Exercises

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 481.

India

India is a country of an ancient culture. Long before our era its population was engaged in arable farming and various other trades. Many articles of Indian handicraft (textiles, weapons, ornaments, etc.) as well as the produce of arable farming, such as spices, were exported. Ancient Indians had a written language of their own. It was centuries ago that beautiful palaces and temples, which are remarkable works of art, were erected. The Taj Mahal mausoleum at Agra enjoys a world-wide fame as an architectural “pearl of India"; it is built of white marble and ornamented with precious stones. True recognition and profound respect on the part of their contemporaries were earned by the outstanding man Gandhi and the famous novelist and poet Tagore.

Traditionally the population of the country was divided into high and low castes. "Pariahs", i.e. members of the lowest caste, were allowed to do only drudge work. Though the republican government of India issued a law abolishing the castes, the Indian population still follows this system of social stratification and social restrictions in which social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups.

At the present time new schools are being opened and the standards of living and culture of the po­pulation are continuously raised. The average literacy rate in the country is quite high, amounting to over 70%, however, the percentage of people living below the poverty line is disastrous reaching 22%.

I.Be careful to pronounce the following correctly.

a) ancient, era, textile, weapon, mausoleum, pariah, caste, outcaste.

b) Agra, Tagore, Gandhi, Taj Mahal.

II. Denote the following notions by a single verb:

to send (goods) to another country; to make beautiful; to se­parate into parts; to move from a lower to a higher level.

III. Give the English equivalents of the following Russian nouns and adjectives:

изделие, ремесло, украшение, оружие, продукция (продукт), пряности, храм, мавзолей, жемчужина, мрамор, слава, призна­ние, уважение, современник, обнищание, население, пария, угне­тение, замечательный, архитектурный, глубокий, выдающийся, зна­чительный, древний, экономический, колониальный.

IV. Translate the following phrases into English:

пахотное земледелие, текстильное изделие, произведение ис­кусства, драгоценные камни, писатель-романист, тяжелая (фи­зическая) работа, распространение знаний, культурный уро­вень, уровень жизни, черта бедности, эндогамные группы населения, стратификация общества.

V. Give a word opposite in meaning to:

modern, rural, literate, minority, to lower.

VI. Give a word similar in meaning to:

to permit, to build, to publish, to delay, to prevent (obstruct), adornment, cen­tenary, labour, glory, tyranny, dissemi­nation, epoch, extraordinary, prominent, deep, continuously.