Interpretation of the text

1. Do profound reading of the text and prepare three parts of it (20 lines) for:

1. Perfect reading

2. Written literary equivalent translation

3. Detailed interpretation

Explain your choice.

2. Define a) the theme; b) problems; c) ideas of the text. Interpret them from the point of view of the contents (the plot, time, place of action, circumstances).

3. Make up a psychological portrait of one of the characters from the point of view of:

4. a psychologist;

5. a film director;

6. an artist;

7. a reader;

8. …

Account for your choice.

4. Analyze the stylistic means the author resorts to to achieve his goal (lexical, syntactical, lexical-syntactical, graphic, phonetic, compositional devices).

5. Express your opinion on the role of the title to understand the text at large.

6. What’s the writer’s message to the reader?

The following quotations may come handy in presenting your speech:

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops (H. B. Adams).

The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values (William Ralph Inge).

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence (Robert Frost).

A child miseducated is a child lost (John F. Kennedy).

I’ve come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and you know how few great artists there are in the world. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since its medium is the human mind and the human spirit… What an incredible responsibility to be the guardians of the human spirit and the human mind! I think that is the reason why humanity has the deepest respect for teachers… (John Steinbeck).

7. Give a summary of your comments on the text.

Key notions and words

bluff decency defiance disgusting giggle graceless

insane lickety-split pompous repent sob stifle

stiffness substitute subtlety tenseness tremble yearning …

Vocabulary exercises

I. Study the vocabulary and differentiate it according to the following items:

1. Appearance;

2. Character (speech, gestures, feelings, actions);

3. Occupation;

4. …

II. What words (word-combinations) and grammar pheno­mena are really worth special discussing? Why?

III. Make up derivatives to the given words.

IV. Arrange the following words and word combinations in pairs of synonyms and explain the difference in their usage and meaning. Use them in sentences of your own.

Graceless; chuckle; delicate; elegance; lickety-split; yearn; giggle; challenge; pompous; subtle; grace; shiver; fast; hanker; awkward; substitute; defiance; high-flown; bluff; representative; tremble; cheat.

V. Give synonyms to the following:

1. beauty, comeliness, lissomness, refinement;

2. vibrate, shake, quiver;

3. fine, insidious; thin;

4. brilliance, glory, grandeur;

5. replacement, deputy, assistant;

6. long, moon, pine;

7. resistance, challenge, disobedience;

8. boast, brag, pretend;

9. titter, snigger;

10. exquisite, merciful, pleasant.

VI. Paraphrase the sentences using vocabulary from the text:

1. He’s looking forward to her return home.

2. The whole house shook as the train went by.

3. He argued his case in a very insidious way.

4. I believe, the translators missed some of the peculiarities of the original.

5. Stop laughing, girls; this is a serious matter.

6. He has a kind heart in spite of all his bragging.

7. Those on slimming diets should replace sugar with saccharin.

8. He made the police think that his gun was loaded.

9. Though the girl was rather clumsy her boyfriend couldn’t help adoring her.

10. He slammed the door as if showing his unwillingness to subordinate.