XVII. Try your hand at teaching

1. Say what you would do in the teacher's position:

John's first day in school went smoothly. On the second day, another child sat in the place John wanted. John refused to sit in any of the vacant places and was given the choice of sitting down at another place or standing. He chose to stand. His parents came to school several times in the next few weeks, very distressed that all John did at school was stand.

2. Practise your "Classroom English".

Ask your pupils: a) to do Exercise XIV on p. 134 (written work); b) to get ready with Exercise XVm (orally).

XVIII. a) Translate the text below into Russian:

To me it has always seemed that the very essence of good humour is that it must be without harm and without malice. I admit that there is in all of us a certain vein of the old original demoniacal humour or joy in the misfortune of another which sticks to us like our original sin. It ought not to be funny to see a man, especially a fat and pompous man, slip suddenly on a banana skin. But it is. When a skater on the pond who is describing graceful circles and showing off before a crowd, breaks through the ice, everybody shouts with joy. To an original savage, the cream of the joke in such cases was found if a man who slipped broke his neck, or a man who went through the ice never came up again. I can imagine a group of pre-historic men standing round the ice-hole where he had disappeared and laughing till their sides split. If there had been such things as a pre-historic newspaper, the affair would have been headed up: "Amusing Incident. Unknown Gentleman Breaks Through Ice and Is Drowned".

But our sense of humour under the civilization has been weakened. Much of the fun of this sort of the thing has been lost on us. (From "Humour As I See It" by Stephen Leacock)

b) Discuss the following questions:

1. Do you agree with Leacock that good humour must be without harm and without malice? 2. What purpose should humour serve? 3. Is Leacock right when he says that humour has been weakened under civilization? Does he really mean it? 4. Do you agree to Leacock's opinion that humorous Siies of life are revealed only to the few who have given thought to it? 5. Do you think that his story "How We Kept Mother's Day" and the like may get people to understand their imperfections and try to get rid of them? 6. Is that story true to life? 7. What do you think is the essence of good humour?

LABORATORY EXERCISES (I)

1. Listen to the text "How We Kept Mothers Day", mark the stresses and tunes, repeat the text following the model.

2. Make your sentences less categoric by using the given model.

3. Write a spelling-translation test. Check it with the key. Check your spelling with a dictionary.

4. Paraphrase the sentences using the given patterns.

5. Extend the following sentences.

6. Translate the given sentences. Check your translation with the key.

7. Listen to the text "Being a Househusband" or some other text on the topic "Family Holidays". Find the English equivalents of the given Russian phrases. Get ready to speak on the part of the wife.

TOPIC: MEALS

TEXT A. AN ENGLISHMAN'S MEALS

Four meals a day are served traditionally in Britain: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner.

In many countries breakfast is a snack rather than a meal but the English breakfast eaten at about eight o'clock in the morning, is a full meal, much bigger than on the Continent.[35]

Some people begin with a plateful of porridge but more often cornflakes with milk and sugar. Then comes at least one substantial course, such as kippers or bacon and eggs. Afterwards comes toast with butter and marmalade or jam. The meal is "washed down" with tea or coffee.

Most British people now have such a full breakfast only on Sunday mornings. On weekdays it is usually a quick meal: just cornflakes, toast and tea.

English lunch, which is usually eaten at one o'clock, is based on plain, simply-cooked food. It starts with soup or fruit juice. English people sometimes say that soup fills them up without leaving sufficient room for the more important course which consists of meat, poultry or fish accompanied by plenty of vegetables.

Apple-pie is a favourite sweet, and English puddings of which there are very many, are an excellent ending to a meal, especially in winter. Finally a cup of coffee — black or white.

Tea, the third meal of the day, is taken between four and five o'clock especially when staying in a hotel when a pot of tea with a jug of milk and a bowl of sugar are brought in. Biscuits are handed round.

At the weekends afternoon tea is a very sociable time. Friends and visitors are often present.

Some people like to have the so-called "high tea" which is a mixture of tea and supper — for example meat, cheese and fruit may be added to bread and butter, pastries and tea.

Dinner is the most substantial meal of the day. The usual time is about seven o'clock and all the members of the family sit down together. The first course might be soup. Then comes the second course: fish or meat, perhaps the traditional roast beef of old England. Then the dessert is served: some kind of sweet. But whether a person in fact gets such a meal depends on his housekeeping budget. Some people in the towns and nearly all country people have dinner in the middle of the day instead of lunch. They have tea a little later, between five and six o'clock, when they might have a light meal — an omelette, or sausages or fried fish and chips or whatever they can afford.

Then before going to bed, they may have a light snack or supper — е.g. a cup of hot milk with a sandwich or biscuit.

The evening meal as we have said already goes under various names: tea, "high tea", dinner or supper depending upon its size and also the social standing of those eating it.

(See: Potter S. Everyday English for Foreign Students. Lnd., 1963}

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