Reading comprehension exercises

1. Be ready to discuss the following problematic issues supplying examples from the text and your personal experience:

1.​ Relations between schoolchildren (concentrate on the difficulties Marcus faced in his new school and the reasons for them; talk about cases of hostile behaviour of schoolchildren towards their peers and ways of coping with it).

2.​ The impact of being different from others on a person's life (comment on the peculiarities of Marcus's personality).

3.​ Upbringing: to what extent should parents impose their ideas, however right they are, on children? (think how Marcus's mother manipulated Marcus into living her way and evaluate her method of upbringing).

4.​ Teacher responsibility in building his or her relations with a class (comment on the way Marcus's teacher tried to gain popularity with her class at Marcus's expense).

2. Find some background information about personalities and cultural phenomena mentioned in the text: Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley, Snoop Doggy Dogg, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Write out educational terms from the extract above and comment on their function in the text.

Retell the text: a) close to the text from the third person singular; b) as if you were Marcus; c) as if you were Marcus's mother; d) as if you were Ms Maguire; e) as if you were Lee Hartley.

Write a summary of the text.

6. Act out dialogues between:

1.​ Marcus and his mother discussing his new school.

2.​ Ms Maguire and her colleague talking about the weird new boy.

3.​ Lee Hartley and his buddies.

Find in the text English equivalents for the following words and word combinations. Use them in sentences of your own.

Cесть за парту; уходить, убираться; фырканье (выражение презрения); иметь отношение к чему-либо; постоянный; патрулировать; плоть; стрижка; поверхностные люди; иметь суждение, составить мнение о; хорошо с чем-либо справляться; мерзкий, противный; одобрять; бессердечный и недоброжелательный; иметь совесть; уноситься в мыслях; по какой-то причине; избегать; прочитать отрывок; сумасшедший, слабоумный.

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY

WORD COMBINATIONS AND PHRASES

1. Provide a Russian variant for the following words and word combinations:

to give sb a hard time

up and down

demented (to be demented with worry; to drive sb demented)

weird (a weird dream, a weird girl, a weird idea)

rubbish (to be rubbish at sth)

for hours

to thump (to thump sb in the face)

a load of \loads of

to be bound to

to reckon

to leave out

Match the word or word combination with its definition and provide extra information such as the word's frequency (if possible), which part of the English-speaking world it is used in (BrE, AmE), whether it is used in informal contexts, specialized contexts, etc.

Word or word combination	Extra information	Definition
1. to give sb a hard time		a. a lot of sth
2. up and down		b. behaving irratically due to anger, distress, excitement
3. demented	Infml, Br E	c. not skillful at a particular activity
4. weird		d. to think that sth is a fact, to have a particular opinion of sth
5. rubbish		e. to be very likely to do or feel a particular thing
6. for hours		f. to and fro
7. to thump		g. to deliberately make a situation difficult for sb
8. loads of		h. unusual and different from anything seen before
9. to be bound to		i. to hit sb very hard with your fist
10. to reckon		j. to not include sth in a group, list, activity
11. to leave out		k. for a very long period of time

3. Fill in the blank squares in the table if possible and make up sentences of your own with the derivatives:

Adjective	Adverb	Noun	Verb
demented
weird
rubbish

4. Find synonyms to the words and word combinations 'to give a hard time', 'weird', 'rubbish', 'demented', 'to thump', 'to reckon', 'to leave out' from the following words and word combinations:

incompetent, to think, to annoy, mad, to omit, queer, ineffectual, to beat, to assume, crazy, to harass, insane, to consider, odd, hopeless, bizarre, to believe, poor.

5. Paraphrase the following sentences using the word combinations and phrases under discussion:

1. Don't let George make the situation difficult for you – he often breaks the deadline himself. 2. The girl paced the room backwards and forwards looking very concerned. 3. I was unable to think clearly because of worry when you didn't answer the phone. 4. His strange sense of humour frightens people off him. 5. With admiration, she said that Angie was really pretty although her fashion sense was rather unusual. 6. I really am a poor cook – I'd eat my shoe rather than taste what I've cooked. 7. He could complain about his noisy neighbours for a very long time. 8. Mark hit the attacker hard with his fist and when the man fell knelt down to see his face. 9. You're getting yourself into a lot of trouble. 10. There are a lot of record shops on the Oldham Street so you'll to find something to your taste. 11. Knowing the Bennets, they are very likely to be late. 13.I believe that you can't accuse me of not making an effort. 14. Can you fix my car today? – I think no. 15. I thought of calling Jasmine but I didn't know what to say and what to exclude, and I decided not to call her at all. 16. It seemed unkind not to include Danny in the list, so he was invited too.

6. Translate the following sentences:

1. Он меня по-настоящему напряг из-за своего дневника, на который я случайно пролил кофе. 2. После этой неудачи мой одноклассники устроили мне такую веселую жизнь, что мне пришлось сменить школу. 3.Грегори ходил туда-сюда по комнате, с книгой в руке, читая вслух отрывок, который должен был заучить к следующему дню. 4. После смерти отца она была вне себя от горя и, если бы не вмешался ее муж, потеряла бы наследство из-за своих жадных родственников. 5. Чудно, должно быть, вдруг разбогатеть. 6. Странное дело, он вдруг стал меня избегать.7. Они – никуда не годная (дряная) хоккейная команда, они даже нормально на коньках кататься не умеют. 8. Если бы она действительно была трудолюбивым человеком, то не лежала бы в кровати часами, ничего не делая. 9. Детьми, братья, бывало, безжалостно колотили друг друга, но сейчас они лучшие друзья. 10. Не знаю, за что он получает такую кучу денег – он никуда не годный менеджер. 11. Мои дети такие шумные, что у нас уйма жалоб от наших соседей. 12. Если у тебя такая стрессовая ситуация на работе, это непременно скажется на твоем здоровье. 13. Мэр города вынужден был признать, что именно город обязан поддерживать в хорошем состоянии дороги, которые через него проходят. 14. Джастин считает, что нам придется смириться с чудной прической дочери, хотя она должна почувствовать, что мы ее не одобряем. 15. Имей совесть признать, что ты не включил мой рассказ в книгу не потому, что он был плох, а потому, что мы сейчас в натянутых отношениях. 16. Его странность так очевидна, что ты не можешь опустить это в своем отзыве.

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