8. Talk about the language of Shakespeare and the difficulties of presenting Shakespeare’s characters to a modern audience (Section V, 1. «Shakespeare»; 2. «Drama in Cambridge»).

7. Have you (or someone you know well) been to the USA? Does your (their) opinion of this country coincide with some of the stereotyped prejudices? (Section IV, «Traveller'sTales»).

So many men, so many minds.

Unfortunately I have never been to the USA, though I consider it to be a must-visit country. A close friend of mine has visited this tremendous country this year. He stayed in a couple of cities, including New York. To put it into nutshell, he went to the scene, got the story and came back safely. That is wrong to generalize a nation from his limited experience, but I believe he is a fair and even-handed person.

When my friend came back from his American IT conference, he shared some thrilling views of New York City pace of life. His observations and experience totally coincided with the opinion of the Crumbles on this point. The pace of life and the speed they walk along the streets are dreadful among the Americans.

It is common that a lady is supposed to be on maternity leave for three years, before the toddler starts attending a kindergarten, but not in the USA. Women there cannot afford such a long leave, after 6 weeks they are welcomed back to work. If you want to develop a brilliant career you just cannot have gaps on your CV and absolutely commit yourself to the family.

It is a daily perpetual strain. And the social pressures are tremendous. This may seems appalling to people committed to the idea of actually living in town which is unheard of in America. It is supposed that the Americans are not even awareof slipping away at weekends to some peaceful place in the country, because countryside is entirely occupied by all those immense suburban housing developments. According to what my friend told me I can say that, that is the very case where a wrong generalization is being made.

The idea of a typicalAmerican housewife is even more amusing. It is believed that she has nothing to do but commit adulteryand go mad from boredom and frustration. Well, they definitely met the wrong lot of housewives.

Finally what surprised me most is the attitude to theAmerican food. The Americans used to be lightened as a nation dreadfully suffering from obesity, moreover Christopher implicated the food in America in flavorlessness and doubts if there are any decent fruit and vegetables. I hope that now I will speak out on behalf of all my American friends, who can show off their wonderful weights and enjoy a vast amount of seasonal and exotic fruit and vegetables.

However, even coming to the US, you get surprised to see quite the opposite and it wouldn’t be some local atypicality, because in reality the way of an American life is not a dreadful rat-race at all, although it has certain peculiarities, one should be ready to adopt oneself to. As for social pressures, I think, they do exist everywhere. I am sure Americans give a good example of hard work and optimistic life-style. This «can-do-spirit»proves that with the necessary willingness and inventiveness one can overcome all the difficulties. So, the Americans tend to be trendsetters inlifestyle. And as for stereotypes I’d say that in the modern mobile world of traveling and active interaction, any stereotype ideas will soon be nonsense.

8. Talk about the language of Shakespeare and the difficulties of presenting Shakespeare’s characters to a modern audience (Section V, 1. «Shakespeare»; 2. «Drama in Cambridge»).

For any Englishman, there are never can be any discussion on topic who is the world’s greatest poet and dramatist. Only one name possibly suggests itself to him: that of William Shakespeare. All of us use words, phrases and quotations from Shakespeare’s writings that have become part of the common property of English-speaking people.

Shakespeare, more perhaps than any other writer, made full use of the great resources of the English language. Most of us use about 5. 000 words in our normal employment of English. Shakespeare in his works used more than 25. 000. There is probably no better way for a foreigner to appreciate the richness and variety of the English language than by studying the various ways in which Shakespeare used it. For many years, critics have been theorizing about the Shakespeare’s plays. Sometimes, indeed, it seems that the poetry of Shakespeare will disappear beneath the great mass of comment written upon it. Fortunately, this is not likely to happen. Shakespeare’s poetry and characters (Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet and all the others) have long delighted not just the English but lovers of literature everywhere. These characters overflow with humanity—weakness, tenderness, jealousness, anger, grief. His characters are more about vulnerability than power, happier to redeem than to consign to damnation. It is universally relevant.

In brining Shakespeare’s delicate and resonant plays to the stage, many stages of understanding have to be gone through and many interpretations are likely to be rejected as facile and simplistic.

The process is really difficult, but rewarding. For the language of Shakespeare is still foreign even to Britain and making Shakespeare’s works for a modern English-speaking audience requires great thought and effort to say nothing of presenting these works to people who are not British. It is important to look further within the text and it is a great stretch to imagination to try to grasp the essence of the play and bring it out in a way, that does not require a British sensibility to comprehend it, but which appears to all. That is why people prey to many fears over the reception of Shakespeare’s plays.

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