TOPIC. Theatre going. Theatres in Great Britain.

Exercise 292. Theatre related words.

    director                                       режиссер-постановщик

    set designer                                 сценограф

    voice and speech coach               педагог по сценической речи

 

    costume designer                        художник по костюмам  

    make-up artist                            художник по гриму

    assistant director                        ассистент режиссера  

technical director                        технический директор

    lighting director (designer)          художник по свету

    sound director                       звукорежиссер

    stage manager                             менеджер спектакля

    poster design                              полиграфия

    wardrobe master                         ответственный по костюмам

    sound engineer                            звукоинженер

    lighting (board) operator                      светооператор

    stage hands                                 машинист(ы) сцены

 

Exercise 293. Translate into Russian.

 

Word From the Director

    To assemble a production with apprentices actors is for me quite as gravitational as to work in a theatre with the professional or institutional structures. The step is characterized there by the passion (and even the naivety) in search and the discovery, as well as by a teaching concern. All of those are more important than all usual theatrical considerations – in particular the painful questions of ideal casting or absolute need for making packed houses. I therefore find myself in a privileged position to explore and reconsider my own trade as the man of theatre, as well as to discover and revisit old or new texts. Moreover I am naturally condemned to a kind of poor theatre. The most significant in our pursuit is the young actor himself, the play, the text, the fables which we tell and play. All my proposals are naturally confronted with the points of view and reactions of a younger generation.

    Our Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard is unique, because it is closely related to a professional repertory company, American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.). Our students will sooner or later be performing with this company. What we produce at the Institute often ends up being the first study or the first workshop for a future endeavor. Thus “Summer Fever with Goldoni”* is the occasion for our students to confront the commedia** style, and at the same time it is also a first meeting with a particularly interesting material, which could become a production of one, two or three evenings on the professional stage of A.R.T. 

* “Летняя лихорадка с Гольдони”

** комедия дель арте

 

Exercise 294. Read the text. Make up a summary of it.

 

Theatres in Britain.

    Britain is one of the world’s major centres for theatre, and has a long and rich dramatic tradition. There are many companies based in London and in many other cities and towns; in addition, numerous touring companies visit theatres, festivals and other venues, including arts and sports centres and social clubs.

 

The musicals of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber have been highly successful both in Britain and overseas; his most famous works are The Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard.

Many British performers enjoy international reputations, among them Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave.

Britain has about 300 theatres intended for professional use which can seat between 200 and 2,300 people. Some are privately owned, but most are owned either municipally or by non-profit-making organizations. Over 40 of these have resident theatre companies receiving subsidies from the Arts Councils and Regional Arts Boards. In summer there are also open air theatres, including one in London’s Regent’s Park and the Minack Theatre, which is on a clifftop near Land’s End in Cornwall.

Most theatres are commercially run and self-financing, relying on popular shows and musicals to be profitable. By contrast, companies founded by the Arts Councils tend to offer a variety of traditional and experimental productions. Experimental or innovative work is often staged in ‘fringe’ theatres in London and other cities; these are smaller theatres which use a variety of buildings, such as rooms in pubs.

London has about 100 theatres, 15 of them permanently occupied by subsidised companies. These include:

· the Royal National Theatre, which stages a wide range of modern and classical plays in its three auditoriums on the South Bank;

· the Royal Shakespeare Company, which presents plays mainly by Shakespeare and his contemporaries as well as some modern work, in Stratford-upon-Avon and in its two auditoriums in the City’s Barbican Centre

· the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, which stages the work of many new playwrights

The largest concentration of London’s commercial theatres is around Shaftesbury Avenue.

In 1989 the partial remains of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare acted, and the Rose Theatre, where his plays were performed during his lifetime, were excavated on the south bank of the Thames. A modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre is near its original site. The regular season was inaugurated in 1996. The new Globe is a part of a large complex of buildings known as the International Shakespeare Globe Centre.

 

Exercise 295. Read the note on the composition’s outline. Can you add some items? Follow the plan and write a composition “My New Experiences in English”.

Writing is not a talent reserved for a select few, it is a skill that can be learned. Planning and organization are its essentials. With the knowledge of these, the student can through effort and practice improve his writing ability. Suggested below is a guide to organized writing. Use this outline in writing class assignments, essay tests, and term papers.

1) Introduction – Opening Paragraph

Begin with a general statement. Narrow it down to the controlling idea (for thesis statement).

 

2) Body – Three Developing Paragraphs

In each paragraph:

a) Use transitions (repetition of key words and ideas) to connect paragraphs together.

b) Develop the topic sentence with details, definitions, illustrations, comparisons, and contrasts.

c) Conclude the paragraph with a summary of the main idea.

3) Conclusion – Finishing Paragraph

a) Restate the thesis.

b) End with a general statement finalizing the discussion.

Finally, make sure your composition:

1) contains the right message

2) is coherent

3) is easy to read

4) is positive

5) is concise

6) emphasizes important points

is double checked for correct grammar and spelling

Summarizing Exercises

 

Exercise 296. Choose the appropriate variant.

 

1. … get up after the operation yet?

a) Is he allowed to             b) Can he                 c) Might he

2. The trip by train lasted for a week! They … exhausted by now!

a) had better                      b) can                                c) must

3. Percy … watered my cyclamen, look, it’s dying.

a) didn’t have to      b) needn’t have        c) might have

4. You … be at the airport 2 hours ahead of time, otherwise you will have problems with registration.

a) are to                    b) have to                 c) must

5. I … hear what he is saying! The music is too loud!

a) can’t                     b) couldn’t                        c) may not

6. - My walkman doesn’t work.

- You … dropped it, you are so careless.

a) must                     b) must have            c) must be

7. The Professor says that we … read the whole book, only Chapter 14.

a) mustn’t                b) don’t have to c) needn’t

8. … I please see the pictures, Mom? – Yes, dear.

a) May                     b) Can                      c) Could

9. Oh you absolutely … see Shrek 2! It’s so much fun!

a) ought to               b) should                  c) must

10. Chris, you … remember good manners before leaving the table!

a) would                   b) might                   c) may

 

11. She is so upset now. I think I … told her the truth.

a) can’t have            b) shouldn’t have     c) didn’t have to

12. It won’t do you any good. You … worry so much. You’ll either you get the job, or you won’t. If you fail now, just apply for another one. Eventually, you will find work.

a) can’t                     b) shouldn’t                       c) don’t have to

13. Ah, it’s a gorgeous pendant, darling! It … a fortune!

a) must be costing             b) must cost                       c) must have cost

14. Judging by the circumstances of his death he … stabbed three times in the abdomen area first, and then drowned. 

a) may have been     b) must have been             c) could have been

15. … I serve tea, Madam? – Yes, please.

a) Will                      b) Must                    c) Shall

16. How … you mention his name in my house, may he burn in hell for his sins!

a) can                                 b) could                    c) dare

17. No matter how hard Harvey tried, the engine just … start.

a) won’t                   b) wouldn’t                       c) can’t

18. You … see him jogging in the park every morning.

a) may                      b) can                                c) are able to

19. Cathy, darling, I can’t stand these people. I really … get out of here. You have 15 minutes to get rid of them.

a) might                    b) have to                 c) must

20. The lamp … be broken. Perhaps the light bulb burned out.

a) may not                b) can’t                    c) mustn’t 

21. … it be you? You look so different!

a) May                     b) Will                      c) Can

22. The Reeds said they would drop around right after work, so they … be here soon.

a) can                       b) should                  c) have to

23. I … weed my kitchen garden yesterday, I was so tired afterwards.

a) had to                   b) should                  c) must

24. - Stop it! Go and pour out your heart to him! – And so I …!

a) will                       b) may                      c) shall

25. You … forget to pay the rent tomorrow. The landlord is very strict about paying on time.

a) can’t                     b) mustn’t                c) don’t have to

26. I recall that you … enjoy Mr. Tweed’s society a lot, dear cousin.

a) used to                 b) would                   c) would have

27. She … see him, the waiter was blocking the way.

a) couldn’t               b) can’t                    c) mightn’t

Exercise 297. Translate into English using your Active Grammar (Units 5-9) and Active Vocabulary of Unit 9.

 

1. Возможно, что он все выдумал. 2. Вы должны посещать лекции, одного учебника недостаточно для успешной подготовки к экзамену. 3. Ты увидишь! Я сделаю все по-своему. 4. Раньше они  каждую  субботу   устраивали  вечеринки. 5. Ты не должен

 

мешать ему. Разве ты не видишь, что он работает? 6. Ты мог бы и заставить ее прийти на заседание суда. 7. Я буду развлекаться, пусть люди говорят, что им вздумается. 8. Я надену это платье на выпускной бал, что бы вы не говорили! 9. Ты просто обязан купить эти ботинки! Они будут хорошо носиться. 10. Я присмотрю за этим лично, сэр.

Exercise 298. Translate into English using the Active Grammar of the Second Term.

 

1. Она понимала, что пора вставать, но глаза никак не открывались. 2. Возможно, у вас нечеткое представление, как работает этот портативный компьютер. 3. Тебе не нужно было покупать цветы, я уже купила букет. 4. Ты, должно быть, забыла свой зонтик в машине. 5. Тебе следует больше внимания уделять своему здоровью. 6. Не может быть, чтобы мы пропустили нужный поворот! – Но мы правда пропустили его. 7. Вы просто обязаны выслушать его, мы не должны упускать такой шанс. 8. Я уеду во Францию, и немедленно! Никто меня не остановит! 9. Можно сказать, что презентация прошла успешно. 10. Я заставлю его сказать правду, чего бы мне это ни стоило. 11. Ты мог бы быть более внимателен к своей семье. 12. Не смей говорить со мной в таком тоне! 13. Тебе придется самому искать выход из этой ситуации. 14. Я смогу помочь тебе с этим проектом завтра. 15. Раньше я часто путешествовала, а теперь мне приходится ухаживать за ребенком.

 

Supplement I.

 

SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

Time	Action	Subjunctive I	Subjunctive II	The Suppositional mood	The Conditional Mood
Present	Simultaneous	be   do   can/may be   can/may do   be doing	were   done   could/might be   could/might do   were doing	should be   should do   should be doing	would/should be   would/should do   would/should be doing Note: could/might are possible
Past	Prior	–	had been   had done   had been doing	should have been   should have done   should have been doing	would/should have been   would/should have done   would/should have been doing Note: could/might are possible

 

Supplement II.

Curriculum Vitae Sample

Personal details

    Anna Ashley

    102 Reed Street

    Bath

    England

    Phone [phone]

    E-mail [e-mail]

Education

    2000-2001      International Journalists’ School, Diploma in Public Relations

    1997-2000      University of Birmingham, BA in journalism and IT

    1990-1997      Heffield School, Bath

                                 A levels in English (A), History (B), German (A)

Professional Experience

    2004-present            Editor of the Bath Nature Trust’s monthly journal

2000-2004                Freelance journalist, writing articles for different newspapers (the list can be provided at your request)

 

Summers of 1999 and Assistant of the Editor, the Bath Tribune newspaper

2000

Skills

IT                             Windows XP, Word, Excel, Internet, Powerpoint, Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop

Languages                proficient German

Additional                Driving license (car)

Activities

swimming, windsurfing

References

James Sullivan                            Catherine Laney

Editor                                         Professor of Journalism

The Bath Nature Trust journal             University of Birmingham

Supplement III.

 

Letter of Recommendation Sample

 

Northern Carolina Community College

 

September 1, 1994

To Whom It May Concern:

It is my pleasure to write this letter of recommendation for Julia Galkina. Julia served as one of the interpreters for our group of American professors and environmental specialists this past summer while we were conducting a training workshop for the Rangers of the Smolensk Lakeland National Park.

Julia’s ability to understand the lecture material along with her preparation and organizational skills was invaluable and certainly a testament to her educational background and personal desire to achieve excellence. Because of Julia and her effort, we had a most successful six (6) days of training which was of great benefit to the Smolensk Lakeland National Park as well as a rewarding experience for our group of Americans. Julia assisted in making our lectures understood and pertinent by helping us to understand the workshop participants and the many challenges they face in their daily work.

Any assistance you can give to Julia in obtaining a position as an interpreter would be well worth your effort. It is my feeling that Julia would be a positive representative and asset to any organization. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to Julia or answer any questions concerning her work with our group.

 

Sincerely,

Sharon Scott-Smith, Professor

Recreation and Parks

[phone] or [phone]

 

Annandale Campus • 8333 Little River Turnpike • Annandale • Virginia 22003-3796

 

Supplement IV.

 

Letter of Application Plan (Cover Letter - AE)

        

When you find a company you’d like to get a position at, it’s often necessary that you should write a letter of application. Just as your CV, the letter of application must be well-written and provide all the important information about you. You should convince your future employer that you will fit the position you are after. Your letter should:

1. clearly show that you wish to apply and how you learned about this job

2. explain why you are interested in this job

3. indicate your skills and experience which will help you in your future job

4. show that you are willing to attend an interview

 

Employer’s address     Dear Mr./Mrs.		Your address   Date
Follow the plan to write about yourself.     Yours sincerely, ____________(signature) Full Name

 

 

Supplement V.

 

Exercise I. Read the Note on Studies of Written English in your textbook. Pay attention to the types of paragraphs. Read the examples given below. Find the examples of your own in other sources. (Unit 1)

 

1) description

It was on account of the scar that I first noticed him, for it ran, broad and red, in a great crescent from his temple to his chin. It must have been due to a formidable wound and I wondered whether this had been caused by a sabre or by a fragment of shell. It was unexpected on that round, fat, and good humoured face.  He had small and undistinguished

 

features, and his expression was artless. His face went oddly with his corpulent body. He was a powerful man of more than common height. I never saw him in anything but a very shabby grey suit, a khaki shirt, and a battered sombrero. He was far from clean.

From “The Man with the Scar” by W. Somerset Maugham

 

2) telling a story

In 1928, when I was nine, I belonged, with maximum esprit de corps,* to an organization known as the Comanche Club. Every schoolday afternoon at three o’clock, twenty-five of us Comanches were picked up by our Chief outside the boys’ exit of P.S. 165 on 109th Street near Amsterdam Avenue. We then pushed and punched our way into the Chief’s reconverted commercial bus, and he drove us (according to his financial arrangement with our parents) over to Central Park. The rest of the afternoon, weather permitting, we played football or soccer or baseball, depending (very loosely) on the season. Rainy afternoons, the Chief invariably took us either to the Museum of Natural History or to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

* esprit de corps (French) – корпоративный дух

From “The Laughing Man” by J.D. Salinger

 

3) argumentation

MRS WARREN [ indignantly ] Of course not. What sort of mother do you take me for! How could you keep your self-respect in such starvation and slavery? And what’s a woman worth? what’s life worth? without self-respect! Why am I independent and able to give my daughter a first-rate education, when other women that had just as good opportunities are in the gutter? Because I always knew how to respect myself and control myself. Why is Liz looked up to in a cathedral town? The same reason. Where would we be now if we’d minded the clergyman’s foolishness? Scrubbing floors for one and sixpence a day and nothing to look forward to but the workhouse infirmary. Don’t you be led astray by people who don’t know the world, my girl. The only way for a woman to provide for herself decently is for her to be good to some man that can afford to be good to her. If she’s in his own station of life, let her make him marry her; but if she’s far beneath him she can’t expect it: why should she? it wouldn’t be for her own happiness. Ask any lady in London society that has daughters; and she’ll tell you the same, except that I tell you straight and she’ll tell you crooked. That’s all the difference.

From “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by Bernard Shaw

 

4) exposition

The nations and peoples of the world have travelled a long path of historical development. During the thousands of years of man’s history, civilizations have sprung up, flourished and died; entire peoples have conquered and themselves been conquered. The concept of a “political map” arose simultaneously with the appearance of states, their territorial borders and state institutions and with the split of human society into antagonistic classes. The first class societies were formed in the countries of the Far East – in Western Asia, Eastern and Southern Asia, and m the northeastern part of Africa. The ancient slave-holding states of Egypt, Babylon, India, China, etc. appeared after the demise of the primitive-communal society and its separation into  classes  of  slaves  and slave-holders. The  borders  of  these

 

states, which used non-economic forms of coercion, were principally altered by wars. The growth in trade and monetary relations and the development of coastal cities promoted the flourishment of the ancient states of Greece and Rome.

From “The Political Map of the World”. Translated from the Russian by Patty Beriozkina

 

Exercise II. Study the Notes on Style. Read the examples given below. (Unit 2)

 

Informal functional style can be represented by:

1. Informal pronunciation

a) alveolar nasal [n] instead of velar nasal [ŋ]

              E.g. It’s still bleedin’ like mad. … to be back in New York till tomorrow mornin’, … *

b) eye-dialect (a type of respelling of a word so that it appears to have been spoken with a regional accent)

E.g. Ya think I oughta put something on it? You make beeg joke – hah?

c) assimilated changed sounds

              E.g. Don’t gimme any of that dragging stuff. When this guy comes in, willya tell him I’ll be ready in a coupla seconds? We spent about twenty minutes looking for it in the wuddayacallit – the snow and stuff.

2. Informal grammar

a) ellipse

E.g. Seen Franklin? (= Have you seen Franklin?) She know you are here?(= Does she know you are here?)

    b) double negation

E.g. They don’t take this crazy boat out no more.

 

* All the examples in this exercise are from “Nine Stories” by J.D. Salinger  

 

Exercise III. Read the Note on Studies of Written English in your textbook (Unit 3). Find the key-words and their synonyms in the extracts given below.

 

The coffee was brought and the hot rolls and cream and the pâté de foie gras * and they set to. They spread the cream on the pâté and they ate it. They devoured great spoonfuls of jam. They crunched the delicious crisp bread voluptuously. What was love to Arrow then? Let the Prince keep his palace in Rome and his castle in the Appennines. They did not speak. What they were about was much too serious. They ate with solemn, ecstatic fervour.

* pâté de foie gras (French) – паштет из гусиной печени

From “The Three Fat Women of the Antibes” by W. Somerset Maugham

 

The young lady, however, seemed slightly bored with her own singing ability, or perhaps just with the time and place; twice, between verses, I saw her yawn. It was a ladylike yawn, a closed-mouth yawn, but you couldn’t miss it; her nostril wings gave her away.

From “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor” by J.D. Salinger

 

 

Exercise IV. Study the note on Written English. Read the story “German Harry” by Somerset Maugham. Make up a summary of it.

 

German Harry

by Somerset Maugham

 

I was in Thursday Island and I wanted very much to go to New Guinea. Now the only way in which I could do this was by getting a pearling lugger to take me across the Arafura Sea. The pearl fishery time was in a bad way and a flock of neat little craft lay anchored in the harbour. I found a skipper with nothing much to do (the journey to Merauke and back could hardly take him less than month) and with him I made the necessary arrangements. He engaged four Torres Straits islanders as crew (the boat was but nineteen tons) and we ransacked the local store for canned goods. A day or two before I sailed a man who owned a number of pearlers came to me and asked whether on my way I would stop at the island of Trebucket and leave a sack of flour, another of rice, and some magazines for the hermit who lived there.

I pricked up my ears. It appeared that the hermit had lived by himself on this remote and tiny island for thirty years, and when opportunity occurred provisions were sent to him by kindly souls. He said that he was a Dane, but in the Torres Straits he was known as German Harry. His history went back a long way. Thirty years before, he had been an able seaman on a sailing vessel that was wrecked in those treacherous waters. Two boats managed to get away and eventually hit upon the desert island of Trebucket. This is well out of the line of traffic and it was three years before any ship sighted the castaways. Sixteen men had landed on the island, but when at last a schooner, driven from her course by stress of weather, put in for shelter, no more than five were left. When the storm abated the skipper took four of these on board and eventually landed them at Sydney. German Harry refused to go with them. He said that during those three years he had seen such terrible things that he had a horror of his fellow-men and wished never to live with them again. He would say no more. He was absolutely fixed in his determination to stay, entirely by himself, in that lonely place. Though now and then opportunity had been given him to leave he had never taken it.

A strange man and a strange story. I learned more about him as we sailed across the desolate sea. The Torres Straits are peppered with islands and at night we anchored on the lee of one or other of them. Of late new pearling grounds have been discovered near Trebucket and in the autumn pearlers, visiting it now and then, have given German Harry various necessities so that he has been able to make himself sufficiently comfortable. They bring him papers, bags of flour and rice, and canned meats. He has a whale boat and used to go fishing in it, but now he is no longer strong enough to manage its unwieldy bulk. There is abundant pearl shell on the reef that surrounds his island and this he used to collect and sell to the pearlers for tobacco, and sometimes he found a good pearl for which he got a considerable sum. It is believed that he has, hidden away somewhere, a collection of magnificent pearls. During the war no pearlers came out and for years he never saw a living soul. For all he knew, a terrible epidemic had killed off the entire human race and he was the only man alive. He was asked later what he thought.

“I thought something had happened,” he said.

 

He ran out of matches and was afraid that his fire would go out, so he only slept in snatches, putting wood on his fire from time to time all day and all night. He came to the end of his provisions and lived on chickens, fish and coconuts. Sometimes he got a turtle.

During the last four months of the year there may be two or three pearlers about and not infrequently after the day's work they will row in and spend an evening with him. They try to make him drunk and then they ask him what happened during those three years after the two boat-loads came to the island. How was it that sixteen landed and at the end of that time only five were left? He never says a word. Drunk or sober he is equally silent on that subject and if they insist grows angry and leaves them.

I forget if it was four or five days before we sighted the hermit’s little kingdom. We had been driven bad by weather to take shelter and had spent a couple of days at an island on the way. Trebucket is a low island, perhaps a mile round, covered with coconuts, just raised above the level of the sea and surrounded by a reef so that it can be approached only on one side. There is no opening in the reef and the lugger had to anchor a mile from the shore. We got into a dinghy with the provisions. It was a stiff pull and even within the reef the sea was choppy. I saw the little hut, sheltered by trees, in which German Harry lived, and as we approached he sauntered down slowly to the water’s edge. We shouted a greeting, but he did not answer. He was a man of over seventy, very bald, hatchet-faced, with a grey beard, and he walked with a roll so that you could never have taken him for anything but a sea-faring man. His sunburn made his blue eyes look very pale and they were surrounded by wrinkles as though for long years he had spent interminable hours scanning the vacant sea. He wore dungarees and a singlet, patched, but neat and clean. The house to which he presently led us consisted of a single room with a roof of corrugated iron. There was a 'ed in it, some rough stools which he himself had made, a fable, and his various household utensils. Under a tree in front of it was a table and a bench. Behind was an enclosed run for his chickens.

I cannot say that he was pleased to see us. He accepted our gifts as a right, without thanks, and grumbled a little because something or other he needed had not been brought. He was silent and morose. He was not interested in the news we had to give him, for the outside world was no concern of his: the only thing he cared about was his island. He looked upon it with a jealous, proprietary right; he called it “my health resort” and he feared that the coconuts that covered it would tempt some enterprising trader. He looked at me with suspicion. He was sombrely curious to know what I was doing in these seas. He used words with difficulty, talking to himself rather than to us, and it was a little uncanny to hear him mumble away as though we were not there. But he was moved when my skipper told him that an old man of his own age whom he had known for a long time was dead.

“Old Charlie dead – that’s too bad. Old Charlie dead.”

He repeated it over and over again. I asked him if he read. “Not much,” he answered indifferently.

He seemed to be occupied with nothing but his food, his dogs and his chickens. If what they tell us in books were true his long communion with nature and the sea should have taught him many subtle secrets. It hadn’t. He was a savage. He was nothing but a narrow, ignorant and cantankerous seafaring man. As I looked at the wrinkled, mean old face I wondered what  was  the story  of those  three dreadful  years that had made him welcome

 

this long imprisonment. I sought to see behind those pale blue eyes of his what secrets they were that he would carry to his grave. And then I foresaw the end. One day a pearl fisher would land on the island and German Harry would not be waiting for him, silent and suspicious, at the water’s edge. He would go up to e hut and there, lying on the bed, unrecognisable, he would see all that remained of what had once been a man. Perhaps then he would hunt high and low for the great mass of pearls that has haunted the fancy of so many adventurers. But I do not believe he would find it: German Harry would have seen to it that none should discover the treasure, and the pearls would rot in their hiding place. Then the pearl fisher would go back into his dinghy and the island once more be deserted of man.

 

Exercise V. Study the note on Written English. Read an extract from “Aunt Fran” by John O’Hara. Mary Duncan is reading the letter she has written to aunt Fran to her husband, Bill Duncan. Make up a gist of it.

 

From “Aunt Fran”

by John O’Hara

 

… ‘Dear Aunt Fran. I am writing you this far ahead in order to make it possible for you to alter your plans in case you were planning to visit us this coming Christmas. As you know, we would always love to have you over the holidays but this year both children have invited school friends to visit them. Junior is bringing a boy from Seattle, Washington, who will not be able to go to his own home for the holidays and Barbara is inviting a girl whose father and mother are missionaries in China and she does not expect to see her parents for two more years.’

“That sounds as if Barbara didn’t expect to see her parents for two more years.”

“Shut up. It does not. ‘Barbara is also having two other friends for the Christmas festivities, namely the club dance and the Assembly and another dance being given by Judge Choate’s daughter. Emily. Therefore we will have a houseful with two girls sleeping in the guest room.’”

“Is that true?”

“Well, Barbara asked me if we’d mind having this girl from Scranton that has a crush on Bobby Choate. He asked her to go to the Assembly and she has no place to stay. And Emily Choate’s dance is only two nights before. To continue. ‘Bill and I hope you will be able to visit us later in the winter when things have quieted down and there is more room.’ Then some stuff about the people she knows in town, and love from you and I, Mary. All right?”

“Well, I hope so. We don’t want her to cut you out of her will.”

“She can’t. Grandpa established a trust fund, and when she dies the principal goes to me.”

“I know that. But she never spends any more than she has to and she must have saved some out of the income.”

“I’m not worried about that,” said Mary. “It’s just that I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”

 

 

“Yes, and I guess it can get pretty lonely around Christmas, an old maid living in a hotel. But she has your other sisters to invite herself to.”

“She never has, though. She’s always come here. And I will say I was glad to have her when you were away in the army. A grown person. Those two Christmases you were away, the children were just the wrong age. I couldn’t let them see I was miserable. They were so proud to have their father a captain, and at that age they got used to having you away. But if I would have shown any signs of how I felt, they would have started feeling sorry for themselves, too. So I was glad to have Aunt Fran to talk to. And cry a little.”

“Then for cripes’ sake let’s have her,” he said. “We can put cots in the attic, or something.”

“No. We can’t. I’ve made up my mind. I’m very fond of Aunt Fran and all that. But now it’s the children’s turn. You can’t go on all your life doing things for the older people. The time has to come when you must start giving preference to the younger ones. Aunt Fran’s had her life, but Barbara and Junior are just starting out. I may sound heartless and cruel, but if Aunt Fran has to spend Christmas in a hotel, that’s not our fault. It isn’t, Bill. She could have made more of her life. She always had enough money to live nicely and do what she wanted, and I’m not going to let sentiment spoil our children’s Christmas."

“No, I can see you’re not,” he said.

“Well, whose side are you on, anyway?”

“I don’t know. She may not be around much longer. In her late sixties. And the kids have all the time in the world ahead of them.”

“No, this is the time when they store up memories, and the parties this Christmas are going to be the best this town ever had.”

“You and I didn’t have a country club to go to.”

“No, and more’s the pity. My parents wouldn’t allow me to go to the Assembly till I was twenty. Chicken-and-waffle suppers. Sleigh rides. Picnics. Heavily chaperoned.”

“But we got married, Mary. And I like those memories, even if you don’t seem to.”

“Don’t twist what I say. I like those memories, too, but our children will have different ones. And I’m not going to let Aunt Fran deprive them of them.”

“All right. No use getting all het up about it. Let’s forget Aunt Fran.” He sipped his highball and lit a cigarette. …’

Exercise VI. Read the Notes on Style in your textbook.

 

a) In what other short stories is the character of the narrator represented?.

 

b) Put the examples below into 3 columns.

 

Inversion

Repetition

Syntactical Parallelism

 

1) He always came into the shop at the same time – half past two; he always sat in the seat next the window; and three days out of six, he would order the same dinner: a fourpenny beefsteak pudding – we called it beefsteak, and, for all practical purposes, it was beefsteak – a penny plate of potatoes, and a penny slice of roly-poly pudding* – ‘chest expander’ was the name our customers gave it – to follow.

 

* roly-poly pudding – a thick layer of suet pastry, spread with jam, rolled up like dress material and boiled in a cloth

From “The Uses and Abuses of Joseph”

by Jerome K. Jerome

 

2) Between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand she was holding a drumstick of the dismembered chicken; her little finger, elegantly crooked, stood apart from the rest of her hand. Her mouth was open, but the drumstick had never reached its destination; it remained, suspended, frozen, in mid-air.

From “Crome Yellow”

by Aldous Huxley

 

3) Cut and bleeding, if not broken, he would never have got away but that, fortunately for him, a tradesman’s cart happened to be standing at the servants’ entrance. Joe was in it, and off like a flash of greased lightning. How he managed to escape, with all the country in an uproar, I can’t tell you; but he did it. The horse and cart, when found sixteen miles off, were neither worth much.

That, it seems, sobered him down for a bit, and nobody heard any more of him till nine months later, when he walked into the Monico, where I was then working, and held out his hand to me as bold as brass.

From “The Uses and Abuses of Joseph”

by Jerome K. Jerome

 

4) What had happened was that we had all dived into mud up to our elbows, had gotten free only with great effort, and had each come up worrying about what had happened to the other two.

From “The Three Swimmers and the Educated Grocer”

by William Saroyan

 

5) Waldo did not even know he had a brother in Australia and, even if he had known it, he would never have imagined that he would be remembered in a will.

From “The Windfall”

By Erskine Caldwell

 

6) He heard the ca-ra-wong! of Wilson’s big rifle, and again in a second crashing carawong! and turning saw the lion, horrible-looking now, with half his head seeming to be gone, crawling toward Wilson in the edge of the tall grass while the red-faced man worked the bolt on the short ugly rifle and aimed carefully as another blasting carawong! came from the muzzle, and the crawling, heavy, yellow bulk of the lion stiffened and the huge, mutilated head slid forward and Macomber, standing by himself in the clearing where he had run, holding a loaded rifle, while two black men and a white man looked back at him in contempt, knew the lion was dead.

From “The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber”

by Ernest Hemingway

Exercise VII. Read the note on Studies of Written English in your text book. Here is short compositions written by a student (specializing in Natural Science) in his 3rd year of Senior High/ Upper Secondary school as a home assignment. The mistakes are retained as they originally were, find them and correct them.

Wild Wild Dreams

Have you ever had a dream when you were a child? Well, in my child-hood, I had a lot of dreams. One of them was to be a scientist, the greatest one. Science always made me amazed.  I dreamt of many wild things, even the impossible one. But as my life went on, I learnt that they were not just hollow dreams.

I like to watch Science Fiction films. Have you ever watched X-Men, or Spiderman? What I dream of is not to be a man who has super power. In some sequences of those film, I found something more interesting. One of the characters on each films has an ability to regenerate himself when he is injured. It amazes me so much that I try to find the way to make it real in this real world. And Biotechnology seems to be perfect to realize my dreams including this one. In a section of Biotechnology lessons, there is a way to transfer genetic substance from one species to another. So, I think it may be possible if we transfer genes from a lizard which allows it to regenerate (As we know, lizard can regenerated himself, especially his tail) into human cells without changing other characteristics of human. Another way is by using hormone. By changing the genetic character of the hormone which allows human to replace damaged cells, we may be able to quicken its work so we can regenerate ourself in seconds. Another dream I have also hasn’t been realized yet by humankind. It is to create a human that is able to absorb energy from the sun, the limitless source of energy. This ability can solve all the food problems which the world is facing. People won’t need to eat foods if they have this ability. They simply drink water and breathe CO2 from the air. Humankinds don’t have this ability, but plants do.  So I wonder if we can transfer this ability into human body. Transferring genes from plants into human cells may be possible. Another way is to transfer a part of plant which has the ability of changing sun ray’s energy into chemical energy we can use, chlorophyll, into human cells. That’s my second dream, dare to continue on my third?

My last dream is also connected to Biotechnology. It is an alternative if human kinds are unable to find a way to regenerate himself. I want to find a machine which is able to heal any kind of sickness you have. The reason I dream of this machine is the number of people who died within the time spent inside an ambulance car rushing in the road to the nearest hospital. So I dream if someday everybody owns this machine. When he sicks, he just enters this machine and is healed from all kind of illnesses. This machine is some sort of a small room which is full of liquid. This liquid is the media for the medicine to react and heal our sicknesses. A man who wants to enter use an oxygen supplier and simply sit inside.

Those are my dreams. No one has been realized. But I think someday we can make it happened. Ah, 5 o’clock, time to prepare my self. I have to go to school, improve myself, and maybe find a way to make my name written in history for inventing my own dreams.

Supplement VI.

 

Exercise I. Are you fond of spicy food? Do you use these garden herbs while cooking or serving? What garden herbs do you frequently use?  

Basil	Ideal with tomato, garlic and Italian wine dishes. Use on sauces and soups.
Bay	Use sparingly in almost all savoury dishes.
Chervil	A garnish for grilled fish. Also excellent with cheese, omelettes and salads.
Chives	Use to flavour salads, soups, vegetables, poultry, meat and fish.
Fennel	Excellent in fish sauces and salad dressings.
Marjoram	Add to stuffings, meat, game and poultry. Sprinkle on vegetable.
Mint	Add to peas and new potatoes. Serve with roast lamb.
Parsley	A favourite herb with fish, meat and vegetable dishes. Rich in vitamins!
Rosemary	Use fresh with steak or veal chops, add to soups, marinades and sauces.
Sage	A favourite herb in stuffings for duck, goose, pork and chicken.
Tarragon	Use to flavour wine vinegar, salad dressings and fish sauce.
Thyme	A popular seasoning for most stews, soups, sauces and casseroles.

 

 

 

Exercise II. Read the text. What other examples national food can you provide?

 

National Food

The English language has a number of ‘national’ expressions. Many of them are to do with food. A Scotch egg, for example, is a hard-boiled egg in sausage meat, eaten cold or hot. Scotch broth is a thick soup with meat and barley. Irish stew is made from meat, onions and potatoes. Welsh rarebit pronounced ‘rabbit’ is melted cheese on hot toast. A Spanish omelette is an omelette containing tomatoes, onions and potatoes. Russian salad is a salad of cold, cooked vegetables made with Russian dressing which has a sharp taste. Russian tea is tea with lemon instead of milk.

Exercise III. Read the recipe. Describe the way to cook any national dish. To avoid difficulties while converting, use the table of Metric Conversions given below.

 

Scotch Broth

1 neck of mutton                          1 large cup diced turnip

3 oz. dried peas                           1 onion

3 oz. pearl barley                        1 leek

2 qt. water                                   ¼ white cabbage, shredded

salt and pepper                           1 large cup grated carrot

1 large cup diced carrot                       1 tbsp. chopped parsley

 

 

Soak peas overnight. Wash meat, put into a stockpot with water, peas, barley, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and skim. Add the diced carrot, turnip, chopped onion and leek, and simmer for 3 hours. Add shredded cabbage and grated carrot, and simmer for another half an hour. Before serving, add parsley.

Serves 6-8

 

METRIC CONVERSIONS

Weights

              Avoirdupois                          Metric

              1 oz.                                            just under 30 grams

              4 oz. (¼ lb.)                                app. 115 grams

              8 oz. (½ lb.)                                app. 230 grams

    1 lb.                                            454 grams

 

Liquid Measures

              Imperial                                     Metric

1 tablespoon (liquid only)          20 millilitres

1 fl. oz.                                       app. 30 millilitres

1 gill (¼ pt.)                               app. 145 millilitres

½ pt.                                           app. 285 millilitres

1 pt.                                            app. 570 millilitres

1 qt.                                            app. 1.140 litres

 

Oven Temperatures

Slow   Moderate     Hot

° Fahrenheit 300 325 350 375 400 425 450 500

Gas mark 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

° Celsius 140 158 177 190 204 214 232 260

Supplement VII.

US and UK Transport Terminology - The Differences

 

US Term	UK Term	Comment
add	couple	vehicles to a train
bi-level	double deck	type of a passenger vehicle
conductor	guard	The term “conductor” is now often used in the UK if the guard collects fares.
engineer	driver	a person who drives a vehicle
freight train	goods wagon	for cargoes
head end	front	of train

                                                           

one-way	single	ticket
round trip	return	ticket
schedule	timetable	of trains
subway	underground	railway or metro
train station	railway station	for trains
trolley or street car	tram	now often called a Light Rail Vehicle (LRV)

Supplement VIII.