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Ужас в Момбасе
Когда Камилль и Сильвэн были в Кении, они посетили город Момбаса. В первое утро они вышли на улицу и встретили парня с удавом боа на плечах. Туристы фотографировались со змеёй на шее. Сильвэн подумал, что снять маленькую Камилль с огромным удавом на шее - прекрасная идея. Камилль почему-то согласилась позировать и взяла удава. В тот момент, как она положила это тяжёлое чудовище на плечи, к ним подбежала собака и залаяла на них. К ужасу Камилли, змея отреагировала, (you know, it's a dangling participle, so coma, and surely it was because of inattention :) открыв пасть и срыгнув (at that moment the snake opened a mouth and vomitted that sort of a rabbit, that is why it is better not to use continious tense) полупереваренного кролика на её одежду и ноги. Она выглядела, как будто кто-то вылил на неё клубничный йогурт. Но ужас на этом не закончился. Собака, кажется, была голодна, и увидев возможность быстрого завтрака, съела кролика на глазах у всех. На этот раз Камилль действительно чуть не умерла (died of what? bare infinitive without an object doesn't make sense here). Сильвэн, у которого камера всегда наготове, задокументировал всю сцену для потомков.
great job as usual!
0 votedAugust 30, 20131Камилль
Хотя Камилль не работает, у неё всегда много дел. Её мать, уже пожилая женщина, живёт в Лас-Вегасе. Несмотря на то, что две сестры Камилли тоже живут в Лас-Вегасе, она часто бывает там и много помогает матери: возит её к докторам, совершает (or simpler - "делает") для неё покупки, делает [простой] (I'd have omitted it, it depends on what you meant: if it's light repairs, then it's ok, but we usually perceive a repair as something exhausting, so it cannot be simple [простой], it's always to come as a tremendously long-term burden :) ремонт в доме, когда нужно, и так далее. Камилль очень умна (умна is kinda poetric, you know. It may be used as synonym to "хитрый" [subtle], in this case the better is "очень умная". Yeah, just one letter added. This word-combination is a lot frequent), и поэтому её мать и сёстры часто обращаются к ней, чтобы разрешить проблемы. (another couple of variants: часто обращаются к ней за помощью [в разрешении проблем]; часто обращаются к ней, когда у них [есть/существуют/появились] проблемы; часто обращаются к ней, чтобы решить/разрешить свои проблемы). Когда мы работали в гостинице, она чаще всего (обычно is a bit better here, "чаще всего" means she got a lot of tasks besides mentioned ones, and these ones take the major part of them, in the same time "обычно" means she's been doing listed ones and some others with rare exception) писала важные письма, делала (or совершала :) неприятные звонки по поводу жалоб и вообще разрешала (решала, look there are two statements: решить/решать проблему, разрешИть проблему. РазрешАть проблему concerning проблема sounds wierd a bit, and please pay attention I said "a bit", but we can say "разрешИть вопросы/разрешИть вопрос". Вопрос is in the same meaning as проблема) все проблемы, касавшиеся (compare with касающиеся: it is better, because it is general, i.e. they concerned guests, they do and they will, but касавшиеся is not incorrect anyway, that's correct) гостей, комнат, сотрудников и резервирования номеров.
Well done, Uly!
And you are pretty good at punctuation! )
0 votedAugust 19, 20131Камилль и Сильвэн
Сегодня я еду в Сан-Антонио, чтобы повидать моих друзей Камилль и Сильвэн, которые [только что] (if you put "только что" it would mean that they've just bought a new house, at the very moment you wrote this sentence, the better will be to say "недавно" or something else like). купили там новый дом. Раньше они жили в Новом Орлеане, но Сильвэн получил работу в Техасе,,и поэтому они переехали туда. Я еду туда, чтобы помочь им с переездом. Камилл была моей секретаршей, когда мы работали [вместе] ("вместе" is redundant here, you meant it before, while introducing her as your secretary, but if you removed the preposition "когда", "вместе" would be rather appropriate: Камиль была моей секретаршей: мы работали вместе в гостинице в Новом Орлеане пять лет тому назад. So we got a conjunctionless compound sentence, where the second part is explaining the first one.) в гостинице в Новом Орлеане пять лет тому назад. После урагана Катрина, я вернулся во Флориду, но мы всегда оставались друзьями и пытаемся видеться по крайней мере раз в год. Камилль сейчас совсем не работает, так как у её мужа очень хорошая работа, и он зарабатывает много денег. Поэтому мне всегда очень весело [посещать её] (it would be better to say "навещать её/их", "посещать" is usually used as we are to attend some activities or events like concerts, exhibitions, meetings etc.), потому что у нас много времени, чтобы всё посмотреть в каждом новом городе, в который они переезжают. Сан-Антонио будет их [четвертый переезд] (generally speaking it's a instrumental case, thus correct usage will be "четвертым переездом", but it's a sort of pedantry, because approximately half of natives would have said the same way :) с тех пор, как мы познакомились в Новом Орлеане.
Anyway, it's perfect!
0 votedAugust 18, 20131- The feeling of national consciousness (Part III) ... There are differences in Wales between residents of industrial South and countryside North, and West, where people speaks Welsh only, and between English-speaking East and Southern-East. Nevertheless the majority of Welsh consider themselves as separate nation, distinguished from Englishmen. Now Welsh are fighting against supplanting their culture and language with English equivalents, opposing originality of their people to authority of London. Similarly Scottish unite, protecting their nation and culture due to historically happened disgust towards Englishmen. Scottish revere their traditions, that are reflected in local festivals and differ from legislative, religious and educational systems. More than 30 percent of Scottish wanted political independence from England. In Northern Ireland differences between catholics and protestants have been known a long ago, and now they are intensified due to discrepancies in geographic locations. Despite protestants don't suppose them to be Englishmen, they would rather prefer stay in Great Britain, but catholics consider themselves Irish and want to join Ireland. Both are interested in protecting local culture, music and Irish language. Overall, summing up, modern British are mixed and heterogeneous people, whose heterogeneity is aggravated by emigrants and cultures brought by them. So, search for pure Englishman, Welsh, Scottish or Irish who could match all the stereotypes, connected with “typical British”, is becoming very complex, say, unsuccessful.May 18, 201360
- The feeling of national consciousness (Part II) ... Of course, for the ages these four nations have somehow mixed up, that was provided by groups of the emigrants, who has been unevenly getting in. There was formed a single political, social and state system, resulted into all the inhabitants from islands felt themselves a single nation. British are often mixed up with Englishmen though, because firstly Englishmen are the most numerous people in the area of Great Britain, secondly a union of smaller in numbers Scottish, Welsh and Irish happened under the English crown, and thirdly, it is because all the government power is concentrated in the very England, or more exactly, in the south-eastern part or it. The nationalism of Englishmen turns out to be ruling, but they themselves don't see particular differences in their defining themselves as British or Englishmen. Representatives of the other folks are always to limit them from Great Britain in common, as a rule, they don't get used to domination and influence of Englishmen, they consider themselves completely different from them and prefer to feel Scottish (Welsh, Irish), but not British. The feeling of national consciousness until recently had existed just in cultural area, as well as common British government had been admitted by all the four folks, except a few people from Northern Ireland. However, in 60-70 nationalism moved to the politics of Scotland and Wales. Calls to sovereignty of these two countries led to the beginning of creation their own parliament in Wales and delivery of wide powers and liberty to Scottish parliament. Requirements to decentralize the economy within England reflect its regional differences. So as Englishmen as nation themselves are very different, their customs, accents and behavior are tremendously differs. ...May 18, 201310
- The feeling of national consciousness (Part I) It happened that emigrants always seemed to be a threat to British moral, social and cultural values to some people, whose presence will totally change society. However, this point of view is completely missing the difficulties of the definition of British norms in different periods of British history. Emigrants definitely changed the society and relationships within it, but British islands were always populated with folks of several different cultures. There is a huge amount of discrepancies between the four nations of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and also the variety of cultures inside each country. Such a variety of their cultures and a presence of emigrants communities raises a question about the meaning of the determination “typical British”. The “typical British” behavior is attributed to all the settlers of British islands since 1070, when Great Britain was formed. Since that time this definition has been containing stability and centralization of the management institution without a harm to existing national traditions. But the history of British islands had been representing no a history of a single state, but a history of four completely different countries and their people, that quite often fought with each other. Folks of current Common Wealth saved significant national and cultural differences. Political terms such as “British” and “Britain” seem too artificial to many of them. Foreigners often call British as Englishmen, and too often don't make British cultures out and don't also note irritation of non-British people linked to that treatment. In general Scottish, Welsh and Irish are descendants of Celts, meanwhile Englishmen are successors of Anglo-Saxons. Critics observe many dwellers of Great Britain don't suppose them to be British and they assume that it's necessary to look over this term radically in the light of the multinational and multiracial country, that is in EU. ...May 18, 201310
