomsday book – книга страшного суда (English legal history)

toff – франт, барин, джентльмен

indecipherable – не поддающийся расшифровке

• What days of the week were named in honor of Anglo-Saxon gods?
• How did the Romans contribute to the development of Britain?
• What useful vocabulary did the Anglo-Saxons bring to the English language?
• How many words did the Vikings give English?
• Who invaded Britain in 1066 and brought such new concepts as the French language and Doomsday book?
• Which words came from the French speaking toffs thus bringing a long running trend for restaurants having completely indecipherable menu?
• How many words were invented by Shakespeare?
• Can you give at least one Shakespeare’s catch phrase?
• Who taught that “A leopard can’t change its spots” and “A hand in the hand is worth two in the bush”?
• When were new science words created? What does the Latin word “pomum” mean in English?
• Give examples of words and phrases which the British acquired during their “world tour”?
• How long did it take Dr Samuel Johnson to write his dictionary? How many entries did it contain?
• Who arrived in America selling “pretzels”?
• What is the American word for what the English call “nappies”?
• When was the first e-mail sent? When did the Internet arrive and how did it influence the language?
• How many people speak English today? How many of them are its native speakers?

Unit 8. The Panama Canal: A Great Engineering Achievement

8.1 Show the Panama and the Suez Canals on the map and say what they connect. Explain the difference between the words “canal” and “channel”.

8.2 Lecture The Panama Canal: A Great Engineering Achievement

A. Pre-listening Activities

Preview of Content

The Panama Canal is located in the Central American country of Panama. It connects the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean. Although it was constructed in the early 1900s, it is still a busy waterway through which thousands of ships pass each year. When it was first built, it was con­sidered a wonder of technology.

The lecturer starts off with a description of the location and size of the Canal. She then gives an example of the way in which the Canal stimu­lated East-West trade by shortening the travel time between the East and West Coasts of the United States. There are a lot of facts in this section of the lecture that need to be gotten down. Next she turns to giving a brief history of the early, and unsuccessful Spanish attempt to construct a Canal in the Panama region in the sixteenth century. She then brings the talk around to the French and then the American attempts to build the Canal. Here again she cites quite a few dates, names, and figures to back up what she says. She also discusses the diffi­culties faced by the engineers and workers in the actual construction of the Canal. At this point, she changes topic and starts to describe the actual working of the Canal. She describes the dimensions of the Canal's locks and makes note of the inadequacy of the Canal in terms of the locks small size. The lecture ends with brief mention of the dispute that arose between Panama and the United States concerning control of the Canal and the Canal Zone.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1375