5. Find words and phrases in the story with the following meanings:

1) (of a machine) to lose power or strength in an uneven way; 2) to disappear slowly (about sounds); 3) with the help of sb; 4) to distinguish, to recognize; 5) to keep sb interested; 6) to interrupt; 7) suddenly and unexpectedly; 8) extremely angry; 9) unemotional, indifferent; 10) behaviour; 11) immediately, at once;

12) sophisticated, courteous.

6. State the difference between:

crackling, rustle, rasp, whirr, rattle, thump, thud

7. Give Russian equivalents of the phrases below:

1) graying hair; 2) earnest, vehement and intentionally naïve manner; 3) the physical ugliness of the large gumwood cabinet; 4) a malevolent green light; 5) to dim the interference; 6) to go to the radio confidently; 7) cooking appliances; 8) the thin, scratchy music from an old-fashioned phonograph; 9) to make a pretense of sociability; 10) upright piano; 11) to try another station; 12) to leave apple-cores in ash-trays; 13) faint coughing; 14) the restrained melancholy of the dialogue; 15) an enraged woman; 16) the worn record of the “Missouri Waltz”; 17) abysmal vanity; 18) forthright and sometimes brutal language; 19) the halting conversation of a woman entertaining her aunt; 20) to tip the elevator man; 21) a good-sized diamond; 22) to seem sad and vague; 23) to hear screams, obscenities and thuds; 24) to check the stream of tears down one’s face with the heel of one’s palm; 25) to handle the money intelligently; 26) to have a sobering talk with sb; 27) your piety and your virtue.

8. Say what you know about:

a) the Salvation Army;

b) Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Beethoven, Schiller, Debussy.

9. Explain what is meant by:

ornament; cabinet; college alumni bulletin

10. Rephrase the sentences from the story (without using the underlined parts).

1. She rushed to the instrument and reduced the volume. 2. … he went to the radio confidently and worked the controls. 3. He began to surrender his resentment.

4. We’ve got to start cutting down. 5. It’s the last extravagance we’ll be able to indulge in this year. 6. If anything should happen to me, there’s the insurance, but that wouldn’t go very far today. 7. What’s turned you overnight into a convent girl? 8. A fire in a Catholic hospital … was extinguished this morning…

11. Are you a careful reader?

1. Who lived in 16-C? 2. What was the name of Irene’s sister? 3. Did Jim and Irene have a) two girls? b) two boys? c) a boy and a girl? 4. Did the westcotts have a maid? If they did, what was her name? If they didn’t, who helped Irene about the house? 5. How old was Jim Westcott? 6. Did Jim and Irene’s apartment face a) a garden? b) a river? c) a bank? 7. Was the Sweeneys’ child a boy or a girl?

12. Answer the questions and do the following tasks:

1. What do you know about the author of the story?

2. Say what you learnt about the Westcotts (age, appearance, status, circle of friends, education, life values, ambitions, family life).

3. What impact did the overheard scraps of conversations have on Irene?

4. Which of the Westcotts do you like more – Jim or Irene? Why?

5. What does the Sweeneys’ nurse symbolise in the story?

6. Of what are the following descriptive elements suggestive: a) “she [Irene] wore a coat of fitch skins dyed to resemble mink”? b) “his [Jim’s] manner was intentionally naïve”?

7. What idea does the radio news at the end of the story help to reveal?

8. What’s the message of the story? Is the author’s attitude to life pessimistic, optimistic or realistic, do you think?

JANE

by W.S.Maugham