Study and Discussion

1. Study the extra-linguistic features of the text: the year of publishing, the author’s personality and biography.

2. What does the text deal with? Is it a description, an account of an episode or a portraiture?

3. Speak on the theme, idea, and atmosphere of the passage. Does the atmosphere change throughout the text?

4. Comment on the title of the story. Find keywords conveying the idea of youth.

5. Which passage demonstrates convergence of expressive means used to show a miserable state of the ship as opposed to the raging storm? What stylistic devices in close succession carry a paramount importance to describe the confrontation between the men and sea?

6. Analyze convergence which enhances and strengthens information about sailors’ work.

7. What kind of a person is the main hero? Is he an adventurous man? Prove your point.

8. Does the character’s emotional state coincide with his physical condition? Does the character’s mood change during his adventure?

9. What are the main hero’s feelings towards Abraham? Do you feel the same?

10. What role does the word Bankok play in conveying the main character’s emotions?

Exercises and Assignments

I. Analyze the text structure. Identify the exposition (the theme, characters, setting), complications (the actions, thoughts, feelings), climax (the point of the highest emotional tension) and denouement (the unwinding of the actions).

II. Comment on the vocabulary employed by the author and its stylistic value. Identify vocabulary the following word combinations belong to: fag-end, rattle-trap, deuce of an adventure, keeping my chaps up to the mark, dawn upon, bit by bit, by Jove, sou’west. Give their neutral equivalents.

III. Match each of the maritime terms in the first column with a suitable definition from the second column. Translate the terms into Russian.

1) sounding-rod 2) bulwark 3) stanchion 4) long-boat 5) deck-house 6) bulkhead 7) galley 8) second mate 9) counter 10) mainmast 11) stern

a) the principal mast of a ship, typically the second mast in a sailing ship of three or more masts b) the kitchen in a ship or aircraft c) a superstructure on the deck of a ship or boat, used primarily to house equipment or for storage, or (formerly) for accommodations d) an upright bar, post, or frame forming a support or barrier e) a dividing wall or barrier between compartments in a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle f) an extension of a ship’s sides above the level of the deck g) the curved part of the stern of a ship projecting aft above the waterline h) an instrument used to measure the depth of water under a boat or in a ship’s hold or other container i) the rearmost part of a ship or boat j) a large boat that may be launched from a sailing ship k) an assistant mate on a merchant ship

IV. Analyze the semantic space of the extract. What is the basic concept of the text? Make a list of key words dealing with the basic concept.

V. Find examples where the ship is described like a living organism. What stylistic device is used in that case? What symbolic meaning does the image of the ship have? Comment on the words written on her stern: “Do or Die”.

VI. What stylistic devices contribute to the description of the malice of the sea?

VII. Identify the part of the extract where the author shows the persistence of the sailors struggling with the infuriated nature. Which word can be considered a key word in this paragraph?

VIII. Analyze the following similes. What effect is produced by the repetition of the word like?

1. It’s like a windfall, like a godsend, like an unexpected piece of luck.

2. The sea was white like a sheet of foam, like a caldron of boiling milk…

3. Whenever the old dismantled craft pitched heavily with her counter high in the air, she seemed to me to throw up, like an appeal, like a defiance, like a cry to the clouds without mercy, the words written on her stern: ‘Judea, London. Do or Die.’

4. The steward, Abraham, however, persisted in clinging to his berth, stupidly, like a mule – from sheer fright I believe, like an animal that won’t leave a stable falling in an earthquake.

IX. Indicate stylistic devices in the following sentences and explain their stylistic functions.

1) There was for us no sky, there were for us no stars, no sun, no universe – nothing but angry clouds and an infuriated sea. 2) We pumped watch and watch, for dear life; and it seemed to last for months, for years, for all eternity, as though we had been dead and gone to a hell for sailors. 3) We forgot the day of the week, the name of the month, what year it was, and whether we had ever been ashore.

X. Pick out examples of parallelism and different types of repetition in the text and comment on their functions.

XI. Discuss the syntactical means of conveying to the reader all the shades of emotional state of the characters (repetitions, parallel constructions, use of exclamatory sentences, etc.).

XII. Translate the following set expressions. Supply the context for these expressions from the text:

for dear life, by Jove, to make a lunatic, hove-to, by piecemeal.

XIII. Find equivalents for the following Russian sentences in the text. Comment on the equivalence and transformations made in the translation.

1) Дело нешуточное.

2) Да ведь это чертовски замечательное приключение! Как в книжке.

3) …поддерживаю бодрый дух в своих ребятах.

4) И – клянусь богом! – они здорово нас обчистили.

XIV. Match each of the words in the first column with a suitable definition from the second column and translate them.

1) howl	a) a heavy dull blow with a person’s fist or a blunt implement
2) caldron	b) an apparatus for cooking or heating that operates by burning fuel or using electricity
3) thump	c) a small area or amount of something
4) lashing	d) to pack the seams between the planks of the bottom of a vessel with waterproof material
5) stove	e) a hole in a container or covering through which contents, esp. liquid or gas, may accidentally pass
6) chisel	f) goods transported by truck, train, ship, or aircraft
7) patch	g) a prolonged wailing noise such as that made by a strong wind
8) calk	h) a cord used to fasten something securely
9) leak	i) a large metal pot with a lid and handle, used for cooking over an open fire
10) freight	j) a long-bladed hand tool with a beveled cutting edge and a plain handle that is struck with a hammer or mallet, used to cut or shape wood, stone, metal, or other hard materials

XV. Match each word from the first column with a synonym from the second column. Use these words in the sentences of your own.

1) gale 2) exultation 3) lug 4) snatch 5) fiendish 6) skipper 7) tinker 8) toss 9) gut 10) endeavor

a) drag b) captain c) devilish d) triumph e) storm f) grasp g) pitch h) attempt i) repair j) destroy

XVI. Paraphrase the following sentences from the passage.

1. By the light of the lantern brought on deck to examine the sounding-rod I caught a glimpse of their weary, serious faces.

2. Whenever the old dismantled craft pitched heavily with her counter high in the air, she seemed to me to throw up, like an appeal, like a defiance, like a cry to the clouds without mercy, the words written on her stern: ‘Judea, London. Do or Die.’

3. To me she was not an old rattle-trap carting about the world a lot of coal for a freight – to me she was the endeavor, the test, the trial of life.

4. One would think that the soul purpose of that fiendish gale had been to make a lunatic of that poor devil of a mulatto.

5. I would not have given up the experience for worlds.

XVII. Give definitions for the word break in the following sentences from the text and replace it with synonyms.

1. And there was no break in the weather.

2. The sea was white like a sheet of foam, like a caldron of boiling milk; there was not a break in the clouds, no – not the size of a man’s hand – no, not for so much as ten seconds.

XVIII. Fill in the gaps choosing a suitable word from the synonymic row. Change the grammatical form of a word where necessary.

Feeling, emotion, affection, passion, sentiment

1. Whatever ________ were in Sophia’s heart, tenderness was not among them (Bennett). 2. She had developed quite a/an ________ for the place. 3. Sterne has been called a man overflowing with ________ on paper but devoid of real feeling. 4. The ruling ________, be it what it will, the ruling ________ conquers reason still (Pope). 5. He appealed to our ________ rather than to our reason.

Fancy, fantasy, imagination

1. …and as ________ bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name (Shakespeare). 2. She saw, with the creative eyes of ________, the streets with that gay bathing place covered with officers (Austen). 3. This mechanical man or robot idea has been decidedly overdone in the writings of ________ (Furnas).

Charity, grace, mercy

1. …souls who God’s forbearance try, and those that seek his help, and for his ________ sighs (Wordsworth). 2. It is far commoner at the University to meet a man of great attainments combined with sincere humility and ________ (Benson). 3. Each in his place, by right, not ________, shall rule his heritage (Kipling).

Creep, crawl

1. He was so badly injured that he could only________ to the open door. 2. Something in their countenances that made my flesh ________ with a horror I cannot express (Swift).