Additional task. I. Read the text and find answers to the following questions:I. Read the text and find answers to the following questions: 1) Where is Wales situated? 2) Has it always been governed by England? 3) What language is used in the country? Wales Wales is the country in the west of Great Britain. It is mainly a mountainous land with a chiefly agricultural economy and an industrial and coal-mining area in the south. Since 1536, Wales has been governed by England and the heir to the throne of England has the title of Prince of Wales, but Welsh people have strong sense of identity. There is a Welsh National party which wants independence from the United Kingdom. In the towns and villages of North Wales, many people speak English only as a second language. Their first language is Welsh. At the local primary schools children have nearly all their lessons in Welsh. So, the population is bilingual. It is not a problem for children to learn two languages at the same time. Welsh is an ancient Celtic language, similar to Breton, spoken in Brittany, France. In the 60's Welsh was given equal status with English as an official language and is used in the law courts. Now, only twenty per cent of all Welsh people speak Welsh. The reason is that in the nineteenth century people thought that Welsh language was an uncivilized language and, if you wanted to be successful in life, you had to learn English, the language of the British Empire. At the beginning of the twentieth century, many English and Irish people moved to South Wales to work in the coalmines and steel works. They did not speak Welsh and did not learn Welsh. So, English day by day pushed Welsh away.
II. What is the capital of Wales?
How are citizens of the country called?
III. Make up sentences with the following words and word combinations:
IV. Read and translate two paragraphs about language situation in Wales and try to compare it to the situation in the Ukraine:
In the 1960s and 1970s many English people bought cottages and estate houses in villages in Wales. Most of them did not speak Welsh. Also, English comes into every Welsh home through television; both cable and satellite TV, radio, newspapers, books, etc. There are some Welsh-language TVs and radio stations, but it is not enough. Local authorities try to reanimate the situation. Some positive things have already done: road signs, documentation are in Welsh language in this area. The future of Welsh is uncertain. The problem is that Welsh has to survive next door to English but we all know very well, English is a very successful language.
V. Read about the capital city and the main ports of Wales and insert proper prepositions: Cardiff, the modern national capital … Wales, is the largest city … industrial South Wales. It rose to importance … coal mining and iron industries. Today the cargoes it handles, are mainly imports, to be distributed throughout South Wales. On imported grain flour milling developed as well as other food processing. Cardiff has a modern shopping centre. North … Cardiff lie the valleys. These are the heart … the Welsh coal and steel industries.
The main port … Wales today is Milford Hayen (situated … the very south-west) because of its oil tanker traffic. It is one … the leading oil terminals of Britain. Refineries grew up … opposite shores and Milford Hayen became an important refining centre. A pipeline takes petroleum to a refinery near Swansea. Swansea is an important container port. Caerphilly has one … the biggest castles … Europe, including a famous leaning tower. It was built … the Normans to defend themselves … the Welsh. Swansea and Newport shared coal exports too. However, later they suffered the same decline like Cardiff.
VI. Make up your own dialogues using the following questions about Wales: a) Is Wales an independent country? b) When was Wales invaded by the English? c) Who is given the title of Prince of Wales nowadays? d) Has Wales got its own flag, culture and language? e) Is Welsh a young language? f) How many people speak Welsh? g) Why did English push Welsh away?
UNIT 4 I. Read and translate the following group of words: Around the capital, commercial centre, mainly rural, British settlers, strong discrimination, equal civil rights, strong cultural traditions, ballet and opera companies.
II. Translate from English into Russian the following words of the same root: Commerce – to commerce – commercial – commercialization – to commercialize; modern – modernism – modernist – modernistic – modernity – modernization – modernly; revolution – revolutionary – revolutionist; to divide – divided – divider – dividing – dividual; to settle – settled – settlement – settler – setting; to dominate – dominated – dominating – domination – dominator. III. Read and translate the text:
|
