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Unit 13 Chapters LXIII - LXVII

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Answer the following questions:

Were you surprised / disappointed / relieved at the writer’s decision ‘to kill’Walter? Do you remember your predictions?

How did it happen? Describe the scene and the reaction of all the characters.

What were Walter’s final remarks? What’s the role of the allusion to Oliver Goldsmith’s ‘An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog’?

Who read the burial service? Describe the burial rites.

What was Waddington’s answer to a series of Kitty’s questions: ‘Do you think the soul is immortal? Supposing there is no life everlasting? They (the nuns) have given up all for nothing. They’ve been cheated. They are dupes… ’

(Ch. LXVL) What do we call the stylistic device on which Waddington’s reply is based?

What did Kitty do on the morning following the burial? Comment on the Mother Superior’s manner of treating Kitty. Was it wise of her?

VOCABULARY WORK

Translate the following into Russian:

it gave her a pang dreadful ebbing of his life

a fluttering moth and its wings were heavy with hatred a commonplace of her vocabulary

have mercy on me life everlasting

imposed various tasks upon her pressing affairs

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CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

effects - belongings; personal property

a pretty kettle of fish - a difficult or awkward situation it had a familiar ring - I had heard it before

DISCUSSION

Translate the passage concerning Tao (Ch. LXVI).

Were you impressed? Are you interested in the religions of the East? Why are many people nowadays attracted by exotic religious theories and rituals?

Are you?

HOMEWORK: Ch. LXVIII – LXXIV

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Unit 14 Chapters LXVIII - LXXIV

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1.Could you predict the development of events for Kitty? Charles Townsend? Waddington? The Mother Superior?

2.Answer the following questions:

Why did the Mother Superior think it necessary for Kitty to join her mother in England? What were Kitty’s reasons to go on with her work at the convent?

How did Kitty take leave of Mei-tan-fu? Was she successful in her attempt to make the Mother Superior express natural feelings? What seemed wrong with Sister St. Joseph’s farewell?

What metaphor (sustained) describes Kitty’s feelings about the past during her long journey to Hong Kong?

Was it Christian resignation that helped Kitty to bear her loss so courageously?

Why did Waddington have his tongue in his chick? Do you understand Kitty’s feeling of freedom? Freedom from what?

Your comments on the fact that it was Dorothy Townsend who came to meet Kitty. Why did she want to make amends to Kitty?

What was the reason of Kitty’s sardonic satisfaction?

Comment on a contrast between the luxury of Townsends’home and Walter and Kitty’s bungalow in Mei-tan-fu. There is one more example of a striking contrast in ch. LXXII. Can you find it?

What kind of trick did Kitty’s imagination play on her? How did Charlie succeed In making her cheerful? Were there any social blunders on his part?

Why did Kitty wish that Waddington were in Hong Kong? Did she receive much attention?

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VOCABULARY WORK

1.Translate into Russian: ‘These ladies used Kitty as though she were a piece of porcelain which was as fragile as it was precious’(Ch. LXXIV).

2.Find in the text and translate the following into Russian:

the name-day of my mother (Do you know yours?) for the face sake

nameless supers

he had his tongue in his chick

I must leave you to your own devices ladies of consequence

to take one’s ease

3.Translate the following into English and/or find in the text:

ч еловеч еска я сла бость в когтяхсм ер ти са д нить ка к язва ком ок в гор ле

сч ита й те на ш д ом своим нести ч уш ь/га лим а тью п од ш уч ива ть/м ор оч ить голову

CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

habiliment(s) - clothes

to be taken by - to be attracted

DISCUSSION

Comment on the following: ‘… oh, can’t you turn a minute away from God and give me a little compassion; not the Christian compassion that you have for all suffering things, but just human compassion for me?’(Ch. XLVIII)

Can there be abstract and individual kindness? How are they different? Which is more important?

HOMEWORK: Ch. LXXV –LXXX;

Find all proverbs and common sayings.

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Unit 15 Chapters LXXV - LXVII

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1.Give an account of events in ch. LXXV – LXV

2.Answer the following questions:

Was it possible to predict the development of the story line?

Leave out the author’s words and act the dialogue between Kitty and Charlie (Ch. LXXV).

Have you changed your attitude to the presumably reformed Kitty?

How are Kitty’s feelings described? What are these phrases : ‘like little yellow butterflies’, ‘like soaring thoughts’, ‘like white egrets’, ‘like

a spacious plain’? What is the prevailing form of discourse?

Who was the winner in the second , farewell battle of the two former lovers?

VOCABULARY WORK

1.Find in the text and give Russian equivalents for the following: What the eye doesn’t see the heart doesn’t grieve for

I fell head over ears in love with you

We were dashed uncomfortable in the frying pan, but we should have been a damned sight worse off in the fire (to jump/leap out of the frying-pan into the fire)

The proof of the pudding is in the eating Hold your tongue!

She could never look him in the face again When my husband was hardly cold in his grave

Are idioms, proverbs, or sayings common in your speech or writing?

2. Translate the following into English or/and find in the text:

случ а й ноили на м ер енно онбы л невозм утим хозяй ка п оложения этоуж ч ер есч ур

сохр а нять п р исутствие д уха тер ять голову

п р инять р а зум ны е м ер ы п р ед остор ожности стоит д есятер ы хта кихка к ты

явп олне сп р а влю сь са м а

яотр ека ю сь от нее

у м еня д овольнош ир окие взгляд ы

CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

a harlot / slut - a whore

Hang it all - expresses annoyance (Ч ер т возьм и!)

make someone’s gorge rise - to make someone feel sickened or feel strong dislike

DISCUSSION

What do you think of Dorothy? Do you find the Townsend’s marriage model appealing/convenient?

HOMEWORK: Ch. LXXVIII - LXXX Translate into Russian:

‘The past was finished … the path that led to peace’(Ch. LXXX)

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Unit 16 Chapters LXXVIII - LXXX

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Answer the following questions:

Why was the golden statue of the Blessed Virgin in Marseilles mentioned? In what connection?

Did Kitty manage to repair her self-respect during the long journey home?

What was the main point in Kitty’s mother letter? Dwell on relations between parents and children as described by the author in the form of Kitty’s reflections.

What did Kitty’s father and sister inform her about? How different were those letters?

Describe the meeting of the father and daughter. Was Kitty able to understand her father’s state? Could you draw a parallel between the feelings of Mr. Garstin

and Kitty concerning Mrs. Garstin and Walter?

Relate Mrs. Garstin’s earthly course with the way she looked in her death bed.

Did Kitty feel any grief for her? Did Doris feel extravagant grief she demonstrated?

Comment on Kitty’s new understanding of her father’s married life. Retell a funny episode with a pipe.

What was ‘the bitter irony of fate’the writer mentioned?

Comment on Kitty’s decision to accompany her father to the Bahamas. Why didn’t she want to make claims on her father’s parental duty?

What was Kitty’s idea of bringing up her unborn daughter? Do you approve of it? Can you discern a note of feminism by any chance?

Present the Russian version of the last passage of the novel and comment on it. Relate it to the title and epigraph.

VOCABULARY WORK

Translate the following into English and/or find in the text:

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пр етенд ова ть на снисход ительность бы ть обр ем ененны м

встесненном м а тер иа льном п оложении житей ские д ела случ а й ны й жест не к м есту я не ста ну обузой

полностью п ор ва ть с п р ош лы м

CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

to let on something - to tell a secret

to make up for something - to repay or compensate

DISCUSSION

Choose any of the main characters to speak about.

What is the message of the novel?

Apart from W.S. Maugham’s being a king of adjectives, what other peculiarities of his artistic manner are worth mentioning?

Think of these Maugham's sayings:

∙Man, with so little time between the cradle and the grave, spends his life in such foolishness.

∙Man's passions and instincts are stronger than his reason.

∙Love is not something beautiful and refined, but is often coarse and brutal, bringing pain and unhappiness to those who fall a victim to it.

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Unit 17 SUMMARIZING TASKS

WRITING: SUMMARY

Run through the following short summary of "The Painted Veil". There are only three sentences but what a comprehensive and complete this resume is! Prepare a short summary according to the example (it should be no longer than five to eight lines)

A woman married to a scientist in Hong Kong falls in love with an attractive philanderer. When her husband discovers the affair he insists on her accompanying him upon a dangerous mission to an area of the colony infested by cholera, and on that harsh pilgrimage of retribution she learns the difference between illusion and reality. In this powerful novel Somerset Maugham depicts once more the dilemmas and predicaments of men and women who confuse love with passion.

DISCUSSION TOPIC 1: MORAL PHILOSOPHY (literary and personal)

1. Every writer has his own Social, Moral and Religious Questions and W. Somerset Maugham is no exception. His moral philosophy is not notably original, though it by no means confirms to the Christian dogma. He believed that:

1.The basis of life is purely material and mechanistic.

2.The intellectual man's reason often conflicts with his emotions and instincts, and the latter are usually stronger.

3.Every man is utterly alone in life.

4.The nature of reality is illusion (i. e., we have no means of perception except through our senses, which are different with every individual).

5.The social order is stupid and tyrannical in the restrictions which it imposes upon the individual.

6.No established form of government is just.

7.War is senseless and cruel.

8.There is a kindred element in all forms of life.

9.Life is meaningless and death results in complete annihilation (destruction).

10."God is an illusion arising out of men's innate ignorance and consequent tendency to superstition."

2.Which of these points we may recognize and find in the novel? Think of a situation that can illustrate your example.

3.Pick out any points in the list, which seem appropriate to you. Do you have any points to add or to extract? Explain your choice.