Осознанное чтение тексты и задания = Mindful Reading texts and tasks. Учебное пособие = Textbook-1

PART 3. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: FICTION

and think of the Seventh Heavens you flash through continually on your way there, Heavens with no names and no stations, Heavens to which no tickets are issued. To whom has it not happened, time and again, on his way to the Seaside, the Moors, or the Highlands, to cry in his heart, at some glimpse of Paradise from the carriage windows: “That is where I really wanted to go – that is where I would like to get out! That valley of flowers, that cottage in the birch-glade, that buttercup field with the little river and a kingfisher – if only the train would stop!” – But it never does.

Never? Once it did. Anthony laughed aloud at that Minor Mystery in his morning paper. Where was the Mystery? Luck had been with the quiet little man, and he did the only thing there was to do.

… “Why have we stopped?” asked the nervous lady who sat opposite Anthony in the stuffy carriage.

“Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!” laughed a fresh young voice outside. “Preposterous, preposterous! I shall be late!” snorted a fat

millionaire.

“I want my lunch,” puffed his fat wife. “I refuse to go without my lunch!”

Anthony looked out of the window.A hedgerow bowed with blossom, beyond it a meadow in full flower, long flowering grass, threaded with flowering stems, lace-white, chicory-blue flowers, a profusion of flowers shimmering in the long grass. In one part of the meadow the grass lay mowed in swathes, the sweet flowers with it. A party of young peasants, in loose white shirts and embroidered jackets and aprons, lay in the grass munching honey-cake and drinking light beer. One tall young fellow, splendid as a god, stood edgeways in the sunlight, his bright scythe shining. A few girls stood and stooped in the long grass, picking the flowers, some were laughing, under their white sunbonnets, some used, some rested on their rakes, all were sweet and fresh and frank.

“Oh, why don’t we go on?” moaned the nervous lady. “Oh, what has happened?”

Passengers spoke on all sides. “We are held up!” “We have broken down!” “Bandits! – these dreadful foreign parts!” “The engine is on fire!” “The engine-driver has gone mad!”

“Oh, oh, oh!” moaned the nervous lady in the carriage.

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“Ha-ha-ha!” laughed the gay young voices in the air. “I shall be late, I tell you!” fumed the fat millionaire. “Are we never going to eat?” puffed his wife.

Beyond the meadow of flowers and haymakers lay the soft blue mountains, as blue as dreams, as Paradise. Soft dim woods lay between the meadow and the slope. At the very edge of the woods, as though it had just stepped out of the trees and set foot on the grass, was a tiny cottage with a balcony. In the fringe of trees meandered little paths and a little stream, and some goats. The scent of hay and flowers and aromatic trees filled the carriage.

“La-la-la-la ti-ti-ti-ti!” A soldier sitting on the rails was singing The Blue Danube to a concertina played by another soldier.

The girls in the meadow began to dance.

“Oh, what is it, what is it?” wailed the nervous lady. “Food, food!” puffed the fat one.

“How late, how late I shall be!” repeated her husband.

“Keep the doors shut – don’t let them come in!” implored the nervous lady, wringing her hands.

“Ha-ha-ha!” laughed the dancing girls, “ha-ha-ha!” “Swish!” sang the young god’s scythe.

Anthony got his little bag from the rack and opened the carriage door. The nervous lady gave a tiny shriek.

“Ah! don’t let them come in!” “Late! late! late!”

“Lunch is served. Come!”

Anthony crossed the rail and found a gap in the blossoming hedge. In the hayfield, nearly hidden in flowers, was a crooked footpath. It led over the meadows to the little wood at the foot of the blue mountains. He followed it unhesitatingly. He left behind him the dancing laughing flower-gatherers, the young god mowing, the peasants drinking, the soldiers playing, the Blue Alsatian Express containing the millionaire who would be late – for what? For what could one be late? One was in Blue Alsatia. To which there are no tickets.

He entered the little wood and was lost to sight.

At the back of the cottage, barefoot by the little stream, stood a girl of sixteen, a lovely grey-eyed child, feeding her kids from a

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bundle of hay in her apron, at which they pushed and pulled. She wore a white chemise and a blue embroidered skirt. When the kids were rough she thrust them from her with her brown toes, and laughed like music. On a bench by the cottage stood a pitcher and a wooden bowl.

Her eyes met Anthony’s. She let fall her apron, and the sweet hay tumbled down, a full feast for the kids. She went to the bench, filled the bowl with milk, and offered it to Anthony with a bit of honey-cake, her grey eyes smiling. As he drank, she made a simple gesture.

“Stay,” she said.

The Blue Alsatian Express went on without him.

Anthony stirred his tea-cup. In the next column was an account of last Night’s Debate on –

He skipped it.

(by Eleanor Farjeon // Практический курс английского языка дляV курса / В. Д. Аракин и др.)

Beyond the text: Cultural aspect

Alsatia is a poetical name of Alsace, a historical area in Eastern France. Alsatian culture is characterized by a blend of Germanic and French influences.

Questions in The House refer to the questions discussed in the UK Parliament.

Lulworth, Downderry, Nether Wallop are names of English villages famous for their scenic beauty.

The Moors, now the North York Moors National Park. This area contains one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the UK.

The Seaside usually embraces the names of popular resorts on the English Chanel such as Brighton, Bournemouth, etc

The Highlands are located in the north-west of Scotland.

Mindful reading: Contrast

Contrast is a powerful technique which is used to accentuate striking differences between two (or more) oppositional things: objects, events, characters, ideas, atmosphere, visual elements, social and cultural aspects, qualities and characteristics, etc

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Mindful reading: Framing

In a frame story, the narrative itself is a story in a story. Sometimes the second story is the main narrative, sometimes it is not. As a result, the story can combine multiple layers. Can you think of the examples of the stories composed in such a way?

Tasks

1.Identify the status of the text, its functional style and styleforming features

2.What type of the text does it represent? Can it be limited to narration only?

3.What is the subject matter of the story? Was Anthony carried away by his imagination when reading a newspaper account or was he indeed a passenger of the Blue Alsatian Express? Consider the role of the two final sentences in the story

4.Outline the structure of the story. Into what parts does it fall? What is the focus of each part?

5.From whose point of view are the events presented? Who is the protagonist of the story? Can you characterize him?

6.Reflect on the characters of the story.What could the passengers of the train represent? And what about the peasants?

7.What contrast(s) is the story based upon? How is the contrast

of nature vs civilization supported linguistically? Stop and check

1)Consider the devices employed on the phonetic level.“Puff, moan, shriek, etc” – what is the name of the device used to imitate the speech of the passengers? What connotations do they arouse?

2)“Had the breakdown occurred within easy reach of his own home or destination?” Do you find the technique of finishing an article with a question effective?

3)Think about the symbolic meaning of colours, what could they denote?

4)“That is where I really wanted to go – that is where I would like to get out! That valley of flowers, that cottage in the birch-glade, that buttercup field with the little river and

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a kingfisher – if only the train would stop!” – But it never does.” Identify devices used in the fragment with regard to the rhythm created.

5)What devices does Eleanor Farjeon use to highlight the abundance and splendor of nature? What devices do you find most appealing?

6)Pick out the instances of parallelism and inversion. What role do they play?

7)Comment on the remarks of the passengers, how do they stress their obsessions and anxieties?

8.How does the story appeal to you? What message(s) could it communicate? Does the original composition of the story hinder its interpretation or did it enable the author to bring out her ideas more successfully?

Section 2: Poetry

Mindful reading: Fixed poetic forms

Fill in the table

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Text 3.6 A

There was a young lady of Niger Who smiled when she rode on a tiger. They returned from the ride

With the lady inside

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Text 3.6 B

There was a young lady called Bright Who traveled much faster than light. She set out one day

In a relative way,

And came back the previous night.

Text 3.6 C

There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said: “It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen,

Four Larks and a Ren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!”

(by Edward Lear)

Text 3.6 D

A flea and a fly in a flue

Were imprisoned, so what could they do? Said the fly, “Let us flee!”

“Let us fly!” said the flea.

So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

(by Ogden Nash)

Tasks

1.What makes a limerick recognizable?

2.What is the typical beginning of a limerick?

3.Which limerick did you like most and why?

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Text 3.7

Sonnet XII

When I do count the clock that tells the time And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls all silver’d o’er with white; When lofty trees I see barren of leaves, Which erst from heat did canopy the herd, And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves, Born on the bier with white and bristly beard, Then of thy beauty do I question make,

That thou among the wastes of time must go, Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake And die as fast as they see others grow;

And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

(by William Shakespeare)

Beyond the text

Brave (archaic) – admirable, excellent Hideous – terrible, awful

To behold (literary) – to see something Sable (poetic) – black

Erst (archaic) – formerly, long ago To canopy – to cover, to protect To gird – to tie something

Sheaf – a bundle of plant stems tied together Thy (archaic) – your

Thou, thee (archaic) – you

To forsake – to leave somebody

Scythe – a hand tool for mowing grass, here: a symbol of death To brave – to challenge somebody

Hence – therefore, that is the reason for something

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Tasks

1.Establish the rhyming pattern (AABB or ABAB or ABBA)

2.Identify stressed and unstressed syllables in the first lines, and establish the metrical pattern

3.Concentrate on the structure of the sonnet, into how many parts does it fall in your opinion? Traditionally scholars single out the ascending part of the sonnet (the first 8 lines) where the problem is introduced, the descending part of the sonnet (the next 4 lines) where the problem is intensified, and the couplet (the final two lines) where the tension is released and the conflict is resolved. Do you have the same compositional structure?

4.Summarize your observations of formal parameters and characterize the text and its functional style

5.What is the “what” – the philosophical topic of the sonnet? Please do not cut it down to ‘love’, state the problem in a few complete sentences. The observation ‘The sonnet is about life and death’ also does not sound convincing. If you find it too challenging, try to identify the factual information we get from the text. Try to visualize the picture – what is the “I” of the poem doing? What season is it (and why is it important)? Where does his train of thought lead him to? What analogies does he draw? Does the poem fill you with doom and gloom? Why (not)?

6.Concentrate on the “how” of the sonnet – its linguostylistic features

Stop and check

1)Why is it difficult to read and interpret the sonnet? To what stratum (neutral / bookish / colloquial) do the words belong?

2)Are the words used in their direct or contextual meanings?

3)What acoustic impression of the sonnet do you get? What does the first line make you think of?

4)Almost every line may be divided into two parts, how do these parts correlate?

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5)Study the syntax. How many sentences does the sonnet consist of? Pick out examples of parallelism. What role does inversion play in the poem? Why are emphatic structures important?

6)How can you prove that ‘time’ is personified in the sonnet? What role does the image of time play in the poem?

7.Try to formulate the message of the sonnet and show how the stylistic devices and the structure of the sonnet help to communicate it.

8.Do you find the idea of the sonnet personally relatable?

Text 3.8

Cinquain

Cinquain is a fixed literary form. It is a five-line poem which follows definite rules. Make up your own cinquain according to the following rules:

Line 1: Noun which introduces the topic of your poem Line 2: Adjective + Adjective

Line 3: Verb + Verb + Verb Line 4: A complete sentence

Line 5: Noun which is related to the topic of the poem

Text 3.8 A

Autumn

Golden, harmonious,

Falling, swirling, rustling,

Things are changing but we’re here

Time

Text 3.8 B

Autumn

Gloomy and wet

Raining, crying, moaning,

It’s time to think

Melancholy

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Follow Up

Create your own cinquains. Make your groupmates guess what emotional attitude you are trying to convey.

Section 3: Drama

Food for thought

Why do you think people dislike reading plays?

Plays are normally meant to be performed, not read. Which people – apart from the dramatist – influence the staging of a play?

Features of drama:

▪the language of plays is entirely dialogue

▪the language of plays is always stylized

▪the author’s presence is limited to author’s remarks and stage directions

▪author’s remarks concern ways of speaking and attitudes

▪stage directions concern movements, gestures, stage effects and the setting

▪the setting is the time and space in which the events of a play take place

Text 3.9

GWENDOLEN: I am engaged to Mr. Worthing, mamma. (They rise together.)

LADY BRACKNELL: Pardon me, you are not engaged to anyone. When you do become engaged to some one, I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact. An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be. It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself … And now I have a few questions to put to you, Mr. Worthing. While I am making these inquiries, you, Gwendolen, will wait for me below in the carriage.

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