IV. Answer the following questions:

1. What was the incident that happened to Marcus in the newsagent’s round the corner?

2. Why did Marcus’ mum want him to go to a picnic in Regent’s park without her?

3. Why did Will recollect an episode from his childhood (when he was telling his school friend that it was possible to walk through the back of his wardrobe into a different world)?

4. Why was Will irritated when Suzie and Marcus sang the song “Santa Super Sleigh”?

5. What was the unpleasant event that involved the park-keeper?

6. What was the tragedy that awaited Marcus when he returned home?

V. Try to explain the idea enclosed in the following passage:

– What’s he like? (Suzie about Ned)

– Oh……..Nice. He’s a really nice boy.

– I can imagine. Who does he look like?

– Ummm….Me, I guess. He drew the short straw.

– He could have done worse. Anyway, Megan looks just like Dan, and I hate it (p. 52).

VI. Dispute the issues given below:

1. You can’t possibly commit a suicide if you have a child to look after.

2. It’s always troublesome to lie. Once you tell a lie, it’ll make you lie again and again. Then you are bound to lose track of your lies one day, and so you’ll be stuck.

Task Set 4 (Chapters 10-12)

I. Study the active vocabulary:

• out of the ordinary (p. 61)

• something to do with (p. 64)

• feel flat (p. 65)

• call it a day (idiom) (p. 65)

• get a takeaway (p. 66)

• talk rot (p. 69)

• on end (p. 69)

• thick (p. 69)

• soup kitchen (p. 72)

• fix smth. up (=settle, arrange) (p. 74)

• embark on (p. 75)

• beat around the bush (idiom) (p. 75)

• dim adj. (p. 76)

• miss smb’s point (p. 77)

II. Paraphrase the following sentences:

1. You shouldn’t ask Peter about the case. He isn’t in any way connected with it.

2) I don't know if it's the weather, but for the last few days I've been not quite well.

3) You speak nonsense! Don’t expect anyone to sympathize with you.

4) Sometimes for several hours uninterruptedly she sat staring at a page, listening to the liquid summer sounds that floated through the windows.

5) – It’s always difficult to start some new business, but I’m sure you’ll be a success this time.

– That’s O.K. If something goes wrong we can always manage to quit it.

III. Translate the following sentences:

1. Я готова хоть завтра взяться за это дело. В нем нет для меня ничего особенного.

2. Говори прямо, что ты от них хочешь! Не ходи вокруг да около.

3. Да он просто непрошибаемый! Ты все объясняешь снова и снова, а он так ничего и не понимает.

4. Лиза до сих пор подрабатывает в бесплатной столовой и, похоже, не собирается уходить (прекращать работу). Кстати, когда она работала в ресторане быстрого питания, мы часто заезжали к ней, чтобы взять обед на дом.

5. Не волнуйся, мы обязательно все урегулируем. Даже для твоего недалекого приятеля найдется работа.

IV. Read the following passages, and express your opinion on the problem cited by the author:

1. You had to live in your own bubble. You couldn’t force your way into someone else’s, because then it wouldn’t be a bubble any more. Will bought his clothes and his CDs and his cars and his Heal’s furniture and his drugs for himself, and himself alone; if Fiona couldn’t afford these things and didn’t have an equivalent bubble of her own, then that was her lookout (p. 62).

2. Two wasn’t enough, that was the trouble. He’d always thought that two was a good number, and that he’d hate to live in a family of three or four or five. But he could see the point of that now: if someone dropped off the edge, you weren’t left on your own. How could you make a family grow if there was no one around to, you know, help it along? (p. 67).