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Эта книга является частью «Лингвострановедческого учебно-методического комплекса новых интенсивных системных словарей английского языка».

Вашему вниманию предлагаются темы для самостоятельной работы при подготовке к экзаменам на старших курсах языковых факультетов, тексты и комментарии к ним.

При подборе материала автор использовал методические наработки за более чем 35- летний опыт работы на языковых кафедрах РГПУ им.А.И.Герцена и СПБГУ.

Весь материал апробирован студенческой аудиторией и соответствует стандартам образовательных программ.

«Лингвострановедческий учебно-методический комплекс новых интенсивных системных словарей английского языка» награжден Дипломом первой степени в номинации «Лучший учебно-методический комплекс, разработка для высшей школы в области гуманитарных и социально-экономических дисциплин» Министерством образования и науки Российской Федерации, рекомендован УМО РГПУ им.А.И.Герцена в качестве учебного пособия.

Table of contents:

Social issues 9

1. What is love 9

2. Divorce 33

3. Family problems 43

4. Types of families 48

5. Religion 50

6. National Identity 52

7. Human rights 72

8. Law enforcement 75

Fine arts 81

English and Russian proverbs 118

Business English 134

Mass media 201

Ecology 243

100 questions and answers about the USA 257

British English versus American English 265

Medicine 282

Sports 308

Social issues

1. What is love

Love is the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. In religious context, love is not just a virtue, but the basis for all being ("God is love"), and the foundation for all divine law (Golden Rule).

The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my wife"). "Love" can also refer specifically to the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love, to the sexual love of eros (cf. Greek words for love), to the emotional closeness of familial love, or to the platonic love that defines friendship, to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.

Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

The word "love" can have a variety of related but distinct meanings in different contexts. Often, other languages use multiple words to express some of the different concepts that English relies mainly on "love" to encapsulate; one example is the plurality of Greek words for "love." Cultural differences in conceptualizing love thus make it doubly difficult to establish any universal definition.

Although the nature or essence of love is a subject of frequent debate, different aspects of the word can be clarified by determining what isn't love. As a general expression of positive sentiment (a stronger form of like), love is commonly contrasted with hate (or neutral apathy); as a less sexual and more emotionally intimate form of romantic attachment, love is commonly contrasted with lust; and as an interpersonal relationship with romantic overtones, love is sometimes contrasted with friendship, although the word love is often applied to close friendships.

When discussed in the abstract, love usually refers to interpersonal love, an experience felt by a person for another person. Love often involves caring for or identifying with a person or thing, including oneself (cf. narcissism). In addition to cross-cultural differences in understanding love, ideas about love have also changed greatly over time. Some historians date modern conceptions of romantic love to courtly Europe during or after the Middle Ages, although the prior existence of romantic attachments is attested by ancient love poetry.

Because of the complex and abstract nature of love, discourse on love is commonly reduced to a thought-terminating cliché, and there are a number of common proverbs regarding love, from Virgil's "Love conquers all" to the Beatles' "All you need is love". St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle, defines love as "to will the good of another." Bertrand Russell describes love as a condition of "absolute value," as opposed to relative value. Philosopher Gottfried Leibniz said that love is "to be delighted by the happiness of another."

Love is sometimes referred to as being the "international language", overriding cultural and linguistic divisions.