Reading comprehension

Recalling

1. What was written in the first postcard?

2. Why was Walter Streeter glad that he did not have to answer the postcard?

3. Should a writer grudge the time and energy to answer letters?

4. What impression did the second postcard make on Walter Streeter?

5. Why did he dismiss the faint stirrings of curiosity?

6. Should a writer avoid making new acquaintances?

7. What difficulties did the writer have with his work and how did he try to reassure himself? 8. What did Walter Streeter do with the first two postcards and why did he keep the third

9. What odd coincidence did Walter Streeter notice?

10. Do you happen to know of any odd coincidences?

11. What thoughts and feelings did the third postcard provoke?

12. What did his friend say?

13. Why did a wave of panic surge up in him when Walter Streeter read the fourth postcard?

14. What was the outcome of his visit to the police?

Attention check

1. Speak on the overall tone of the passage, specifying the setting and the time span of the story, plot development and the characters involved. Observe the stylistic means the author employs to keep the reader in suspense:

a) the words and phrases denoting emotional reaction;

b) the incongruity between the banal contents of the postcards and the importance Walter Streeter attaches to them;

c) the contrast in mood and length between the passages separating one postcard from another;

d) the word order.

2. Analyze the content of the postcards and bring out the message that they have in common. Comment on the specific intonation of the postcards (which are supposed to reveal the character of the anonymous correspondent and his attitude towards Walter Streeter):

a) absence of greeting;

b) the vocabulary and set expressions;

c) lexical and syntactical repetitions ( in the first postcard)

d) negative and interrogative sentences;

e) the play on words (in the second and fourth postcards).

3. Indicate the lexical means used to depict the character of Walter Streeter:

a) which words and phrases help the reader to understand his character? Is the description a complete one?

b) what does Walter Streeter himself feel about his own work? Enlarge on the function of inner reported speech and various repetitions;

c) is there a lot of figurative language in the story? Give examples of the epithet, metaphor, simile;

d) what is the author's attitude towards Walter Streeter? Sympathetic? Indifferent? Unsympathetic? Justify your answer.

REORGANIZATION

1. Write the plan of the text. Retell the story according to your plain.

2. Make up and act out dialogues between:

1). Walter Streeter and his friend whom he showed the postcard from York Minster;

2). Walter Streeter and the police officer about the postcard business.

REPRODUCTION AND COMPOSITION

1. Write your own ending of the story. Share it with the students of your group and decide which of the different possible endings seems most likely.

2. Write an essay praising your favorite contemporary novelist and advancing reasons why other members of the group would enjoy this writer's novels / stories.

TEXT 4