Abstract: The subject of the research is the particularities of the theatre metaphor in political texts of German mass media. The material for the research is the corpus consisting of 1388 texts that have been published since early October 2017 till late January 2018. The authors of the article describe the framework-slot structure of the theatre model, mechanisms that influence recipients, and correspondence of in-depth meanings brought up by particular metaphors to the German linguocultural community. The authors describe target spheres of the metaphorical expansion of the theatre model, define the most frequent submodels and prove the variability of the model for the aforesaid period of time. In the course of their research the authors have used the methods of continuous and special sampling, framework analysis, component analysis, contextual analysis, conceptual analysis, and content analysis. The methodological basis of the research is the theory of the metaphorical modelling and the theory of discourse. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the authors offer a theoretical interpretation of metaphors that are based on the theatre in German mass media political discourse. As a result of their research, the authors make a conclusion that the theatre metaphor has a system and archetypical nature in German mass media political discourse and it also plays a dominating role in mass media texts devoted to the policy of Donald Trump and election strategy of Vladimir Putin since there are the political leaders that haven been elected during the period since early October 2017 till late January 2018. 

Keywords: archetypal metaphor, metaphorical model, conceptual metaphor, conceptosphere, concept, political discourse, political metaphor, variability, German mass media, German

Abstract: The subject of the research is the system of characters in L. Petrushevskaya's series 'Wild Animal Tales' analyzed from the point of view of their names (nomiations). The aim of the research is to define systemic organisation of character names in 'Wild Animal Tales'. The author of the article focuses on the main principle of the writer's structuring these names although there are a lot deviations from this principle in Tales when names have both animal-like and human-like parts. In the course of her research Kletskaya has used such methods as observation and description, inductive method, opposition method (differential analysis), and style analysis method. As a result, the author defines the main principle of structuring character nomations, the structural scheme 'animal feature + human feature'. The character nomation does not only differentiate a character from other heroes but also performs a descriptive and connecting functions. The scentific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the principle of how character names are structured in 'Wild Animal Tales' is closely connected with specific images of the novel that is based on the dual nature of animal-human characters with the overall insignificance of the world described there. Deviations from this principle are singled out and thus only draw our attention to the dominating principle of names structuring. 

Abstract: The author raises the problem of using tests to control the level of educational and professional competences of law students during practical classes at a non-linguistic university. The subject of the research is the theoretical basis and practical implementation of a set of tests for monitoring the level of knowledge of students majoring in law. The aim of this paper is to examine the monitoring process in teaching and acquisition of knowledge from the point of view of testing technology. The author substantiates the hypothesis that the use of linguo-didactic tests in the classroom is an efficient instrument to stimulate learning activity of students and a resulting means of teaching and control improving students' motivation towards acquiring communication skills as part of their professional competence. Research methods used in this work include the following: -general research methods such as summary of Russia's experience in efficient use of linguo-didactic tests; and -empirical methods, in particular, observation and questionnaire survey. The novelty of the research is determined by the author's choice of objectives and the matter of research itself. The author also reviewed and extended the list of structural and conceptual characteristics of the concept "linguo-didactic testing" as applied to legal professions taking into account changes in today's educational standards. The author specifies training and controlling forms of testing that purposefully increase the success of learning and actualize the positive motivation of the students.

Keywords: educational process, control, students, consolidation, tests, test, foreign language, method, activity, motivation