E.g. It does not matter whether you take the bus or go on foot, you will reach the town before long anyway.

XI. tokeep smb occupied – (постоянно) занимать кого-л. (чем-л)

The gameskeep millions happily occupied every day. – Изо дня в день миллионы людей с удовольствием проводят время за этими играми.

N.B. Note the different choices of subjects in the Russian translation and the source English utterance!

XII. to send smb doing smth – заставить кого-л. сделать что-л.

N.B. In the construction “to send + smb / smth / + gerund” the verb “to send” means “to force smb / smth / to enter a certain state”

syn. to make smb do smth, to get smb to do smth /doing smth/

XIII. the more smb does smth the more …

чем больше кто-л. делает что-л., тем больше …

e.g. The more you learn, the more you know. – Чем больше учишься, тем больше знаешь.

ASSIGNMENTS

I. Find in the text the English equivalents of the following:

1. вторить кому-л., повторять за кем-л. слово в слово, 2. иметь дело с чем-л. а также с чем-л. ещё, 3. У человека может возникнуть ощущение, что …, 4. необходимая деятельность, работа, без которой не обойтись, 5. отсутствие чего-л., 6. преследовать конкретную цель, 7. Нельзя сказать, что …, 8. обратиться за помощью к какому-л. источнику, 9. педантично точный, 10. книга, которую трудно читать, 11. книга, которую очень легко читать, 12. преподаватель на полставки, 13. проводить исследования, 14. тема, вызывающая интерес, 15. любопытство по поводу чего-л., 16. происхождение чего-л., 17. делать что-л. так, как ни кто-л. / что-л./ никогда ранее не делал, 18. средство общения, 19. Крайне важным является сделать что-л., 20. правильно пользоваться чем-л., 21. обвинять кого-л. в чём-л., 22. привлечь внимание кого-л.

II. Agree or disagree with the following statements giving your reasons.

1. It is quite common for an author of an English textbook to start opening pages by asking why people study English. There is nothing unusual about it, each and every textbook starts like this. 2. It is enough for any person to command only one’s mother tongue. Knowing foreign languages is the domain of specialists of the corresponding kind. 3. There are a great number of people around us who have studied or tried to study English. Everybody is proud of one’s progress and accomplishments. 4. Often people have no option but to do something they would not do for the world. 5. There is something repulsive about learning English. 6. All the English books we studied at school were highly readable. 7. David Crystal is universally famous only for his delivering interesting lectures on linguistics. 8. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language is written for professional linguists. 9. English issues may pop up in a daily conversation. 10. English is on the way to becoming one of the chief means of communication between nations. 11. English words, sounds, spellings, and structures may be looked at as food for thought and something to entertain oneself with. 12. Learning the English language goes along with getting to know better the English oratory and literature. 13. Sounding ambiguous and obscure is no obstacle on the way to success. 14. English, among other human languages, has been given careful analysis by linguists with the view to get deeper understanding of processes going on in all languages in general.

III. Answer the following questions:

1. Is it not enough for you to command only your native language? 2. How far did you progress in your English studies at school? 3. How can you account for your results leaving more to be desired? 4. Can you come up with any motivation for you to study English in earnest? 5. What do you think may be of help for us now in our English studies? 6. Which reasons why we should study English offered by David Crystal seem to you to be the most and the least convincing? Can you give any reasons of your own?

PRE-TASKS:

I. The above text cites David Crystalۥs reasons why English is worth studying if you are a foreigner. They have been borrowed from his The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. The same book contains an alternative set of reasons worded differently – these are given in the text below. Read the text through. Bring the two sets of reasons into comparison. In what ways do they differ? Can you come up with any more reasons of your own?

II. While reading the text expand the VOCABULARY part with all the words and phrases you think are worthy of your attention.

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