Английский язык. Агабек (Агабекян И. П.), страница 34

Does this mean that quality in manufacturedgoods is disappearing now that most things are massproduced?Приложение 2DICTIONARIESWe all know the saying of a wise man who lived morethan t w o thousand years ago: «Of making many booksthere is no end*. If he had been living today, he mighthave said t h e same of dictionaries, for several new onesappear every year. They are needed for various purpos­e s .

Even in our own language we often find it necessaryto look up a word, sometimes for the spelling, sometimesfor the pronunciation, or it may be for the meaning ororigin of the word.In the twentieth century, with the remarkable increasein scientific and other knowledge, special dictionarieshave to be made for special groups of words — commer­cial, technical, psychological, medical etc. There are somevery large dictionaries which are supposed to contain allthe words of the language, but they are not convenientto use. They are too heavy and take too much room. Ifyou are studying one subject, it is much better to have adictionary which is no bigger than an ordinary book.Students of a foreign language need a dictionary whichcontains all the words in common use in their own lan­guage and the one they are t r y i n g to learn, that is, thewords they are likely to hear in conversation, and on theradio, and those t h e y will meet in the books and newspa-287Приложение 2Английский языкрега they read.

Such dictionaries usually g i v e t h e mean­i n g of a word by translating it; and, sometimes, but notalways, they give translations of phrases and structures.Dictionaries of t h i s kind are useful to translators, butless useful to earnest students of language than diction­aries which give meanings and explanations and exam­ples in the foreign language itself.THE ENGLISH ALPHABETAre you one of those unfortunate people w h o speakEnglish very well but at once become worried when yourteacher asks you to write? Don't be worried. Rememberthat a lot of English people have the same problem.

Nearmy home there are at least two notices wrongly speltand a lot of English people who are otherwise quite cleverhave to use dictionaries. What is wrong with this, forexample: «Ould cars bought here*? The problem is thissilly spelling, of course. As all t h o s e who read, know itjust isn't logical.W h y isn' t English spelling logical ? The answer isthat it isn't really spelling that is . w r o n g * . Hundredsof years ago the English pronounced wolds as they speltthem.

In many cases it is the pronunciation that haschanged. W h y not change the spelling to fit the newpronunciation? Of course we have t h o u g h t of that too.In 1 8 4 3 Isaac Pitman, who invented shorthand, pro­posed a new alphabet of forty symbols. To make spellingfit pronunciation you need a different symbol for eachsound. But you can use the same alphabet with just afew new symbols.

Then leaving out silent letters like kin knife you j u s t write the words as they sound. Kat forcat, etc. This is what Pitman wanted to do. Another ideais to use a completely different alphabet — phoneticalphabet.10.Зам B32289Английский языкПриложение 2This what George Bernard Shaw wanted. W h e n hedied he left money to pay for this, and in 1 9 6 2 Androcles& the Lion came out in a phonetic alphabet using fortyeight symbolsBut a hundred years after Isaac Pitman the Englishalphabet hasn't changed. It would need a lot of money tochange it. Think of all the books in schools and librariesand the printing machines. Then too there are thosewho really like cur ridiculous spelling. There is in factone new all habet' n use, the I.T^A or Initial TeachingAlphabet.

The idea behind this is that children learn toread more quickly w i t h o u t the problems of E n g l i s hspelling. Reading early is important because by readingwe can learn about other things. In many of our schoolschildren learn to read with t h i s new alphabet and learn1the old alphabet later.Some teachers don't like it. They say that the childrenwill never learn to spell .properly*.Meanwhile the latest news is that the Simplified Spell­i n g Society of Britain and the Simplified Spelling Asso­ciation of U S A have put their hands together. They thinkthat English is becoming the most important languagein the world and so we need logical spelling.

They hopeto publish a book explaining their ideas and proposinganother new alphabet of forty-four symbols. The nameof the book? . W o r l d E n g l i s h . .290О. HENRYО. Henry is the pen-name of the American writerWilliamSydneyPorter(1862-1910).In his youth he changed many professions: he was acowboy, a reporter, a clerk in a bank; he travelled aboutAmerica trying to find a job.

He met many commonpeople, and that helped him later in his literary work.O. Henry is a great master of short story. Commonpeople, whose life he knew very well, are the maincharacters of his stories.Here is a humorous story about two tramps who want­ed to get money by kidnapping the son of rich parentsand demanding a ransom for him.The Ransom of Red ChiefIIt looked a good thing; but wait till I tell you. Wewere in the south, in Alabama — Bill and myself. Wehad about s i x h u n d r e d dollars, and we needed t w othousand dollars more and did not know how to get them.It was then that we had that idea of kidnapping someoneand demanding a ransom.

There was a little town there,which was called Summit. We decided to kidnap the onlychild of a prominent rich man named Ebenezer Dorset.The child was a boy of ten, w i t h bright red hair. Billand I t h o u g h t that if we kidnapped him, his father would10*291Приложение 2Английский языкagree to pay a ransom of two thousand dollars. But waittill I tell you.About two miles from the town of Summit there was alittle mountain, covered with wood.

On the slope of themountain there was. a cave. In that cave we stored provi­sions.In a village three miles away we hired a horse with alittle cart. In the evening, after sunset, we drove inthat cart past Dorset's house. The boy wasdn the street.He was throwing stones at a kitten which was s i t t i n g onthe fence across the street.*Hey, little boy*, said Bill, «would you like a bag ofcandy and a nice ride?*The boy threw a stone at Bill and hit him in t h e eye.That boy fought with us like a bear, but, at last, we puthim in the bottom of the cart and drove away. We tookhim up to the cave.After dark I drove to the village to return the horseand cart, and then walked back to the mountain.When t returned, there was a fire burning behind abig rock at the entrance of the cave.

Bill was s i t t i n g onthe grass. The boy was watching a pot of boiling coffee.Two tail-feathers were stuck in his red hair. He pointeda stick at me when I came up and said:«How cursed, pale-face do you dare to enter the campof Red Chief, the terror of the plains?*«Не is all right now*, said Bill. «We're playing Indi­an. I'm Red Chief's captive, and I shall be scalped in themorning*.Yes, sir, that boy was enjoying himself. He liked livingin the cave so much, that he had forgotten that he was acaptive himself. He immediately named me Snake-eyethe Spy, and announced that I should be burnt at sunrise.292Then we had supper; and he filled his m o u t h full ofbacon and bread, and .began to talk.

He made a longspeech, something like this: «I like this very much. Inever camped out before. I was nine last birthday. Ihate to go to school. Rats ate up s i x t e e n of J i m m y ' saunt's hen's e g g s . Are there any real Indians in thesewoods? I want some more bacon. Does the wind blowbecause the trees move? We had five puppies. W h y is,your nose so red, Bill? My father has lots of money. Arethe stars hot? I don't like girls. Have y o u beds in thiscave? A parrot can talk, but a monkey or a fish can't*.Every few minutes he remembered that he was a redskin and took his stick, which he called his rifle, andwent to the mouth of the cave to see if there were anyspies of the pale-faces.

Now and then he let o u t a warwhoop, which made Bill shiver. He was simply terrorizedby that boy.«Red Chief*, said I to the boy, « would y o u like to gohome?* «No», said he. «I don't have any fun at home.I hate to go to school. I like to camp out. You won't takeme back home, Snake-eye, will you?*«Not now*, said I. «We shall stay here in t h e cave forsometime*. «А11 right*, said he. «That'll be fine. I nev­er had such fun in my life*.IIWe went to bed about eleven o'clock.

We slept on theground on some blankets. We put Red Chief between us.We were not afraid that he would run away. We couldnot fall asleep for three hours because every now andthen he jumped up and shouted in our ears t h a t thepale-faces were coming. At last I fell asleep and dreamedthat I had been kidnapped and tied to a tree by a piratewith red hair.293Приложение 2Английский языкJust at daybreak I woke up because Bill was screaming.