Short stories for reading and discussion. Пособие по домашнему чтению

nal name was Kathleen Beauchamp.Atalented cellist, she did not turn to literature until 1908. Her first volume of short stories, In a German Pension (1911), was not remarkable and achieved little notice, but the stories in Bliss (1920) and The Garden Party (1922) established her as a major writer. Later volumes of stories include The Dove’s Nest (1923) and Something Childish (1924; U.S. ed. The Little Girl, 1924). Her collected stories appeared in 1937. Novels and Novelists (1930) is a compilation of critical essays.

After an unhappy first marriage, she married John Middleton Murry, an editor and critic, in 1918. During the last five years of her life she suffered from tuberculosis and succumbed to the disease at the age of 35. Mansfield’s stories, which reveal the influence ofA.P. Chekhov, are simple in form, luminous and evocative in substance. With delicate plainness they present elusive moments of decision, defeat, and small triumph. After her death Murry culled a number of books from her notebooks, editing her poems (1923, new ed. 1930), her journals (1927), her letters (1928), and a collection of unfinished pieces from her notebooks (1939).

2. Speculate about the problems listed below:

1. Do you believe in love at first sight?

2. Which of the two sexes, in your opinion, is more inclined to fall in love at first sight?

3. Compare and contrast two notions: love for somebody and a crush on somebody.

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

–jewellery

–handkerchief

–unearthly

–solemn

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4. Make sure you understand the following verbs — flutter, squeeze, snip, creep, toss — used in the short story. To enrich your vocabulary, look them up in a dictionary to clarify their meaning.

While-reading Tasks

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

1)играть гаммы —

2)зонтик от солнца персикового цвета —

3)помимо всего прочего —

4)шляпка, украшенная васильками —

5)повод, отговорка —

6)сидеть в бельэтаже —

7)влюбиться —

8)ослепнуть —

9)идти на ощупь к окну —

10)быть помолвленным —

11)было бесполезно обманывать себя —

12)что готовило ей будущее —

13)монастырь —

14)монахиня —

15)локон —

16)бездомное животное —

17)быть похороненным в углу кладбища -—

18)страшный сон —

6.Match the following words to make compound adjectives, and then find the sentences in the text.

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7. Listen to the story on the attached CD and prepare the passage given below for artistic reading. Make sure you know how to translate it into good Russian: «It seemed impossible...This at last was love!»

Reading Comprehension

8.Decide if the following statements are correct, defend your

stand.

1.Edna made going to the Library an excuse for getting out of the house to enjoy such a beautiful morning.

2.The fact that all the rows were in tears made Edna fall in love with the hero on the stage.

3.Edna and Jimmy had known each other for nearly a year.

4.Edna’s love for the famous actor had to be endured silently, she didn’t even think of marrying him.

5.Edna clearly imagined that she would die of flu in her icy convent cell one sleepless winter night.

6.As a matter of fact Edna was ardently in love with Jimmy.

9.Discuss the plot of the short story answering the questions listed below:

1.What made Edna feel so desperately unhappy on such a beautiful morning?

2.What did she look like?

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3.Describe the moment of Edna falling in love with the hero of the play.

4.What do you think the chocolate almond had to do with Edna’s passionate love?

5.How is the humorous effect achieved?

6.Enumerate the stages in the relationship between Edna and Jimmy? Could you define it as close?

7.What kind of love did she feel for the actor? What made her immediately dismiss the idea of marrying him?

8.How did Edna picture herself living and dying in the convent?

9.What made Edna realize who she was deeply in love with?

10.Comment on the title of the short story. Do you think it reveals the further events that occur later in the story? Think of its best translation into Russian.

11.Role-playing cards:

1.Act out a talk between Edna and her close friend, the girls are discussing “the whole tragedy” in great detail.

2.Imagine that Edna has confessed to having a secret admiration for the famous actor to Jimmy, her fiancé.

3.Edna is talking to SisterAgnes and explaining the reason why she is determined to live in the Convent of the Sacred Heart.

Vocabulary Building

12. Match the following names of the flowers with their Russian equivalents. Remember to transcribe them.

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13.Paraphrase the following using the same vocabulary bits from the text instead of those in italics:

a)a series of musical notes that become higher or lower, with fixed distances between each note;

b)a series of thoughts, images, and feelings that you experience when you are asleep;

c)in addition to something;

d)a piece of land, usually not belonging to a church, in which dead people are buried;

e)a dog or cat that is lost or has no home;

f)to decorate something, especially clothes, by adding things that look pretty;

g)a piece of hair that hangs in a curved shape;

h)a reason that you invent to explain an action and to hide your real intentions;

i)someone who is a member of a group of religious women that live together in a convent ;

j)unable to see;

k)the lowest of the curved rows of seats upstairs in a theatre;

l)a building or set of buildings where nuns live;

m)two people who have agreed to marry;

n)to refuse to believe that something is true because the truth is unpleasant;

o)to go somewhere by feeling the way with your hands because you cannot see.

14.Translate the following sentences paying attention to the way the active vocabulary items are being used:

a)I was groping my way blindly through the trees.

b)Magda sleeps in her sister’s room, because she has bad dreams sometimes.

c)I thought she loved me, but I was deceiving myself.

d)Kate’s engaged to Mark.

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e)Adress trimmed with lace is all I want.

f)Theconferenceisanexcellentexcuseforafewdays’holidaybythesea.

g)He was slowly going blind.

h)He was a little boy with beautiful blonde curls.

15.Translate the following sentences making use of the vocabulary items suggested above:

1.Помимо всего прочего, чтобы стать хорошим пианистом, необходимо систематически играть гаммы.

2.У неё был прекрасный повод надеть новую шляпку, украшенную васильками, и взять с собой зонтик от солнца персикового цвета — ведь была весна.

3.Нисекундынесомневаясь,онисогласилисьнаместавбельэтаже.

4.Ей хватило здравого смысла осознать, что бесполезно было обманываться. Да, она влюбилась в заурядного актёра.

5.Она сжала руку Джимми, когда ослепший герой на сцене на ощупь шёл к окну. Она была растрогана до слёз.

6.Монахинь из монастыря обычно хоронили в углу кладбища.

7.Подобно заблудшему ягнёнку, она боялась узнать, что готовит ей будущее.

8.Прежде чем уйти в монастырь навсегда, она отправила молодому человеку, с которым была помолвлена почти год, локон своих волос.

16.Fill in the gaps in the sentences below using the verbs (flutter, squeeze, snip, creep, toss) in the appropriate verb-form:

a)I’ve been … and turning all night.

b)She smiled as he … her hand.

c)… the ends of the beans off before you cook them.

d)He … back up the stairs, trying to avoid the ones that creaked.

e)He … his head angrily and left the room.

f)The flag … in the light breeze.

g)Johann would … into the gallery to listen to the singers.

h)I … the string and untied the parcel.

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i)… a bit of lemon juice onto the fish.

j)Asmall bird … past the window.

17.Word formation. Group all the descriptive attributes expressed by adjectives in the short story into 5 groups according to their suffixes. Make sure you know how to translate them into Russian.

l.-ful 2. -ly 3. -ible 4. -less 5. -able

18.Insert the right prepositions and adverbs where necessary to make the sentences complete. Check your answers by finding the same sentences in the short story:

a)It seemed impossible that anyone should be unhappy … such a beautiful morning.

b)From within there came the sound of pianos, little hands chased … each other and ran … each other, prasticing … scales.

c)It is not easy to look tragic … eighteen, when you are extremely pretty, … the cheeks and lips and shining eyes of perfect health.

d)Above all, when you are wearing a French blue frock and your new spring hat trimmed … cornflowers.

e)True, she carried … her arm a book bound … horrid black leather.

f)Perhaps the book provided a gloomy note, but only … accident; it was the ordinary Library binding.

g)Then there had been that ghastly scene with the hero alone … the stage … a deserted room … twilight, … a band playing … and the sound of cheering coming … the street.

h)She drew her hand … Jimmy’s, leaned … , and shut the chocolate box for ever.

i)No, it was no use deceiving … herself; he would never get … it!

j)The man she was … love …, the famous actor — Edna had far too much common-sense not to realize that would never be.

k)But next morning, when the bell rings for matins, she is found tossing … high fever, … delirium and she never recovers.

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Building Grammar Skills

19.Translate the following verbs into English giving theirfour forms and find the sentences where they occur:

1)выносить, вынашивать ребёнка;

2)связывать, переплетать книгу;

3)ползти;

4)рисовать, тянуть;

5)падать;

6)находить;

7)швырять (зд. быть открытыми нараспашку об окнах);

8)висеть;

9)вести;

10)опираться;

11)трясти;

12)качаться;

13)носить что-либо, быть одетым.

20.Fill in the grid below:

быть одетым

bear

swinging

bound

shaken

ползти

draw

leaned

falling

led

found

hang

швырять

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21. A. Find the following sentence in the short story and reread it: ”Then the hero had gone blind.” In British English we often come across this way of expressing the change of a state: go blind means become blind,

go mad=become mad, go red=become red, go sour=become sour.

B. Observe the way the phrases above behave in the sentences below, translate them conveying their exact meaning; use the phrases in sentences of your own:

Look at this mess! Mum will go mad! He was slowly going blind.

I’d go mad, if I was stuck at home all day.

In warm weather, milk can go sour in just a few hours. If you leave milk out, it’ll go sour in no time.

He went red the moment he was caught cheating.

22. Insert the right articles where necessary to make the sentences complete. Check youranswers by finding the same sentences in the short story:

1.Street boys whistled, … little dog barked; people passed by, walking so lightly, so swiftly, they looked as though they wanted to break into… run.

2.Now she actually saw in … distance … parasol, peach-coloured, … first parasol of the year.

3.It is not easy to look tragic at eighteen, when you are extremely pretty, with the cheeks and lips and shining eyes of … perfect health.

4.For Edna had made going to the Library … excuse for getting out of the house to think, to realise what had happened, to decide somehow what was to be done now.

5.Quite suddenly, at … theatre last night, when she and Jimmy were seated side by side in … dress-circle, without … moment’s warning — in fact, she had just finished … chocolate almond and passed the box to him again — she had fallen in love with … actor.

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6.Combined with the certainty that if that actor met her on the pavement after, while Jimmy was fetching their cab, she would follow him to the ends of the earth, at … nod, at … sign, without giving another thought to Jimmy or her father and mother or her happy home and countless friends again.

7.Then there had been that ghastly scene with … hero alone on … stage in … deserted room at twilight, with a band playing outside and the sound of cheering coming from the street.

8.There he stood holding the curtain while one beam of light, just one beam, shone full on his raised sightless face, and the band faded away into… distance.

9.He receives by … strange messenger… box.

10.Yes, under the roses, wrapped in … white handkerchief, Edna’s last photograph with, written underneath, The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

11.It’s all been … mistake, … terrible dream.

Culture Corner

23. Give some information on the following proper names. Use the net to check the possible cultural background of each place name. Speak of any in class:

the Botanical Gardens —

the Convent of the Sacred Heart — Hill Street —

Port Willin —

Building Writing Skills

24.A. Imagine that the short story is set in ourcentury.As you probably know, people nowadays tend to write letters to newspapers’agony aunts for advice on emotional and relationship issues.

Read the article given below, it’s one of such advice:

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