Books and readers

Vocabulary

Children’s books – книги для детей

Adult’s books – книги для взрослых

Travel books – книги о путешествиях

Biography – биография

Romantic – романтический

Historical novel – исторический роман

Thriller – триллер

Detective stories – детективы

Science fiction – научная фантастика

Fantasy – фэнтези

Non-fiction – документальный

Answer the questions

1) Do you like reading books?

2) What do you prefer to read: books, magazines or newspapers?

3) Which books are you reading now?

4) Where is your favourite place to read?

5) Who is your favourite novelist?

6) What is your favourite poem?

7) Who is your favorite character?

8) Which character do you hate most?

9) Which contemporary author do you most admire?

10) Which is the first book you can remember reading?

11) With which character would you most like to have an affair?

12) What is your favourite children book?

13) Which book would you like to see filmed?

14) What is the worst screen adaptation?

15) Which book would you make compulsory reading?

Define the genres of the texts

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

Once upon a time as a merchant set off for market, he asked each of his three daughters what she would like as a present on his return. The first daughter wanted a brocade dress, the second a pearl necklace, but the third, whose name was Beauty, the youngest, prettiest and sweetest of them all, said to her father:

"All I'd like is a rose you've picked specially for me!"

Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry's room.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

The Jedi Padawan jumped to a sitting position in his cot on the starship, his eyes popping open wide, sweat on his forehead and his breath coming in gasps. A dream. It was all a dream.

Vocabulary

Absorbing – захватывающий

Ambitious – честолюбивый

Amusing – забавный

Controversial – спорный

Brilliant – яркий

Depressing – унылый

Delightful – восхитительный

Disturbing – волнующий

Dull – скучный

Fascinating – очаровательный

Gripping – захватывающий

Hilarious – веселый

Outrageous – оскорбительный

Powerful – мощный

Wise – мудрый

Read and translate the text

Graham Greene

He did not plan on a long life. As a boy, he toyed with suicide, employing, among other means, a dull knife, hay-fever drops and a mild dose of aspirin; he also survived several sessions of Russian roulette. Grown older, evidently in spite of himself, he left his native England as often as possible to court danger and disease, wherever and whenever they might prove most virulent: Africa, Mexico, Indochina, Cuba, Haiti, Central America. None of these places killed him; instead they furnished material for many of his more than fifty books, including novels, short story collections, travel writings, plays, essays autobiography, biography, children’s tales. So Graham Greene’s death last week, at 86, prompts not only sadness and tributes, but also a question: What would be contemporary world look like if he had got his wish and not lived to describe it?

What is your view about this writer? Try to describe him using this extract

Vocabulary

Paperback – книга в бумажной обложке

Hardback – издание в твердом переплете

Binding – переплет

Cover – обложка

Jacket – обложка

Title – название

Epigraph – эпиграф

Preface – предисловие

The contents list – содержание

Fly leaf – форзац, чистый лист в начале или конце книги

Bookplate – экслибрис, книжный знак

Blurb – рекламное объявление на обложке книги

A beautifully printed book – отлично напечатанная книга

A tome bound in leather – кожаный переплет книги

With gilt edges – с позолоченными углами

Dense print – плотный шрифт

With loose pages – с оторванными страницами

Using the words above describe your favourite book

Speak about children’s books. Consider the following:

1. What do children like to read about? Is the borderline between “an innocent pastime” and “an adventure” easy to define? Should the books offer young readers imaginary worlds (“magic places where summer days are forever sunny”)? Should the books always have happy endings?

2. A toddler of three is sure to love flap-books, pop-up books and picture books. But what about comics and graphic books for older children? Can they become the stepping stones leading to adult literature? Should they be banned?

3. It’s a fact that young parents don’t read enough for their children. They know it’s supposed to be a great joy, but sometimes it’s the last thing they want to do. Is there any alternative?

4. Do you think that parents should read children “naughty” books with mischievous characters “to increase their appetite for reading”?

5. They say it’s very difficult to hit exactly the right age for a particular book. For what age group would you recommend the epic fantasy novel by J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of The Rings?

6. How early can a child be given books in foreign language?

7. Should girls and boys be given the same books to read?

8. Are children insensitive to poetry? Can they appreciate comic verse and comic stories, nursery rhymes and limerics?

9. Reading should be a normal, easy thing. Children brought up on an early diet of television, video and computer games are reluctant readers. How to make reading a pleasure and not a chore for a boy who views reading as wimpish? Is it possible for television watching not only to discourage but actually to inspire reading?

Make up a list of books (top ten) you’d like to suggest for National Year of Reading if it were launched in Russia

Translate the text

Экслибрис (от лат. ex libris «из книг») — книжный знак, наклеиваемый владельцами библиотек на книгу, преимущественно на внутреннюю сторону переплета. Разновидность экслибриса, оттиснутого на корешке или сторонке переплётной крышки книги, называется суперэкслибрисом.

Обычно на экслибрисе обозначены имя и фамилия владельца и рисунок, лаконично и образно говорящий о профессии, интересах или о составе библиотеки владельца. Родиной экслибриса считают Германию, где он появился вскоре после изобретения книгопечатания. В России экслибрис появился при Петре I.

Простейший экслибрис представляет собой бумажный ярлык с именем владельца книги (иногда в сочетании с девизом или эмблемой). Художественные экслибрисы представляют собой произведения печатной графики. Они создаются различными техниками гравюры — гравируются на меди, дереве или линолеуме, выполняются цинкографским или литографским способом. Среди авторов художественных экслибрисов можно назвать таких выдающихся художников, как Альбрехт Дюрер, В. А. Фаворский, и многих других.

Среди художественных экслибрисов различают

• гербовые, которые воспроизводят герб владельца и характерны главным образом для XVI—XVIII веков;
• вензелевые с орнаментально разработанными инициалами владельца;
• сюжетные, которые стали наиболее популярными в XX веке и представляют собой изображения пейзажей, архитектурных мотивов, различных эмблем, образно отражающих вкусы, интересы и пристрастия, профессию владельца библиотеки.

Vocabulary

To form a reading habit early in life – формировать привычку к чтению с детства

To read silently – читать про себя

Incessantly - постоянно

Avidly - жадно

Voraciously – жадно, ненасытно

To read curled up in a chair – читать свернувшись в кресле

To read a child – читать ребенку

To read oneself to sleep – читать кому-либо перед сном

To be lost in a book – погрузиться в книгу

To devour book – проглатывать книгу

To dip into a book – погрузиться в книгу

Glance over – быстро прочитать

Pore over – углубиться, пристально изучать

Thumb through - пролистывать

To browse through periodicals – неспешно просматривать периодические издания

To scan – бегло просматривать

To skim – просматривать, поверхностно знакомиться

A bookworm – книжный червь

An avid reader – жадный читатель

Alert - внимательный

Keen - проницательный

What can you tell about your own reading habits? Where do you prefer to read? Could you read in the buses? Do you need a special atmosphere for reading?

Try to tell about your favourite book. Use the given plan or your own ideas:

1. Title

2. Author and his/her contribution to literature and influence on it.

3. Plot.

4. Your favourite part.

5. Your favourite character.

6. What would you add to this story?

7. General impression.

Cinema: Its Past, Present and Future

Vocabulary

Accelerated – ускоренный

Actor – актер

Leading actor – главный актер

Character actor – актер, играющий характерные роли

Supporting actor – актер второго плана

Adventure film – приключенческий фильм

Animated cartoon – мультфильм

Audience – публика

Camera – камера

Cameraman – оператор

Cast – состав исполнителей, распределение ролей.

Close-up – крупный план

Comedy – комедия

Credits – список актеров

Crime film – фильм и преступлениях

Crowd scene – массовка

Dialogue – диалог

Direct – снимать фильм (о режиссере)

Documentary – документальный фильм

Dub – дублировать

Dubbed film – дублированный фильм

Educational film – обучающий фильм

Feature film – художественный фильм

To film a book – снимать фильм по художественному произведению

Film-goer – киноман

Flashback – ретроспективный эпизод

To make a film – снимать фильм

Message – основная идея

Montage – монтаж

Newsreel – хроника

Part – роль

Performance – исполнение, представление

Photograph – снимать, фотографировать

Photography – съемка

Producer – продюсер

Role – роль

Science fiction film – научно-фантастический фильм

Screen version – экранизация

Screen test – проба на роль

Script – сценарий

Serial – сериал

Shoot – снимать фильм

Short-length film – короткометражный фильм

Silent film – немое кино

Slow-motion – замедленное действие

Slow-moving – в замедленной съемке

Sound – звук

Special effects – специальные эффекты

Star – звезда

Thriller – триллер

Translate – переводить

Video – видео

Video-recorder – видеомагнитофон

Work with cards. Each student gets a card with the word concerning cinema. The student should explain this word without mentioning it. The task of other student – guess the given words.

ADVENTURE FILM	AUDIENCE
LEADING ACTOR	CAST
CAMERAMAN	CLOSE-UP
SILENT FILM	SCIENCE FICTION FILM
PRODUCER	PART
DIALOGUE	FILM-GOER
ROLE	FEATURE FILM
ANIMATED CARTOON	DIRECTOR
EDUCATIONAL FILM	SCREEN VERSION
COMEDY	STAR

Do the same task with the posters.

Read and translate the text.

Silent movies

Talk to people who saw films for the first time when they were silent, and they will tell you the experience was magic. The silent film, with music, had extraordinary powers to draw an audience into the story, and an equally potent capacity to make their imagination work. They had to supply the voices and the sound effects, and because their minds were engaged, they appreciated the experience all the more. The audience was the final creative contributor to the process of making a film.

The films have gained a charm and other worldliness with age but, inevitably, they have also lost something. The impression they made when there was no rival to the moving picture was more profound, more intense; compared to easily accessible pictures of today, it was the blow of a two-handed axe, against the blunt scraping of a tableknife.

The silent period may be known as “The Age of Innocence” but it included years unrivalled for their dedicated viciousness. In Europe, between 1914 and 1918 more men were killed to less purpose than at any other time in history.

In publications of the time, one reads horrified reactions against films showing “life as it is”. You did not leave the problems at home merely to encounter them again at the movies. You paid your money initially, for forgetfulness.

Answer the following questions

1. Why were the silent films so popular?

2. Could they be popular even today? Why? Why not?

3. How do you understand the phrase “The Age of Innocence”?

4. Could we say that the inventions of the sound killed the silent films?

5. Is it right to show the “life as it is” or is it better to show the imagined worlds?

Read and translate the given text.

Feature: Daniel Craig

Nobody Does It Better

With Casino Royale about to hit cinemas we profile new 007 Daniel Craig and find out why he’s going to be the best James Bond yet…

When it was announced in late 2005 that acclaimed British actor Daniel Craig was to be taking over the role of super-spy James Bond, there was an outcry from the UK press who dubbed him ‘James Bland’. Worst of all, many diehard Bond fans disapproved of the choice, with some even setting up an online petition to have him removed from the role before cameras had even started rolling on the 21st Bond adventure, Casino Royale.

Many claimed that Craig didn’t have the right look for Bond, his fair hair, blue eyes and slightly weather worn appearance being quite a departure from the sleek, suave, dark haired look traditionally associated with the character. Dan’s predecessors Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore,George Lazenby and Sean Connery all had the classic Bond looks as described in the novels of Ian Fleming, who created the character. It came as quite a shock to 007 aficionados that the film’s producers would choose an actor so physically different from Fleming’s Bond, although they clearly hadn’t taken into account the actor’s formidable talent.

Daniel Wroughton Craig was born on March 2, 1968 in Chester, England to father Tim Craig, who was a merchant seaman, before becoming a steel erector and then a pub landlord, and mother Carol Olivia Craig, who worked as an art teacher. Daniel’s parents split in 1972 and he, along with his older sister Lea, were taken to live in Prescot, near Liverpool. Carol had, in her earlier days, turned down a place at the prestigious Royal Academy for the Dramatic Arts, but had still had a love for theatre and frequently attended the famous Everyman Theatre.

It was here that the young Daniel Craig first developed a love of theatre and, by the time he was 16, he had already decided that he wanted to spend the rest of his life acting. Dan had not performed well academically at school and at the age of 16 decided to pack in education and, after attending auditions in Manchester, he headed to London to join the National Youth Theatre, later gaining a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Here, alongside future stars Ewan McGregor, Joseph Fiennes and Damien Lewis he was tutored by Royal Shakespeare Company veteran Colin McCormick, gaining an education that would form the basis of his acting career.

Things got off to a good start for Dan who, after graduating in 1991, landed a supporting role in the powerful apartheid themed movie The Power of One (1992). Acting alongside Morgan Freeman must have been a thrill for Daniel, but offstage his life was going equally well as in 1992 he married Scottish actress Fiona Loudon, with whom he had a daughter named Ella. The marriage, however, would only last for two years. In the meantime, his career moved ahead steadily, if unspectacularly, for a few years with the young actor taking on a variety of TV parts, including roles in topical comedy Drop the Dead Donkey (1993), historical adventure Sharpe’s Eagle (1993) with Sean Bean and an episode of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in which he played a vicious German officer named Schiller.

Use this feature as a sample and write down the composition about your favourite actor or actress. Pay attention to the key phrases and underlined words in the text above.

Key phrases:

My favourite actor/actress is…

He/she is really prominent and prolific.

His/her works are the following…

I can’t imagine more talented actor than …

His/her most popular film is …

His/her influence on the cinema is great.

He is incomparable master of movies.