Reading comprehension exercises

1. Consult a dictionary and practise the pronunciation of the following words:

dewy, meadow, cartoon, Captain Kangaroo, episode, mass media, influential, environment, catalogue, brochure, credulous, sophisticated, deliberate, addictive, subtle, vicious, altruistic, stimulate, control, advertise, permissible, digest, identify, ab­breviate, programme, persuasively, agency, intellect, design, available, intricate, isolate, giant, conglomerate, audio, contrib­ute, charitable.

2. Practise the pronunciation of the following polysyllabic words paying attention to the principal and secondary stresses:

magazine, influential, psychologically, altruistic, motiva­tion, consideration, entertainment, regularity, information, so­phistication, appreciation, disapproval, individually, intertwin­ing, governmental, philosophical, educational, intellectually.

3. a) Read out the following observing all the phonetic phenomena of con­nected speech (assimilation, lateral and nasal plosions, the loss of plosion, the linking”r”).

you accept the media; at the same time; with all this; the permissible and the forbidden; look back at the first two para­graphs; words introduced in the media; even that part of media output; commercial messages inserted throughout; or a news­paper or magazine article; around the advertisements; in either print or electronic media; what the boss's policies are.

b) Practise the pronunciation of the following word combinations contain­ing the nasal sonant [ŋ ] in the intervocalic position:

sitting in the kitchen; involving subtle conditioning and brain-washing; all these negative aspects of growing up with the media; what's going on in the world; the fun of trying out a new product; but there is always that string of jokes; just stand­ing or wandering about a stage; when you were young and ab­sorbing uncritically; accepting a job.

c) Read the following passages: 1) from " the major media can be divided..." up to "... or pictures demanding attention? " and 2) from " whole new vocabularies come into existence...'' up to "... at an advertising agency." Observe the intona­tion group division, stress, rhythm and tempo.

4. Change the sentences below according to the models:

Model 1: The lady lacked tact and manners.

What the lady lacked was tact and manners.

1. He longed for the title of a champion. 2. The man didn't care to go back to his wife. He was afraid she'd talk him to death. 3. The doctor should have tested him for suicidal ten­dencies.

Model 2: We had no idea where he had come from.

Little did we know where he had come from.

1. We had no suspicion what he was involved in. 2. She had no idea what made him lose his temper. 3. We did not under­stand why she was so annoyed. 4. We could not see the point of his coming here.

5. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Чего ему действительно не хватало, так это чувства меры. 2. Что меня больше всего удивило в Джейн, так это ее самообладание. 3. Ему просто не хватало знаний по истории этой страны. 4. Надо отдать ей должное, она была на редкость трудолюбива. 5. Надо отдать ему дол­жное, он сделал все, чтобы овладеть испанским языком. 6. Надо от­дать ей должное, она очень интересуется благополучием своих род­ных. 7. Надо отдать ему должное, он с любым европейцем может го­ворить на его родном языке. 8. Я и понятия не имел, куда он метит. 9. Он и не подозревал, что ей нужно. 10. Она и не догадывалась, чем все это кончится.