Task 1. Read the following jokes and retell them a) presenting the information as historic facts; b) presenting the information as your own subjective opinion

The Fate of Discoverers

Christopher Columbus did not know where he was sailing. When he landed he did not know where he was. When he got back to Spain he did not know where he had been.

Is it easy to be original?

Soon after Columbus discovered America, he was in company with Mendoza, the Grand Cardinal of Spain; and, as he was then the hero of the day, it was natural that the greatest honours were assigned to him.

A shallow courtier present felt indignant that a foreigner was loaded with so many honours and abruptly asked Columbus whether he thought the Indies would have never discovered, if he had not had the good fortune to find them.

To this Columbus made no reply, but, taking an egg, invited the company to make it stand on one end. Everyone attempted it, but in vain.

Then he took the egg, struck it upon the table so as to break the end, and left it standing on the broken part.

“Everyone might do that,” exclaimed the courtier. “There’s nothing in that.”

“Quite right,” replied Columbus, “but the only difference between me and everyone is, I did what others might have done.”

How to Plan a Town

I. Vocabulary work

Study the words.

Dispense with, effeminate, muddle, vestige, conceit, ingenious.