5.Занятие Беседа

COWBOY: MYTH OR REALITY.

The daring bank robberies, the exciting chases on horseback with guns blazing, the handsome guitar-strumming cowboys sitting around bonfires and the lovely saloon ladies all made exciting viewing. This is the world of cowboy in thousands of westerns, starring John Wayne or Gary Copper. These films show the cowboy who plays cards all night, drinks a lot of whisky and is always ready to join in a fight and use his gun. But the realities of the Old West were quite different from the illusions created by Hollywood.

Cowboys were often very young illiterate and unskilled labourers. Some were peasants straight off the boat from Europe. Some were on the run from the Law. A few were Englishmen banished from home and others were merely drifters. One out of three was black or Mexican. The only thing they had in common was the cows they looked after.

The man of the West wore a very distinctive uniform. Every part of his costume had a function: the broad-brimmed hat to keep the sun and rain off his head, the spurs on the back of his heels to make the horse run faster, the bandanna around his neck to give protection against the dust if tied across his nose and mouth or as a tourniquet in case of rattlesnake bite, the trousers tight on the waist and hip to be comfortable on a long ride.

The cowboy's job was to look after cattle either on the ranch or while driving them thousands of miles across the country to the cattle markets. The most important tools of the trade to a cowboy were the horse and the rope or lariat. Contrary to his movie image, the cowboy seldom had to defend his honour or demonstrate his manhood with a six- shooter. Surprisingly, he has a reputation of being cruel to his horses and cattle. He had to drive the cattle 1,800 miles with no comfort. He had to endure the heat of the summer and the frosts and the deep snow of the winter. It was a difficult job keeping a herd together on an open prairie or during a thunderstorm, or getting it across a river. The cowboys were happy if 90 per cent of the animals reached the market. The cowboy was a lonely, poor labourer and his heyday only lasted between the 1860s and1880s when the long cattle drives were made.

 

Упражнения для контроля.

     I   Answer the questions:

1.  How is cowboy shown in popular Americans westerns?

2.  Who were 19th century cowboys?

3.  What was the main j ob of cowboys?

4.  What hardships did cowboys endure while driving the cattle to the market?

5.  What were the distinctive features of a cowboy's costume?

6.  Why are cowboys considered to be folk heroes.

     II  Talking it over

Cowboys and long-distance truckers are popular figures of the American scene. What do they have in common? What makes the truckers feel like cowboys? Would you like to be a trucker?