Читаем современную британскую литературу. Четыре романа и одна пьеса = Reading contemporary british literature. Four novels and a play. Учебно-методич

14.Find, translate and explain the vocabulary dealing with religion: Abraham’s bosom (141), Nativity, Herod (144), Miserere (149).

15.Put down your ideas in the diary.

16.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

Assignment 6

Chapters 14–16

P.152–188

1.What was unusual about the chamber where the steward had brought the players and the feeling of playing in it?

2.How did Martin change the plot of the play twice?

3.What interrupted the play? How did Nicholas feel at that moment?

4.How did Nicholas manage to escape?

5.Comment on the following statements:

“The player is himself and another. When he looks at the others … he would not readily admit to his mind.” (170–171)

“Picture it, Thomas. This player, come from nowhere… look for look in his own chamber.” (173)

“We are fortunate in the nature of crime.” (176)

6.What was the change in Margaret when Nicholas returned?

7.How would you interpret the story of the Devil and the Player told by Nicholas to Margaret? (179)

8.What was the Justice’s version of the murder?

9.Comment on the statements:

“It is not the King that visits us with pestilence.” (187)

“… we can lose ourselves in the parts we play … God is not served by selfdeceiving.” (187)

10.Why do you think the Justice was “a little sad”? (188)

11.Do you think Martin will continue to love the girl?

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12. Find and translate into Russian:

stench of decay (152), sap of life, yoke of silence, lad (153), (131), minstrel (154), plotter (155), minion (156), to keep one’s wits about one, account, austere, aberration (172), folly, derisive, incredulity, lettered (174), dues, shire (175), sodomy (176), count for nothing (178), lose the bout, forfeit (179), recompense (184), bawd, pestilence (185).

13. Find ,translate and explain the vocabulary dealing with law:

haul (160), arraignment (162), deposition (171), commissioner (175), strangulation (183).

14.Find, translate and explain the vocabulary dealing with religion: Sacrament (162), Absolution, repentance, anointing, unction (164).

15.Put down your ideas in the diary.

16.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

The whole book analysis

1.Read the Commentary with annotations on p.21–26.Comment on the title of the book. How would you define the genre of the book?

2.Speak on how the following topics are studied in the novel. Find the examples to illustrate your points of view:

a.Investigation into the nature of acting and the theatre.

b.The social conditions of the 14th c. in England.

c.The church and religion.

d.The moral principles of the society of the 14th c. in England.

e.The role of Knighthood.

3.What other topics are raised in the novel?

4.Comment on Barry Unsworth’s statement: “One is enabled to take a remote period and use it as a distant mirror …, and so try to say things about our human condition – then and now – which transcend the particular period and become timeless." (URL: http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.ru/2012/06/medieval-murder- mystery-morality-play.html.)

5.Speak about the language and style of the book. What images are used by the author and to what effect?

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6.The pluses and minuses of the novel. Prove your point of view.

7.Ask your own questions on the novel.

8.Prepare the vocabulary lists, revise the vocabulary and make up situations/ dialogues with the vocabulary.

9.Complete your diaries.

10.Act out an episode from the novel.

11.Write an essay on one of the problems raised in the book (about 1000

words).

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Ean McEwan

ATONEMENT

Assignment 1

Part One

Chapter One

1.Read the Introduction to the Commentaries. What do you find out about the

author?

2.Read the Commentaries while reading the book.

3.Collect and present the information about all the characters in chapter 1:

Briony,

Cecily,

Lola,

Pierrot and Jacson,

Mrs Tallis.

What age are the characters?

4.What features of Briony’s character does the author point out?

5.What is the first challenge Briony faces when her cousins arrive?

6.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

7.Put down your ideas in the diary.

8.Make up a list of vocabulary and learn it.

Assignment 2

Part One

Chapter Two

1.What impression does the description of the fountain produce? Read the commentaries about the fountain. (18–19, 28)*

2.What is the story of the relationship between Cecilia and Robert?

3.What are the meanings of references to “Clarissa” and H. Fielding? Read the commentaries.

4.Tell the story of the vase. (22, 24)

5.What happened near the fountain? (29–31)

6.Mind the pronunciation of the words: sword, bugle, lieutenant, liaison (22), foliage (24).

*Здесь и далее по тексту в круглых скобках указаны страницы из [15].

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7. Find and translate into Russian:

regimental flag (22), porcelain, headquarters (23), tribute (24), condescending (26), subsidise (27), make amends (30), pottery (30), “he knew better than to offer to help her…” (30).

8.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

9.Put down your ideas in the diary.

10.Make up your own list of the vocabulary and learn it.

Assignment 3

Part One

Chapter Three – Chapter Six

1.What prevented the participants of the play from the rehearsals? (32–34)

2.Why do you think the author emphasizes the heat of the weather? (34)

3.What was Briony thinking about when she stayed in her room alone?

(35–36)

4.Comment on “A story was direct and simple, allowing nothing to come between herself and the reader…” (37)

5.Comment on “She need not judge. There did not have to be a moral…” (40)

6.What do we learn about Paul Marshal and his business from his talk?

(49–50)

7.Comment on “a ruined totem of a lost golden age” (57)

8.What do we learn about Emily and her attitude to children?

9.Find and translate into Russian:

reproof, calamity (32), in a small voice, deprive of any sense (33), impartial, accounts, revelation, dumb show (41), glaze (43), brooding (47),tranquility (49), general conscription, accommodation with Germany, a dead duck, warmonger (50), brogue (58), momentous (59), varsity, precocious, fretting (66), self-consciousness,

10.Mind the pronunciation: scheming (65), eloquence (68).

11.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

12.Put down your ideas in the diary.

13.Make up your own list of the vocabulary and learn it.

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Assignment 4

Part One

Chapter Seven – Chapter Eight

1.What impression does the description of the temple produce? (72–74)

2.Why did Briony slash the nettles?

3.Why do you think Briony stayed in the driveway?

4.Comment on: “He had his politics to protect him”. (79)

5.What do we learn about Robbie’s family?

6.How does Robbie explain his decision to take up medicine?

7.What is the author’s attitude to Robbie in this chapter?

8.Mind the pronunciation of the words: patronage, benign (88), bellow (94).

9.Find and translate into Russian:

nettles, sorry air (73), blemish, adornment (78), confined (80), pathetic (81), liberation, arrogance, singlet (86), obscene (94).

10.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

11.Put down your ideas in the diary.

12.Make up your own list of the vocabulary and learn it.

Assignment 5

Part One

Chapter Nine – Chapter Ten

1.Why does the author describe in so much detail how Cecilia is getting dressed for the party?

2.Comment on: “She wrote, ‘There was an old lady who swallowed a fly’”

(115). Read the commentary on p. 61.

3.Comment on: “There must be some lofty, god-like place, from which all people could be judged alike…” (115)

4.Comment on: “…she was responsible for it, and for everything that was about to happen.” (122)

5.Mind the pronunciation of the words: equanimity (108), maniac (119).

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6. Find and translate into Russian:

austere (96), gown (78), confined (98), mermaid (99), elemental (113), worldly (115), appalling (116), chafe, brute (117), gratifying (119), scheme (121), PC (122).

7.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

8.Put down your ideas in the diary.

9.Make up your own list of the vocabulary and learn it.

Assignment 6

Part One

Chapter Eleven – Chapter Twelve

1.How does the author describe the air in this chapter and before? Why?

2.Why does the author pay so much attention to the details of the design of the house and the estate? Give the examples. Read the commentary to p.125.

3.How does the author create the atmosphere of confusion at dinner?

4.Comment on: “… we become Italians.” (128)

5.Comment on: “But that was what wretched Malvolio thought…” (131, see also 143)

6.Why does the author introduce Emily’s speculation about the insects drawn to lights?

7.Mind the pronunciation of the words: ghoul (126), sensuousness (130).

8.Find and translate into Russian the following words. Find the situations they are used in:

suffocation (125), solidity, turmoil (126), asphyxiating, bland (127), recklessness, awe (130), ludicrous (135), chafing, give a Chinese burn (139), be over the top (140), ointment (141), resentment, stealer of scenes, histrionics (146), sham, hypocrisy, wronged (148).

9.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

10.Put down your ideas in the diary.

11.Make up your own list of the vocabulary and learn it.

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Assignment 7

Part One

Chapter Thirteen – Chapter Fourteen

1.How does Briony characterize the status and the mission of the writer? (158–159)

2.How does the author show that imagination is Briony’s determinative quality? (161)

3.Read the questions to pages 165–167 in the Commentary: How far is Briony responsible for her conviction that Robbie was the attacker? Is Lola a victim or a collaborator?

4.Comment on: “… the burden of consistency was pressed upon her”. (169)

5.Comment on: “… threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime.” (173)

6.Why did Briony bring the letter to show it to the adults?

7.In what situations does the author make the reader think about the theme of reality vs. appearance?

8.Comment on: “… she was not able to say exactly what her success had been”. (183)

9.Mind the pronunciation of the word: conjure (157).

10.Find and translate into Russian the following words. Find the situations they are used in:

zeal, blemish(168), consistency, set in train (169), withdraw, waver (170), clinching, verification (176), apparition (182).

11.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

12.Put down your ideas in the diary.

13.Make up your own list of the vocabulary and learn it.

Assignment 8

Part Two Р. 191–226

1. Read the Commentary (p. 11–16) and explain the war situation in the chap-

ter.

2. Comment on: “They called him that to settle the difficult matter of rank”. (192, 193)

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3.How did life in the army compare with that in prison for Turner?

4.How did literature help Tallis and Turner to communicate?

5.What do you think are the reasons for Cecilia and Briony to go into nursing?

6.Did Briony stop writing?

7.Comment on “I’m beginning to understand the snobbery that lay behind their stupidity”. (209)

8.Comment on: There was no cottage in Wiltshire for them” (210). Do you think Cecilia and Robbie will be together in the end?

9.What linguistic means create the atmosphere in the chapter?

10.Mind the pronunciation of the words: ambush (199).

11.Find and translate into Russian the following words. Find the situations they are used in:

fifth columnist (196), ditch (199), nurse’s cape (205), inanity (206), to be inside (207) spineless (209), bedpan (211), penance, recant, have second thoughts (212).

12. Find and translate the vocabulary dealing with the situation of war:

greatcoat (191), corporal (192), dive bomber (194), general conscription (195), shotgun, safety catch (198), have the upper hand, machine-gun, armoured car, bullet (199), retreat (200), sapper (200), regiment, infantry (210), shell (214), shovel (224).

13.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

14.Put down your ideas in the diary.

15.Make up your own list of the vocabulary and learn it.

Assignment 9

Part Two

P.226–265

1.Comment on: “Drama by the river might have been enough to sustain her all the time” (233). Do you think it really explains Briony’s behavior?

2.What picture of the war does the author depict? What linguistic means make the description so impressive?

3.How does Robbie remember his father?

4.How did the relations between Turner and the corporals change?

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5.Mind the pronunciation of the words: bayonet (229), howitzer (243).

6.Find and translate into Russian the following words. Find the situations they are used in:

In one pan of the scales, blister, corpse (226), absolution (228), resentment, detachment (234), slaughter (240), limp (244), jetty (247), recklessness (251), loathsome (252), overrun (257), vulnerable (258).

7.Ask your own questions on the part you’ve read.

8.Put down your ideas in the diary.

9.Make up your own list of the vocabulary and learn it.

Assignment 10

Part Three Р. 269–315

1.What do we learn about the style of training nurses in the hospital where Briony is trained? What do you know about Sister Nightingale? Read the Commentary on p. 83–84.

2.In what ways is Briony’s life in the hospital opposite to her previous life? Is there anything in common between Briony’s life and Robbie’s life in the army? (compare with p. 264)

3.Why does Briony keep writing? What kind of writing is it? Read the commentary on p. 85–86.

4.Comment on: “…but now she understood how the war might compound her crime.” (288)

5.How does the author treat the theme of guilt in the book?

6.What is the main fault the editor of Horizon finds in Briony’s writing?

7.Comment on: “...but everything she understood about nursing she learned that night”. (304)

8.Find and translate into Russian the following words. Find the situations they are used in:

lapse (270), evacuee (278), shade off into fantasy, rambling thoughts, in disguise (280), rating, smalls (287), casualty (291).

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