Laboratory Exercises (II)

IV

STUDIES OF WRITTEN ENGLISH

C) Comment on the character of the landlady. Prove your statement.

XIX. Try your hand at teaching:

A. Preparation. Find some pictures and jokes on the topic and prepare to work with them in class. (See "Classroom English", Sections VII, VIII.)

B. Work in Class. 1. Tell a joke or show and describe a picture to the class. 2. Ask some questions to see if the listeners have grasped the meaning of your story. 3. If you want the students to use some new words write them on the blackboard, translate them, practise their pronunciation (in chorus) or usage (by making the students translate your sentences from English or Russian). 4. Tell the joke or describe the picture once more. 5. Make 1—2 students retell the joke (describe the picture) or make up a dialogue on the subject. 6. Correct the mistakes after the student has finished speaking. (See "Classroom English", Sections IX, X.)

XX. Role-playing:

Arrange a tea-party (at home or in the canteen). Two of the students are to act as host and hostess, having some friends round (2 or 3 of them are English). The main topic discussed at the party is traditions connected with meals. Each member of the group must tell a short story, joke or proverb to entertain the party.

XXI.. Arrange short debates on the following questions:

1. Should we stick to our custom of giving our guests a substantial meal? 2. How do you like the idea of celebrating family holidays in a cafe or restaurant? 3. Are old traditions, worth keeping?

Repeating key-words in different ways and using topic -sentences properly within a paragraph are not the only writing techniques. Good writing no matter whether you are describing, narrating, arguing, or explaining should be well organized; that is, it should be under control of the central idea of the topic. Before starting to write any piece of prose you should organize your thoughts around a topic, you must have a plan or an outline.

Plan is a list of points which you intend to develop in your writing in logical order or in order of importance with reference to time, to point of view and to situation.

Note: The words "plan" and "outline" are sometimes used without sense discrimination. But it is better to use "plan" when the composition is not yet written or planning is made by the author. The word "outline" is used rather when dealing with a work already written by someone else.

The best way to learn how to make a good plan of your writing is to learn how to make an outline of original pieces of prose. There are different ways of writing an outline. It can be expressed in: 1) key-words or brief topic phrases (topic outline); 2) complete sentences (sentence outline); 3) groups of sentences containing the topic or main idea (paragraph outline). The choice depends on the length and complexity of the writing and experience of the beginner.

Examples: a) A sample topic outline of "A Day's Wait".

1. A very sick boy of nine years old.

2. Doctor's visit.

3. Feeling the same.

4. Leaving the boy for a while.

5. The boy's talk about death.

6. Argument about temperature.

7. Relaxation and nervous breakdown.

b) A sample sentence outline of "A Day's Wait".

1. The boy was shivering with fever, unwilling to go to bed.

2. The doctor took the boy's temperature and said there was nothing to worry about.

3. The boy seemed detached and kept looking at the foot of the bed.

4. The father went for a walk.

5. He came back and found the boy still staring at the foot of the bed.

6. The boy was sure he was going to die.

7. The father explained the difference between the Fahrenheit and Centigrade thermometers.

8. The boy relaxed, but the next day he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance.

Assignments:

1. Read the story "How We Kept Mother's Day" and make a topic outline of Its contents.

2. Make a sentence outline of the story.

3. Make a plan of your narration about the people presented is the picture (see p. 138).

1. a) listen to the test "An Englishman's Meals", mark the stresses and tunes. b) Repeat it in the intervals following the model.

2. a) Listen to the dialogue "At Table".

b) Repeat it in the intervals following the model.

c) Learn the text by heart.

3. Answer the questions using the given patterns.

4. Make up sentences using the given patterns.

5. Write a dictation.

6. Paraphrase the given sentences.

7. Translate the sentences into English. Check them with the key.

8. listen to the text "He Was Too Timid" or some other text on the topic "Meals". Get ready to give the summary in class.

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