Reading modern British literature. Part 1. Учебное пособие

Chapter2

Comprehension exercises

1.Say if the following statements are true or false according to the text.

1.Clare dreamed that she was on a desert island.

2.Mrs. Rider is Clare’s neighbour.

3.Clare is going to play a part of ghost in their school production.

4.Clare’s great-grandfather was a theologian and his name was Robinson.

5.The aunts didn’t spend much time in the big drawing-room, as they lived more in libraries and studies.

6.Aunt Anne felt sick and decided to stay in bed.

7.Clare brought a cake to her aunts.

2. Say who made these utterances and in connection with what. Convert

them into indirect speech.

1.“I did your bit too, while I was about it.”

2.“He’s Liz wrapped up in white cheesecloth with splashes of red paint for

blood.”

3.“I remember that we tried to test the matter scientifically when we were

around nine or so.”

4.“Woodwork for Beginners. Great. Just what I wanted.”

5.“They must have been planted before the war.”

Vocabulary exercises

1.Translate and transcribe the following words from the text. Explain the words in English (give their definitions): clamour, iridescent, peaky, spry, draught, obsession, recipe book, script, dearth, ambiguity, propriety, illegible, inscrutable.

2.Find Russian equivalents to the following word-combinations from the text: to be peopled with smb.; to be swarmed with smb.; to be fussed about smth.; to be littered with smth.; to come to terms with smb.; to bargain with somebody for smth.; to

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rummage in smth. for smth.; to run out of smth.; to play up; to be consumed with some

kind of feeling; to tamper with mth.

Say in what situations they were used in the text. Use them in the sentences of

your own.

3. Choose a necessary word or word-combination from ex.1, 2 to complete

the following sentences.

1.Jennifer! Are you dreaming? Last time I remember you pictured a whole country with you being the queen. Where can your ________________ lead to today?

2.I’m sorry for being late. – You are feeling a bit __________ this morning. What has happened? Have you had a good sleep this night?

3.It was impossible to concentrate on reading in the old reading-room, because it was always ___________ students who made great noise.

4.How is your grandfather? – He is all right, thank you! He continues to look

_______ and active well into his eighties.

5.What did that doctor prescribe to you? I don’t remember. Let’s read a

prescription. – Oh! But it is __________. I can’t understand anything! Doctors usually

have bad _________.

6.He’s convinced he has been unfairly treated and it has become a (an)

____________. He can’t stop thinking about it.

7.Kate tried to find her favourite necklace, but all in vain. She had been

__________the chest of drawers ____ it since morning and became pretty __________ her quest when she remembered that she had given it to her sister.

8.Why is she so sad? What is she ______________? – She is in love, but unfortunately it is an unrequited one.

4. Match the synonymous pairs and use the words from the left column in

the sentences of your own (3 sentences).

5. Paraphrase the sentences using the synonymous words from ex. 4 for the underlined ones.

1.Having an active youngster about the house can be quite wearing.

2.The butterfly is so beautiful! Have you seen its rainbow wings?

3.You’re looking a bit haggard – a change of scene would do you good.

4.I have to admit that I have bad handwriting.

5.Despite his lack of experience, he got the job of a shop-assistant in the supermarket.

6.She was dazed with the heat and noise.

6. Make up 5-7 sentences (in Russian) with the words and wordcombinations from ex.1, 2 for your fellow-students to translate.

Discussion

1.Answer the questions.

1.What did Clare dream about? Describe the place and people she saw.

2.Who is Mrs. Rider? What did she talk about with Clare when she met her on her way home?

3.What play did pupils in Clare’s school prepare to produce? How did it differ from the one that had been produced in the aunt’s youth?

4.Whose photographs did Clare find in the big drawing room? What else did she find in the bureau?

5.Did Clare like winter? Why? What did the aunts think about snow?

6.Why did Clare go to the library and where did Clare and Liz go later?

7.What frightened Clare on her way to the garden for Christmas roses? What did she see? Was it her fancy?

8.Why did Clare think that she was like a chrysalis?

2.Make a literary translation of the extracts (in writing).

1. P. 21 from “There was no paper in the drawer of her desk.” up to “...her mother’s

knee, staring solemn at the camera”.

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2.P. 21 from “On the mantel-piece they stood together in the preserved sunshine...” up to “...said ‘Members of the Hope-Roberson Commission, 1939’.”

3.Comment upon the following quotations from the text:

1.One’s life tends to be littered with insoluble problems of one kind or another.

2.People are seldom adjustable. They endure. Or not, as the case may be.

3.When you are old you remember things quite well if they happened years and years ago: it is yesterday that becomes unclear, or last week.

4.I’m like the aunts, we are both at a time when nothing much is happening to us.

4.Retell the chapter in the third person singular.

Chapter 3

Comprehension exercises

1.Say if the following statements are true or false according to the text.

1.Aunt Anne was ill that is why she stayed in her room.

2.Liz was Maureen’s friend from the estate agent’s office.

3.Clare and the aunts still used the lift in their house.

4.Clare’s room is very untidy.

5.Clare, Liz and Maureen went to the junk-room to see the hats.

6.The pale lilac dress encrusted with lace suited Liz perfectly.

2.Make the right choice.

1. Maureen’s relationship with the aunts was

a)friendly;

b)gingerly;

c)cold and indifferent.

2.Clare reads a book about a) history of New Guinea; b) people in New Guinea; c) Australia.

3.Clare’s room was

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a)on the first floor near the library;

b)on the second floor near the junk room;

c)on the second floor near the aunt’s room.

4.Liz was frightened in the junk-room by a) a mouse;

b) the reflection of a wooden slab with a carved face; c) her own reflection in the old mirror.

5.Aunt Susan was good at

a)Latin and history;

b)Latin and decimals;

c)decimals.

Vocabulary exercises

1.Translate and transcribe the following words from the text: aftermath; enthralled; spotty; sequin; to unravel; despondent; school satchel; agility; aborigine.

2.Find Russian equivalents to the following word-combinations from the text: to be on at smb.; to roam in search of smth./ smb.; to sally forth to smth.; to make tracks; to come a cropper; to go to and fro; to make way (room) for smth./ smb.; to extract from smth.

Say in what situations they were used in the text.

3.Dwell upon your school-leaving party using the words and wordcombinations from ex.1, 2.

4.Say in one word. Choose a word from ex.1, 2 to match the following

definitions:

1)a small shiny disc sewn on to clothing for decoration;

2)having small hard inflamed spots on his face;

3)quickness and swiftness;

4)the unpleasant consequences or after-effects of a significant event;

5)a person, animal, or plant that has been in a country or region from earliest

times;

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6)to remove or take out, especially by effort or force;

7)a bag with a long strap that schoolchildren use for carrying books;

8)in low spirits from loss of hope or courage;

9)to investigate and solve or explain (something complicated or puzzling);

10)fascinated by something so that you find it very interesting and attractive, and your thoughts tend to concentrate on it.

5.Paraphrase or explain in English (using the vocabulary under study).

1.We can’t please our teacher, he always grumbles about our work even when we've done our best.

2.Look out! There is a stump ahead. Jump it over or you can fall head over heels.

3.Better leave right now otherwise they we’ll say that it is me who has robbed

that supermarket.

4.What are you trying to find here? Are you strolling here in order to find a

new victim of your silly jokes?

5.My shopping trolley won’t go here, the passageway is too narrow. Will you

step aside for me to pass?

6.My mom departed for London last week.

7.The doctor had to remove pieces of broken glass from the boy’s eye.

6.Make up 5-7 sentences (in Russian) with the words and wordcombinations from ex.1, 2 for your fellow-students to translate.

7.Insert necessary prepositions. Ask an alternative question to each sentence.

1.Only the Parks exploded ___ sound: children squealing, dogs, snowballs, people running.

2.Maureen was good ___ bacon and eggs.

3.The aunts, ___ the other hand, had perhaps not come ___ too many people like Maureen.

4.People liked coming __ tea ___ Norham Gardens.

5.It didn’t occur ___them to get rid ___ trunks full ____ elaborate, feathered, ribboned and flowered hats.

6.Great-grandmother wouldn’t fancy the comparison ____ primitive tribes.

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7. Clare wandered _____ the room, touching the brushes ____ the dressing-

table, picking ____ a photograph, drawing the curtains.

Discussion

1.Answer the questions.

1.What books were Maureen interested in? Why do you think she liked that kind of books?

2.What book was Clare reading? What did she get to know about tribes in New Guinea? When and who discovered them? Describe the way of life these tribes led.

3.What did visitors to Clare’s place like about the house?

4.How did Clare’s great-grandparents spend their life?

5.What is the difference between being old and young in Clare’s opinion? What

do you think about it?

6.Describe the weather on the day when Clare went to school by bus. Did she like it? Why?

7.What dream did Clare see at night? Describe it in details.

2.Make a literary translation of the extracts (in writing).

1. P. 31 from “Clare’s great grandmother, unlike her daughters...” up to p. 32 “...or a

lunch inappropriately but, they felt, correctly dressed”.

2.P. 35 from “You sat at your desk by the window...” up to “...home at ten to four.”

3.Comment upon the following quotations from the text:

1.How odd you can be so close to someone and not know anything about them, nothing at all.

2.If you couldn’t talk to people, tell them about yourself, you would go mad.

3.One of the trials of being young is that quite a lot of days are just the same –

you do things but without really knowing about it.

4. The house itself, silent around her (Clare) was a huge head, packed with events and experiences and conversations.

4.Retell the chapter as if you were:

1) Clare; 2) Liz; 3) Aunt Susan; 4) Maureen.

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Chapter 4

Comprehension exercises

1.Say if the following statements are true or false according to the text.

1.Clare found Romeo and Juliet at the Playhouse super.

2.Maureen fancied the milkman.

3.Maureen has got a boyfriend and they are going to get married at Easter.

4.Clare got the doctor to Aunt Anne by telephone.

5.The doctor had a nice chat with Aunt Susan in the library.

6.Clare liked Mrs. Cramp.

2.Complete the following sentences.

1.Maureen said that the film she saw was ...

2.Maureen said that two fellows came up to her friend and her after the film

and...

3.Clare came into the greengrocer’s to buy...

4.Mrs. Hedges stayed at Norham Gardens till Clare’s arrival because ...

5.The doctor prescribed ...

6.Mrs. Cramp said that nobody told pupils how people kept changing all the time because...

Vocabulary exercises

1. Translate and transcribe the following words from the text: sorcery; to fancy; white wedding; jersey; reluctant; to fidget; quite a few; precision; larder.

Explain the words in English (give their definitions). Read and translate the sentences, containing them.

2. Find Russian equivalents to the following word-combinations from the

text: at any price; to have (got) a nerve; to hit it off; at a gallop; at a time; to keep up with smb.; at breakneck speed; to have strong feelings (on a subject); to weep over smth.; to be hard on smb.; to bash about / around.

Say in what situations they were used in the text.

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3.Make up 15 sentences of your own (in English) with the words and wordcombinations from ex.1, 2 for your fellow-students to translate.

4.Translate from Russian into English using the vocabulary under study.

1.Он не хотел продолжать семейный бизнес и решил стать журналистом

любой ценой.

2.Ну, ты и наглец! Можно подумать, ты всем всегда нравишься!

3.С детства Дженнет мечтала о традиционной свадьбе с белым платьем и

медовом месяце на Мальдивах. Но когда ей исполнилось 35 лет, она начала подумывать о том, что согласна выйти замуж и в серой вязаной кофте, лишь бы это произошло в ближайшем будущем.

4.По-моему, вы неплохо ладите, даже, несмотря на то, что он тебя время от времени критикует, а ты из-за этого плачешь.

5.Я не успеваю за тобой, дочка, ты так быстро бегаешь.

6.Майкл с бешеной скоростью поднялся по лестнице, шагая через две

ступеньки.

7.Дети всегда устают ждать, потому и проявляют нетерпение. Это нормально, не принимай все близко к сердцу.

8.Я час назад оставила котлеты в кладовой, и где же они сейчас? Если их никто не брал, тогда куда же они пропали? Чье же это колдовство?

9.Мой брат ученый, он любит точность и определенность во всем. Он полагает, что даже язык – это инструмент, который нужно правильно применять и ни в коем случае не обращаться грубо.

5. Insert necessary prepositions and other functional words. Translate the

sentences.

1.He eats yam and stares __ the fire.

2.Girls were despondent ___ Monday ___ greasy hair, radiant __ Friday ___ a new boy friend.

3.__ one page a girl sat sleekly __. a bar stool, sipping __ a tall glass.

4.I’ll go __ the surgery __ the way __ school.

5.No home calls ___ ___ emergencies and the elderly ___ transport.

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6.The receptionist wrote ___ the address, ___ a sigh.

7.You have bags ___ your eyes, have you been going ___ bed ___ all hours?

8.Three minutes later the doctor came ____, pushing a stethoscope ___ his bag and rummaging ___ a prescription pad.

9.It did convey the idea ___ memory being something that people can’t do __

10.People go __ ___ that till you get a bit bored ___ it.

Discussion

1.Answer the questions:

1.What does the author tell about the people in the preface to the chapter? How do they protect themselves?

2.What kind of magazines did Maureen read?

3.Describe the surgery and the people in it.

4.What information about Mrs. Hedges’s family have you learnt?

5.Speak about the doctor’s visit to Aunt Anne.

6.What was Clare’s essay about? Why did Mrs. Cramp put B for it? Name Clare’s mistakes.

7.What did Clare think about the usage of language?

8.What dream did Clare remember and what frightened her in it?

2.Make 5 questions of your own (of each type: general; special; alternative; subject-question and disjunctive) for your fellow-students to answer.

3.Prove the following facts by the text.

1.Maureen wanted to get married.

2.Clare was a thoughtful great-grand niece.

3.Clare didn’t like the receptionist at the surgery.

4.The doctor was very busy.

5.Mrs. Cramp had strong feelings.

6.Clare was worried by something.

4. Make a literary translation of the extract (in writing): p. 50 from “The

tonic tasted of old hay.” up to “...second line of a poem”.

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