Revision Exercises

(based on the Introductory Material)

Exercise 1. Make up several questions of different types (including indirect questions) based on the following sentences: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 25, 31.

Exercise 2. Make up several sentences on the analogy of sentences 1, 4, 6, 8, 13, 18.

Exercise 3. Comment on the following sentences: 2, 10, 22, 35.

Exercise 4. Develop the following sentences into short situations: 5, 7, 8, 12, 15, 16, 23.

Exercise 5. Build dialogues round the following sentences: 1, 11, 24.

34. Sensible, sensitive

Introductory material

Read and translate the following sentences paying special attention to the words in bold type.

1. I’ll be very calm and sensible. 2. Mary Restarick seemed a sensible type of woman — not a jealous or emotional type. 3. «And then he got fond of me and asked me to marry him and I thought, ‘Well, really that’s a far more sensible revenge than anything else.’ I mean, to marry Mr Fortescue’s eldest son and get the money he swindled Father out of back that way. I think it was a far more sensible way.» «Yes, indeed,» said Inspector Neele, «far more sensible.» 4. «The only sensible thing,» said Percival, «is to dissolve the partnership.» «You’re going to buy me out — is that the idea?» «My dear boy, it’s the only sensible thing to do, with our ideas so different.» 5. Erik wasn’t particularly sensitive to clothes. 6. Perhaps the fact that my name was Brown made me more sensitive to the comedy of Jones. 7. «Does it stand to reason that a man, any man not a lunatic, would so injure himself, and continue to injure himself, by striking the soft and sensitive parts of his face with a stone?» Carter Watson demanded. 8. A young man — dark, thin, with narrow temples. It is what they call «a sensitive face.» 9. «The Paris public and private talks on the war had reached a ‘sensitive stage’,» he said. 10. Here in the rock pools he made us acquaint­ed with sea anemones. «They are very sensitive creatures, Johnny,» he would say, as at the approach of my hand their tendrils closed up. 11. «Walter doesn’t give me the impression of a fellow who’d care to wash a lot of dirty linen in public.» «I don’t think he would,» she answered reflectively. «He’s very sensitive, I’ve discovered that.» 12. Government recruiters are having difficulty these days finding young people to apply for sensitive jobs. The reason is that many jobs in Washington require security clearances. This means the FBI is sent around to interview the applicant’s relatives, friends, professors and anyone who might have a nodding acquaintance with the job seeker. 13. She knew her well enough to know that she would be insensible to entreaty. 14. Her sons, too, went to the library for books of nonsense, insensible to the outside world and its duties. 15. «Allergic to long term planning» is a fairly early case of «allergic» being used in the American sense of «opposed, unsympathetic.» Originally a medical term meaning «hypersensitive», it has thus come to indicate virtually the opposite, i.e. insensitive, thus «I am allergic to the manner of William Saroyan.»

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Sensible adj. 1. Having or showing good sense, power of judging, practical wisdom; reasonable, judicious; practical, e.g. a ~ idea, a ~ woman, ~ shoes for mountain climbing, that was ~ of you. 2. Aware (of), e.g. he is ~ of the danger of his position. 3. That can be perceived by senses (sight, hearing, etc.); perceptible, appreciable, e.g. a ~ difference, a ~ change in tone, a ~ increase.

Antonym: insensible adj.

Derivatives: sensibly adv., insensibly adv., sensibility п., insensibility n.

Sensitive adj. 1. Quick to receive impressions; responding or feeling readily and acutely; very keenly susceptible to stimuli, e.g. a ~ ear, ~ nerves. 2. Easily hurt in the spirit; having or showing keen sensibilities; easily offended, disturbed, shocked, irritated, etc. by the actions and opinions of others; e.g. a ~ child, to be ~ about (over) smth., too ~ to criticism, don’t be so ~! 3. (of instruments, etc.) Able to record small changes, e. g. a ~ thermometer, ~ scales. 4. (of photographic film, paper, etc.) Affected by light, e.g. photographic film is ~ to light. 5. Secret, security-restricted, e.g. ~ areas of national defence.

Sensitive implies a physical or emotional condition that predisposes one to certain impressions, certain reactions, or the like.

Antonym: insensitive adj.

Derivatives: sensitively adv., sensitiveness п., sensitivity п., supersensitive adj., hypersensitive adj.

Sensible (разумный, здравомыслящий; ощутимый, заметный; осознающий, чувствующий; чувствительный (о приборе) and sensitive (чувстви­тельный, нежный, впечатлительный; обидчивый; засекреченный) are never interchangeable but they are sometimes confused because of the identity of the root word and some proximity in meaning.

Their antonyms, insensible and insensitive re­spectively, are somewhat close in meaning too. Insensible usually implies total unresponsiveness, and therefore unawareness or unconsciousness, caused by any of a number of things, such as blunted powers of sensation, obtuseness of mind, apathy, or complete absorption in something else, e.g. ~ to fatigue, to pleasure, and to pain, so engrossed in his work that he was ~ of the flight of time, etc. Insensitive, on the other hand, implies sluggishness in response or less than normal susceptibility; more specifically, it suggests dullness of sensation or perception, thickness of skin, callousness and lack of sympathy or compassion, e.g. a ~ ear, ~ to changes of pitch, he was ~ to all kinds of discourtesy, ~ to the misery of others, ~ to light (to touch), ~ to beauty.