Unit 1. Mark Twain. The adventures of Tom sawyer

UNIT 1. MARK TWAIN. THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER

 

I. Enrich your vocabulary.

alacrity n.	готовность, рвение
attain v.	достигать
brim v.	излучать, лучиться
burden n.	ноша
covet v.	очень хотеть
discourage v.	отвращать, отбивать желание
locust-tree n.	рожковое дерево
reluctance n.	нежелание
settle down v.	обосноваться, устроиться
whitewash n.	побелка, известковый раствор

 

I I. Match the words and their definitions.

1) adventure	a. to deprive of courage, hope, or confidence
2) alacrity	b. a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged
3) cheer	c. free from moral wrong
4) discourage	d. to speak or shout derisively
5) headquarters	e. any of several North American trees belonging to the genus Robinia, of the legume family, especially R. pseudoacacia, having pinnate leaves and clusters of fragrant white flowers.
6) idle	f. a centre of operations, as of the police or a business, from which orders are issued; the chief administrative office of an organization
7) innocent	g. an exciting or very unusual experience
8) jeer	h. cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness
9) locust-tree	i. not spent or filled with activity
10) melancholy	j. something that gives joy or gladness

III. Match the words with the ones with the similar meanings.

1) burden	a) frolic
2) covet	b) smell
3) difficult	c) empty
4) fragment	d) hard
5) fragrance	e) piece
6) gladness	f) unwillingness
7) hateful	g) wish
8) hollow	h) happiness
9) reluctance	i) load
10) skylark	j) unpleasant

IV. Match the words with the ones with the opposite meanings.

1) artificial	a) small
2) considerable	b) insignificant
3) difficult	c) poor
4) gladness	d) full
5) hateful	e) easy
6) hollow	f) wealth
7) poverty	g) pleasant
8) reluctance	h) natural
9) significant	i) willingness
10) wealthy	j) sadness

READING

I. Read the text and say how Tom managed to solve his problem.

THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER

Chapter 2, Abstract 1

Saturday morning    had come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was green with vegetation and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged. Jim came skipping out at the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing water from the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom’s eyes, before, but now it did not strike him so. He remembered that there was company at the pump. White, mulatto, and negro boys and girls were always there waiting their turns, resting, trading playthings, quarrelling, fighting, skylarking. And he remembered that although the pump was only a hundred and fifty yards off, Jim never got back with a bucket of water under an hour – and even then somebody generally had to go after him.

 

Abstract 2

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with – and so on, and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. He had besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles, part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spool cannon, a key that wouldn’t unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass doorknob, a dog-collar – but no dog – the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash.

He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while – plenty of company – and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.

Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign.

The boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place in his worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to report.

 

III. Answer the questions.

1. When do the events described in the fragment take place?

2. What epithets and metaphors does the author use to render the atmosphere of the day?

3. How does Tom feel about the work he has to do? What negatively coloured words does the author use to render his feelings?

4. What made the task of bringing water from the pump appealing to children?

5. Why does the author use the allusion “the slaughter of innocents” to describe Tom’s mood in the second fragment? What is the original meaning of this expression?Where does it come from?

6. What treasures did Tom trade from the boys?

7. How many coats of whitewash did the fence have as a result?

8.  What great law of human action did Tom discover?

9.  What difference between work and play does Mark Twain formulate?

10. What does the author denote by the word “headquarters”? How does this word render Tom’s attitude to Aunt Polly?

VOCABULARY FOCUS

 

UNIT 1. MARK TWAIN. THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER

 

I. Enrich your vocabulary.

alacrity n.	готовность, рвение
attain v.	достигать
brim v.	излучать, лучиться
burden n.	ноша
covet v.	очень хотеть
discourage v.	отвращать, отбивать желание
locust-tree n.	рожковое дерево
reluctance n.	нежелание
settle down v.	обосноваться, устроиться
whitewash n.	побелка, известковый раствор