Аспирантура
Кафедра английского языка на факультете менеджмента
Вступительный экзамен по английскому языку
( Образцы экзаменационных заданий)
I. Using a dictionary prepare a written translation of the text (время выполнения 45 минут)
STATUS AND SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICA
One of the most striking features of class in America is the wide-spread popular disbelief in
its existence. Woodrow Wilson in 1912 observed that Americans like to think that "this is the
country where there is no distinction of class, no distinction of social status". To judge from their
responses to modern social questionnaires, American attitudes towards class haven't changed much
during the past two generations. Americans either continue to assert that classes are almost totally
nonexistent in the country, or they insist that they belong to the great middle class. Close scrutiny of
the writings of the American political historians reveals that most of them are oblivious to any
interconnections between politics and class, while the few who take account of them tend to
attribute slight significance to the relationship. Most Americans appear to be convinced that the
New World is and always has been different from the Old. The USA is indeed unique in a number
of important respects; yet the evidence is abundant that classes, class lines, and distinctions of status
do exist and have always existed here, as elsewhere in the world.
Before launching into a discussion of the changing face of the class in America over the
course of time, it's necessary to indicate precisely what is meant by the term. Controversy over the
meaning of class is inevitable in view of the abstractness and complexity of the concept, its
multidimensional components, the imprecision attending evaluation of such ingredients as status
and prestige, and the subjectivity involved in ranking even such objective features as occupation
and residence.
The families and individuals that constitute a distinctive class are roughly similar in a
number of significant respects: their level of wealth; their means of achieving it; the
prestige, quality and relative irksomeness of the means; their style of living, including their
uses of leisure; their social repute (resting, among other things, on their racial, ethnic, and religious
identity); the standing of the social circle within which they move; and the influence and power they
command in their own and in the larger American community.
II.
Scan and translate the text (Время подготовки – 2 минуты)
STATUS AND SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICA
One of the most striking features of class in America is the wide-spread popular disbelief in
its existence. Woodrow Wilson in 1912 observed that Americans like to think that "this is the
country where there is no distinction of class, no distinction of social status". To judge from their
responses to modern social questionnaires, American attitudes towards class haven't changed much
during the past two generations. Americans either continue to assert that classes are almost totally
nonexistent in the country, or they insist that they belong to the great middle class. Close scrutiny of
the writings of the American political historians reveals that most of them are oblivious to any
interconnections between politics and class, while the few who take account of them tend to
attribute slight significance to the relationship. Most Americans appear to be convinced that the
New World is and always has been different from the Old. The USA is indeed unique in a number
of important respects; yet the evidence is abundant that classes, class lines, and distinctions of status
do exist and have always existed here, as elsewhere in the world.
Before launching into a discussion of the changing face of the class in America over the
course of time, it's necessary to indicate precisely what is meant by the term. Controversy over the
meaning of class is inevitable in view of the abstractness and complexity of the concept, its
multidimensional components, the imprecision attending evaluation of such ingredients as status
and prestige, and the subjectivity involved in ranking even such objective features as occupation
and residence.