Reading

A. Skimming

1. Read the title of the text and see of you can define the theme of it.

2. Run over the text, define the type of writing it belongs to and give the gist in 2 or 3 sentences.

B. Scanning

Examine the text for the right answers to the following questions.

1. What’s the aim of the Charles Lounsbery’s last will?

2. Does he devise that part of his business which is considered as his property?

3. Who does he devise his interest to?

4. What does he devise to different groups of people (fathers and mothers; children; boys; lovers; all young men; elderly people)?

5. Do they need all the substances devised? What for?

C. Close Reading

1. Comment on the structural components of the text.

2. Read the text again and comment on the principal of distributing various entities.

3 Say how the will characterizes its author, his attitude to people and to life.

4. Define the message of the text; say if the last sentence contributes to the reader’s understanding of it.

5. Name the stylistic devices used in the phrases below and say what role they play in creating the mood of the text, the tone of narration:

~ famous invention; solemn fact; being of sound and disposing mind and memory;

~ Will and Testament; inconsiderable and of no account; to devise and to bequeath;

~ let or hindrance.

6. Comment on the use of the indefinite article in the title “A Last Will” and compare it to “the last will”.

7. Extract means of emphases used in the text (emphatic do, parallel constructions, synonyms in pairs, repletion of and, etc.).

8. Say which of the entities mentioned by the author of the will are worth devising.

D. Critical Reading

1. Prove that the author succeeded in conveying his love for his Life and People.

2. Why do you think this text was turned into a song. Comment on its title.

3. What entities would you suggest devising for young girls? Name as many of them as you can.

Word Study

1. Use an English-English dictionary to explain the meaning of the following words.

testament, amen, interests, estate, bequeath, rivalry, lasting.

2. Pick out names of flowers and insects.

3. Extract all the verbs denoting the testator’s actions.

4. Enumerate the entities the testator gives to each group of people.

5. Use a Thesaurus to find synonyms for the following.

permanent

quaint

succeeding

inconsiderable

solemn

imaginary

boisterous

strain

6. Translate into Russian.

1. I make an account of it.

2. I distribute my interests among succeeding men.

3. A life estate.

4. My right to live is not at my disposal.

5. I charge them to use these words … .

6. I devise to boys all snow-clad hills where one may coast.

7. I leave … the knowledge of what a rare, rare world it is.

Writing

1. Write a summary of the text.

2. Write an essay on one of the following topics.

a) Beauty lies in the beholder’s eye [in lover’s eye] (a proverb).

b) “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”

(W.H. Davis).

c) What a rare, rare world it is!

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