Speak on the following points using words and expressions given.

1. The attitude of adults to the children telling lies (bad habit, deceive people, lies and imagination, to criticize, to praise for imagination).

2. Lies and compliments –any difference? (to tell compliments, a kind lie, to gain affection and friendship, to make life easier, to fish for compliments).

3. It is quite possible to identify liers (body language, verbal clues, to spot, unable to stay still, to play with the hair, to speak fast).

4. Lies egoists and ambitious people might tell (dangerous, to get a promotion, not to be blamed, not to care about other people).

 

 

UNIT XX

Key words and expressions: mobile phone revolution, rise of sales, to transform life, to spend much time on the phone, innovations, to generate a new type of language, the rich and the poor, drawbacks.

Pre-reading tasks

Look through the key words and guess what the text is about.

 

No consumer product in history has caught on as quickly as the mobile phone, global sales of which have risen from six million in 1991 to more than 500 million a year now. The arrival of the mobile phone has transformed our lifestyles so much that men now spend more time on the phone than women, according to the results of our special opinion poll.

The survey found that men with mobile phones (72% of all men) spend more than an hour a day making calls on an average weekday. The average man spends sixty-six minutes on his landline or his mobile, compared with fifty-three minutes before the mobile phone revolution. But the poll reveals that, while men are using their phones a lot more, women are actually spending less time on the phone. Slightly fewer women (67%) have a mobile phone, and the survey shows that the average amount of time they spend on the phone on a weekday has gone down from sixty-three minutes before they got a mobile to fifty-five minutes now. The explanation might lie in the fact that men love to play with techno toys while women may be more conscious of the bills they are running up.

Innovation in mobile phones has been happening so fast that it's difficult for consumers to change their behaviour. Phones are constantly swallowing up other products like cameras, calculators, clocks, radios, and digital music players. There are twenty different products that previously might have been bought separately that can now be part of a mobile phone. Mobiles have changed the way people talk to one another, they have generated a new type of language, they have saved lives and become style icons.

Obviously, the rich have been buying phones faster than the poor. But this happens with every innovation. Mobile phone take-up among the poor has actually been far quicker than it was in the case of previous products, such as colour television, computers and Internet access. Indeed, as mobile phones continue to become cheaper and more powerful, they might prove to be more successful in bridging the gap between the rich and the poor than expensive computers.

There are obviously drawbacks to mobiles as well: mobile users are two and a half times more likely to develop cancer in areas of the brain adjacent to their phone ear, although researchers are unable to prove whether this has anything to do with the phone; mobile thefts now account for a third of all street robberies in London, and don't forget about all the accidents waiting to happen as people drive with a mobile in one hand. But, overall mobile phones have proved to be a big benefit for people.

 

 

Post-reading tasks

 

Now that you have read the text think of a proper title to the text. Motivate your choice.

 

Choose the synonyms to the given words according to the context. Reproduce the sentence from the text with the synonym chosen.

conscious  a)concerned b) well-informed c) honest d) reasonable

swallow up a) enclose             b) destroy       c) absorb d) eat

gap           a) discrepancy b) disagreement c) variety d) barrier

to account for a) to calculate b) to consider  c) to state d) to explain

Complete the following sentences choosing the best ending.

1. The group with the highest number of people who own a mobile phone is

a) teenagers.

b) people between 40 and 50.

c) men.

 

2. According to the opinion poll, women

a) spend less time on the phone than they used to.

b) like to play with their mobile phones.

c) spend more time on the phone than men.

 

3. According to the text, mobile phones

a) are modified too fast.

b) are incorporated into cameras.

c) can now replace any other product.

 

 

4. Among the poor, the demand for mobile phones

a) has created more of a gap with the rich.

b) follows the pattern of some similar innovations.

c) has grown faster than the demand for computers.

 

Speak about advantages and drawback of mobile phones using the following word combinations.

Advantages: to change lifestyle, to save lives, more quickly, innovations, cheaper, even the poor, more powerful.

Drawbacks: bills, to transform life, to become addicts, lack of real communication, likely to develop cancer, thefts of mobiles, road accidents.

 

PART 3

UNIT XXI

Key words and expressions: to bear in mind, an experienced traveler, to travel abroad, the ignorance of the habits, according to one’s notions, to touch the pride of people.

Though recent years have witnessed a great improvement, it must be confessed that many people still betray woeful ignorance of the veriest rudiments of the art of travelling abroad. One should bear in mind that one cannot reasonably expect the manners of the people among whom one is staying to be altered for one's particular benefit, and that it is not the nationality which makes the gentleman, but his actions.

Wherever you decide to go, it is sensible, unless you are an experienced traveller, to consult some friend who has been there before as to the kind of climate you may expect, the kind and quantity of clothes you will need and to get any advice he may be able to give you in general which may add to the ease and comfort of your trip. Your friend will not be at all bored by the questions as there are few topics more welcome to anyone who has "been there before!"

When travelling abroad it is odious perpetually to be instituting comparisons. It is discourteous to those with whom you may be temporary thrown; and it detracts from your own comfort and pleasure. You may dislike this, that, or the other thing, but all the grumbling in the world is not likely to alter it. The matter complained about may, and very likely does, exactly suit the taste of the foreigner, and as he prefers his own taste to yours, you must either accept it or remain in your own country. What is more, by grumbling you display your ignorance of the habits and customs of foreign countries. The true traveller, if dining on salt fish in Iceland, would never tell the Icelanders that roast beef is better, whatever he might think.

And this attitude should apply to everything. The women may not dress so tastefully, according to your notions, as your sisters or daughters at home. The men may be too noisy or too quiet. The houses may be ridiculously inconvenient, or clumsily built. No matter wherein lies the difference, institute no comparisons. Remember you are in a strange country, where you must expect to see strange things. Be especially careful not to say or do anything that will touch the pride of the people, or show disrespect of their religion.

Remember too, that, though in some respects the comparisons you may be mentally drawing may be flattering to your own country, the reverse will be true, over and over again if you study things dispassionately.

Post-reading tasks