Short stories for reading and discussion. Пособие по домашнему чтению

Murder. There he went to the police and gave himself up, but they could tell from the way he was talking that there was something wrong with the man.

“I saw Needle in the Portobello Road three Saturdays running,” he explained, “and they put me in a private ward but I got away while the nurses were seeing to the new patient. You remember the murder of Needle —well, I did it. Now you know the truth, and that will keep bloody Needle’s mouth shut.”

Dozens of poor mad fellows confess to every murder. The police obtained an ambulance to take him back to the nursing home. He wasn’t there long. Kathleen gave up her shop and devoted herself to looking after him at home. But she found that the Saturday mornings were a strain. He insisted on going to see me in the Portobello Road and would come back to insist that he’d murdered Needle. Once he tried to tell her something about Matilda, but Kathleen was so kind and solicitous, I don’t think he had the courage to remember what he had to say.

Skinny had always been rather reserved with George since the murder. But he was kind to Kathleen. It was he who persuaded them to emigrate to Canada so that George should be well out of reach of the Portobello Road.

George has recovered somewhat in Canada but of course he will never be the old George again, as Kathleen writes to Skinny. “That HaystacktragedydidforGeorge,”shewrites.“IfeelsorrierforGeorge sometimes than I am for poor Needle. But I do often have Masses said for Needle’s soul.”

I doubt if George will ever see me again in the Portobello Road. He broods much over the crumpled snapshot he took of us on the haystack. Kathleen does not like the photograph, I don’t wonder. For my part, I consider it quite a jolly snap, but I don’t think we were any of us so lovely as we look in it, gazing blatantly over the ripe cornfields, Skinny with his humorous expression, I secure in my difference from the rest, Kathleen with her head prettily perched on her hand, each reflecting fearlessly in the face of George’s camera the glory of the world, as if it would never pass.

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TASKSAND EXERCISES

Pre-reading Tasks

1.Read a few words of Muriel Spark biography. What made her life pecular?

She was born Muriel Sarah Camberg in Edinburgh, the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth Maud and Bernard Camberg, an engineer.The family lived in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh. In 1934–35 she took a course at Heriot-Watt College. She taught English for a brief time and then worked as a secretary in a department store. In 1937 she married Sidney Oswald Spark, and soon followed him to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Their son Robin was born in July 1938. Within months she discovered that her husband was manic depressive and prone to violent outbursts. In 1940 Muriel left Sidney and Robin. She returned to the United Kingdom. She provided money at regular intervals to support her son as he toiled unsuccessfully over the years. Spark maintained it was her intention for her family to set up home in England, but Robin returned to Britain with his father later to be brought up by his maternal grandparents in Scotland.

Spark began writing seriously after the war, under her married name, beginning with poetry and literary criticism. After living in New York City for some years, she moved to Rome, where she met artist and sculptor Penelope Jardine in 1968. In the early 1970s they settled in Tuscany, in the village of Civitella della Chiana, of which in 2005 Spark was made an honorary citizen. She was the subject of frequent rumours of lesbian relationships from her time in New York onwards, although Spark and her friends denied their validity. She left her entire estate to Jardine, taking measures to ensure that her son receive nothing.

Spark refused permission to publish a biography of her written by Martin Stannard. Penelope Jardine now holds publication approval rights, and the book was published in July 2009.

2.According to the gist of her biography Muriel Spark lived in different places of the world. Enumerate them. Where do you think the Portobello Road is?

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3. Before reading the story transcribe the following words paying attention to their pronunciation:

While-reading Tasks

4. Find the English equivalents for the words and word-com- binations listed below:

1. (the) common run (of men) –

2. to betoken –

3. to compose oneself –

4. to mooch –

5. bargain –

6. Scottish pebbles inset –

7. to swizzle –

8. by repute–

9. onwards –

10. to make a settlement on smb’s –

11. byre man –

12. farm-hand –

5. Remember the context in which they were used.

6. Say the following in Russian. In what context were the phrases used?

a) at high summer –

b) (four) months advanced in pregnancy –

c) to enforce some sort of bond between smb –

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d)by the normal reckonings –

e)to have a sheltered upbringing –

f)to make a settlement on smb –

g)Т. В. –

h)diminishing chances –

i)to pin down the crime –

g) overflowing rooms –

7. Who said the following phrases and in what situations?

1)“You didn’t even ask me to your twenty-first. If you and Skinny had been nicer to me, I would never have lost my head and married the woman, never” ________________________________________

2)“Mind your bloody thumb on my shirt.”____________________

3)“I’ll take a photo.” _____________________________________

4)“I’ve lost all my looks, it’s in the family.All the women are handsomeasgirls,butwegooffearly,wegobrownandnosey.”___________

5)“How much is it?” “How much is it?” _____________________

6)“Wewantedtogiveyouasurprise,George.”___________________

7)“We four simply must stick together.” _____________________

8)“D’you brahn?” _______________________________________

9)“You’re a damn sight more free than I am” _________________

10)“ The news of a mixed marriage soon gets about” ____________

11)“YoumighthavecaughtТ.В.»_____________________________

12)“Heneedsmothering,Isuppose.”__________________________

13)“Betternotkeepyourcousinwaitingforthemilk.”_______________

8. Listen to the story on the attached CD and prepare

thepassagegivenbelowforthoroughreading,andthentranslateit artistically: “You aren’t bound by anyone … “Poor George!” I said.”

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Reading Comprehension

9.Answer the questions on the plot of the story:

1.Where does the action take place and who are the main characters?

2.What happened to one of the companions once at high summer?

3.What did the needle betoken, to everyone’s mind?

4.What did George shout to take a snapshot? How did the companions react?

5.What were the reasons for all the four to find themselves in London? What did they do there?

6.What was George desperately afraid of? What did he constantly say in the yearning way of his?

7.Why was Needle named a drifter? Did she look like a person who kept her soul and body together?

8.What was the reason for Needle to get engaged to Skinny and then to give him back the ring?

9.What did Skinny, Needle and George do inAfrica?

10.Why did Needle divert her attention to Matilda? Why was she nearby George? What was George’s attitude towards Matilda?

11.What conversation took place in a hotel in Bulawayo between Needle and George?

12.Why did he name her a lucky person?

13.Why do you think he started that conversation?

14.How did Needle react to George’s news? Why so?

15.How long was Skinny in the sanatorium?

16.What happened to him?

17.Why did Kathleen and Needle think of George being dead?

18.Why did both Needle and Kathleen think of getting married to their old rejected companions?

19.Why did they change their mind?

20.What did George and Kathleen do in Kent?

21.Where and why did George and Needle meet in Kent?

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22.What did they talk about?

23.Why was George sure that about his Congo marriage?

24.Who knew about it?

25.How did George want to keep Matilda to hold her tongue?

26.Why couldn’t he divorce her?

27.Why did Needle refuse to keep their secret from Kathleen?

28.Who was the Haystack Murder?

29.Why was it a notorious crime of the year?

30.Who was grilled by the local police?

31.What did George hear once while mooching down the Portobello Road?

32.Did Kathleen hear the same?

33.Why was George taken to a nursing home?

34.Why did he confess to the murder?

35.Why did Skinny persuade Kathleen to emigrate to Canada with George?

36.Why was he reserved with him after Needle’s death?

37.What part did the snapshot on the haystack play in George’s life?

38.What traits of character did all the four possess?

39.Who was the luckiest to your mind?

40.What does the nickname of Needle mean? What traits of character does it reveal?

10.Give character sketches of Needle, George, Kathleen, Skinny.

11.Develop the ideas.

1)People take up space in a house out of proportion to their size.

2)There were those odd things still to be done which one’s executors can never do properly.

3)Everyone agreed that the needle betokened extraordinary luck.

4)For some years I have been guessing that I was set apart from the common run, but this of the needle attested the fact to my whole public.

5)What could I do? I needed the woman.

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12. Make a summary of the story within ten sentences.

13 Give the Russian equivalents to the following proverbs. What proverbs do you think suit the story?

a)Dead men tell no tales. –

b)Desperate diseases must have desperate remedies. –

c)Don’t make a rod for your own back. –

d)Don’t wash your dirty linen in public. –

e)Every man is his own worst enemy. –

f)It is a foolish sheep that makes the wolf his confessor. –

g)Never tell your enemy that your foot aches. –

h)Promises are like pie-crust, made to be broken. –

i)The truth will out. –

j)Wedlock is a padlock. –

k)When the word is out it belongs to another. –

l)The worst wheel of the cart creaks most. –

14.Role-playing cards:

a)Act out a talk between George, Skinny, Kathleen and Needle on the haystack;

b)ActoutatalkbetweenGeorge,Skinny,NeedleandMatildainRhodesia;

c)MakeupadialoguebetweenGeorgeandNeedleinahotelinBulawayo.

Vocabulary Building

15. Paraphrase the following using the words from the box:

1)to lie, sit or stand in a lazy, or relaxed way

2)coins that you have in a pocket or a bag

3)apersonwhoseparentsarefromdifferentraces,apersonofmixedrace

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4)to admit, especially formally (or to the police), that you have done something wrong or illegal

5)money or property that is given to you by somebody when they die

6)a person who moves from one job or place to another with no real purpose

7)to destroy somebody’s hopes by making what they were hoping for impossible

8)to walk slowly with no particular purpose; to be somewhere not doing very much

9)to ask somebody a lot of questions about their ideas, actions, etc…. often in a unpleasant way

10)a thing bought for less than the usual price

11)a small private hospital, especially one where old people live and are cared for

16. Explain in English the meanings of these:

17.Complete the sentences using exercises 15, 16.

1)Searching for one man in this city is like looking for a needle in a ……..

2)The clear blue sky is ……. a fine day.

3)Emma frowned, making an effort to …….

4)He is happy to ……. around the house all day.

5)I picked up a few good ……. in the sale.

6)He puts his …….. in a money box for children.

7)She had 500 leaflets to …… into envelopes.

8)That place is a …….. accident black spot.

9)They …….. her about where she had been all night.

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10)Could you sign the hotel ……….., please?

11)The hotel is going to be converted into a ……..

12)A……… figure lay motionless in the doorway.

13)He had a chance to ………. and expiate his guilt.

18.Explain the meaning of some utterances used in the story. Give your comment on the situations they are used:

1)Everyone agreed that the needle betokened extraordinary luck.

2)She too was getting on in years.

3)“It would still be bigamy,” I said.

4)He was away down a side-street and along another street and down one more, zig-zag, as far and as devious as he could take himself from the Portobello Road.

5)It grieved me to see Kathleen ignoring the spread of scintillations on the stalls.

6)“I need Kathleen. She’s been decent to me. I think we were always meant for each other, me and Kathleen.”

7)But she found that the Saturday mornings were a strain.

Building Grammar Skills

19. Fill in the prepositions where necessary. Check your answers by finding the same sentences in the story.

1)This was five years ago, … the last year of my life.

2)“… All the women are handsome as girls, but we go … early, we go brown and nosey.”

3)“You didn’t ask me … your twenty-first,” he said.

4)We had settled first … Fort Victoria.

5)“I married … Matilda … the Congo,” George was saying.

6)They searched … him … the Portobello Road, but actually he hadgone...toKenttothevillagenearthesceneoftheHaystackMurder.

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7)Dozens … poor mad fellows confess … every murder.

8)“Smile … , Needle,” he said; “let’s talk like old times.”

9)He had released … my feet.

10)“Make it definite, Needle, and not so much … the maybe.You don’t know when you’re well off,” she said.

20. Insert the right articles (a, an, the) where necessary.

1)at … high summer

2)… Portobello Road

3)… Congo

4)… haystack murder

5)… Scotland yard

6)four months advanced in … pregnancy

7)“We used to have … times.”

8)… King Solomon’s mines

9)the ancient port of … Ophir, now called … Beira

10)… EastAfrica

21.Find any conditional sentences in the text and explain what type they are ( 0, I, II, III).

22.Remember the following verbs and fill in the grid:

Infinitive Past Simple Participle II Participle I Russian mind

vouched

относиться к к-л, обходиться с к-л

mooching

rooted

sleeved

suck

betokened

bobbing

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