Comprehension Practice

A. Give the Ukrainian equivalent to the title of the fairy tale.

B. Write down your questions revealing the plot of the fairy tale.

C. Listen to the text, divide it into communicative blocks, entitle them.

D. Listen to the fairy tale, find the logical centres of each communicative block and of the whole text. Write them down.

E. Define the most important paragraphs or sentences in the fairy tale and state their informational value in the communicative progression of the text.

F. Retell the text of the fairy tale imitating the speaker’s intonation.

Written Practice

A. Look through the fairy tale The Elves and the Shoemaker. Find the sentences containing the infinitive constructions, e.g.: The same day a man came to the shop to try on some shoes. Find similar examples in the fairy tales you have worked at. Translate them into Ukrainian. Analyse their grammatical structure and give written explanation as to the differences in the structure of such sentences in English and Ukrainian.

It was not very long before the shoemaker could only afford one piece of leather to make one pair of shoes.

They hid themselves in a corner of the workshop behind a long curtain, lit a candle and then waited quietly to see what would happen.

The shoemaker chose the softest leather that he could find to make them little shoes whilst his wife made two little white shirts, two green jackets, and two pairs of trousers to match.

The king was overjoyed to see so much gold (Rumpelstiltskin)

She pleaded with the manikin not to take her child and ...(Rumpelstiltskin)

The next day the queen sent her messenger to collect all the boys’ names he could find. (Rumpelstiltskin)

It was quite late when the messenger returned and went straight away to see the queen. (Rumpelstiltskin)

At night the ugly sisters would sleep in the finest warm soft beds whilst their poor stepsister was forced to huddle by the fire in the kitchen to keep warm practically sitting in the ashes and cinders. (Cinderella)

Now, for something to pull the coach”, said the fairy Godmother, “fetch me some mice from the mousetrap”.

Suddenly she heard the clock strike the first stroke of midnight.

But she didn’t have time to stop and pick it up.

But he wanted her to be a real princess. (The Princess and the Pea)

One day the Prince set off to search the world for the real princess whom he could marry. (The Princess and the Pea)

So he ushered her inside and called the queen and Prince to come and see. (The Princess and the Pea)

On hearing this the queen was overjoyed for she knew that only a real princess would have skin so sensitive to feel a pea through twenty mattresses and twenty soft sheets. (The Princess and the Pea)

Before long it was time for the Gingerbread man to be ready. (The Gingerbread man)

The Wolf smiled once again and ran off to find Grandma’s cottage. (Little Red Riding Hood)

B. Scan the texts of the fairy tales you have worked at. Write down the words and word-combinations that connect the adjacent sentences and clauses. Describe their intonation in writing. Practise reading them.

Then..., suddenly..., again..., and no sooner had smb done smth...., however, this time..., very soon..., soon..., so once more..., indeed..., but..., and..., and if..., and when..., on hearing this..., whilst..., as far as..., by the time..., not even..., eventually..., as..., besides, one day..., one night..., the next morning..., some months later..., so..., once..., as for..., just then..., with smth/smb gone...., before long..., a little further on..., to his surprise..., yet..., just as..., as usual... .

C. Use the words and word combinations in Task B in your own fairy tale. Do it in writing.

D. Go over the fairy tale The Elves and the Shoemaker and summarise its content in several sentences. Use the adequate proverbs or sayings expressing the main idea of the text.