Comprehension Exercises. Vocabulary practice

VOCABULARY PRACTICE

I. Read and translate the text using a dictionaryif necessary.

II. Find In the text the English equivalents of the following:

человеческое общество, иметь общее наследие, ценности, пе­редавать из поколения в поколение, если бы не, пройти долгий путь развития, значительные успехи в культуре, несмотря на раз­личия, удовлетворить основные человеческие потребности в, со­ставить список, вызвать дождь, предложить идею (мысль), иметь место (происходить), четко разграничивать, убеждение, оказы­вать сопротивление чему-либо, рассматриваться, угрожать, ис­пытывать желание, изменить способ видения мира, распрост­раняться, принимать идею (мысль).

III. Supplythe missing words or word combinations choosing among those given below.

1) People in a society are... of people outside the area. 2) Culture is the... of learned, socially transmitted behavior. 3) We preserve our... culture through different means of expression. 4) The study of culture is an important part of... social work. 5) Through advances in culture human beings have come a long way from our.... 6) Human cultures change and... each year. 7) Diffusion can occur.... 8) Sociologists... a useful distinction between elements of material and nonmaterial culture. 9) Material culture refers to the... or... aspects of our daily life. 10)..., the nonmaterial culture is more resistant to... than the material culture is. 11) Therefore, foreign ideas are viewed as more... to a culture than foreign products are. 12) We are more willing to use technological innovations that... than ideologies that....

make our lives easier, change our way of seeing the world, threatening, generally, change, physical, technological, make, through a variety of means, expand, prehistoric heritage, contemporary, distinctive, totality, relatively independent.

IV. Studythe following words and word combinations and use them in sentences of your own:

to consist of, independent of, outside, to share smth, if it were not for, to come a long way from, to involve doing smth, by contrast, to refer to, to be spread, to occur, to make a distinction between, to bring about smth, to be resistant to, to be viewed as, to be willing to do smth.

I. Reread the text and answer the following questions.

1) How do members of a society learn, transmit and preserve their distinctive culture? 2) Why do you think the study of culture is an important part of contemporary sociological work? 3) What cultural universals do anthropologists consider to be the most common for all human societies? 4) What do cultural universals have in common and what differs them? 5) How do human cultures change and expand? 6) Why do you think sociologists make a useful distinction between elements of material and nonmaterial culture? 7) How can you account for the fact that nonmaterial culture is more resistant to change than material culture?

II. Define the following key terms and memorize the definitions:

society, culture, cultural universals, innovation, discovery, invention, diffusion, material culture, nonmaterial culture.

III. Speak on human culture and Its aspects in brief and illustrate your reports with examples and situations of your own.

IV. Name the cultural universals and comment on them. Why do you think anthropologists have selected these items of human culture as cultural universals?

V. Comment on the statement that culture is the totality of learned, sociallytransmitted behavior.

VI. Give your own examples of innovations (both discoveries and inventions) and diffusions in our daily life.

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