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Практические задания. Teaching Honesty is Difficult
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Практические задания
1 What features of Russian and American national character are reflected in the communicative behaviour of the personages in the following extract?
A child is everybody’s business [in Russia]. Complete strangers are forever scolding and cajoling when children seem insufficiently bundled or inadequately supervised. Take your little one out in Moscow winter with a fragment of skin exposed, and you are likely to be swooped down upon by finger-wagging babushkas, who make you feel like a naughty child yourself. When my Laura was four and we were being whisked up out of a deep subway station by a high-speed escalator, a hawk-eyed grandmother racing down on the other side spied my daughter in a nylon parker (warmer than it looked), fixed me with a devastating glare in an instant that we passed, and declared, “Isn’t she cold, young man? ” Then the woman was gone, like an apparition.
…In a glassware store an American diplomat was subjected to withering denunciation when he put his daughter on his shoulders to prevent breakage. “Women came at me from every corner of the store, ” he reported, “telling me I shouldn’t do that, saying, ‘She’ll be a hunchback. ”
…Of course this is all done out of kindness, especially where children are involved. Even the most officious Russians seem to melt into helpless, cooing blobs at the sight of a tiny baby, shifting into a wonderful language of diminutives – the word for “wet”, mokry becomes mokrinky; the word for “good” khoroshy, turns into khoroshinki; and the vocabulary fills up with purring sh’s and ch’s. I cannot even count the times when my family and I were ushered through Soviet customs without a bag opened as our little ones whined and cried from exhaustion after a long trip. A small, tired, unhappy face was enough to soften the sternest inspector.
(D. K. Shipler. Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams).
2 Discuss the features of American and British national character, described in the extract given below.
By and large, people [in the States] have an almost instinctively positive attitude to life and its possibilities. If you informed an American that a massive asteroid was hurtling towards the Earth at 125, 000 miles an hour and that in twelve weeks the planet would be blown to smithereens, he would say: “Really? In that case, I suppose I’d better sign up for that Mediterranean cookery course now. ”
If you informed a Briton of the same thing, he would say: “Bloody typical, isn’t it? And have you seen the weather forecast for the weekend? ”
(B. Bryson. Notes from a Big Country).
3 What features of national character and peculiarities of mentality are described in the following extract? Tell if they are characteristic of your culture. Answer the questions.
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Teaching Honesty is Difficult
We teach young children to be honest. We tell them about great leaders who were very honest. We read stories to them in which bad things happen to dishonest people – noses grow, wolves eat them.
Yet, as children get older, we tell them the importance and even the benefit of the “white lie”. At times it is difficult to decide when to be completely honest and when to tell a small lie.
a) Can you think of any famous people who were known for their honesty?
b) Are there any stories in your culture that teach honesty to children?
c) Did your parents teach you that sometimes you could tell a “white lie’?
4 Comment on the following proverb and tell if there are similar proverbs in your culture. Read the joke and discuss it.
Honesty is the best policy.
Are there any expressions about honesty in your culture?
A six-year-old boy gets on the bus with his mother. A sign says, “Children five years old or under ride for free. ” The mother whispers to her son, “If the bus driver wants to know your age, tell him you’re five years old. ” Sure enough, the bus driver asks the boy, “How old are you? ” The boy answers, “Five years old. ” The bus driver looks at the boy and says, “When will you be six? ” The boy responds, “As soon as I get off the bus. ”
Would this joke be funny in your language?
Do you know a similar joke?
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