Номер 3, страница 272 - гдз по английскому языку 11 класс учебник Юхнель, Демченко

3. a) Read the excerpt from Tony Blair’s book and check your predictions.

During my time as Prime Minister I came to love America – loved its sense of aspiration, the notion of coming from nothing and making something of yourself. I didn't start that way;

I didn't know many Americans at school or university, and I was 32 before I visited the U.S. My view of America had been formed from movies and TV shows. But in 1985, I was part of a delegation of Members of Parliament.

What I learnt that day is that Americans can be really, really clever. It was a useful lesson for my time in office.

A certain conception of a nation

Clinton, Bush, Obama: of course, they are different from oneanother. But they share a great similarity too. They meet, I think, at a certain conception about the character of America itself. ...

Americans can be all that the rest of the world sometimes accuses them of: brash, loud, insular, obsessive and heavy-handed. But America is great for a reason. It is looked up to, despite all the criticism, for a reason. There is a nobility in the American character that has been developed over the centuries, derived in part, from the waves of migration that form the stock, from the circumstances of independence, from the Civil War, from historical facts and coincidences. But it is there.

That nobility isn't about being nicer, better or more successful than anyone else. It is a feeling about the country. It is a devotion to the American ideal that at a certain point goes beyond class, race, religion or upbringing. That ideal is about values: freedom, the rule of law, democracy. It is also about the way you achieve: on merit, by your own efforts and hard work. But it is most of all that you as an individual take second place to the interests of the nation as a whole. It is what makes the country determined to overcome its challenges.

Adapted from Tony Blair’s
A Journey: My Political Life, published by Alfred A. Knopf

b) Read the text again and say what influenced his first ideas about the Americans and what he came to understand later?

b) Прочитайте текст еще раз и скажите, что повлияло на его первые представления об американцах и что он понял позже?

Ответ:

His first ideas about the Americans were influenced by movies and TV shows. Later, he came to understand that Americans can be very clever. He also learned about the complexity of the American character, which he describes as having a sense of aspiration and nobility. This nobility is a devotion to the American ideal of freedom, the rule of law, democracy, and achieving success through merit and hard work, where individual interests take second place to the interests of the nation as a whole.

Перевод:

Его первые представления об американцах были сформированы под влиянием фильмов и телешоу. Позже он понял, что американцы могут быть очень умны. Он также узнал о сложности американского характера, который он описывает как обладающий чувством стремления и благородством. Это благородство заключается в преданности американскому идеалу свободы, верховенства закона, демократии и достижения успеха благодаря заслугам и усердному труду, где личные интересы отходят на второй план по сравнению с интересами нации в целом.