Социологические проблемы. Sociological issues. Human Cultures

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They find new homes for cats and dogs, treat sick animals and investigate complaints of cruelty towards them.

4) The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (The RSPCA) was founded in 1824.

5) They work to promote kindness and to prevent cruelty to animals throughout England.

b) What value of the English culture does the passage show? Can you give an example of a similar activity in our country?

GRAMMAR PRACTICE

Participles

Participles as well as relative clauses can give additional information about a person, or a thing, or an idea being spoken about and express the thought relationship “addition of description”. They can stand before nouns (in pre-position) as well as following them (in post-position). In the narrative about past events we can find Participles for giving additional information about an action.

4. In the following passage identify participles among the words in italics and explain their meaning.

All through its long history Belarusian culture has been influenced by that of its neighbours: Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and Lithuanians. The earliest surviving specimens of written and oral folklore date back to the 16th century. They are mostly carols and songs celebrating the summer solstice and the harvest festival. The language is rich in sayings and proverbs. Belarusian folk tales are characterized by vivid imagery, expressive language and charming fantasy. There can be little talk of culture in the case of a people which had, according to the 1897 census, only 17 per cent literacy in the Minsk Gubernia. The tsarist government did not recognize the Belarusian language and teaching at school was entirely in Russian. But in spite of severe social and national oppression, literary works in Belarusian began to appear in manuscript form in the middle of the 19th century. At about the same time the first national opera “Selyanka” was composed. Printed works in Belarusian appeared at the beginning of the 20th century.

5. Paraphrase the following using participial phrases instead of relative clauses.

a)

1) Students in most Christian countries have one or two week holidays, which begin shortly before Christmas and end after the New Year.

2) American children hang their stockings by the fireplace, hoping that Santa Claus, a fat, jolly man, who wears a red suit, red hat, and a long white beard, will fill them with candies and toys.

3) In the 1960s, when the women’s movement appeared that challenged the view that women’s place was keeping house, many middle-class Americans agreed.

4) By the mid-1970s laws were passed that promised women equal treatment in the job market and admission to higher education, equal pay for equal work, and equal ability of loans and credit.

5) Most large private organizations that prohibit female members are banned.

b)Christmas Card that expresses goodwill at Christmas time is usually sent by mail. In the middle of the last century the Post Office dressed its postmen in bright red coats, which matched the official red of the pillar boxes. Postmen who wore bright red uniform were called “redbreasts”. Probably due to that a lot of Christmas cards show a cheerful robin redbreast, who brings a Christmas greeting in its beak.

LISTENING

National Stereotypes

The programme “Radio Investigator” recently looked into the ideas many people have of typical foreigners. Listen to a part of that programme and answer the questions that follow.

a.  What does the first woman say about foreigners?

b.  Why could the English family hardly believe that the “au pair” girl

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