Лекции по "Английскому языку"

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT 1

The italicized words and word-groups in the following extracts belong to formal style. Describe the stylistic peculiarities of each extract in general and say whether the italicized represents learned words, terms or archaisms. Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary. Make up lists from the italicized words classifying them into: A. learned: 1) officialese, 2) literary; B. terms (subdivide them into groups and state to what professional activity each belongs); C. archaic words.

1. "Sir,

in re Miss Ernestina Freeman

We are instructed by Mr. Ernest Freeman, father of the above-mentioned Miss Ernestina Freeman, to request you to attend at these chambers at 3 o'clock this coming Friday. Your failure to attend will be regarded as an acknowledgement of our client's right to proceed." (From The French Lieutenant's Woman by J. Fowles)

2. "I have, with esteemed advice ..." Mr. Aubrey bowed briefly towards the sergeant, ... "... prepared an admission of guilt. I should instruct you that Mr. Freeman's decision not to proceed immediately is most strictly contingent upon your client's signing, on this occasion and in our presence, and witnessed by all present, this document." (Ibid.)

3. Romeo:

... So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,

As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.

The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,

And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!

For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

Tybalt:

This, by his voice should be a Montague.

Fetch me my rapier, boy. What! dares the slave

Come hither, cover'd with an antick face,

To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?

Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,

To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.

(From Romeo and Juliet by W. Shakespeare, Act 1, Sc. 5)

4. "... I want you to keep an eye on that air-speed indicator. Remember that an airplane stays in the air because of its forward speed. If you let the speed drop too low, it stalls — and falls out of the air. Any time the ASI shows a reading near 120, you tell George instantly. Is that clear?" "Yes, Captain. I understand." "Back to you, George... I want you to unlock the autopilot — it's clearly marked on the control column — and take the airplane yourself. ... George, you watch the artificial horizon ... Climb and descent indicator should stay at zero." (From Runway Zero-Eight by A. Hailey, J. Castle)

5. Mr. Claud Gurney's production of The Taming of the Shrew shows a violent ingenuity. He has learnt much from Mr. Cochran; there is also a touch of Hammersmith in his ebullient days. The speed, the light, the noise, the deployment of expensively coloured figures amuse the senses and sometimes divert the mind from the unfunny brutality of the play, which evokes not one natural smile. (From a theatrical review)

6. Arthur: Jack! Jack! Where's the stage manager?

Jack: Yes, Mr. Gosport?

Arthur: The lighting for this scene has gone mad. This isn't our plot. There's far too much light. What's gone wrong with it?

Jack: I think the trouble is they have crept in numbers two and three too early. (Calling up to the flies.) Will, check your plot, please. Number two and three spots should be down to a quarter instead of full.... And you've got your floats too high, too. (From Harlequinade by T. Rattigan)

7. It was none other than Grimes, the Utility outfielder, Connie had been forced to use in the last game because of the injury to Joyce — Grimes whose miraculous catch in the eleventh inning had robbed Parker of a home run, and whose own homer — a fluky one — had given the Athletics another World's Championship. (From Short Stories by R. Lardner)

 

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT 2

Make up a list of literary learned words selected from the following. Make up a list of learned words used in the extract from the work written by P. G. Wodehouse. Point out the lines in which the incongruity of formal and informal elements used together produces a humorous effect.

1. Absent, he was still unescapably with her, like a guilty conscience. Her solitudes were endless meditations on the theme of him. Sometimes the longing for his tangible presence was too achingly painful to be borne. Disobeying all his injunctions, breaking all her promises, she would drive off in search of him. Once, at about midnight, Tonino was called down from his room at the hotel by a message that a lady wanted to speak to him. He found her sitting in the car. "But I couldn't help it, I simply couldn't help it," she cried, to excuse herself and to mollify his anger. Tonino refused to be propitiated. Coming like this in the middle of the night! It was madness, it was scandalous! (From Brief Candles by A. Huxley)

2. To one who has been long in city pent,

'Tis very sweet to look into the fair

And open face of heaven, — to breathe a prayer

Full in the smile of the blue firmament.

Who is more happy, when, with heart's content,

Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair

Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair

And gentle tale of love and languishment? (J. Keats)

 

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT 3

Read the following jokes. Look up the italicized words in the dictionary (unless you know their meanings) and prove that they are professional terms. State to which sphere of human activity they belong. On what is the humour based in each of the jokes?

1. A sailor was called into the witness-box to give evidence.

"Well, sir," said the lawyer, "do you know the plaintiff and defendant?"

"I don't know the drift of them words," answered the sailor.

"What! Not know the meaning of "plaintiff" and "defendant?" continued the lawyer. "A pretty fellow you to come here as a witness! Can you tell me where on board the ship the man struck the other?"

"Abaft the binnacle," said the sailor.

"Abaft the binnacle?" said the lawyer. "What do you mean by that?"

"A pretty fellow you," responded the sailor, "to come here as a lawyer, and don't know what "abaft the binnacle" means!"

2. "Where did the car hit him?" asked the coroner.

"At the junction of the dorsal and cervical vertebrae," replied the medical witness.

The burly foreman rose from his seat.

"Man and boy, I've lived in these parts for fifty years," he protested ponderously, "and I have never heard of the place."

3. The doctor's new secretary, a conscientious girl, was puzzled by an entry in the doctor's notes on an emergency case: "Shot in the lumbar region," it read. After a moment she brightened and, in the interest of clarity, typed into the record: "Shot in the woods".

 

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT 4

Revise your lists of formal and informal words and compose the following brief situations. Your style should suit both the subject and the situation.

1) A short formal letter to a Mrs. Gray, a distant acquaintance, in which you tell her that you cannot accept her invitation to a party. Explain the reason. 2) An informal letter on the same subject to an intimate friend. 3) A conversation between two students discussing a party they both attended and the friends they met there. 4) A similar conversation between two much older, very prim and proper ladies. 5) A short review on a theatrical production or film. 6) A discussion between two teenagers about the same play or film.