Morning City

XV. Act out a dialogue between a Muscovite and a Londoner on his first visit to Moscow. Imagine that you are standing in the middle of Red Square. Your companion asks you about everything be sees, gives his opinion about this and that and says what buildings, monuments, etc. remind him of London. Use the prompts of Ex. VII. p. 111.

XIII. Try your band at teaching.

1. Read the text. Discuss what you would do in the teacher's position:

Susan was absolutely impossible. Or so her teacher was convinced, for Susan did not like to read (a problem every teacher faces from time to time). But there were things that Susan did enjoy. She liked ballet. And she adored her dog Curly. "How can I," thought the teacher, "introduce Susan to pleasures of reading?"

2. Get 4-5 pictures of London (Moscow) attractions and be ready to comment on them. (See "Classroom English", Sections II, Ш, V.)

ХIV. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Из окна такси вы можете увидеть Лондон лишь мельком. Есть много других способов ознакомиться с его достопримечательностями: можно походить по городу пешком, можно отправиться в двухчасовую поездку на туристском автобусе, курсирующем по Лондону, можно посмотреть город с верхней площадки двухэтажного автобуса; кроме того, можно совершить речную поездку по Темзе или Большому каналу в Риджентс-Парк. 2. Если бы вы смогли пролететь над Москвой на вертолете (helicopter), вы бы увидели, как изменилась и выросла наша столица: длинные, обсаженные деревьями проспекты, пересекают город во всех направлениях, кварталы новых многоэтажных домов появились на окраинах города на месте старых деревянных домиков, темных от копоти и дыма. Над многочисленными стройками (building sites) столицы возвышаются огромные подъемные краны (cranes). 3. Метро — самый удобный вид городского транспорта. Сотни тысяч москвичей и приезжих ежедневно поднимаются и спускаются по его эскалаторам, восхищаются архитектурой и отделкой (decoration) чудесных подземных дворцов. 4. Памятник А. С. Пушкину, установленный на Страстной (ныне Пушкинской) площади, — один из самых любимых памятников жителей столицы. У его подножия вы всегда увидите букеты живых цветов, которые приносят сюда москвичи, чтобы почтить память любимого поэта.

XVI. a) Get ready to read the text aloud, b) Write a translation of the text:

This was one of those mornings when the smoke and the Thames Valley mist decide to work a few miracles for their London, and especially for the oldest part of it, the City. The City, on these mornings, is an enchantment. There is a faintly luminous haze, now silver, now old gold, over everything. The buildings have shape and solidity but no weight; they hang in the air, like palaces out of the Arabian Nights; you could topple the dome off St. Paul's with a forefinger, push back the Mansion House, send the Monument floating into space. On these mornings, the old churches cannot be counted; there are more of them than ever. There is no less traffic than usual; the scarlet stream of buses still flows through the ancient narrow streets; the pavements are still thronged with bank messengers, office boys, policemen, clerks, typists, commissionaires, directors, secretaries, crooks, busy-bodies, idlers; but on these mornings all the buses, taxicabs, vans, lorries and all the pedestrians lose something of their ordinary solidity; they move behind gauze; they are tyred in velvet; their voices are muted; their movement is in slow motion. Whatever is new and vulgar and foolish contrives to lose itself in the denser patches of mist. But all the glimpses of ancient loveliness are there, perfectly framed and lighted: round every corner somebody is whispering a line or two of Chaucer. And on these mornings, the river is simply not true: there is no geography, nothing but pure poetry, down there; the water has gone and shapes out of an adventurous dream drift by on a tide of gilded and silvered air. Such is the City on one of these mornings, a place in a Gothic fairy tale, a mirage, a vision.

(From "They Walk in the City" by J. B. Priestley. Abridged)

XVII. Role-playing:

A group of guides suggests possible sightseeing routes about London (Moscow) to their office director. Each one speaks in favour of his/her suggestion trying to convince both the director and the guides that the route is the best. In the end the participants of the talk choose the most appropriate route.

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