voskresenskaya_e_g_i_dr_sost_sovremennye_angliiskie_romany

Creating a Commentary

9Comment on the meaning and usage of the following references and allusions, give the context they are used

in.

1)Patron of what is St. Christopher believed to be? (A bus with the dashboard covered in St. Christopher’s)

2)What can be told in Vanessa story?

3)Why is The Battle of Hastings 1066 so significant for English history?

4)What is called Biro?

5)Consult Dictionary of Idioms to find out the meaning of phrase “Never over-egg the pudding”.

Language and Style

10What is the role of graphical expressive means in the chapter? Give examples and explain their functions.

11Compare the passage of the original text with its translation. (p. 254 Letter 8.) Analyse the ways used to translate slang and colloquial words and phrases.

Письмо 8

Господи Боже, Пиппа. Господи Боже. Я просто не мог про- должать то последнее письмо. Трепаться, как идут съемки. Не мог после того, что случилось. Но со мной все в порядке. Честное слово, в порядке.

Позже. Бедняга Матт. Черт, он был славный малый. Ко- нечно, мог влезть в печенки, но на такой работе и Святой Фран- циск Ассизский осточертел бы. Вечно глазел на этих идиотских птиц в джунглях, вместо того чтобы читать роль. Извини, ми- лая. Это бестактно, знаю. Просто не могу подобрать слов, чтобы рассказать. Убит совершенно. Бедняга Матт. Пытаюсь предста- вить, откуда ты обо всем узнаешь и что подумаешь.

Какие же сволочи эти индейцы. Мне кажется, я умру. Еле держу ручку. Потею как свинья, comme un porco. Боже мой, я люблю тебя, Пиппа, только за это я и держусь.

Ч.

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EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

12Discuss the following in a group.

1)Make a list of things you think are really important for you. Are they connected with civilization or nature?

2)Is civilization a way to ‘dig our own pit and fall into it’? Support your answer with examples.

3)Is it easy to understand human’s nature through letters? Why?

13Imagine you are Pippa, you receive all the letters of your boyfriend. What would be your reaction? Write several letters in response to his.

Parenthesis

PRE-READING

Focus Activity

1 Discuss the following questions.

1)Read the title of the chapter. What do you anticipate to read about in the chapter? What are the Russian equivalents for “Parenthesis”?

2)There are a lot of different sayings about the importance of LOVE in human life, e.g. a famous line from a very popular song of The Beatles ‘All you need is love …’ or ‘Love makes the world go round’. How far do you agree with them?

3)Can you think of any other wise sayings about LOVE? Why do we have so many of them?

ACTIVE READING

Vocabulary Practice

2 Find the following words in the text, give their definitions, derivatives and translations. Give the context they are used in.

Void; guerilla; indulgent; vanity; rival; freight; release; gadget; indolent; surrender

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3 Find the English equivalents to the following words and expressions. Give the context they are used in.

Спокойный сон; сознательная учтивость, вежливость; ель, хвой- ное дерево; отклонение художественной литературы от норм мо- рали, нравственности; осторожно сделанный вывод; разочаро- вание; полностью насладиться; послушная фраза; выравнива- ние, стабилизация; изменить строку; быть аккуратным, щепе- тильным; работать не покладая рук; мозаика, пестрая смесь; хмурый подросток; быть терпимым, снисходительным к кому- либо; случайная мутация; быть соперником, конкурентом.

1)it’s that middle stretch of the night (p. 271)

2)either reluctant to let a good day depart or still bitching about a bad one (p. 271)

3)I feel a shudder of love at the exactness of this sleeping courtesy (p. 272)

4)some secret fulcrum of my feelings for her (p. 273)

5)love has roots below the gum of consciousness (p. 273)

6)the rudder broke off centuries ago (p. 273)

7)a poet can shimmy between the two, getting credit for both deep feeling and objectivity (p. 274)

8)to unfrock the lolling front-row girls (p. 278)

9)love is the transforming wand (p. 279)

10)it gives spine-stretching confidence (p. 281)

11)the candlelit memory of the domestic hearth (p. 283)

12)at a point where pride and apprehension scuffle within you (p. 287)

13)love boils down to pheromones (p. 295)

14)the objective truth is obtainable (p. 296)

15)it gives a subterranean, a subaqueous sigh (p. 297)

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Comprehension and Discussion

6 Answer the questions below.

1)In what form is this unnumbered "half chapter" written? What is ‘parenthesis’ (find its definition)? Why is the chapter called ‘Parenthesis’? Why did Barnes place it between Chapters 8 and 9?

2)What is the main topic under discussion in it? Who is the narrator?

3)Why does the narrator mention so many different writers? Find and comment on their statements cited in the unnumbered "half chapter".

4)What does the author try to show comparing prose and poetry?

5)How does the narrator analyse the phrase “I love you”? To what conclusion does he come?

6)From what sides is “Love” considered by the narrator? Comment on them.

7)What is the paradox of love?

8)What is normal and abnormal in love?

9)What does a heart have to do with love?

10)What is the relation between love and happiness, love and life, love and truth?

11)Are any conclusions made at the end? What are they?

12)Is love a kind of fabulation like the whole history of the world? What is the place of love in the history of the world according to J. Barnes?

13)Chapter 4 and Parenthesis contain the verse about Columbus. What is the place of these lines in the chapters and in the whole history of the world?

14)Through the whole book we have encountered two versions of all the events. Why another point of view is so important?

15)What is the place of this chapter in the history of the world?

7Make a list of all the links to previous chapters. What is their role?

8Comment on the following quotations and explain their

meaning. Do you agree with them?

1)Poets seem to write more easily about love than prose writers. (p. 274)

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2)What will survive of us is love. (p. 275)

3)I love you shouldn’t go out into the world, become a currency, a traded share, make profit for us. (p. 277)

4)… the heart isn’t heart-shaped. (p. 280)

5)The feminist and chauvinist interpret Nature differently. (p. 282)

6)… love is essential because it’s unnecessary. (p. 285)

7)But I can tell you why to love. Because the history of the world … is ridiculous without love. The history of the world becomes brutally self-important without love. (p. 289)

8)History isn’t what happened. History is just what historians tell us. (p. 291)

9)You can’t love someone … without beginning to see the world from another point of view. (p. 293)

10)We must believe in it (love)… If we don’t we merely surrender to the history of the world and to someone else’s truth. (p. 296)

11)“We must love one another or/and die.” (p. 280)

Creating a Commentary

9Comment on the meaning and usage of the following references and allusions, give the context they are used in.

1)Where can we use Catherine wheel? What is the origin of the word combination?

2)Who can do chess marking?

3)What is the purpose of doing it?

4)Find information about W.H. Auden and E.M. Foster.

5)What is mentioned by Christ’s Passion?

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Language and Style

10 Translate the following passage.

“These are grand words; we must make sure we deserve them… – enclosed in the same word.” (pp. 276–277)

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

11Discuss the following in a group.

1)If love is so important can we change the history of the world?

2)The history of the world is just a soothing fabulation according to Barnes. Do you agree with it?

Chapter 9. Project Ararat

PRE-READING

Focus Activity 1 Discuss the following questions.

1)Read the title of the chapter. What do you anticipate to read about in the chapter?

2)What role does science play in our world nowadays? What role did it use to play in different periods in world’s history? What contribution did the exploration of space make to the world science?

3)What do you know about Apollo project? What was the aim of all the missions? How many were successful? Who landed on the Moon?

4)Do you know anything about astronauts who landed on the Moon and what happened to them? How could this event influence on them?

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ACTIVE READING

Vocabulary Practice

2Find the following words in the text, give their definitions, derivatives and translations. Give the contexts they are used in.

Beatifically; flourish; conciliatory; prophecy; intact

3Find the English equivalents to the following words and

expressions. Give the context they are used in.

Отложить посещение на другой раз; дыхание выравнивается; приемлемая цена; не давать всему городу покоя; считать при- влекательным, находить прелесть; чьи-то полные надежды гла- за; подшучивание, поддразнивание; быть настроенным прими- рительно; быть психом, ненормальным; приспосабливаться; пре- одолевать сложности; быть сто процентов «за» кого-либо; начи- танные журналисты; его час был близко

4 Give the Russian equivalents to the following English words and word combinations.

Blessed grace; thin atmosphere; introspection; a pretty curveball sense of humour; primrose yellow; to foul up the future career; to advance the conversation; masterful; to quiver with apprehension; infidel; significant remnant; enormous fissure; incorrigible optimism

5 Match the words (1–8) with their synonyms (a-i).

6 Translate the sentences into English using words and expressions from Vocabulary Practice Section. Pay attention to the underlined words and expressions.

1. Несмотря на то, что цена билетов была приемлемая, он решил отложить посещение на следующий раз. 2. Она находила пре- лесть в этих бледно-желтых цветах, которые он считал безвкус- ными сорняками. 3. Самоанализ порой может помочь преодолеть сложности, возникающие в общении с окружающими. 4. Его не- исправимый оптимизм, безусловно, не мог испортить его буду- щую карьеру, но мог заставить людей подумать, что он сумасшед- ший, псих. 5. Начитанные журналисты, знающие свое дело, в лю- бой ситуации могут продолжать разговор до тех пор, пока не уз- нают нужных им фактом. 6. Порой предсказания его бабушки сбывались, вот и на этот раз, зная, что может произойти, он был охвачен какими-то мрачными предчувствиями. 7. Вот уже две недели банда преступников не дает всему городу покоя. 8. Он очень тяжело приспосабливался к новым условиям жизни, да и еще и поддразнивания соседских мальчишек не давали ему по- коя. 9. По божьей милости они не попали в команду этого авто- ритарного, деспотичного человека. 10. Можем ли мы считать людей, почитающих другую религию, неверными?

Comprehension and Discussion

7 Answer the questions below.

1)Where does the action take place in this chapter? What is narrator’s attitude to Americans? How are they portrayed?

2)Could you explain the voice Spike had heard on the Moon? What was it?

3)Project “Ararat”: what preparations are being made?

4)What discovery did the travelers make in the mountain?

5)What will the second project “Ararat” be?

6)How do religious beliefs fit modern “scientific’ explanation for the world?

7)In previous chapters we found characters is the sea, on earth and in this chapter for the first time the actions take place in space. Why do such changes happen?

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8)Is the idea of the previous chapter that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce revealed in this chapter?

9)What is the place of this chapter in the history of the world? Why did Barnes choose these episodes for his history?

8Comment on the last paragraph of the chapter.

9Make a list of all the links to previous chapters. What is their role?

10Characterise Spike (Background, Appearance, Relationship with others, Things others do around or to him, Things he says, Actions (things he does), What happens to him and changes (if any) to his character, etc.). Is Spike characterised directly or indirectly? Support your explanation with specific examples, motifs, and plot elements. Use Character Sketch Template from Reference Section.

11In this chapter some events from previous chapters (e.g. the earthquake on the mountain, the position of the skeleton, etc.) are interpreted in a different way than they were presented earlier. As you read complete the chart below with examples of these versions.

12Comment on the following quotations and explain their meaning. Do you agree with them?

1)… the movements of a man’s life, of every life, is marked by escape and return. (p. 305)

2)After Project Apollo, Project Ararat – what could be more obvious than this progression, this tiny alphabetical step? (pp. 321–322)

3)… a church built over Noah’s tomb.’ In the shape of an Ark, perhaps. Or even in the shape of an Apollo spacecraft. That

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would be more appropriate, that would complete the circle. (p. 335)

Creating a Commentary

13Comment on the meaning and usage of the following references and allusions, give the context they are used in.

1)What is Wright Brothers National Memorial dedicated to?

2)What does The Plough mean in astrology?

3)In what sport are The Redskins famous?

4)What historical events are connected with The Hiroshima bomb?

5)What do Project Mercury and Project Apollo mean for American history?

6)Who are present on A $1000-a-plate fund-raising dinners?

7)What is the purpose of organizing them?

8)What information can be learned from the carbon-dating tests?

Language and Style

14Analyse the peculiarities of the language of the story. What helps to create this effect? Support your point of view with examples.

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

15Discuss the following in a group.

1)What changes happened in human life after the space was explored? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the exploration?

2)Who makes the history? How do they make it?

3)Is it possible to distinguish objective from subjective in history?

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