Text 3 firefly summer

By Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy (b. 1940) - an Irish novelist, newspaper columnist and speaker.

(The plot revolves around the rural town of Mountfern between the years

of 1963 and 1966. Patrick O’Neill [ou'ni:l], an American businessman,

returns to “the land of his ancestors” to build a resort out of a condemned

castle.)

Kerry O’Neill had no great hopes about his new school. He had gone there with his father for an unsatisfactory visit, and Father Minehan ['mainihən] had marked out a certain amount of work that would have to be done. He had agreed that since Kerry was fifteen, it would not be practical for him to learn the Irish language at this stage, but he would be expected to master enough of it to get the general sense of things Irish.

He was a forbidding -looking man, white, ascetic, with a nervous smile. He had managed to suggest more than once to Kerry’s father that the (10) school, which was a very illustrious one, had fallen on hard times due to a massive and expensive rebuilding programme.

Kerry had been quiet and respectful through most of the interview. At an early stage in the proceedings he realised that Father Minehan didn’t respond to charm. He walked admiringly around the old buildings and asked bright questions about the original building and the time the order had first set it up.

“It’s only been here a hundred years. It’s not one of our older foundations,” Father Minehan had said a little testily.

“Don’t forget, I’m from the United States. That seems very old to me,” (20) Kerry said with a smile.

Father Minehan softened then. Kerry had said the right thing.

Coming home in the car, his father looked at Kerry.

“ You handled that one well, son. Our sort of clerics, wasn’t he?”

Kerry didn’t join in what he considered his father’s all-men-together mode. “I think he was all right, he has a job to do. ”

Patrick was annoyed. “What do you mean, he has a job to do?”

“Well, just that. He has to keep me in my place, arrogant young American know-all, trample me down a bit. He has to try to fleece you for his building fund. Irish-American: more money than sense, get him (30) to sign a check.”

Patrick gave a genuine shout of laughter.

“It didn’t take you long to sum him up. Still, it’s got a great reputation. It’s one of the finest schools in Ireland.”

Kerry turned away to look out of the window. He knew what his father would say next, and he knew the tone he would say it in. Patrick was about to say that he got the poorest of educations in grade school and had to go back when he was twenty to learn more than reading and writing. He often said this. But he never got the response he was hoping for. Kerry O’Neill never once said that it certainly hadn’t made (40) any difference, as Father had done so well. He never said anything at all.

NOTES

of things Irish – обо всём, что касается Ирландии

forbidding – repellent

the order – a community under a religious rule

all-men-together mode – зд. панибратский взгляд

to fleece – to take money from somebody in a dishonest way

to sum smb up – to make a judgment about what smb is like

grade school – an elementary, or primary school

had done so well – had succeeded

EXERCISES

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