Главная страница «Первого сентября»Главная страница журнала «Английский язык»Содержание №8/2010

Jazz Up Your Lesson

BELIEVE IT OR NOT...

Task 1

Do this little true-or-false quiz.

Put “T” if the statement is true; put “F” if the statement is false and correct it.

1. A RIVER is bigger than a STREAM.

2. There are one thousand years in a CENTURY.

3. FOUNDED is the past tense of FOUND.

4. ANSWER can be used as a noun and a verb.

5. SCARLET is a brilliant YELLOW colour.

6. USED TO DOING and USED TO DO mean the same thing.

7. You can use SPEAK as a noun and as a verb.

8. DOZEN is equivalent to 20.

9. The past tense of FIND is FOUND.

10. EQUIVALENT TO is (more or less) the same as EQUAL TO.

11. Washington is both the name of a city and of a state in the USA.

12. Buckingham Palace has nearly 600 rooms.

13. The Beatles used to have a Russian musician playing with them for a while.

14. “Shakespere” is the correct spelling of “Romeo and Juliet” author’s name.

15. The full name of Bill is William.

16. A decade is a period of 3 weeks.

17. The game of hockey was born in Canada.

18. Easter is the holiday of Jesus Christ’s birth.

19. There are 50 states in the USA.

20. The UK is divided in three parts.

21. TRANSLATOR and INTERPRETER are identical professions.

22. The Chinese do not celebrate the New Year in winter.

23. Antarctica is drier than the Sahara Desert.

24. MOTHERLAND and FATHERLAND are absolute synonyms.

25. The UK and France have different names for the body of water that separates them.

Task 2

There is a series of museums in different European and American cities united under one name “Mr. Ripley’s Believe it or Not” museum. Find out the information about these museums and describe one particular object you liked most of all.

FAMOUS PEOPLE – FAMOUS SAYINGS...

Task 3

Match the witty sayings with their authors.

Quotations:Authors:
1. “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too...”a. Charlie Chaplin (Anglo-American comedian)
2. “Please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.”b. Bertrand Russell (English philosopher)
3. “It wasn’t until quite late in life that I discovered how easy it was to say, ‘I don’t know.’”c. Winston Churchill (British Prime minister)
4. “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall never surrender.”d. Oscar Wilde (Irish writer)
5. “I remain just one thing, and one thing only – and that is a clown.”e. Somerset Maugham (English writer)
6. “This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation.”f. Groucho Marx (American comedian)
7. “Experience is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes.”g. Richard Nixon (American president)
8. “You can have any color you want as long as it’s black.”h. Plato (Greek philosopher)
9. “Knowledge is the food of the soul.”i. Henry Ford (American car manufacturer)
10. “Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never killing for their country.”j. Queen Elizabeth I of England

Task 4

Choose any quotation on the list and write down a small essay about it.

Give your opinion, say whether you agree or disagree with it, and make your argumentation well-grounded. You may prefer some examples from your own experience to illustrate the quotation.

KEY:

Task 1: 1. T; 2. F; 3. T; 4. T; 5. F; 6. F; 7. F; 8. F; 9. T; 10. T; 11. T; 12. T; 13. F; 14. F; 15. T; 16. F; 17. T; 18. F; 19. T; 20. F; 21. F; 22. F; 23. T; 24. T; 25. T

Task 3: 1. j; 2. f; 3. e; 4. c; 5. a; 6. g; 7. d; 8. i; 9. h; 10. b

Compiled by Alyona Pavlova ,
Moscow State University for Printing Arts