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Образовательные материалы и услуги, основанные на работах Л. Рона Хаббарда

Выпуск № 6 (95) от 2010-02-18   www.english-moscow.ru Количество человек, получивших этот выпуск: 9564

INTRODUCTION

Дорогие читатели! Спешу поздравить всех мужчин с наступающим 23 февраля, Днём защитника Отечества. Желаем всегда быть сильными, здоровыми, и мужественными.

Cегодня, чтобы закрепить результат, мы попробуем выполнить несколько упражнений по пройденному материалу. Жду предложений, какое произведение мы будем разбирать дальше, пишите.

EXERCISE 1 – READING

В первой части данного выпуска вам будет предложено перечитать текст, над которым работали всё это время, целиком. Правда, сейчас текст будет без перевода!

“THE AWFUL GERMAN LANGUAGE”
by M. Twain

I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle, and one day I surprised the keeper of it with my German. I spoke entirely in that language. He was greatly interested; and after I had talked a while he said my German was very rare, possibly a "unique"; and wanted to add it to his museum.

If he had known what it had cost me to acquire my art, he would also have known that it would break any collector to buy it. Harris and I had been hard at work on our German during several weeks at that time, and although we had made good progress, it had been accomplished under great difficulty and annoyance, for three of our teachers had died in the mean time. A person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a perplexing language it is.

Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following EXCEPTIONS." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it. So overboard he goes again, to hunt for another Ararat and find another quicksand. Such has been, and continues to be, my experience. Every time I think I have got one of these four confusing "cases" where I am master of it, a seemingly insignificant preposition intrudes itself into my sentence, clothed with an awful and unsuspected power, and crumbles the ground from under me.

...

There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. An average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime and impressive curiosity; it occupies a quarter of a column; it contains all the ten parts of speech – not in regular order, but mixed; it is built mainly of compound words constructed by the writer on the spot, and not to be found in any dictionary – six or seven words compacted into one, without joint or seam – that is, without hyphens; it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each enclosed in a parenthesis of its own, with here and there extra parentheses, making pens with pens: finally, all the parentheses and reparentheses are massed together between a couple of king-parentheses, one of which is placed in the first line of the majestic sentence and the other in the middle of the last line of it – AFTER WHICH COMES THE VERB, and you find out for the first time what the man has been talking about; and after the verb -- merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out -- the writer shovels in "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein," or words to that effect, and the monument is finished. I suppose that this closing hurrah is in the nature of the flourish to a man's signature -- not necessary, but pretty. German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head -- so as to reverse the construction -- but I think that to learn to read and understand a German newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner.

Yet even the German books are not entirely free from attacks of the Parenthesis distemper -- though they are usually so mild as to cover only a few lines, and therefore when you at last get down to the verb it carries some meaning to your mind because you are able to remember a good deal of what has gone before. Now here is a sentence from a popular and excellent German novel -- with a slight parenthesis in it. I will make a perfectly literal translation, and throw in the parenthesis-marks and some hyphens for the assistance of the reader -- though in the original there are no parenthesis-marks or hyphens, and the reader is left to flounder through to the remote verb the best way he can:

"But when he, upon the street, the (in-satin-and-silk-covered-now-very-unconstrained-after-the-newest-fashioned-dressed) government counselor's wife met," etc., etc. [1]

1. Wenn er aber auf der Strasse der in Sammt und Seide gehüllten jetzt sehr ungenirt nach der neusten Mode gekleideten Regierungsräthin begegnet.

That is from The Old Mamselle's Secret, by Mrs. Marlitt. And that sentence is constructed upon the most approved German model. You observe how far that verb is from the reader's base of operations; well, in a German newspaper they put their verb away over on the next page; and I have heard that sometimes after stringing along the exciting preliminaries and parentheses for a column or two, they get in a hurry and have to go to press without getting to the verb at all. Of course, then, the reader is left in a very exhausted and ignorant state.

...

The Germans have another kind of parenthesis, which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the OTHER HALF at the end of it. Can any one conceive of anything more confusing than that? These things are called "separable verbs." The German grammar is blistered all over with separable verbs; and the wider the two portions of one of them are spread apart, the better the author of the crime is pleased with his performance. A favorite one is REISTE AB – which means departed. Here is an example which I culled from a novel and reduced to English:

"The trunks being now ready, he DE- after kissing his mother and sisters, and once more pressing to his bosom his adored Gretchen, who, dressed in simple white muslin, with a single tuberose in the ample folds of her rich brown hair, had tottered feebly down the stairs, still pale from the terror and excitement of the past evening, but longing to lay her poor aching head yet once again upon the breast of him whom she loved more dearly than life itself, PARTED."

EXERCISE 2 – TRUE OR FALSE

В этой части вам будет ответить, верны ли следующие утверждения. Текст произведения, представленный выше, поможет вам это сделать!

1. Автору стоило больших усилий выучить немецкий язык.

2. Автор убил троих учителей немецкого языка.

3. В немецком языке больше исключений чем правил.

4. Один несчастный предлог может перевернуть всё с ног на голову.

5. В немецком языке десять частей речи.

6. Предложения в немецком слишком короткие и невыразительные.

7. У предложений нет определённой структуры и много слов, которые автор придумал и составил сам.

8. В немецких предложениях совсем нет глаголов, поэтому их сложно понять.

9. Книги на немецком легче читать чем газеты.

10. Немецкие глаголы часто делят на маленькие кусочки и разбрасывают по предложению, чтобы было интереснее читать.

EXERCISE 3 – WORDS

В этой части вам будут предложены слова, которые вы встречали в тексте, а также предложения, в которых пропущены эти слова. Вам необходимо вставить в пропущенные места слова, которые подходят по смыслу.

unique
speech
curiosities
novel
splitting
translation
exceptions
exhausted
instances
perplexing
confusing
suppose
constructed
looking-glass
subjects

1) I went often to look at the collection of _______ in Heidelberg Castle, and one day I surprised the keeper of it with my German.

2) He was greatly interested; and after I had talked a while he said my German was very rare, possibly a "_______"; and wanted to add it to his museum.

3) A person who has not studied German can form no idea of what a _______ language it is.

4) "Let the pupil make careful note of the following _______."

5) He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than _______ of it.

6) There are ten parts of _______, and they are all troublesome.

7) ... it treats of fourteen or fifteen different _______, each enclosed in a parenthesis of its own, with here and there extra parentheses, making pens with pens: ...

8) I _______ that this closing hurrah is in the nature of the flourish to a man's signature -- not necessary, but pretty.

9) German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the _______ or stand on your head -- so as to reverse the construction -- but I think that to learn to read and understand a German newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner.

10) Now here is a sentence from a popular and excellent German _______ -- with a slight parenthesis in it.

11) I will make a perfectly literal _______, and throw in the parenthesis-marks and some hyphens for the assistance of the reader...

12) And that sentence is _______ upon the most approved German model.

13) Of course, then, the reader is left in a very _______ and ignorant state.

14) The Germans have another kind of parenthesis, which they make by _______ a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the OTHER HALF at the end of it.

15) Can any one conceive of anything more _______ than that?

EXERCISE 4 – PEDANTIC PART

В этой части вам нужно будет вставить нужный предлог или специальное выражение. Посмотрим, как вы усвоили самые педантичные части нашей рассылки!

for the first time
in the mean time
at last
so as to
massed together
one day
good deal
to that effect
hither and thither

1) I went often to look at the collection of curiosities in Heidelberg Castle, and ________ I surprised the keeper of it with my German.

2) Harris and I had been hard at work on our German during several weeks at that time, and although we had made good progress, it had been accomplished under great difficulty and annoyance, for three of our teachers had died _______.

3) One is washed about in it, _______, in the most helpless way; ...

4) ... all the parentheses and reparentheses are _______ between a couple of king-parentheses ...

5) ... and you find out _______ what the man has been talking about; …

6) …and after the verb -- merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out -- the writer shovels in "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein," or words _______, and the monument is finished.

7) German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head -- _______ reverse the construction ...

8) Yet even the German books are not entirely free from attacks of the Parenthesis distemper -- though they are usually so mild as to cover only a few lines, and therefore when you _______ get down to the verb it carries some meaning to your mind because you are able to remember a _______ of what has gone before.

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