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AMERICA AS SEEN BY BRITONS

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Bob and Sheila spent two years living in New York because of Bob's work as a banker. Neither of them had lived in a big city before. They now live back in England in a small village outside London.

Interviewer -How long did you live in the States?

Bob -We were there for two and half years, in New York.

Int. -And did you enjoy it?

Sheila -Oh, tremendously. We had a wonderful time.

Bob -Yes, what I liked best was that I could work and still lead a normal life. I mean, the shops are open till 10 o'clock.

Int. -All shops?

Sheila - Yes, everything, food shops, chemists...

Bob -There's a huge department store called Gimbles on 86th Street that was open till 9.00.

Sheila - And some supermarkets are open twenty-four hours a day. Most shops don't open as early as in England, well they don't open until about uhm... 10 or 11 in the morning.

Bob -Yes, that's right.

Sheila - Because they all work much later. And everything's open on Sundays.

Bob -And the holidays, the public holidays are much shorter than here, and in the States only the banks are shut. Everything else stays open, so it makes life much easier. You could do what you liked when you liked.

Sheila - And it was easier with the children, because I could wait till you got back and we did the shopping together, didn't we?

Bob -Yes.

Int. -I see, um... do you think New York is as cosmopolitan as London?

Sheila - Oh yes, but it's not as mixed. Nationalities stay in their own areas; like there's the Ukrainian section, the Russian section...

Bob -... the German section. We were in German Town, York Town, which is called German Town. And there was a row of German shops, all German-speaking. But you didn't find that anywhere else. And the Ukrainians were down on 14th and 2nd, and the Spanish kept to Spanish Harlem.

Sheila - I think the major difference was the height of the place. Everything was up. We lived on the twenty-ninth floor.

Bob -And I worked on the sixty-third floor.

Sheila - But I like heights. And of course everything is faster. And the people are much ruder.

Bob -Which means of course that we're much ruder ourselves now we're back in Britain.

Int. -Oh, in what ways?

Bob -Well, pushing in the street.

Sheila - Oh. I don't!

Bob -Fights about getting on the bus. No good old British queues.

Int. -But, are all Americans like that?

Sheila - Oh yes. Well, all New Yorkers anyway. Not so much in other places. When we went to California it was very different. There weren't the same pressures at all, were there?

Bob -I think we were aware that New York is quite a dangerous place. We never had any problems at all, but when there was a crime, it was horrendous.

Sheila - Oh yes, the subways are unusable. They're dirty, uncomfortable.

Int. -Did you make many friends?

Sheila - Well, that's what's interesting really. We made more friends there than we have after two years of living here. I think Americans are more open, they, you know, they speak their minds, so if they don't like something, they actually tell you directly. Not like the British, who might think one thing and say another. So I suppose you could say that the English are ruder than the Americans.

Bob -Or that they're less honest. (Headway Intermediate, 17 a)

ENGLAND AS SEEN BY AMERICANS:

Terry Tomsha talks about her experience of living and working in England, where she has been for the past eleven years.

Interviewer – So, Terry. You've been in this country for quite a long time now. What differences do you notice between the two countries?

Terry - Obviously, the biggest difference is the people. The average Englishman is … mm cold and not very open. In the States it's very different. We start conversations with people in the street, in the subway; we're a lot more enthusiastic and spontaneous than people here. You know, when I first came, I couldn't understand why I was getting so little reaction from people, but now I see that they thought I was overpowering and that I was trying to be too friendly too soon.

Int. - But, tell me; does the Englishman improve as you get to know him?

Terry - Oh yes. Once you have made a friend, it's a friend for life, but it takes a very long time. I'll tell you something that I think is very important. An Englishman in America is respected. Everyone wants to talk to him. We're inquisitive; we love his accent and his country. An American though in England is thought to be a little inferior because of his behavior and his language. One thing I've learned - it's funny now, but it wasn't at the time I couldn't understand why when I was talking to someone he would move away, you know, move backwards, and I thought 'Do I smell? Am I boring him?' The reason was, you see, Americans stand closer when they're talking. Again, English people like a certain distance.

Int. -That's true. What about your impressions of living here? How does that compare with the States?

Terry - Well, mmm... I think life's a lot easier in the States. It's easier to make money and it's easier to spend it. Shops are open all the time over there. Here you've got to race to reach the supermarket by 5.30. Generally, though I find life more inefficient here. If you need an electrician, it takes days to get one, he doesn't do the job very well, the system is so old that he can't get the parts to repair it, and he doesn't care. This leads to another very important point. Americans work a lot harder than you do. To the English their private lives are important, their holidays are important, their gardens are important, their animals are important, but an American wouldn't admit that. For us, our work is the most important thing in our lives. You know, holidays seem to be longer here, people make the most ridiculous excuses not to go to work - 'My dog's got a cold', I heard the other day.

Int. - Oh, come on.

Terry - You have tea breaks that get longer and longer. In that respect we're quite like the Japanese. Our jobs come first, but there are all sorts of services to make life easier around our jobs.

Int. -Well. I take it you have a pretty negative opinion of England.

Terry - You would think so from this interview, wouldn't you? No, in fact I really love it here. I go home once a year and really look forward to coming back here. This is my home now. (Headway Intermediate, 17 b)

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD

It is only in the course of the last hundred years that English has become a world language. In Shakespeare's time it was a "provincial" language of secondary importance with only 6 million native speakers. Nowadays English has become the world's most important language in politics, science, trade and cultural relations. It is the official language of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ire­land, of the United States of America, of Australia and New Zealand. English is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the Republic of South Africa and the Irish Republic. It is also spoken as a second language by many people in India, Pakistan, numerous countries in Africa. Around 375 mln people speak English as their first language and another 375 mln speak it as a second language.

Even more widely English is studied and used as a foreign language - around 750 mln people. In this respect it acquired an international status. It is used for communication across fron­tiers, listening to broadcasts, reading books and newspapers, in commerce and travel. Half of the world's scientific literature is in English. English is associated with technological and economic development of the great manufacturing coun­tries. It is the language of automation and computer technology, international avia­tion, shipping and sport. It is the major language of diplomacy.

CAREERS IN TECHNOLOGY.

Five people are talking about their work in the engineering field. Here are some questions each of them may be asked. Answer these questions after reading/listening to each story and also the questions given after it. Describe each job briefly to others or discuss it with your partner in the form of a dialogue:

1. What does this particular person like most about his job? 2. What does his work involve? 3. What are bad points about his job if mentions them? 4. Does he say how long he has worked there? 5. What is the biggest challenge of his job? 6. Imagine what advice he would give students entering his profession. 7. Why did he choose this job? 8. Is it a well-paid job?

1. Read/listen to Ian Bronec, a Mechanical Engineer, speaking about his job.

I work for a Polish company which converts diesel engines to run on natural gas. They're used in forklifts and tractors, but mostly in buses. Diesel-engine buses can produce a lot of pollution. The air quality in city centers is often quite poor. Natural gas-fuelled engines are much cleaner than diesel. The work that we do is helping to improve the air quality in our cities.

In the past few years, we've started to build gas-powered generators. They produce up to 100 kilowatts. They run on bio-gas from sewage treatment plants. They produce all the power the plant needs, and more. When there's a power cut, people find it a bit strange that the sewage plant has all its lights on.

I travel quite a lot in my job. I help to install new generators all over the country and to provide support for bus companies who use our engines. We're planning to export to other EU countries so I might have more opportunity to travel outside Poland and maybe use my English. (Technology, Unit 8, Listening scripts)

Some more questions to be answered: What kind of transport is he concerned with? 2. How does his work improve life in cities? 3. What other product does his company make? 4. What kind of fuel does this product use? Why might he have more opportunities to use English?

II. Listen to Leon Peters, a Construction Worker, speaking about his job, and answer the questions below:

I'm self-employed but I work with three other guys as a gang - that's like a team. We get contracts from construction companies, maybe a few weeks, maybe a year. It depends on the size of the building. You have to be prepared to travel wherever the work is but the money is good. There are bonuses too, for finishing ahead of schedule.

What we do is we build the steel frames of all sorts of buildings. I've worked on supermarkets, warehouses, and multistorey buildings, including one that was 30 storeys high. Everything is pre-fabricated. The steel is cut to the right size and drilled before it comes to the site. We have to bolt or weld the pieces together. It sounds easy but try lining up a one-tonne girder swinging from a crane on a winter's day when you're a hundred meters up! We like to work fast, and to do that you need ground people who make sure everything reaches you in the right order, and a crane operator who can deliver on the spot - right where you need it.

On a typical day, I could be working a twelve-hour shift. If you're high up, you don't come down for tea-breaks. Everything you need is up there - canteen, toilets.

Is it dangerous? Well, yes, but there are a lot of safety precautions. We have to wear a safety harness with a lifeline. There are safety cables slung round whichever floor you're working on, and you clip onto one as soon as you start. There's a safety net underneath the floor until the deck is down. For me, the most dangerous time is moving the girders into the right position. You could be crushed.

I'd like to set up my own construction company eventually, and employ others to do this kind of work. (Technology, Unit 9, Listening scripts)

Questions: 1.How big is Leon’s gang? 2 How long is the contract? 3 What kind of buildings has he worked on? 4 How long is a typical shift?

Find reasons why: 1) contracts vary in length: 2) bonuses are paid; 3) you need good ground people; 4) you don’t come down for tea-breaks; 5) moving girders is dangerous.

III. Listen to Phillipe Rugeri, a Mechatronics Engineer, speaking about his job, and answer the questions below:

My special area is electronic assistive technology, or EAT for short. I work for a company which makes equipment to help severely disabled people. I mean people who can't walk, people who have very limited movement - perhaps they can move only their head.

In this kind of work, you need knowledge of mechatronics. That's where mechanics, electronics, and software engineering meet. Take a page-turner, for example. It's a device which turns the pages of a book or magazine. The input can be a pneumatic switch - that's a switch worked by air pressure. You operate it by sucking or blowing down a tube. These signals are interpreted by a microprocessor which controls the mechanism which turns the pages. That mechanism uses electrical and mechanical devices. All three branches of engineering combine to make it work.

It's an exciting job. Each development in technology means new possibilities for disabled people. (Technology, Unit 10, Listening scripts)

Questions: 1. What is EAT? 2. Name three ways in which severely disabled people can operate equipment. 3. What are three branches of engineering which make up mechatronics? 4. What does a page-turner do? 5. How does a pneumatic switch work?

IV. Listen to Tod McArthur, a Telecommunications Technician, and note the following things: a) the number of years he has worked for his company; b) as many items of telecommunications equipment as you can; c) as many country names as you can;




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