General Comprehension

1. Who said it?

1. “The trouble is that in themselves they are not nourishing. I cannot eat them.”

2. “If we are to celebrate then let us do it properly.”

3. “It is only the very wealthy, who can afford to celebrate in this manner.”

4. “It is simple. It is like drawing with pen and ink. There is no difference except that it is slower.”

5. “Here is the answer to our problem. I will buy the picture, and I will arrange with a surgeon to remove the skin from your back”.

6. “You and I will go and have a good dinner and we can talk about it some more while we eat. How's that? Are you hungry?”

2. Who did it and why?

   1. Who stood staring at the landscape in the window of the picture gallery?

   2. Who suggested that a portrait of Josie should be tattooed on Drioli’s back?

   3. Who tried to push Drioli out of the picture gallery?

   4. Whose face expressed a mild interest and seemed to be saying “It’s all right. There’s no danger. It’s being taken care of”.

   5. Who offered Drioli two hundred thousand pounds for the picture on his back?

   6. Whose offer did Drioli finally accept?

3. Mark the following statements as true (T), false (F), not stated (NS). Correct the false statements. Prove your answer using the text.

1. Drioli always recognized Soutine’s talent.

2. Drioli liked Soutine as he himself had no talent for anything.

3. The tattoo on Drioli’s back was no masterpiece as it bore no likeness to the model.

4. Soutine’s works were recognized by the artistic circles after the First World War.

5. The gallery was only opened to rich and important people

6. The owner of the gallery wanted to cheat Drioli by offering a much smaller sum of money than the true value of the painting.

7. The man in the canary gloves was the owner of the Hotel Bristol in Cannes.

8. The man in the canary gloves killed Drioli.

4. Answer the questions:

1. Where did Drioli meet Kalmuck?

2. Why did Drioli nickname the boy “Kalmuck”?

3. What was their life like?

4. What was the cause for celebration?

5. What idea came across Drioli’s mind? Did it appeal to Kalmuck? Why?

6. Why did Drioli lose touch with Kalmuck? What did he do between the wars and after World War II?

7. What did Drioli enter the gallery for?

8. What was the reaction of the owner of the gallery and the visitors when they saw Drioli? Did their attitude change when they saw the picture on his back?

9. What did the gallery owner offer Drioli? Why did he fail in his attempts “to buy” the picture?

10. What was the offer of the stranger in the canary gloves?

Working with the Vocabulary

1. Read the story, and find the following words and word combinations in the text and give their Russian equivalents.

1. plaque

2. to embrace

3. sullen

4. brush stokes

5. a blaze of colour

6. vague

7. to inscribe one’s name

8. to coax

9. perplexed

10. suave

11. a raving (lunatic)

12. outraged

2. Remember the contexts in which Word List items are used, say who or what they referred to.

3. Find the English equivalents for these:

1. холст, полотно

2. воспоминание, вспоминать

3. размышлять над ч-л

4. мольберт

5. смешаться с толпой

6. здоровый, крепкий, сильный

7. лакировать, покрывать лаком

4. Explain what it means:

1. fatigue

2. to blaze up

3. to set about smth / doing smth

4. the small hours of the morning

5. an impasto

6. It was not a good likeness

7. a major skin-grafting operation

5. Fill in prepositions “on” / “in” /”at”:

A. Fill in the prepositions and complete the table:

1. He had always liked picture galleries. This one had a single canvas … display in the window.

2. He felt tired and he wanted to get … the wine.

3. He appeared to have become completely absorbed … the little machine and in the unusual effects it was able to produce.

4. … a sudden impulse, Drioli turned, pushed open the door of the gallery and went in.

5. “Do you like to swim and to bask yourself … the sun?”

6. He looked around aghast … the faces of the people watching him

… display to get … smth = to reach, to gain access to smth to be absorbed in … smth … (an) impulse to bask … smth aghast … smth

B. Fill in the prepositions:

1. There's an Egyptian art collection … display at the museum at the moment.

2. Oh, what fun it'll be, when they see me through the glass in here, and can't get … me

3. We had to move the washing machine out to get … the wiring behind it.

4. I've put the photo on a high shelf where it’ll be … display and where the children won't get … it.

5. Simon was so absorbed … his book, he didn't even notice me come in

6. … impulse, I picked up the phone and rang her but there was no answer. I was pretty much sure that she was so absorbed … her new hobby that the rest of the world for her did not exist.

7. He had always basked … his parents' attention.

8. Tenerife was basking … afternoon sunshine as they arrived.

9. He basked … his moment of glory, holding the trophy up to the crowd.

10. For a minute perhaps I stared aghast … this blackness that was creeping over the day, and then I realized that an eclipse was beginning

6. Guess the word or word combination from Ex 1-4 by the definition:

1. confident, elegant and polite

2. very interested in something so that you are not paying attention to anything else

3. talking or behaving in a way that shows they are crazy

4. showing bad temper or hostility

5. not having a clear shape, indistinct

6. strong and healthy

7. a wooden frame to hold a picture while it is being painted

8. confused and anxious

9. furious and indignant

10. a feeling of being extremely tired

11. horrified, appalled

12. a flat piece of stone, metal, etc, usually with a name and dates on

13. to enjoy sitting or lying in the heat or light of something

14. to persuade somebody gently to do something

15. to think a lot about something that makes you annoyed, anxious or upset

7. Translate into Russian:

1. When they are not in school, young Americans are spending nearly every waking hour absorbed in entertainment media on mobile phones, MP3 players, and other consumer electronics

2. "I didn't know you were looking for some new shoes." "Oh, I wasn't - I just saw them on display in the shop window and bought them on impulse."

3. He needed to bask himself in that smile, he said, in order that the chill of so many lonely hours among his books might be taken off the scholar's heart.

4. Sir Nigel, who had entered the room with a silvery-haired old lady upon his arm, stared aghast at this sudden outburst of candor.

5. Well, I am not interested in the kind of expression that you have when you paint a painting with brush strokes. It's all right, but it's already done and I want to do something new. (Donald Judd)

6. Happiness is like a cat, if you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay not attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap. (William Bennett)

7. Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad. (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

8. It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home. (Carl T. Rowan)

9. I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas. The canvas paints itself. I'm just the middleman. (Peter Max)

10. Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.

11. When I paint a person, his enemies always find the portrait a good likeness. (Edward Munch)

12. The 2006 FIFA World Cup ended in a blaze of colour and a roar of sound Sunday night when Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro lifted the coveted trophy in the centre of Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

13. The ladies will appear in uniform, perform two routines, pose for photos, sign autographs and mingle with the crowd.

14. Having set off in the small hours of the fourteenth, accompanied by a bugler and two Cossacks, Balashev reached the French outposts at the village of Rykonty, on the Russian side of the Niemen, by dawn.

15. We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. ( George Bernard Shaw)