Match the words up with their meaning and give the Russian translation

are fitted with	to be interested in something and enjoy it, especially an activity that you do often
failure	to fail to include something, either deliberately or because you forget
glottal stop	there is a way of doing it
pot calling the kettle black	to omit, not to include, not to pronounce
guilty of	made to fit the shape of something or a particular space
to leave out	a lack of success in doing something
whereas	used for saying that someone is criticizing another person for a fault that they also have
can help it	ashamed and sorry because you have done something wrong
keen on	though, despite or because of a particular fact that has been considered
omit	a sound made by stopping air as it passes through the throat, often used instead of a 't' sound in the middle or at the end of a word

 

conjunction	an action, thought, or way of behaving that is wrong according to religious laws
referred to	humorous
intelligible	to say something
uninitiated	a principle or belief that is considered to be old-fashioned and no longer important
sin n	mentioning someone or something when you are speaking or writing
infallible	famous for something bad
shibboleth	clear or simple enough to understand
bleeping	lacking knowledge or experience of something
notorious	to make a sudden small movement because you are afraid, surprised, in pain or in disgust
suburb	a word that is used to join other words, phrases, clauses, and sentences
flinch	a short high sound made by a piece of electronic equipment
utter	not capable of making mistakes
jocular	an area or town near a large city but away from its centre, where there are many houses, especially for middle-class people

 

eschew [ist'ju:]	to create a difficult or dangerous situation
squeamish	sweet foods such as sweets and chocolates
irredeemably	to come somewhere unexpectedly or without making a firm arrangement
hallmark	old fashioned for a drawing room
to pose	someone who invites people to a meal or party, or to stay in their home
turn up	to avoid using or doing something, especially for moral reasons
host	easily shocked or upset by something unpleasant
scale	not belonging to the proper class
settee	to use something, for example a law, theory, or money, in a way that is wrong or illegal
withdrawing room	a typical feature
misapply	a set of people or things arranged in order from the highest level to the lowest or from the lowest level to the highest
déclassé	impossible to change or make better
confectionary (confectionery)	a long soft comfortable sofa for two or three people

 

refreshments	a job, used especially on forms and in formal writing
reliable	to accept behaviour that you would not normally accept because you know why someone has behaved that way
class-consciousness	to hide something such as your feelings or intentions
to disguise	something to eat or drink during an event such as a meeting or party
to make allowances	someone you can trust to behave well, work hard, or do what you expect them to do
blunt	used for saying that someone or something is not connected with or involved in a particular fact or situation
angst-ridden	the beliefs, opinions, and feelings of a group of people which are influenced by a strong feeling of belonging to a particular social class and noticing differences between the classes
nothing to do	saying what is true or what you think, even if this offends or upsets people
occupation	always worried about things

 

poverty-line wages	a way of communicating information and ideas, especially to a lot of people, for example newspapers or television
grubby menial work	with no money or possessions
run-down council flat	concerning the sense of touch
destitute	the amount of money earned for working which is considered necessary to live, though to live in poverty
tactile	work which is boring or dirty and considered to be of low status
medium	a flat owned by the local council, for which you pay a low rent and which is in bad condition because no one has spent money on repairs

 

Exercises

A. Fill in the blanks with the suitable words and expressions:

to leave out, can help it, are fitted with, guilty of, whereas, failure, pot calling the kettle black

 

1. Now many cell phones _______________ with a GPS device.
2. Stephen criticizing Jane for her lack of modesty is a clear case of __________________ as he himself is a braggart.
3. Carl’s __________ to become a writer did not stop him from applying to a newspaper.
4. Conrad was found _____________ breaking into his neighbor’s house.
5. But Carla got a bad grade too! - ____________ Carla _______ it! She’s not the one majoring in math!
6. I like fish __________ my wife can’t stand it.
7. It’s raining! – Sorry, I _____________ it. I do not make weather.

B. Answer the questions using the following words and expressions:

Uninitiated, notorious, suburb, sin n, infallible

 

1. What is hard to do for those doing it for the first time?
2. Why is it bad to lie?
3. What is the best car, in your opinion?
4. Who was the most famous criminal in the 20^th century?
5. Where would you like to live in relation to the center of the city?

 

C.  Translate using the following words and expressions:

Intelligible, omit, referred to, flinch, utter, jocular, eschew

 

1. Ее с трудом можно было расслышать.
2. В своей речи он пропустил несколько пунктов, поскольку времени уже не оставалось.
3. Ее статья – позже называемая всеми «Манифест» - произвела большое впечатление.
4. Она кинула в него сковородкой, а он даже не шелохнулся.
5. За весь час он не сказал и пары слов.
6. Его шутливая манера вести разговор понравилась не всем.
7. Я ненавижу шпинат, так что простите, но это блюдо я есть не могу.

D. Answer the questions using suitable words and expressions:

 

1. What kind of people do you not consider reliable?

2. What kind ob behavior are you not prepared to make allowances for?

3. Are you a good host/hostess? Why?

4. Why is it customary to serve refreshments before dinner?

5. What do you think your occupation will be after you graduate?

6. Do you know people that are irredeemably idealistic? Do you like them?

7. What kind of food are you squeamish about?

8. When was last time you were blunt about something when talking to a friend?

GRAMMAR

 

1. Множественное число сокращений и однобуквенных слов в английском языке выражается конструкцией АПОСТРОФ + S

 

Dot you i’s and cross your t’s. – Поставь все точки над «и».

 

TRANSLATE

 

The proof in this argument is the lower-class failure to pronounce consonants, in particular the dropping of ‘t’s and ‘h’s.

 

3. Выражение                  переводится как

 

To be frowned upon         не одобряться

To be unheard of               быть неслыханным

 

TRANSLATE

 

You may hear an upper-middle-class person say ‘living room’, although this is frowned upon.

This is unheard-of! He must be punished!

 

4. Конструкция TO BE + ADJ + AS + PRESENT PERFECT переводится как НЕ + ПРИЛ (противоположное по значению английскому) ЧЕМ РАНЬШЕ:

 

I am as strong as I’ve ever been. – Я не слабее, чем раньше

 

TRANSLATE

 

We are as class-conscious as we have ever been.

 

5. В конструкции IT IS NOT THAT + ПРЕДЛОЖЕНИЕ 1, (BUT) + ПРЕДЛОЖЕНИЕ 2, часть IT IS NOT THAT переводится как НЕ ТО, ЧТОБЫ:

 

It is not that she became rich but she got pretty well-off. – Не то, чтобы она разбогатела, но денег у нее стало много.

 

TRANSLATE

 

It is not that these top and bottom classes are any less class-conscious than the middle ranks; they just tend to be less angst-ridden and embarrassed about it all.

 

6. Выражение NOT GIVEN TO + GERUND обозначает отсутствие склонности:

 

She’s not much given to hugging. – Она не склонна обниматься.

 

TRANSLATE

 

We are also not particularly ‘tactile’ or physically expressive, not given to much touching or gesticulating.

 

MATCH UP DIALOGUE PARTS

PART 1 (first sentence)

What’s the infallible way to go online anytime?	My wife is a vegetarian whereas I eschew vegetables.	You always serve such excellent refreshments! They are the hallmark of your dinners!
Your speech is totally unintelligible!	It’s a sin to utter such swearwords!	Martha seems to be a consummate athlete. Or did I misapply the term?
Why is he always so blunt and impolite?	Do you live in the suburbs?	What scale does he use to judge people?
Her project was a total failure and he was found guilty of gross mismanagement.	Why is he so squeamishly class-conscious? He flinches from anyone who did not graduate from Oxford!	For an uninitiated it’s hard to understand why you omitted his name in the guest-list.

PART 2 (reply, reaction)

You have to make allowances for his position: He’s drawing poverty-line wages doing grubby menial work.	I know, only déclassé people use language like that. But I just can’t help it!	Make sure your computer is fitted with a Wi-Fi device.
I do. It’s an ideal medium for raising kids.	Yes, I heard from reliable sources that he was fired and is now living in a run-down council flat.	Well, when you go out, order a full meal and tell the waiter to leave out the salad and give it to her.
Well, it has nothing to do with their occupation. He’s irredeemably class-conscious.	Look at the pot calling the kettle black! You are notorious for people not being able to understand a word you say.	He’s trying to disguise his lower-class roots.
I did it in conjunction with the fact that last year he was arrested for stealing.	Oh, it’s nothing. I love being a good host.	You didn’t. She’s keen on swimming and always turns up for marathons.

 

LINGUISTIC CLASS CODES

 

All English people, whether they admit it or not, are fitted with a sort of social Global Positioning Satellite computer that tells us a person’s position on the class map as soon as he or she begins to speak.

There are two main factors involved in the calculation of this position: terminology and pronunciation – the words you use and how you say them. Pronunciation is a more reliable indicator (it is relatively easy to learn the terminology of a different class), so I’ll start with that.

 

THE VOWELS VS CONSONANTS RULE

 

The first class indicator concerns which type of letter you favour in your pronunciation – or rather, which type you fail to pronounce.

 

(The proof) in this argument is the lower-class failure to pronounce consonants, in particular the glottal stop – the omission (swallowing, dropping) of ‘t’s – and the dropping of ‘h’s. But this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The lower ranks may drop their consonants, but the upper class are equally guilty of dropping their vowels. If you ask them the time, for example, the lower classes may tell you it is ‘’alf past ten’ but the upper class will say ‘hpstn’. A handkerchief in working-class speech is ‘’ankercheef’, but in upper-class pronunciation becomes ‘hnkrchf’.

 

The upper class, and the upper-middle and middle-middle classes, do at least pronounce their consonants correctly – well, you’d better, if you’re going to leave out half of your vowels – whereas the lower classes often pronounce ‘th’ as ‘f’ (‘teeth’ becomes ‘teef’, ‘thing’ becomes ‘fing’) or sometimes as ‘v’ (‘that’ becomes ‘vat’, ‘Worthing’ is ‘Worving’). Final ‘g’s can become ‘k’s, as in ‘somefink’ and ‘nuffink’. Pronunciation of vowels is also a helpful class indicator. Lower-class ‘a’s are often pronounced as long ‘i’s – Dive for Dave, Tricey for Tracey. The upper class don’t say ‘I’ at all if they can help it: one prefers to refer to oneself as ‘one’. In fact, they are not too keen on pronouns in general, omitting them, along with articles and conjunctions, wherever possible – as though they were sending a frightfully expensive telegram. Despite all these peculiarities, the upper classes remain convinced that their way of speaking is the only proper way: their speech is the norm, everyone else’s is ‘an accent’ – and when the upper classes say that someone speaks with ‘an accent’, what they mean is a working-class accent.

 

There is, however, a distinction between upper-class speech and ‘educated’ speech – they are not necessarily the same thing. What you may hear referred to as ‘BBC English’ or ‘Oxford English’ is a kind of ‘educated’ speech – but it is more upper-middle than upper: it lacks the haw-haw tones, vowel swallowing and pronoun-phobia of upper-class speech, and is certainly more intelligible to the uninitiated.

 

The Seven Deadly Sins

 

There are, however, seven words that the English uppers and upper-middles regard as infallible shibboleths. Utter any one of these ‘seven deadly sins’ in the presence of these higher classes, and their on-board class-radar devices will start bleeping and flashing: you will immediately be demoted to middle-middle class, at best, probably lower – and in some cases automatically classified as working class.

 

Pardon

 

This word is the most notorious pet hate of the upper and upper-middle classes.

 

(…) To the uppers and upper-middles, using such an unmistakably lower-class term is worse than swearing. Some even refer to lower-middle-class suburbs as ‘Pardonia’. Here is a good class-test you can try: when talking to an English person, deliberately say something too quietly for them to hear you properly. A lower-middle or middle-middle person will say ‘Pardon?’; an upper-middle will say ‘Sorry?’ (or perhaps ‘Sorry – what?’ or ‘What – sorry?’); but an upper-class and a working-class person will both just say ‘What?’

 

Toilet

 

‘Toilet’ is another word that makes the higher classes flinch – or exchange knowing looks, if it is uttered by a would-be social climber. The correct upper-middle/upper term is ‘loo’ or ‘lavatory’ (pronounced lavuhtry, with the accent on the first syllable). ‘Bog’ is occasionally acceptable, but only if it is said in an obviously ironic-jocular manner, as though in quotes.

 

Those lower- and middle-middles with pretensions or aspirations, however, may eschew ‘toilet’ in favour of suburban-genteel euphemisms such as ‘gents’, ‘ladies’, ‘bathroom’, ‘powder room’, ‘facilities’ and ‘convenience’; or jokey euphemisms such as ‘latrines’, ‘heads’ and ‘privy’ (females tend to use the former, males the latter).

 

Serviette

 

A ‘serviette’ is what the inhabitants of Pardonia call a napkin. It has been suggested that ‘serviette’ was taken up by squeamish lower-middles who found ‘napkin’ a bit too close to ‘nappy’, and wanted something that sounded a bit more refined. Whatever its origins, ‘serviette’ is now regarded as irredeemably lower class.

 

Dinner

 

There is nothing wrong with the word ‘dinner’ in itself: it is only a working-class hallmark if you use it to refer to the midday meal, which should be called ‘lunch’. Calling your evening meal ‘tea’ is also a working-class indicator: the higher echelons call this meal ‘dinner’ or ‘supper’.

 

‘Tea’, for the higher classes, is taken at around four o’clock, and consists of tea and cakes or scones, and perhaps little sandwiches. The lower classes call this ‘afternoon tea’. All this can pose a few problems for foreign visitors: if you are invited to ‘dinner’, should you turn up at midday or in the evening? Does ‘come for tea’ mean four o’clock or seven o’clock? To be safe, you will have to ask what time you are expected. The answer will help you to place your hosts on the social scale.

 

Lounge

 

And what do they call the room in which the settee/sofa is to be found? Settees are found in ‘lounges’ or ‘living rooms’, sofas in ‘sitting rooms’ or ‘drawing rooms’. ‘Drawing room’ (short for ‘withdrawing room’) used to be the only ‘correct’ term, but many upper-middles and uppers feel it is bit silly and pretentious to call, say, a small room in an ordinary terraced house the ‘drawing room’, so ‘sitting room’ has become acceptable. You may occasionally hear an upper-middle-class person say ‘living room’, although this is frowned upon, but only middle-middles and below say ‘lounge’.

 

Sweet

 

Like ‘dinner’, this word is not in itself a class indicator, but it becomes one when misapplied. The upper-middle and upper classes insist that the sweet course at the end of a meal is called the ‘pudding’ – never the ‘sweet’, or ‘afters’, or ‘dessert’, all of which are déclassé, unacceptable words. ‘Sweet’ can be used freely as an adjective, but as a noun it is piece of confectionary – what the Americans call ‘candy’ – and nothing else. The course at the end of the meal is always ‘pudding’, whatever it consists of: a slice of cake is ‘pudding’, so is a lemon sorbet.

 

‘Smart’ and ‘Common’ Rules

 

The opposite of ‘smart’ is what everyone from the middle-middles upwards calls ‘common’ – a snobbish euphemism for ‘working class’. But beware: using this term too often is a sure sign of middle-middle class-anxiety.

 

If they are ‘common’, these young people will call their parents Mum and Dad; ‘smart’ children say Mummy and Daddy (some used to say Ma and Pa, but these are now seen as very old-fashioned). When talking about their parents, common children refer to them as ‘my Mum’ and ‘my Dad’ (or ‘me Mam’ and ‘me Dad’), while smart children say ‘my mother’ and ‘my father’.

 

Mothers who are called Mum carry a ‘handbag’; mothers called Mummy just call it a ‘bag’. Mums wear ‘perfume’; Mummies call it ‘scent’. Parents called Mum and Dad go ‘horseracing’; smart Mummies and Daddies call it ‘racing’. Common people go to a ‘do’; middle-middles might call it a ‘function’; smart people just call it a party. ‘Refreshments’ are served at middle-class ‘functions’; the higher echelons’ parties just have food and drink. Lower- and middle-middles eat their food in ‘portions’; upper-middles and above have ‘helpings’. Common people have a ‘starter’; smart people have a ‘first course’ (although this one is rather less reliable).

 

Class-denial Rules

 

We are clearly as acutely class-conscious as we have ever been, but in these ‘politically correct’ times, many of us are increasingly embarrassed about our class-consciousness, and do our best to deny or disguise it. The middle classes are particularly uncomfortable about class, and well-meaning upper-middles are the most squeamish of all.

These over-tactful upper-middles may even try to avoid using the word ‘class’ at all, carefully talking about someone’s ‘background’ instead… (This is always obvious from the context: ‘Well, with that sort of background, you have to make allowances . . .’ ‘We prefer Saskia and Fiona to mix with girls from the same background . . .’)

 

All this diplomatic euphemising is quite unnecessary, though, as working-class English people generally do not have a problem with the c-word, and are quite happy to call themselves working class. Upper-class English people are also often rather blunt and no-nonsense about class. It is not that these top and bottom classes are any less class-conscious than the middle ranks; they just tend to be less angst-ridden and embarrassed about it all.

 

LINGUISTIC CLASS CODES AND ENGLISHNESS

 

All cultures have a social hierarchy and methods of signalling social status: what, apart from our perhaps disproportionate class-consciousness, is distinctive about the English class system and its signals?

 

Class in England has nothing to do with money, and very little to do with occupation. Speech is all-important. A person with an upper-class accent, using upper-class terminology, will be recognized as upper class even if he or she is earning poverty-line wages, doing grubby menial work and living in a run-down council flat. Or even unemployed, destitute and homeless. Equally, a person with working-class pronunciation, who calls his sofa a settee, and his midday meal ‘dinner’, will be identified as working class even if he is a multi-millionaire living in a grand country house. There are other class indicators – such as one’s taste in clothes, furniture, decoration, cars, pets, books, hobbies, food and drink – but speech is the most immediate and most obvious.

 

The importance of speech in this context may point to another English characteristic: our love of words. It has often been said that the English are very much a verbal rather than a visual culture, considerably more noted for our literature than for our art – or indeed music. We are also not particularly ‘tactile’ or physically expressive, not given to much touching or gesticulating, relying more on verbal than nonverbal communication. Words are our preferred medium, so it is perhaps significant that they should be our primary means of signalling and recognising social status.

WRITE A DIALOGUE WITH THE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS BELOW. TOPIC:

A PARENT AND A CHILD FIGHTING OVER SOMETHING

 

to leave out

can’t help it

to be fitted with

guilty of

whereas

failure

the pot calling the kettle black

uninitiated

notorious

 

 

WRITE A COMPOSITION WITH THE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS BELOW. 

TOPIC: WHERE IS IT BETTER TO LIVE – DOWNTOWN OR IN THE SUBURBS?

 

suburb

sin n

infallible

intelligible

omit

referred to

flinch

utter

jocular

eschew

 

CHAPTER 5

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