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Practice
Reading Comprehension Practice
This is a sample of literary texts from different writers, songs, newspaper articles followed by some vocabulary and questions which the students have to answer according to the texts.
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I
About
the rat which was turned into a beautiful lady.
The hermit asked her if she wanted to
marry the Sun. "I'm afraid not," the lady replied " I do not wish to marry the
sun because it sometimes hides behind the clouds and its brightness can't be
seen." The hermit tried again and asked her if she wanted to marry the moon. The
lady refused again because the moon has no proper light and takes it from the
sun. This time, the hermit invited the lady to marry the clouds. Again, she did
not accept because she said that the wind often takes the clouds where he wants.
As she had mentioned the wind, the hermit offered her the chance to marry him.
Once again, she refused this time
because she believed that the mountains do not let him blow freely; nor did she want to marry
the mountains because rats make holes through them and destroy them. Finally, he
asked her if she wanted to marry a man but she refused this too because men kill
rats. At last, the lady asked the hermit to pray to God to turn her into a rat
once more and beg Him to find a male rat for her so that she could marry
him.
QUESTIONS.
1. What
did the hermit see?
2. What
did the hermit ask God?
3. Did
the lady marry the sun? Why?
4. Did
the lady marry the moon? Why?
5. What
did the lady ask the hermit to beg God?
6. Take
out from the text all the verbs in the passive voice and tell their tense.
7. In
the text there is a sentence in the direct speech. Take it out from it and
transform it into the indirect speech.
8.
Rewrite the text using your own words in not more than 50 words.
9.
Vocabulary:
Beast:
Rat:
Hole:
Pray:
In the
Kingdom of Beasts, the Lion was the king. The rest of the animals all wanted to
please him so they agreed to offer the Lion a beast to eat every day so that he
wouldn't have to search for food. Every day, the beasts played a sort of animal
lottery to see which one had to go near the Lion and be eaten. One day, the
unfortunate animal was a rabbit. It was really afraid of dying so instead of
going to the Lion at the appointed time it didn't go to him until lunch time.
The Lion got really angry because of this and when he saw the rabbit, he
demanded why it was so delayed. The fearful rabbit told the Lion that it was
delayed because there was another lion in the kingdom who wanted to have the
rabbit for himself. When the king of animals heard this, he ordered the rabbit
to take him to the other lion to find out if this was true. The rabbit took the Lion to a
huge pool of water that was enclosed by high walls. The rabbit jumped into the
water. The Lion walked to the edge to see where the rabbit had gone. To his
surprise he saw another lion. Then the rabbit asked the Lion":can you see this
lion in the water? He wants to eat a rabbit!"The Lion jumped upon his own shadow
and fought against himself and at last killed himself thinking his own shadow
was a different lion. Thus the rabbit freed itself from the Lion's jaws.
2. Did the rabbit
want to die?
3. Why didn't the
rabbit arrive in time?
4. Why did the Lion
want to find the other lion?
5. What was the
pool like?
6. Do you think the
rabbit was an astute animal? Why?
7. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Delay:
Jaw:
Shadow:
Jump:
8. Composition.
What do you think about "Fairy tales"? (50 words)
One day
the girl hears that Archie ‑who doesn't love her‑ is going to America, so she
decides to try once more to persuade him to take her with him. So listen what
she does. She goes to the ferryman and asks him to take her across. The ferryman
says, I will, but you must take off all your clothes. Now the girl doesn't know
what to do so she asks the wise man for advice, and he says that she must do
what she thinks best. So the girl thinks about it and being so in love she
decides to strip. So the girl strips and the ferryman takes her over ‑he doesn't
touch her or anything‑ just takes her over and she rushes to Archie's hut to
implore him to take her with him and to declare her love again. Now Archie
promises to take her with him and so she sleeps with him the night. But when she
wakes up in the morning he's gone. She's left alone. So she goes across to Tom
and explains her plight and asks for help. But soon ever he knew what she'd
done, he chucked her out, see? And there she is. Poor little girl. Left alone
with no clothes and no friends and no hope of staying alive. Now this is the
question, think about it, don't answer quick. Who is the most responsible person
for her plight? Now she can't do anything. She's finished. Now, who is to
blame?
QUESTIONS.
2. Who is going to
America?
3. On what
condition does the ferryman take the girl across the river?
4. What makes you
think Archie isn't honest?
5. Do you think Tom
behaves like a good friend? Why?
6. Take out from
the text all the adverbial clauses of time.
7. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Plight:
Strip:
Advice:
Rush:
Blame:
2. Why did the
hermit know the king was bad?
3. Did the hermit
see the king straight away?
4. Where did the
king live?
5. Take out from
the text an adverbial clause of place.
6. Explain the
difference between the simple past and the present
perfect. Use examples from the
text.
7. Do you like
moral tales? What do you think about them? (50 words)
8. Vocabulary.
Properly:
Tuition:
To rule:
Climb down:
Knowledge:
One day,
the king's daughter was playing with her maids in a garden. For safety, she had
left her gold and diamond bracelet hanging on the branch of a tree. It was a
very beautiful bracelet especially made for her by an artist that lived abroad.
It was the only sample in the world. The raven took the bracelet from the branch
and quickly flew from the place for
a long time making sure she was being followed and her pursuers could see where
she left the beautiful bracelet. When the raven reached the snake's nest, she
dropped the bracelet. The snake happened to be sleeping so she did not realize
that something had fallen beside her. The men that had been following the raven
looked for it and when they found it they saw the snake in the same place so
they carefully took the bracelet and killed the snake at once. This is how the
raven using her wit was able to get rid of her enemy by means of somebody else's
strength. The king's daughter was happy again because she had recovered her
bracelet and from then onwards she was careful to keep it in a safer place.
2. What happened to
the little ravens?
3. Could the raven
beat the snake by means of her strength?
4. Where was the
princess bracelet?
5. Where did the
raven take the bracelet?
6. Write down a
sentence using in the same sentence the simple past and
the past perfect tenses.
7. Take out from
the text all the Modal auxiliaries and explain their
meaning in the sentence they are
included.
8. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Strength:
Sample:
By means of:
Wit:
9. Differences
between strength and wit. (50 words)
Everybody agreed
that was a good idea so every day the heron took as many fish as he wanted
pretending to take them to the lake, but instead of this he went to a hill and
ate them all. The heron did so for a long time but one day the crayfish asked
the heron to take him to this fantastic lake where everybody could live
peacefully. The crayfish held himself to the heron's neck. After they had been
flying for a while, the crayfish was surprised not to see the lake. Watching
from the air he saw the bones of the fish the heron had eaten and then realized
they had been tricked. So the crayfish pressed his claws against the heron's
neck and killed him. Then he went back to his own pool to tell the others about
the disgraceful event.
2. Was the story he
told the fish true? Why?
3. Did the fish
believe the heron?
4. How did the
crayfish kill the heron?
5. Uses of the
simple past and past perfect. Take examples from the
text.
6. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Mud:
Neck:
Event:
Bone:
Cane:
7. Tell the same
story using your own words. (5 or 6 lines)
2. What do you
think about the king's decision? Why?
3. Why do you think
the unwanted animal is a snake?
4. Do you think the
story has a religious background. Why?
5. Are there in the
text any conditional sentences? Which ones?
6. Explain the
difference between MUST and HAVE TO.
7. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Avoid:
Guidance:
Huge:
Speech:
8. Retell the same
story in not more than five lines.
The bear
gave him a bee-hive full of honey. After eating as much honey as he pleased he
left for a town where he wanted to pray. While entering the town the raven
offered him a precious diadem which he had taken from the King's daughter's
head. The hermit accepted it with pleasure as it was an expensive gift. A
town‑crier announced that the one who had stolen the valuable jewel should give
it back to the king's daughter for which he would be given a good reward.
Otherwise, he would be punished.
The good
hermit met the man he had helped. As this man was a jeweller, the hermit handed
him over the diadem. Although this was secretly done the man took the jewel to
Court accusing the holy man. Then the latter was tortured and imprisoned. In the
meantime the snake managed to find the king's daughter sleeping and bit her
hand. It became infected. The king was furious about his daughter's illness and
sent his town-criers to announce that any person who could cure his daughter
would be highly rewarded. This time, the snake found the King asleep; she
whispered in his ear that there was a prisoner in his own dungeons who had a
herb that would cure his daughter. The holy man had been previously given the
herb by the snake; he had also been taught how to use it on the king's
daughter's hand.
The
hermit was freed and the wicked jeweller was banished forever.
2. Who freed
them?
3. Did the snake
want to free the man? Why?
4. Which present
was the best?
5. Take out from
the text all the relative sentences and classify them.
6. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Ignore:
Pit:
Latter:
Banish:
Town‑crier:
7: Do you think the
snake is good in the story? Give reason for your
answer. (5 or 6 lines)
Once
upon a time there was a man who could understand the language of animals and
birds. God had given him that precious science provided that he would die the
day he said a word to anybody about what he had heard or understood.
This man
had an orchard where an ox worked a water-wheel and a donkey who manured the
soil. One afternoon, the ox got fed up with his hard work. The donkey advised
him to pretend to be ill then the master wouldn't make him work and he could
rest. The ox followed the donkey's advice. The following morning it was the
donkey who had to labour in his place the whole day in the orchard. That night
he found the ox resting in the stable and crying mournfully. The donkey said:
our master wants to sell you to a butcher because you can't work. If I were you
I would stop looking ill and go back to my business.
These
were the words the donkey said so that he could avoid hard work. Manuring was
easier. The ox panicked and started eating his barley again that very night. The
master of both, the ox and the donkey understood what had happened between
them, which made him laugh. His
wife wondered what he was laughing at but as he refused to tell her, she
threatened to starve herself to death. The whole day and night the woman stuck
to her threat. Her husband, who loved her a lot, promised to tell her. As this
meant his death he started making his last will. While doing so the cock crew
and a dog near him scolded him. How could he crow when their master wished to
die in order that his wife could live? The cock disagreed, the man deserved
death since he had failed to be lord of a woman. While talking he called his ten
hens and ordered them to sit on a particular place to show he was able to manage
them. All this stuff was meant to console the dog on the master's death. The
cock succeeded in consoling the dog. "Mate", the dog said, "what would you do if
you had such a stupid wife?" "I would take five sticks from a tree and strike
her till the sticks were broken, and I'd also force her to eat and drink. If she
refused, I would let her die."
The man
understood these words, got up from bed and followed the cock's advice and his
wife obeyed him ever since.
1. Could the man
understand the animals? Why?
2. What happened
between the ox and the donkey?
3. Why couldn't the
man tell his wife?
4. Tell the story
in five or six lines.
5. Separate the
story into smaller parts.
6. Take out from
the text all the conditional sentences and explain them
7. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Succeed:
Stuck:
Deserve:
Scold:
Mournfully:
Orchard:
She's
found safe by police.
A
NEWBORN baby snatched from her hospital cot was back in her tearful mother's
arms last night. The day-old girl vanished from a side ward after her
23-year-old mother left her alone for 20 minutes.
Detective
Superintendent Ken Cook said: "The child has been well cared for. She has been
medically examined and is fit and well. But as a precaution, more thorough
medical tests are now being carried out."
Police
are understood to have discovered a blue carry‑cot and other baby equipment at
the house. The mother, who has not been named, was with her baby in a single
room off the main ward at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton. She returned from
a brief visit to the nearby day room to find the child missing. The baby was last seen just
before visiting time on Saturday evening. Police with tracker dogs were joined
by mounted officers to search the grounds. Frogmen investigated a nearby canal.
The baby was found at a house at Dudley, West Midlands. Detective Superintendent
Cook said the woman helping with inquiries was not related to the child's
family.
2. Where was the
baby found?
3. Explain what
happened in about 50 words.
4. Who else helped
with inquiries?
5. What do you
think about this fact?
6. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Frogman:
Ward:
To be related:
Fit:
Nearby:
MURDER AT THE QUEEN
Fan
bleeds to death in crowd.
Last
night several youths were helping police in Stevenage with their inquiries. In
another incident an ambulance was called to help a young woman attacked by a
Hell's Angel who poured boiling water over her. More than 1000 people needed
first aid during the concert. There were about a dozen arrests but none for drug
offences.
QUESTIONS.
1. Did the fan
die?
2. How old was
he?
3. Where was the
concert played?
4. Why couldn't the
fan be saved or rescued?
5. How many people
needed help?
6. What do you
think about safety in pop concerts? (five or six lines)
7. Vocabulary.
Nearby:
Bleed:
Pour:
What the
artist does is to produce "Myths". He takes some vital philosophical problem
like evil, disorder, violence. He reasons it out not through logic or experiment
like an scientist but through the creation of a world of characters and
circumstances that mimic his understanding of the real world through a narrator
who may also be a character and he presents events from that world, using signs
to create images. And the text that results, the marks on paper, add up a kind
of explanation of the problem or conflict he has been exploring. The artist in
general is saying, here is an object I have made: a film, a book, a painting:
this object is a model, in this little theatre, it might help you understand
where we come from, who we are, where we are going. It might help because I, in
my imagination, have tried to live in this world myself. My film, my book, my
painting is a map of where I've been a model of what happened there.
The map
and the model make up a myth. In the macabre the models are madness, mystery and
murder in action and the maps are maps of hell.
QUESTIONS.
2. What kind of
problem does the writer deal with?
3. Does the artist
talk about the world? Who through?
4. Why does the
product of the artist help us?
5. What are the
models in the macabre?
6. Vocabulary. Give
synonyms, antonyms or explain the meaning of:
Glass:
Failure:
Kind:
Murder:
Hell:
When the
Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a
prophet, he would know who this woman is that is touching him and what a bad
name she has'. Then Jesus took him up and said, 'Simon, I have something to say
to you'. 'Speak Master' was the reply. 'There was once a creditor who had two
men in his debt; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty. They were
unable to pay, so he pardoned them both. Which of them will love him more?' 'The
one who was pardoned more, I suppose' answered Simon. Jesus said, 'You are
right'.
Then he
turned to the woman. 'Simon', he said 'you see this woman? I came into your
house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears
over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she has
been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in. You did not anoint my
head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. For this reason I
tell you that her sins, her many sins, must have been forgiven her, or she would
not have shown such great love. It is the man who is forgiven little who shows
little love.' Then he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven'. Those who were with
him at table began to say to themselves, 'Who is this man, that he even forgives
sins?' But he said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace'.
2. What did the
woman do?
3. What did the
Pharisee think?
4. What did Jesus
answer?
5. Did Jesus
consider the woman's action a good fact?
6. Underline all
the adverbial clauses and classify them.
7. Vocabulary. Give
synonyms, antonyms or explain the meaning of the
following words:
Ointment:
Unable:
Owe: Sin:
Faith:
PLEASE SIR, YOU'VE GOT IT
CUSHY!
BRITISH teachers have some of
the best working and pay conditions in the world.
Compared to
colleagues in America, France, Germany and Japan, they have a cushy time of
it.
Secondary school
teachers here average around ,13.000‑a‑year and
work a 9am-3pm day. They generally work 190 days a year and have at least 12
weeks holiday. Though many dedicated teachers put in longer hours, the average
master or mistress works fewer hours, gets more cash and faces fewer checks on
work performances than foreign counterparts.
Here's how our
teachers compare with those around the world:
AMERICA. Wages vary from state
to state. Teachers earn up to ,15.000 a year or as
little as ,11.800 -about
,1.200 less than the
British average. But virtually all U.S. teachers face stiff tests of their
abilities -with most forced to sit regular exams to check that they are still
competent. If they fail these written tests, they face being sacked on the spot.
There is also the problem of violence. Nearly 450.000 crimes are committed in
American schools each year.
JAPAN. Violence is a major
problem here, too. But education is revered by the Japanese, and children are
pushed very hard by teachers and parents. Masters face constant checks on their
performances through exams. They have to work much longer hours, too. A typical
school day in Japan can begin as early as 6.30am and go on until 10.30pm. So
many teachers have to work shifts. Despite the longer, unsociable hours,
Japanese teachers earn around the same as the British.
GERMANY. Teachers are
forbidden by law to go on strike. And because of that promise of uninterrupted
work, they are rewarded with more pay. One of the major differences between us
and them is that the Germans have retained grammar schools and rejected the
comprehensive system. They have three tiers of schooling, according to ability,
and German education experts believe this allows pupils of all abilities to do
better than in Britain. Teachers have starting salaries around ,13.000 ‑about ,5.000 more than in
Britain.
But they also are
under constant pressure to do their job well. German society demands that
schools maintain incredibly high standards.
FRANCE. Teachers are very
poorly paid. Starting salaries are around ,6.000, a teacher
with ten years experience can get just ,8.500 and even an
experienced teacher earns only around ,11.000 a year.
They also have to work harder and longer.
The average school day begins at 8.30am and ends at 4.30pm -longer than anywhere
else in Europe. They do get longer holidays though.
1. How many holidays do
English teachers get a year?
2. Which are the main features
of American teachers?
3. How long does a typical
school day last in Japan?
4. Can German teachers go on
strike? Why?
5. How much does an
experienced teacher get in France?
6. Take out from the text a
conditional and a passive sentence.
7. Vocabulary: Average, Push,
Shifts, Reward, Earn.
They
sounded so perfectly absorbed in the game as their voices came out of the night,
that they had the feel of wild creatures singing. It stirred the mother; and she
understood when they came in at ten o'clock, ruddy, with brilliant eyes, and
quick, passionate speech.
They all
loved the Scargill Street house for its openness, for the great scallop of the
world it had in view. On summer evenings the women would stand against the field
fence, gossiping, facing the west, watching the sunsets flare quickly out, till
the Derbyshire hills ridged across the crimson far away, like the black crest of
a newt.
In this
summer season the pits never turned full time, particularly the soft coal. Mrs
Dakin, who lived next door to Mrs Morel, going to the field fence to shake her
hearthrug, would spy men coming slowly up the hill. She saw at once they were
colliers. Then she waited, a tall, thin, shrewd‑faced woman, standing on the
hill brow, almost like a menace to the poor colliers who were toiling up. It was
only eleven o'clock. From the far‑off wooded hills the haze that hangs like fine
black crape at the back of a summer morning had not yet dissipated. The first
man came to the style. "Chock‑chock!" went the gate under his thrust.
Sons and
lovers.
D.H. Lawrence.
1. Why did they
love Scargill Street house?
2. What would the
women do on summer evenings
3. What would Mrs
Dakin do?
4. Where were the
men coming from?
5. Take out from
the text all the relative clauses and classify them.
6. Composition.
Would you like to work in a mine? Why? (5 or 6 lines)
7. Vocabulary.
Scallop
Gossip
Crimson
Hearthrug
Haze
Crape
"I'll
let you have the car", said Tom. "I'll send it over tomorrow afternoon".
That
locality was always vaguely disquieting, even in the broad glare of afternoon,
and now I turned my head as though I had been warned of something behind. Over
the ashheaps the giant eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg kept in vigil, but I
perceived, after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar
intensity from less than twenty feet away.
In one
of the windows over the garage the curtains had been moved aside a little, and
Myrtle Wilson was peering down at the car. So engrossed was she that she had no
consciousness of being observed, and one emotion after another crept into her
face like objects into a slowly developing picture.
The
great Gatsby.
F. Scott
Fitzgerald.
2. What had Tom
discovered?
3. Who was watching
them from the distance?
4. Did Myrtle know
she was being observed?
5. In the text
there are different types of subordinate clauses. Take
out three at least.
6. Vocabulary.
Glare
Warn
Regard
Peer
It was
nice though, when we got out of the dining‑room. There were about three inches
of snow on the ground, and it was still coming down like a madman. It looked
pretty as hell, and we all started throwing snowballs and horsing around all
over the place. It was very childish, but everybody was really enjoying
themselves.
I didn't
have a date or anything, so I and this friend of mine, Mal Brossard, that was on
the wrestling team, decided we'd take a bus in to Agerstown and have a hamburger
and maybe see a lousy movie. Neither of us
felt like sitting around on our ass all night. I asked Mal if he minded
if Ackley came along with us. The reason I asked was because Ackley never did
anything on saturday night, except stay in his room and squeeze his pimples or
something.
The
catcher in the rye.
J. D. Salinger.
1. What was the
steak like?
2. What did they
have for dessert?
3. Why was it nice
when they left the dining-room?
4. Did he have a
date?
5. Who did he go
out with?
6. What do you
think of boarding schools? (5 or 6 lines)
7. Vocabulary.
Buck
Kid
Lumpy
Wrestling
Nothing
happened until afternoon. The doctor was a thin quiet little man who seemed
disturbed by the war. He took out a number of small steal splinters from my
thighs with delicate and refined distaste. He used a local anæsthetic called
something or other "snow", which froze the tissue and avoided pain until the
probe, the scalpel or the forceps got below the frozen portion. The anæsthetized
area was clearly defined by the patient and after a time the doctor's fragile
delicacy was exhausted and he said it would be better to have an X‑ray. Probing
was unsatisfactory, he said.
The
X‑ray was taken at the Ospedale Maggiore and the doctor who did it was
excitable, efficient and cheerful. It was arranged by holding up the shoulders,
that the patient should see personally some of the larger foreign bodies through
the machine. The plates were to be sent over. The doctor requested me to write
in his pocket notebook, my name, and regiment and some sentiment. He declared
that the foreign bodies were ugly, nasty, brutal. The Austrians were sons of
bitches. How many had I killed? I had not killed any but I was anxious to please
‑and I said I had killed plenty. Miss Gage was with me and the doctor put his
arm around her and said she was more beautiful than Cleopatra. Did she
understand that? Cleopatra the former queen of Egypt. Yes, by God she was.
Ernest Hemingway.
A
farewell to arms.
2. Where was the
X-ray taken?
3. What was the
doctor who did it like?
4. Had the patient
killed any Austrians?
5. Who was Miss
Gage compared to?
6. Take out from
the text all the verbs in the passive and say their
tense.
7. Vocabulary.
Splinter
Thigh
Scalpel
Forceps
This was
especially to be remarked if any one attempted to impose upon, or domineer over
his favourite: he was painfully jealous lest a word should be spoken amiss to
him, seeming to have got into his head the notion that, because he liked
Heathcliff, all hated, and longed to do him an ill-turn.
It was a
disadvantage to the lad, for the kinder among us did not wish to fret the
master, so we humoured his partiality; and that humouring was rich nourishment
to the child's pride and black tempers. Still it became in a manner necessary;
twice or thrice, Hindley's manifestations of scorn, while his father was near,
roused the old man to a fury. He seized his stick to strike him, and shook with
rage that he could not do it.
At last
our curate (we had a curate then who made the living answer by teaching the
little Lintons and Earnshaws, and farming his bit of land himself), he advised
that the young man should be sent to college, and Mr Earnshaw agreed, though
with a heavy spirit, for he said-
"Hindley
was naught, and would never thrive as where he wandered".
Wuthering Heights.
Emily Brontë.
2. Who was Mr
Earnshaw's favourite?
3. Did Hindley
respect his father?
4. Who advised Mr
Earnshaw to take the lads to college?
5. Vocabulary.
Fret
Rage
Curate
Thrive
Jealous
So it
was that after the gropings and the misgivings of the afternoon they pulled
themselves together and settled down to a very pleasant tea-party. If they were
hypocrites they did not know it, and their hypocrisy had every chance of setting
and of becoming true. Anne, putting down each plate as if it were a wedding
present, stimulated them greatly. They could not lag behind that smile of hers
which she gave them ere she kicked the drawing-room door. Mr Beebe chirruped.
Freddie was at his wittiest, referring to Cecil as the "Fiasco" -family-honoured
pun on fiancé. Mrs Honeychurch, amusing and portly, promised well as a
mother-in-law. As for Lucy and Cecil, for whom the temple had been built, they
also joined in the merry ritual, but waited, as earnest worshippers should, for
the disclosure of some holier shrine of joy.
A room
with a view.
E. M. Forster.
2. What happened in
the afternoon?
3. How do we feel
about engagement?
4. Does the writer
think Mrs Honeychurch is going to be a good
5. Vocabulary.
Hilarious
Compel
Deride
Earnest
Shrine
It was
Sunday morning; the milking was done; the outdoor milkers had gone home. Tess
and the other three were dressing themselves rapidly, the whole bevy having
agreed to go together to Mellstock Church, which lay some three or four miles
distant from the dairy‑house. She had now been two months at Talbothays, and
this was her first excursion.
All the
preceding afternoon and night heavy thunderstorms had hissed down upon the
meads, and washed some of the hay into the river; but this morning the sun shone
out all the more brilliantly for the deluge, and the air was balmy and
clear.
The
crooked lane leading from their own parish to Mellstock ran along the lowest
levels in a portion of its length, and when the girls reached the most depressed
spot they found that the result of the rain had been to flood the lane over‑shoe
to a distance of some fifty yards. This would have been no serious hindrance on
a week‑day; they would have clicked through it in their high pattens and boots
quite unconcerned; but on this day of vanity, this Sun's‑day, when flesh went
forth to coquet with flesh while hypocritically affecting business with
spiritual things; on this occasion for wearing their white stockings and thin
shoes, and their pink, white and lilac gowns, on which every mud spot would be
visible, the pool was an awkward impediment. They could hear the church‑bell
calling ‑as yet nearly a mile off.
Tess of
the d'Urbevilles.
Thomas
Hardy.
1. How far was
Mellstock Church from the farm?
2. How long had she
been there?
3. Was it Tess'
first excursion?
4. Was there a pond
in the lane? Why?
5. Why didn't they
want to cross the pond on that occasion?
6. Do you think the
church service was going to start? Why?
7. Vocabulary.
Opiate
Hinder
Bevy
Flesh
Flood
e dasn't
stop again at any town, for days and days; kept right along down the river. We
was down south in the warm weather, now, and a mighty long ways from home. We
begun to come to trees with Spanish moss on them, hanging down from the limbs
like long grey beards. It was the first I ever see it growing, and it made the
woods look solemn and dismal. So now the frauds reckoned they was out of danger
and they begun to work the villages again.
First
they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough for them both to
get drunk on. Then in another village they started a dancing school; but they
didn't know no more how to dance than a kangaroo does; so the first prance they
made, the general public jumped in and jumped them out of town. Another time
they tried a go at yellocution; but they didn't yellocute long till the audience
got up and give them a solid good cussing and made them skip out. They tackled
missionarying, and mesmerizing, and doctoring, and telling fortunes, and a
little of everything; but they couldn't seem to have no luck. So at last they
got just about dead broke, and laid around the raft, as she floated along,
thinking, and thinking, and never saying nothing, by the half a day at a time, a
dreadful blue and desperate.
At last
they took a change, and begun to lay their heads together in the wigwam and talk
low and confidential two or three hours at a time. Jim and me got uneasy. We
didn't like the look of it. We judged they was studying up some kind of worse
deviltry than ever.
The
adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain.
2. Why did they
begin to work the villages again?
3. How many things
did they try to do in the villages?
Did they succeed?
4. Why were Jim and
the writer uneasy?
5. How long did the
frauds spend thinking?
6. Correct the
grammatical errors in the text.
7. Vocabulary:
Limbs
To prance
tackle
raft
wigwam
The fall
of the house of Usher.
Edgar Allan
Poe.
1. Was Usher
sincere in his greeting?
2. Was Usher
altered?
3. What was he like
now?
4. Had they known
each other long?
5. Was the writer
afraid of his friend?
6. Vocabulary:
Ghastly
Pallor
Nostril
Startle
A cease
fire was already in effect by the time the conference was held. The biggest card
in the hand of the British government was of course the military weapons of
1966. The immediate problem was to bring the strength of those weapons over to
the Germany mind. An actual physical demonstration was to be avoided if at all
possible.
October
the First is too late.
Fred Hoyle.
1. Did the Germans
want to go on with the war?
2. What strange
event happened to the east?
3. Who was going to
London for a conference?
4. Which was the
biggest card in the hand of British government?
5. Which was the
immediate problem now?
6. The passive
voice. Classification of tenses.
7. Vocabulary:
Vanish
Track
Weapon
Avoid
Will
Pygmalion.
Bernard
Shaw.
1. In which case
would a woman marry an old bachelor?
2. Did Eliza feel
the pressure to get married? Why?
3. What does
Eliza's instinct tell her?
4. Does the
difference of age exist between them?
5. Do people still
get married? Why? (five of six lines)
6. Conditional
sentences in the text. Classify them.
7. Vocabulary:
Spinster
Bachelor
Strain
Youth
The
Jewel in the Crown.
Paul
Scott.
1. When were the
houses in Chillianwallah Bagh built?
2. Why were they
called so?
3. What did the
Parsees do?
4. Who bought the
land?
5. Did Chand like
this type of houses?
6. Were the houses
suntraps?
7. Vocabulary:
Heir
To head
Unless
Seat
A word child.
Iris Murdoch.
1. Where is the
character going?
2. Who lauded the
pleasure of being crushed?
3. Who was he aware
of?
4. What did people
look like?
5. Means of
transport. (5 or 6 lines)
6. Vocabulary:
Crowded
Dawn
Poverty
Vacancy
Then,
all at once, as if such luxurious fantasy were not already enough, there came
from this unexplored country the song, strong and marvellously sweet, of the
blonde woman on crutches, that itinerant prima donna of the highways whose voice
I had not heard since the day, years before, when Moreland and I listened in
Gerrand Street, the afternoon he had talked of getting married; when we had
bought the bottle labelled Tawny Wine (port flavour) which even Moreland had
been later unwilling to drink.
Casanova's
Chinese Restaurant.
Anthony Powell.
1. What is the
writer describing?
2. Why was the
place in ruins?
3. Why had they
bought the bottle of wine?
4. What was the
woman like?
5. Vocabulary:
Rubble:
Dwarf:
Lair:
Unwilling:
Highway:
MBX bikers dice with
Other
children are sniffing glue, lying between rails and then letting the Inter-City
carriages thunder over them.
Now
police and British Rail fear it is only a matter of time before the "chicken"
games end in death.
And
terrified train drivers have dubbed the daredevil-hit stretch of track near
Andover, Hampshire, "Nightmare Valley".
They
have visited schools, or written to teachers, to try to warn off the eight to
11-year-olds.
But
games have intensified with the end of term. Now extra police patrols are
planned. For BR Southern Region, spokesman Graham Coombs said: "The reality of
dicing with trains is a gory death. Sadly, often the first that parents know
about their children playing on the lines is when a policeman turns up on the
doorstep." Three children died on Southern Region's lines last year. But that
could be nothing to the toll in "nightmare valley". Drivers say the children
ride straight towards them. The specially-sprung MBX bikes, with thick tyres for
cross-country riding, easily bounce over sleepers.
2. Are they
drugged?
3. Has action been
taken against these facts?
4. Why do they use
MBX bikes?
5. Vocabulary:
Dice:
Carriage:
Dub:
Nightmare:
The two
girls, therefore, were from an early age not the least daunted by either art or
ideal politics. It was their natural atmosphere. They were at once cosmopolitan
and provincial, with the cosmopolitan conventionalism of art that goes with pure
social ideas.
They had
been sent to Bresden at the age of fifteen, for music among other things. And
they had had a good time there. They lived freely among the students, they
argued with the men over the philosophical, sociological and artistic matters,
they were just as good as men themselves: only better, since they were
women.
D.H. Lawrence.
Lady Chatterley's Lover.
1. What
was Constance like?
2. What
kind of upbringing did Constance have?
3. Where
had they been taken?
4. Was
Constance impressed by politics? Why?
5. Take
out from the text all the sentences in the passive and say what tense is the
verb. Then, put one of the
sentences into the active.
6. Write
a summary of the text in 60 words.
7.
Vocabulary:
Mild:
Breathe:
Argue:
Upbringing:
Until
the nineteenth century this pattern had remained virtually unchanged since the
days of the Pharaohs. The flood waters of the Nile, which reach Egypt in summer
after the rainy season far to the south in the highlands of Ethiopia, were
diverted by irrigation canals on to as much as possible of the land lying on
either side of the river; when the water subsided, the peasants gathered their
single crop for the year, and lived on it until the yearly miracle was repeated.
Occasionally Nature failed them and they went hungry; sometimes the flood was
excessive and washed away their villages and drowned their animals. Either way,
the Egyptians accepted with resignation an apparently unchangeable and on the
whole beneficent natural cycle.
The
great dam at Asswan, completed as the twentieth century began, culminated
attempts to control the Nile. The Egyptians now had some freedom from the
river's dictation. It was possible for two or even three plantings to be grown
on the same land -incidentally increasing land values considerably.
1.
Which parts of Egypt are populated?
2. How
do Egyptians travel mainly?
3. What
type of energy do they use?
4. What
sometimes went wrong in the Egyptian agricultural system?
5.
Explain in your own words why the Nile is important. (60 words).
6. Take
out from the text all the sentences with the verb in the passive and say what
tense is the verb. After that put one of the sentences into the active.
7.
Vocabulary:
Supply:
Highlands:
Divert:
Gather:
Crop:
Nearly
all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game
has little meaning unless you do your most to win. On the village green, where
you pick up sides and no feeling and local patriotism is involved, it is
possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: but as soon as the question of
prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be
disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts are aroused.
At the international level sport is
frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the
players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the
nations who work themselves into furies over these absurd contests, and
seriously believe ‑at any rate for short periods‑ that running, jumping and
kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.
Even a
leisurely game like cricket, demanding grace rather than strength, can cause
much ill-will. Football, a game in which everyone gets hurt, is far worse. Worst
of all is boxing.
George
Orwell.
1. What do people
say about sport?
2. Does the writer
agree with them?
3. What is the
attitude of the spectators?
4. Do you agree
with the author's opinions about sport?
5. Write a summary
of the text in no more than 80 words.
6. Vocabulary.
Amazed:
Battlefield:
Behaviour:
Contest:
Leisurely:
"What is
the matter?" I asked the men.
"Signalman killed
this morning, sir".
"Not the
man belonging to that box?"
"Yes,
sir."
"Not the
man I know?"
"You
will recognize him, sir, if you knew him", said the man who spoke for the
others, solemnly uncovering his own head, and raising an end of the tarpaulin,
"for his face is quite composed."
"Oh, how
did this happen, how did this happen?" I asked, turning from one to another as
the hut closed in again.
"He was
cut down by an engine, sir. No man in England knew his work better. But somehow
he was not clear of the outer rail. It was just at broad day. He had struck the
light, and had the lamp in his hand. As the engine came out of the tunnel his
back was towards her, and she cut him down. That man drove her, and was showing
how it happened. Show the gentleman, Tom."
The man,
who wore a rough dark dress, stepped back to his former place at the mouth of
the tunnel.
"Coming
round the curve in the tunnel, sir," he said, "I saw him at the end, like as if
I saw him down a perspective glass. There was no time to check speed, and I knew
him to be very careful. As he didn't seem to take heed of the whistle, I shut it
off when we were running down upon him, and called to him as loud as I could
call."
The signalman.
Charles Dickens.
1. Was the
signalman a careful man?
2. Why couldn't he
see the engine?
3. What was the
machine driver wearing?
4. Tell the story
in five or six lines.
5. Write the
following sentences in the indirect speech with the introducing verb in the
past.
a. How did this happen?
b. He was cut down by an engine,
sir.
c. I saw him at the end, like as
if I saw him down a perspective glass.
6. Vocabulary.
Box: Hut:
Engine:
Step
back:
Whistle:
Among
living masters of the art of Oriental porcelain, there are few as distinguished
as Chien-Ying May. His work highly acclaimed and honoured both in China and in
the West- has long been sought by museums around the world. And in his homeland
his award-winning works of art have been exhibited at the prestigious China
National Art Exhibition.
And now,
you have the opportunity to commission a work by this eminent artist. A work of
rare beauty, designed and crafted exclusively for you in China, which has been
world famous for its extraordinary porcelain for over a thousand years.
In this
inspired new work, "The Dance of Celestial Dragon", Chien-Ying May has created a
masterpiece. his mysterious dragon is a spectacular creature. Head reared
high... claws outspread... he is possessed of a wild and awesome power,
conveying all the grandeur of the mythical beast that is China's timeless symbol
of spring... of renewal... and of life itself.
Surrounding the
dragon are elegant designs of fascinating Oriental symbolism. An elaborate spray
of spring flowers grace the top of the vase. An encircling chain of red, green
and blue "ruyi" symbols foretell good fortune, while a deep border rich with
symbols of prosperity adorns the base. And as a final touch of elegance, three
bands of 22 carat gold are painstakingly applied by hand.
Daily mail
1. What's the
artist's name?
2. Where have his
works been exhibited?
3. What's the
Dragon in the vase like?
4. What other
designs are there in the vase?
5. Vocabulary.
Homeland:
Outspread:
Painstakingly:
Awesome:
1. When has
television become important?
2. What is it
important for?
3. Why is it
important?
4. Which is the
real advantage for television?
5. Do you think it
is important to have any preconceptions of a programme before watching it?
6. Do you agree
with the text?
7. Explain the
meaning of:
Valuable:
Sample:
Drama:
Reliable:
Comedy
is, to my mind, the only thing worth writing in this despairing age, provided
the comedy is truly on the side of the lonely, the neglected, the unsuccessful,
and plays its part in the war against the imposing of an arbitrary code of
behaviour upon individual and unpredictable human beings. There may, for all I
know, be great and funny plays to be written about successful lawyers, brilliant
criminals, wise schoolmasters, or families where children can grow up without
silence and without regret. There are many plays that show that the law is
always majestic or that family life is simple and easy to endure. Speaking for
myself I am not on the side of such
plays and the writer of comedy must choose his side with particular care. He
cannot afford to aim at the defenceless, nor can he, like the more serious
writer, treat any character with contempt.
I use
comedy because it is a better weapon than frontal attack. I want to give
audiences the shock of recognition in which they see actors reflecting their own
behaviour and laugh at it. I want to open their hearts. Normally they come along expecting to see
something serious. But, as we know, life is not like that, and I don't force the
two things apart. In any case it makes for surprise when you don't know what to
expect next. There is the interaction between reality and illusion, circumstance
pulling against fantasy. It gives you that feeling of your stomach turning
over.
John Mortimer
1. What is comedy
for the writer?
2. Which side is
comedy on?
3. Why does he use
comedy?
4. Which is the
intention of the writer?
5. Do you agree
with John Mortimer? Why?
6. Vocabulary:
Against:
Great:
Successful:
Life:
Comedy:
Travels
with my aunt.
Graham Greene.
1. How many people
sent letters?
2. What did the
first card show?
3. In your opinion,
which was the best card?
4. Could he finish
his marmalade? Why?
5. Whom did the
narrator send letters?
6. In the text
there is one result clause. Which one?
7. Vocabulary.
Goldfish:
Tinsel:
Branch:
Silvery:
Envelope:
The lion
in love.
Shelagh Delaney.
1. What was the
king like?
2. What was the
queen like?
3. What happened
after a time?
4. Who went to look
for the queen?
5. Where did the
wind take the queen?
6. What happened
after the king came back from war?
7. What did he do
to find the queen?
8. Was the wind
with the queen when the king found her?
9. What did the
queen turn into?
10.Vocabulary.
Fed up:
Whispered:
Jumped off:
PART-TIME LOVER.
Call up, ring once,
hang up the phone,
to let me know you
made it home.
Don't want nothing
to be wrong with part-time lovers.
If she's with me
I'll blink the light
to let you know
tonight's the night
for me and you, my
part-time lover.
We're undercover
passion on the run
chasing love up
against the sun.
We are strangers by
day lovers by night
knowing it's so
wrong but feeling so right.
If I'm with friends
and we should meet
just pass me by
don't even speak.
Know the word's
"discreet" when part-time lovers.
But if there's some
emergency
have a male friend
to ask for me
so then she won't
peek it's really you my part-time lover.
Chorus.
(repeat)
I've got something
that I must tell:
last night someone
rang our door bell
and it was not you
my part-time lover.
And then a man
called our exchange
but didn't want to
leave his name.
I guess that two
can play the game
of part-time
lovers.
You and me,
part-time lovers,
but she and he,
part-time lovers.
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the song
about?
2. How does he know
that she is at home?
3. Why are they
part-time lovers?
4. When has she got
to be discreet?
5. What has she got
to do in case of emergency?
6. How do they feel
about the situation?
7. Are they the
only couple of lovers in the song?
8. Are there in the
song any grammatical mistakes?
9. Vocabulary.
Explain the meaning of:
Blink:
Chase:
Peek:
Guess:
"Ah,
well, I suppose you're like everyone else. I must expect to be dropped now that
you're a success."
That, of
course, is what he would like to do if he had the courage. For the most part he
hasn't. He weakly accepts an invitation to supper on Sunday evening. The cold
roast beef is frozen and comes from Australia and was over‑cooked at middle day:
and the burgundy -ah, why will they call it burgundy? Have they never been to
Beaune and stayed at the Hôtel de la Poste? Of course it is grand to talk of the
good old days when you shared a crust of bread in a garret together, but it is a
little disconcerting when you reflect how near to a garret is the room you are
sitting in.
Cakes
and ale.
W.
Somerset Maugham.
1. Could you
explain what is courage necessary for?
2. What do they
have for dinner?
3. Is it pleasant
to talk about the past? Is there anything pleasant at all about it?
4. Write down 5 or
6 lines about friendship.
5. Take out from
the text all the conditional sentences and classify them.
6. Vocabulary:
Garret:
Crust:
Burgundy:
To be dropped:
The Fair
was drawing to its end, and when it was over the Agurias had arranged to go to
Cordova, where Don Pedro had an estate which it was necessary for him to visit
from time to time. He looked forward to the peace of a country life after the
turmoil of Seville. The day after this conversation Soledad, saying she was not
well, stayed in the house, and she did the same the day following. Don Pedro
visited her in her room morning and evening and they talked of indifferent
things. But on the third day his cousin Conchita de Santaguador was giving a
ball. It was the last of the season and everyone in her exclusive set would be
there. Soledad, saying she was still indisposed, announced that she would stay
at home.
The
point of honour.
W.
Somerset Maugham.
QUESTIONS.
1. Did Don
Pedro want to be jealous. Why?
2. Why were the
Agurias going to Cordova?
3. Where and when
did Pedro visit Soledad?
4. What did they
talk about?
5. Write down 5 or
6 lines about love, hate and honour.
6. Take out from
the text a noun-clause and say what kind it is.
7. Vocabulary:
Estate:
Turmoil:
Ball:
Season:
WRAPPED AROUND YOUR
FINGER (The Police)
caught between the
Scilla and Charibdes,
hypnotized by you
if I should linger
staring at the ring
around your finger.
I have only come
here seeking knowledge,
things they would
not teach me of in college.
I can see that
destiny you sold
turned into a
shining band of gold.
I'll be wrapped
around your finger (bis)
Mephistopheles is
not your name
but I know that
you're up to just the same.
I will listen hard
to your tuition,
you will see it
comes to its fruition.
I'll be wrapped
around your finger (bis)
Devil and the deep
blue sea behind me
vanish in the air
you'll never find me.
I will turn your
face to alabaster
when you find your
servant is your master
and you'll be
wrapped around my finger (bis)
1. Who is the young
apprentice looking for?
2. What kind of
knowledge is he interested in?
3. The expression
"wrapped around your finger", what does it refer to?
4. Who is
Mephistopheles?
5. Give your
opinion about selling your soul to the devil. (60 words)
6. Put the
following sentences into the passive:
a. Things they would not teach me
of in college.
b. I will listen hard to your
tuition.
c. I will turn your face to
alabaster.
d. I can see that destiny you
sold.
7. Vocabulary:
Linger:
Stare:
College:
Wrap:
Tuition:
Fruition:
Do you see the face on the TV
screen
coming at you every
Sunday
see the face on the
billboard?
that man is me.
On the cover of the
magazine
there's no question why I'm
smiling
you buy a piece of
paradise
you buy a piece of me
I'll get you everything you
wanted
I'll get you everything you
need
don't need to believe in
hereafter
just believe in me.
Cos Jesus he knows me
and He knows I'm right
I've been talking to Jesus
all my life
oh, yes he knows me
and He knows I'm right
and He's been telling me
everything is alright.
I believe in the family
with my ever loving wife
beside me
but she don't know about my
girlfriend
or the man I met last
night.
Do you believe in God
cos that's what I'm
selling
and if you wanna go to
Heaven
I'll see you right.
You won't ever have to leave
your house
or get out of your chair
you don't ever have to touch
that dial
cos I'm everywhere
And Jesus he knows me.
Won't find me practising
what I'm preaching
won't find me
making no sacrifice
but I can get you
a pocketful of miracles
if you promise to be
good,
try to be nice,
God will take
good care of you
just do as I say,
don't do as I do.
I'm counting my
blessings,
I've found true
happiness
cos I'm getting richer day by
day
you can find me in the phone
book,
just call my toll free
number
you can do it anyway you
want
just do it right away.
There'll be no doubt in your
mind
you'll believe everything I'm
saying
if wanna get closer to
him
get on your knees and start
paying
Cos Jesus He knows
me.
QUESTIONS.
2.
Do you like it? Why?
3.
What do false preachers aim at?
4.
Do you think you would be more religious if you could attend church
services watching TV at home?
5.
Do you think that people that pay money for salvation act according to
their beliefs, or do you think they act that way because they are cheated?
6.
Does this kind of preachers find their happiness in their acts, or in the
money they get?
Billboard:
Pocketful:
Toll:
Dial:
CAN IT BE WORTH
,4000 TO PINCH
A GIRL'S BOTTOM?
A court fined Tony
Brewer ,2000 for each
offence of indecent assault.
Brewer, 32, a
carpet firm boss, said yesterday: "I'm not complaining about the fine but I'd
rather not say any more."
Receptionist
Jacqueline Davies, 24, said: "The money won't bother him. But the embarrassment
will."
Brewer, married
with two children, pounced on the women after drinking at the hotel, where he
was staying for a conference.
He tweaked the
22-year-old chambermaid's bottom as she tied up his room at 10am. "She fled to
another room but Brewer followed and began chasing her around the bed,"
prosecutor Paul Latner said at Blackwood, South Wales.
"She was very
distressed."
Ten minutes earlier
Brewer, from Bromsgrove, Worcs, had asked Jacqueline to wake a friend of his in
another room at Blackwood's Maes Manor hotel.
She said yesterday
after the hearing: "I didn't know if he was genuine or if he wanted to get me
into a bedroom.
"He was very
persistent and harassing me. So I decided to get the house keeper, a lady in her
fifties.
"He told me, 'It's
got to be you.' I said, 'Forget it.' With that he made a grab for me, groping my
bottom and trying to kiss me.
"I was in tears. He
was doing his utmost to make me feel cheap."
"I wet back to my
desk, but even then he didn't stop. He was leaning over me and making lurid
remarks about my breasts."
Brewer's lawyer
Peter Mallia told the court: "It was more like a bedroom farce than a serious
assault.
"He had been up
since 3am with his colleagues and was in high spirits.
"There was a jovial
atmosphere and he completely misread the situation.
Mr Brewer admits he
put his arm around the receptionist's flank and touched the chambermaid's
bottom. But it was horseplay.
"The incident could
easily have involved someone younger and more naive."
She added: "The man
was obviously well-to-do. But no one should be allowed to get away with that
sort of behaviour."
The magistrates
ruled that Brewer could afford to pay the maximum ,100 for each of the
forty units he was fined -making a total of ,4000.
A spokeswoman for
the Fawcett Society, which promotes equality between the sexes, said last
night:
"In general women
do not like having their bottoms pinched. It is about time men realised
this."
1. Where did the event
happen?
2. Where was the guest
from?
3. Was he married?
4. Was he drunk?
5. What time was it?
6. Why was the gest at the
hotel?
7. How many girls did the
guest offend?
8. Tell the news again in no
more than 60 words.
9. Vocabulary: grab, grope,
chambermaid, harass.
Snow White and the Seven
Vertically challenged Folk
HER 'DWARFS' MAY
UPSET SHORTIES
SAYS DAFT
COUNCIL
Roll up, roll up, for a
fun-filled, production of Snow White. But don't care mention the word
dwarf.
It's so much nicer to say seven
"vertically challenged" chums.
Dopey councillors, you see,
think the word dwarf could make the little people a bit grumpy.
They want the
Christmas panto at Hull's New Theatre changed from Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs to just plain snow White.
Killjoys
Liberal Democrat
Andrew Meadowcroft insisted: "This would ensure that those suffering from the
disease are not offended."
He said: "Whatever
will they do next? Will the giant in Jack And The Beanstalk be the next to go
because he is too tall? And then they will be saying Snow White is racist and
Humpty Dumpty too fat.
"I really don't
know what is happening to our sense of humour.
"Kids will have
nothing to laugh at soon."
QUESTIONS
1. Who wants to
change the name of the film?
2. Where did it
happen?
3. Who defends the
original name of the film? Why?
4. What is your
opinion about this news? 2 or 3 lines.
5. Tell the news
again in 60 words.
6. Put the
following sentences into the indirect speech with the introducing verb in the
past:
1.
Whatever will they do next?
2. Will
the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk be the next to go because he is too
tall?
3. I
really don't know what is happening to our sense of humour.
4. Kids
will have nothing to laugh at soon.
7. Vocabulary:
Disease:
Kids:
Committee:
Dwarf:
Matthew's
Gospel 20, 1-16
2. Do you accept
the message included in the text? Why?
3. Do you think
something similar to it could happen in your school? Why?
4. Has it ever
happened to you?
5. Take out from
the text three sentences in reported speech.
6. Tell the story
again in no more than 50 words.
7. Vocabulary. Give
a synonym, antonym or explain the meaning of the following words:
Landowner:
grumble:
earning:
Women's Residence
University of Toronto.
Toronto, Ontario
December 7th.,
1983
Dear mother and dad,
It has been three
month since I left for college. I have been remiss in writing, and I very sorry
for my thoughtlessness in not having written before. I will bring you up to date
now. But, before you read, please sit down. O.K?
Well then, I am
getting along pretty well now. The skull fracture and the concussion I got when
I jumped out of the window of my dormitory when it caught fire shortly after my
arrival are pretty well healed now. I only spent two weeks in the hospital, and
now I can see almost normally and get those sickly headaches only once in a
while.
Fortunately, the
fire in the dormitory and my jump were witnessed by an attendant at the gas
station near the dorm, and he was the one who called the fire department and the
ambulance. He also visited me at the hospital, and since I had nowhere to live
because of the burned out dorm, he was kind enough to invite me to share his
apartment with him. It is really a basement room, but it's kind of cute. He is a
very fine boy and we have fallen deeply in love and are planning to get married.
We haven't set the date yet, but it will be before my pregnancy begins to
show.
Yes, mother and
dad, I am pregnant. I know how much you are looking forward to being
grandparents, and I know you will welcome the baby and give it the same love and
devotion and tender care that you gave me when I was a child. The reason for the
delay in our marriage is that my boyfriend has some minor infection which
prevents us from passing our premarital blood tests, and I carelessly caught it
from him. This will soon clear up with the penicillin injections I am now
taking daily.
I know you will
welcome him into our family with open arms. He is kind, and although not
well-educated, he is ambitious. Although he is of a different race and religion
than ours, I know your often expressed tolerance will not permit you to be
bothered by these facts.
Now that I have
brought you up to date, I want to tell you that there was no dormitory fire, I
did not have a concussion or a skull fracture, I was not in hospital, I am not
pregnant, I am not engaged, I do not have syphilis, and there is no one in my
life. However, I am getting a D in History and an F in Science, and I wanted you
to see these marks in their proper perspective.
Your loving
daughter,
Edna.
QUESTIONS
1. Tell
the letter in about 80 words.
2. Where
is the girl from?
3. Where
does she study?
4. What
marks has she got in History and Science?
5. Why does she
tell lies to her family?
6. Would you do the
same? Why?
7. Vocabulary:
Skull:
Concussion:
Blood
test:
Dormitory:
ROD'S EX TO SUE
SURGEON WHO
BOOBED.
My
breast op went wrong claims Alana
The 48-year-old
former Hollywood actress had her boobs enlarged 11 years ago months before Rod
left her and moved in with model Kelly Emberg.
Now she is suing
the surgeon, claiming negligence, deceit and intentional infliction of emotional
distress. Her court case in Los Angeles also alleges breach of warranty against
two medical companies.
Alana's action
comes as 12,000 women in the US are suing over breast implants that have gone
awry.
Many say that their
health has been devastated.
Painful
She has not
revealed what went wrong with her implants but common complaints include leaking
silicone and hardened, painful lumps.
Some women claim
they developed rheumatoid arthritis.
It has become such
a scandal that two years ago US government watchdogs banned the use of silicone
in breast implants.
One firm Alana is
suing Bristol-Myers Squibb is among three US cosmetic surgery syppliers who have
put aside a record ,2.8 billion to
settle lawsuits.
Alana wed Rod in
April 1979 but filed for divorce
five years later, just four moths after her breast op.
She was among many
Hollywood stars to have implants,
including Melanie Griffith, Mariel Hemingway, Jane Fonda, Cher, Loni Anderson
and Heather Locklear.
Divorce
Friends say she had
it done with Rod's approval but it did not help to keep the marriage
together.
Alana, mother of
their children Kimberly, now 15, and Sean, 14, is said to have won a
,3 million divorce
settlement plus ,15,000 a month
child support from Rod.
She also has a son
Ashley, 19, from her four year marriage to actor George Hamilton.
Alana, now one of
Hollywood's fashionable hostesses, has since dated Rambo star Sylvester
Stallone, producer Stan Dragosi and Texas oil millionaire Jim
Randall.
QUESTIONS
1. What company is
Alana suing?
2. What are the
most common complaints when the operation goes wrong?
3. How old is
Alana?
4. How much did she
get after her divorce?
5. How many
children has she got?
6. What other
Holliwood actresses are mentioned in the text?
7. Who has Alana
been going out with after her divorce?
8. Who was Alana
married to before Rod?
9. Vocabulary:
fashionable, hostess, leaking, breast.
10.What is your
opinion about breasts operations? Explain your ideas.
No sex please ...
we're only human. By Gill
Swain.
FORGET those juicy
stories of non-stop bonking in the nineties. They're a load of porkies.
For many couples LIE
to researchers by claiming that they have
sex several times a week.
They're afraid to admit that
the passion has gone out of their marriage, leaving their love-life totally.
limp. Couples have been fibbing like this for years. And that's not all.
Claims of extra-marital flings
and gay sex have also been wildly exaggerated, say experts.
Glenn Wilson, sex psychologist
at London University, said yesterday: "A high proportion of long-standing
marriages become virtually sexless because the partners become so familiar with
each other it would be like committing incest.
Lurid
"But they don't want anyone to
think their marriage is breaking down, so they report the 'correct' figure of
three times a week."
The experts have
stamped on those lurid charts of non-stop lust after a survey by Chicago
University
This, like January's
report Sexual Behaviour in Britain, shatters the image that people are flitting
from one partner to another.
Instead, it paints a
picture of stay-at-homes with sex lives about as exciting as a nice cup of
cocoa. It reveals that 94 per cent of people had been faithful to their partners
in the past year.
|
Couples lie about their
lays |
And 75 per cent of
married men and 85 per cent of married women declared they had never
strayed.
Nearly 3,500
randomly-selected Americans aged 18 to 59 took part in the survey.
A third said they had sex only
a few times a year or not at all.
Another third have a
romp several times a month and a quarter make love two or three times a
week.
Only 7 per cent said
they had sex more than four times a week.
So why have many
surveys in recent years branded us as rabbits going at it non-stop?
The answer, says
researcher Julia Field, lies in how are picked for the surveys.
Julia, who helped
compile January's report, said that couples who volunteered to take part in them
are likely to have full sex lives.
Such people cannot
be taken as par for the country.
Wives
Julie and her fellow
researchers got round this by quizzing a broad cross-section of people.
Only a tenth of
married men and a twentieth of wives said they had been unfaithful.
BRITISH couples make
love less than most other Europeans, say researchers. We average 1.9 times a
week, the same as the Danes.
The Dutch lead on
2.5, followed by Austria and Switzerland on 2.4.
Italians score 2.3,
the French 2.1 and Swedes and Spanish 2.0.
1. Where has this
research been carried out?
2. What does the
research reveal?
3. Give some
reasons why couples lie about their sex life.
4. Give the name of
the magazine where the truth about sex-life was said.
5. Vocabulary:
sexless, couple, survey, cocoa, shatter.
6. Summarize the
text in about 60 words.
Dear Sir,
I was surprised to
read your recent editorial on the question os student's part-time jobs. You
appear to be making a los of generalisations on the basis of just one
unfortunate incident (I assure you that not all young people who deliver
newspapers are as foolish and dishonest as the two youths mentioned in your
article).
The first point I
would like to make is that there are many jobs teenagers can do which gave them
useful experience of the working world. They are brought into contact with a
variety of people, often older, and are given experience of expressing
themselves clearly and coherently. I am thinking here of jobs such as travel
guides and shop assistants.
Another argument
for schoolchildren and college students having holiday or weekend jobs is that
many parents need the finantial assistance. If we take, for example, a family in
which the father is unemployed or perhaps a single-parent family on a low
income, it seems logical and fair that a son or daughter should try to bring
money into the household.
One futher thing I
want to say is that a lot of jobs fot the young can be fun for the people who do
them and also useful to the community. Youngsters who help in schools, hospitals
and with the elderly often derive a great deal of pleasure ans satisfaction as
well as contributing something valuable to local society.
In conclusion, I
would add that when I was a girl, my father said my teens were a time for books,
hobbies and academic studies. Thinking back, I feel I would have learnt much
more -about myself, other people and life in general- if he had allowed me to do
a limited amount of real work. Certainly, when she is old enough, I shall
encourage my own daughter to do so, rather than waste her time with soap operas,
computer games and discotheques, like so many people today.
Yours faithfully,
Margaret Williams (Mrs)
1. Answer according to the
text:
a) Give two the
advantages of working while still at school.
b) Give two cases
in which financial assistance would be helpful.
2. Are the statements True or
False. Write the evidence from the text.
a) This letter was
written to a newspaper.
b) All young people
that work are intelligent and honmest.
c) Children in
one-parent families should not work.
d) The authoress
worked when she was at school.
3. Insert the right word(s) in
the blanks. Use the right form of the word(s) in brackets.
a) A son or
daughter (ought) __________________ work to bring money into the household.
b) A lot of
generalizations (make) ______________ ____________ in your article.
c) If he had let me
(do) ___________________ a limited amount of real work I would have learnt a lot.
d) She enjoys
(waste) _________________ her time with soap operas, computers, games.
4. Fill the blanks with the
blanks with the best words from the list below: fair, teens, job, work.
a) I had a
good______________ at the Ford factory.
b) Boys should also
do housework. If only girls do things in the house, it isn't ___________.
Match the following words with
the correct meaning on the right.
Financial Assistance
a) money we spend.
Income
b) lack of money.
c) money we
earn.
d) money to help
someone.
THE
OPEN UNIVERSITY
In 1963 the leader
of the Labour Party made a speech explaining plans for a "University on the air"
-an educational system which would make usee of television, radio and
correspondence courses. Many people laughed at the idea, but it became
part of the Labour Party's Programme, to give educational opportunity to those
people who, for one reason or another, had not had a chance to receive further
education. The Open University has been a great success in one respect. About
6000 students of all ages get degrees every year. It is disappointing, however,
that the great majority of students are from middleclass, educated backgrounds.
There have, however, been a number of men and women, serving long sentences in
prison, who have taken courses successfully, and obtained degrees.
Students of the
Open University receive their lessons and lectures in their homes, by means of
special TV and radio programmes. More than 40.000 people applied, but only
25.000 people could be accepted, for the first courses in 1971. By 1980 there
were about 60.000 undergraduates.
Written work is
corrected by part-time tutors who meet their students once a month to
discuss their work with them and to set them on the right course. Science
students are given mini-laboratories which can be set up in their own
homes.
1. Answer the following
questions in your own words:
a) What kind of
students was the Open University designed for?
b) Was the idea of
an Open University accepted easily?
c) How often do
students see their tutors?
d) Where are
practical science experiments done?
2. Are the following
statements True or False? Support your answers with evidence from the text.
a) By 1963 the Open
Universityhad already started.
b) The Government
wanted most of the students to be middleclass.
c) Open University
students regularly attend classes.
d) In 1980, 60.000
students graduated from the Open University.
3. Fill in the gaps or
complete the following sentences:
a) The Open
University__________ __________ a success since it started.
b) Thsoe people
__________ are serving long sentences in prison are also able __________
__________ use of the educational facilities.
c) Mass media are
__________ __________ importance in education.
d) A speech
__________ __________ by the Leader of the Labour Party.
4. Who or What do the
following words refer to?
a) it (line 3)
b) their (line
14)
5. Match the words on the left
with one of the words on the right.
a) sentence
1) conference
b) further
2) higher
c) chance
3) word
d) speech
4) occasional
5) opportunity
6) shout
7) a talk
8) conviction
6. Write about 50/60 words on
the following topic: Give arguments for and against both traditional
universities and the Open University.