Развитие навыков чтения, письма и устной речи на английском языке. Практикум

I understood what had happened. I thought I would burst of rage, tears poured down my cheeks. I said all the bad Greek words that I could remember, pushed Mama Kondos away and began to dig myself. She sat down on the ground surprised, open-mouthed. I dug all the puppies up, put them into my shirt, mounted Sally and rode off. Mama Kondos, terribly surprised, ran after me.

“My golden one, my dear, what have I done?” she kept saying. “You can takeall of them.” Lulu ran after me, not havingunderstoodanything that had happened.

Mother, as usual, was inthekitchenmakingdifferent delicacies for us. Irushedinandbegantotellher thestory, puttingdownallthepuppieson her kitchen table.

“Really!Those peasants!” she cried. “How could they! It’s terrible! You were quite right bringing them home, of course. But what are we going to do with eleven puppies?”

I toldMother that as soon as the puppies were oldenoughwewould find homes for them. Margowould be home bythat time, I added, and it would be an occupation for her to stop her thinking about love.

“Gerry, dear!”said Mother horrified, “howcanyou sayso?Whotold you that?” I explained to Mother that Larry had said so.

“You mustn’t talklikethat,” said Mother, “now goandput the dogs somewhere.”

I chose a nice place for them in the olive grove, washed them and went to wash myself. I arrived at the lunch table in time to hear Mother tell Larry and Leslie the whole story.

“Did Gerry drown the puppies?” asked Leslie.

“Of course not,” said Mother. “He brought them here.”

“Oh, God!” cried Larry. “Not more dogs!We’ve got four already!” “How many puppies are there?” asked Larry.

“Eleven,” said Mother.

Larry put down his knife and fork and stared at her. “Eleven!” he repeated. “Eleven? Eleven puppies! You must be mad!”

“They’re only little things,” said Mother, “and Lulu is very good with them.”

“And who the hell is Lulu?” asked Larry.

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“Their mother – she is very nice,” said Mother. “So that’s twelve bloody dogs.”

“Well, yes,” said Mother. “I hadn’t really counted.”

“That’sthetroublehere,”saidLarryangrily.“Nobodycountsanything. It’s like thebloodycreationof the world. Beforeyouknowwhereyou are, you’reuptoyour ears inanimals. Oneowlturns intoa battalion. Pigeons fly all around the house. It’s like a bird shop. Not to say of insects and frogs and other things. On top of that you go and get twelve more dogs. The family is crazy. There’s a streak of lunacy in it.”

“Nonsense, Larry,” said Mother. “You exaggerate! So much noise over a few puppies.”

“You call eleven a few? The place will look like the Greek branch of the London Dog Show! They’re probably all bitches and imagine what theplacewill looklikein a fewmonths’ time!Lifewill become one long string of dog love affairs!”

“Oh,yes,”saidMother,changingthesubject.“Youmustnotgoaround saying that Margo is love crazy. People will misunderstand you. Margo is just romantic.”

I see no reason to cover up the truth,” said Larry, “all I can say is that when all those dogs come into season, Margo is going to have a lot of competition.”

“Now, Larry,” said Mother strictly, “You’re not to talk about such things at lunch. That’s quite enough about it.”

(By Gerald Durrell61, аbridged)

III. Answer the following questions to the text.

1.What did Lulu look like? Did the dog have a pedigree?

2.What do you call dogs of mixed breed?

3.What happened to Lulu at Mama Kondos’ place?

4.What surprised Gerry?

5.What plans did Gerry make concerning the eleven puppies?

6.What was going to happen to the other ten?

61 Durrell G. The Puppies // Durrell G. The Garden of the Gods. Р. 25–30.

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7.Why didn’t Mother agree toGerry’s planconcerning the idea to take one more dog in?

8.What cunningidea came intoGerry’s head tomake Mother agree to take one more dog?

9.What happened when Mama Kondos’ fat daughter brought the puppy for Mother to see?

10.What horriblepicturedidGerryseewhenhearrivedattheKondos’ place?

11. What did Gerry do?

12. Did Mama Kondos realize that she had done something wrong? 13. What was Larry’s reactionwhenhelearnt thetruth about theeleven

puppies?

14. How does Margo come into the story?

15. What did Larry compare their house with because of all the live creatures that Gerry kept in it?

16. Does Mother like what Larry says about Margo?

17.What doyoudotodayifyoudon’t want your dogtohavepuppies? 18. In what way do some people want to get rid of the pets they

don’t want to keep anymore even today?

19. Do you think the organization ofAnimal Shelter is necessary? 20. Ifyouwanteda pet, wouldyoutakeadogfromtheanimalshelter? 21. Should stray dogs wander about cities, towns and villages?

22. If you take a pet home, are you in answer for its life and wellbeing?

IV. Retell the contents of the extract using the following reporting verbs:

tell, say, ask, declare, exclaim, talk about, speak, announce, greet, state, criticize, shout, explain.

V. Make up your own situations using the following words and expressions (not necessarily about pets).

1.To greet smb., to take a look at smb./smth., to be surprised, as usual, to settle the question of who…

2.Tobelucky, niceroundfigure, tomyastonishment, tobepleased, quite enough.

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