LUcky jIm by Kingsley Amis

Pre-reading Work

1. Before you start reading the book, research the period of time / the country the author lived in; his credentials; his literary career; other novels of the author; his famous contemporaries.

2. What does the title of the book imply? What do you think this book is about?

Assignment 1 Chapter 1

I. Active Vocabulary

1. Learn the pronunciation and the meaning of the given words. Mark the stresses:

A recorder, a trunk, donnish, to suffuse, italics, a squadron, constrained, healing, a scorcher, haul, misfiring, ill-kept, to plunge, vestibule, altitude, solicitude, apparently, unequivocal, a tactician, a recipient, consecutive, a predicament, quasi-(velvet), veiled, receptivity, to bet, to bawl, bias, staple, colloquy, hypocrite, to brake, frenzied, macadam, trajectory, to huddle up, to tackle.

2. Match the words with their TWO synonyms:

1. decisive a) exhaustion k) to stun

2. abruptly b) conclusive l) suddenly

3. to crack up c) feeble m) breakdown

4. listless d) avarice n) determined

5. furtively e) to confuse o) secretively

6. flabby f) unexpectedly p) greed

7. fatigue g) petty q) weak-willed

8. to dumbfound h) languid r) to eulogize

9. avidity i) stealthily s) trifling

10. niggling j) to praise t) apathetic

3. Fill in the gaps where possible with the corresponding words. Translate the words:

Noun	Adjective	Verb
	(in)definable
	Sustainable
vigour
	Stiff
		to enunciate
	Hyphenated
apprehension
grubbing
	Sober
veracity

4. Study the use of the active vocabulary in the word combinations. Recall the situations the word-combinations were used in. Use the same vocabulary in the situations of your own:

To set (great) store by smb’s opinion, to speak in a shout, in italics, to have a power over smth, to shudder in (at, of) his efforts, to repress a yawn, to get down to smth/doing smth, to feel constrained to do smth, to get/be out of the wood, healing effort, a swerve in the conversation, to laud smth to smb, to take smb’s eyes, to have a go at smth, established/learned journals, a neglected topic, to inflict (a wound) on smth, to be beyond reach, on such occasions, to avert a disaster, the look on the face, to stiffen in the shape of smth, to be done under smb’s advice, to lend a hand, to throw into the pool, to have a crack at smth.

5. Fill in the bubbles using the words, connected with the topic “Education”:

EDUCATION

6. Fill in the bubbles using the words, connected with the topic “University Life”:

UNIVERSITY

7. Translate the paragraph “How would she behave……….. could hardly be eluded” (pp.16-17) into Ukrainian. Explain the main its key idea.

8. Translate the sentences using active vocabulary of the unit:

1. Не надавай значення його бесхарактерності. Насправді він має великі повноваження. 2. Ми майже провалили наше дослідження, але одразу ж взялися до роботи і вийшли зі скрутного становища. 3. Дякую за допомогу, у таких випадках відчуваєш, що означає справжня дружба. 4. За порадою професора Велча Джимові слід було спробувати надрукувати статтю на тему, якій приділяють мало уваги, в одному з визнаних видань (журналів). 5. Відчуваючи, що він вимушений спілкуватися з Маргарет, Джим намагався ухилитися від відвертого з’ясування стосунків.