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

go so far as to	a building that has been changed into a flat
fag	being too full of great energy, effort, and enthusiasm
dole-scrounger [au]	a sentence adverb at the end of a sentence (making a comment on the whole sentence or clause)
distasteful	do smth up to a particular point or degree
vestige	a boring, tiring, or annoying job
muddle through	inherently, essentially
considering	a weakness for smth
overzealous [e]	the ability to make good quick decisions and judgments
intrinsically	a very small amount of a feeling or quality that has almost disappeared or stopped existing
get a life	to succeed in doing something despite having no clear plan, method, or suitable equipment
predilection	unpleasant in a way that upsets or offends you
loft conversion	a person who prefers to live on welfare rather than having a proper job
acumen	used for telling someone that they are boring

 

self-effacing	feeling confused, embarrassed, or nervous
boastfulness	speaking in an angry or threatening way, often because you do not want to show that you are frightened or nervous
be at odds with	I understand it.
revulsion	to avoid something difficult or unpleasant
gagging	saying what you think and feel directly and honestly, without being afraid of other people's reactions
get away with that	keeping a low profile
I get it.	to be about to vomit
procrastination	bragging
sidestep	disgust, aversion
straight away	showing that you are sorry about something
wryly	to manage to do smth bad without being punished or criticized for it
rueful	be different or opposite instead of being the same
sordid	rushed
blustering	delaying doing smth until later
forthright	immoral, dishonest, or unpleasant
flustered	immediately
hurried	showing that you think smth is funny but not very pleasant

 

prickly	expressed or understood without being said directly
bullish	the particular quality that smth seems to have
rise through the ranks	a person belonging to a high social class with a country estate
avoid the issue	something that is considered offensive to God or someone's religious beliefs
gentry	making people disagree and argue with each other
have quite the same ring to	aggressive
tacitly	not religious, or not connected with religion
take it for granted	not to work very well
boardroom	damned or f…ing
the tube	to continue moving to more important or responsible positions in a company or organization
be on the blink	to expect something always to happen or exist in a particular way
sodding	pretending not to understand the subject
secular	London's Underground Metro System
blasphemy ['blæsfəmi]	a large room where the directors of a company or other organization hold formal meetings

 

tedious	easily
grumpy	an official permission to do something
at twenty paces	behaviour that is considered to be immoral because it involves a lot of sex, alcohol, or illegal drugs
be soluble in	kiss and embrace
lubricant [u:]	to make yourself seem stupid by behaving in a silly or embarrassing way
dissolution	boring and continuing for too long
insolent	sexual or romantic excitement
license	the Social Issues Research Centre
debauchery	an important part or aspect of something
wicked ['wikid]	quarrelsome, peevish, fretful
SIRC	able to be solved
snog	something that makes a situation easier or more relaxed
making a fool of yourself	the process of gradually getting weaker or smaller and then disappearing
feature	rude, especially when you should be showing respect
titillation	morally wrong and deliberately intending to hurt people

 

wishful thinking	not being approved by people or not allowed by law
flamboyant	kiss and touch each other passionately
illicit	dissolute, indecent
fumble	a naïve belief that something that you want to be true is really true
wanton	behaving or dressing in a way that deliberately attracts attention

 

Exercises

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

Distasteful, dole-scrounger, overzealous, get a life, considering, go so far as to, be at odds with, predilection, vestige, fag, acumen, boastfulness

 

1. Do you think he’s a coward? – I wouldn’t ______________________ call him that but his physical strength ________________ his timidity.
2. Come on. Let me have a _______ ! – Mary, this is a very __________ habit.
3. He is a _________________ , he doesn’t have a job so his _______________________ for expensive cars is very strange.
4. This book doesn’t have a __________________ of common sense __________________ the fact that the author did research the problem for ten years.
5. He’s always asking if he could help anybody but I don’t like his _______________ attitude. I think he needs to ______________ . He doesn’t even have a girlfriend.
6. Her business ______________ amazes me! It took her only a year to completely turn this company around.
7. His _______________ causes ________________ in many people, especially in those who know that he never killed a single lion.

 

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

Rueful, rise through the ranks, procrastination, bullish, blustering, prickly, get away with that, avoid the issue

 

1. What famous crime was perpetuated without the police catching the criminal?
2. If you join a company, how will you advance?
3. Do you do what you have to do at once or not?
4. Did your parents often discuss your behavior with you?
5. What makes you sad?
6. What’s bad about visiting the Sahara?
7. What kind of classmates did you not like when you went at school?
8. Do you like cactuses?

 

C.  Translate using the following words and expressions:

T ake it for granted, the tube, be on the blink, grumpy, sodding, tedious, not have quite the same, ring to, tacitly, at twenty paces

 

1. Эта чертова химия никак мне не дается.
2. Конечно, мы можем назвать нашу компанию как-то по-другому, например «Land» вместо «Earth Ware», но это звучит уже не так хорошо.
3. Он незаметно дал нам понять, что хотел бы уйти.
4. Не принимай его помощь как нечто само собой разумеющееся. Он не обязан этого делать.
5. Он ездит на работу на метро.
6. Я не могу сейчас подвезти тебя, машина сломалась.
7. Какая скучная лекция! Я едва не заснул.
8. Хватит ворчать! Наслаждайся природой.
9. Да я за двадцать шагов отличу ворону от ворона.

 

D.  Answer the questions using suitable words and expressions:

1. What is dirt soluble in?
2. What was your punishment for insolent behavior when you were a child?
3. When was last time you made a fool of yourself?
4. Do you think all girls that think they are pretty are pretty or is it just wishful thinking?
5. What illicit drugs should be exterminated first of all?
6. Have you ever walked on two people snogging?
7. Do you think some of the stuff young people do would be considered wanton by their parents?

GRAMMAR

 

1. Выражение IT ’ S NOT DONE + INF означает НЕ ПРИНЯТО/НЕПРИЛИЧНО…

 

It’s not done to ask questions about one’s salary. – Не принято задавать людям вопросы о зарплате.

 

TRANSLATE

 

It is not done to be too keen to start working.

 

It is not done to ‘wash one’s dirty linen in public’, nor is it acceptable to ask the kind of personal questions that would elicit any such washing.

 

2. Выражение IF ANYTHING, выделенное запятыми или тире, переводится НАОБОРОТ:

 

He is not poor. If anything, he’s too rich. – Он не беден. Он, наоборот, богат

 

TRANSLATE

 

While the English are no more naturally modest than other cultures – if anything, we are inclined to be rather arrogant – we do put a high value on this quality.

 

3. Выражение MIGHT AS WELL переводится как ЗАОДНО при описании действия, которое часто делают с неохотой:

 

Since we are in this town we might as well go to a museum. – Раз уж мы оказались в этом городе, сходим уж заодно в музей.

Should I call her? – You might as well. – Мне ей позвонить? – Ну, позвони.

 

TRANSLATE

 

People either love Marmite or find it disgusting, and as you’re never going to convert the ones who find it disgusting, you might as well make a joke out of it.

 

4. Выражение COULD DO WITH значит НЕПЛОХО БЫ ИМЕТЬ, Я БЫ НЕ ОТКАЗАЛСЯ/ЛАСЬ ОТ:

 

I could do with a cup of coffee. – Я бы не отказалась от чашки кофе

 

TRANSLATE

 

It is universally understood that everyone hates Mondays; that we really could have done with an extra day to get over the weekend;

 

5. Выражение AS PER USUAL значит КАК ОБЫЧНО:

 

He said that that he had far too much to do that week, as per usual.

 

MATCH UP DIALOGUE PARTS

PART 1 (first sentence)

Is he a bum?	All she does is sit and read those tedious books about the dissolution in Ancient Rome.	She’s been having an illicit affair with that grumpy guy from sales.	I am completely flustered! I can’t solve this sodding equation. Need help!
She was arrested for buying alcohol with a fake ID and she got released straight away! How did she get away with that?	His education is clearly at odds with the job he does. He doesn’t have a degree yet he’s risen through the ranks so quickly!	He doesn’t have a vestige of modesty. He’s insolent and bullish.	Do you like those guys you hired for your loft conversion?
What kind of fags do you prefer?	He’ll be here in 20 minutes. That’s fast considering that he’s taking the tube.	I take it for granted that you consider the best feature of this restaurant its flamboyantly dressed waitresses.	Does he like me? He talked to me the other day in such a self-effacing way!
What a distasteful dress! What sordid colors!	Her hurried manner, her boastfulness, her constant procrastination are not gonna make her lots of friends.	My teacher praised my essay, but so wryly, in such a rueful tone that I doubt he meant it.	This substance is not soluble in water.

PART 2 (reply, reaction)

OK, come on, we’ll muddle through it together.	Right. He’s constantly making a fool of himself.	I have a predilection for “Camels”.	Sorry, this is a clear case of wishful thinking
I don’t know. They’ve been fumbling with the wallpaper for 2 days already!	Well… I wanted to describe her as businesslike, open and carefree but I guess that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.	Correct! Look at that one, you can see the straps of her bra at twenty paces!	I don’t think so. From what I heard the whole subway is on the blink today.
I know, I saw them snogging. What wanton behavior!	I know, it’s a blasphemy to fashion.	He probably wanted to tacitly make it known that it needed more work.	Oh, I get it. She does it for the purposes of titillation. She should get a life!
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. He’s definitely a dole-scrounger though.	It’s his forthright manner, business acumen and overzealous nature.	I know how to sidestep this problem. I think alcohol will dissolve it.	The police wanted to avoid the issue of how teenagers get hold of fake documents.

 

WORK TO RULE

THE MUDDLE RULES

 

• We are serious about work, but not too serious.
• We believe that work is a duty, but we wouldn’t go so far as to call it a ‘sacred’ duty, and we also believe it is a bit of a fag and a nuisance, imposed by practical necessity.
• We constantly moan
•  and complain about work, but we also take a kind of stoical pride in ‘getting on with it’ and ‘doing our best’.
• We indignantly disapprove of those who avoid work – from the minor royals at the top of the social scale to the alleged ‘dole-scroungers’ at the bottom – but this reflects our strict, almost religious belief in ‘fairness’, rather than a belief in the sanctity of work itself.
• We often maintain that we would rather not work, but our personal and social identity is in fact very much bound up with work.
• We find the whole subject of money distasteful, and there are still vestiges of a deep-seated prejudice against ‘trade’ or ‘business’.
• We also have vestigial traces of a ‘culture of amateurism’, involving an instinctive mistrust of ‘professionalism’ and businesslike efficiency.
• We carry into the workplace all the familiar English rules of humour, embarrassment, … , etc. – most of which are also incompatible with productive and effective work.
• But despite all this, we seem to muddle through somehow, and some of our work is not bad, considering.

HUMOUR RULES

 

The Importance of Not Being Earnest Rule

 

The Importance of Not Being Earnest rule is implicit in our whole attitude to work. The first ‘guiding principle’ I mentioned was that we take work seriously, but not too seriously. If your work is interesting, you are allowed to be interested in it – even to the point of being ‘a bit of a workaholic’; but if you are too much of a workaholic, or overzealous about an intrinsically uninteresting job, you will be regarded as ‘sad’ and pathetic and it will be suggested that you should ‘get a life’. It is not done to be too keen.

 

Irony and Understatement Rules

 

The English predilection for irony, particularly our use of the understatement, only makes matters worse. Not only do we fail to exhibit the required degree of enthusiasm for our work or products, but we then compound the error by making remarks such as ‘Well, it’s not bad, considering’ or ‘You could do a lot worse,’ when trying to convince someone that our loft conversions or legal acumen or whatever are really the best that money can buy. Then we have a tendency to say ‘Well, I expect we’ll manage somehow,’ when we mean ‘Yes, certainly, no trouble’ and ‘That would be quite helpful,’ when we mean ‘For Christ’s sake, that should have been done yesterday!’; and ‘We seem to have a bit of a problem,’ when there has been a complete and utter disaster. (Another typically English response to, say, a catastrophic meeting where a million-pound deal has fallen through, would be ‘That all went rather well, don’t you think?’)

 

THE MODESTY RULE

 

A further potential impediment to the successful conduct of business is the English modesty rule. While the English are no more naturally modest or self-effacing than other cultures – if anything, we are inclined to be rather arrogant – we do put a high value on these qualities, and have a number of unwritten rules prescribing at least the appearance of modesty. Perhaps the modesty rules act as a counter-balance to our natural arrogance, just as our courtesy rules protect us from our aggressive tendencies? Whatever their source, the English rules forbidding boastfulness and prescribing a modest, unassuming manner can often be at odds with modern business practices.

 

There was recently, for example, a series of television advertisements for Marmite in which people were shown reacting with utter revulsion – to the point of gagging – to even the faintest trace of a Marmitey taste or smell. It is well known that Marmite is something one either loves or hates, but an advertising campaign focusing exclusively on the disgust some people feel for your product strikes many foreigners as somewhat perverse. ‘You couldn’t get away with that anywhere else,’ said an American informant. ‘I mean, yes, I get it. People either love Marmite or find it disgusting, and as you’re never going to convert the ones who find it disgusting, you might as well make a joke out of it. But an ad with the message “some people eat this stuff but a lot of people can’t even bear the smell of it”? Only in England!’

 

THE POLITE PROCRASTINATION RULE

 

Although the rules governing initial workplace encounters allow us to sidestep the problems normally posed by the no-name rule and the handshake dilemma, that’s pretty much where the reassuring formality ends and the potential for embarrassment begins.

For a start, as soon as the initial introductions are completed, there is always an awkward period – usually lasting around five to ten minutes, but it can take up to twenty – in which all or some of the parties feel that it would be rude to start ‘talking business’ straight away, and everyone tries to pretend that this is really just a friendly social gathering. We procrastinate politely with the usual weather-speak, enquiries about journeys, the obligatory wryly humorous traffic-moan, courteous comments on the host’s excellent directions and rueful jokes about one’s own poor navigation skills, interminable fussing over tea and coffee – including the usual full complement of pleases and thank-yous, appreciative murmurs from the visitors and humorously self-deprecating apologies from the host, and so on, and on.

 

THE MONEY-TALK TABOO

 

The English find ‘doing business’ awkward and embarrassing at least partly because of a deep-seated but utterly irrational distaste for money-talk of any kind. At some stage, business-talk inevitably involves money-talk. We are comfortable enough, allowing for our usual social inhibitions, with most of the other aspects of business discussions. As long as boasting or earnestness are not required, we’ll talk reasonably happily about the details of the product or project, and pragmatic issues such as objectives, what needs to be done, how, where, by whom and so on. But when it comes to what we call ‘the sordid subject of money’, we tend to become tongue-tied and uncomfortable. Some cover their embarrassment by joking, some by adopting a blustering, forthright, even aggressive manner; some become flustered and hurried, others may be over-polite and apologetic, or prickly and defensive. You will not often see an English person entirely at ease when obliged to engage in money-talk. Some may appear brash and bullish, but this is often as much a symptom of disease as the nervous joking or apologetic manner.

 

Variations

 

The money-talk taboo is a distinctively English behaviour code, but it is not universally observed. There are significant variations: southerners are generally more uncomfortable with money-talk than northerners, and the middle- and upper-classes tend to be more squeamish about it than the working classes. Indeed middle-class and upper-class children are often brought up to regard talking about money as ‘vulgar’ or ‘common’.

In the world of business, observance of the taboo increases with seniority: whatever their individual class or regional origins, higher-ranking people in English companies are more likely to be squeamish about money-talk. Those from working-class and/or northern backgrounds may start out with little or no ‘natural’ embarrassment about money-talk, but as they rise through the ranks they learn to be awkward and uncomfortable, to make apologetic jokes, to procrastinate and avoid the issue.

 

Class and the Vestigial Trade-prejudice Rule

 

I mentioned earlier that we still suffer from vestigial traces of a prejudice against ‘trade’, left over from the days when the aristocracy and landed gentry – and indeed anyone wishing to call himself a gentleman – lived off the rents from their land and estates, and did not engage in anything so vulgar as the making and selling of goods. Trade was low-class, and those who made their fortune by commerce were always quick to purchase a country estate and attempt to conceal all evidence of their former undesirable ‘connections’. In other words, the upper-class prejudice against trade was in fact shared by the lower social ranks, including those who were themselves engaged in trade.

 

THE MODERATION RULE

 

The phrase ‘work hard, play hard’ became popular in England in the 1980s, and you will still quite often hear people use it to describe their exciting lifestyle and their dynamic approach to work and leisure. They are almost always lying. The English, on the whole, do not ‘work hard and play hard’: we do both and most other things, in moderation. Of course, ‘work moderately, play moderately’ does not have quite the same ring to it, but I’m afraid it is a far more accurate description of typical English work and leisure habits. We work fairly diligently, and have a modest amount of fun in our free time.

 

THE FAIR-PLAY RULE

 

When asked to compare English working and business practices with those of other cultures, all of my foreign and immigrant informants commented on the English sense of fair play, and specifically on our respect for the law and our relative freedom from the corruption they felt was endemic and tacitly accepted (albeit in varying degrees) in other parts of the world. Many felt that we were not sufficiently aware or appreciative of this fact. ‘You just take it for granted,’ a Polish immigrant complained. ‘You assume that people will play fair, and you are shocked and upset when they do not. In other countries there is not that assumption.’

 

MOANING RULES

The rather less admirable English habit of constant moaning is another distinguishing feature of our workplace behaviour, and of our attitude to work. The principal rule in this context is that work is, almost by definition, something to be moaned about.

 

The Monday-morning Moan

 

English work-moaning is a highly predictable, regular, choreographed ritual. On Monday mornings, for example, in every workplace in England, from factories and shops to offices and boardrooms, someone will be conducting a Monday-morning moan. I can guarantee it. It is universally understood that everyone hates Mondays; that we all had trouble dragging ourselves out of bed; that we really could have done with an extra day to get over the weekend; that the traffic/tube/trains/buses just seem to be getting worse and worse; that we have far too much to do this week, as per bloody usual; that we are already tired and our back/head/feet are hurting, and the week’s only just started, for God’s sake; and, look, now the photocopier is on the blink again, just for a change, huh, typical!

 

The Time-moan and the Meeting-moan

 

There are variations in our workplace moans, but even these are largely predictable. Everyone moans about time, for example, but junior and low-grade employees are more likely to complain that it passes too slowly, that they have another seven sodding hours of this shift to get through, that they are bored and fed up and can’t wait to get home, while more senior people usually whine that time just seems to fly past, that they never have enough of it to get through their ridiculous workload, and now there’s another bloody meeting they have to go to.

All white-collar executives and managers – right up to top boardroom level – always moan about meetings. To admit to enjoying meetings, or finding them useful, would be the secular equivalent of blasphemy. Meetings are by definition pointless, boring, tedious and awful.

 

The Mock-moaning Rule and the ‘Typical!’ Rule

 

In fact, this is probably one of the most important ‘rules of moaning’: you must moan in a relatively good-humoured, light-hearted manner. However genuinely grumpy you may be feeling, this must be disguised as mock-grumpiness. The difference is subtle, and may not be immediately obvious to the naked ear of an outsider, but the English all have a sixth sense for it, and can distinguish acceptable mock-moaning from real, serious complaining at twenty paces.

Serious moaning may take place in other contexts, such as heart-to-heart conversations with one’s closest friends, but it is regarded as unseemly and inappropriate in collective workplace moaning-rituals.

 

THE AFTER-WORK DRINKS RULES

 

In our culture, and a number of others, alcohol is a suitable symbolic vehicle for the work-to-play transition because it is associated exclusively with play – with recreation, fun, festivity, spontaneity and relaxation – and regarded as antithetical to work.

 

(…) The English after-work drinks ritual functions as an effective de-stressor partly because, by these universal ‘laws’, the hierarchies and pressures of the workplace are soluble in alcohol, particularly alcohol consumed in the sociable, egalitarian environment of the pub. The funny thing is that the after-work drinks ritual in the local pub has much the same stress-reduction effect even if one is drinking only Coke or fruit juice. The symbolic power of the pub itself is often enough to induce an immediate sense of relaxation and conviviality, even without the social lubricant of alcohol.

 

The anti-earnestness rules state that you can talk with colleagues or work-mates about an important project or problem in the pub, but pompous, self-important or boring speeches are not allowed.

 

The polite-egalitarianism rules prescribe, not exactly a dissolution of workplace hierarchies, but a much more jocular, irreverent attitude to distinctions of rank. After-work drinks sessions are often conducted by small groups of colleagues of roughly the same status, but where a mixing of ranks does occur, any deference that might be shown in the workplace is replaced in the pub by ironic mock-deference. Managers who go for after-work drinks with their ‘team’ may be addressed as ‘Boss’, but in a jokey, slightly insolent way, as in ‘Oi, Boss, it’s your round!’ We do not suddenly all become equals in the pub, but we have a license to poke fun at workplace hierarchies, to show that we do not take them too seriously.

 

OFFICE-PARTY RULES

 

The same principles apply, in intensified form, to office parties (I’m using this, as most people do, as a generic term, covering all parties given by a firm or company for its employees, whether white- or blue-collar) – particularly the annual Christmas party, an established ritual, now invariably associated with ‘drunken debauchery’ and various other forms of misbehaviour.

 

By ‘misbehaviour’, however, I do not mean anything particularly depraved or wicked – just a higher degree of disinhibition than is normally permitted among the English. In my SIRC surveys, 90 per cent of respondents admitted to some form of ‘misbehaviour’ at office Christmas parties, but simple over-indulgence was the most common ‘sin’, with nearly 70 per cent confessing to eating and drinking too much. We also found that flirting, ‘snogging’, telling rude jokes and ‘making a fool of yourself’ are standard features of the office Christmas party.

 

English workers like to talk about their annual office parties as though they were wild Roman orgies, but this is largely titillation or wishful thinking. The reality, for most of us, is that our debauchery consists mainly of eating and drinking rather too much; singing and dancing in a more flamboyant manner than we are accustomed to; wearing skirts cut a bit too high and tops cut a bit too low; indulging in a little flirtation and maybe an illicit kiss or fumble; speaking to our colleagues with rather less restraint than usual, and to our bosses with rather less deference – and perhaps, if we are feeling really wanton and dissolute, photocopying our bottoms.

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

YOU ARE TALKING WITH A FRIEND WHO’S JUST LOST HIS/HER JOB

 

distasteful

dole-scrounger

overzealous

get a life

considering

go so far as to

be at odds with

predilection

vestige

fag

acumen

boastfulness

rueful

rise through the ranks

 

 

WRITE A COMPOSITION WITH THE WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS BELOW. 

TOPIC: THE PERFECT JOB

procrastination

bullish

blustering

prickly

get away with that

avoid the issue

take it for granted

the tube

be on the blink

grumpy

tedious

not have quite the same ring to

tacitly

at twenty paces

 

CHAPTER 10

RULES OF PLAY PART I

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