An incident from the life of a russian revolutionary

 

"Every worker must understand that the only way to a happy future is through struggle and the struggle is growing harder and harder. On the one hand..."

A knock at the door interrupted Bauman. He stopped speaking and first looked at the people sitting round him, and then at the dentist, in whose waiting-room they were having their secret meeting.

"Are you expecting any patients?" he asked.

Everybody understood what Bauman's question meant. They didn't even speak to each other, they didn't have to be reminded what to do. One of them accompanied the dentist into the surgery, while the others sat down on the chairs standing along the wall and pretended to be patients waiting their turn. It didn't take them long. When everything was ready, the dentist's maid went to answer the knock and soon came back with an unexpected visitor, who tried to go straight into the surgery.

"I say, it isn't your turn," a 'patient' sitting next to the door said to him.

"I can't wait. I've got a terrible toothache," the man answered, hurriedly examining everybody's face.

Bauman, who pretended that he was reading a news­paper, didn't even turn his head to look at the strange visitor. He could, however, clearly see the man's face, and recognized him at once. He was a spy, the same man he had often seen before.

"Has he brought the police with him?"... One thing was clear: it was necessary to keep the spy in the flat as long as possible, so that he would believe that they were real patients.

Bauman looked up at the newcomer, and for a moment it seemed to him that there was Joy in the man's eyes. Then Bauman said as politely as he could.

"We don't mind if the dentist sees him first, do we?" and then, turning to the spy, "Since you have a bad toothache, you can go next."

The spy didn't know what to say. At that moment the surgery door opened and the dentist asked the next pa­tient in. Bauman, who went on watching the spy, imme­diately said, "Anyone with bad teeth should certainly have them out."

In a second the spy was sitting in the dentist's chair. The dentist told him to open his mouth wide, examined his teeth with great care, and began working quickly. A quarter of an hour later he showed the patient two large yellow teeth and said:

"I did my best. To tell you the truth it was quite a serious operation. You should take better care of your teeth. Ten roubles, please."

For a minute the spy stood there, not knowing what to do. "Would you like me to do anything else for you?" the dentist asked, smiling. The spy answered nothing, paid the money, and hurried out into the waiting-room. He expected to find no one there, but to his great surprise everybody was in his place. The spy could do nothing but leave the dentist's flat.

When the spy had left, someone said, "It's a good thing he had bad teeth."

"But he didn't... He just has two good teeth less now than he did when he came," the dentist explained, and added, "and it didn't cost him much. So he should be grateful. "

Everybody laughed, and Bauman said, "That was a good idea. Didn't I say that they would break their teeth if they fought against us? I wonder whether he will be able to go and report to the police after that. I don't think they'll be able to make out anything he says. Well, I think we can go on with our meeting now."

 

ACTIVE WORDS AND WORD COMBINATIONS

 

an incident

only (adj)

struggle

to grow (grew, grown)

to grow old (dark, etc.)

to get (to become) old

on the one hand

on the other hand

to expect

a patient

to mean (meant, meant)

a meaning

each other

one another

tо remind (of, about)

accompany

to see to

to pretend

a turn

in turn

to do one's best

the truth

to tell the truth (= to speak the truth)

true

to be true

serious

an operation

to perform (do) an operation

to operate on smb.

to take care (of)

to look after

careful

to wait one's turn

a queue

to wait in a queue

to jump the queue

to stand in a queue

to try

next to

a tooth (pl teeth)

to have toothache

a head

to have a headache

clear

(the) police

a policeman

real

to seem

polite

impolite

to watch

immediately

careless

surprise

to one's surprise

to be surprised (at smb., smth., to do smth.)

to explain

to add

to cost (cost, cost)

to be grateful (to smb. for smth.)

an idea

to break (broke, broken)

to make out

 

Переведите предложения на английский язык, используя актив­ную лексику урока.

 

1. Это единственная книга, от которой я получил удовольствие за последнее время. Я бы хотел, чтобы ты ее тоже прочитал. 2. Преподаватель попросил всех пре­кратить разговоры и сказал, что пора начинать урок. 3. Когда Анну спросили, почему она вчера не пришла на занятия, она ответила, что у нее ужасно болела го­лова. 4. Доктор перестал писать и спросил больного, не чувствует ли он себя лучше. 5. Я спросил своего друга, ожидал ли он, что я приду. 6. Я не возражаю, если они подождут нас здесь. 7. Я был удивлен, когда увидел, что он рассердился на тебя. 8. Я прошу вас разговари­вать со мной вежливо. 9. Я читал все его романы, кроме этого. Мне бы хотелось, чтобы Петр дал мне его на несколько дней. 10. Не перебивайте его, дайте ему за­кончить читать эту статью. 11. Я бы хотел, чтобы вы разговаривали друг с другом по-английски. 12. Анна сказала мне, что сегодня она не пойдет на лекцию, у нее страшно болят зубы. 13. Я удивился, когда узнал, что Петровы живут рядом с нами. 14. Правда ли, что опе­рация продолжалась два часа? 15. По правде говоря, я не ожидал, что он снова мне об этом напомнит. 16. Что вы здесь написали? Я ничего не могу разобрать. 17. Я бы хо­тел, чтобы вы добавили несколько слов к тому, что я сказал.—Мне нечего добавить.

 

 

LESSON TWENTY-ONE (THE TWENTY-FIRST LESSON)

NOW HE BELONGS TO THE AGES

 

The 14th of April, 1865, was a tragic day in the history of the United States. For on the evening of that day, President Abraham Lincoln went to Ford's Theatre in Washington to see a play which was popular at the time— and never returned.

The day had started for the President with the usual round of office duties. The city of Washington was still in a happy mood. The weather was fine, the sky was cloudless, a fresh spring wind was blowing about flags hoisted from many private and government buildings. The war had only ended a few days before, and the whole country continued to celebrate.

The theatre party for that evening had been planned by Mrs Lincoln. The President usually enjoyed going to the theatre and went very often—but this evening he had no wish to go. He had felt very tired all day and looked upset. He finally decided to go, however, because it had been announced in the newspapers that the President would be present at Ford's Theatre.

The President and his party arrived at the theatre when the play had already begun. When he appeared in the box, the audience greeted him with a storm of applause and the performance was interrupted for a moment. Then the play went on, and the President enjoyed, it. He didn't know that his life was in danger...

At about ten o'clock an actor named John Booth came into the theatre and walked directly towards Lincoln's box, He noiselessly opened the door, and approaching the President so that his gun was only a short distance from his head, calmly took aim and fired. The President fell forward in his chair. Booth immediately jumped from the box to the stage. He landed heavily and shouted some­thing. He was about to rise to his feet when he gave a cry of pain and had to lie still for a moment. Then he got up with difficulty and slowly walked to the back of the stage. His leg was broken, but he was able to get outside where a horse was waiting for him. The audience saw him do all this, but they thought that it was all part of the play, when suddenly they heard a woman's voice cry out:

"The President has been killed." It was Mrs Lincoln. Immediately a young doctor from the audience hurried to the President's box. After he had examined Lincoln, he said that the President had only a few hours to live. Lincoln was lifted from his chair and carried to a house opposite the theatre, where he remained until his death the next morning. When he died, one of the people in the room at the time said:

"Now he belongs to the ages."

These words have since become famous.