Pair work. Make up and act out situations using the phrases and word combinations.

14. Explain what is meant by:

projections of his own personality, or in different forms, the antithesis of it – – отображение его собственной индивидуальности или, в различных формах, полной противоположностью ей

to experiment with acquaintances – он был не тем человеком, который экспериментирует со знакомыми

other-worldly – 1) потусторонний, сверхъестественный; таинственный, загадочный 2) потусторонний, относящийся к загробной жизни 3) относящийся к нереальному миру, миру воображения

indeed – 1) в самом деле, действительно; конечно, несомненно 2) служит для усиления, подчеркивания в ответных репликах 3) в составе сложного предложения для подчеркивания, развития уже высказанной мысли 4) при переспросе, как "реплика-эхо" 5) неужели!; да ну!; ну и ну! (для выражения иронии, сомнения, удивления)

too ready to escape into an ambiguous world – слишком готов отключиться, уйти от реальности,

the words came haltingly – слова приходили сбивчиво

growing pains – (Am.) 1. Pains in children's legs supposed to be caused by changes in their bodies and feelings as they grow. 2. Troubles when something new is beginning or growing. [болезни роста]

inclined to under-value parish churches – быть склонным недооценивать приходские церкви

languorous with semicolons and subordinate clauses – отягощенный точками с запятой и придаточными предложениями

sharp and incisive with main verbs and full stops – острый и резкий со смысловыми глаголами и точками.

so ordinary as perhaps to be disguised – столь обычным, насколько возможно, чтобы быть обманчивым/замаскированным.

if she senses that she's getting a rise out of you she'll go on – если она почувствует, что шутка удалась, она продолжит.

he could not bring himself to look at the picture – Он не мог себя заставить смотреть на картину.

15. Answer the questions and do the given assignments:

A. 1. What was written in the first postcard? 2. Why was Walter Streeter glad that he did not have to answer the postcard? Should a writer grudge the time and energy to answer letters? 3. What impression did the second postcard make on Walter Streeter? Why did he dismiss the faint stirrings of curiosity? Should a writer avoid making new acquaintances? 4. What

Page 84

Make up and act out dialogues between: 1) Walter Streeter and his friend whom he showed the postcard from York Minster; 2) Walter Streeter and the police officer about the postcard business.

Trace out on the map of Great Britain W.S.'s itinerary and do library research on the geographical names mentioned.

Write your own ending of the story. Share it with the students of your group and decide which of the different possible endings seems most likely.

20. Read the story "W.S." by L.P. Hartley to the end (p. 275), and say whether it has come up to your expectations. What do you think is the point of the story?

Write an essay praising your favourite contemporary novelist and advancing reasons why other members of the class would enjoy this writer's novels/ stories.

VOCABULARY EXERCISES

Study the essential vocabulary and translate the illustrative examples into Russian.

2. Translate the following sentences into Russian:

A. 1. My son has begun to come along very well in French since the new teacher was appointed. 2. The attempt did not come off as well as we had hoped. 3. The picture I took of the baby did not come out. 4. He has come down in the world. 5. The old aunt's coming along nicely. 6. The food didn't come up[15] to my expectations. 7. I'd like to know how she came by that black eye. 8. I tried telling a few jokes but they didn't come off. 9. I have no objection whatever to having the Smith girls in. 10. She objects to muddy shoes in the house. 11. All our objectives were won. 12. For a millionaire like him, money is no object 13. Don't I mention his health: it's forbidden ground. 14. Once we'd found some common ground we got on very well together. 15. She didn't overlook a thing in planning the party. 16. June went there sometimes to cheer the old things up[16]. 17. That was an unkind thing to say. 18. She' s got a thing about fast cars. 19. I'm having trouble paying attention — I have a thing or two on my mind.

A. 1. С тех пор как был назначен новый преподаватель, у моего сына начал сильно улучшаться французский. 2. Попытка удалась не так хорошо, мы надеялись. 3. Картина, которую я взял у ребенка, не выходила/вышла. 4. В мире он опустился/деградировал. 5. Пожилая тётушка хорошо поправляется(!). 6. Еда не сравнилась/ [оправдала] моих ожиданий. 7. Я хотел бы знать, как она доставала тот черный глаз. 8. Я пробовал немного шутить, но неудачно/безуспешно. 9. Я нисколько не возражаю против приглашения девочек Смита. 10. Она возражает против грязных ботинок в доме. 11. Все наши цели были достигнуты. 12. Для такого как он миллионера, деньги – не цель/не причина для беспокойства. 13. Не упоминайте о его здоровье: это запретная тема. 14. Как только мы нашли некоторые точки соприкосновения, в которые мы очень хорошо преуспели/поладили вместе/друг с другом. 15. Планируя вечеринку она не ничего не упускала из виду. 16. Иногда Джуна ходила туда, чтобы ободрить/утешить старую подругу/ голубушку. 17. Это было злая/недоброй вещью, чтобы сказать. 18. Она помешалась? на быстрых автомобилях. 19. Я имею неприятность, обращающую внимание - я имею вещь или две на моем мнении.

B. 1. Initially she opposed the plan, but later she changed her mind. 2. She's turned out to be the exact opposite of what everyone expected. 3. We sat at opposite ends of the table to/ from each other. 4. She worked her initials in red. 5. The young man after initial shyness turned into a considerable social success. 6.I initialled the documents to show I approved of them. 7. When she began the job she showed initiative and was promoted to manager after a year. 8. I shouldn't always have to tell you what to do, use your initiative for once! 9. I had very attentive and loving parents. 10. After an hour my attention started to wander. 11. There's no point in your coming to my classes if you're not going to attend to what I say. 12. The meeting was designed to reassure parents whose children were taking exams that summer. 13. The nurse tried to reassure the frightened child. 14. He spoke in his usual assured tones. 15. Despite the Government's repeated assurances to the contrary, taxation has risen over the past decade. 16. Over the past 50 years crop yields have risen steadily by 1-2% a year. 17. Baby toys are usually made out of yielding materials. 18. They were forced to yield up some of their lands during the war.

B. 1. Первоначально она выступала против плана, но позже она передумала/изменила своё мнение. 2. Она выставлена, чтобы быть полной противоположностью того, что каждый ожидал. 3. Мы сидели в противоположных концах стола к / друг от друга. 4. Она работала ее инициалы в красном. 5. После застенчивости сперва молодой человек имел в значительный общественный успех. 6. Я подписал документы, чтобы показать, что я их одобряю. 7. Когда она начала работу, она проявила инициативу и была повышена на менеджера спустя год. 8. Я не должен (быть вынужден) каждый раз говорить вам, что делать, проявите инициативу хоть раз! 9. Я меня были очень внимательные и любящие родители. 10. Спустя час мое внимание начало блуждать. 11. Нет никакого смысла в вашем посещении моих занятий, если вы не собираетесь уделять внимание тому, что я говорю. 12. Встреча предназначалась для того, чтобы ободрить родителей, дети которых сдавали экзамены этим летом. 13. Медсестра пыталась ободрить испуганного ребенка. 14. Он говорил в своём привычном уверенном тоне. 15. Несмотря на неоднократные заверения правительства в обратном, налогообложение за прошлое десятилетие выросло. 16. за последние 50 лет урожайность неуклонно повышалась на 1-2 % в год. 17. Детские игрушки обычно делают из податливых/мягких материалов. 18. В течение войны они были вынуждены отдать часть своих земель.

Page 86

3. Give the English equivalents for:

входить в моду; оторваться/отскочить; случайно встретить; возвращаться; очнуться; доходить до колен (о платье); подходить к концу; кончаться; упасть в глазах; удаваться; обнаруживаться (о факте); трудно получить; решить проблему; непредвзятое мнение; отдаленный предмет; объект насмешек; не иметь цели в жизни; не любить сырую погоду; возражать из принципа; не одобрять грубость; быть против насилия; футбольное поле; запретная тема; стоять на своем; устраивать во всех отношениях; чувствовать твердую почву под ногами; затрагивать много вопросов; не иметь оснований беспокоиться; пройти большое расстояние; беспричинные страхи; обоснованные опасения; чайная посуда; сладости; духовные ценности; положение дел; бедняжка; крошка; тупица; сказать не то, что надо; дело в том, что; как раз то, что нужно; нечто не совсем подходящее; единственное; возражать против плана; не одобрять чеи-л. брак; (сильно) противиться переменам; полная противоположность; дом напротив; быть в оппозиции; выступать против законопроекта (в парламенте); сидеть друг против друга; начальная стадия; ранние симптомы заболевания; одинаковые инициалы; первоначальное преимущество; брать на себя инициативу в чём-л.; сделать по собственной инициативе; проявить инициативу; первый шаг; инициативный человек; уделять внимание; следить за воспитанием своих детей; ухаживать за больным; присутствовать на лекциях; посещать школу; обращать внимание на; привлечь чье-л. внимание к; внимательно относиться к кому-л.; оказать помощь пострадавшему; обслужить клиента; невнимательный ученик; успокоить пациента; убедить кого-л. не беспокоиться о своем здоровье; чувствовать себя уверенным; удостовериться в том, что; утешительные вести; успокаивающий голос; уверенные манеры; говорить уверенно; заверять кого-л. в своей преданности; твердый доход; давать хороший урожай; приносить большой доход; сдать свои позиции; поддаться искушению; уступить перед силой; испугаться угроз; поддаваться лечению; податливый характер.

to come in/to become fashionable; to come off/to tear off / jump aside; come by?/to meet casually; to come back; to come to/to regain consciousness; to come down to knees; to come to an end; to come up; to come off; to come out; it is difficult to come by; to solve a problem; Objective opinion; the remote object; object of sneers; to have no objective in a life; not love to object weather; to objection from a principle; to object roughness; to be object to violence; a football field/ground; a taboo/forbidden ground; to have things one's own way; to plump for smth; to feel firm ground one's feet on; to mention a lot of questions; to not have the grounds to worry; to pass the big distance; causeless fears; the proved fears; Tea-things; sweets; cultural wealth; a state of affairs; бедняжка; a crumb; a numskull; to tell not that it is necessary; the matter is that; just that is necessary; something not absolutely suitable; the only thing; To object to the plan; to not approve smb's marriage; to (strongly) oppose to changes; full contrast; the house opposite; to be in opposition/to oppose; to oppose the bill (in parliament); to sit oppose each other; Initial stage; initials symptoms of disease; the identical initials; initial advantage; to take the initiative upon oneself; to make under one's own initiative; to show the initiative; an initial step; the initiative person;   To pay/draw attention to; to have attention to the education of smb's children; to look after the patient; to be present at lectures; to visit school; to pay attention on; to attract one's attention to smth; to attentively concern to smb; to assist the victim; to serve the client; the inattentive pupil; To reassure the patient; to convince whom - ½. To not worry about the health; to be on firm ground; to make as sure that; reassured news; a reassured voice; reassured manners; to speak with assurance; to assure smb. in smb's fidelity, to pledge one's allegiance; the firm income; To yield good crop/harvest; to yield big income; to hand over the positions; to yield to temptation; to yield to force; to be frightened of threats; to yield in to treatment; yielding character.

Page 87

8. Review the essential vocabulary and translate the following sentences into English:

1. Мы хотели пойти в театр, но из этого ничего не вышло. 2. Как к вам попала эта изумительная картина? 3. Как продвигается ваша работа? 4. Он часто делал свою сестру объектом насмешек. 5. Целью его звонка было пригласить меня в гости. 6. Учитель проработал большой материал за один час. 7. Ваше мнение вполне обоснованное.   8. Американские колонисты выступали против политики британского правительства увеличить налоги. 9. Что бы я ни просил, она делает наоборот. 10. Он имел обыкновение говорить, что первоначальная стадия в работе самая главная. 11. Предварительные переговоры послужили основой последующего соглашения. 12. Президента сопровождали в поездках три секретаря. 13. Именно он обратил мое внимание на эту картину. 14. Не обращайте внимания на то, что он говорит. 15. Он заверил меня в честности своего приятеля. 16. Его слова были для меня большой поддержкой. 17. Разговор с врачом успокоил меня. 18. Нас заставили уступить.

1. We wanted to go to a theatre, but this has yielded nothing. 2. How was it that this amazing picture has come to you? 3. How is your work moving ahead? 4. He frequently made his sister as the object of ridicule/sneers. 5. The object of his bell was to invite me. 6. The teacher has been worked out big material for one hour. 7. Your opinion is well grounded one. You have a well-grounded opinion. You have your feet firm on the ground. 8. American colonists objected to/disputed the policy! of the British Government to increase taxes. 9. Whatever I asked, she [always] does vice versa/ conversely/opposite. 10. He practises to say that the initial stage of work is the most important thing/one. 11. initial talks (Pourparlers/Preliminary) have formed a basis/ ground of the subsequent agreement. 12. The president was accompanied with three secretaries on his trips. 13. It was he who attracted/drew my attention to this picture. 14. Do not pay/draw any attention to what he says. 15. He has assured me of his friend's honesty. 16. His words were the big assurance for me. 17. The conversation with the doctor has reassured me. 18. We were (forced to)/made yield.

4. Paraphrase the following sentences using the essential vocabulary:

1. Can you tell me how the accident came about (happened)? 2. A good job that you enjoy doing is hard to come by ( find). 3. She held a large round thing in her hand. 4. Your suggestion pleases me in everyway. 5. I can't do anything with him. 6. I oppose (am against) to this trip. 7. His first reaction was one of shock and resentment. 8. Are you listening to what is being said? 9. I was reassured (relieved) to hear his words. 10. Why are you so assured (What reason do you have for thinking) that he is to blame?

5. Answer the following questions. Use the essential vocabulary:

1. What do we say about a patient who is doing well? 2. What do we say about a doctor who gives his attention to the patient? 3. What sort of person tries to be unaffected by personal feelings or prejudices? 4. What is another way of saying that we disapprove of rudeness? 5. What does one say to reassure a person who is frightened? 6. What is another way of saying that people sit facing each other? 7. What do they call a political party opposed to the government? 8. What is the usual affectionate way of referring to a small child or an animal? 9. What phrase is often used to emphasize an important remark which follows? 10. Is it considered socially correct nowadays to call people by their first names? 11. What do we call capital letters at the beginning of a name? 12. What do we say about a person who does things according to his own plan and without help? 13. What is the teacher likely to say to an inattentive pupil? 14. How is one likely to feel on hearing that he is out of danger? 15. How can one inquire about the amount of fruit gathered (produced)

Page 88

6. Fill in the blanks with prepositions and postlogues:

1. When I lifted the jug up, the handle came. off..2. The child loved to watch the stars come. out.. at night. 3. Her hair come. down.. to her shoulders. 4. Come. on.., child, or we'll be late! 5. The meaning comes. out.. as you read further. 6. I've just come. by.. a beautiful poem in this book. 7. How did this dangerous state of affairs come. about..? 8. At this point, the water only comes. up to.. your knees.

9. Can you help me to open this bottle? The cork won't come. off...

10. I came. by.. an old friend in the library this morning. 11. I'm going away and I may never come. back?... 12. I hope he came. by.. all that money honestly. 13. It was a good scheme and it nearly came. out... 14. When he came. to.. he could not, for a moment, recognize his surroundings. 15. How's your work coming. on..? 16. Will you come. out.. for a walk after tea?

7. Choose the right word:

object(s) — subject(s); to object — to oppose; to obtain — to come by; to happen — to come about; to yield — to give in

1. How did you. come by.. that scratch on your cheek? 2. I haven't been able. to obtain.. that record anywhere; can you. come.. it for me? 3. The accident. happened.. last week. 4. How did it. come about.. that you did not report the theft until two days after it occurred? 5. After months of refusing, Irene. subjected.. to Soames and agreed to marry him. 6. Mr Davidson had never been known... to temptation. 7. He become an. object.. of ridicule among the other children. 8. There were many. subjects.. of delight and interest claiming his attention. 9. My favourite. subject.. at school were history and geography. 10. The. subject.. of the painting is the Battle of Waterloo. 11. Ruth had. opposed?.. his writing because it did not earn money. 12. Like many of the scientists he had been actively. objected.. to the use of the bomb. 13. I. oppose.. most strongly to this remark.

9. a) Find the Russian equivalents for the following English proverbs:

1. Easy come, easy go. – Бог дал, Бог взял. Легко пришло, легко ушло

2. Everything comes to him who waits. – Кто ищет, тот всегда найдёт. Ищите и обрящете. К тому, кто ждёт, все придёт. Ср. Кто ждёт, тот дождётся

3. A bad penny always comes back. (Ein falscher Pfennig kommt immer zurück.)

4. Christmas comes but once a year. – Рождество раз в год бывает, но когда оно приходит - с собой веселие приносит. Смысл: праздник бывает не каждый день

5. Curses, like chickens, come home to roost. – Проклятия, подобно цыплятам, возвращаются на свой насест. Ср. Не рой другому яму, сам в нее попадешь. Отольются кошке мышкины слезки

6. Tomorrow never comes. – "Завтра" никогда не наступает. Ср. Не корми завтраками, а сделай сегодня. У завтра нет конца. Завтраками сыт не будешь

7. A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. – (J. Keats) — Прекрасное создание всегда являет радость.

8. A little learning is a dangerous thing.

b) Explain in English the meaning of each proverb.

c) Make up a dialogue to illustrate one of the proverbs.

And a little might be dangerous

If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is a man who has so much as to be out of danger?

Thomas Henry Huxley

A little learning is not a dangerous thing to one who does not mistake it for a great deal.

William Allen White

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.

Bob Edwards

 

 

CONVERSATION AND DISCUSSION BOOKS AND READING

TOPICAL VOCABULARY

 

1. Categorisation: Children's and adult's books – [книги для детей и взрослых; travel books and biography; romantic and historical novels; crime/thrillers; detective stories; war/adventure; science fiction/ fantasy; literary fiction and genre fiction; non-fiction; pulp fiction. Absorbing – захватывающий, увлекательный; adult; amusing – забавный, занимательный, занятный; controversial –вызывающий спор; дискуссионный; dense – вопиющий,; depressing – гнетущий, тягостный; унылый; наводящий тоску; delightful – восхитительный, очаровательный; dirty – вульгарный, непристойный; disturbing – беспокоящий, волнующий; dull –скучный, занудный; fascinating – обворожительный, очаровательный, пленительный; gripping – захватывающий, всепоглощающий, увлекательный, поразительный, потрясающий, удивительный, изумительный; moralistic; nasty – вульгарный, грязный, неприличный, непристойный; obscene – непристойный, непотребный, неприличный; вульгарный, грязный; порнографический; грубый; outrageous – жестокий, возмутительный; оскорбительный; вопиющий, скандальный; profound – глубокий, основательный; мудрый; whimsical – фантастический, причудливый; необычный;; unputdownable – so engrossing that one has to go on reading it..

2. Books and their parts: paperback and hardback – книга в бумажной и твёрдой обложке; binding – переплет; cover – обложка,; spine – корешок; jacket – суперобложка; title – заглавие, название, наименование; epigraph; preface – предисловие; вводная часть; введение, вступление; пролог; the contents list – оглавление; fly leaf –; bookplate – экслибрис; blurb – рекламное объявление; a beautifully printed book; a tome bound in leather/with gilt edges – [том из кожи/с позолочёнными углами]; a volume with a broken binding – [том с повреждённым переплётом]; a book with dense print/with loose pages – [книга с плотной печатью?/оторванными страницами]; a well-thumbed book [захватанная/замусоленная книга].

3. Reading habits: to form a reading habit early in life – сформировать вкус к чтению в детстве; to read silently/incessantly/greedily/laboriously – читать молча/непрерывно/жадно/напряжённо; to read curled up in a chair – читать, помирая со смеху?/скрутившись на стуле; to read a child/oneself to sleep – читать ребёнку/к-н на ночь; to make good bed-time reading – хорошо провести время в кровати за чтением; to be lost/absorbed in a book – быть поглощённым/крайне увлечённым книгой/чтением книги; to devour books – полглощать книги; to dip into/glance over/pore over/thumb through a book – поверхностно изучать, пролистывать/ быстро пролистывать / корпеть над / просмотреть, пролистать книгу; to browse through newspapers and periodicals – просматривать газеты и периодику; to scan/skim a magazine – внимательно изучать/бегло просматривать журнал; a bookworm –книжный червь, любитель книг, библиофил; an avid/alert/keen reader – жадный до / внимательный / увлекающийся книгами.

4. Library facilities: reading rooms and reference sections – 2) читальный зал библиотеки 1) справочный зал; the subject/author/title/on-line catalogue – каталоги: предметный, алфавитный, заглавий, онлайн; the enquiry desk – стол заказов; computer assisted reference service – компьютеризированная справочная служба; to borrow/renew/loan books – взять на время (почитать)/ продлить срок пользования (книгой в библиотеке) /давать на время, CDs and video tapes –запись на компакт-диск и магнитную ленту; rare books – раритеты; to keep books that are overdue – держать просроченные книги; books vulnerable to theft – книги легко воруют; to suspend one's membership – приостановить членство; to be banned from the library. запрещён (вынос?) из библиотеки

MURIEL SPARK

Many professions are associated with a particular stereotype. The classic image of a writer, for instance, is of a slightly[17] demented-looking person, locked in an attic, scribbling away furiously for days on end. Naturally, he has his favourite pen and note-paper, or a beat-up old typewriter, without which he could not produce a readable word.

Nowadays, we know that such images bear little resemblance to reality. But are they completely false? In the case of at least one writer, it would seem not. Dame Muriel Spark, who is 80 this month, in many ways resembles this stereotypical "writer". She is certainly not demented[18], and she doesn't work in an attic. But she is rather neurotic about the tools of her trade.

page 91

She insists on writing with a certain type of pen in a certain type of notebook, which she buys from a certain stationer[19] in Edinburgh called James Thin. In fact, so superstitious[20] is she that, if someone uses one of her pens by accident, she im­mediately throws it away[21].

As well as her "fetish" about writing materials, Muriel Spark shares one other characteristic with the stereotypical "writer" — her work is the most important thing in her life. It has stopped her from remarrying; cost her old friends and made her new ones; and driven her from London to New York, to Rome. To­day, she lives in the Italian province of Tuscany with a friend.

Dame Muriel discovered her gift for writing at school in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. "It was a very progressive school," she recalls. "There was complete racial [and] religious tolerance."

Last year, she acknowledged the part the school had played in shaping her career by giving it a donation of £10,000. The money was part of the David Cohen British Literature Prize, one of Britain's most prestigious literary awards. Dame Muriel received the award for a lifetime's writing achievement, which really began with her most famous novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. It was the story of a teacher who encouraged her girls to believe they were the "creme de la creme". Miss Jean Brodie was based on a teacher who had helped Muriel Spark [?to?] realise her talent.

Much of Dame Muriel's writing has been informed by her personal experiences. Catholicism, for instance, has always been a recurring[22] theme in her books — she converted in 1954. Another novel, Loitering with Intent (1981), is set in London just after World War II, when she herself came to live in the capital.

How much her writing has been influenced by one part of her life is more difficult to assess. In 1937, at the age of 19, she travelled to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she married a teacher called Sydney Oswald Spark. The couple had a son, Robin, but the marriage didn't last. In 1944, after spending some time in South Africa, she returned to Britain, and got a job with the Foreign Office in London.

Her first novel The Comforters [23] (1957) was written with the help of the writer, Graham Greene. He didn't help with the writing, but instead gave her £20 a month to support herself while she wrote it. His only conditions were that she shouldn't meet him or pray for him. Before The Comforters she had con­centrated on poems and short stories. Once it was published, she turned her attentions to novels, publishing one a year for the next six years. Real success came with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which was published in 1961, and made into a film. By this time she was financially secure and world famous.

(from BBC English, February 1998)

Page 92

1. Asyou read the text:

a) Look for the answers to these questions:

1. What profession stereotypes are there? What is a stereo­typical "student"? "lecturer"? "poet"? 2. Is the "classic image of a writer" completely false? Be specific. 3. Would you agree that artistic people are often superstitious? 4. Who is given the title of "Dame" in Britain? 5. What suggests that Dame Muriel Spark is rather neurotic about the tools of her trade? 6. What part did the school play in shaping her career? 7. How did Gra­ham Green help the young writer? 8.What are the scanty bio­graphical details given in the profile?

b) Find in the text the facts to illustrate the following:

1. For Muriel Spark writing is the most important thing in her life. 2. Dame Muriel Spark is a stereotypical writer. 3. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is a great novel.

c) Summarise the text in three paragraphs.

In spite of the Russian proverb one can argue about taste: everybody does, and one result is that tastes change. If given a choice what would you rather read a novel or short stories in book form? Why? Try to substantiate your point of view. Use some of the ideas listed below.

"A novel appeals[24] in the same way that a portrait does — through the richness of its human content."

"It is not only an author's characters that endear[25] him to the public: it is also his ethical outlook that appears with greater or less distinctness in everything he writes."

"A volume of short stories contains more ideas, since each story is based on an idea; it has much greater variety of mood, scene, character and plot."

Page 93

3. a) What do children want to read about? This is a question that teachers and parents have been asking for a long time. Read the texts below and prepare, to give your view on the problem.

One person who had no doubts about what youngsters wanted to read was the children's author Enid Blyton. Although she died in 1968, and many of her stories are today rather dated, her books continue to be hugely popular with children. They have been translated into 27 languages, and they still sell over eight million copies a year, despite tough competition from television and computer games.

Blyton was not only a gifted children's author, she was also incredibly prolific. During her lifetime, she wrote over 700 books for children of all ages. Her best-known creations are the The Famous Five series, about a group of teenagers who share exciting adventures, and the Noddy books, about a little boy who lives in a world where toys come to life.

But if children love Blyton's books, the same cannot be said for adults. All her stories have one thing in common: a happy ending. And this, combined with predictable plots, has led many grown-ups to dismiss Blyton's stories as boring. After her death, her critics went further and accused her of racism and of negative stereotyping — the villains in her Noddy books were "golliwogs", children's dolls representing black people. Many: of her books were also denounced as sexist because of the way she treated female characters — girls were usually given a secondary role, while the boys had the real adventures.

Enid Blyton firmly believed in the innocence of childhood. She offered her young readers imaginary worlds, which were an escape from harsh realities of life. In Blyton's books, baddies; were always defeated and the children who defeated them were always good.

(BBC English, August 1997)

Once many years ago, in anticipation of the children we. would one day have, a relative of my wife's gave us a box of Ladybird Books from the 1950s and 60s. They all had titles like Out in the Sun and Sunny Days at the Seaside, and contained meticulously drafted, richly coloured illustrations of a prosper­ous, contented, litter-free Britain in which the sun always shone, shopkeepers smiled, and children in freshly pressed clothes derived happiness and pleasure from innocent pastimes — riding a bus to the shops, floating a model boat on a park pond, chatting to a kindly policeman.

My favourite was a book called Adventure on the Island. There was, in fact, precious little adventure in the book — the high point, I recall, was finding a starfish suckered to a rock — but I loved it because of the illustrations (by the gifted and much-missed J.H. Wingfield). I was strangely influenced by this book and for some years agreed to take our family holidays at the British seaside on the assumption that one day we would find this magic place where summer days were forever sunny, the water as warm as a sitz-bath, and commercial blight un­known.

When at last we began to accumulate children, it turned out that they didn't like these books at all because the charact­ers in them never did anything more lively than visit a pet shop or watch a fisherman paint his boat. I tried to explain that this was sound preparation for life in Britain, but they wouldn't have it and instead, to my dismay, attached their affections to a pair of irksome little clots called Topsy and Tim.

(Bill Bryson "Notes From a Small Island", 1997)

b) Use the topical vocabulary in answering the questions:

1. Can you remember at all the first books you had? 2. Did anyone read bedtime stories to you? 3. You formed the reading habit early in life, didn't you? What sorts of books did you pre­fer? 4. What English and American children's books can you name? Have you got any favourites? 5. Is it good for children to read fanciful stories which are an escape from the harsh realities of life? Should they be encouraged to read more seri­ous stuffs as "sound preparation for life"? 6. How do you select books to read for pleasure? Do you listen to advice? Do the physical characteristics matter? Such as bulky size, dense print, loose pages, notations on the margins, beautiful/gaudy illustra­tions etc.? 7. Do you agree with the view that television is grad­ually replacing reading? 8. Is it possible for television watching not only to discourage but actually to inspire reading? 9. Some teachers say it is possible to discern among the young an in­sensitivity to nuances of language and an inability to perceive more than just a story? Do you think it's a great loss? 10. What do you think of the educational benefits of "scratch and sniff" books that make it possible for young readers to experience the fragrance of the garden and the atmosphere of a zoo? 11. What kind of literacy will be required of the global village citizens of the 21st century?

Page 95

c) There is some evidence to suggest that the concentration of young children today is greatly reduced compared with that of similar children only 20 years ago. Do you agree with the view that unwillingness [26] to tackle printed texts that offer a challenge through length and complexity has worked its way up through schools into universities? Discuss in pairs.

4. Read the interview with Martin Amis (MA.), one of the most successful writers in Britain today. He talks to a BBC English reporter (R) about his work.

R: As the son of a famous writer, how did your own writing style develop?

MA: People say, you know, "How do you go about getting: your style?" and it's almost as if people imagine you kick off by writing a completely ordinary paragraph of straightforward, declarative sentences, then you reach for your style pen — your style highlighting pen — and jazz[27] it all up. But in fact it comes in that form and I like to think that it's your talent doing that.

R: In your life and in your fiction you move between Britain and America and you have imported American English into your writing. Why? What does it help you do?

M.A.: I suppose what I'm looking for are new rhythms of thought. You know, I'm as responsive as many people are to street words and nicknames and new words. And when I use street language, I never put it down as it is, because it will look like a three-month-old newspaper when it comes out. Phrases like "No way, Jose" and "Free lunch" and things like that, they're dead in a few months. So what you've got to do is come up with an equivalent which isn't going to have its street life exhausted. I'm never going to duplicate these rhythms be­cause I read and I studied English literature and that's all there too. But perhaps where the two things meet something original can be created. That's where originality, if it's there, would be, in my view.

R: You have said that it's no longer possible to write in a wide range of forms — that nowadays we can't really write tragedy, we can't write satire, we can't write romance, and that comedy the only form left.

M.A.: I think satire's still alive. Tragedy is about failed he­roes and epic is, on the whole, about triumphant or redeemed

heroes. So comedy, it seems to me, is the only thing left. As illusion after illusion has been cast aside, we no longer believe in these big figures — Macbeth, Hamlet, Tamburlaine — these big, struggling, tortured heroes. Where are they in the modern world? So comedy's having to do it all. And what you get, cer­tainly in my case, is an odd kind of comedy, full of things that shouldn't be in comedy.

R: What is it that creates the comedy in your novels?

M.A.: Well, I think the body, for instance, is screamingly funny as a subject. I mean, if you live in your mind, as every­one does but writers do particularly, the body is a sort of dis­graceful joke. You can get everything sort of nice and crisp and clear in your mind, but the body is a chaotic slobber of disobedience and decrepitude. And think that is hysterically funny myself because it undercuts us. It undercuts our pom­posities and our ambitions.

R: Your latest book The Information is about two very differ­ent writers, one of whom, Gywn, has become enormously suc­cessful and the other one, Richard, who has had a tiny bit of success but is no longer popular. One of the theories which emerges is that it's very difficult to say precisely that some­one's writing is better by so much than someone else's. It's not like running a race when somebody comes first and somebody comes second.

MA: No, human beings have not evolved a way of separat­ing the good from the bad when it comes to literature or art in general. All we have is history of taste. No one knows if they're any good — no worldly prize or advance or sales sheet is ever going to tell you whether you're any good. That's all going to be sorted out when you're gone.

R: Is this an increasing preoccupation of yours?

M.A.: No, because there's nothing I can do about it. My fa­ther said. "That's no bloody use to me, is it, if I'm good, be­cause I won't be around."

R: Have you thought about where you might go from here?

M.A: I've got a wait-and-see feeling about where I go next. One day a sentence or a situation appears in your head and you just recognise it as your next novel and you have no con­trol over it. There's nothing you can do about it. That is your next novel and I'm waiting for that feeling.

(BBC English, August 1995)

Page 97

4 B..1. Apaкин. 4 кypc 97

a) Express briefly in your own words what the talk is about. What makes it sound natural and spontaneous?

b) What does Martin Amis emphasise about his style of writing? What does he say about modern literary genres? Do you agree that "comedy is the only form left"? Is it really impossible to separate "the good from the bad when it comes to literature or art in general"? How do you understand the sentence "all we have is a history of taste"?

c) Do library research and reproduce a talk with an important writer.

5. Read the following extract and observe the way literary criticism is written:

Jane Austen saw life in a clear, dry light. She was not with­out deep human sympathies, but she had a quick eye for vani­ty, selfishness, but vulgarity, and she perceived the frequent in­congruities between the way people talked and the realities of a situation. Her style is quiet and level. She never exaggerates, she never as it were, raises her voice to shout or scream. She is neither pompous, nor sentimental, nor flippant, but always gravely polite, and her writing contains a delicate but sharp-edged irony.

L.P. Hartley is one of the most distinguished of modern novelists; and one of the most original. For the world of his cre­ation is composed of such diverse elements. On the one hand he is a keen and accurate observer of the process of human thought and feeling; he is also a sharp-eyed chronicler of the social scene. But his picture of both is transformed by the light of a Gothic imagination that reveals itself now in fanciful rever­ie, now in the mingled dark and gleam of a mysterious light and a mysterious darkness... Such is the vision of life presented in his novels.

Martin Amis is the most important novelist of his genera­tion and probably the most influential prose stylist in Britain to­day. The son of Kingsley Amis, considered Britain's best novel­ist of the 1950s, at the age of 24 Martin won the Somerset Maugham Award for his first novel The Rachel Papers (his father had won the same prize 20 years earlier). Since 1973 he has published seven more novels, plus three books of journal­ism and one of short stories. Each work has been well received, in particular Money (1984), which was described as "a key novel of the decade." His latest book is The Information (1995). It has been said of Amis that he has enjoyed a career more like that of a pop star than a writer.

a) Turn the above passages into dialogues and act them out.

b) Choose an author, not necessarily one of the greats, you'd like to talk about. Note down a few pieces of factual Information about his life and work. Your fellow-students will ask you questions to find out what you know about your subject.

Pair work. Discussing books and authors involves exchanging opinions and expressing agreement and disagreement. Team up with another student to talk on the following topics (Use expressions of agreement and disagreement (pp. 290).

"A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good."

(Samuel Johnson)

"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

(Mark Twain)

"There's an old saying that all the world loves a lover. It doesn't. What all the world loves is a scrap. It wants to see two lovers struggling for the hand of one woman."

(Anonymous)

"No furniture is so charming as books, even if you never open them and read a single word."

(Sydney Smith)

"Books and friends should be few but good."

(a proverb)

Group discussion.

Despite the increase in TV watching, reading still is an im­portant leisure activity in Britain. More than 5,000 titles were nominated in a national survey conducted in 1996. The public was invited to suggest up to five books. It was later suggested that the votes either came from English literary students or from people who were showing off. What do you think? Can you point out a few important names that failed to make it into the top 100 list?

Page 99

8. Compile your own list "Favourite Books of the Century."

9. Alexander Herzen called public libraries "a feast of ideas to which all are invited". Read the text below and say how the modern libraries differ from those of the old days. Use the topical vocabulary.

MY FAVOURITE LIBRARY

There are many libraries which I use regularly in London, some to borrow books from, some as quiet places to work in, but the Westminster Central Reference Library is unique. In a small street just off Leicester Square, it is run by the London borough of Westminster. You don't need a ticket to get in, and it is available to foreign visitors just the same as to local resi­dents. You simply walk in, and there, on three floors, you can consult about 138,000 reference books and they include some very remarkable and useful items.

As you come in, the first alcove on the right contains tele­phone directories of almost every country in the world — Ar­gentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, and so on, besides direc­tories of important addresses in each country. There is also a street directory of every British town of any size, with the streets in alphabetical order, and the residents' names, as a rule, against their number in the street, while in another section the residents themselves are listed in alphabetical order.

Next there are technical dictionaries in all the principal languages. I counted 60 specialised technical dictionaries! for Russian alone. Then there is a section which, besides the best world atlases, contains individual atlases of a great many countries, some of them almost too heavy to lift. Seven hundred periodicals, mostly technical, are taken by the library, and the latest issues are put out on racks nearby. By asking at the enquiry desk you can see maps of the whole of Britain on the scale of 1/60,000 and 1/24,000, and smaller-scale maps of nearly every other country in Europe.

Around the walls, on this floor and the floor above, are reference books on every possible subject, including, for instance, standard works of English literature and criticism. Foreign literature, however, is represented mainly by antho­logies.

Finally, on the top floor of all, is a wonderful art library, where you can take down from the shelves all those expensive, heavy, illustrated editions that you could never really afford yourself. The librarian at the desk can direct you to answers for

almost any query you may have about the plastic arts. There is in fact a busy enquiry desk on each floor, and the last time I was there they had just received a letter from a distinguished medical man. He had written to ask for information about sword-swallowing! He was very interested in the anatomy of sword-swallowers, and had failed to find anything either in medical libraries or in the British Museum Library!

(Anglia, 1972)