Form 11

Foreign Philology Class

Task 1.  Read the text, translate and prepare 20 questions about the text.

History of Canada

Canada's history is an exciting story of development of a vast wilderness into a great nation. Most experts believe that the first people who lived on this land came from Asia about 15000 years ago. They came over a land bridge that once connected Asia and North America. Their descendants are known today as Indians. The ancestors of the Eskimos came to Alaska after them probably about 5000 years ago. In 1497, John Cabot, an Italian navigator in the service of England, found rich fishing grounds off Canada's south- east coast. His discovery led to the European exploration of Canada. France set up a colony in eastern Canada in the early 1600's. Great Britain gained control of the country in 1763, and thousands of British emigrants came to Canada. In 1867, the French and English-speaking Canadians helped to create a united colony called the Dominion of Canada. Two groups worked together to settle the country and to develop its great mineral deposits and other natural resources. Canada gained its independence from Britain in 1931. During the middle of 20th century, hard-working Canadians turned their country into an economic giant. Today Canada is a leading producer of wheat, oats, and barley, Canada also ranks among the world's top manufacturing countries, and it is a major producer of electric power. Throughout its history, Canada has often been troubled by lack of unity among its people. French Canadians, most of whom live in the province of Quebec, have struggled to preserve their own culture. They have long been angered by Canadian policies based on British traditions. Many of them support a movement to make Quebec a separate nation. People in Canada's nine other provinces also frequently favour local needs over national interests.
Food and Economy

Food in Daily Life. The agricultural and ethnic richness of Canada has led to two distinctive characteristics of everyday food consumption. The first is its scale. Canadians are "big eaters," with meat portions in particular dominating the Canadian meal. There are generally three regular meals in a given day. Breakfast, often large and important in rural areas, but less so in urban areas, is most often not eaten in a group. Lunch, at midday, is most often a snack in urban areas, but remains a substantial meal in rural centers. Dinner, the final formal meal of the day, is also the meal most likely to be eaten by a residential group as a whole, and it is the largest and the most socially important meal of the day. It is the meal most often used as a social event or to which invitations to nonfamily members are extended, in contrast with lunch which is often, for adults, shared with coworkers. Meat plays a key role in all three of the formal meals, but with increasing importance at breakfast and dinner. Dinner should have some special, and most often, large, meat portion as its key component. Each of these three meals can be, and often are, very substantial. There are general rules concerning appropriate foods for each meal, rules that can be quite complex. For example, pork can figure in each meal, but only particular kinds of pork would be considered appropriate. Pork at breakfast may appear as bacon, or sausage, in small portions. Both of these products are made with the least valuable portion of the pig. At lunch, pork may appear in a sandwich in the form of processed meats, also made from the least valuable portion of the pig. For dinner, pork appears in large and more highly valued forms, such as roasts or hams, which require often elaborate preparation and which are presented to diners in a way that highlights their value and size.
           The other main feature of Canadian food is diversity. The complex ethnic landscape of Canada and the tendency of ethnic groups to retain a dual cultural orientation have meant that Canadian cuisine is quite diverse in its content, with many ethnic dishes seen as somehow quintessentially Canadian as well. Whether pizza or chow mein, cabbage rolls or plum pudding, Canadian cuisine is best characterized as eclectic rather than consistent in content. There are a small number of food items that are considered distinctively Canadian, such as maple syrup, but overall the Canadian diet is drawn from a panoply of ethnic sources.

Political Life

Government. Canada is a confederation of ten provinces and three territories, with a central federal government managing national services and international relations. Each province and, to a lesser extent, each territory has constitutional sovereignty over at least some aspects of its affairs. Each level of government is a constitutionally governed democracy, modeled on the British parliamentary system with representatives chosen in statutorily scheduled elections. Suffrage is universal for all citizens over the age of eighteen, except, in some instances, those in prison or citizens living overseas. Political control at each level of government is determined by the political party that wins the largest number of representative seats, not by proportion of popular vote. The election of each representative, however, is direct and proportional, the winner being the candidate who receives the single largest percentage of the votes cast.

Leadership and Political Officials.

Leadership is dominated, in particular at the provincial and national levels, by professionals, often though not exclusively, lawyers, and most often though not exclusively, men. These political leaders are selected for election by political parties, and there is an informal network of control that governs these nominations which requires service to the political party as part of the process of gaining access to that party's nomination for election by the citizens. There are no limits on the number of terms a political leader may serve. In general, these elected political officials serve two functions: representing the interests of their constituents at whatever level of government they serve, and advancing the political interests and the platform of the party that nominated them. Where these two functions come into conflict, the interests of their political party most often takes precedence, resulting occasionally in elected government officials being punished by their political parties.
 Leadership and governing is carried out as well, however, by appointed officials who form a large bureaucracy that implements the decisions of elected officials. This bureaucracy is mostly drawn from middle-and upper-class, well-educated sectors of the population, and apart from a small percentage of appointments at the pleasure of the governing party, their positions in this system are lifelong if they choose. Access to this bureaucracy is in part through training and merit and in part through a network of connections outward from the bureaucracy to the business and higher educational communities. Statutory prohibitions exist against bribery and other kinds of influence peddling in dealings with politicians and government officials, although violations do occur and often result in considerable scandal and criminal sanction.

Marriage. Family and Kinship.

Marriage. Except for some ethnic sectors, marriages are freely chosen by the two partners. Marriage is restricted to the union of a man and a woman by statute, although this is currently under review by the country's courts. Official marriages, officiated by either religious authorities or by municipal clerks or judges, must be dissolved by the legal procedure of divorce.
     A second form of marriage, the de facto or common-law union, gives the couple almost all the same privileges and obligations as official marriage. Common-law union is a matter of informal declaration by the partners. Common-law conjugal recognition has recently been extended to include same-sex partners. The dissolution of common-law unions or same-sex partnerships requires no special legal proceedings, although resolution of shared property rights and support responsibilities arising from the union often require legal intervention and enforcement. In both cases, the marriage union involves mutuality of financial support, some degree of joint ownership of property, and joint responsibility for the care and support of children. Under Canadian law, all marriages must be monogamous. The de facto or common-law union is considered to be annulled should either partner take on a new conjugal partnership. Marriages are most often celebrated privately between the two families involved. There is, however, an interesting rural/urban distinction. Engagement or marriage celebrations in smaller communities are often community events at which anyone may attend, usually for a small fee.

Domestic Unit. The most common domestic unit is the nuclear family, made up of both parents and their children. Almost all newlywed couples start their own family unit independent of their parents. A demographic shift, which has seen a slow and steady increase in the number of elderly in Canada, has led to an increase in the number of domestic units in which one or more elderly relative can also be present. Increases in rate of divorce since the 1970s has also meant an increase in the number of single-parent households, most often headed by women. Authority in domestic units is generally shared by adult members, though men most often exercise more power in financial and disciplinary matters than their female partners. Skaters on the frozen Rideau Canal celebrate the Winterlude, a festival held annually in Canada.
Inheritance radiates outward from the nuclear family to more distance relatives, with members of the immediate nuclear family taking precedence. All manner of property, as well as most if not all of a deceased person's debt, can be inherited. There are no gender differences in what can be bequeathed and what can be inherited, although in rural communities and areas there is a tendency for male children to inherit land, while female children inherit more liquid forms of property. In most instances, spouses take precedence over children in matters of inheritance. All inheritances can be contested through legal proceedings.
 Kin Groups. Allowing for some ethnic variation, in general, kinship is a dispersed system of relatedness in Canada, and while there are general expectations of mutual support along kin lines, levels of which diminish with kin distance, there are no formal rules of kinship observance, other than those statutory prohibitions against marrying close kin, or criminal code provisions regarding incest. Kinship does not determine residence, though kin networks are often used to gain access to employment.
Etiquette

The ethnic diversity of Canada means that rules of social propriety are quite complex. There are certain general expectations. Greeting, except in formal settings, does not require touching in the form of embraces or handshakes. Behavior in public should be subdued. Rowdiness and loud speech, for example, are considered inappropriate except under special circumstances or in places such as bars or other venues. As a community, Canadians are in general soft spoken, patient, and almost apologetic in their public behavior. They are also in general tolerant of the complex network of cultural differences in public behavior, more so in cities perhaps, where such diversity is more common place.

Task 2. Make up 30 questions about the text.
Task 3. Write an article to a school journal about Canada. Mention the key facts.
Task 4. Revise the rules of using Participle I, II, Participial Constructions. Make up a grammar card. 
Task 5.  Open the brackets:
1.      We have) enough time if we wanted to see the castle?
2.      In case you  (buy) a car, will you teach me to drive?
3.      If I (not be) in a hurry, I wouldn't have made so many mistakes.
4.      She won't finish it on time if she  (not start) right now.
5.      She  (get angry) if you had told her.
6.      On condition that they  (support) our product, they would get a discount.
7.      Even if I (ask) him, he won't come.
8.      Had I driven slowly, I  (not crash)
9.      It will be a disaster unless they (help) us.
10.  If you  (have) something to eat, you wouldn't have felt sick.
11.  I wouldn't risk it if I  (be) you.
12.  She would get fat if she  (not stop) eating.
13.    The chicken wasn't good. It  (taste) better if you had put some spices on it.

    Task 6.                                                       READING

I. Read the following article on getting fit and mark sentences 1 to 7 T (True) or F (False).

My first piece of advice to people who want to start getting fit is: don’t buy an exercise bike. Typically, people who buy them use them for a week or so and then forget about them. They are effective if they are used regularly but you need to be determined. Most people will find it much easier to go for a gentle jog around the park. As well as being easy to do, jogging is also relatively cheap compared to most other sports. You don’t need to buy expensive clothes if you’re just going running around the park or on the beach. The main thing is that they’re comfortable, and that they keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer. There is one piece of equipment, however, that you will have to spend time and money on, and that’s your running shoes. Remember that you are not looking for a fashion item, but for something that will support your feet and protect you from injury. They can be expensive, but if they are good quality they will last you a long time. It’s always best to get expert advice, and the best place for that is a sports shop. As for the actual jogging, the secret is to start gently, and not to do too much at the beginning – especially if you haven’t had any exercise for a long time. Try a mixture of walking and running for ten minutes about three times a week at first. Once you are happy doing that you can then start to increase the amount you do gradually. After a few months you should hope to be able to run at a reasonable speed for twenty minutes three or four times a week. It’s important that you feel comfortable with whatever you do. If you do, you’ll start to enjoy it and will probably keep doing it. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, you’ll probably stop after a short time and return to your bad habits. In any case, training too hard is not very effective. Research has shown that somebody who exercises for twice as long or twice as hard as another person doesn’t automatically become twice as fit.
1) Most people don’t use exercise bikes for very long. T/F
2) Exercise bikes don’t get you fit. T/F
3) You should keep warm at all times when you are jogging. T/F
4) Running shoes don’t have to be fashionable. T/F
5) You should start jogging by walking for ten minutes. T/F
6) You should expect to feel uncomfortable when jogging. T/F
7) You won’t necessarily be a lot fitter by running twice as fast. T/F

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