Темы на 2 семинар

Семинар 2
1. The monarcy. Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The queen's role.
2. The royal family.
3. The British Parlament.
4. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

Темы на 1 семинар

Семинар 1.
1. General information about Great Britain.
2. General survey of British geography.
3. A brief history of English language in G.B.
4. Population and religion of G.B.

Press for masters

Balloons deadliest plastic for seabirds   (24th March, 2019)

Scientists have made an alarming discovery about what kinds of pollution are most harmful to seabirds. A study led by Australia's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies discovered that balloons were the deadliest kind of plastic for seabirds. The research team said balloons were 32 times more likely to kill seabirds than hard plastics. They found that while balloons and other soft plastics accounted for only 5 per cent of plastics ingested, they were responsible for more than 40 per cent of deaths among seabirds. Lead researcher Lauren Roman said: "Hard plastic fragments may pass quickly through the gut, but soft plastics are more likely to become compacted and cause fatal obstructions."

The study examined 1,733 dead seabirds and found that more than a quarter of the deaths were attributed to eating plastic. Ms Roman explained that plastic is becoming an increasing threat to seabirds. She said: "Marine debris ingestion is now a globally recognized threat....We suggest that reducing the presence of balloons and balloon fragments in the ocean would directly reduce seabird mortalities." LiveScience.com said: "With an estimated 280,000 tons of floating marine debris worldwide, about half of all seabird species are thought to ingest plastic on a daily basis. Birds are especially likely to swallow dangerous balloons because they closely resemble squid, according to the study."

 

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if 1-8 below are true (T) or false (F).

1. Scientists started alarm clock bells ringing about a discovery.     T / F
2. Research was done on seabirds in the North Pole.     T / F
3. Balloons accounted for over 40% of plastic-related seabird deaths.     T / F
4. A researcher said hard plastics pass more slowly through the gut.     T / F
5. Around 25% of dead seabirds in the research died because of plastic.     T / F
6. A researcher said marine debris is becoming less of a threat to birds.     T / F
7. There are about 280,000 tons of debris floating on our oceans.     T / F
8. Seabirds could eat balloons because they think they look like squid.     T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1. alarming
2. harmful
3. likely
4. ingested
5. fatal
6. attributed to
7. increasing
8. mortalities
9. worldwide
10. resemble

1. probable
2. look like
3. consumed
4. growing
5. damaging
6. deaths
7. globally
8. worrying
9. pinned on
10. deadly

3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1. Scientists have made an alarming
2. balloons were 32 times more
3. responsible for more than 40 per cent
4. fragments may pass quickly
5. cause fatal
6. a quarter of the deaths were
7. plastic is becoming an increasing threat
8. reduce seabird
9. 280,000 tons of floating marine
10. swallow dangerous balloons because they

1. of deaths
2. closely resemble squid
3. obstructions
4. mortalities
5. to seabirds
6. discovery
7. likely to kill
8. debris
9. through the gut
10. attributed to eating plastic

3.      1)  Scientists have made an alarming discovery about what kinds of pollution ______
     a.  are most harmfully
     b.  are most harmed full
     c.  are most armful
     d.  are most harmful
2)  They found that while balloons and other soft plastics ______ 5%
     a.  accounted four only
     b.  account it for only
     c.  accounted for only
     d.  a count it for only
3)  they were responsible for more than 40 per cent of deaths ______
     a.  aiming seabird
     b.  among seabird
     c.  among seabirds
     d.  aiming seabirds
4)  Hard plastic fragments may pass quickly through ______
     a.  the gut
     b.  the but
     c.  the jut
     d.  the tut
5)  but soft plastics are more likely to become compacted and cause ______
     a.  fatally obstructs shuns
     b.  fatal abstractions
     c.  fatally obstetricians
     d.  fatal obstructions

11.  6)  more than a quarter of the deaths were ______ eating plastic
     a.  attribute it to
     b.  attributed too
     c.  attributed to
     d.  a tribute to
7)  balloons and balloon fragments in the ocean would directly reduce ______
     a.  seabird mortalities
     b.  seabird immortalize
     c.  seabird immoralities
     d.  seabird moralities
8)  With an estimated 280,000 tons of floating ______
     a.  marine day brie
     b.  marine debris
     c.  marine deb brie
     d.  marine debut
9)  half of all seabird species are thought to ingest plastic on ______
     a.  a daily basics
     b.  a daily bay sis
     c.  a daily basis
     d.  a daily base is
10)  Birds are especially likely to swallow dangerous balloons because they ______
     a.  closely resembled squid
     b.  closely resemble squids
     c.  closely resemble squidgy
     d.  closely resemble squid

Comprehension questions

1. What adjective did the article use to describe the discovery?
2. Where is the institute that conducted this research?
3. How many times are balloons more likely to kill seabirds than hard plastic?
4. What percentage of ingested plastic is made up of balloons?
5. What do hard plastic fragments pass through quickly?
6. How many dead seabirds did the researchers examine?
7. What did a researcher say was a globally recognized threat?
8. How much marine debris is floating on Earth's oceans?
9. How many seabirds are estimated to ingest balloons on a daily basis?
10. What do seabirds think balloons look like?

4.     Multiple choice quiz

1) What adjective did the article use to describe the discovery?
a) amazing
b) banging
c) ringing
d) alarming
2) Where is the institute that conducted this research?
a) Japan
b) Australia
c) Chile
d) the USA
3) How many times are balloons more likely to kill seabirds than hard plastic?
a) 5
b) 40
c) 32
d) 60
4) What percentage of ingested plastic is made up of balloons?
a) 5
b) 6
c) 7
d) 8
5) What do hard plastic fragments pass through quickly?
a) sand
b) the ecosystem
c) the gut
d) the ocean

11.  6) How many dead seabirds did the researchers examine?
a) 7,133
b) 1,733
c) 1,373
d) 3,713
7) What did a researcher say was a globally recognized threat?
a) eating plastic
b) balloon production
c) balloon fragmentation
d) marine debris ingestion
8) How much marine debris is floating on Earth's oceans?
a) 280,000 tons
b) 208,000 tons
c) 800,000 tons
d) 820,000 tons
9) How many seabirds are estimated to ingest balloons on a daily basis?
a) about a quarter
b) about a third
c) about half
d) about two thirds
10) What do seabirds think balloons look like?
a) bags
b) squid
c) fish
d) water

Put the words in the right order

1. An   of   what   alarming   discovery   pollution   .   about   kinds
2. seabirds   .   were   the   plastic   deadliest   for   Balloons
3. were   Balloons   likely   more   kill   .   to   32   times
4. pass   may   through   fragments   the   quickly   gut   .   Plastic
5. more   become   compacted   .   to   are   Soft   plastics   likely
6. globally   a   ingestion   threat   .   debris   recognized   Marine   is
7. estimated   280,000   An   floating   of   debris   .   marine   tons
8. basis   .   daily   plastic   ingest   to   Thought   a   on
9. to   balloons   .   especially   likely   swallow   dangerous   Birds   are
10. closely   squid,   the   study   .   to   resemble   according   They

Text for analysis for masters

The School

by Donald Barthelme

Well, we had all these children out planting trees, see, because we figured that… that was part of their education, to see how, you know, the root systems… and also the sense of responsibility, taking care of things, being individually responsible. You know what I mean. And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.
It wouldn’t have been so bad except that just a couple of weeks before the thing with the trees, the snakes all died. But I think that the snakes—well, the reason that the snakes kicked off was that… you remember, the boiler was shut off for four days because of the strike, and that was explicable. It was something you could explain to the kids because of the strike. I mean, none of their parents would let them cross the picket line and they knew there was a strike going on and what it meant. So when things got started up again and we found the snakes they weren’t too disturbed.
With the herb gardens it was probably a case of overwatering, and at least now they know not to overwater. The children were very conscientious with the herb gardens and some of them probably… you know, slipped them a little extra water when we weren’t looking. Or maybe… well, I don’t like to think about sabotage, although it did occur to us. I mean, it was something that crossed our minds. We were thinking that way probably because before that the gerbils had died, and the white mice had died, and the salamander… well, now they know not to carry them around in plastic bags.
Of course we expected the tropical fish to die, that was no surprise. Those numbers, you look at them crooked and they’re belly-up on the surface. But the lesson plan called for a tropical fish input at that point, there was nothing we could do, it happens every year, you just have to hurry past it.
We weren’t even supposed to have a puppy.
We weren’t even supposed to have one, it was just a puppy the Murdoch girl found under a Gristede’s truck one day and she was afraid the truck would run over it when the driver had finished making his delivery, so she stuck it in her knapsack and brought it to the school with her. So we had this puppy. As soon as I saw the puppy I thought, Oh Christ, I bet it will live for about two weeks and then… And that’s what it did. It wasn’t supposed to be in the classroom at all, there’s some kind of regulation about it, but you can’t tell them they can’t have a puppy when the puppy is already there, right in front of them, running around on the floor and yap yap yapping. They named it Edgar—that is, they named it after me. They had a lot of fun running after it and yelling, “Here, Edgar! Nice Edgar!” Then they’d laugh like hell. They enjoyed the ambiguity. I enjoyed it myself. I don’t mind being kidded. They made a little house for it in the supply closet and all that. I don’t know what it died of. Distemper, I guess. It probably hadn’t had any shots. I got it out of there before the kids got to school. I checked the supply closet each morning, routinely, because I knew what was going to happen. I gave it to the custodian.
And then there was this Korean orphan that the class adopted through the Help the Children program, all the kids brought in a quarter a month, that was the idea. It was an unfortunate thing, the kid’s name was Kim and maybe we adopted him too late or something. The cause of death was not stated in the letter we got, they suggested we adopt another child instead and sent us some interesting case histories, but we didn’t have the heart. The class took it pretty hard, they began (I think, nobody ever said anything to me directly) to feel that maybe there was something wrong with the school. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the school, particularly, I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse. It was just a run of bad luck. We had an extraordinary number of parents passing away, for instance. There were I think two heart attacks and two suicides, one drowning, and four killed together in a car accident. One stroke. And we had the usual heavy mortality rate among the grandparents, or maybe it was heavier this year, it seemed so. And finally the tragedy.
The tragedy occurred when Matthew Wein and Tony Mavrogordo were playing over where they’re excavating for the new federal office building. There were all these big wooden beams stacked, you know, at the edge of the excavation. There’s a court case coming out of that, the parents are claiming that the beams were poorly stacked. I don’t know what’s true and what’s not. It’s been a strange year.
I forgot to mention Billy Brandt’s father who was knifed fatally when he grappled with a masked intruder in his home.
One day, we had a discussion in class. They asked me, where did they go? The trees, the salamander, the tropical fish, Edgar, the poppas and mommas, Matthew and Tony, where did they go? And I said, I don’t know, I don’t know. And they said, who knows? and I said, nobody knows. And they said, is death that which gives meaning to life? And I said no, life is that which gives meaning to life. Then they said, but isn’t death, considered as a fundamental datum, the means by which the taken-for-granted mundanity of the everyday may be transcended in the direction of—
I said, yes, maybe.
They said, we don’t like it.
I said, that’s sound.
They said, it’s a bloody shame!
I said, it is.
They said, will you make love now with Helen (our teaching assistant) so that we can see how it is done? We know you like Helen.
I do like Helen but I said that I would not.
We’ve heard so much about it, they said, but we’ve never seen it.
I said I would be fired and that it was never, or almost never, done as a demonstration. Helen looked out of the window.
They said, please, please make love with Helen, we require an assertion of value, we are frightened.
I said that they shouldn’t be frightened (although I am often frightened) and that there was value everywhere. Helen came and embraced me. I kissed her a few times on the brow. We held each other. The children were excited. Then there was a knock on the door, I opened the door, and the new gerbil walked in. The children cheered wildly.