Reading Tasks

T a s k 1. Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Correct the false statements according to the text.

1. Mrs Kennedy’s garden was well-kept and tidy with flowerbeds, paths, paved areas and seats.

2. Helen was an only child in the family, but she had a lot of friends who she could turn to if she had problems.

3. Harry left Helen because he found a very young girl, whom he called a real love and who could give birth to his child.

4. Debbie Kennedy was at the same time a grandmother for the two girls.

5. Helen decided to go and meet Mrs Kennedy because she wanted to find out about the two girls.

6. Debbie Kennedy did more for the ex-husband’s family than his present wife did.

7. Helen was in two minds, whether to worm her way back into Harry’s life or not.

8. Helen and Debbie Kennedy understood each other very well because their stories were similar.

T a s k 2. Which of these words refer to the main characters:

a) Helen b) Mrs Kennedy? Give your reasons.

strong revengeful indecisive easy-going

a survivor vulnerable hard-working self-pity

a pretender an actress inquisitive wise

cunning weak clever envious

supportive faithful practical sacrifice

T a s k 3. Look through the text once again: what questions does Helen ask in the story? In what situations does she ask these questions? Have you ever put such questions to yourself?

T a s k 4. Explain the title of the story “The Garden party”. What does garden symbolise in the story? Find the examples in the text.

Post-Reading Tasks

Discuss the following ideas.

• Revenge is usually thought of as a negative, destructive force. A Spanish proverb says: “No revenge is more honourable than the one not taken”. Do you think Mrs Kennedy’s revenge can be seen like this? Have you ever taken revenge on somebody in your life? Was it in a positive or negative way?

• Can you imagine Helen’s future: revenge on Harry or forgiving Harry? Explain your answer.

• Nowadays there are a lot of deserted wives with or without children, divorced or separated couples or even deserted husbands. Whose fault is it: man’s or woman’s? List the reasons for divorce and compare them with your partner’s (or another group).

• In all probability one of the reasons in your list is unfaithfulness. Do you think people generally have the same attitude towards an unfaithful wife as they do towards an unfaithful husband?

The sound machine

Pre-Reading Tasks

T a s k 1.

a) Have a look at the way some things were invented. Match the description of the invention itself and how it was made.

At a wine harvest festival the inventor noticed a wine press and saw it as a way to print evenly from hundreds of individual letters. Developed from the bizarre suggestion of a radio death ray for shooting down planes. It was originally invented in 1891 as a way to do up boots, but was later exploited by the US Navy as a means to fasten up flying suits. An Austrian surgeon extended its use, when he sewed one into a man’s stomach so that it was instantly accessible for internal dressings! This was invented by an Irish schoolmaster in New York with the intention of sinking the British Navy.

the submarine the printing press the radar the zip/ zipper

b) How do inventors come up with new ideas? What qualities are necessary to make an invention?

T a s k 2. Which of the following cases seems the most unusual to you?

• This man claims that the cells in his body have switched their DNA programming from death to life. Many people, especially the elderly, have paid him considerable sums of money to obtain his secret of eternal life.

• This organisation freezes its ‘patients’ immediately after clinical death in the hope that science will find a way to revitalize such people in the future and rejuvenate their bodies. The patients pay around $150,000 for this privilege.

• This person claims that he has made a machine that gives possibility to travel through time: back to the past and forward to the future.

Supposing what these people claim is true – what would the consequences be? Is it typical for people to consider all unconventional thinkers insane?

T a s k 3.

a ) Study the words and expressions that will help you understand the story better:

Deftly adj – skillfully, quickly

Curious, inquisitive adj – wanting to find out about things

Animated adj – lively, excited

Inanimate adj – not living

Audible adj – able to be heard

Inaudible adj – too quiet to be heard

Toinorspurlorplinuckment – words invented by the author in order to show how plants might express their feelings.

Fool around v – behave in a playful or silly way

Be up to v – to do; to be able to do something

Stitch up v – join or mend by sewing or stitching