Supplementary reading. Учебное пособие
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Section 2. Pre-Intermediate
3.Did the man meet his friend?
4.Is it a sad story? Why?
5.Was the man successful?
6.Was his friend, Jimmy, successful?
7.What would you do in that situation?
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Section 3. INTERMEDIATE
THE DRAGON by Ray Bradbury
The night fell, the silence was on the moor. It was years since a bird had flown in the dark sky. Two men were sitting by their lonely fire in the wilderness, darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrists.
Firelight gleamed on their wild faces. They listened to each other’s faint breathing.
At last, one man poked the fire with his sword.
«Don’t do that; you’ll give us away!»
«No matter,» said the second man. «The dragon can smell us miles off, anyway. How cold it is! I wish I was back at the castle«.
«It’s death, not sleep, we’re after….»
«Why? Why? The dragon never sets foot in the town!»
«Quiet, fool! He eats men travelling alone from our town to the next!» «Let them be eaten and let us get home!»
«Wait now; listen!»
The two men sat in silence. They waited for a long time, nothing had happened, nothing was heard, there was only the shake of their horses’ buckles, softly, softly.
«Ah.» The second man sighed. «What a land of nightmares. Everything happens here. God, listen! This dragon, they say his eyes are fire. His breath is white gas; you can see him go across the dark lands. He runs with thunder and kindles the grass. Sheep panic and die insane. Women deliver forth monsters.
The dragon’s fury is such that tower walls shake back to dust. His victims, at sunrise, are strewn hither and thither on the hills. How many knights, I ask, have gone for this monster and failed, even as we shall fail?»
«Enough of that!»
«More than enough! Out here I cannot tell what year this is!» «Nine hundred years since the birth of Jesus«.
«No, no,» whispered the second man, eyes shut. «On this moor is no Time, is only Forever. I feel if I ran back on the road the town would be gone, the
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Section 3. Intermediate
people yet unborn, things changed; don’t ask how I know, the moor knows, and tells me. And here we sit alone in the land of the fire dragon. God save us!»
«What’s use? The dragon runs from nowhere; we cannot guess its home. It vanishes in fog, we know not where it goes. Aye, put on our armour, we’ll die well-dressed».
The second man turned his head.
Across the dim country the wind blew full of dust from clocks that used dust for telling time. The burnt leaves were shaken from some autumn tree beyond the horizon. This wind blew, making the blood thicken. It was a thousand souls dying and all time confused. It was a fog inside of a darkness, and this place was no man’s place and there was no year or hour at all, but only these men were standing in the emptiness of the moor. Sudden thunder was heard, then came the lightning. The rain drenched the moor, and the two men were waiting alone, listening to its sound.
«There,» whispered the first man. «Oh, there…»
Miles off, rushing with a great roar appeared the dragon.
In silence the men mounted their horses. The midnight wilderness was split by as the dragon roared nearer, nearer. Its yellow glare appeared above a hill and then disappeared into a valley.
«Quick!»
They spurred their horses forward to a small hollow.
«This is where it passes!»
They got their swords ready for the battle.
“Oh, lord!”
On the instant the dragon rounded a hill. Its monstrous yellow eye flashed on them. With a terrible wailing cry it was going forward.
«Mercy, God!’
The sword struck under the huge yellow eye. The dragon buckled him, threw the man through the air, knocked him down. Passing, the monster smashed the other horse and a rider. The two knights were dead. The roaring dragon, the fire and the smoke all around, disappeared.
«Did you see it?» cried a voice. «Just like I told you!»
«The same! The same! A knight in armour, by the Lord, Harry! We hit
him!»
«Are you going to stop?»
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Supplementary reading
«Did once; found nothing. Don’t like to stop on this moor. I get the willies».
«But we’ve hit something».
«We gave him plenty of whistle; but he didn’t move».
The steam cut the mist aside.
«We’ll arrive at Stokely on time. More coal, eh, Fred?»
The night train vanished over cold earth, towards the north, leaving black smoke and steam to dissolve in the air minutes after it had passed and gone forever. https://englishstory.ru/ray-bradbury-the-dragon-in-english-intermediate.html
1. Put the words from the chart into the gaps
smell |
victims |
thunder |
knights |
breath |
moor |
nightmares |
dust |
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The night fell, the silence was on the 1. _______.
«The dragon can 2. __________ us miles off, anyway.»
«What a land of 3.__________. Everything happens here. God, listen! This dragon, they say his eyes are fire. His 4._________ is white gas; you can see him go across the dark lands. He runs with 5. _________ and kindles the grass.
Sheep panic and die insane. Women deliver forth monsters. The dragon’s fury is such that tower walls shake back to 6._________. His 7._________, at sunrise, are strewn hither and thither on the hills. How many 8._________, I ask, have gone for this monster and failed, even as we shall fail?»
2. Using the text write the words next to its meanings
1. fine, dry powder consisting of tiny particles of earth or waste matter lying on the ground or on surfaces or carried in the air
2.the line at which the earth's surface and the sky appear to meet
3.the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal
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Section 3. Intermediate
4.thick cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth's surface that obscures or restricts visibility
5.a tract of open uncultivated upland
6.a resounding loud deep noise
7.the occurrence of a natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash
8.wet thoroughly
3.Using the text write synonyms to the following words
1.valley
2.immediately
3.crash
4.a lot of
5.fog
6.vapour
7.disappear
8.enormous
4.Give Russian equivalents to the following
1.moor
2.pump
3.gleam
4.faint
5.buckle
6.hither and thither
7.dust
8.roar
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Supplementary reading
5.Answer the following questions
1.Were the two knights afraid and why?
2.What was the dragon?
3.What do you think the season of the year is?
4.What is the place where everything happens?
5.Do you think it’s a mysterious story? Why?
6.Do you think the knights are courageous?
7.What is the main idea of the story?
WE DECLINED TO DRINK THE RIVER by Jerome K. Jerome
We found that we didn’t have water and stopped at Hambledon lock. We took our jar and went up to the lock-keeper’s house to ask for some. George was our spokesman. He put on a smile and said: “Oh, please, could you give us a little water?”
«Certainly,» answered the old gentleman, – «take as much as you want, and leave the rest.»
«Thank you so much,” murmured George, looking about him, – «Where – where do you keep it?»
‘It’s always in the same place, my boy,» was the answer, – «just behind
you.»
«I don’t see it,» said George, turning round.
“Why, where are your eyes?” was the man’s comment as he pointed up and down the river, – «There’s enough water to see, isn’t there?»
«Oh,» exclaimed George, because he understood at last, – «but we can’t drink the river, you know!”
«No, but you can drink some of it,» answered the old fellow, – «It is what I have drunk for the last 15 years.”
George looked at him and said that his appearance did not seem a good advertisement for the brand; and he would prefer water out of a pump.
We left and got water from a cottage a little higher up. To tell the truth, it was water from the river, too. But at that moment we hadn’t known it. So, we drank it and it was all right. What the eye does not see, the stomach does not grieve over.
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Section 3. Intermediate
https://englishstory.ru/jerome-k-jerome-short-stories-in-english- intermediate.html
1. Match the phrases and translate them
1. |
lock |
a) |
advertisement |
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2. |
leave |
b) |
over |
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3. |
good |
c) |
keeper |
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4. |
grieve |
d) |
water |
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5. |
the same |
e) |
round |
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6. |
turn |
f) |
the truth |
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7. |
enough |
g) |
place |
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8. |
to tell |
h) |
the rest |
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2. Replace the words and phrases in bold by the words from the box
murmured |
his appearance |
fellow |
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at last advertisement |
spokesman |
certainly |
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The way he looked wasn’t a good commercial of the river water. |
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2. |
We wanted some water and George became our representative. |
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3. |
George wasn’t sure that’s why he didn’t say it distinctly but mumbled |
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softly. |
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4. |
Finally, George understood what the man meant. |
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5. |
The old man told us to take as much water as we wanted. |
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6. |
“Of course,” – answered the old man |
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3. Match the words with definitions
1. jar |
a) a representative of a group chosen officially to speak |
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about the group’s interests |
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Supplementary reading |
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2. murmur |
b) to show something to somebody using your finger |
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3. point |
с) the way somebody or something looks |
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4. spokesman |
d) a piece of information (a picture or a short movie) used |
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to show the advantages of a good and to make potential |
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clients buy it |
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5. advertisement |
e) a glass container used for storing food (or liquid drinks) |
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6. appearance |
f) to say something suddenly and emotionally because of |
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surprise or fear |
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7. exclaim |
g) to say something very quietly |
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4.Say if the statements are true or false
1.The author and his friend stopped at the lock-keeper’s to ask for some food.
2.The old gentleman let them take only a little water.
3.The lock-keeper has been drinking the water from the river for fifteen years.
4.The man asked George where his ears were.
5.George doubted it was possible to drink the river.
6.George took some water from the river.
7.George would prefer water out of the pump.
8.The author and his friend got water from a cottage nearby.
9.They drank water that was from the river.
10.They got unwell after drinking water.
5.Answer the questions
1.Why didn’t George understand the man at once?
2.What did George mean by saying that the old man’s appearance did not seem a good advertisement for the brand?
3.How do you understand the phrase “What the eye does not see, the stomach does not grieve over”?
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Section 3. Intermediate
NO STORY by O’Henry
Part One
I worked in a newspaper. One day Tripp came in and leaned on my table. Tripp was something. He was about twenty-five and looked forty. His face was covered with short, curly red hair. He was pale and unhealthy and miserable and always was borrowing money from twenty-five cents to a dollar. One dollar was his limit. When he leaned on my table he held one hand with the other to keep from shaking. Whisky.
“Well, Tripp,” said I, looking at him rather impatiently, “how is life?” He was looking more miserable than I had ever seen him.
“Have you got a dollar?” asked Tripp looking at me with his dog-like eyes. That day I had managed to get five dollars for my Sunday story. “I have,” I said; and again I said, “I have,” more loudly, “and four besides. And I had hard
work getting them. And I need them all.”
“I don’t want to borrow any,” said Tripp, “I thought you would like to get a good story. I’ve got a really fine one for you. It will probably cost you a dollar or two to get the stuff. I don’t want anything for myself.”
“What is the story?” I asked.
To read the second, third, fourth part, please, follow the link: http://englishstory.ru/o-henry-no-story-in-english-adapted.html#ixzz725CVBj6N
1.Give Russian equivalents to the following
1.lean on the table
2.besides
3.set off for New York
4.saddle a horse
5.ferry-boat
6.suspicious
7.sense of duty
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Supplementary reading
8.unbutton the coat
9.handkerchief
10.unhesitatingly
2. Match the words with opposite meanings
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miserable |
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a) |
give back |
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2. |
quietly |
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b) |
expensive |
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3. |
borrow |
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c) |
take off |
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4. |
first |
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d) |
light |
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5. |
cheap |
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e) |
happy |
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6. |
put on |
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f) |
clever |
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7. |
silly |
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g) |
sell |
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8. |
dark |
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h) |
remember |
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9. |
buy |
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i) |
last |
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10. forget |
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j) |
loudly |
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3. Replace the words in bold by the words from the box |
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was able stupid |
unhappy promised |
upset |
forced |
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1.He was pale and unhealthy and miserable and always was borrowing money
2.That day I managed to get five dollars for my Sunday story.
3.I didn’t react and Tripp looked disappointed.
4.I swore to myself that Tripp wouldn’t get the dollar.
5.I guess it was silly of me to come here. I will go back home.
6.Then Tripp spoke with an awkward little laugh: “Oh, the boys from the country forget a lot when they come to the city. May be, he met another girl or something”.
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