МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ МАТЕРИАЛЫ, ОБЕСПЕЧИВАЮЩИЕ ВОЗМОЖНОСТЬ КОНТРОЛЯ ПРЕПОДАВАТЕЛЕМ РЕЗУЛЬТАТИВНОСТИ ИЗУЧЕНИЯ ДИСЦИПЛИНЫ

1. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. “No, thanks, I am supposed to be slimming”, she answered the waiter. 2. Mother, this is Joe’s brother, David. 3. What shall I do with this book? Handle it carefully. 4. Does the university course last for four or five years?

2. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. How long do you intend to be away? 2. “Wendy”, said mother, “I’d like you to meet my brother Sam”. 3. By the way, I don’t want a night flight. 4. During festivals, celebrations and holidays certain traditions are observed in England.

3. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. My mother, herself, has cooked this delicious cake. 2. The doctor replied: “We have two children, a boy and a girl”. 3. London offers a visitor a rich store of fascinating buildings, streets, monuments and colorful ceremonies. 4. Are you quite well prepared for you exams?

4. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. Do you take your exam in English in the third or in the second course? 2. If the weather is fine we shall go to the park for a walk. 3. No, thank you, really. I just couldn’t eat any more. That’s all right, darling. 4. Which subject do you prefer best: biology or mathematics?

5. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. John, won’t you have a cup of coffee with milk with me? 2. Which train do I take for Victoria, please? 3. The rain has stopped, the sun is shining brightly in the sky again. 4. If I’m not mistaken, you live in the hostel, don’t you?

6. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. Will it take you an hour or more to get to the university on foot? 2. Good morning, madam. Can you help me? I am trying to find the Town Hall. 3. He’s got a new well-paid prestigious work, hasn’t he? 4. Ben, my uncle, works abroad. When you are free, we shall call him a visit.

7. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. Well, may be I could manage a very small piece. 2. “Listen, Jane, I don’t want to see you any more”, shouted Barbara with a feeling of despair. 3. It’s quite impossible to solve such a difficult problem in a week, isn’t it? 4. Did you have four exams last term?

8. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. Where does he come from? Kate, don’t you know? 2. There is a black polished table in our living room. 3. Don’t make a noise. The baby is sleeping, isn’t he? 4. There are eighteen faculties at our university: physical, chemical, economic, technical, philological, psychological and some others.

9. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. Don’t worry, Peter. It won’t take you long to get settled down. 2. They interested: “Does she make great progress in her history lessons?” 3. Frankly speaking, I didn’t go to the cinema with them. 4. Excuse me! Can you tell me the way to the station, please?

10. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. A young lady asked the applicant: “You finished school last year, didn’t you?” 2. You would be feeling well today if you had taken the medicine yesterday. 3. What time does it reach London? Here we are. Please, keep the change. 4. Every summer in July all their family with lots of friends go to the Black sea coast.

11. Transcribe the following sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Give their phonetic analysis (in the written form). 1. Shall we write a test tomorrow? 2. My husband is very fond of outdoor games. He plays golf, tennis, cricket and polo. 3. Roder said: “My uncle has been here more than once”. “That’s really great!” 4. What kind of family do you have: large or small?

Transcription and analysis of the dialogue:

(Mr. and Tupman are at the airport. They have just got off the plane from Paris).

 

Official: Passports, please!

Mr. Tupman: I think I’ve lost the passports, Poppy.

Mrs. Tupman: How stupid of you, Peter! Didn’t you put them in your pocket?

Mr. Tupman: (emptying his pockets) Here’s a pen… a pencil… my pipe… a postcard… an envelope… a stamp… a pin…

Mrs. Tupman: Oh, stop taking things out of your pockets. Perhaps you put them in the plastic bag.

Mr. Tupman: (emptying the plastic bag) Here’s a newspaper… an apple… a pear… a plastic cup… a spoon… some paper plates… a piece of pork pie… a pepper pot…

Mrs. Tupman: Oh, stop pulling things out of the plastic bag, Peter. These people are getting impatient.

Mr. Tupman: Well, help me, Poppy.

Mrs. Tupman: We’ve lost our passports. Perhaps we dropped them on the plane.

Official: Then let the other passengers pass, please.

Mr. Tupman: Poppy, why don’t you help? You aren’t being very helpful. Put the things in the plastic bag.

Official: Your name, please?

Mr. Tupman: Tupman.

Official: Please go upstairs with this policemen, Mr. Tupman.

Practice reading the following texts with the proper intonation taking into consideration extra-linguistic factors (place of communication, its subject matter, social status of speakers, etc.). Define phonetic style of each sample and single out its main stylistic and prosodic features.

1. The Growth of Asia and Some Implications for Australia ♫

 

Talk at Australian Investment Conference(Sydney – 19 October 2009)

Philip Lowe (Assistant Governor):

Thank you very much Paul and good afternoon to all. It’ a … it’s a pleasure for me to be here this afternoon. As you all know, the last 18 months has been an extremely challenging period. Late last year we saw risk aversion sweep around the world. Global capital markets virtually shut down, confidence in many financial institutions was shaken to its core. Global industrial production collapsed, and so did the value of world trade. The result of all this has been the worst global downturn since the early 1930s.

Yet, despite what has been an incredibly difficult international backdrop the Australian economy has been surprisingly resilient. Amongst the major developed countries of the world Australia is the only one that has not recorded a negative year-ended growth rate during the global downturn. And somewhat remarkably it’s also the only one that has not recorded a drop in its export volumes over the past year.

There are a number of reasons for this relatively good performance; I think they are now pretty well understood. The timely and large adjustments to both monetary and fiscal policy have been important. So too has the healthy state of the banking system. The depreciation we saw at the second half of last year was also important. And last, but certainly not least, has been Australia’s trade links with Asia, and in… and in particular China, have been very important.

Rather than go over this ground again today, I’d like to lift my gaze a bit beyond the current immediate outlook for both the economy and interest rates to focus on a medium-term structural issue. While it’s always a bit treacherous doing that given the very large uncertainties involved, and it’s important we periodically do that if we are to appropriately plan for the future.

My central theme is that there are reasonable grounds for considerable optimism about the prospects for the Australian economy over the decade ahead. There are a number of reasons for this, but the one that I would like to focus on today is our growing trade links with Asia.

Over the past decade this’ been a significant shift in economic weight from the advanced economies of the world on the one hand to the emerging world on the other, particularly those in Asia. This shift has picked up recently, with many of the advanced economies weighed down by the problems in their financial systems. But more importantly for Australia, this shift has much much further to run and it’s likely to have profound effects on our prospects and on the structure of our economy. And nn my time today, I would like to talk about some of the changes that we are seeing and I think we will see.

 

 

2. Stonehenge ♫

Stonehenge is a monument built in a circular setting. It’s in Wiltshire, a few miles north of Salisbury. It’s formed by large standing stones – they’re exceptionally large, in fact, up to nine metres high and weighing thirty tons. Originally, there must have been over a hundred of them, but only about thirty are left now. The monument was built at three different periods between 1800 and 1400 BC, and in the second period blocks of volcanic rock were brought from Wales. Most of the stones come from Marlborough Downs – that’s about twenty miles north of Stonehenge. It was a place of worship of some kind. But it had nothing to do with the Celtic Druids, as some people think nowadays. That mistake has led to people making a nuisance of themselves in recent years. A few of them have tried to hold occult ceremonies. That’s why the site is no longer open to public as it used to be.

 

3. Conversation ♫

– Hi, Kate, how are you getting on?

– Hey, what are you doing here? I didn’t expect you until later.

– Well, I’ve already finished everything I had to do at work so I thought I’d come back and help you. I know you’ve had a busy day.

– I’ve had an extremely busy day. And it hasn’t finished yet.

– Did you remember we’ve got Paul and Hannah for dinner tonight?

– Yes, I did.

– Have you got everything you need?

– Well, I’ve already done the shopping but I haven’t bought the wine yet.

– Oh, I’ll do that.

– Have you picked up the children yet?

– No, I haven’t done that yet. They are still at school.

– Ok, well, I’ll get them when I buy the wine.

– No, they’ve got their sports club, so they’ll be there until about six. You’re more important here. Have you collected the car from the garage yet? It should be ready by now.

– No … no, I haven’t. I’ll go to the garage later. Now, what’s next?

– Well, the kitchen is clean but you could check the bathroom for me.

– Ok. Have you thrown away the pile of newspapers in the front room?

– No, they are still lying on the table.

– I’ll take out the rubbish as well.

– I’ve already done that. Now … I haven’t started cooking yet and it’s getting late. When you’ve got the wine can you lay the table? Here’s the tablecloth and knives and forks … and mend the television?

– All right.

– It still doesn’t work. Oh and wrap up your mother’s birthday present.

– It still needs wrapping paper. And turn on the heating. It’s getting quite cold here.

– Oh, dear. It’s one of those days.

 

4. The Suspect ♫

Policeman: Good evening, sir. I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind.

Suspect: By all means, officer – only too glad to help if I can. But I know nothing about it.

Policeman: About what?

Suspect: About the murder that someone committed next door two nights ago, of course.

Policeman:Hm! Did you hear anything unusual that night?

Suspect:Oh, no! I heard nothing at all.

Policeman: Did you see anything out of the ordinary?

Suspect: No, I saw nothing, officer.

Policeman: Did you speak to anybody that evening?

Suspect: No, nobody. I was sitting here watching television. I was minding my own business.

Policeman: So murder isn’t your business, sir? Someone fired six shots with a revolver, but you heard nothing... A man ran through that door five minutes after the crime, but you saw nothing and spoke to no one... Yet you say that you sat in that chair the whole evening and went nowhere... It all sounds very suspicious to me, sir. Have you anything to add?

Suspect:Nothing at all.

Policeman:Then I have no more questions to ask... but you won’t get away with it.

Suspect:What was that?

Policeman: We shall proceed with our enquiries, sir.

 

5. Allowance Helps Children Learn About Money ♫

 

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly.

The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance. In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money.

At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance.

The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics.

Many people who have written on the subject of allowances say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life. Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works.

Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it.

Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future. Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer services to help children and teenagers learn about personal finance.

A savings account is an excellent way to learn about the power of compound interest. Compounding works by paying interest on interest. So, for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents, and so on. That may not seem like a lot. But over time it adds up. And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter.

6. The American Novel Since 1945♫

 

Amy Hungerford:Last time I finished up my lectures on Wise Blood by trying to draw together three different ways of reading the novel into one interpretative framework, and what I ultimately argued was that the New Critical formal unity of the novel that is epitomized, I think (in a somewhat, perhaps, heavy-handed way), in Chapter 7 of the novel – that’s book-ended by the symbol of the blinding white cloud – that it’s that unity, in a sense, that replaces the bodily unities that are always blown apart in O’Connor’s fiction. And, in a certain way, what you see is a fiction that is personified in that way, that it takes on the qualities and the values of the person, and for O'Connor that means the person understood in a religious framework as something with transcendent meaning and transcendent value and, indeed, a transcendent life.

There is a very different image of the personified word in Lolita, and I’m going to refer now to an essay, a 1992 essay, by the British novelist Martin Amis. He compares the prose style in Lolita with a muscle-bound man, a man whose body is bulked up purely for aesthetic reasons, for only the purpose of looking a certain way, that the bodybuilder is not that person who's going to go out and use their muscles to do some job. It is simply there to be looked at, to be oiled up and presented and displayed. That’s how Amos describes the prose style of Lolita.

So, I want you to keep that image in your mind. The question of the relationship between the person and the aesthetic in Lolita is going to be at the heart of my overarching argument about the novel.

Today, you’re not going to see much of that. What I want to do today – since we have three lectures on Lolita – what I want to do today is simply to begin to open the text for you: to give you some ways of reading it; to alert you to certain kinds of questions; to ask you some overarching questions; and also to just get you thinking and into the texture of the novel. First, I want to ask you though, what do you think of this so far? I just want to hear from you. What are you responses? Who really hates this novel so far? Anybody? Yes. Okay. Why do you hate this novel?

Student:I guess it’s because of the fact that he’s doing something that’s really not good, and it almost seems like he’s trivializing it.

Amy Hungerford:Uh huh. What about it trivializes that crime?

Student:I guess it’s just that there’s no moral lens that we’re looking at it through. It’s just his view of the world.

Amy Hungerford:Uh huh. Okay. So, Humbert’s lack of a moral vocabulary to understand what he’s doing makes it seems like it’s trivialized. Okay. Other thoughts on this? Who else is really put off by this subject matter? Even if you like the novel, who else is really put off by this? Yes…

 

7. American Educators Consider Later High School Start Times ♫

This is Shep O’Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Medical research is leading American education officials to consider having high school classes start later in the morning. The research says teenagers are more awake later at night than adults are. When teenagers stay up late at night they have problems learning early in the morning.

Researchers in the state of Rhode Island measured the presence of the hormone melatonin in peoples’ mouths at different times of the day. Melatonin causes people to feel sleepy. They found that melatonin levels rise later at night in teenagers than they do in children and adults. And they remain at a higher level in teenagers later in the morning. They say this shows that teenagers have difficulty learning early in the morning. Yet most school systems in the United States begin high school classes at about seven o’clock.

A few school districts have made some changes. In nineteen ninety-six, school officials in Edina, Minnesota changed high school opening from about seven thirty until eight thirty. Two years later, the nearby city of Minneapolis did the same. Teachers there reported that students were no longer sleepy in class and were happier. And staying in school later in the day did not seem to be a problem for students who had jobs after school.

Health experts say teenagers need between eight and nine hours of sleep a night. Students who do not get enough sleep are likely to be late for school, fail to do their homework, fall asleep in class and have trouble taking part in class discussions. Yet some adults oppose changing school start times. School district officials say it is not possible to carry high school and elementary students on buses at the same time. And parents of young children do not support having elementary schools start earlier in the morning. They say it would require young children to wait for school buses in the dark.

Others do not support a later start time because they say it would limit the time for practicing sports after school. However, the Minnesota schools found that this did not hurt school sports competitions. More American school districts are discussing the possibility of changing high school start times. Researchers and teenagers say they cannot make the change quickly enough. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O’Neal.

8. Sunflowers♫

When Polly left school, she had no idea what she wanted to do. A friend of hers, who was a year older, and whose name was Josephine, was at art college, and she persuaded Polly to join her there.

Polly’s father worked in a factory, and her mother worked in a shop. They were saving their money to buy their own house and had hoped that Polly would start earning too as soon as she left school, so when she told them that she wanted to go to art college, she expected them to have objections. But in fact they had none.

“You’ll have to find some kind of a job to pay for your college,” Polly’s mother warned her. “Your father and I will be very happy to keep you at home, but we have no money for your college course, and none for paints and all the other things you’ll need.” “Thank you very much,” Polly answered. “I’m really very grateful to you both. And there’s no problem about getting a job; the head of the art college has offered me one in their library.”

After a few months, Polly’s parents felt really proud that heir daughter was going to college, especially when she brought home some of the things she had painted, for which she had received high praise fro her teachers.

Polly sometimes went to museums to see paintings by famous artists, and one day she said to her parents, “Why don’t you come to a museum with me one day? Then I can tell you all about the paintings and you can see the kinds of things I’m trying to do myself.”

Polly’s mother was free on Thursday afternoons and on Saturdays, but her father sometimes had to work on those days. They waited until on Saturday when he didn’t have to work, and then they all went off to the museum that Polly had chosen.

She showed her parents some famous paintings, and then they came to one that they recognized.

“This,” Polly said, “pointing to it,” “it’s Van Gogh’s ‘sunflowers’.”

“What a cheek!” her father answered. “He’s copied the picture we’ve had in our hall for the last ten years!” (from a book of stories)

 

 

9. North Sea Oil♫

 

As the summer draws to a close, the oil companies remain optimistic about the prospects of oil flowing ashore from new rigs in their North Sea fields before their target dates next autumn. Assuming no unexpected snags arise, they will accomplish their aim. They have settled disputes and strikes among the men and overcome various technical and political problems; but recently the elements have caused the worst hold-ups.

Abnormally high seas and howling gales have prevented engineers from lifting essential heavy equipment into position on the production platforms erected off the Scottish coast. If this spell of exceptional weather continues throughout the autumn, it will be necessary to stop work until next spring.

For the oilmen know from experience that major operations are impossible in the winter months owing to the stormy seas. They are confident, however, that they will achieve their object, provided the weather breaks for just one day during the next few weeks. The British Government is also eager for the timely completion of these operations. Britain’s economic position will deteriorate, many think, unless revenue from the oil rescues her from her continuing balance of payments problems.

Statement

September 28, 2005 (San Jose, California)

– Good morning. My name is Judy Liegman, I am a 5-th grade bilingual teacher for the Sunnyvale school district. And I am here because I feel that the CTA union has gone too far this time. I am outraged by their apparent assumption that we teachers should be an obedient and docile source of funding for any political purpose that union officials happen to set their minds to. This contemptuous attitude toward us teachers is manifested clearly in their assault on our freedom of speech and personal property, in the form of an arbitrary additional dues assessment, in order to finance their political agenda.

Our earliest Founding Documents in this country make it clear that no person should be required to forfeit the fruit of his or her labor to fund the political objectives of others. We teachers need to have the protections of the Constitution in the face of coercive, intimidating power. I had a taste of the CTA’s tactics of intimidation last Thursday when we announced our lawsuit in Sacramento. I could not believe my ears when a large crowd of union operatives began to scream at us and chant at the top of their voices. The bedlam did not abate for the entire 20 minutes we attempted to share our concerns with the public.

I am especially disgusted with the stealthy way the CTA officials planned the timing of the vote to add this extra dues burden onto us teachers. Apparently union officials made their decision on June 11 – the time when we teachers are working at full speed to finish the school year, completing our grades and report cards, filling out endless paperwork, cleaning and ordering our classrooms, and saying good-bye to the students who have learned to love and trust us during the past school year.

The last thing we teachers are paying attention to, at a time like that, is the possibility that our union officials might be positioning themselves to start seizing an additional $60 from each of us, beginning with the new school year!

So here we teachers stand, all 335,000 of us in California, still not having been given a disclosure of the forced dues deduction that will show up on our paychecks in two days. To most, it will come as a big surprise to learn that millions of dollars have been taken from them to fight a political battle.

I am sure that a large number of my fellow California teachers share my desire for political autonomy, for the freedom to make our own choices, issue by issue, candidate by candidate, where we want to put our own money to work in the public forum.

Individual convictions, although not considered important by the California Teachers Association officials, are an essential element of our democracy, and they must be protected and guarded with great care. For this reason, we beg the court to put a “wall of separation” between the union and our pocketbooks!

Our basic freedoms are at stake, and it is high time that a limit is set on the power that union officials wield over our professional and financial lives. Thank you.

 

11. Conversation ♫

Janet: I’ve just come across an old photograph album of my mother’s in this drawer. Come and have a look, Mike.

Mike: Gosh! Is this a picture of you as a baby? You were quite cute then. It’s a shame you’ve grown up.

Janet: Don’t be nasty! Look, here’s a photo of my sister Paula when she was still in the fourth form at school. That’s an old boyfriend of hers beside her.

Mike: She looks a bit young for boyfriends – but I suppose she takes after you – you always used to have a different boyfriend whenever I saw you in those days.

Janet: Look who is talking! I remember looking through some of your old photos a while ago – and I found a whole collection of pictures of different girlfriends of yours.

Mike: Look! Here’s an old photo of your mother. Didn’t she look like you then?

Janet: Yes, everyone says we are very alike.

Mike: What a ridiculous hat she is wearing!

Janet: It’s not ridiculous at all. It was the height of fashion – then.

Mike: Something has just occurred to me – if your mother looked like you twenty years ago, you’ll probably look just like her in twenty years time…

Janet: So?

Mike: So… er… well… Look, a picture of young David!

 

12. Introduction to Psychology♫

 

Paul Bloom: What we’ve been talking about so far in the course are human universals, what everybody shares. So, we’ve been talking about language, about rationality, about perception, about the emotions, about universals of development, and we’ve been talking about what people share. But honestly, what a lot of us are very interested in is why we’re different and the nature of these differences and the explanation for them. And that’s what we’ll turn to today.

So first, we’ll discuss how are people different, different theories about what makes you different in a psychological way from the person sitting next to you, and then we'll review different theories about why people are different. And this is the class which is going to bother the most people. It’s not dualism. It’s not evolution. It’s this because the scientific findings on human psychological differences are, to many of us, shocking and unbelievable. And I will just try to persuade you to take them seriously…

How happy are you? This is also such a good topic it's going to get its own class. The very last class of the semester is devoted to happiness and the question of what makes people happy, what makes people unhappy, and what makes people differ in their happiness. If I asked you to rank how happy you are from a scale of 1 to 10, the numbers would differ across this room. And there are different theories as to why.

Your success and failure in life – this is somewhat interesting because you could study this in more or less objective ways. We don’t have to ask people. We could look at your relationships, how they begin, how they end, your job satisfaction. We could look at your criminal records. Some of you are going to see time. Most will not. Some of you will get into little troubles all through your life. Some of you already have seen the inside of a police station, possibly a lineup. Others couldn’t go near such a thing. What determines that?

And at the root of all human differences are two main factors. And so, I want to talk about the two main interesting factors. One is personality. The other is intelligence. And this is what – these are the differences I’ll talk about today first from the standpoint of how do we characterize them, how do we explain them, and then from the standpoint of why these differences exist in the first place.

The Weather Forecast

… You’ve been listening to “Music for everyone”. And now here is a special message from our motoring unit. On the A-5 at the Buckinghamshire, where strong winds have blown several trees onto the road, driving is very dangerous. According to our reports, there have been several accidents: a man died when a tree fell and crushed his car. The accident happened at the junction of the A-5 and the A-43 about six miles north of Buckingham. Drivers are advised to avoid this area, since the traffic is very heavy and delays of up to thirty minutes are expected. And here is the weather forecast for the next 24 hours until midday tomorrow. Rain will continue in all areas until late tonight, but will die away gradually. Tomorrow will be sunny in the east; in the west there will be showers and bright periods. Temperatures will be between 17 and 18 degrees Centigrade. That is, 63 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.