III. Post-reading

3.1. Feelings.

There is one short phrase in the story. It goes like this, "Then it hit". Try to interpret the meaning of this phrase. What kind of feeling(s) did the girl experience at that moment?

3.2.Roleplay.

The members of the family must have had a lot to discuss that evening. Dramatize one of the possible scenarios of such a conversa­tion. Don't forget one thing though: the family is poor.

Character cast: Mama, Amelia, Nico. Scene: a small kitchen in their house.

3.3. Last but not least.

Does the story have anything to do with seasons? Prove that it does — or doesn't.

DISCUSSION (STORIES 1 — 5)

A 'SEASONED' DISCUSSION

As far as you can see, the four stories in the first section deal with the four seasons of the year — winter, spring, summer and autumn. How do the authors convey the spirit of the seasons in their stories? Share as many observations as possible. WINTER TALES

The story entitled Castles is a perfect fairy-tale to be told to wide-eyed kids sitting by the fire on a winter evening. Imagine yourselves to be such girls and boys listening to a master storyteller. Choose the right kind of tale to entertain your audience with.

MEET THE CHARACTER

Select a character that not only appears in this section but also appeals to you. Describe his/her personal achievements thoroughly like a good mentor should. Presentation in the first person singular is not unwelcome.

CROSS-CULTURAL STUDIES

There is a story in this section, Beans, that deals with no particular season at all. Yet the cultural background is obvious: the family is of Mexican American origin. To the best of your ability, discuss the role Spanish-speaking culture played — and plays — in the American "melting pot" of nations.

WEATHER AND CLIMATE

Cultural diversity is closely connected with climatic differences. Discuss the effects of climate and weather on the development of human culture. Do you think American culture is uniform, be it Alaska (Breakup) or the prairies (Beans)?

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Bird watching must be a great occupation indeed. Discuss vari­ous aspects of this pastime, both positive and otherwise. Remember some famous works of literary and other forms of art depicting bird life. If you ever wanted to choose a bird as symbol, which one would you pick? Prepare to explain your choices.

JEREMY JAMES AND THE GINGER BEAR

I. Pre-reading

1.1. SHARE your ideas about festive cooking. Should it always be traditional only or, on the contrary, innovative and experimental?

1.2. DISCUSS the rituals and customs related to various high days that exist in Belarus. Do you find them very different from those in the rest of the world?

1.3. PROVE that the magic of holidays is an essential part of our life. It is needed not by children only, is it?

II. READING

2.1. UNDERSTANDING THE TITLE. Read the title of the story writ­ten by Marion Dane Bauer again. Does it make your mouth water?

2.2. Reading for pleasure and enrichment. Read the story and answer the question: Did Jeremy learn anything else that night apart from the art of baking? The following words will be useful for better understanding of the events.

Thatched roof — a straw-covered roof

Moat — a deep hole filled with water around a castle or fort

Steeple — a tall pointed tower on the roof of a church

Bear — to carry, especially something important

Sniff — to breathe air in through your nose

Teeny — very small

Haunches — part of your body at the back between waist and legs

Licorice — a black plant substance, used in medicines and sweets

Jeremy James was luckiest boy in his entire village. His parents, you see, were the village bakers, and every day of the year Jeremy James had biscuits and buns, cream puffs and scones, tortes layered with jelly and puddings bulging with fruit.

But the best time of all to be the bakers' son was just before Christmas, because that was when Jeremy James's papa and mama made gingerbread.

And oh ... what gingerbread! It came out of the oven as hot as a summer day, as fragrant as a wood fire on winter nights. It came out of the oven shining like new copper, crunching between the teeth like honeyed rusks, and melting on the tongue like Christmas itself.

And best of all, the gingerbread came out of the oven ready to be shaped into the most wondrous kingdom Jeremy had ever seen.

There was a church and a school, a tailor's shop and a greengro­cer's, a chemist's and an ironmonger's. There were cottages with thatched roofs and tall, narrow houses leaning against one another. There was a manor fit for a lord and lady, and a fine castle on a marzipan hill.

There was even a jail with peppermint-stick bars. And in the woods a ginger bear lurked, almost hidden, amidst dark, chocolate trees.

Each day when Jeremy James woke up, he would rush down­stairs to see what his parents had added to the gingerbread kingdom during their early morning baking. A bridge over the castle moat. A cobbler's shop in the shape of a shoe. A statue of the king in the village square.

And each day, all the people of the village would come and stand outside the bakery window to admire and exclaim over the ginger­bread kingdom.

And each day Jeremy James grew sadder and sadder because he knew exactly what was going to happen on Christmas day.

His parents would give the gingerbread kingdom away.

The vicar would come for the church, and the schoolmaser for the school. The tailor, the greengrocer, the chemist, the ironmonger, all would smile as they carried away their shops. And the laughing cobbler would run down the street with thу ingerbread shoe. The lord and lady would hold the manor high as they bore it away, and the children would dance in the village square, each clasping the house most like his or her own. The sheriff would deliver the gingerbread jail to the prisoners, and the king himself would present the castle to the queen for her Christmas dessert.

And Jeremy James would be left with the marzipan hill, the dark, chocolate woods and, because no one ever noticed him, the ginger bear.

One year, late on Christmas Eve, Jeremy James slipped out of bed and tiptoed downstairs to the bakery. He wanted to take one last look at the gingerbread Kingdom before his parents gave it away. He stood for a long time gazing at it, and then, finally, he reached out and broke the steeple off the gingerbread church.

"This will be mine forever," he said, and he began to eat... and eat... and eat!

By the time he had finished the church, the school, the cobbler's shop, three houses, and half of the castle, he was feeling rather full.

In fact, he was quite uncomfortably stuffed. But his heart was still hungry for the gingerbread kingdom he had never had, so he picked up the tailor's shop and took a large bite. Just one, so that a bit of the tailor's shop would be his, too.

And then he did the same with the bridge, the manor, the statue of the king, and on and on.

All went well — if well is what it was — until Jeremy James came to the ginger bear.

As he picked up the bear, the clock struck twelve, and Jeremy James said to himself, "It's Christmas. I'd better hurry." And he opened his mouth wide to bite the bear's head off.

The bear, however, opened his mouth wide as well.

"Don't do that!" Jeremy James commanded.

"Why not?" the bear growled.

"Because I'm going to eat you," Jeremy James told the bear.

"No, you're not," the ginger bear replied, growing larger and opening his mouth even wider. "I'm going to eat you!"

Jeremy James dropped the piece of gingerbread, but the bear only grew bigger still. He sniffed Jeremy James's elbow. "Perhaps you'd like a Christmas pudding instead," Jeremy James offered as he looked around for a means of escape.

"Not really," the ginger bear replied, growing large enough to lick the soft tip of Jeremy James's ear.

"A peppermint stick? A marzipan hill? A chocolate tree? Jeremy James beseeched.

The bear leaned down to nibble the ends of Jeremy James's hair. "What I've always wanted for Christmas," he confided, "is a boy."

Jeremy James squeezed his eyes shut. The bear's breath smelled like a forest floor.

"If you eat me," he told the bear in a small voice, "I would be greatly missed in the village."

"Just one bite?" the ginger bear urged.

"Even one and I would be quite spoiled," the boy said in a smaller voice still.

The great bear shook his head sadly. "I'm truly sorry, but I've been waiting for a very long time." And he opened his mouth the widest of all.

"Perhaps," Jeremy James whispered, "you'd like a gingerbread boy instead. Gingerbread is very tasty, you know."

The bear closed his mouth. He sat back on his haunches. He licked the tip of his own licorice nose. "Someone once told me that ginger­bread melts on the tongue like Christmas itself," he murmured.

"It does," Jeremy James agreed. "And we can make some, you and I."

So the two of them set to work. They measured and mixed, they rolled and cut, they baked and assembled with frosting. They made enough gingerbread boys to satisfy ten bears. And then, remember­ing Christmas morning, Jeremy James and the ginger bear made a new kingdom as well.

They even added a bakery. Behind its spun sugar window was another complete gingerbread kingdom in miniature with its own teeny bear lurking in its own tiny woods. Jeremy James said it was for Mama and Papa.

Sleepily, bear and boy climbed the stairs to Jeremy James's room. "Now we're friends," Jeremy James said, as he held back the covers for the ginger bear to join him in bed.

The bear settled his furry head next to Jeremy James's on the pillow. "And friends share everything," he said with a contented growl.

Jeremy James gave the bear an enormous hug. "I'm the luckiest boy in the entire village," he told his bear.

2.3. True or false?

1. Jeremy James was both greedy and gluttonous.

2. Jeremy's parents used gingerbread to promote their busi­ness.

3. Jeremy was always hungry and would welcome even a dry crust of bread.

4. Eating gingerbread was Jeremy's only chance to have it for himself.

5. The bear was hard to oblige.

6. Making gingerbread was the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship.

7. Jeremy spent the most wondrous Christmas night in his life.

8. All what happens in the story is nothing but a dream.

2.4. Points of view.

Explain what they meant by saying the following.

1. The village boys: "Look at that Jeremy James! He is one lucky guy!"

2. The bear: "What I've always wanted for Christmas is a boy."

3. Jeremy: "I am the most unlucky person in this village."

4. The bear: "We're friends now, and friends share everything."

5. Jeremy: "That will be mine forever."

6. Jeremy: "Even one bite would spoil me."

2.5. Verbs in focus.

The author uses various verbs to describe the bear's behaviour and actions. Find the exact verbs that match the definitions given below.

• to make a low, threatening sound

• to hide, keep out of view

• to take tiny bites

• to tell a secret

• to pass the tongue over

• to request earnestly, try to persuade

• to breathe air in through the nose

2.6. Storing vocabulary.

Fill in the gaps using the words below.

1. The boy was ... into the fire and paid no attention to the con­versation.

2. .... flowers grew in abundance, which attracted thousands of bees.

3. He ... to his friends that he didn't have much hope for his marriage.

4. The children were carried away by ... tales of princesses and dragons.

5. When adults, we're often ashamed of childish fears that used ... in our hearts.

6. We have to find ... to advertise this product yet.

7. Don't... me to stay here! It's no use.

8. The dog ... at any stranger who came close.

Choose from the following: fragrant, wondrous, to lurk, to gaze, to growl, to beseech, a means, to confide.

2.7. Idioms in focus.

Study the table below and match the expressions with appropri­ate definitions.

cakes and ale eat one's cake and have it sell like hot cakes a piece of cake take the cake a slice of the cake

be worse than anything else you can imagine part of the money available for everyone pleasure and fun have two incompatible things at once to be sold quickly and in large amounts very easy

Fill in the correct idiom. It's a piece of cake, isn't it?

1. I've heard some pretty crazy ideas, but this one ...!

2. Are these videos popular? — Popular? Why, they ....

3. How do you start this washing-machine? — ... I'll show you.

4. My boss is never giving me any bonuses, but I want..., too.

5. Life isn't all..., you have to do some work.

6. You have to choose between these two options — you ....

2.8. Grammar in focus.

Some nouns are difficult to handle. They are: means, series, spe­cies, crossroads, politics, news, police, statistics, measles, athletics, economics, etc. Choose the right forms.

1. Endangered species is/are to be protected.

2. The crossroads was/were jammed; the police had its/their hands full.

3. Criminal statistics is/are depressing these days.

4. Measles is/are a children's disease dangerous for adults.

5. Athletics is/are not only for achievers; it/they can be re­laxing, too.

6. Politics is/are a very controversial sphere of human activity.

7. The next series is/are on Channel 1 at the weekend.

2.9. Comparisons.

Jeremy exclaimed that Christmas gingerbread was as hot as a summer day, as fragrant as a wood fire on a winter night. Make up more comparisons using the information below. What can you associate with these?

as cold as	nails
as hard as	the hills
as cool as	ice
as old as	the ABC
as happy as	a daisy
as easy as	a lark

2.10. Tasty words.

Jeremy James describes his parents' gingerbread most appetiz-ingly. It is shining like new copper, and it's melting on the tongue like Christmas itself. Now it's your turn to become a gourmet. Describe your favourite dishes, Belarusian or otherwise, so that everybody's mouths turned water.

e.g. What I am particularly fond of is babka, golden brown like a girl's suntanned skin and fragrant like autumn woods. There is nothing like ...