Task 8. Make up your own sentences using Passive Voice.

Task 9. Choose the right sentence:

1. A. What I was taught there I still partially remember.

B. What I taught there I still partially remember.

2. A. In English 'earnest' and the proper name 'Ernest' pronounced the same way.

B. In English 'earnest' and the proper name 'Ernest' are pronounced the same way.

3. A. It is worth it and the efforts will be repaid.

B. It is worth it and the efforts will repay.

Comprehension

Task 10. Choose the right variant:

1. Why does the narrator think that our ancestors took studies more seriously than we do?

a) They told him personally.

b) He has made a sort of a scientific inquiry.

c) He has read about it in a magazine.

2. What does the narrator mean by the phrase 'there's reverse side to every medal'?

a) He has seen a lot of medals.

b) Do not judge people by their appearance.

c) Everything has its good and bad sides.

3. An Englishman is someone who:

a) loves England.

b) lives in England.

c) loves England and lives in England.

4. The English language is spoken all over:

a) England.

b) the world.

c) the universe.

5. The great German poet Goethe once said, 'He, who knows no foreign language…:

a) is a true patriot.

b) must learn one.

c) doesn't know his own one.

Task 11. Make the sentences complete:

1. … that foreign languages are absolutely necessary nowadays.

2. Through contacts with people of another culture, their literate, art and music we come to a better understanding of …

3. … is common knowledge.

4. With the help of technological development communication now …

Task 12. Decide whether these statements are true or false:

1. Foreign languages are absolutely unnecessary nowadays.

2. Learning a foreign language is quick and easy.

3. Knowledge of a foreign language makes our intellectual and cultural horizons wider.

4. Any translation loses some bits of the original information.

5. If you wish to communicate with an Englishman you will have to go to England.

6. The word 'study' comes from Old Greek 'esudie' meaning 'zeal, affection, painstaking application'.

7. Human nature is so inexplicable.

8. In English an adjective 'earnest' and the proper name 'Ernest' are pronounced the same way.

9. No doubt, in the days of old people took studies more seriously than their descendants do nowadays.

Task 13. A. Match the titles with the corresponding passages, one is extra:

1. My studies began at school and I am pretty sure I'm not alone in this part of our life experience. What I was taught there I still partially remember but for what purpose I was doing it is a million dollar question. Getting educated, some would say. Learning the basics of social life, others would add. In any case, I recollect my schooldays with a feeling of mixed sorrow and joy.

2. Knowledge of a foreign language makes our intellectual and cultural horizons wider. Through contacts with people of another culture, their literate, art and music we come to a better understanding of our own heritage. We receive an opportunity to judge something in comparison with something else and that's truly more significant than it may seem at first sight.

3. Apart from this, one can watch films and read books in the original. Of course there are translations, but that any translation loses some bits of the original information is common knowledge. Sometimes these bits are very important. Sometimes they are crucial to understanding.

4. Learning a foreign language isn't an easy thing. It is a long, slow and complicated process that takes a lot of time and energy. Learning new words, grammar rules, trying to conquer your tongue to pronounce the words correctly, using the right intonation. There's much more than that to learn if you really want to master a foreign language, but it's worth it and the efforts will be repaid.

5. With the help of technological development communication now is more simple and convenient, even between people from different countries. There's Internet, so in order to chat with an Englishman you no longer need to go to England. Working in any branch of science, there's a natural wish, or rather necessity, to read scientific books and magazines in other languages to raise professional level. Making business nowadays also needs the ability to speak foreign languages.

Task 14. Put the sentences into the right order:

A. Unfortunately, there's reverse side to every medal.

B. Apart from this, one can watch films and read books in the original.

C. My studies began at school and I am pretty sure I'm not alone in this part of our life experience.

D. We receive an opportunity to judge something in comparison with something else and that's truly more significant than it may seem at first sight.

E. Hardly would anyone deny that foreign languages are absolutely necessary nowadays, because of ever growing international contacts.

F. Working in any branch of science, there's a natural wish, or rather necessity, to read scientific books and magazines in other languages to raise professional level.

G. There's much more than that to learn if you really want to master a foreign language, but it's worth it and the efforts will be repaid.

H. The great German poet Goethe once said, 'He, who knows no foreign language, doesn't know his own one'.

I. Maybe, in the days of old people took studies more seriously than we – their descendants – do nowadays.

J. In any case, I recollect my schooldays with a feeling of mixed sorrow and joy – I grieve because they are gone and at the same time I rejoice for the very same reason.

Task 15. Prepare a short story of your studies bearing in mind the general mood of the text given.

Additional reading

English has no equals!

On the 5^th of September 1977, the American spacecraft Voyager One blasted off on its historic mission to Jupiter and beyond.

On board the scientists who knew that Voyager would one day spin through distant star systems had installed a recorded greeting from the people of the planet Earth. A brief message in fifty-five different languages for the people of outer space plays a statement form the secretary-general of the United Nations an Austrian named Kurt Waldheim speaking on behalf of 147 member states in English.

The rise of English is a remarkable success story. When Julius Caesar landed in Britain nearly two thousand years ago, English did not exist. Today English is used by at least 750 million people, and barely half of those speak it as their mother tongue.

Some estimates have put that figure close to one billion. Whatever the total, English today is more widely spoken and written, than any other language has ever been. It has become the language of the planet, the first truly global language.

Three-quarters of the world's mail and its telexes and cables are in English. So are more than half the world's technical and scientific periodicals: it is the language of technology from Silicon Valley to Shanghai. English is the medium for 80 per cent of the information stored in the world's computers. Nearly half of all business deals in Europe are conducted in English. It is the language of sports and glamour: the official language of the Olympics and the Miss Universe Competition.

English is the official voice of the air and sea, and of Christianity: it is the ecumenical language of the World Council of Churches.

The largest broadcasting companies in the world (CBS, NBS, ABC, BBC. transmit in English to audiences that regularly exceed one hundred million.

English has no equals! Dispute if you can!