25Th October

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,

I'm in the basket-ball team and you ought to see the bruise on my left shoulder. It's blue and mahogany with little streaks of orange. Julia Pendleton tried for the team, but she didn't get in. Hooray!

You see what a mean disposition I have.

College gets nicer and nicer. I like the girls and the teachers and the classes and the campus and the things to eat. We have ice-cream twice a week and we never have corn-meal mush.

You only wanted to hear from me once a month, didn't you? And I've been peppering you with letters every few days! But I've been so excited about all these new adventures that I MUST talk to somebody; and you're the only one I know. Please excuse my exuberance; I'll settle pretty soon. If my letters bore you, you can always toss them into the wastebasket. I promise not to write another till the middle of November.

Yours most loquaciously,

Judy Abbott

TASKS

1. Read the text and find in it the words and word combinations from the list, supply them with Russian equivalents.

to get lost

a foundling

wiry and tough

to be homesick

bright

to improve

to make smth up

charitable

to turn one’s back on smb

a campus

to pepper smb with letters

2. Learn these words and expression by heart and be ready for the oral translation of sentences with them.

3. Translate the underlined passages.

4. Paraphrase the following using the words above.

- wanting to go home and thus unhappy

- university grounds

- to get better

- baby abandoned by its parents and found by someone else

- intelligent

5. Explain in English the meanings of these:

- to pepper smb with letters

- charitable

- tough

- to get lost

6. Complete the sentences with the words in ex. 1

1. It’s impossible to __________your__________on people.

2. I hope you won’t be _______________when you go abroad.

3. Judy became one of the ____________________students in her class.

4. It’s so easy to _____________in an unfamiliar place.

5. Your English is _____________every day.

6. Judy began ________________stories when she was a little girl.

7. Write an essay on one of the following topics:

4. Dwell on Jerusha’s words: “A foundling asylum isn’t a young ladies’ finishing school”.

5. Express your opinion about Jerusha’s idea that “Being rich is such a very external quality”.

6. Dwell on Jerusha’s words: “I'm a foreigner in the world and I don't understand the language.”

8. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English using the words from ex.1

1. В университетском городке можно с легкостью заблудиться.

2. Не отворачивайся от друзей, будь более снисходительным.

3. Этот студент действительно очень способный.

4. Подкидыш не может чувствовать тоску по дому, у него его никогда не было.

5. Мой друг забрасывает меня сообщениями.

6. Только гибкие и закаленные люди могут работать в цирке.

7. Не выдумывай никаких историй, расскажи правду, почему ты опоздал в этот раз?

9. Answer the following questions:

1. Judy’s impression of college.

2. Why did Judy feel like a “fire horse” all the time at college?

3. Where was Judy’s room situated? What were her neighbours?

4. What “advantage of being a foundling” did Judy mean?

5. Tell the group about Judy’s first day of studying and the mistakes she made.

6. How did Judy furnish her room?

7. Tell the group about Judy’s classmates.

8. What subject did she have to study?

9. Why did Judy decide to change her name?

10. Do you agree with Judy that the aim of the John Grier Home was “to turn the ninety-seven orphans into ninety-seven twins”?

11. What did Judy tell Sallie about her life before college?

12. Tell about the sports in Judy’s life.