Foreign literature

Білет №1

1. Speak and write about: Washington Irving “The legend of Sleepy Hallow”.

BACKGROUND

This story takes place in a small town in New York State. It is a folktale. The "legend" of sleepy hollow is that there is a headless horseman who rides around and disappears in a flash of fire. There is a cartoon movie that is based on this story that they always play around Halloween.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Ichabod Crane: He is the main dude of the story. He is this weak, ugly schoolteacher. He is well read.

Katrina Van Tassel: A voluptuous 18 yr. old chick. She is one of Ichabod's students.

Abraham "Brom Bones" Brunt: Katrina's boyfriend. He is big and handsome. He is nicknamed "Brom Bones" because he is a hulk.

PLOT

The story starts off with this guy named Ichabod coming from Connecticut to Sleepy Hollow, NY to teach. The only skill he has is teaching. He moves around from neighborhood to neighborhood tutoring kids and staying in people's houses. He keeps all of his belongings in a big handkerchief. Then he gets a student named Katrina Van Tassel. Her family is very rich. Ichabod wants to marry her so he can get to her family's money. He has one big problem, because she has a boyfriend (Brom Bones). Brom Bones knows Ichabod is hitting on his woman so he plays a lot of pranks on Ichabod. Then Ichabod is invited to a party at Katrina's house. He goes there to try and get Katrina. Ichabod gets to dance with her and Brom Bones gets really jealous. After the party, Ichabod finds out that the only reason she danced with him was to make Brom Bones jealous.

Ichabod gets mad and rides away. When he is riding, the headless horseman rides up to him and throws his head at Ichabod. The next day the people find Ichabod's horse but can't find Ichabod. They spread rumors about him. Some say he is dead, some say he is afraid to come back to Sleepy Hollow. Whenever Brom Bones hear people talk about the headless horseman and Ichabod, he smiles.

2. Translate idioms, word-combinations, words: to snore, serene, to sniff, to weep, to wrinkle, to take a nap, to watch pennies, stingy, obstinately, to store up, tought.

To snore – хропіти

Serene – безтурботний, ясний, безхмарний; спокій.

To sniff – нюхати, сопіти, чмихати, шморгати

To weep – плакати

To wrinkle – морщитися, м’яти, насуплювати

To take a nap – подрімати

To watch every penny – трястися над кожною копійкою

Stingy – скупий

Obstinately – наполегливо, завзято, уперто.

To store up – накопичувати

Tought – навчав

Білет №2

1. Speak and write about: Irving Show “Return to Kansas City”.

“Return to Kansas City” was published in The New York in 1939. The action takes place in Arline and Eddie’s flat. The author skillfully gives an atmosphere of a usual family scandal. There are quite a lot of small details which contributes to readers’ trust and make the story true to life. The story tells of Arline, the wife of Eddie a prizefighter who starts to nag him about going back to Kansas City to see her folks again. She complains because he sleeps so much and that she's lonesome. He tries to argue her out of going but she's insistent.

Shaw depicts a usual family row of husband and wife. There are two protagonists in the text. In their quarrel we can see the positions of the both, Arline and Eddie. The author manages to open their points of view and in this way he open the protagonists’ characters The images are shown indirectly, through their speech and actions. In this aspect author’s remarks are of great importance. One of their aims is to expose the characters.