UNIT 2 - Тексты для аудирования к учебнику

Step 1

Аудиозапись № 20 к заданию 1

Diana: Hi, Alice! You are busy as usual. What are you working on this time?

Alice: I’m preparing for the talk in my English class.

Diana: What are you going to speak about?

Alice: The English language, how important it is in the modern world. I really think that English is the most popular language in our century.

Diana: It certainly is. But I know that English is your favourite subject and you are always ready to speak about it.

Alice: I am, aren’t I? I’m fond of learning English. I think it is very interesting and very useful. If you speak English, people will understand you practically in all the countries, on all the continents.

Diana: Right. These days more and more people all over the world learn English as a foreign language.

Alice: Yes, they do. In Russia and in France, in Germany and Italy as well as in other European countries a lot of people choose English as a foreign language.

Diana: That’s true. And in many countries people speak their native language and English which they know very well.

Step 2

Аудиозапись № 21 к заданию 1

What Language Do They Speak?

Max: In what countries do people use English as their native language?

Andrew: In many of them: in Great Britain, and the USA, Canada and Australia, New Zealand and some African countries. These are English-speaking countries.

Max: So in all these countries people speak the same language, don’t they?

Andrew: My answer is “yes” and “no”. People in all these countries speak English as a native language but English in Australia or Canada, in the USA and New Zealand is quite different from British English.

Max: Is it? Do you mean to say that Americans and English people speak different languages?

Andrew: Oh, no! They don’t. They speak one and the same language in both countries and this language is English. But in America they speak American English and they speak British English in Great Britain. Different words often name the same things.

Max: What do you mean?

Andrew: I mean that British pupils have holidays in summer and American students have vacations, British pupils start a school year in the autumn and Americans begin it in the fall.

Max: That’s really very interesting.

Step 4

Аудиозапись № 25 к заданию 1

Interviewer: I’m so happy to meet you, Captain. I’ve got a few questions for you. Could you answer them?

Captain Drake: No problem. Go ahead.

Interviewer: Have you been to India, Captain?

Captain Drake: India? No, I haven’t been to India. I’ve been to Asia, but not to India. In Asia I’ve been to Iran. It is a very interesting country.

Interviewer: And Australia? Have you been to the Green Continent, Captain?

Captain Drake: Yes, I have. I have been to Sydney, the largest city in Australia.

Interviewer: I’m sure it was very interesting, too.

Captain Drake: Yes, I rather enjoyed it.

Interviewer: And have you been to America, Captain?

Captain Drake: I’ve been to North America, but I haven’t been to South America. I’d like to go to Brazil or Chile some day.

Step 5

Аудиозапись № 27 к заданию 1

Andrew loves travelling. He lives in the USA and goes to different places of this large country every summer when he is on holiday. Andrew has already seen a lot of the country. He has travelled in the south, and has visited Texas and Florida. Andrew has been to California and stayed in San Francisco for a week. He has seen the Mississippi and the high and beautiful Rocky Mountains. His dream is to get to the Great Lakes and to visit Chicago. Andrew has never been to Chicago or the Great Lakes. Andrew doesn’t know the north of his country well. For example, he hasn’t been to Alaska and would very much like to go there.

Step 7

Аудиозапись № 31 к заданию 1

Do you remember this face? You surely do. He has become quite famous. Everybody knows him as Harry Potter. But his name is Daniel Radcliffe. He was born on 23rd July 1989. Daniel comes from London. He is an only child in the family. He is very fond of football. Some time ago Daniel wanted to be a writer. In fact, he is a professional actor who plays in London theatres and on Broadway in New York. Daniel first appeared on British television when he played young David Copper- field in a BBC film. Then he played in the first of the Harry Potter films.

There were 1,600 boys who wanted to play Harry Potter but the film director says that when Daniel walked into the room they all understood that he was Harry Potter. Daniel thinks they chose him because he was born on the same day as Joanna Rowling, the woman who wrote the Harry Potter books.

Step 8

Аудиозапись № 33 к заданию 4

Thousands of Words to Learn

Rose: Annie, what’s the matter? Why do you look so sad?

Annie: The problem is that our English teacher has told us today we must have a large vocabulary and learn more new words.

Rose: Why is it a problem?

Annie: But he says that there are more than 500,000 words in English. How can I learn so many words? Even if I learn 50 words every day it will take 27 years of my life!

Rose: Come on, Annie. Grow up. Nobody uses all the words in a language. Even William Shakespeare, one of the greatest writers in English, used only 20,000 words in his writing.

Annie: That’s very interesting. And what about people who are not writers? How many words do they use?

Rose: Normally, a native speaker uses only 5,000 words in his or her speech. If you are hard-working, you can learn them all just in 100 days.

Step 9

Аудиозапись № 34 к заданию 1

Speaker 1

Nowadays a lot of people want to know foreign languages. Many of them choose English. They prefer it to other foreign languages because it is really the language which can help you in any country. If you know English, you will be able to speak with the people who live in Europe and in Asia, in South America and Australia.

Speaker 2

In the 21st century people get a lot of information from the Internet. Most of it is in English. Just think of it! Most pages which you can read there are in English.

Speaker 3

If you know English and are interested in science, your life is much easier than the life of those who do not know the language. A lot of special magazines are in English and you can read many things in translation, too.

Speaker 4

The English language was born in Britain. Now, as we know, there are many kinds of English. American English is not quite the same as Australian English. The English language in Britain is a little different from the English language in Canada. The USA is a powerful and rich country. These days in many places of the world people prefer to speak and to learn American English.

Speaker 5

The English language is developing all the time. Every year new words appear in its vocabulary but some words which have been in English for a long time die. Some old words get new meanings. Now many people do not pronounce some English words their grandparents did.

Step 10

Аудиозапись № 35 к заданию 1

Nastya Likes Learning English

These days a lot of people want to know foreign languages. Some of them have become languages of the planet. They help people all over the world to give and get information and to develop understanding. English is one of such languages. Sometimes people call English the global language, because nearly in all countries of the world people speak it. Nastya, a thirteen-year-old Russian pupil, explains why she wants to learn English.

“It’s fun to speak to people from different countries. When you travel abroad, you have to speak a foreign language because not many people there know Russian. If you speak English, you’ll have no problems — they understand it almost in all places. When I came to Turkey, I made friends with two girls from England and now I practise my English sending them e-mails every week.”

To learn English better Nastya reads a lot, listens to songs in English and watches different films and TV programmes in English. She also keeps her personal vocabulary and often looks up words in her English-English and English-Russian dictionaries.

Аудиозапись № 36 к заданию 6

Dictation 2

A. A cloudless sky, an awful mistake, to carry a bag, to dislike to learn spelling rules, an endless speech.

В. 1) Не has already written the beginning of the story. 2) How do you pronounce the word “tongue”? 3) English has probably more borrowings than any other language in Europe. 4) What has happened to you? Have you done the job yet? 5) Have you ever been to London? — No, I haven’t. I haven’t even been to St Petersburg, but I know it’s a fantastic city.