ASSIGNMENT #10

CHAPTER IX

I. Study the pronunciation of the following words:

adventitious; indecipherable; prairie; deficiency; aesthetic; circumstantial; superfluous; defiance; pasquinade; involuntarily; commensurate

II. Explain the meaning of the words. Use them in the situations from the text:

to set the key for smth. 171; to be into mischief 172; to grow upon smb. 172; to urge smb. to do smth. 173; a token of smth. 173; to get mixed in smth. 174/180; to be knocked down and out 174; to defer arrangements 176; to sneer 177; in vain 178; to seem reluctant to do smth. 181; to overtake smb. 186; to retreat back into smth. 188

III. Give English equivalents from the text of the following Russian phrases:

1. Уилсона определили как человека, поменявшегося от горя 172

2. У него не было ни гроша в кармане 179

3. Я вытащил его из грязи, из ничтожества 179

4. Он бы далеко пошел 182

5. Стоило ей только кивнуть 186

6. Сейчас мне уже наплевать 186

7. Он вам пускал пыль в глаза 187

IV. Situations of encouragement

V. Comment on the following sentences:

1. “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead” p. 180

2. “I’m thirty,” I said. “I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honour” p. 186

3. “… that huge incoherent failure of a house” p. 188

VI. Prepare a written translation of a passage on p. 184 from “That’s my middle west...” to ”… and no one cares”.

VII. Topics for discussion:

1. Why almost nobody showed up for Gatsby’s funeral? What do you think of the reasons Klipspringer, Wolfshiem and others gave not to come?

2. How does the schedule for September 12, 1906 characterize Gatsby?

3. Jordan Baker. Did you manage to get her personality?

4. How do you account for the visions Nick was haunted by? (p. 185)

5. Is Tom directly guilty of Gatsby’s death? Why do you think Nick shook hands with Tom after all?

6. On having been published in 1934 the book didn’t sell well. Fitzgerald attributed it to the ‘weak’ title. Would you agree that “Great Gatsby” leads to the commercial failure of the novel?

For the final class, please, submit an essay to the topic “What is great in Great Gatsby?”

РАЗДЕЛ 4

«The Bridge of San Luis Rey» by Th. Wilder

Thornton Niven Wilder was born in 1897 at Madison, Wisconsin, USA. His father had gained a Doctorate at Yale and became an editor and owner of two newspapers. His brilliant editorials made his career. He was appointed by President Th. Roosevelt American Consul-General in Shanghai and Hong Kong between the years 1905-1909. From the age of seven to eleven Wilder junior attended school in China. His parents returned to America in 1910 and settled at Berkley in California. There young Thornton began to write. When he entered Yale he had already produced three short plays. Having a cultural family background Wilder began at an early age to study economy, history, philosophy and literature, which can be easily traced in his literary production. Wilder graduated in 1920 also from Yale and went to Europe to study architecture in Italy. On his return to America young Wilder taught French at school and wrote some short stories. In 1927 his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey was published alongside with some plays. The publication of The Bridge... made him famous in one night. It won him his first Pulitzer Prize, a notable American award for literature. His later plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth got wide recognition and brought Wilder his second and third Pulitzer Prize. Some of Wilder’s novels and plays have been translated into Russian. Wilder died in 1975.

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