Answer the following questions:

• What do you know about Agatha Christie? When was she born? What is she famous for?

• Why does Agatha Christie think that her house was a happy house due to her father?

• What qualities were stressed in those times?

• Why wasn’t Agatha’s father approved of by those times’ standards?

• What was Agatha father’s daily routine?

• What helped Agatha realize what a much loved man her father was?

• Did her father have any outstanding characteristics? Why did so many people remember and love him?

• How was Agatha’s mother different from her father?

• What’s the story of Agatha parents’ relations?

• Is there a formula for a successful marriage in Agatha’s opinion? In your opinion?

• What unhappiness did Agatha’s mother go through as a child?

Exercise 14

Are these statements True or False?

• Agatha Christie believes that one of the happiest things that can happen to a person in life is to have a big and expensive house. _____

• She writes that her house was truly a happy house; it was largely due to her father. _____

• Agatha’s father was clever and industrious, and he contributed to the well-being of the community. ______

• Fred Miller was fond of playing cricket and whist. _____

• Agatha’s parents never went out; they preferred to receive guests at their house. _____

• After Agatha father’s death, many people came to Agatha and said that her father was a rarely good person. _____

• Everybody loved Mr. Miller so much because he had so many outstanding characteristics. ______

• Agatha’s mother was a first class educator. _____

• Agatha’s parents were of the same age.______

• Agatha’s grandfather was fatally injured after he fell off his horse. ______

• Agatha’s grandmother gave one of her four children to her sister because she was too poor to support and educate them on her own. _______

• Agatha’s mother was happy to move to her rich aunt. _______

Exercise 15

Translate the following sentences using expressions from the text:

1. Он удивился моему решению устроить любительский спектакль у нас дома.

2. Эта семнадцатилетняя девушка немного напоминает мне мою сестру.

3. И только позже я поняла, что именно благодаря отцу мы смогли выйти в люди.

4. У него огромное количество друзей со всего мира. По современным меркам его можно назвать космополитом (citizen of the world).

5. Сара – загадочная и привлекающая внимание личность с огромным чувством юмора, поэтому все друзья и близкие преданы ей.

6. После того, как Клара испытала несчастье, она стала недоверчивой и подозрительной.

7. До настоящего момента я не встречала таких приятных людей как мой дядя. Не удивительно, что его брак оказался таким удачным.

8. Мою бабушку усыновила и воспитала ее тетя после того, как она вышла замуж за богатого иностранца и переехала жить за границу.

9. Сэм не был способен к работе и предпочитал вести беззаботную жизнь, но благодаря своему спокойному нраву и врожденной (природной) доброте у него было много друзей, которые время от времени выручали его деньгами.

10. Очевидно, что детство человека определяет его дальнейшее отношение к жизни. Если подросток недоверчив и подозрителен к окружающим, это первый признак того, что в семье что-то неладно.

Word Power Exercises

Exercise 16

Answer the following questions using the words from Word Power. Explain your point of view:

1. What else do we say when we are seeing somebody to the door?

2. What kind of people are you interested in?

3. What do you call a person who helps you all the time, loves you and cares for you?

4. Who goes on leave?

5. How do we call time spent away from work during sickness/pregnancy?

6. What do you say to a person who’s annoying you?

7. When you want to know the origin of a person, what kind of question you ask?

8. What do you say about the person who left the university before the studying is over?

Exercise 17

Translate the sentences into Russian and define the meaning of the words from the Word Power:

1. My nephew is very good with his hands. 2. I don’t make a good first impression. 3. Isn’t it possible, maybe, that good people are just luckier people? 4. Just because we were related, it didn’t mean we were any good at understanding each other. 5. I take excellent care of my car! 6. It hasn’t escaped their notice how you’ve cared for them all these years. 7. You must be very proud to have raised such caretaking person. 8. “And who cares if my job has no future?” I asked him. 9. The room looked on to old lawns, carefully tended, and fine trees with foliage dense and rich. 10. It was only the middle of March, but there’d been a burst of unseasonably warm weather and people were jogging or walking their dogs or just standing talking on street corners, looking aimless and carefree. 11. Each day he found that he was more passionately devoted to her; and his unsatisfied love became angry and resentful. 12. I could see that she was interested in my parents. 13. She was genuinely interested, genuinely surprised that a person could have lived almost twelve years without ever having seen the sea. 14. What I’m interested in is what happened to Henry Lamb the night he was hurt. 15. Easy come, easy go. 16. The conductor came through saying, “Tickets, please.” 17. I really hated this city, come to think of it, – these wide, pale sidewalks littered with blowing rubbish, and the bombed-out-looking buildings. 18. My favorite moment of the day comes before the sun is up, but conditions have to be right for it. 19. She wore a cotton print dress that came down to her ankles, a light sweater; her pale hair was drawn tightly to a bun on the top of her head. 20. “Someone must be saving up for something.” “Oh, a few extra dollars would always come in handy.” 21. I don’t know why that memory came back to me just at that moment. 22. She won so many prizes when she was in school; I can’t imagine where that came from. 23. I’m such a babe in the wood when it comes to music. 24. Philip had read a great deal, but he had read without discrimination everything that happened to come across, and it was very good for him now to meet someone who could guide his taste. 25. This sound, where did it come from? It seemed to be coming from the end of the hallway in front of them. 26. I came up here to locate him and found him dead in his living room. 27. There are only a few questions left. 28. Len was one of those boyhood friends mothers always love, but he had gone on to big doings and left me far behind. 29. So Kohler had left in a hurry, apparently to go find Vittoria himself. 30. “I see the Gaitlins only on major holidays,” I told Mrs. Alford. “Thanksgiving. Christmas.” 31. But other students arrived, a dozen together, and then more, and they began to talk about their doings during holidays, where they had been, and what wonderful cricket they had played. 32. But Sophia was calling, “Mother!” as she slid out of the passenger seat, leaving her door wide open behind her. 33. Every word I had told her was true, but there was a lot I’d left out. 34. That left only two explanations. I am a man you can trust … why else would my customers hand me their keys before they leave for vacation? 35. She was a chubby little person of thirty-five, the daughter of a fisherman, and had come to vicarage at eighteen; it (job) was her first place and she had no intention of leaving it. 36. Boys are 33% more likely than girls to drop out of high school.