Parenthesis (the unnumbered half-chapter)

Before reading the chapter get acquainted with the following proper and geographical names:

W.H. Auden (p. 280) – Major English poet (1907-1973);

E.M. Forster (p. 280) – English novelist whose novels suggest the idea that the main value of personal love is to survive.

Tasks

1. Work with the vocabulary from the text. Search for Russian equivalents for each word or word combination. Find the words in the text and provide good literary translation of the sentences containing them. Think of your own examples with the same words and word combinations.

to democratize

to beware of

to muddle through

inimical

to fret and writhe in smth.

intermittent

to harness

to be (become) wimpishly workaday

2. Summarize the chapter in writing. Single out the message of the text.

3. Answer the questions and fulfill the tasks:

1. The chapter is written in a form of a literary essay. What are the typical features referring to this style employed by the author?

2. Make a list of basic ideas introduced by J. Barnes. Comment on each of them first presenting the arguments of the author, then those of your own.

3. Recollect the story the author mentions to support the idea that love is something unnecessary and inessential in our lives. What do you think of this theory?

4. Individual work.

Dramatize one of the following situations in pairs: a) a married guy (girl) is convincing his single friend who has disappointed in love that it still exists; b) a conversation between siblings: the sister is trying to explain to her materialistic brother that love is the essence of life which sounds nonsense and rubbish to the latter.

Recommended web-sites:

1. El Greco’s picture “Burial of the Count of Orgaz” can be viewed on http://www.wga.hu/frames.html?/html/g/greco_el/09/index.html.

2. The painting of Christ’s Passion by Hans Memling can be seen on http://www.wga.hu/art/m/memling/learly2/04passi.jpg.

Chapter 9

Before reading the chapter get acquainted with the following proper names :

Wright Brothers National Memorial (p. 301) – a memorial dedicated to the first successful flights in a heavier-than-air machine, made by Wilbur and Orville Write on December 17,1903;

NFL (p. 302) – National Football League;

the Redskins (p. 302) – Washington’s American football team;

Project Mercury (p. 308) – The US’s first successful manned spaceflight program which ran from 1959 to 1963;

Project Apollo (p. 314) – project devoted to ensuring that the US would land a man on the Moon. The goal was achieved in 1969. The program continued into the early 1970s with a total of six successful landings.

1. Work with the vocabulary from the text. Search for Russian equivalents for each word or word combination. Find the words in the text and provide good literary translation of the sentences containing them. Think of your own examples with the same words and word combinations.

to be a year or two out of short pants

to opine

to do the trick

precarious

to have a pretty curveball sense of humour

smug

conciliatory

to foul up smth

to be minus some buttons/ to be crazier than a bedbug/ to be a fruitcake

to do a number on smth.

to back smb.

to take short-cuts (a short cut)

to press for smth.

the doubting Thomases

2. Check your text comprehension by answering the following questions:

1) What were the most prominent steps in Spike’s career?

2) Why did Spike decide to throw football on the moon?

3) What kind of woman was Spike’s wife? Speak about the way she treated her husband.

4) What made Betty think of getting divorced? Why did she change her mind in the end?

5) What did Spike and Jimmy find on Ararat?

3. Make up the summary of the chapter in writing.

4. Questions & statements for discussion in class:

1) Comment on the following idea of “… every man’s life being a process of escape and return…” (pp. 318-319)

2) Answer the questions:

How did Spike view things on his way up the mountain (the stream, the shape of great and little Ararat etc.)? Why did he decide to launch second Project Ararat?

5. Find references to the previous chapters.