British Culture British Values (Дополнительное чтение), страница 2

I do not want to suggest that theEnglish all laugh at the same jokes or that we all enjoy the same comicprogrammes. Just as in other cultures there are ranges of humour which are highlyentertaining to people with one level of education, and other ranges of humourwhich are very funny to those with another level of education. The BBC offers awide range of comedies, comic shows and comic presenters on our television andradio programmes, but though they embody our sense of humour they cannotdefine it.English humour is a way of seeing the world which is so embedded in ouridioms and expressions, so easy yet unobtrusive, that foreigners, includingRussians, all too often take the literal meaning to be the real meaning.

Meanwhilewe are communicating among ourselves, oblivious to your puzzlement.Active vocabularyself-deprecating – умаляющий собственное достоинство;to mock – насмехаться; передразнивать;pervasive – распространяющийся, проникающий;tone-deaf – лишенный музыкального слуха;range – ряд, линия, цепь; область интересов;to embed – вставлять; внедрять, насаждать;unobtrusive – ненавязчивый, скромный;oblivious – не замечающий, не обращающий внимания.Questions1.2.3.4.Why don’t the English like “serious conversations”?Why do the English like Chekov’s works?What kind of approach to life shapes English humour?Why is it difficult for the Russians to understand English jokes?.