I. Active vocabulary:

on sick leave

to make nothing of

desperation

(to look) desperate

to throw (caution) to the winds

efficient

efficiency

keen; to be keen on smth.

rivalry

to be rooted to the spot

insatiable hunger for knowledge

to devour books

to hang about

to take to one’s heels

to resent

II. Exercises:

1. Give your own situations based on your outside reading.

to take to one’s heels

to throw smth. to the winds

keen

efficient

2. Correct the following wrong statements:

1. From the start Mrs. Mor took a liking to Rain Carter.

2. Mr. Mor hated reading and it was difficult to make him read a single line.

3. Don spent all his free time reading books.

4. The pupils hated Mor and he couldn’t keep order at his lessons.

III. Explain:

1) Why wasn’t Mor appointed headmaster of St. Bride’s though his prestige stood high?

2) Why was Mor nervous at his lesson?

3) Why couldn’t Mor find a correct approach to his son?

IV. Questions:

1) Comment on the sentence “…keeping order was a gift of nature.” What’s your opinion of it?

2) With what purpose does the author include the Latin Lesson in the novel? What’s the semantic importance of the passage for translation from Latin? Is there a hint at Mor’s fate?

3) What do you learn about the English school system from this chapter?

4) What additional information do you learn about Mor?

5) What were Miss Carter’s views on painting a portrait? (pp. 34-35) What kind of painter was she in your opinion?

V. Tasks:

1. Describe the Latin Lesson.

2. Speak of Mor’s relations with his son as revealed in this chapter?

3. Discuss Mor’s character in the form of a dialogue. Use your active.

to devour books

to be tied for life to smb.

to hold no religious views

to draw one’s horns in

proficiency in work

4. Describe the scene how Mor showed Miss Carter round the school. How are Iris Murdoch’s philosophical views reflected in the passage?

Chapter 4

I. Active vocabulary:

to do smth. for appearances

to profit (from smth.)

to put one’s foot in it

to arrange smth behind smb’s back

to take smb. under one’s wing

to run the gauntlet

to talk shop

to give notice

to up a show

to parade a certain point of view

II. Exercises:

1. Recall situations from the novel “The Sandcastle”. Use the following espressions:

to run the gauntlet

to put one’s foot in it

to talk shop

to profit (from smth)

to give notice

2) Use conversational formulas of disagreement and correct the following:

1. Nan never attended Mor’s WEA classes.

2. Donald attended Mor’s WEA classes because he adored his father.

3. Tim Burke presented Nan with an ivory box.

4. When the WEA class broke up, the Mors went home.

5. Nan wanted her husband to be a Labour candidate.

3) Dramatize the following situations:

1. Mor and Tim Burke discuss WEA classes.

2. Mor speaks to Tim Burke of his son.

III. Questions and tasks:

1. With what purpose does the author describe Mor’s WEA classes? Do the readers perceive better the relations between the members of his family? Were adult education classes of any use?

2. Read and translate the extract on p.41 concerning the profession of a teacher. Comment on it and express your opinion of what a real teacher should be like.

3. Describe Mor’s WEA class.

4. Your opinion of Tim Burke. His attitude to the Mors. Render the episode taking place in Tim’s shop. Speak of Mor’s decision to go to Parliament.

Chapter 5