Exercises

1/ Find the following words and word combinations in the text, translate them into Russian and make your own sentences with them.

1. Curse // swear, turn the air blue;

2. Birch-bark;

3. Squat;

4. Ebb away // decrease, decline, diminish, fall away;

5. Lay down the law // boss around, order, instruct;

6. Sheath knife;

7. Agitation;

8. Capsize;

9. Blot out // hide, obscure, conceal, submerge;

10. Wistfulness // sadness, misery, distress;

11. Yearning // longing, urgent;

12. Fumble for

13. Excruciating // acute, agonizing, stinging;

14. Clutch // hold on, grab, grasp; grip;

15. Cherish // care, attach significance to sth.;

16. Perish // fade away, vanish;

17. Apathetically // apathetic, unenthusiastic, indifferent, uninspired;

18. Whine;

19. Stumble;

20. Dignity;

21. Drowsiness;

22. Bristle

23. Anticipation // wander.

2/ Find words with the following meanings in the text:

1. a very small thin branch from a tree or bush;

2. someone who has a lot of knowledge and experience because they have been doing something for a long time;

3. if something happens … , it happens whether you want it to or not;

4. a large amount of snow and ice that suddenly falls down a mountain;

5. someone’s mind and thoughts;

6. the feeling that a situation is so bad that nothing you can do will change it;

7. speaking or behaving rather rudely, as if you expect other people to obey you immediately;

8. strong loyalty to a person, group, idea, or country;

9. to hurt or to kill someone by squeezing their throat so that they cannot breathe;

10. stop;

11. giving you feelings of sadness;

12. if a fact, idea, or tendency … itself, it begins to influence someone or something.

3/ Translate the sentences into Russian:

1. There was the fire, snapping and crackling and promising life with every dancing flame;

2. So long as he walked four miles an hour, he pumped that blood, willy-nilly, to the surface; but now it ebbed away and sank down into the recesses of his body;

3. And the man, as he beat and threshed with his arms and hands, felt a great surge of envy as he regarded the creature that was warm and secure in its natural covering;

4. This unusual posture again excited suspicion, and the animal sidled mincingly away.

5. He released it, and it plunged wildly away, with tail between its legs, and still snarling;

6. His theory of running until he reached camp and the boys had one flaw in it: he lacked the endurance.

7. As he sat and regained his breath, he noted that he was feeling quite warm and comfortable.

8. This time the shivering came more quickly upon the man. He was losing in his battle with the frost. It was creeping into his body from all sides.

4/ Fill in the gaps using the words below: poignant; excruciating (2); despair; lay down the law; consciousness; halt

1. With kids like that you have to … and let them see you’re serious.

2. The sound of the fighting receded from my ….

3. I tried to move my leg, but the pain was …;

4. She suffered from … headaches.

5. To my utter …, the car would not start.

6. The truck was … by soldiers guarding the bridge.

7. The roadside crosses are a … reminder of fatal accidents.