Speech patterns

Commentary

1. Ragtime: the form of music, song and dance of black US origin, popular in the 1920's in which the strong note of the tune comes just before the main beat of the music played with it (syncopation)

2. a new model T-Ford: the model T-Ford, of which 15 mil­lion were sold, was the automobile that changed the pattern of life in the United States. It first appeared in 1908 and was one of the first cars to be made by assembly line methods and was the first gasoline-operated car sold at a price that many Ameri­cans could afford. The name of its builder, Henry Ford, became a household word around the world.

3. Theodore Roosevelt: (1858-1919), twenty-sixth presi­dent of the United States of America (1901-1909).

4. Manhattan: one of the five boroughs that make up New York City. Reputation as the cultural centre of the nation.

5. Wall Street: a street in New York dity, extending from Broadway to the East River, financial center of the United States.

6. Scott Joplin: (1868-1917), American composer of ragtime music, who was known as the "King of Ragtime". The son of a railroad laborer who had been a slave, Joplin showed musical ability by the time he was seven. He taught himself to play the piano and eventually became an itinerant musician, playing in cafes and honky-tonks and learning the music of the blacks in the Mississippf Valley.

7. Carrie Jacobs Bond: (1862-1946), songwriter, author of about 170 published songs, including "I Love You Truly" and "The End of a Perfect Day".

8. coon songs: White American Negro (Black) folksongs.

9. minstrel show: stage entertainment featuring comic dia­logue, song and dance, in highly conventionalized patterns. Performed by a troupe of actors in blackface comprising of an interlocutor, two end men, and a chorus; developed in the United States in the early and mid-19th century.

1.... there was something disturbingly resolute and self-im­portant in the way he asked her...

There was something strange in (about) the way he greeted me that morning.

There was something disturbing (in) about the way the girl entered the room.

There is something special in the way she dresses on Sun­days.

2. He was a stocky man with large dark eyes so intense as to suggest they were about to cross.

I think the speaker is about to conclude his speech.

I have a strange feeling that something terrible is about to happen.

The satellite launch is about to commence.

3. This was the most she had said in all the months she had lived in the house.

This was the most he had eaten in a long time.

This was the most I had heard from my family all year.

While your pupil is recovering he can only read the book.

This will be the most you can expect of him.

4.... tuned or not the Aeolian had never made such sounds.

Clumsy or not she was a good basketball player.

Busy or not Mr Jones always finds time for his students.

Phrases and Word Combinations

to go past to suffer (no) embarrassment

(to look) right and left on the contrary

to judge one's age (to do smth) to one's satisfaction

to presume to do smth to bring to a conclusion

to regret smth to clear one's throat

to question the propriety to be knowledgeable in/about

of smth smth

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27