Ex. 1. Use Correct Articles with Nouns. Translate Into Russian

3

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
S. Johnson

Ex. 1. Use correct articles with nouns. Translate into Russian.

1.  … rabbit, … vegetable-eating land animal, is generally peaceable if it is left undisturbed.

2.  They elected me … president by a show of hands.

3.  … Prime Minister asked me if he was … good prime minister.

4.  … glass I drink from is not large, but at least it is my own.

5.  Three is … cardinal number that is one more than two.

6.  … very pale moon rose slowly. So did … stranger as they approached … bench.

7.  It is amazing what little harm doctors do when one considers all … opportunity they have. (Mark Twain)

8.  It is truly written that … man has five times as many fingers as ears, but only twice as many ears as noses. (Don Geddis)

9.  Horses look remarkably healthy. That’s because they don’t sit up all … night playing … cards and drinking … whisky.

10.  Basically … word mankind is made up of two separate words, mank and ind. What do these words mean? Nobody knows and that is why … mankind is … mystery. (Jack Hand)

11.  I lent … friend of mine … thousand dollars for plastic surgery and now I don’t know what he looks like.

12.  Under … capitalism … man exploits … man. Under … communism it’s just … opposite. (J.K. Galbraith)

13.  I prefer … cinema to … theatre; … television to … cinema; and … radio to … television.

14.  Have you ever heard … Bach concerto?

15.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is … Milos Forman film.

16.  … tiger is in … danger of becoming extinct.

Ex. 2. Use correct articles. Translate into Russian.

1.  … real art of conversation is not only to say … right thing at … right place but to leave unsaid … wrong thing at the tempting moment. (Dorothy Neville)

2.  I wish it would dawn upon … engineers that, in order to be … engineer, it is not enough to be … engineer. (Jose Ortega y Gasset)

3.  Better than … thousand days of … diligent study is one day with … great teacher. (Japanese proverb)

4.  If you are going through … hell, keep going. (Sir Winston Churchill)

5.  Use … telephone and spare yourself a visit.

6.  … wastebasket is … writer’s best friend. (Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer)

7.  The fall in … value of … pound will enable us to export more goods.

8.  He is not much of … swimmer, but he brushes his teeth every day.

9.  I go to … theatre as seldom as I can.

10.  She looked like something from … circus.

11.  He is a listener by … trade.

12.  He’s the dirtiest person I know, and he has … nerve to tell my shoes need cleaning.

13.  Where is … sense in going by boat when the plane costs no more and is quicker.

14.  … outer space seems to be infinite.

15.  … most people who are as attractive, witty and intelligent as I am are usually conceited.

16.  It’s no good to talk about your troubles; … eighty per cent of the people who hear them don’t care and the other twenty per cent are glad you’re having trouble.

17.  I don’t answer … telephone because I have this feeling there is going to be someone on … other end.

18.  Just … other day in … Underground I enjoyed … pleasure of offering my seat to three ladies. (G.K. Chestertone)

19.  … botany is … art of insulting … flowers in … Latin and … Greek.

20.  The hardest person to awaken is … one already awake. (Tagalog saying)

21.  A teacher affects … eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops. (Henry Adams)

22.  Before you visit Myanmar you ought to learn … language.

23.  … teak is a type of … wood.

Ex. 3. Use correct articles with names of substances. Translate into Russian.

1.  His explanation of where he got the money from doesn’t hold … water.

2.  … iron rusts from disuse, … stagnant water loses its purity, and in … cold weather becomes frozen, even so does … inaction sap the vigor of the mind. (Leonardo Da Vinci)

3.  … coffee just isn’t my cup of … tea.

4.  We didn’t starve but nobody ate … chicken unless we were sick or … chicken was.

5.  … alkali forms a chemical salt when combined with … acid.

6.  … mocha [´mokә] is a type of … fine coffee.

7.  … hydrogen is … gas that is … simple substance, without … colour or smell, is lighter than … air, and burns very easily.

8.  … carbon dioxide is produced when animals breathe out, when … carbon is burned in … air, or when animal or vegetable matter decays.

Ex. 4. Use correct articles with abstract nouns. Translate into good Russian.

1. … truth is stranger than … fiction.

2. Our English teacher made sure that we were well grounded in … basic grammar.

3. Having pet alligators is … idiosyncrasy.

4. All our students receive … good grounding in … English grammar.

5. It is better to err on the side of … caution.

6. … collateral aim of … government’s industrial strategy is to increase … employment.

7. I have … horrible feeling we’re going to fail the exam.

8. He had half … mind to go and ask the Gaffer who the inquirer was. But he thought better (or worse) of it, and turned and walked quickly back.

9. They went in … single file along hedgerows and the borders of coppices, and … night fell dark about them.

10. It’s … dangerous business going out of your door.

11. … sudden unreasoning fear of discovery laid hold of Frodo.

12. You must keep your secret for … present, if you want to be mysterious.

13. ‘Well, Mr Frodo,’ Maggot went on, ‘I’m glad that you’ve had … sense to come back to Buckland.

14. … only thing to do is to go off in … quite unexpected direction.

15. As … matter of fact he came out on … right side in … end.

16. … concealment was no longer possible, and they could only hope that no enemy or spy was observing them.

17. It’s not easy when you’ve spent the rest of your life trying to do … opposite.

18. All we ever do nowadays is … talk.

19. … poetry is … art of uniting … pleasure with … truth.

20. If … parsimony could have made a man rich, Sir Pitt Crawley might have become very wealthy. (W. Thackeray)

21. … loyal wife is … one who sticks with her husband through all … troubles he wouldn’t have made if he hadn’t married her.

22. … truth is rarely pure, and never simple. (O. Wilde)

23. Speak … truth, then leave quickly. (Serb proverb)

24. … logic is the first thing you have to get rid of.

25. … responsibility for … continual prevalence of … ignorance lies not with the teacher but with those taught.

26. Australia faces … grey future.

27. … time slips through our fingers like water. We gape in … astonishment to see how little is left.

28. I get into … trouble and get out again.

29. Mr Brown was busy having … nervous breakdown.

30. She is … zero, but terrific looking.

31. Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for … reason.

32. In ... interior darkness he seems a suit of clothes hung from the broad knob of his face.

33. … willing contemplation of … vice is … vice. (Arabic proverb)

34. There is no fire like … passion, there is no shark like … hatred, there is no snare like … folly, there is no torrent like … greed. (Buddha)

35. Enjoy … silence!

36. Sometimes I think the surest sign that … intelligent life exists elsewhere in … universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. (Bill Watterson)

37. … shortest distance between … two truths is … lie.

38. … smile that you send out returns to you. (Indian proverb)

39. … language is not neutral. It is merely … vehicle which carries ideas. It is itself … shaper of ideas. (Dale Spender)

40. … sounds were … voices and … voices were … words and … words were thoughts.

Ex. 5. Use correct articles with abstract nouns. Translate into good Russian.

1. We found it hard to choose a carpet: they were all much of … muchness.

2. … tact is … ability to describe others as they see each themselves. (A. Lincoln)

3. … time does not seem to pass here: it just is. A remarkable place altogether.

4. … human mind is more … universe than … universe itself.

5. … procrastination is … art of keeping up with yesterday.

6. …simplicity doesn’t mean to live in … misery and … poverty. You have what you need, and you don’t want to have what you don’t need. (Charan Singh, mystic)

7. That is to say, the publishers offer … reader a stream of undoctored records that speak … volumes both of … subconscious and the writing method of the great writer of … absurd.

8. If you put your hand on … working car engine, you will feel vibrations of … 1Hz to 100Hz frequency.

9. … social problems in … modern society are mounting.

10. There’s going to be … constant speculation about the date of the election.

11. The whole policy has proved … failure and should be abandoned.

12. I feel … pity rather than … anger to these people.

13. I think that’s … great pity after all she’s done.

14. This is the most exciting period in … human history.

15. It’s … common knowledge among politicians that an election will be called soon.

16. I gave her some chocolate as … small thank you.

17. I write with … beautiful simplicity of … style.

18. I’m looking for … trouble in any shape or form.

19. If you play with dangerous chemicals like that you’re just asking for … trouble.

20. We must thank you for taking … trouble to cook.

21. ... trouble with me is that I didn’t learn grammar.

22. She leads … trouble-free existence

23. The lesson was going at … very slow pace.

24. Venice has … timeless beauty.

25. I have been learning … grammar non-stop for 18 hours.

26. … excessive study can rapidly reduce … mental powers too.

27. The speech was … embarrassment to listen to.

28. Getting enough sleep makes … difference in how one feels and looks.

29. The hypothesis is only … crude approximation to … reality.

30. What … atrocious dinner!

31. Flies and stinging insects were giving us … bad time.

32. A thing of beauty is … joy forever. (Keats)

33. When another person departs from the truth, it is … lie; when we do, it is … imagination.

34. … common sense is not so common. (Voltaire)

35. It is these things that cause me concern: … failure to cultivate virtue, … failure to go more deeply into what I have learned, … inability, when I am told what is right, to move to where it is, and … inability to reform myself when I have defects. (Confucius)

36. To be fond of something is better than merely to know it, and to find … joy in it is better than merely to be fond of it. (Confucius)

37. When I have pointed out one corner of a square to anyone and he does not come back with … other three, I will not point it out to him … second time.

38. Philosophers before Kant had … tremendous advantage over philosophers after Kant in that they didn’t have to waste years studying Kant. (Bertrand Russel)

39. People should work for … benefit of … society.

40. … healthy society can tolerate a lot of criticism.

Ex. 6. Use correct articles with abstract nouns. Translate into good Russian.

1.  That painted portrait is … perfect likeness of her.

2.  The book was … immense success.

3.  The project was … utter failure.

4.  That pianist has … considerable talent.

5.  I have … musical talent.

6.  It takes … practice to learn how to play … violin.

7.  … history does not repeat itself, … historians merely repeat each other.

8.  Always acknowledge … fault frankly. This will throw those in … authority off their guard and give you … opportunity to commit more.

9.  Helen and Mary sat in the kitchen having … good gossip about their friends.

10.  … Mary’s singing is … joy to listen to.

11.  The readers were filled with … joy.

12.  It was such … pleasure to be present at the lesson.

13.  Mr Smith’s guinea pig is … little horror.

14.  I hope they’ll have … sense to shut the windows before they leave.

15.  It makes … sense to buy a large packet because it works out cheaper in … end.

16.  The helicopter hovering overhead added to … sense of urgency.

17.  These changes strike at the heart of … British society.

18.  There’s … danger that we will end up blaming ourselves for … society’s problems.

19.  Mr Drunkenstein has … limited knowledge of French.

20.  The details of the scandal are now … common knowledge.

21.  Mr Frühstück started to photograph the documents, safe in … knowledge that he wouldn’t be disturbed at least an hour.

22.  Keeping warm in the winter is … major worry for many students.

23.  In … hot weather shops do … roaring trade in cold drinks and ice creams.

24.  … drama is … life with the dull bits cut out. (Alfred Hitchcock)

25.  I prefer … Dutch cheese to … modern art

26.  It’s … sheer stupidity.

27.  The king had … absolute power over his subjects.

28.  His success was to … sheer determination.

29.  It was … sheer coincidence that we met at the German lesson.

30.  What’s your idea of … perfect happiness?

31.  I have … absolute faith in her judgment.