- •Оскар уайльд «счастливый принц и другие сказки»
- •Предисловие
- •Introduction
- •I. Read the text:
- •Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales
- •II. Practise the pronunciation of the words given below:
- •III. Give Russian equivalents:
- •IV. Give English equivalents:
- •V. Translate the sentences into Russian. Make up your own examples with the italicized words and word-combinations.
- •VI. Fill in the gaps with appropriate prepositions:
- •VII. Agree or disagree with the following statements. Develop the idea.
- •VIII. Relate the main facts of Oscar Wilde’s life and his creative activity using the words listed in exercises III and IV.
- •2. Learn the following words and word-combinations
- •In situations from the text.
- •3. Find English equivalents of the following words and word-combinations. Make up your own sentences with them based on the story.
- •5. Translate the following passages into Russian:
- •6. These are the paraphrased variants of some sentences from the text. Look through the text to find the original sentences.
- •7. Fill in the blanks with appropriate prepositions and adverbs.
- •2. Answer the questions using the vocabulary of the tale:
- •3. Find English equivalents of the following words and word-combinations. Make up your own sentences with them based on the story.
- •4. Use the verbs in brackets in the Past Indefinite Tense.
- •5. Translate the following passages into Russian:
- •6. Arrange the words in the following sentences
- •In proper order.
- •7. Fill in the blanks with the words given below.
- •3. Find English equivalents of the following words and word-combinations. Make up your own sentences with them based on the story.
- •4. Insert articles where necessary.
- •5. Translate the following passages into Russian:
- •6. Are the sentences grammatically correct? Find the mistakes and comment on your answer.
- •7. Guess the words by their definitions.
- •8. Complete the following sentences:
- •9. A) Read the following extracts paying attention to the use of phrasal verbs. Look them up in a dictionary and translate the sentences into Russian.
- •3. Find English equivalents of the following words and word-combinations. Make up your own sentences with them based on the story.
- •4. Find in the text 10 sentences containing would
- •5. Translate the following passages into Russian:
- •3. Find English equivalents of the following words and word-combinations. Make up your own sentences with them based on the story.
- •4. Fill in the missing reflexive pronouns.
- •5. Translate the following passages into Russian:
- •6. Complete the sentences using these pronouns: each other, other or others.
- •7. Insert the correct prepositions.
- •8. Supply the missing words.
- •9. A) Read the following extracts paying attention to the use of phrasal verbs. Look them up in a dictionary and translate the sentences into Russian.
- •2. Discuss the following: a) Agree or disagree with the statements. Prove your answer.
- •B) Give the Remarkable Rocket's character-sketch. C. Give a summary of the tale revision
- •I. Pronounce the words:
- •II. Give Russian equivalents:
- •III. Give English equivalents:
- •V. Relate the main facts of Oscar Wilde’s life.
- •VI. Why are Wilde’s fairy tales so much admired by both children and adults? Which tale is your favourite one? Why?
- •VII. Answer the questions using the vocabulary of the tales:
- •A) There are a lot of witty paradoxes in Oscar Wilde’s tales. They are used to show the contradictions of life. Read the following paradoxical utterances and translate them.
- •X. Render into English:
- •Supplementary reading About Oscar Wilde
- •Preface to
- •Into spring blossoms white and blue!
- •Selected bibliography
- •Contents
Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales
I like to fancy that there may be many meanings in the tale, for in writing it I did not start with an idea and clothed it in form, but began with a form and strove to make it beautiful enough to have many secrets and many answers.
The Happy Prince and other Tales (1888) is a collection of witty fairy tales marking the beginning of Oscar Wilde’s writing.
As we see, Oscar Wilde didn’t include in the title the word “fairy”. More than that, he didn’t name these stories as tales, and in his letters he had named them as “some studies in prose” which “were written… for childlike people from eighteen to eighty” because he wanted “to mirror modern life in a form remote from reality – to deal with modern problems in a mode that is ideal and not imitative.”
Though Oscar Wilde rejects realism and considers that art exists apart from reality, in some of his tales, The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant and The Devoted Friend he introduces social motives. The reader feels a humanist behind every tale.
In these tales Oscar Wilde sings the beauty of the human heart and the ability of common people to show great and selfless love. The secret of life is to be helpful and good to others. He admires unselfishness, kindness and generosity, he shows deep sympathy for the poor and despises egoism and greed.
Oscar Wilde’s tales are like poems in prose, lyrical, vivid and graceful. His vocabulary is rich. His tales are admired by both children and adults.
Notes
Oscar Wilde graduated from Trinity College in Dublin in 1873 and passed to Magdalen College at Oxford. His academic career at Oxford was remarkable for he obtained the double distinction of a "First" in "Classical Moderations" and "Literae Humaniores"
Trinity College - Тринити-Колледж (колледж Дублинского университета, основан в 1592г.)
Magdalen College - Модлин-Колледж, колледж Магдалины (колледж Оксфордского университета, основан в 1458г.)
"First" - (разг.) степень бакалавра с отличием первого класса (в университете)
"Moderations" - первый публичный экзамен на степень бакалавра в оксфордском университете; сдается, в зависимости от факультета, по следующим предметам: английскому языку и литературе, классическим языкам ("Classical Moderations"), математике, географии, физике и философии; проводится в конце третьего или пятого триместров.
"Literae Humaniores" - выпускной экзамен на степень бакалавра искусств по классическим языкам и философии в оксфордском университете.
II. Practise the pronunciation of the words given below:
surgeon, genius, salon, aesthetic cult, supreme, peacock’s feathers, velveteen knee-breeches, apostle, plagiarism, consequence, irresistible, spectacle, triumph, insolence, contempt, prejudice(s), essay, worthy (of attention), drama, imprisonment, scandalous, essayist, mirror, imitative, generosity, despise.
III. Give Russian equivalents:
a man of exceptionally wide culture
blue china
velveteen knee-breeches
to try one’s hand at smth
to marry smb
to encourage smb to attempt smth
to establish oneself as a writer of consequence
to be prejudiced against smth
insolence
10) current standards
11) to win one’s fame as (a dramatist)
12) an entertaining plot
13) to have a hailing success with the public
14) to be accused of smth
15) to be sentenced to two years’ imprisonment
16) to mirror
17) social motives
18) selfless love