Chaucer. And on these mornings, the river is simply not true: there is no geography, nothing but pure
poetry, down there; the water has gone and shapes out of an adventurous dream drift by on a tide of
gilded and silvered air. Such is the City on one of these mornings, a place in a Gothic fairy tale, a
mirage, a vision.
(From "They Walk in the City" by J. B. Priestley. Abridged)
XVII. Role-playing:
A group of guides suggests possible sightseeing routes about London (Moscow) to their
office director. Each one speaks in favour of his/her suggestion trying to convince both the director
and the guides that the route is the best. In the end the participants of the talk choose the most
appropriate route.
XVIII. Describe (in writing) a sight or a view that once struck yon as
picturesque, beautiful or unusual.
The best essays may be read in class and then placed in a wall paper, a special bulletin issued
by the literary club, etc.
Note: The text above may serve as a perfect example of such description
XIX. Film: "Mr. Brown's Holiday." Film segment 3 "In Dear Old England"
(Broadstairs). a) Watch and listen, b) Do the exercises from the guide to the film.
STUDIES OF WRITTEN ENGLISH (III)
The central idea of a paragraph is built up with the help of larger units than key-words, that is
with the help of socalled topic sentences.
Topic sentence is a summarizing sentence of a paragraph. Topic sentences can also be used
to tie up a group of paragraphs together holding the unity of a passage.
Generally the topic sentence comes first in a paragraph. It helps to understand the text and
begin writing, е.g. "Numerous artificial languages have been carefully constructed and some of them
are still in limited use. In 1887, an artificial language, Esperanto, was created. Esperanto has little
grammar and drew its vocabulary from all the European languages..." (From "One Language for the
World" by M. Pei). The writer proceeds from a general statement to particulars.
Occasionally the topic sentence comes last, when the writer wishes first to prepare his reader
for the general idea or a conclusion, е.g. "You're like two friends who want to take their holiday
together, but one of them wants to climb Greenland's snowy mountains while the other wants to fish
off India's coral strand. Obviously it's not going to work" (From "The Razor's Edge" by W. S.
Maugham).
Assignments:
1. Read the passage "Introducing London" and mark paragraphs with topic sentences.
What central idea do they summarize? Where are they placed within the paragraph?