Table Of ContentSHARPEN YOUR SKILLS:
A READING/LISTENING TEXTBOOK
BASED ON U.S. CULTURE
(издание 2-е, переработанное и дополненное)
Самара 2013
УДК 802.0 (075.8)
Рецензенты:
доктор филологических наук, профессор В.И.Карасик
(Волгоградский государственный педагогический университет),
доктор филологических наук, профессор Л.В.Минаева
(Московский государственный университет им. М.В.Ломоносова)
доктор филологических наук, профессор Н.А.Шехтман
(Оренбургский государственный педагогический университет)
Л.К.Ланьер, А.Н.Морозова, Н.Я.Дементьева, Е.В.Гусева,
Д.Джастард, К.Килдей, Е.Е.Клековкина, Л.М.Пойрьер,
Г.В.Стойкович, О.М.Адаева, С.А.Сучкова
Совершенствуйте свои умения: Учебник по чтению и аудированию
текстов на материале культуры США (на английском языке).
Самара: Изд-во ПГСГА, 2013 ISBN
Данный учебник представляет собой второе, переработанное и
дополненное издание одноименной книги, подготовленной
преподавателями Мерилендского института английского языка
(Университет штата Мериленд, Колледж Парк, США) и кафедры
английского языка Самарского государственного педагогического
университета в рамках Программы сотрудничества с университетами
Российской Федерации, финансируемой Информационным Агентством
США в 1994-1996 гг. и изданной в 1997г.
Учебник направлен на совершенствование навыков чтения и
аудирования у студентов, обучающихся по профилю «Иностранный
язык» направлений бакалавриата «Педагогическое образование»,
«Лингвистика», «Филологическое образование». Разнообразный
текстовой материал отражает важнейшие аспекты современной жизни
в США и, таким образом, позволяет расширить представления
студентов о культуре страны изучаемого языка, а также глубже
осознать ценности родной культуры. Система упражнений,
основанная на современных технологиях обучения речевым навыкам,
будет способствовать оптимизации лингвокультурологической и
профессионально-педагогической подготовки студентов. По каждой
теме выделен базовый вокабуляр, позволяющий расширить
лексический запас студентов.
К учебнику прилагаются аудиоматериалы. Наличие в учебнике
ключей к упражнениям и полных текстов аудиозаписей позволяет
использовать его для самостоятельной работы студентов с
различным уровнем языковой подготовки.
ISBN
©Л.К.Ланьер, А.Н.Морозова и др.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface 5
Introduction 7
Language Learning Skills 9
Unit 1: Exploring Culture
Reading 1: What Would You Do? 11
Listening 1: Discussing Culture 13
Reading 2: Culture: Behaviors and Values 13
Listening 2: Stereotypes 16
Reading 3: Who are those Americans? 17
Reading 4: Journals 20
Making the Connection 21
Cultural Realia 21
Unit 2: Family Life: The Parent/Child Relationship
Listening 1: The Traditional American Family 22
Reading 1: Children in the Family 23
Reading 2: Parenting in the Modern World 25
Listening 2: I’m Having Trouble with My Son 27
Reading 3: The Morning Rush 29
Reading 4: Future Directions 32
Listening 3: My First Job 34
Reading 5: Natalia Dementyeva’s Journal 35
Making the Connection 37
Cultural Realia 37
Unit 3: Educational Opportunities for Children
Reading 1: What Are American Schools Like? 38
Listening 1: The Right School for Anna 42
Listening 2: I’d Rather Light a Candle 43
Reading 2: Challenges in Education 44
Listening 3: A Typical School Day 45
Reading 3: Report Card 46
Reading 4: Alevtina Morozova’s Journal 48
Making the Connection 50
Cultural Realia 50
Unit 4: Studying at the University of Maryland at College Park
Reading 1: Higher Education: Decisions and Choices 53
Listening 1: Choosing a University 56
Reading 2: The University of Maryland at College Park 57
Reading 3: Studying at the University Level 58
Listening 2: Course Loads 60
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Sharpen Your Skills: A Reading/Listening Textbook Based on U.S. Culture
Reading 4: Academic Integrity 61
Reading 5: GalinaS toikovich’s Journal 65
Making the Connection 66
Cultural Realia 66
Glossary
Unit 1 69
Unit 2 70
Unit 3 71
Unit 4 73
Vocabulary Focus
Unit 1 76
Unit 2 81
Unit 3 88
Unit 4 96
Credits 101
Notes to the Teacher
Answer Key 102
Tapescripts 112
4
Preface
PREFACE
This is a revised and updated version of a textbook for university students majoring in
English which has been efficiently used in ESL classes for over 15 years. Sharpen Your Skills:
a Reading/Listening Textbook Based on U.S. Culture was first published in 1997, as the result
of a collaboration between the English Chair at Samara Pedagogical University (now
Povolzhskaya State Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities) in Samara, Russia, and
Maryland English Institute at the University of Maryland at College Park. Preparing the second
edition of Sharpen Your Skills: a Reading/Listening Textbook Based on U.S. Culture provided
the authors with an opportunity to reflect upon the origins of the first edition.
The first edition of the textbook was developed and written by a team of faculty at Maryland
English Institute in College Park and the English Chair in Samara. Funding for the development
of this textbook came from the United States Information Agency through its College and
University Partnerships Program for the Russian Federation. Additional funding was provided by
Samara Pedagogical University and the University of Maryland at College Park. Writing of this
textbook was a team effort of Russian and American faculty which included Natalia Yakovlevna
Dementyeva, Elena Vasilyevna Guseva, Jessica Jastad, Kathleen Kilday, Elena Evgenyevna
Klekovkina, M. Lynn Poirier, Galina Vladimirovna Stoikovitch; project directors Lois Kleinhenn
Lanier (USA) and Alevtina Nikolaevna Morozova (Russia).
In 1994, when Samara faculty in cooperation with Maryland English Institute began to
implement a teacher training and material development project, authentic teaching materials
were just beginning to find their way to Russia, and their use in an ESL class was random and
lacked methodology. Sharpen Your Skills was specially designed for Russian learners of
English as a “tool” for their future teaching profession. Participation in an academic exchange
helped Samara educators get to know American culture through culturally orientated programs,
as well as through interviewing people of different ages, social status, and occupations. The new
cultural experiences of the Samara team members were described in their journals, which
provide fresh insights into different spheres of life in the United States. Being written by a joint
team of Russian and American colleagues, the textbook is not only a valuable source of
information about the USA, but also a means of learning and teaching English as the language of
cross-cultural communication.
Sharpen Your Skills has been tried and tested in many different educational contexts. Apart
from helping students to practice their reading and listening skills, the textbook enabled them to
update their knowledge of current teaching methodology, broaden their outlook and facilitate
cross-cultural interaction, as well as understand their own cultural values.
The new edition of the book retains all the main features of the first edition:
• general format of presenting reading and listening materials;
• approaching reading and listening in a variety of tasks: pre-reading and post-reading
discussions, skimming and scanning texts, listening to monologs and conversations, interviewing
and reporting the results of interviews, observing culturally determined behavior and summing
up the research;
• answer key including correct answers to all the tasks;
• a complete set of tapescripts to listening activities.
The main differences of the new edition of Sharpen Your Skills from the first one are as
follows:
• updated materials and statistical data on the topics Parent/Child Relationship, Educational
Opportunities for Children, Studying at the University of Maryland at College Park;
• a new section providing extensive training of vocabulary related to topics under study:
exercises on word-formation, collocations and phrases, paraphrases, gap-filling, etc.
We hope that students will enjoy working with this new edition of the book.
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Sharpen Your Skills: A Reading/Listening Textbook Based on U.S. Culture
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many people contributed to the success of the project and the publication of the first edition
of the textbook. Chris Dwyer, our Program Officer at the United States Information Agency in
Washington, D.C. was a constant source of support. Funding from USIA provided both of the
faculties with a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and develop professional skills. For the
Samara faculty the importance of working on this project can hardly be overestimated. More
than twenty university faculty from Samara were able to travel to the United States, thereby
developing their professional skills, meeting Americans, attending workshops, and leaving with
a better understanding of the culture of the United States. One can hardly overestimate support
which was given to the faculties by the university administrations - Mr. Leslie A. Palmer,
Director of Maryland English Institute, and Professor Anatoly Semashkin, Rector of Samara
Pedagogical University.
Among those who made the book possible were Denise Burns and Marcie McMahon, who
organized and facilitated field trips and cultural experiences for Russian faculty in the United
States, and all the faculty at Samara Pedagogical University, who attended to the details of travel
to and living in Russia for American visitors. Many others have helped this textbook become a
reality. Their contributions have been as host colleagues, cultural informants, and friends: Don
Byrd, of College Park, Maryland City Offices, Heidi De Eugenio of Montgomery Mall in
Bethesda, Maryland, Chris and Marina Dullnig, Sylvia James of the National Aquarium in
Baltimore, Maryland, and Melissa Russell; to John Campanile, Ward Fleissner, Jennifer
Kevorkian, Emily Kling, Susannah MacKaye, Jennifer Maloney, Alison Milofsky, Brian
Montgomery, John Morsa, Maureen O’Donnell, Jorge Padilla-Morales, David Silver, Lisa Talev,
and Karen Van Allen for their help in recording the listening tape which accompanies this
textbook; to all of our host colleagues; to Teri Trail, Barbara White, and Stephen Zagami of
Hammond Elementary School in Howard County, Maryland; to Henry Banks, Delores Barham,
Dino Bayz, Laurie Carter, Sandy Herbert, Melody Lawrence, and Rose Ward of Prince George’s
County, Maryland Public Schools, and to all of our colleagues at Maryland English Institute and
the English Chair in Samara, who supported us and our visitors during the two-year project.
The authors would like to thank Gulnara Dudnikova, Stanislav Pokalukhin and Daria
Sarayeva for their assistance in preparation of the second edition of the textbook for publication.
6
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Sharpen Your Skills: a Reading/Listening Textbook Based on U.S. Culture may be different
from other English language textbooks which you have used. First, it is a reading and listening
text and is based on topics within U.S. culture. Second, this book was written by a team of
Russian and American teachers of English as a second or foreign language. The topics which are
discussed in this textbook were collected and chosen by Russian teachers of English while they
were in the United States. These topics are both culturally and educationally important. The
information which you will read about U.S. culture includes impressions and insights from both
Russian and American teachers. We hope that you will enjoy and learn from this textbook, which
is truly a collaborative effort between Russia and the United States.
Objectives
Sharpen Your Skills: a Reading/Listening Textbook Based on U.S. Culture is intended to be
used by Russian university students who are learning English as the “tool of their trade”, that is
students of faculties of foreign languages. Nonetheless, this book may be used by a wider circle
of EFL students who are interested in new approaches to language learning and current
information about U.S. culture.
The language teaching emphasis in this textbook is on developing skills to improve listening
and reading in English. The materials which were chosen include authentic as well as specially
written selections. Because language learners need systematic practice both in receptive and
productive skills, there are also varied communicative exercises. In addition, specially selected
vocabulary and a number of vocabulary exercises are included, because vocabulary development
is essential for the development of reading and listening comprehension, as well as for exploring
the textbook topics more deeply.
The overall objectives of the book are:
• to provide a better understanding and appreciation of U.S. culture and, thus, develop a better
understanding between the people of Russia and the people of the United States;
• to enhance reading and listening skills at the advanced level of language learning;
• to update future teachers’ knowledge of current English language teaching methodology in
order to prepare them for classroom teaching.
Organization of the Units
In Sharpen Your Skills you will encounter several kinds of tasks. Each unit has reading and
listening passages. For both reading and listening, you will have some or all of the following
types of tasks.
The tasks in the Think Ahead/Get Ready sections are designed to activate your past
knowledge of the general topic under consideration. Think Ahead introduces the general topic
of the entire unit, while the Get Ready section introduces a more detailed topic within one part
of the unit. In these sections, you may be asked to think about a question, talk about a topic with
a classmate, or make a prediction.
Pre-Reading and Pre-Listening tasks are similar to the Get Ready/Think Ahead tasks. You
will do these exercises before you listen to or read the selections in the text. These exercises
prepare you to read or listen by introducing the topic of the selections.
The tasks in the Post-Reading and Post-Listening sections are designed to help you practice
the reading and listening skills which are described in the next section. They are the “meat” of
the book and are designed to help you sharpen your language learning skills in order to improve
your English language fluency.
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Sharpen Your Skills: A Reading/Listening Textbook Based on U.S. Culture
To help students easily identify the skill being practiced, the following symbols are used:
R — reading; L — listening; V — vocabulary.
Let’s Talk provides an opportunity for you to discuss, role play, and interview others on the
topic discussed in each unit. This gives you an opportunity to expand on your use of English and
to practice what you have learned in a more “real” situation. These exercises are summary
exercises, helping you synthesize what you have learned.
Making the Connection summarizes, synthesizes, and further explores the cultural topics
introduced in each unit.
Journal selections are taken from the journals — or diaries — which Russian faculty wrote
while they were visiting the United States. The journals provide information and insights about
the United States through the eyes of Russians. You will read about the Russian visitors’
impressions and their growing understanding of American culture.
Cultural Realia is a section which provides extended information — beyond simple
definitions of aspects of the English language which reflect the unique aspects of American
culture. In this section you will learn about such things as the PTA, fundraising, and a student’s
GPA. Cultural realia are marked with the symbol*.
The four units of the textbook are followed by the following sections:
Glossary — or vocabulary list — includes words and word-combinations frequently used in
modern American English which are new to students and are essential for understanding reading
and listening texts related to the topics under discussion. The glossary entry explains the
meaning of the word in the text. Along with the head word, the entry may also comprise a
derivative that is used in the unit. Each word in the Glossary is printed in bold letters the first
time it appears in the textbook.
Vocabulary Focus provides a variety of exercises aimed at extending your vocabulary and
reinforcing your understanding of word-building patterns.
Notes to the Teacher include: 1) answers to reading and listening exercises, as well as
selected teaching tips; 2) tape scripts of listening passages.
Listening materials are enclosed.
8
Language Learning Skills
Language Learning Skills
In this textbook, you will practice skills for improving your reading and listening in English.
The exercises may seem new to you. However, practicing these skills will help you learn
English more efficiently. A hammer, a saw, nails, and wood are important for building a house.
Similarly, the skills which you will practice - skimming, scanning, surveying, identifying the
main idea, identifying details, outlining, using graphic aids, and guessing meaning from context
- are tools which will help you build your language fluency. A hammer, a saw, nails, and wood
cannot build a house by themselves; a person must learn how to use them effectively by
practicing until using them becomes automatic. Likewise, language learning skills cannot
improve your English language fluency by themselves; you must practice the skills - many times
- until it becomes second nature to use them.
What are these skills?
Skimming is a way of reading for general information or the main idea. When you skim a
reading selection, you read very quickly. You read the title, the main headings, highlighted
words, and the first sentence of a paragraph. When you skim, you are looking for the answer to
the question: “What is this reading about?” When you read a newspaper article, for example, you
might skim through it to discover the topic before you decide to read it more carefully.
Scanning, on the other hand, is reading for details or specific information. When you look in
a telephone book, for example, you scan to find the name and phone number of the person you
would like to call. You also scan the words in a dictionary, looking for a specific word and
definition.
Surveying combines both skimming and scanning. When you survey a reading passage, you
are getting the general idea of how the information is organized. There are several steps in
surveying. First, quickly read (scan) the title, chapter or section headings, and any words which
are emphasized with italics or boldface type. Second, look over (skim) the text. Finally, answer
any questions which you have about the reading: How long is it? What is the main idea? Does it
answer any questions that I have?
When might you survey a reading? Suppose you want to study in the United States. You’ve
been told that the University of Maryland is an excellent institution and you would like to apply.
You really don’t know much about the university and the kinds of courses it offers. Luckily,
someone has sent you a catalog from the University of Maryland. First skim the catalog to get an
idea of its organization. Be sure to look at the table of contents and section headings. Then scan
the catalog to locate answers to your specific questions: What courses are offered? What TOEFL
score is required for admission? How much does it cost? This process of reading is called
surveying.
When you read or listen to a passage, it is important to understand the author’s or the
speaker’s topic and main idea. The topic is the subject of a reading or listening passage. The
main idea is what the author or speaker wants the reader/listener to know about the subject. You
might read, for example, about education for children in the United States (the topic). In the
reading you learn about how the variety of regular and optional courses for students with special
needs reflects diversity within American culture (the main idea). Likewise, when you listen to a
weather report on the radio, you usually want to know if it will rain or snow or if the weather
will be good. You don’t read for every detail. You only want to know how to prepare for the
weather.
In American English rhetorical style, ideas are expressed by separating the main ideas from
details. In other words, the main idea is given, and examples and details are used to support the
main ideas. An outline is a way of visually representing the organization of writing. It is a useful
tool for separating the main ideas and supporting details. In this textbook, you will be introduced
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Sharpen Your Skills: A Reading/Listening Textbook Based on U.S. Culture
to outlining.
Writers and lecturers often use graphic aids to provide supporting information about their
writing. Statistics, for example, often appear as a graphic aid. Graphic aids are used to add to the
meaning and clarify ideas in writing. Therefore, it is important to learn how to interpret graphic
aids. There are several commonly used graphic aids: a line graph, which shows the relationship
between two variables, using a horizontal and vertical axis, along which dots are placed and lines
are drawn to show where the two variables intersect; a bar graph, which differs from a line graph
only because bars, rather than lines, are used to illustrate the intersection of the variables; and a
circle or “pie” chart, which is a circle divided into areas which represent percentages of the entire
circle In this textbook, you will practice getting information from these kinds of graphs.
Line Graph Bar Graph Circle Graph
Imagine that you are reading a novel in English. You like to read while you are on the bus (if
you can find a seat!). The story is very interesting, but you don’t know the meaning of every
word. It’s very frustrating not to know the meaning of every word which you read. You could
carry a dictionary with you and look up each word that you don’t understand, but a dictionary is
very big and difficult to carry all the time. Besides, if you have to look up every word which you
don’t understand, the story is constantly interrupted. What can you do?
First, don’t worry about understanding the meaning of each and every word which you read!
When you read in Russian, you probably don’t understand every word, but you have a general
idea about the meaning of the word because you are able to guess the meaning from context - or
the surrounding information. You can also guess the meaning from context in English. Try to
guess the meaning of the wordpigglefit in the following sentence:
A pigglefit, or uniquely designed button for school uniforms, is perfect for young children. It
is large enough for their young fingers to grasp and fasten, but small enough so that it doesn’t
look inappropriate for the uniform.
What does pigglefit mean? Is it a new word for you? It probably is. Can you figure out the
meaning from the context? Notice that pigglefit is followed by a phrase which is set off by
commas. This phrase - a kind of definition! - tells you the meaning of pigglefit.
A pigglefit is a special kind of button for school uniforms. You can guess the meaning of an
unknown word by its context. You don’t need to use a dictionary. (In fact, this word will not
appear in the dictionary, it isn’t really an English word. It is only used as an example in this
exercise.)
Learning a second language is a lifetime journey. The activities in the textbook are only the
beginning of that journey. Practicing reading and listening skills, and then using them whenever
you read or listen in English, will help to make the journey toward English language fluency
easier and more efficient.
10
