Home work for the second year students

Ex.1  What are the English equivalents of the following words from the text.

A.

погружаться в чтение книги; болтать с друзьями; устраивать девочек в школу; взваливать на себя (слишком много); завидовать чьим-либо способностям; исправлять чьи-либо ошибки; повышение умственных способностей; дети, изучающие много языков; по критерию умственных способностей; иметь высокие баллы; иметь гибкое, творческое мышление;

B.

психолог; применять правила одного языка к другому языку; преодолевать трудности/ошибки; стать более грамотным; легко осваивать другие языки; иметь более гибкий подход; культурно обогащаться/расширять культурные знания; хвататься за (любую) возможность; быть более востребованным.

Ex. 2. Read  and translate the text.

Mountain of tongues    

The languages spoken in Dagestan are so many and so varied that very often residents of two neighbouring villages are unable to understand each other and have to resort to Russian in order to communicate with each other. That’s why, since ancient times Dagestan has been called a “Mountain of Tongues”. According to a legend, a horseman was distributing languages and when he was travelling over Dagestan, they all fell out of his basket. As a result each of Dagestan’s more than 30 nationalities has its own distinct language. Therefore sometimes Dagestan is also called a paradise for linguists, where they can study any of its large number of languages. The languages spoken by the majority of native Dagestanis – Avar, Darghin, Lak, Lezghin, Tabasaran, Agul, Rutul, Tsakhur, etc. – belong to the Caucasian-Iberian languages, Kumyk and Nogai belong to the “Turkic” languages, the Tat language is closely related to Persian and belongs to the Indo-European languages.

     The fact that Dagestan is a multinational republic is reflected in its literature and art. For example, books of different kinds, newspapers and magazines are published in 12 languages. Television and radio include an increasing number of programs in the local languages.

     As to the Russian language, it has become a common language for all the Dagestanis, though before the 1917 revolution it was Arabic, at least among educated people. Soon after the revolution the alphabets of all Dagestan nationalities with a written language were converted from Arabic to the Latin type, which in 1938, in its turn, was substituted by Cyrillic. Since then, Russian has been widely used as a means of communication among Dagestan’s small nationalities and ethnic groups, and has been playing a great role in the development of their economy and culture.

Ex.3. Discuss the questions.

1. Why is Dagestan sometimes called a “Mountain of Tongues”? 2. How many nationalities and ethnic groups live in Dagestan? 3. What are the most numerous nationalities in Dagestan? 4. What language family do the majority of local languages of Dagestan belong to? 5. Which Dagestan languages belong to the Turkic group of languages? 6. Which Dagestan language is closely related to Persian and belongs to Indo-European languages? 7. What language is usually used in Dagestan as a means of communication among its different nationalities? 8. What language was in common use among educated people? 9. Who else lives in Dagestan in addition to its indigenous peoples? 10. Will you speak your mother tongue if you go abroad? Why or why not? 11. Are national languages of Dagestan widespread in the world? 12. Do you think there are linguists willing to investigate our local languages? What may attract their attention?