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Joseph Brodsky, a famous Russian poet (1940-1996), was admired for his wit and economy of language, particularly in his use of understatement. Many of his early poems, written in Russian, have been translated into English. In 1974 he emigrated to the United States of America. In 1987 he was a Nobel Prize winner in Literature. In 1991 he became US poet laureate.

Here is an extract from a television news programme:

To end our special news bulletin, we are taking you to the macaroni fields of Calabria. Macaroni has been grown in this area for over six hundred years. Two of the leading growers, Guiseppe Moldova and Ricardo Brabante, tell me that they have been expecting a splendid crop this year and harvesting has begun earlier than usual.

Here you can see two workers who, between them, have just finished cutting three cart-loads of golden brown macaroni stalks. The whole village has been working day and night gathering and threshing this year's crop before the September rains...

On the right, you can see Mrs.

,.,. „ Brabante herself. She has been

golden brown macaroni stalks,,,,.,,.

helping her husband for thirty

years now. Mrs. Brabante is talk­ing to the manager of the local factory where the crop is proc­essed. This last scene shows you what will happen at the end of the harvest: the famous Calabrian macaroni-eating competi­tion! Signor Fratelli, the present champion, has won it every year since 1981. And that ends our special bulletin of today, Thursday, April 1st. We are now returning to our studio.

Exercises

a. Write down the words which are pronounced in the following way:

['eipral] ['еэпэ] ________

[ssp'temba] ________ ______ [fi:ld]

['ekstraekt] ______________ ['ha:yist]

['prougraem] ______________ [storkz]

['buhtm] _____________ [Grefl

b. Imagine your group-mates have not read this text. Tell them about this joke of English television programme makers. You may start like this:

Can you imagine...

or Have you ever heard....

Do you know that....

с Have a look at these two cartoons published in Punch, an English cartoon magazine, and answer the following questions:

1 Which cartoon do you like

better?

2 Which one do you think is

typically British?

3 Which one could appear in

other national cartoon maga-

zines?

4 Are any national cartoon

magazines published in our

country? What are their titles'?_____________________________

5 In your view, are there national

variations in humour?___________________________________

d. Translate into English:

1 Мне очень понравились эти карикатуры в журнале «Панч». Они понятны без слов.

2 Иногда карикатуры из зарубежных сатирических журналов не совсем понятны.

3 Мы тоже любим первоапрельские шутки и розыгрыши.

4 Насколько я знаю, 1 апреля - День шуток во многих странах мира.

5 Мне кажется, шутки очень трудно переводить с одного языка на другой.

e. Be ready to express and defend your point of view on the following statements:

1 Cartoons are meant only to be viewed and enjoyed.

2 Everybody likes jokes, but few people are good at telling jokes.

3 Cross-cultural understanding is impossible without appreciating the nation's humour.

4 Cross-cultural understanding covers a few aspects.

5 Perfect command of a foreign language is unattainable without cross-cultural understanding.

f. Write a short essay on one of the topics:

1 What is cross-cultural understanding?

2 What customs and traditions of Russian (or any other) people are well-known?

Translate these basic words and expressions into Russian:

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