Monthly Archives: Січень 2016
Task 6. Keep on Dancing
After forty-five minutes of dancing the bell rang. The dancers left the dance floor and slowly headed for the beds in the next room. Fifteen minutes later, the bell rang again and the weary dancers straggled back to the dance floor. All day and all night, the same dancers continued to dance. Weeks passed and they kept on dancing. They were called dance marathons and people were crazy about them in the 1930s. In the longest marathon, the dancing went on for 5,148 hours or nearly 215 days. It was just after the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. The Great Depression that followed affected everyone, and thousands of people were out of jobs. For some young people, entering a dance marathon was simply a way to earn money for food. As long as they continued to dance, they got food to eat.
The first 500 hours of a dance marathon were the most difficult. Dancers had to get used to sleeping while leaning on their partners. Feet got sore and swollen, and tempers flared as dancers got tired. Three times a day, tables were pulled out on the dance floor and the dancers ate — while dancing.
For many people, watching a dance marathon, was a cheap form of entertainment. At any time of day or night they could go and watch the dancers in the marathon. They yelled and threw money at their favorite dancers to encourage them to keep dancing. Some made bets on who would quit or fall down next.
Dancers in a marathon were pushed to their limits. Without proper sleep, many got sick. When several dancers died from overexertion in a 1929 dance marathon, government officials tried unsuccessfully to outlaw marathons. Instead, marathons continued to be popular until the United States entered World War II. The wartime economy brought the country out of the Depression and people finally began to lose interest in dance marathons.
Vocabulary
outlaw – оголошений поза законом
overexertion – перенапруження
weary – виснажений
straggled – йти врозбрід
sore – запалений
swollen – опухший
temper – гнів
flare – спалахувати
yell – пронизливо кричати
Task 5. Do You Want to Kiss an Old Ashtray?
A beautiful girl looks across the dinner table at an attractive young man. He is walking over her. She is pleased. She pauses while he comes near her. Then suddenly, when he is near, she turns round and walks quickly away. “Ugh”, she says, “he smells like an old ashtray”. It is an anti-smoking advertisement in British cinemas.
In 1971 the British Government made a law about smoking. Every packet of cigarettes must have a health warning on it. Television and radio stations cannot advertise cigarettes. Almost half the trains in Britain is “No smoking”. You may not smoke in British theatres.
But people still smoke where and when they can though they know that nicotine in tobacco is bad for them. Habits of younger people are not too fixed, that is why the Government films are for young people. The new advertisements in cinemas show attractive young men and women who smoke. Other young people look at them and say: “Yes, they are attractive, but ugh! Their hair and clothes smell of tobacco; their teeth and fingers are all yellow”. “Do you want to kiss an old ashtray?”
Teenagers often have their first cigarette because they think they look older and more attractive if they smoke. Perhaps they won’t continue if they think it unattractive.
Task 4. Bruce and the Spider
Robert Bruce was the most famous of the Kings of Scotland. For many years he fought against the English invaders trying to drive them out of Scotland. But the English defeated him and he was almost deserted by his countrymen.
One morning after receiving the last unpleasing information from Scotland, Bruce was lying on his wretched bed. He did not know what to do. While he was thinking of what he should do, he looked upward to the roof of the cabin in which he lay. His eye was attracted by a spider, which, hanging at the end of a long thread was trying to swing itself from one beam in the roof to another. The spider wanted to fix the line on which it meant to stretch its web.
The spider made the attempt again and again but without any success. Bruce counted that the spider had tried to swing itself to another beam six times but with no result. Then Bruce remembered that he had himself fought just six battles against the English invaders and their allies but also without any success. The poor spider was exactly in the same situation as he himself. It had made as many attempts and had been as often disappointed in what it aimed at.
“Now,” thought Bruce, “as I don’t know what is best to be done, I’ll be guided by the spider’s luck. If it makes another attempt to fix its thread and is successful, I’ll make the seventh attempt to drive out the invaders.”
While Bruce was forming his resolution, the spider made another attempt and succeeded in fixing its thread to another beam. Bruce seeing the success of the spider, resolved to try his own fortune. He gathered his countrymen and attacked the invaders. And though he had never before won a victory, he never afterwards had any considerable or decisive defeat.
Vocabulary
spider – павук
desert – кидати, залишати
swing – гойдатися
beam – балка, брус
web – павутиння
ally – союзник
thread – нитка
decisive – остаточний
Task 15. Bill’s daughter
Bill was thirty years old when his wife died. Their daughter, little Minna, was only four then. Bill was a carpenter. His carpenter’s shop was near his house and all day while he worked there, Minna played in the street. Bill prepared dinner, washed Minna’s clothes and sometimes played with her. When Bill was very busy, his neighbours looked after his daughter.
When the girl was seven, Bill took her to school every morning and brought her back in the afternoon. Minna was about eight, when Bill fell ill. Once he decided to visit a doctor. When he came back, he sat quietly in his shop for a long time.
The doctor told him that he would die in six months. The next day Bill went to another doctor. The other doctor told him the same. Bill did not know what to do with Minna. He had a sister, who lived in another city. She was an old tired woman. She will not be able to help him. And he had only six months left.
The whole nights Bill was thinking about his little and helpless Minna at her bed. Soon he made a decision. His daughter had to be adopted by nice people! He wrote a note into a local newspaper.
Vocabulary
a carpenter – тесля
neighbours – сусіди
brought back – забирав
Task 3. Air Pollution
Until about 150 years ago, the air was pure and clean – perfect for the people and animals of the Earth to breathe.
Then people started building factories. Those factories and many of the things they produced, like cars, put a lot of harmful gases into the air. Then people started driving cars, which added more pollution to the air.
Today the air is so polluted in some places that it’s not always safe to breathe! Many cities round the world have air filled with pollution called “smog”. This is so strong in some places that the air, which should be a beautiful blue, actually looks brown.
Polluted air is bad not only for people and animals, but also for trees and other plants, as well. In some places it is even damaging farmers’ crops – the food we eat. So it’s very important for us to “clean up our act”, and clean up the air we all breathe.