2.11 Two texts and questions

 

              Reading: True Brits?                      

A)    What is a pub?

Pubs are an important part of British life. People talk, eat, drink, meet their friends and relax there.

Pubs often have two bars, one usually quieter than the other, many have a garden where people can sit in the summer. Children can go in pub gardens with their parents.

Groups of friends normally buy 'rounds' of drinks, where the person whose turn it is will buy drinks for all the members of the group. It is sometimes difficult to get served when pubs are busy: people do not queue, but the bar staff will usually try and serve those who have been waiting the longest at the bar first. If you spill a stranger's drink by accident, it is good manners (and prudent) to offer to buy another drink. Most pubs offer a complete range of beers, local and imported, with German, Belgian and French beers being in demand.

Although most people think pubs are places where people drink alcohol, pubs in fact sell soft drinks drinks too. Nearly all pubs sell pub lunches. One of these is the Ploughman's Lunch which is a great wedge of Cheddar cheese, some bread, some pickle, and an onion. Other typical pub foods are scampi (kind of shellfish) and chips, pie and chips, and chicken and chips.

Pubs have traditional names which date back over 600 years. Some typical names are The Chequers, The White Swan, The Crown, The King's Arms, The Red Lion and The White Horse. People often refer to the pub by its name when giving directions: turn left at the Rose and Crown. There is usually a sign outside the pub showing the pub's name with a picture. If a church has the name St. Mary's the nearest pub is traditionally called The Star.

Various games, especially darts, are common features of pubs; many of the old country pubs continue to promote traditional games, such as 'Bat and Trap' (played in Kent) which have been played for hundreds of years.

The legal age to purchase alcohol is 18. People aged 16 and 17, with the licensee's permission, may consume only 1 glass of wine, beer or cider with a table meal in specific areas of the premises, providing they're with an adult and the adult orders it (England & Wales only, Scotland no adult required to be present).

from projectbritain.com

B)    Stephen Clarke and Talk to the Snail

I’d been playing around with the idea for Talk to the Snail for a while, and had started giving talks about living in France that I divided up into ‘commandments’. They were rather long commandments, I seem to remember, along the lines of ‘if you go to Paris, don’t assume that just because the drivers refuse to stop at red lights and try to run you over, that they hate you personally’. 

I’d then tell a few traffic-related anecdotes. I had several similar commandments, all of which inspired a bunch of anecdotes, and I found I could keep this up for ages. So I started writing it down, and shortened the commandments to things like ‘thou shalt[1] not love thy neighbour’ and ‘thou shalt not work’. I still couldn’t cram the French into just ten commandments, though. They’re much too complicated for that.
Even though I was forced to do eleven commandments, writing the book was a blast, because I was given complete freedom by the publishers.
I also wrote an index that is genuinely helpful, but also a joke in itself, full of references like ‘Alcohol, see Driving’, ‘Restaurant, see Bacteria’, and ‘Weekends, long, frequency of’.

http://www.stephenclarkewriter.com

Name:

Questions:

 

A)   Text 1 : What is a pub?

1)     Sum up all the things the British love doing in pubs:

 

 

2)     Guess the meaning of the words:

-        staff (l. 6):

-        spill (l. 7):

-        purchase (l.21):

 

3)     True or false? Justify by quoting from the text

a)     Young people cannot go to pubs.

true Š               falseŠ

justify:

 

 

b)     When there are many people, they have to queue.

true Š               falseŠ

justify:

 

 

c)     You can only drink alcohol in pubs.

true Š               falseŠ

justify:

 

 

d)     Pubs often have names of animals.

true Š               falseŠ

justify:

 

 

e)     Some pubs are called St Mary’s.

true Š               falseŠ

justify:

 

 

f)      In England, people under 18 cannot get alcohol in pubs if they are not with adults.

true Š               falseŠ

justify:

 

 

g)     The rules are the same in Scotland.

true Š               falseŠ

justify:

 

 

 

 

 

B)    Text 2: Stephen Clarke

 

1)     Who is the narrator of the text?

 

 

2)     What is Talk to the Snail?

 

 

3)     Guess the meaning of:

-        traffic (l. 5)

-        joke (l. 11)

 

4)     Where do you traditionally find “Commandments”?

 

 

5)     How many commandments are there in Talk to the Snail?

 

 

6)     What do you think of these commandments? Why? 

 

 

7)     What does Clarke think about French drivers? Why? 

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[1] = you shall (old English)