Цыбина Е.А., Нудько В.А. Английский язык

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11. Read the first part of a radio programme about Las Vegas, and answer the

questions below.

a) In which US state is Las Vegas?

_________________________

b) How much money is made there each year from gambling in casinos?

_______________________________________________________

c) What kinds of gambling take place at the airport?

_______________________________________

d) What is the population of Las Vegas?

______________________________

e) Name three typical buildings you can see in Las Vegas.

____________________________________________

f) What does much of the city look like?

______________________________

12. Read the second part of the radio programme, and underline the correct5 answers

or complete the sentences below.

a) Caesars Palace describes itself as a fantasy land / a theme casino.

b) The gambling takes place ________ days a year.

c) People sometimes gamble more than ________ dollars.

d) The Alabaman woman is not winning anything / keeps winning.

e) The Alabaman couple once won ________ dollars.

f) A housewife from Detroit once won ________ dollars.

g) She spent her money on ________.

h) Next to the Colorado River there is a gambling place for older people /

children.

Part 1

A radio programme about Las Vegas

ANNOUNCER: Last week Mike Davies visited Las Vegas, in Nevada, USA,

and brings us this report from the land of the casinos.

MD: Las Vegas is a casino empire with yearly revenues of over six billion dollars.

This is where America lets its hair down, and gambling has the status of an official

religion. The industry greets you like a salesman the moment you step off the plane.

Fruit machines in the Arrivals Hall, the sound of the handles, reels spinning, and the

sound of dollars cascading into trays. And in Departures video poker as far as you

can see, as people wait reluctantly for their planes. Downtown, in the suburban

luxury, the dominance of the big casinos is absolute. If you don’t like gambling stay

out of Vegas, is the clear message. The city, with its swelling population of more than

700,000 is built on the proposition that every American likes to chance his luck.

The city centre is in fact a collection of casinos, motels, souvenir shops, porn

cinemas and pawnbrokers. Occasionally a spire intrudes – the churches are usually

well-attended – but the wise clergyman knows which subjects are best avoided on

Sundays. Much of the city looks like a parking lot – areas of concrete which mock the

meaning of its Spanish name: The Meadows.

Part 2

Mike Davies continues

Caesars Palace, the most famous theme-park, describes itself as an opulent

Greco-Roman fantasy land and the 85 acre complex is, in appearance, a cross

between a re-creation of the Roman forum, with Greek additions, and a multi-storey

car park. It’s approached by moving walkways of white marble, overlooking

fountains and palm trees. Throughout, there are enormous reproductions of classical

statues – especially of Julius Caesar.

The actual gambling goes on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Roulette, baccarat,

craps, pontoon and poker are all played for stakes that can sometimes exceed

$ 100,000, under the practiced gaze of dealers, bankers and security men. There are

also a variety of different machines. ‘We pick our machines each morning and we

stay on ‘em,’ one retired Alabaman told me. ‘I figure, by the end of the day, it owes

me.’ His wife is doing better than him. She feeds in handfuls of dollar tokens and

with surprising regularity the machine is sick over her, spewing out as much as $20 a

time. A small tub is already three-quarters full of her winnings.

‘I just love Caesars,’ she confesses, needlessly. ‘We come here three or four times a

year.’ It turns out that they once won $600 but their goal remains the Big One.

Two years previously a housewife from Detroit won spectacularly. There had

been no big winners for some time and the jackpot stood at $2 million when she

pulled the lever. The money literally engulfed her, but she didn’t go crazy. She

bought a mink coat, had champagne for breakfast and had her hair done at the casino

salon. Then she went home to Michigan.

These days there’s even a zone for the elderly, on the banks of the Colorado

River. Here, senior citizens, with their wealth of savings and a reckless urge to ‘do it

just one more time’ park their caravans and move inside to ‘work machines’. So far

there’s no children’s version planned – but it does ever happen it’ll be in Vegas and

nowhere else. You can bet your bottom dollar.

PART 3. BRINGING UP CHILDREN

1. Write down five characteristics of ideal parents. Think about factors such as age,

personality and behaviour. Use the Present Simple and words like never and always.

Example: They never lose their temper.

In groups, discuss what you wrote and agree on five characteristics.

2. Read and discuss.

Does Nanny know best?

It is very difficult for a working couple to spend as much time as they should

with their children. Take the case of a couple who work in the centre of London and

live in the suburbs. Both will probably have to leave the house around 8a.m. and will

be lucky to get home before 6p.m. Since school hours run from 9 a.m. to about 3.30

p.m., such a couple has no option but to pay for someone to look after their children,

such as a childminder – that is to say someone who looks after the children whenever

their parents cannot do so – or even a full-time nanny. Such services do not come

cheap. A nanny, for example, will have to be paid a salary comparable to that of a

receptionist or a typist, or even more. In other words, one of the partners in the

marriage might well be working for practically nothing.

Of course this is not true all over the world. In such countries as Brazil or

Malaysia – in other words countries which have a great many unemployed or

underpaid workers – nannies can be employed-for practically nothing. This can also

have its disadvantages, of course, because these nannies are not always as reliable or

capable as their famous English counterparts. Employing such people can also be

extremely dangerous. A case in point was the Brazilian nanny who was overheard

explaining the best way to keep her 6-month-old charge quiet for most of the day.

Her method was to impregnate a cloth with gas from the cooker, then hold it over the

mouth and nose of the baby. Another example was that of a nanny who took an

exceptionally attractive baby out into the streets during the hottest part of the day and

begged at traffic lights, using the child to arouse the pity of drivers.

But such stories are always a possibility if one employs people from shanty

towns for minimal wages. To put it another way, when all is said and done, ‘You get

what you pay for’

3. You are going to read a newspaper article which consists of six paragraphs. First

read the opening of each paragraph.

a) Guess how the paragraphs will continue.

b) What do you think the article is about?

1) Perhaps memories of my own childhood have been coloured by time. I grew up

during the war and without the father.

2) I know of no other country where so many crimes are committed against children.

3) The British tradition of boarding school will always remain a mystery for us poor

foreigners.

4) In public, at least, the British arrear cold.

5) Women friends who travel to Italy with their children come back glowing with

praise for the way their children (and they themselves) are treated.

6) How can I say that the British do not make good parents, when I happen to be

married to an Englishman who is a wonderful father and husband, and have many

English friends whom I consider to be excellent parents?

4. Read the whole article below quickly.

a) Match the openings to the paragraphs (a-f). Example: a) = 6

b) What would be the best title for this article?

• The British and boarding schools

• A national lack of tenderness

• Parents’ contribution to football violence

• Children in Britain and Italy

a) And yet every day the evidence before me in the streets and in the newspapers

suggest that they are unusual. Where is the warmth and tenderness between adults

and children which is so prevalent in my native Italy, among all classes and types of

people? Is this the famous British reserve?

b) And their, children certainly look as if they bear the brunt of this national

characteristic. In my experience, children thrive on tenderness. I have looked, but

there certainly does not seem to be a lot of it among the British. Perhaps in private

they are warm and affectionate parents, but in public they seem to go to extraordinary

lengths to hide it.

c) It could almost be called the English disease. It seems almost impossible to turn on

the television without some new crime toeing reported. Of course, there are similar

horror stories in other countries, including Italy, but one does not hear about them

with such appalling regularity. To what extent, I wonder, is football hooliganism the

result of bad parenting?

d) Not only are they not shunned, but seats are proffered, doors smilingly held open

for pram-pushing mothers and tables miraculously appear in crowded restaurants.

Why is it that children are so unwelcome – and so rarely seen – in restaurants here?

e) In the course of our travels, my husband and I have often met British diplomats

and foreign correspondents who, between gulps of pink gin at one party or another,

would bewail the departure of their eight-year-old child, usually a son. Why were

these distressed parents sending their children away? ‘It’s a beastly family tradition ...

a high standard of education ... blah blah blah.’ And if they have to go, why on earth

when they are-only eight? Of course some children like it. But what happens when

children hate it? From countless melancholic memoirs, biographies and novels it

seems that when it comes to tradition children have to do what they are told.

f) What kept us going was the love and support of family and friends. There was

always that feeling of tenderness which I so often find lacking

over here.

5. Complete the following sentences.

a) The writer comes from ___.

b) The British ‘national characteristic’ is.

c) The ‘English disease’ is ____.

d) The writer had a very ____ childhood.

e) She thinks that being a bad parent can lead to.

6. Answer the following questions.

According to the writer, what is the British attitude to children in restaurants?

b) What is her opinion of parents who send their children to boarding schools?

c) What does she think about the way her friends bring their children up?

7. This is the reaction of some British people to the newspaper article. In groups,

discuss your responses.

a) At least our children have some discipline and good manners and don’t demand

attention all the time. Francesca’s kids think the world revolves around them.

b) I think we are prepared to spend more time and money on our children’s education

and extra curricular activities then many foreign parents are.

c) Well at least we spend our summer holidays together and have our kids’ friends

back to the house a lot, which is more than can be said for a lot of families abroad.

d) British children grow up more independent and self-reliant because they are not

over-babied and over-protected. Lots of foreign parents are much too possessive.

8. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Discuss and give your

reasons.

a) Single people do not make good parents.

b) Children of working mothers are disadvantaged.

c) Fathers and mothers should have equal responsibility for looking after their

children.

d) Younger people make better parents.

PART 4. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

1. Look at the article below and make notes on:

– what Pamela Megginson did.

– why she did it.

– what happened to her.

Include only the basic facts of what happened.

A woman scorned

Pamela Megginson, 61, of The Bishops Avenue, Hampstead, was convicted at the Old

Bailey in September 1983 of murdering her millionaire lover and sentenced to life

imprisonment.

Cold fear swept over Pamela Megginson as she sat in a candlelit-restaurant on

the French Riviera. Across the dinner table was the elderly lover she now hated so

much she could no longer even bear to look at him. Self- made millionaire Alec

Hubbers, aged 79, had just announced that he was leaving her for a younger woman.

Less than an hour later he was dead. The jilted divorcee had battered him repeatedly

over the head with a champague bottle.

Megginson, the daughter of an English country squire. and Hubbers, a Russian-

born Jewish Immigrant, had fallen head over heels in love many years before. For t3

years she shared his London mansion and lavish lifestyle until suddenly and

unexpectedly there was a new love in his life. The life of luxury was about to end and

Megginson felt humiliated and rejected.

Many people who followed her trial were confident the jury would return a

verdict of manslaughter, allowing the judge to deal leniently with the sad and

defeated woman. But the jury of six men and six women found Megginson guilty of

murder. The judge had no choice but to sentence her to life imprisonment, Her face

crumpled and she wept as she was led away by two women prison officers.

2. On a separate sheet of paper, write a summary of the article in not more than 70

words. Organise it like this:

PARAGRAPH A: The murder

PARAGRAPH B: Background information

PARAGRAPH C: The trial

3. These headlines accompany two newspaper articles which are both about ‘crimes

of passion’.

a) Make guesses about:

— why the ‘houseproud husband’ snapped.

— what he did when he snapped.

— why he is called ‘Mr. Mustard’.

b) In what situations might a son attack his father? Why do you think the boy went

free?

c) Make a note of any questions you’d like to ask about either of the stories

connected with the headlines.

4. What irritating habits might provoke a partner or relative to violence? Discuss in

pairs.

5. Do you think ‘crimes of passion’ should be punished differently from crimes

which are planned? Give reasons to support your opinion.

6. Work in two groups. One group should read Text A and the other group should

read Text B. While reading your text note down the answers to the following

questions.

a) How was the victim killed?

b) Why was the victim killed?

c) What was the victim like?

d) What is the accused like?

e) What was the punishment?

KILLER SON GOES FREE

Probation for youth who stabbed father ‘

‘Mr. Mustard’ is jailed

House proud husband snapped over supper

Text A

Mild-mannered Thomas Corlett, the houseproud husband who strangled his wife

after a row over a tube of mustard, was jailed for three years yesterday after denying

murdering his wife.

It took the jury just ten minutes to find the 58-year-old balding civil servant not

guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished

responsibility.

Corlett, described as a man of ‘impeccable character’, had gradually taken over

the household chores during his 26-year marriage, including cooking and cleaning.

After his wife became ill with asthma, their relationship had deteriorated.

Medical witnesses at the trial said Corlett was like a house- proud housewife

with a craving for perfection. A pent-up rage built up in him over his wife’s

untidiness. His wife started going on holidays with a friend, never asking if he

wanted to join them and never telling him when she would be back. In 1985 she

forgot to send him a birthday card for the first time. Five weeks later the trivial row

over the mustard led to her death.

The snapping point came when the couple sat down to a supper of sausages,

green beans and mashed potatoes at their home in Middlesex on December 12, 1985.

On the spot on the table where he 40 normally put his newspaper was a tube of

German mustard. He moved it. His wife, Erika, 63, picked it up and slammed it down

in its original place. During the quarrel Erika stood up and started flailing her arms.

Corlett grabbed her by the throat and the couple fell to the floor. Corlett called an

ambulance when she fell unconscious but minutes later Mrs. Corlett was dead.

Defence counsel David Farrington handed over a glowing reference from

Corlett’s boss. The barrister said that Corlett would be extremely unlikely to offend

again, and asked for him to be sent home, Judge Gerald Butler accepted that Corlett

acted out of character but said that he could not take the lenient course being urged

upon him.

(from the Daily Male)

Text B

Sixteen-year-old Peter Stone went free yesterday after admitting killing his

father with a homemade knife.

He stepped in as his were arguing one night and stabbed him through the heart.

He told the police, ‘He hit my Mum in the face. When was younger he used. to hit her

and I could do nothing.’ But after his arrest the catering student said of his father, ‘He

always loved me.’

Stafford Crown Court was told that there had been a strong bond between father

and son, but this broke down as 49-year-old Leonard Stone tyrannised his wife for

four years after losing his job.

Stone, said to be ‘quiet, well-spoken and non-violent’ by police, is the youngest

of six children.

His father became violent towards his 40.year-old wife Sylvia after losing his

lorry-driving job because of a drink-driving conviction nearly four years ago.

He became depressed and made several half-hearted suicide attempts – but

always when someone was close by.

He frequently attacked his wife – although several months could go by without

him raising his fists and he spent periods in a psychiatric hospital.

Yesterday Peter Stone, from Walsall, was put on probation for three years after

he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Mr. Justice Kenneth Jones told him. ‘You are on

the threshold of your life. This is the inevitably a burden you will have on your

conscience and will have to carry over the years. I do understand the position in

which you found yourself.

I accept your father was a difficult man. Any father must understand nothing is

quite so insupportable in the eyes of a son as violence offered by a father to a

mother.”

And the judge referred to his courage in admitting the offence, and said he was

taking ‘a perhaps exceptional course’.

He said, ‘I do it because I have faith in you. I hope you will in the future do

everything in your power to justify the faith I am showing in you.

(from the Evening Standard)

7. Read the text and then work out the questions which go with the following answers

to both Text A and Text B.

TEXT A

Manslaughter.

Ten minutes.

26 years

Sausages, beans and

potatoes

He called an ambulance

TEXT B

A home-made knife

Quiet, well-spoken and non-violent

Because the father was violent to Peter’s

mother

Because he was convicted of drinking

and driving

Four years ago.

8. Discuss the following questions

a) Is it fair that the boy went free? Why do you think the court was sympathetic to

him?

b) Do you agree with the verdict of manslaughter for ‘Mr. Mustard? Why do you

think he was not accused of murder?

c) Do you think the law is too ‘soft’ where domestic violence, such as the ‘Mr.

Mustard’ case, is concerned?

9. Look at the phrasal verbs (in italics) and express them in another way. Refer to

your dictionary if necessary.

a) He had gradually taken over the household chores... (Text A)

b) She slammed it down ... (Text A)

c) He handed over... (Text A)

d) He stepped in … and stabbed him through the heart.(Text B)

e) (the bond) broke down as 49-year-old… (Text B)

10. Read the texts again and find an equivalent word or expression for each of the

following:

Text A

a) household Jobs

b) strong desire

c) anger

d) took hold of something quickly

e) gentle, not severe

Text B

a) something that unites people

b) not really interested

c) a heavy weight

11. Look through the texts again and underline all the words you can find connected

with law and order. Compare with a partner.

12. Use the words you found to complete the following definitions.

a) If you commit a crime the police _______ you.

b) You have to go to _______ for a trial.

c) You can_______ guilty or not guilty.

d) A person who sees a crime being committed is a ________.

e) For serious crimes the people who decide if the accused are guilty or not are

the__________.

f) The man who sentences the accused is called the _______

13. In pairs, look at the words and expressions.

a) Which are against the law in your country?

b) Which are the most and least serious in your opinion? Give reasons.

dropping litter jaywalking drug pushing fraud

spitting in public suicide arson libel kidnapping

manslaughter treason

14. In your country, which crimes are punished by:

— a fine? — death?

— jail? — some other method?

15. What do the following mean?

a) to be given a suspended sentence

b) to be put on probation

c) to be out on bail

16. Decide whether the following words have the same stress pattern when they are

nouns and verbs and then check with your dictionary.

a) arrest e) debate

b) produce f) attack

c) contrast g) permit

d) witness h) appeal

17. Work in groups. Read the five court cases below. Imagine you have to make

decisions about some or all of them.

a) Decide what the people concerned should and shouldn’t have done,

b) Decide what sentence you would impose, if any (e.g. jail).

c) Present your opinions to the rest of the class.

CASE 1

A teacher is doing project work with a class of ten-year-olds and gives a pair of

scissors to each group. Unfortunately, one of the girls is severely injured by a pair of

scissors and the girl’s parents claim compensation.

Your decision

Should the family get compensation? If so, how much and who should pay? Is the

teacher in any way responsible?

CASE 2

Mrs. Anderson is driving her car, keeping to the speed limit, when a dog suddenly

runs across the road in front of her. She brakes to avoid the dog. A man in a Jaguar

behind her, driving quite fast, crashes into her and causes a lot of damage. Both

drivers are slightly injured.

Your decision

Who is to blame for the accident? Should Mrs. Anderson have braked to avoid the

dog? Who should pay for the damage?