Task 8. Fill in the gaps with one of the active words and expressions.

1. He is a hard nut to ___ .

2. When his wife and all the children left him, he understood that he had made a __ of his life.

3. You can always rely on Philip, he is as ___ as a rock.

4. Why are these workers so inefficient? There were very few people available so we had to ___ the bottom of the barrel.

5. It was common ___ that President Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe had an affair.

6. Why don’t you clean up all this ___ in your room? I” m being lazy today. My ___ is willing, but the flesh is weak.

7. Don’t use a steam-hammer to ___ nuts.

8. You look hot. Why don’t you ___ the shirt?

9. All the parishioners make valuable ___ towards the upkeep of the cathedral.

10. In the past it was believed that people could be possessed by evil ___.

11. During the whole dinner party Ted’s ___ remarks about our hosts irritated me so much that I really regretted that I had agreed to sit next to him.

12. Our company is making slow but ___ progress.

13. It was so silent in the room that I could hear my classmate’s pen ___ across the paper.

14. Everything went wrong because he approached the situation in the wrong ___.

15. The biggest question is how they got into this ___ in the first place.

TASK 9. Speak on the following points.

1. Give an example of harmless and harmful gossip.

2. Has there ever been a person in your life who wound his/her way into your affection and then betrayed you? If yes, tell your groupmates about it.

3. Which member of your family can wind everyone else round his/her little finger? Tell your partner about him/her.

4. Make two lists of fruit and vegetables which you can peel and scrape.

5. List all the ingredients the three friends used in their Irish stew and suggest a recipe of a new dish or dishes with them.

6. Each housewife has her own recipe of a stew. What ingredients would you or your Mum use for the stew you prefer? Give a step-by-step guide for cooking it.

7. Describe a meal that you would call slap up.

8. What would you call people who always prefer to be on the safe side and never experiment: narrow-minded? Boring? Clever? Reasonable? Explain your point of view.

9. Did any of your family or friends have to scrape their living at any time of their lives? Tell your partner about it.

10. Do you keep any cracked pottery or mirrors in your house? Why? Why not?

TASK 10. Choose the correct alternative for each of the following questions.

1. What did the three friends decide to do?

a) to eat in an old country inn

b) to cook for themselves on the open fire

c) to settle in an inn and have meals there

2. Which of the three friends peeled the potatoes?

a) Harris and the narrator

b) George and Harris

c) George and the narrator

3. What do “eyes” in the sentence “… by the time we had got all the peel off and all the eyes out, there was no potato left…” mean?

a) dirt

b) dark spots

c) bumps and hollows

4. Did they find peeling potatoes

a) difficult but possible

b) difficult and impossible

c) easy but boring

5. How many different ingredients that went into the stew did the narrator mention?

a) seven

b) eight

c) nine

6. Which of the things mentioned below did not go into the Irish stew?

a) beans

b) potted fish

c) eggs

7. Who was definitely in favour of including the water rat into the stew?

a) Montmorency and the narrator

b) Harris and George

c) Harris and Montmorency

8. Which of the three friends was against the experiment?

a) The narrator

b) George

c) Harris

9. What does the word “that” in the sentence “The peas and potatoes might have been a bit softer but we all had good teeth, so that did not matter much and as for the gravy it was a poem – a little too rich, perhaps, for a weak stomach, but nutritious” mean?

a) The fact that they all had good teeth

b) The fact that it was nourishing

c) The fact that peas and potatoes were hard to bite

10. What does the word “rich” in the sentence above mean?

a) with a taste like nothing else on earth

b) containing a lot of fat, oil or butter

c) containing a lot of spices

11. What do you think is the narrator’s attitude to George?

a) He respects him

b) He resents him

c) He makes fun of him

TASK 11. Translate into English using the active vocabulary.

1. Старий сільський готель потопав у квітах, та більш був схожий на маленький будиночок, ніж на звичайний готель. 2. – Про що так жваво говорять ці милі пані? – Я думаю, що вони розпускають плітки про своїх сусідів або співробітників. 3. Поблукавши по Лондону приблизно 4 години, ми були готові заночувати прямо на газоні Гайд-парку. 4.Молода дружина весело, майже грайливо розпочала роботу по дому, але після того як вона почистила овочі, прибрала кімнати та приготувала вечерю із залишків сніданку та обіду, її безтурботність зникла, і вона оголосила страйк. 5. Маленькі діти зазвичай виявляють великий інтерес до того, що роблять дорослі, та навіть звичайні банальні речі здаються їм новими і цікавими. 6. Виявилося, що Джордж чудовий кухар. Він приготував рагу зі свіжим та пікантним ароматом, зі смаком, не схожим ні на що інше. 7. Ніколи б не подумав, що серед інгредієнтів цієї незвичайної страви – лосось, горох та свинина. За смаком це було схоже на курку. Трохи жирнувато для тих, у кого слабкий шлунок, але дуже поживно. 8. У твоїй валізі ще багато місця. Чому б тобі не покласти туди все, що залишилось? 9. Про всяк випадок, я б на вашому місці позбавився компанії та провів залишок відпустки, зазнаючи усю красу самотності. 10. Так не згодиться! Ви просто марнуєте мій час. 11. Це страва з таким ароматом, який не можна ні з чим порівняти. 12. Після кафе грошей у нас не залишилося, і нам довелося йти пішки. 13. Чим більше я вас слухаю, тим більше вам співчуваю. 14. Він може відпускати жарти як ніхто другий, коли він у гарному настрої. 15. Він ледве зводить кінці з кінцями, тож не має сенсу пропонувати йому такі коштовні речі. 16. Ніколи б не подумав, що чистити картоплю – настільки важка справа.