Assignments

I

1.Transcribe and give equivalents to the following words.

queer average to conceal misprision impassioned

deep in one’s heart a refuge of life to cling to one’s/smb’s point of view preposterous

2.Supply antonyms and synonyms to the following.

Queer, definite, erect, different, compensation, refuge, sink, stubbornly.

3.Answer the following questions.

1. What did the author feel when he heard a man proclaiming himself an “average, honest, open fellow”?

2. What is the main difference between the rich and the poor?

3. What do the rich think, deep in their hearts? Why?

4.Which sentences are true?

1. The author wants to attack all the lies that the poor have told about the rich.

2. Unless one was born rich, one will never understand the world of rich people.

3. Anson Hunter was a foreigner.

4. Reporters make the country of the rich as unreal as fairy-land.

5. The author described nothing but a preposterous movie.

5.Describe:

1. The author’s understanding of the difference between the rich and the poor.

2. “An average, honest, open fellow”.

6.Comment on the following quotes with reference to the story and everyday life.

1.There are no types, no plurals.

2.The sense of possession makes rich people soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful.

II

1.Transcribe and give equivalents to the following words.

the age of reason = 7 years old; crisp; to be peculiar to smb; to be superior to smb ; to grow up into a successful man; to keep an eye on smb; far out the reach of smb’s voice; deference; to disdain; to struggle for precedence; to be paid to smb; to keep smb from smth;

to belittle; to mistake smth for smth; conventional; to get smb out of trouble; to be convivial, robusty avid for pleasure; to give way to smth; a contemporary ; to resent; to be engrossed in the dialogue; to despise.

2.Supply antonyms and synonyms to the following.

Glide, fashionable, superior, concentration, deference, vaguely, sufficient, shift, irreproachable, enormously, gradually.

3.Answer the following questions.

1. What was Anson’s family background?

2. When did Anson’s first sense of superiority come to him?

3. Why did he desdain to struggle with other boys for precedence?

4. What was people’s attitude to Anson?

5. What were Anson’s aspirations?

6. What attracted Anson in Paula?

7. Why was their love like a sort of hypnosis?

8. In what way did Anson and Paula spend their free time?

9. What did they agree to do?

4.Which sentences are true?

1. Anson inherited a fortune of fifteen million dollars.

2. Anson acquired an English accent because his governess spoke English.

3. Anson’s father was a right-living and successful man.

4. Anson always wanted to be the centre of everything – money, position, authority.

5. Anson was not a success in college as he was very egoistic, independent and snobbish.

6. Anson was very handsome – he had a confident charm.

7. Anson’s whole life was a series of compromises.

5.Put the events in the chronological order.

1. The author met Anson.

2. Anson went to New Haven.

3. The children moved to a big estate in northern Connecticut.

4. One evening after a dance Anson decided to marry the girl.

5. Anson began to shift the centre of his life to New York.

6. Anson met Paula Legendre.

7. Anson disdained to struggle with other boys for precedence.

8. Anson despised Paula’s emotional simplicity.

6. Reproduce the situations in which the following sentences are used.

1. Is it seven?

2. ... money separates families to form “sets”.

3. … He realized the half-grudging deference that was paid to him.

4. ...even instructors treated him with a certain respect.

7.Find evidence to prove that

1. Anson’s parents paid much attention to educating their children.

2. Anson’s standing in society told on him.

3. Anson’s aspirations were conventional.

4. Anson had no illusions about his future.

5. Anson fell in love on Paula’s terms.

8.Describe:

1. Anson’s parents.

2. Anson’s early years.

3. Anson’s attitude to life after college.

4. Paula Legendre.

9.Comment on the following:

1. The rich accept superiority as the natural state of things.

2. Most of our lives end as a compromise – it was a compromise that Anson’s life began.

3. Mutual affection starts with meaningless statements – the emotional content that gradually comes to fill them grows up not out of the words but out of its enormous seriousness.

III

1.Transcribe and give equivalents to the following words.

communion to make things go to spree to be on her terms the scale on which they lived dizzy to occur to smb to reconcile oneself to the fact verbal inhibition her lips tightened with distaste

boisterous to be high in the social scale in Dutch infractible under the weather to brood over to establish an advantage over smb to make promises humility