Comprehension Check

12. Answer the following questions. (Consult the text if necessary.)

1. What is Victor Wilcox’s occupation? What worries are uppermost on his mind early in the morning?

2. What sphere is Robyn Penrose engaged in? Is she as worried in the morning as Victor?

3. What are Robyn’s and Victor’s working routines?

4. What is the essence of ‘Industry Year Shadow Scheme’?

5. What impression does a modern factory produce on Robyn? How does it differ from her mental image of it?

6. What is Vic’s view of men’s attitude to work?

7. What is the atmosphere at University? What is Vic’s reaction to it?

8. How does Robyn account for the seemingly relaxed University life?

Vocabulary Practice

13. Find English equivalents in the text.

1.отдавать приоритет чему-либо; 2. вести групповые занятия; 3. почувствовать беспокойство; 4. начать обход; 5. следующего содержания; 6. в течение; 7. в свою очередь; 8. поставить кого-либо в известность о; 9. потерять конкурентоспособность; 10. период хорошей погоды; 11. пройти испытательный срок

13. Find the words in the text which mean the following:

1.a physical attack on someone; 2. a sudden strong feeling of being afraid; 3. polite and helpful treatment; 4. an official suggestion that someone should get a job, a prize etc.; 5. a period of time doing something; 6. a moving belt in a factory that moves the product being made from one stage to the next; 7. a limit at which an arrangement changes; 8. someone who is of the same age, or social status

Text Analysis and Development

13. What do the following phrases from the text imply? Paraphrase and explain.

1. They part before her, some fall in behind her, and follow her to the lecture theatre.

2. Robyn herself would disapprove of it on ideological grounds, and it might be interpreted by other students as creeping.

3. They file into the office and sit round the long oak table, slightly in awe of Vic, serious men in chain-store suits.

4. Ideally, the shadow should spend an uninterrupted week or fortnight with his opposite number…

5. … Robyn Penrose, is assigned the nomination, as it’s right up her street, with her having written a book on the Victorian industrial novel.

6. For once in her life, she was lost for words, and uncertain of her argumentative ground.

7. We’re caught in a double bind here.

8. The students were apprehensive about the forthcoming examinations, and the world of uncertain employment that lay beyond that threshold.

1. But that’s preferable to a system where everybody is afraid of the person on the next rung of the ladder above them, where everybody is out for themselves…

13. To what extent do your agree with the following statements? Give support from the text (avoiding lifting). Make use of the following phrases:

(+)	(+/-)	(-)
that‘s exactly the point	that’s not quite so	as far as I know

1. Vic Wilcox, enjoying a quiet life, sleeps like a baby.

2. Robyn Penrose’s 15-year-long experience makes her immune from a twinge of anxiety before a lecture.

3. One of Robyn’s students gallantly offers his help with her bundle of books, but she refuses politely.

4. Vic Wilcox suggests rationalizing production which will mean redundancies.

5. “Industry Year Shadow Scheme” implies following the opposite number for a fortnight uninterruptedly which gives a genuine inward understanding of the work.

6. Robyn’s first visit to Vic Wilcox’s office is quite a revelation to her.

7. Vic believes that automation is the only way to put an end to the monotonous labor.

8. Vic doubts the necessity of work for men.

9. Both the students and the faculty were apprehensive of uncertain employment.

10. Vic felt envious of the relaxed atmosphere of the academic community.