Plan: Introduction

Exercise 4. Read an extract from Songs of the City by Owen G. (1985). Identify its genre and justify your choice.

Good afternoon and welcome

To this international
Between England and Holland
Which is being played here today
At 4, Florence Terrace.
And the pitch looks in superb condition
As Danny Markey, the England captain,
Puts England on the attack.
Straight away it’s Markey
With a lovely little pass to Keegan,
Keegan back to Markey,
Markey in possession here
Jinking skilfully past the dustbins;
And a neat flick inside the cat there.
What a brilliant player this Markey is
And he’s still only nine years old!
Francis to Markey,
Markey is through, he’s through
No, he’s been tackled by the drainpipe;
But he’s won the ball back brilliantly
And he’s advancing on the Dutch keeper,
It must be a goal.
No!
It’s gone into Mrs. Spencer’s next door.
And Markey’s going round to ask for the ball back
It could be the end of this international.
Now the door’s opening
And yes, it’s Mrs. Spence,
Mrs. Spence has come to the door.
Wait a minute
She’s shaking her head, she’s shaking her head
She’s not going to let England have their ball back.
What is the referee going to do?

Exercise 5. Read and translate a report from The Daily Telegraph. Comment on the vocabulary peculiarities and syntactical patterns used.

BUSH IS JUST AS BAD AS SADDAM

While President George W. Bush drew applause in America for his plans to destroy the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, in Baghdad yesterday there were only jeers and scoffs.

These are just gestures that mean nothing, said Zaineb Hamid, a 30-year-old typist.
Anyway they can just build another jail if they want. Saddam and Bush: they are one and the same.
Bayan Kubeysi, a professor of Arab literature, said: Abu Ghraib is not the issue. The issue is the way the Americans treat us Iraqis. They must leave at once and that’s it. Anything is better than this.
If six months ago many educated Iraqis still wanted the American troops to stay, today that support has withered to almost nil. Dhaher Sadoon, 35, who runs a furniture shop in the smart Mansour suburb of Baghdad, is typical of the middle-class Baghdadi who has turned against them. The situation here is ground zero, he said. There is no security, no life. The Americans simply look after themselves. If they leave, there will be chaos but there is chaos anyway. I would prefer to take my chances as a citizen of a free country. Saddam humiliated us but he never went this far.
In his speech to the US Army War College, Mr. Bush said the destruction of Abu Ghraib would be a lifting symbol of Iraq’s new beginning. But Hamid al-Bayati, the deputy foreign Minister, said the decision was not one for Mr. Bush to take. It should be left to the new interim government which takes over on June 30, he said.
The reasons for the growing hatred of the Americans are not difficult to fathom. Since they took over, Baghdad has become a virtual war zone. Explosions rock the city day and night. There are shootings, roadside bombs and banditry is rife. The military’s reply has been to erect miles of barbed wire and concrete barricades, block major bridges and close dozens of important roads. Many Iraqis are forced to spend hours queuing at US-manned checkpoints in the baking sun. The main motorway to Basra has been requisitioned for sole US military use, forcing locals to make a long detour through bandit-infested towns.
With each attack against westerners, new security measures are enforced.
The so-called Green Zone “where ordinary Iraqis are not allowed” is now far larger than any of the restricted areas Saddam Hussein inflicted on his people.
Meanwhile stories are legion of undisciplined shooting and bullying of locals. Scores of cars have been crushed by US armour.
Falah Jassan Hassim, 37, a co-owner of an outside billiard bar favoured by students, said: If we don’t move our cars quickly enough they smash our windscreens.
Ahmed Hussein, 27, was selling petrol in dirty plastic canisters near Freedom Square, where the Americans famously toppled Saddam Husseinв’s statue. They helped us to get rid of Saddam, he said. But now they must go. Every action they take provokes people further. If they leave, things will be more peaceful.
A restaurant manager in central Baghdad said: We have got to the end of the movie only to find out that Saddam was the son of the Americans all along.

Exercise 6. Read the following brief news items. What accounts for the matter-of-fact vocabulary and the lack of emotional colouring in these newspaper features?

a) ENGLISH LANGUAGE BELONGS TO EVERYONE, SAYS HOWARD Michael Howard yesterday called for all immigrants to learn English and to contribute new words from their cultures to make the language even richer.
The Tory leader said the core English language was a part of British culture that should be open to all people who chose to live in this country. It belongs to all of us wherever we came from originally, he told an audience in Birmingham. Spelling out his belief in a form of multiculturalism that has Brutishness at its heart, he said language was the most obvious binding element in society.
It is important that people who come here to live and to work learn the language of the notion, he said. The English language has never been fixed. Its richness springs from its absorption of new words from around the world. But the core of the language remains constant and enables communities to have a dialogue with each other rather than put up barriers.
b) EXPORT OF OLD MASTER HALTED
The Government has temporarily banned the export of an $8.1 million Old Master bought by a Dutch museum. The ban gives British buyers two months to raise the money for The Burgher of Delft and His Daughter by the 17th-century Dutch painter Jan Steen.
The painting, which hung in a Welsh castle for 150 years, was bought by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It is believed to be the most expensive purchase the Dutch museum has ever made.