INTRODUCTION. The book is the second part of “Read and Talk” and is designed to provide guidance for advanced students majoring in English and Intercultural Communication

The book is the second part of “Read and Talk” and is designed to provide guidance for advanced students majoring in English and Intercultural Communication. It comprises pieces of reading in which issues worth discussing are raised. The book contains short stories and extracts from novels by modern authors, magazine articles, essays, jokes arranged topically in several units and is devised to provoke argument. Each unit consists of texts (or references to the required texts) and exercises: vocabulary drills, specific tasks and assignments aimed at developing deliberation skills and thus assisting to reach a higher standard of language acquisition – that of intellectual communication. The activities suggested focus on the English language as a tool of intelligible communication (rather than language as a structure).

It is the authors’ intention to provide motivation in debating the issues of Modern Lifestyle, Aspects of Culture, The Press and Medical Care and to equip those who have chosen language as a career with due linguistic skills.

The book offers a selection of stories and extracts from novels for home reading and tasks for non-guided reading. The texts assembled in the book are either unabridged short stories and articles or extracts from novels. In both cases, the spelling, punctuation and specific graphic elements of the original are saved.

Unit 1