Неадаптированное чтение на примере романа «Великий Гэтсби» Ф.С. Фицджеральда = An educational and practical aid for unadapted reading of «The Great Ga

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Введение

Данное учебное пособие предназначено для студентов 3–4 курсов, обучающихся по направлениям «Лингвистика», «Зарубежное регионоведение» и «Международные отношения» (бакалавриат), изучающих английский язык как основной или второй иностранный язык, а также студентов 1 курса (уровень магистратура) по специальности «Лингвистика».

Цель пособия является комплексной и включает как практическую профессионально значимую, так и образовательную, воспитательную и развивающую. Задача пособия организовать работу студентов при чтении оригинальной литературы на иностранном (английском) языке. В пособии даны упражнения, способствующие активному, углубленному изучению текста, вопросы, связанные с лексико-стилистическими особенностями текста, а также творческие задания, направленные на пополнение активного и пассивного словаря.

Образовательная и воспитательная цели реализуются параллельно с коммуникативной.

Процесс обучения предполагает сочетание аудиторной

ивнеаудиторной работы с целью способствовать развитию творческой активности, самостоятельности в овладении английским языком и активному использованию полученных знаний в процессе коммуникации. Помимо поурочных разработок, в пособие включены также задания для проверки понимания прочитанного и развития навыков устной речи

иписьма. С этой целью в пособии даны задания по переводу

иперефразированию отдельных трудных отрывков текста, обсуждению вопросов и проблем, выходящих за рамки текста романа. В пособии включен комплекс подготовительных и коммуникативных упражнений, направленных на активизацию языкового материала, тренировочные переводы, нацеленные на тренировку и закрепление лексики, задания для самостоятельной подготовки.

Работа с пособием способствует развитию у студентов аналитической, коммуникативной и лингвострановедческой компе-

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An educational and practical aid for unadapted reading of “The Great Gatsby”, a novel by F.S. Fitzgerald

тенций, являющихся профессионально значимыми для студентов данных направлений.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’s

writing style and biography

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the greatest writers the United States has ever produced. The main reason for his fame are his two great novels,TheGreatGatsby(1925) and Tender is the Night (1934). These works are considered the milestones of modernist fiction, and through these, he paved the way for other writers.

He worked in a period when people were prospering, there were shifts in sexual morals, and consumerism was growing. To convey these ideas, he

coined the term ‘Jazz-Age.’ Scot was an autobiographical writer, and he mixed it with general dilemmas.

Through his initial short stories and later novels, he popularized a character which is known as ‘the flapper.’ This character remains inexorably associated with him. Though he made this character famous, he tried to change it in his later works because he didn’t want to be famous for being a ‘flapper novelist.’

He didn’t want to stay stuck in small issues; rather, he wanted to focus on broad cultural concerns. He wanted to research the reasons behind the sweeping changes that were replacing the old Victorian values.

He was against the monetary control of the nation by the few capitalists like Rockefeller, and this he portrayed in his fiction.

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Неадаптированное чтение на примере романа «Великий Гэтсби» Ф.С. Фицджеральда

In some of his works, his motive was to moralize society instead of satirizing it. He shows the reasons for moral depravity and their results, which cause great moral harm.

He is also famous for his ‘dual vision’ or ‘double perspective.’ He expressed his empathy for the changing times. He didn’t only sermonize and criticize by describing the ills; rather, he made the reader experience what he wanted to condemn.

Along with his fictional works, his non-fictional works are also of great importance. A work of his, The Crack-Up, ignited great controversy because of the confessions it made. He used short stories as commercial pieces to earn his livelihood. These short stories were different from his novels, which are considered his serious works. These are known for their wit and craft.

His short works show his skill in comedy, fantasy, and lighter works, a deviation from his melancholy elegiac works. This is a testament to the range of his talent.

(a film by Paramount Pictures; directed by Jack Clayton; screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola; produced by David Merrick; 1974)

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An educational and practical aid for unadapted reading of “The Great Gatsby”, a novel by F.S. Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald is widely known for describing his first-hand experiences. He once was part and parcel of what he later described in his works, i.e. the images portrayed were an exact projection of the object intended. He is considered a chronicler of his age because of the lively images that he portrayed. An example of it is his great work, The Great Gatsby, where the descriptions of the then parties, fast life, and the author’s own experience bring quite a few lively images of the characters into the readers’ minds. This shows his great skill as a projectionist.

In his works Fitzgerald focuses on the so-called American dream and the disillusion that the pursuit for it leads people to. Fitzgerald was himself the witness of the polarities of American life. He saw the dream and nightmare, failure and success, illusion and disillusion, etc. These conflicting opposites related to the American dream are seen throughout his works.

(a film by Warner Brothers Pictures; directed by Baz Lehrmann; screenplay by Baz Lehrmann and Craig Pearce; produced by Baz Lehrmann; 2013)

A short biography

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on 24th September 1896. His mother belonged to a wealthy Irish family while his father was from a middle-class family. His mother’s family

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Неадаптированное чтение на примере романа «Великий Гэтсби» Ф.С. Фицджеральда

had a grocery business, and from there, she inherited wealth, which she later used in raising her children.

Scott was a handsome boy, and for this reason, his parents preferred him much to other children. He was admitted to St. Paul Academy, and his first published piece of writing came when he was thirteen. At the age of fifteen, he was admitted to Newman School, which was a prestigious preparatory Catholic school. There Sigourney Fay met him and recognized his talent.

He joined Princeton University, and there he focused on honing his career as a writer. There he wrote for different magazines and was an active member of the literary societies. This hampered his coursework, and soon he dropped out. He joined the US Army soon after in 1917 and intended to join the war but couldn’t.

The war came to an end when his regiment was preparing to board for Europe. Before going there, he wrote a novel hastily because he feared he would die in war. This novel was rejected by the publisher.

He was discharged from the army as the war came to an end and got a lucrative job at an advertising business. He did so to convince his girlfriend Zelda to marry him, but upon her refusal, he left this job. After this, he came to St. Paul to write his novel. He married Zelda in 1920 after his first novel was published, and he achieved success.

He was a heavy drinker and often suffered from writers’ block. He completed his masterpiece work, The Great Gatsby in 1925 and published it soon. His financial and boozing issues continued till 1937, and then he resolved to get rid of it, leading a modest life. He achieved success, though not great before his death.

In the 1930s, Zelda suffered from a mental breakdown and couldn’t recover completely. This was one of the main reasons for his mental distress. In his last years, he worked as a screenwriter for Hollywood as a screenwriter. Along with that, he also worked as a freelance storywriter.

He was involved with Sheilah Graham there and rarely paid visits to Zelda and his daughter, Scottie. He tried to write his novel The Last Tycoon, but he couldn’t complete it and soon died in 1940 due to a heart attack.

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Chapters I–II

Active Vocabulary

1.vulnerable

2.to reserve judgement (to pass judgement)

3.to open smth up

4.in terms of smth

5.to be privy to

6.turbulence

7.an eyesore

8.to take smb’s breath away

9.to buoy up

10. on the verge of…

11. coherence

12. sophisticated

13. to be about to do smth

14. contemptuous (e.g. a contemptuous expression) 15. to give a heart-to-heart talk

16. to saunter about

17. to slap smb on the shoulder

18. perceptible

19. to attire / be attired

20. audibly

21. to entangle / to be entangled

22. affected, to affect

23. to end up somewhere / doing smth / etc

24. to be below smb

25. to repel

26. to work smth out

27. tangible

28. stale (e.g. a stale idea)

29. halfway

30. to border on smth

Use the active vocabulary to make up your own situations or recall the situation in which each of the vocabulary units is used in the book.

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Неадаптированное чтение на примере романа «Великий Гэтсби» Ф.С. Фицджеральда

Exercises

1.Translate the following sentences in Russian: Chapter I

1.This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the “creative temperament” — it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.

2.I lived at West Egg, the less fashionable of the two, though this is the most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them.

3.There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even towards people he liked — and there were men at New Heaven who had hated his guts.

4.She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet.

Chapter II

5.She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can.

6.When he had gone half way he turned around and stared at the scene — his wife and Catherine scolding and consoling as they stumbled here and there among the crowded furniture with articles of aid, and the despairing figure on the couch

…

2.Find synonyms to the following words and expressions or explain their meaning in English:

1.vulnerable (years)

2.to be exempt from

3.bizarre

4.to savour of…

5.with rapture

6.cute

7.to compel / to be compelled

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