Text II. My father was a biochemist at Cambridge

My father was a biochemist at Cambridge. On Sunday evenings when I was a little boy, he would take me to his laboratory to watch him "sow the bugs", that is, smear bacteria on to a nutrient gel so that they would grow overnight into colonies large enough to experiment with on Monday mornings. My father was, and continues to be, a gentle man. He never hit me, despite snapping just that once back in the 5Os. By the time I reached my teens, however, I had decided that his world of precise measurement and endlessly repeated experiments was the pits. It would be another 20 years before I realised he had dedicated his career to a quest for the Secret Of life. As a teenager, however, I convinced myself that I must cut my ties with this suffocating life and head off in the direction suggested by Elvis and later confirmed by Jack Kerouac… White Negroes, Mailer had said, were a new phenomenon, American existentialists who had divorced themselves from society "to set out on that uncharted journey into the rebellious imperatives of the self". The white bohemians had found jazz in certain quarters of certain cities and there they had come face to face with "the Negro". In this bebop moment, "the hipster became a fact in American life". Far out. Crucial to the maturation of the emerging beatnik was the regular inhalation of pot. I should say that, in those days, the word "pot" was very cool, like "digital". That it now sounds like something your uncle would say is because we are uncles now. In addition to unlocking the synaesthesia of the inner cinema, the cannabinoids bestowed the gift of Transparency.

(Gale D. Far Out. // The Guardian Weekend. 08.09.01. London.)

Рекомендуемая литература:

1. Антрушина Г.Б. Лексикология английского языка=English lexicology: уч. пособие для студ. высших учебных заведений по педагогическим специальностям/Г.Б. Антрушина, О.В. Афанасьева. – М.: Дрофа, 2006. – 287с.

2. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка= The English word/И.В. Арнольд. – М.: высшая школа, 1986. – 295с.

3. Гвишиани Н.Б. Современный английский язык. Лексикология: учеб. пособие для студ. филол. фак. высш. учеб. Заведений/Н.Б. Гвишиани. – М.: Издательский центр «Академия», 2007. – 224 с.

СЕМИНАР ПО ТЕМЕ: Региональные варианты английского языка.

Понятие национального варианта, регионального варианта и диалекта. Основные диалекты Великобритании и их лексические особенности. Особенности английского варианта в США, Австралии, Канаде и других странах.

ПРАКТИЧЕСКИЕ ЗАДАНИЯ

Задание 1.

Определите, в какой стране - в США или в Англии - используют следующие слова: mail-car, mail-van, mailman, postman, mail-box, pillar-box, special delivery, express post, domestic mail, inland post, foreign mail, overseas mail, telegraph blank, telegraph form, patrol, gasoline, government, administration, cookie, biscuit, candy, sweets.

Задание 2.

Переведите следующие слова на английский язык. Дайте 2 варианта – британский вариант и американский вариант данных слов: каникулы, аспирант, жилет, плащ, студент-второкурсник, пляж, очередь, багаж, кино, метро, крекеры, консервная банка, осень, радио.

Задание 3.

Найдите британский вариант следующих американизмов: apartment, store, truck, corn, full.

Задание 4.

Определите, является ли говорящий носителем британского или американского варианта английского языка:

1. Even the hood of the car was splashed with mud.

2. Oh, I really love that movie!

3. I need to buy some spare batteries for my torch.

4. Mary fancies Tom – everyone knows that!

Lexicological analysis of the text from the point of view of regional varieties of the English language:

1. Find the examples of Americanisms. Speak on the way of their word-building.

2. Supply some British words with their American equivalents and vice versa.

3. Pick up the examples of Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Indian variants of the English language.

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