Lesson 6

Ch.12-14

1. Find the English equivalents in the text and recollect the situations they are used in:

   Ch. 12: как приступить	кроме тревожных видений его души
   с подобающей важностью	на ломаном французском
   казались неуместны	непритворное отвращение отразилось на его лице.
   выбили почву из под моих ног	Ch. 14: я старался упорядочить
   обязательства гласные и негласные	в глубинах его души заложен инстинкт творчества
   я старался изо всех сил возгореться благородным негодованием	Ему на погибель
   что в лоб, что по лбу; он подскочил	откровения приходят под разными именами
   не знаю, почему так уж глупо сказать правду	ничто иное, как условность
   теперь, когда вы облегчили душу	преследуемая злобой оскорбленной добродетели
   Ch. 13: я чувствовал, что совершил предательство в отношении	клеймит самыми жесткими словами
   Стрикленд не отличался разговорчивостью	его прощальные слова были…

2. Explain in English and give your own examples with the following:

Ch. 12:pretty well; beastly job; it disconcerted me; I was nettled; I reflected for a minute or two; I couldn’t have placed him; Ch. 13-14: you have made a conquest; I could make nothing of it; he was independent of the pinion of his fellows; it’s no good.

3. Answer the questions:

1/ How did the author set about his mission? What Strickland’s answer cut the ground from under his feet?

2/ Did Strickland care about his family? How did he see his wife’s and children’s future?

3/ What did the author learn about Strickland’s financial position ?

4/ What author’s remark made Strickland burst into laughing? Why?

5/ What Strickland’s answer puzzled the author? Why couldn’t he imagine Strickland had a desire to become a painter?

6/ Explain Strickland’s phrase: “I’ve got to paint.” What does he compare his desire to paint with?

7/ How did the author explain his visiting a restaurant with Strickland after he had learned everything about him?

8/ What incident took place there? What did it stand for?

9/ What contradictions were in author’s mind during his journey back to England?

10/ What did he compare his deep-rooted instinct of creation with? Has that instinct in Strickland anything to do with people’s opinion about him?

4. Explain the author’s ideas and express your point of view.

1/ “When people say they do not care what others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves.”

2/ “ I take it that conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.”

Lesson 7

Ch.15-17

1. Find the following words and phrases, recollect the situations in which they were used by the author:

Ch. 15: to search among recollections	to be more of a piece
to have got the better	Ch. 16 to bear a demeanour
to look with approval on smb	to elope with smb
to lye doggo	Ch 17: to be growing stale
to get smth. over	to look like watered silk
to share the common opinion	to earn her living
it’s finished	can help doing
I’ve done with him	to get smb a part

run across

2. Explain in English and give your own examples:

She could not make head or tail; to chaff smb; he has got hardly any money; he’d have got sick to death; to take smb for granted; to perplex smb; to profit by smth; to make much use of blue and red inks; to enoble.

1. Answer the questions:

1/ Who met the author at Mrs. Strickland’s? Describe them.

2/ What author’s remark puzzled them all? Why didn’t Strickland tell his wife about his desire? What did Mac Andrew and his wife think about that? Why didn’t they believe the author?

3/ What explanations of Strickland’s behaviour were suggested? How does it characterize these people?

4/ Explain Mrs. Strickland’s position: “ I could have forgiven it if he’d fallen desperately in love…But this is different. I hate him. I’ll never forgive him now”.

5/ How did the author try to ease the sense of bitter humiliation which tormented Mrs. Strickland?

6/ What proved the fact that Mrs.Strickland was a woman of character? How did she try to justify herself in the eyes of society? What did she ask the author to do for her? How does it characterize her?

7/ How did the author feel himself after 5 years “of doing much the same thing every day”?

8/ What were the changes in Mrs. Strickland the author noticed? How did she adapt herself to the circumstances ? What was she ashamed of?

9/ Do you think what had happened to Mrs.Strickland helped her to for better? Why?

2. How do you understand the words 1/ : “… a man is always a brute to leave a woman who is attached to him, but that a woman is much to blame if he does” by Mrs. Mc Andrew and “ Men are so weak, and women are so unscrupulous” by Mrs. Strickland.

2/ “I did not realize how motley are the qualities that go to make up a human being” by the author.

3. Do you agree with the author’s conclusion -: “It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty an vindictive”

4. Find some stylistic devices and explain their meaning.