Relating to people or things that have always been in the place where they are

Australian National Anthem

Advance Australia Fair was one of many Australian national songs written in the late-nineteenth century as debates about the creation of the new nation were taking place in different colonies.

Although it is thought to have been first performed in 1878 by Mr Andrew Fairfax in Sydney, possibly the most significant early performance of Advance Australia Fair was at the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, where it was sung by a choir of 10,000. Advance Australia Fair was not considered the national anthem, however, with this role going to the British anthem God Save the Queen (or King) for most of the twentieth century.

A determined search for a truly Australian national anthem did not begin until the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956. The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted a national opinion poll of 60,000 people in 1974 and in 1977 the Australian Electoral Office ran a poll for a tune for a national song in conjunction with the referendum.

In the 1977 plebiscite, four songs were in contention for the official title:

— Advance Australia Fair

— God save the Queen (or King) (the British anthem)

— Waltzing Matilda (one of Australia’s best-known national songs), and

— Song of Australia (a popular national song written in 1859)

The results of the plebiscite were conclusive with 43.2 per cent (or 2,940,854 votes) going to Advance Australia Fair. Next most popular was Waltzing Matilda with 28.3 per cent, despite its arguable status as the best-known, best-loved and most iconic national song.

In 1984 the government announced that the tune of Advance Australia Fair together with modifications to two verses of the lyrics would become the Australian National Anthem.

Australia’s national gemstone

The opal is a rare and beautiful precious stone.

A very special series of geographical and climatic phenomena need to coincide for the opal to form. The great desert regions of central Australia provide such conditions and Australia produces over 90 per cent of the world’s precious opal.

Australia ‘s precious opals include the black opal (produced in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales), white opal (majority of the world’s production occurs in Coober Pedy, South Australia), crystal opal and boulder opal (mined in Central Queensland). The precious stone was proclaimed Australia’s national gemstone on 28 July 1993.

According to the Aboriginal legend, the mesmerizing opal was a gift from the sky, from a rainbow that had touched the earth and created the colours of the opal.

TASKS

I.Read the text. Find the words that match the definitions below:

1) the main area of land that forms a country, as compared to islands near it that are also part of that country;

2) connected with the Middle Ages (=the period between about AD 1100 and 1500);

3) the study of the origins, history, and changing meanings of words;

4) a book or document written by hand before printing was invented;

5) someone who supports the activities of an organization, for example by giving money;

6) a note at the bottom of a page that gives extra information about something in the text on that page;

7) someone who enters another country to live there permanently;

8) people or things that have always been in the place where they are, rather than being brought there from somewhere else;

9) an expression or word used in informal conversation;

10) a large group of people who have the same national, racial, or cultural origins, or the state of belonging to such a group;

11) who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that make them different from others;

12) someone who represents a particular sport, business etc because they behave in a way that people admire;

13) a quarter of an area;

14) a special shield or shield-shaped pattern that is the sign of a family, university, or city;

15) in the past, a large, flat object made of metal or leather that soldiers held in front of their bodies to protect themselves.

Travel broadens the mind

Everyone needs at least one holiday a year, so when you begin spending sleepless nights thinking about the sun and the sea, when you think longingly of the green countryside and forget the mosquitoes and the boredom, there’re no doubt about it – you’re ready for a holiday. You need to get away from all your usual routines and get some fresh air and a change of perspective. Travel is necessary for us all. It keeps us from growing stale and old, it develops our imagination, it gives us that movement and change which are necessary to our life. One of the aims of travel is to go in search of beauty. The beauty spots of the world are magnets, which attract travelers year after year. Yet even more valuable for the traveler is the knowledge, which he gets by going among people of different characters and different ways of life. Then there is for the traveler the great joy of coming home again. When his curiosity for new scenes is satisfied, he turns his thought toward home where all the things are the most familiar and he loves them. Therefore, the traveler, besides the delight of travel, has the warmest feeling of returning home.

Traveling nowadays has become an important part of modern life. Millions of people all over the world travel about their own countries and to foreign lands as well. People travel to visit natural destinations such as seas, lakes, rivers, mountain ranges, deserts and so on. It’s always interesting to discover new things and other ways of life, to meet different people, taste different food, examine various architectural styles, visit museums and picture galleries. It’s common knowledge that travelling is a key to understanding other cultures and a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the world we live in.

Tourism is travelling for pleasure or enjoying yourself away from the place you live in. Nowadays tourism is growing very fast, mostly because people’s lifestyles have changed. They don’t want to stay at home anymore. To my mind, it’s because travelling has become cheaper. What was once the «grand tour», reserved for only the very rich, is now within everybody’s grasp. Now nearly everyone can afford traveling around the world. Not only are budget airlines offering cheap fares, but the higher valued airlines as well. In addition, it’s easy, faster and you get more freedom while travelling. The main reason for this is the technical superiority. For example, you easily book a ticket through the Internet. You don’t face long queues wasting your time. Therefore, it simplifies our life. Another change is money. Now we use handy little plastic cards: you can do purchases around the world without any difficulties or problems with local currency. Not long ago this was unthinkable but today it’s reality. So with all of today’s technological advances, it has become easier than ever to travel abroad.

Although tourism has many benefits, such as bringing extra money into the local economy, there are also negative effect. Tourism can do all sorts of damage to the environment, the culture and the people of a country, especially in places which aren’t prepared for large numbers of holidaymakers. It’s important to know how to travel wise. Firstly, you should find out as much about your holiday destination as you can. A guidebook is great place to start. As well as learning about the local places of interest, you can read about the way you will be expected to behave and dress. This can save you from making embarrassing mistakes. The next step is to think about how you spend your money when you are on holiday. Try to put it into the local people’s hands. Even in places where you are expected to haggle or bargain, you should always pay a fair price for things. Then, try to have as little effect on the local environment as possible. Try to leave place exactly as you found it. It’s necessary to follow this simply rules in order to save the culture and environment of the places you visit and to be welcome wherever we go.
Nowadays people can travel in different ways. They can choose a package tour, when everything is planned without your participation, and a self-tour, when you play it off the cuff.

Traveling yourself gives you the freedom to create you own schedule, do as you please. However, when a trip reveals unexpected joys, adventures and challenges, oftentimes these things are best shared with another person, who can relate to your situation and provide moral support. To ensure that a travel partner is one who can value to your journey, choose a travel companion who has similar travel preferences and personality characteristics. It’s importation to find a common interest. I would request my traveling partner to have a lot of energy and be open to seeing and doing a variety of different things. Outgoing without being overbearing or annoying is desirable. Moreover, someone who is easygoing. Life changes, plans change. However, the best traveling partner is someone, who doesn’t get ruffled in tough time and can see the light through a dark moment and laugh! Also, and this way be the biggest thing, they have to be pretty tight with their money. In order to have a pleasant time abroad you need to choose the right partner, who can share your interests and can be a good company.

One of the way to travel independent without intrusive travel agents is to go camping. It’s the ideal way of spending a holiday for many people nowadays. You see, camping has so much to offer. You enjoy absolute freedom. You have none of the headaches of advance hotel booking or driving around a city at midnight looking for a room. Modern camping sites are well equipped with hot and cold running water and all necessary facilities. But above all, you enjoy tremendous mobility. Moreover, you are active all the time and you are always close to nature. Camping provides you with a real change from everyday living. And that’s the essence of true recreation and real enjoyment.
What about a package tour, of course it has many advantages. By choosing a holiday package, you actually get rid of all activities, starting from booking flight tickets, checking out accommodation availability at hotels and booking rooms. Everything will be done on your behalf by the tour operator and would simply be paying the charge. Another big advantage of tour packages is complete tour. At the same time package holidays have a number of disadvantages. To start with, conducted tours to places of interest are carefully censored. The tourist is allowed to see only what the organizers want him to see and no more. A strict schedule makes it impossible for the tourist to wander off on his own. The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of national stereotypes. We don’t see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been brought up to believe they are.
People choose different places to visit. Some are looking for sandy beaches, sparkling waters and cloudless skies. Others rest in spacious and elegant rooms, dine on delicious cuisine or unwind in a relaxing sauna, and the luxurious hotels cater for every need. All adventurous nature lovers who long to escape to a land of endless rivers, bottomless lakes, towering mountains and colossal cliffs choose mostly campsites.

English language

English language is used in about 100 countries all around the world. An approximate 380 million people use English as their mother-tongue and a similar number of people use it as their second language. It has occupied a very important place in international academic and business communities. English has today become what Latin was to the world in the past.
English is the primary language in many countries like Australia, Dominica, Gibraltar, Grenada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and United States. However, Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Cornish and Irish are also considered indigenous languages in the United Kingdom. In most countries where English is not a first language, it is designated as official language; the countries include Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Malta, Majority of native English speakers, about 70% of them reside in the United States. Out of the 50 states comprising the US, 27 have declared English as the official language. Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico have also declared Hawaiian, French, and Spanish respectively as official languages along with. The above proves that English is the most widely used language in the world and therefore ceased to be the cultural banner of native English speakers. English, as times goes on is absorbing the aspects of other worldwide cultures. English is studied as a foreign language by 33% of Europeans. It is also the most sought after in Japan, Korea and China. Because English is so widely spoken, it has been referred to as a «global language.» While English is not the official language in many countries, it is the language most often taught as a second language around the world. It is also, by international treaty, the official language for aircraft/airport communication. Its widespread acceptance as a first or second language is the main indication of its global status.

English spread as a global dominant language first by the colonial expansion of the British, then by the long economic might of the United States. It is the main language of business and trade, has become the official language of many countries, and more recently, its dominance has been further entrenched by the media through movies and music. And even more recently, by the internet, first widely developed in the United States. Technology, both hardware and software, also give English an edge, in that many people are forced to learn its basics to become effective in the work force, which in turn creates incentives by many governments and organisations to promote the teaching of basic English. English is the predominant language on the World Wide Web. More than 80% of home pages on the Web are in English, while the next greatest, German, has only 4.5% and Japanese 3.1%.

In Science (although the terminology of science is still mostly drawn from Latin), 95% of articles are written in English, even though half of them are written by non-native speakers.

The future of English as a global language will depend very largely on the political, economical, demographic and cultural trends in the world. The beginning of the 21st century is a time of global transition. According to some experts, faster economic globalization is going hand in hand with the growing use of English. More and more people are being encouraged to use English rather than their own language. On the other hand, the period of most rapid change can be expected to be an uncomfortable and at times traumatic experience for many people around the world.

Hence, the opposite view, that the next 20 years or so will be a critical time for the English language and for those who depend upon it. The patterns of usage and public attitudes to English which develop during this period will have long-term effects for its future in the world.

1. Why English has been referred to as a «global language»?

2. Why English is considered to be the language of internet and World Wide Web?

3. What factors will the future of English depend on?

4. Can you try to predict the future of English in your sphere of science?

a) Mach the words from the text with their definitions

b)* Insert the missing prepositions if necessary

1. Dunne was murdered, along …………… three guards.

2. The king is now determined to go …………… without parliament at all.

3. I would never have won if my friends hadn’t encouraged me …………… keep trying.

4. Plants draw nourishment …………… the soil.

5. Term Structure of Interest Rates Effective management of financing sources requires an understanding of the relationship between short-term and long-term …………… interest rates.

6. The President spoke to each of us at the table …………… turn.

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ГДЗ Английский язык 7 класс (часть 2) Афанасьева. UNIT 4. Step 2. Номер №3

A. Read the title of the text and its first paragraph. What do you think the text is going to be about?
B. Read the text to the end. What new things did you learn from it?

They Are So Much Like Us
Many people think that penguins [ˈpeŋɡwɪnz]live in the places where it is very cold. But we can find them not only along the Antarctic [æntˈɑ:ktɪk] continent (not the Arctic!) and islands. They also live in Peru [pəˈru:], Brazil [brəˈzɪl], Southwest Africa, New Zealand and in the south of Australia.
The penguin is famous because it can stand up straight and walk. When they walk, they look funny to us. They look like people wearing black coats and white shirts.
Ages ago, the penguins were about 2 metres tall and could fly as well as any other bird. But today their wings are short and useless for flying. How did it happen? Many scientists say that it happened because penguins had very few enemies. They lived on the territories where there was practically nobody dangerous for them. So they could safely spend all the time on land or in the water. They stopped using their wings. In time those wings became very small, until today they are useless for flying. But penguins are fantastic swimmers. Penguins also developed a thick coat of fat to protect them from the icy cold of the territories where they live.

ГДЗ Английский язык 7 класс (часть 2) Афанасьева. UNIT 4. Step 2. Номер №3

Решение

Перевод задания
А. Прочитай название текста и его первый абзац. Как ты думаешь, о чем будет текст?
B. Прочитай текст до конца. Что нового ты узнал из него?
Они так похожи на нас
Многие думают, что пингвины живут там, где очень холодно. Но мы можем найти их не только вдоль антарктического материка (не Арктики!) И островов. Они также живут в Перу, Бразилии, Юго−Западной Африке, Новой Зеландии и на юге Австралии.
Пингвин знаменит тем, что может стоять прямо и ходить. Когда они ходят, они выглядят смешно для нас. Они похожи на людей, одетых в черные пальто и белые рубашки.
Много лет назад пингвины были ростом около 2 метров и могли летать так же, как и любая другая птица. Но сегодня их крылья короткие и не годятся для полетов. Как это произошло? Многие ученые говорят, что это произошло потому, что у пингвинов было очень мало врагов. Они жили на территориях, где для них практически никто не опасен. Таким образом они могли спокойно проводить все время на суше или в воде. Они перестали использовать свои крылья. Со временем эти крылья стали очень маленькими, и к сегодняшнему дню они бесполезны для полетов. Но пингвины − фантастические пловцы. Пингвины также разработали толстый слой жира, который защищает их от ледяного холода на территориях, где они живут.

ОТВЕТ
A. I think the text is going to be about penguins and how much they are like us.
B. I learnt many interesting facts about penguins. I thought they live only in Antarctic continent but they live in Peru, Brazil, Southwest Africa, and New Zealand and in the south of Australia, too. I also know now why their wings are useless for flying.

Перевод ответа
A. Я думаю, что текст будет о пингвинах и о том, насколько они похожи на нас.
B. Я узнал много интересных фактов о пингвинах. Я думал, что они живут только на антарктическом континенте, но они живут в Перу, Бразилии, Юго−Западной Африке, Новой Зеландии и на юге Австралии. Теперь я также знаю, почему их крылья бесполезны для полета.

What Russians don’t understand about American racism (OP-ED)

AP, Legion Media

Four years ago, around the time I was settling into life in Russia, a woman asked me about racism in America. She said, “We don’t have that here in Russia because we enslaved each other.”

When I asked what she meant, she said, “Well, it is not like I can look at my neighbor and say: you, your ancestor enslaved my ancestor, and so it is your fault. We are all the same, so it is nobody’s fault.”

I didn’t know her too well but I couldn’t help saying, “You know, that isn’t really what racism is about in America. It is a part of it, but it’s not like ‘my ancestors enslaved your ancestors, so: racism.’ America is still a very racist place. It was built on a foundation of systemic racism, from slavery, to segregation, to the institutional racism we have today.

She said that she didn’t know what systemic racism was, so I explained as best I could: “Imagine America is a house with many floors. Everyone in America is born into that house with the goal of getting to the roof where everything is grand and people have buckets of money and success.

“Now, most people never make it to the roof, or even close. Most people spend their lives trying to climb up a few floors to drop off some progeny in the hopes that they will climb higher. The problem with systemic racism is that, while white families are often born a few floors up, most black families are born in the basement. And this is a funny house where the higher you go, the easier it is to climb, with more open doors, and people to help you along the way. In the basement there are mostly locked doors and mazes where no one shows you where to go.

“Even if everything were equal now, which it isn’t, it wasn’t more than a single generation back that laws openly kept black people down in that basement. This means that inherited property and wealth, the prosperity of neighborhoods, and the access to higher education and services only started a generation ago. So, white people have had a six or seven generations head start up the stairs of this house. And if all of the power is at the top, who do you think is still making those rules?”

At which point she crossed her arms and said, “Yeah, well, what about Obama, then?”

Conservative agenda

A Black Lives Matter march in New York, July 13, 2020

This would not be the last time I’d have this conversation, or similar ones, with Russians, who in my experience, are genuinely curious about things and don’t shy away from asking questions. It is a respectable quality that leads to Russians being a lot more well informed on a variety of topics, while other cultures that don’t express this bold curiosity aren’t as educated.

When I told my friend about the house it would have been much more convenient if I could have downloaded the past 300 years of American history into her brain along with statistics on systemic racial discrimination, but I was working with what I had at the time. Now, as the dialogues around these issues have become a worldwide fascination, I have found a lot of Russians acting more sure-footed in their comments about race. Interestingly, the majority of the comments I’ve received go a little something like this:

“America doesn’t have racism anymore. It was a problem before when black people weren’t allowed into the same places as white people, but not anymore.”

This was news to me. I learned at a young age from black friends that things weren’t so lovely as American conservatives like to pretend. Even in the 90s, in very liberal Massachusetts where I am from, there were instances of burning crosses and bricks being thrown through windows of my black friends’ homes.

Today, the KKK, a historically racist organization, is still limping along in many places in the U.S. Disproportionate police brutality and openly racist public behavior is still quite common. This isn’t to mention the persistent violence against black people (up to and including murder) regularly documented by witnesses’ cell phone videos.

The stench of racism in America is only a scratch and a sniff away. So, when some Russians told me America isn’t racist anymore, I had to ask: Where are you getting your information? And, without fail, I was sent links to YouTube videos, Reddit posts, and conservative blogs.

Then, even more curious, I asked if they’d ever talked about these things with an American black person. Not a single one had. This isn’t to say that there aren’t well-informed Russians out there with a plethora of black friends to call upon who still believe these things, but they seemed starkly absent from the conversation.

When I asked some Russians why they thought the prison system in America was disproportionately black, I got the response of “thug culture encourages this behavior.” However, statistics show that white and black people do drugs at almost the same rate, so why would the number of black people in prison for drug charges be so exponentially higher, unless, for some reason, black people were targeted and searched exponentially more often, which is exactly what happens.

Racism misunderstood

I reached out to some other Russians who have openly shown support for the Black Lives Matter movement to ask why they thought so many other Russians were unaware of the existence of American racism. Nikita, from Moscow, had this to say:

“I think the reason that we (Russians) don’t see it is that, in our life experience, racism is just not a form of discrimination we often face. In fact, one could live their life without facing it at all. Many people don’t know any black people personally and think of racism as an American problem that takes its roots from slavery. Even though many of us have grandparents who would say something like ‘Blacks are animals’’, we would think ‘They’re old and ignorant and I’m progressive, I’m not racist.’ To understand racism, a Russian person would need to travel around the world, get to know people who are suffering from this problem, have a conversation, and do their research. These videos on YouTube of rioting and looting are just action shocking bits that people would watch with more interest than long boring but truthful and detailed analysis of systematic racism.”

An educated opinion

It would be impossible to put a fraction of the scope of systemic racism into one article. But the time and effort to learn about it is important for anyone to go through before committing to an opinion that looks down on a whole race of people. With the BLM movement in America, everyone feels like they need to form an opinion fast and nothing is faster than a quick Reddit thread or YouTube videos of conservative talking heads to make you feel certain.

TIME Magazine writer Justin Worland summed it up in a recent article, “America’s Long Overdue Awakening to Systemic Racism,” pointing out some hard realities that everyone, not just Americans, should realize:

“To actually capture all the ways in which the system is skewed against black people would require tome upon tome. But even a short list feels very long: black women are three to four times as likely as white women to die in childbirth, in part because of a lack of access to quality health care; black children are more likely to attend under-resourced schools, thanks to a reliance on local property taxes for funding; black voters are four times as likely as white voters to report difficulties voting or engaging in politics than their white counterparts, in part because of laws that even today are designed to keep them from exercising their basic democratic rights; millions more have been disenfranchised because of felony convictions; hurricane flooding has been shown to hit black neighborhoods disproportionately. ”

Long-read articles and libraries worth of books on both individual and systemic racism don’t make good viral material. A series of tweets or out-of-context video clips, dominoes of confirmation bias, seem to be all that many people, not just Russians, feel is enough to condemn a movement and play deaf to the suffering of a group of people.

Benjamin Davis, an American writer living in Russia, explores various topics, from the pointless to the profound, through conversations with Russians. READ MORE: Why don’t Russians smile?

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