Лекция: Chapters 31 and 32

Vocabulary work

I. Learn the following words and expressions:

— recollection — star sign — the chances were slim — injustice — collar bone — concussion — DIY — to sulk — desperate — jerk — train fare — Easter — (train) carriage — blindfold

— to bump into — trust — to peek — to bounce off smth. — to weed smth. out — payphone — answerphone — vehicle — to be cut out for smth. — Big deal! — slice — pine nuts — pertinent

II. Answer the questions:

What did Marcus’s father want to see him and why do you think Marcus refused?
What made Marcus change hid decision about the trip to Cambridge?
What kind of a game Marcus thought of at the train station?
What happened at the pub after Will and Fiona got there?

III. State who these words belong to. Translate and reproduce the situations in which they are used:

“I think he’s feeling a bit pathetic. <…> maybe he’s having this big think about his life.”
“You should go and see him. Tell him what you think of him. I would. Jerk. I’ll come with you, if you like. Give him what for.”
“I’m going to guide you through all these people and I’m going to get you on the train, and then you’ll trust me forever.”
“Will this happen every time you meet somebody? I have to see them for a drink, even though I don’t really know you, let alone them?”
“You could throw that slice of lemon across the pub and hit somebody who was better than me.”

IV. Translate into English:

— привыкнуть к мысли;

— взбодриться;

— передумать;

— управляемая ракета;

— переусердствовать;

— отговорить кого-то от чего-л.;

— она должна была заметить;

— антикварная мебель;

— таксист.

Oral practice

V. Comment on the following:

1. Ellie was like a guided missile in school, and sometimes it felt as though she were his personal guided missile. Whenever he was with her he could point her at targets and she destroyed them, and he loved her for it. (p. 232)

2. He suddenly remembered something that he’d seen in one of the Open University programmes his mum used to have to watch for her course. He’d watched it with her because it was funny: there were all these people in a room, and half of them were wearing blindfolds, and the other half had to lead the blindfolded half around and not let them bump into each other. It was something to do with trust, his mum had said. If someone could guide you around safely when you were feeling vulnerable, then you learnt to trust them, and that was important. (p. 236)

3. And they were away. It was easier than he could possibly have anticipated: all he had to do was listen and nod and ask pertinent questions. (p. 244)

VI. Give a good literary translation of the following:

1. “The clocks had gone forward for everybody, not just him, and there was no way that every depressed mother was going to cheer up, there was no way that every kid in Britain was going to score the winning goal for the school football team – especially every kid in Britain who hated football and didn’t know which end of a ball to kick – and there was certainly no way that every single twelve-year-old was going to become fifteen overnight. The chances of it happening to even one of them were pretty slim, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be Marcus, knowing his luck.” (p. 229)

2. “The tube wasn’t crowded. It was mid-afternoon – his dad had worked out the train times so that Lindsey could pick him up from Cambridge on her way home from work – and there was only one other person in his carriage, an old guy reading the evening paper. He was looking at the back page, so Marcus could see some of the stuff on the front; the first thing he noticed was the photo. It seemed so familiar that for a moment he thought it was a picture of someone he knew, a member of the family, and maybe they had it at home, in a frame on the piano, or pinned on to the cork board in the kitchen.” (p. 234)

3. “‘I’ll go and phone her.’ He went to the payphone, got the answerphone, waited for a human interruption that never came, and went back to his seat without leaving a message. The only excuse he would accept, he decided, would involve Ali and a large articulated vehicle… Unless she had never intended to come. He suddenly realized with terrible clarity that he’d been set up, that when Rachel had said that he would get the hang of it if she showed him how, this is what she had meant.” (p. 240-241)

VII.Agree or disagree with the following statements: