Life in the USA. Практикум по чтению лингвострановедческих текстов

А.Ф. Артемова 
Е.О. Леонович 

LIFE IN THE USA 

Практикум по чтению 
лингвострановедческих 
текстов 

Учебное пособие

2-е издание, стереотипное

Москва
Издательство «ФЛИНТА»
2019

УДК 811.111(075.8) 
ББК 81.2я73
А86

Артемова А.Ф.
    Life in the USA. Практикум по чтению  лингвострановедческих 
текстов: учеб. пособие / А.Ф. Артемова, Е.О. Леонович. — 2-е изд., стер. 
— М. : ФЛИНТА, 2019. — 241 с.

      ISBN 978-5-9765-4336-2

В пособие входят оригинальные страноведческие материалы 
(реклама, объявления, афиши, информационные бюллетени, описание 
бытовых приборов и др.), отражающие различные стороны жизни в 
США. Пособие также содержит страноведческие комментарии и ключи 
ко многим упражнениям. 
Книга включает тексты по следующим темам: «Американские 
газеты», 
«Политика», 
«Путешествия 
и 
туризм», 
«Развлечения», 
«Словари и энцикло-педии» и др. 
Для студентов языковых вузов, лингвистических факультетов 
университетов, учащихся старших классов школ с углубленным 
изучением английского языка, а также для всех, кто хотел бы 
усовершенствовать навыки чтения на английском языке и узнать больше 
о жизни в США. 

А86

УДК 811.111(075.8) 
ББК 81.2я73

ISBN 978-5-9765-4336-2            © Артемова А.Ф., Леонович Е.О., 2019
© Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2019

ВВЕДЕНИЕ

Как правило, существующие учебные посо
бия по чтению на английском языке (включая 
пособия по аналитическому чтению) в основе 
своей представляют собрания либо коротких 
рассказов, либо отрывков из различных художественных произведений, т. е. ориентируют 
обучаемого на знакомство в первую очередь с 
образцами литературных произведений.

Актуальность настоящего пособия определя
ется тем, что оно вводит в учебный процесс не 
литературные, художественные или публицистические и научные тексты, а образцы — примеры 
тех текстов, с которыми повседневно сталкиваются в своей жизни миллионы американцев. Инструкции по пользованию бытовыми приборами 
и листовки избирательных кампаний, расписания 
поездов и прогноз погоды, программы ТВ и 
радиопередач, меню ресторанов и кафе, туристские брошюры, объявления и реклама, таможенные декларации и дорожные указатели, каталоги 
и проспекты, карты, схемы — с этими и еще с 
сотнями подобных текстов ежедневно имеют 
дело жители Соединенных Штатов.

В пособии впервые делается попытка собрать 

подобный материал и применить его в практике 
преподавания. 
Пособие 
выполняет 
задачу 

восполнить 
серьезный 
пробел 
в 
учебной 

литературе по чтению на английском языке и 
обеспечивает встречу студентов, во-первых, с 
новыми источниками, являющимися носителями 
страноведческой информации, и, во-вторых, 
предъявляет эту информацию в той форме, в 
которой она существует в реальной жизни. Кроме 
того, многие отдельно взятые тексты имеют и 
познавательный интерес и могут служить отправной точкой для более детального обсуждения 
тем страноведческого характера.

Предлагаемое учебное пособие в большей 

части отражает реалии США, хотя в ряде 
разделов используются и британские реалии.

Введение

N O T E S FO R T E A CHE R S

«Практикум по чтению лингвострановедreading skills and activities, including information

ческих текстов» provides a wide range of
extraction, skimming and scanning.

1.
SKIMMING

If you want to find information quickly, see what 

the text is about, check if it contains the information you 
need or simply find out if it is interesting, then you will 
have to skim it. Skimming is a way of reading a text 
quickly to get a general understanding. One of the 
easiest ways to skim-read is to look at the centre section 
of a text and then to run your eyes down the centre area, 
letting them move around .the page. Remember.
skimming is not reading every word, but reading very 
quickly to get general ideas about a text. Skim-reading 
cannot replace careful reading.

You may ask your students to try this exercise: take 

a text (it may be a news report or a reference article 
about some writer taken from the book cover or from an 
encyclopaedia; its length shouldn’t exceed 150-170 
words). Skim it for about 20 seconds. Now close the text 
and try to write down as many things as you remember 
about the text. When you have done that, talk about the 
text with the person sitting next to you — check the 
words you have written down and see if you can 
remember anything else. You will be surprised at how 
many words and pieces of information you have 
remembered after just 20 seconds!

2.
SCANNING

Scanning is a way of reading a text to get a piece 

of information — a date or a name etc. — or a way of 
finding out if a text contains the information you need 
(for example, you are reading a text on cooking and you 
want to know if it tells you how to make bread). 
Scanning is very useful for finding information in 
indexes, catalogues and contents pages in books. To 
scan a text you can either:
a)
use the same way as skimming - looking at the 
centre section and letting your eyes move about 
over the page until you see the name or piece of 
information you are looking for;

b)
read the text as quickly as possible (from left to 
right) just looking for the information you need. 
There is no need to stop for words you don’t 
understand or at this stage to worry about the 
meaning because you are only looking for a single 
piece of information.
Another exercise you can give your students. 

Look at the list of TV programmes for the ABC, CBS 
and NBC. Scan the programmes to find the 
information needed to complete the exercise.
a)
When can you hear the “Local News”?

b)
Write 
down 
the 
starting 
times 
of 
these 

programmes: Beverly Hills, 90210;
The West Wing;

Law & Order;
Late Show with David Letterman.

c)
You switch on the TV at the following times. What 
programmes do you have? 10.30, 8.00, 11.00, 12.00

d)
How many times can you have “Local Programming”?
The following are suggestions for exploiting the 

texts in class for individual reading practice and group 
work which we have found useful.

1. Pre-reading activities
Learners may be prepared for the text in various 

ways. Some possibilities:
a)
Learners are encouraged to form certain expectations about the text based on clues from accompanying pictures or photographs.

b)
Necessary or helpful background information is 
provided or recalled, e.g. What do you know 
about... ? Do you remember... ?

c)
Learners reorder a list of jumbled sentences which 
contain the main points from the text.

d)
A broadly-similar type of text which introduces 
key vocabulary and expressions is studied beforehand.

e)
A listening text on the same topic is presented.

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Введение

f)
Learners first read a similar text in their mother
tongue; the two versions are compared.

g)
Learners are given the theme of the text. They try
to anticipate some of the main points and offer their
own ideas in a pre-reading discussion.

h)
Key words are supplied and learners try to guess
what the text might be about.

2.
While-reading activities

a)
Deducing meaning — analogy, context, word
formation, previous knowledge, etc.

b)
Questioning: multiple-choice, true/ false, Whquestions, etc.

c)
Recognizing — the main idea in each paragraph,
quotes from the text (e.g. Where in the text does it
say:
all the words relating to a particular

theme in the text, grammatical features.

d)
Ordering: jumbled paragraphs or sentences; a
jumbled sequence of pictures associated with the
text; two distinct texts which are jumbled and
presented together.

e)
Following instructions.

f)
Comparing.

g)
Note-taking.

h)
Completing: expanding a short headline into a
complete sentence, finishing an incomplete sentence or paragraph, correcting mistakes or contradictions in a text, doing a crossword, filling in a
questionnaire.

i)
Decision-making: reading a travel brochure and
choosing the most suitable holiday with particular
interests.

3.
Post-reading activities

Learners may be asked:

a) to express their views on the subject of the text and

relate it to their own experience.

b)
to create a similar text modelled on the one just
read, undertake a project on the theme of the text.

c)
to recreate the text, e.g. reconstruct it from key
words, write a summary.

d)
to exploit the text for grammar and vocabulary
learning, e.g. find verbs to correspond to selected
adjectives or nouns, find synonyms and antonyms
for words, etc. *
Some of the exercises in this book lend themselves

to being used as group reading exercises which 
automatically generate group discussion, questions and 
communication. Some of the ways in which we have 
used the texts are listed below:
a)
each group has the same text with different parts
or items of information missing. Students have to
answer as many questions as possible using the
information available to their group.

b)
it is possible to give the full texts and answers and
set the task of framing the questions, based on the
text, which would provide the given answers.

c)
timed exercises. By giving the group a time limit
within which the various tasks and exercises have
to be completed, the teacher can, by keeping the
record of the times, check the competence and
general reading ability of the students and at the
same time make the texts more challenging and
motivating.
Each section of the given book covers aspects of

vocabulary work, and teachers can obviously add to 
these sections and extend the range of vocabulary 
covered according to the needs and competence of their 
students.

1 Taken from J. Shells. Communication in the Modem Languages 

Classroom. Council of Europe Press, 1993.

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