Мы и наша будни. We and our day-to-day life

        В.А. Тырыгина






            МЫ И НАША
            ПОВСЕДНЕВНАЯ ЖИЗНЬ

            WE AND OUR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE



        Учебное пособие


2-е издание, стереотипное


Рекомендовано Учебно-методическим объединением по образованию в области лингвистики
Министерства образования и науки Российской Федерации в качестве учебного пособия для студентов, обучающихся по специальностям направления «Линвистика и межкультурная коммуникация»







Москва Издательство «ФЛИНТА» 2013

УДК 811.111(075.8)
ББК 81.2Англ-923 Т93








      Тырыгина В.А.
Т93 Мы и наша повседневная жизнь. We and our day-to-day life : [Электронный ресурс] : учеб. пособие / В.А. Тырыгина. - 2-е изд., стер. - М. : ФЛИНТА, 2013. - 192 с.
          ISBN 978-5-9765-1458-4

          Цель учебного пособия - расширение активного словаря говорящего: если говорящий делает грамматическую ошибку, его так или иначе смогут понять, но если он не знает точного слова, то результативность общения оказывается под угрозой. Задача расширения и усвоения активного словаря говорящего решается в пособии в том числе и с помощью его сетевой организации.
          Для студентов филологических факультетов и факультетов иностранных языков высших учебных заведений. Может быть рекомендовано всем лицам, изучающим английский язык.
УДК 811.111(075.8)
ББК 81.2Англ-923









ISBN 978-5-9765-1458-4

                   © Тырыгина В.А., 2013
                   ©Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2013

Contents


Introduction............................................................4
Unit 1. Family life and ways............................................7
Unit 2. Describing people’s appearance.................................16
Unit 3. Describing character ..........................................26
Unit 4. Occupations, trades and work...................................52
Unit 5. College life...................................................60
Unit 6. The best way to master a foreign language......................69
Unit 7. Daily routine .................................................77
Unit 8. Spending weekend ..............................................84
Unit 9. Talking about time ............................................91
Unit 10. Around home...................................................98
Unit 11. At home .....................................................107
Unit 12. Food and cooking.............................................117
Unit 13. Eating habits ...............................................130
Unit 14. Talking about clothes .......................................138
Unit 15. Going to the doctor .........................................152
Unit 16. Travelling ..................................................164
Unit 17. Visiting the theatre ........................................174
Unit 18. Feelings and emotions .......................................182
Sources...............................................................191
Dictionaries. Reference Books.........................................191

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INTRODUCTION



        To the student

The purpose of the book
    This book is intended to be a practical guide in your lexical development. The vocabulary as distinct from grammar, which is a closed set, is an open set and therefore requires a lot of students’ additional efforts to expand it. Moreover, when you make a grammar mistake, it may be ‘wrong’ but very often people will understand you anyway. But if you don’t know the exact word, it is very frustrating for you and the person you talk with. Good English means having a good vocabulary. You yourself should assume the main responsibility for your vocabulary thesaurus.

Ways of expanding and learning vocabulary
    One of the most painless and, perhaps, the most effective ways of acquiring new words is by reading as much as possible, for in this way words appear in a context and assimilation will take place subconsciously. The same is true when you explore websites, watch films or videos, cable TV, listen to the radio, audio books, and songs.
    Another no less effective vocabulary learning strategy is when you keep record of words you come across and review the records regularly. There are many ways of keeping words but the best one is that you think is right for you. The information you need is the word, its part of speech, its meaning, its pronunciation, how to use it in a sentence. Whenever you pick up a new word be aware of who says it, and in what situation. Unfortunately many students find the effort too much and stop trying.
    Still another way of organizing vocabulary is based on the idea of word networks, i.e. recording vocabulary in related groups. This vocabulary learning habit may do you a great service. It is thinking about words enough to create groups that makes memorizing them more effective. It


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is this way of organizing vocabulary that the present book is concerned with.

Organisation of the book
    The handbook covers a wide range of topic areas linked with everyday practical or social situations involving names of their participants, their actions and behaviour, objects and their qualities etc. Vocabulary items within the topic are subgrouped in minitopics and indexed under corresponding headings. The range of topics provided by the book meets the needs of the curriculum in the 1st and 2ⁿd years of English departments of Universities. The book focuses first and foremost on the thematic vocabulary and in this sense it differs from students’ main practical manuals, which, as a rule, pursue many aims. The present handbook aims at systematizing topic items by presenting them in a compact, well-arranged way, thus giving easier access to them.
    Each of the eighteen units of the book is made up of two sections. The first one presents essential vocabulary on the suggested topic. Besides names of people, places, properties, actions etc. the first section gives habitual sayings and collocations peculiar to the topic and making your speech more natural and authentic.
    The second section shows that each topic may be presented as a series of network diagrams or spider graphs and it supplies exercises aiming at further understanding and memorizing topic items by placing them into various networks, matrices, graphs etc. Producing spider graphs as a way of brainstorming vocabulary involves your creative quest in completing given branches and adding new ones.

Some psychological tips
    Here is one more tip on how to retain words in memory. Research studies show that learners remember new words much more easily if they think about them in relation to their own experience and use them in a context that is meaningful to them as individuals.
    Research studies also show that repeating work is very important. The manual will bear fruits if you go over topics regularly or at least now and then and of your own accord not only when you are forced or

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obliged to do it due to the syllabus. The most effective way is to revise the unit a week after you worked on it and again after a month.
     The author hopes that you will find the book useful and enjoy working with it.

To the teacher
     The present handbook covers lexis to be acquired by the 1st and 2ⁿd year students of English departments of Universities. The range of topics chosen is done in conformity - with the curriculum for students majoring in English.
     It includes two sections: the first one offers vocabulary with vocabulary items put into smaller lexical units, thus making their study more structured. The second one provides practice which helps the students learn and build up their vocabulary. Although the book is designed for self-study it may be used in class as a resource book while preparing for discussion activities, writing activities or other creative tasks.
     The author hopes that the book will prove helpful.

    Unit 1. FAMILY LIFE AND WAYS


    Members of the family

Parents (old folks)
Father (dad, daddy)
Mother (mamma, mum)
Son, daughter
Senior son = eldest son
Junior son = youngest son
Elder brother (sister)
Eldest brother (sister)
Younger brother (sister)
Twins

    Ancestors

Grandparents
Grandfather (grandpa, granddad)
Grandmother (grandma, granny)
Great grandfather (~ mother)

    Descendants

Grandchildren
Great grandchildren (~ son)

    Family relationships

First cousin, second cousin
Father (mother)-in-law
Uncle (aunt)
Nephew (niece)
Son (daughter)-in-law
Step-father (~mother)

Step-child (~sister) Have-brother (~sister) Foster-father (~mother)
Godchild (~son, ~daughter, ~father)
Orphan

    Status

girlfriend - ex-girlfriend husband - ex-husband wife - ex-wife
bride (she) / fiancee
bridegroom (he) fiance
engaged
newly-weds
widow (she) widower (he) bachelor / single / spinster divorced / married / widowed

    Events

birth
engagement
marriage
wedding (silver, golden, diamond)

    Age

teenager, child, baby, toddler
young (youngster, youth)
grown-up / adult
elderly / old

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    Happenings

to be born (Mike was born in 2010)
to give birth (Mary gave birth to her first or: She has had her first)
to take after (He takes after his father in character and in looks)

to bring up
to adopt (They adopted a child)
to court (Jim is courting my elder sister)
to go out (Jim is going out with my sister)
to split up (They split up last year)
sweetheart (That’s her sweetheart)

They are friends (lovers, rivals)

to be engaged
to marry (She married a doctor)
be married to
to divorce / to break up
to retire (He retired on a pension)
to die (He died of an illness)

    Types of family

a one-parent family
a two-parent family
a blend family


an extended family a nuclear family

    Family relations

a friendly / united family close-knit
to get on well (with)
to be deeply attached (to)
to love somebody deeply
to care for (each other)
to never (sometimes) quarrel Can we avoid quarrels?
to be on best terms (with)
to have conflicts (with)
to support each other through any crisis
Yet they always support each other through any crisis
There is some misunderstanding between us
We try to make peace as soon as possible

    Family ways and habits

In the evening the family come together

to talk about the events of the day to get together in the living room for relaxation

to see little (much) of one another
to gather at table and discuss the events of the day

Since we leave home at different times in the morning supper /


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evening is our one opportunity of sitting down together

At weekends we see more of one another

to receive gests
to go out for a walk
to celebrate our birthdays together

Our relatives (relations) join us for tea (for dinner)
TV is not switched on because this destroys conversation
We have our family archives / many albums with family photos

    Interests

to be keen on
to be fond of
to be mad about
to be interested in
   sports fashions
   politics
   music (pop, rock techno, rap)
   cars
   computers psychology know-how books books on art
  DIY books (do it yourself)
I like to get out on visits to discuss new fashions with my friends to have a chat with my friend over the phone


I like to see thrillers comedies musicals soap operas horror films love stories catastrophe films
I like to go on the Internet

    Hobbies

to take up gardening
to give up gardening traveling drawing sewing knitting embroidering photography taking pictures shooting video growing flowers raising aquarium fish collecting CDs / stamps / calendars / badgers / coins cooking hiking gig going
  (performance of jazz or popular music)
playing the piano / guitar / violin doing the shopping
  reading fashion magazines playing computer games dancing singing
  performing in amateur theatre
listening to music

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Skills
Latin is not my forte (strong) point
to be good at growing flowers, knitting etc.

  to be clever with hands
to be clever at computers / video / shooting / taking pictures
to be handy with many things
he can fix almost everything

Snippets of talk
    - Are you relation to Jim Cochrane, a well-known TV presenter?
    - No, he is just my namesake.

    - What relationship is Owen to you?
    - He is my remote kinsman.

    - How’s your brother?
    - Fine. He is again going out with his ex-fiancee.

    - I’ve got news for you. Have you heard that Eva Browning is getting married for the third time on September the tenth?
    - Fancy that! She’s only got her second divorce in the spring. What a dreadful woman she is!
    - Her first marriage only lasted six months.
    - That’s right. At this rate she’ll lose count of her husbands before she’s forty.
    - She may lose count, but we certainly won’t.

    - Is Johnny still a computer game fanatic?
    - He is no longer keen on computer games, thank heavens. Now he has taken up biking and is away from home all day long.

    - I heard they quarrel much.
    - Do you know the secret of avoiding quarrels? Anyway, they always support each other through any crisis.

    - Who looks after your children while you are working?
    - Well, there’s a kindergarten. And my mother also lends a hand. She comes over to us when the children fall ill, and she babysits when we are out for the evening.


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