Comment on the paragraph in which the author speaks about love. (Chapter XXX).

Unit VIII

Chapters XXXV-XXXIX

1. Study the following words and word combinations, explain their meaning in English, give the context in which they are used:

1. to be left in peace

2. a low cry of distress

3. an abyss of cruelty

4. to gather together the threads again

5. to hurry to and fro

6. to keep one’s house trim and spruce

7. broken spirit

8. to have a knack for drawing

9. with a heavy heart

10. a thrill of horror

11. the curiosity got the better of smb.

12. to scream at the top of one’s voice

13. a work of art

14. to look at smb. in stupid amazement

2. Say whether the following statements are true or false:

1. Blanche wanted to be left in peace, she refused to see anyone.

2. Blanche refused to have Strickland sent for because she was too weak.

3. The narrator tried to put Stroeve and his sorrows out of his mind, because he wanted to enjoy life.

4. Stroeve made up his mind to go to Italy.

5. Dirk’s parents were pleased that their son should be an artist

6. Dirk would have rather missed all the delight art had given him.

7. Dirk couldn’t destroy the picture, because it was Blanche.

8. Strickland agreed to come with Dirk to Holland, because they both loved Blanche.

3. Fill in prepositions:

1. Dirk gave a cry … distress.

2. The narrator wondered what an abyss … cruelty. She must have looked … that … horror she refused to live.

3. The narrator took a new pleasure … the streets … Paris, and he looked … smiling eyes … the people who hurried … and … .

4. The fact that Blanche had washed … the things as usual gave Dirk a little thrill … horror.

5. Dirk stood back … order to see the picture … his ease.

6. Dirk was going to make a great hole … the picture, he had his arm all ready … the blow, when suddenly he realized that he couldn’t touch it.

7. Besides his picture Dirk owned nothing … world after his wife’s death, but a box … clothes and a few books.

8. Dirk was young still, and … a few years he would look … all his misery … a sadness … which there would be something unpleasurable.

Discussion.

Give the précis of the part. Answer the questions and motivate your answer:

1. What made the narrator feel he could have killed Strickland?

2. Why do you think Strickland never came to see Blanche when she was dying?

3. What did Dirk Stroeve call the wisdom of life?

4. Do you think Dirk Stroeve was really sorry that he had not become an honest carpenter?

5 .What is Art in Dirk’s opinion?

6. Why didn’t Dirk Stroeve hack Strickland’s picture to pieces?

7. Why did the author think that people cannot recognize Beauty when they are face to face with it?

8. Did Stroeve have a love and an understanding of beauty? What did it mean to him?

9 .What did Dirk say to Strickland when he saw him the last time they should ever meet?

5. Enact a conversation between:

1. Dirk Stroeve and the nurse;

2. Dirk Stroeve and the narrator the day before he left for Amsterdam.

Comment on the passage where:

Dirk Stroeve speaks about Art.

Unit IX

Chapters XL-XLIV

1. Study the following words and word combinations, explain their meaning in English, give the context in which they are used:

1. to bite one’s lip

2. to laugh at smb. up one’s sleeve

3. to ruin one’s life

4. to snatch smb. from the jaws of death

5. to hide a shameful secret

6. to give a sudden flash of anger

7. to speak with a passion of indignation

8. to try one’s tricks

9. to be on the threshold of a surprising adventure

10. to hold one’s tongue

11. lop-sided

12. pictures of still life

13. life-size portraits

2. Say whether the following statements are true or false:

1. When the narrator met Charles Strickland he didn’t want his company, because the sight of him brought back to him all the horror which he was not unwilling to forget.

2. The narrator was puzzled by Strickland, but he wasn’t eager to see how the painter regarded the tragedy he had caused in the lives of people who had used him with so much kindness.

3. Strickland didn’t want love, he didn’t have time for it and thought it was weakness.

4. In Strickland’s opinion, Blanche Stroeve didn’t commit suicide because he left her, but because she was a foolish and unbalanced woman.

5. The narrator was bitterly disappointed at first sight when he saw Strickland’s pictures, he thought that Strickland drew very badly and was unimpressed.

6. The narrator imagined that on seeing Strickland’s pictures he should get a clue to the understanding of his strange character.

7. Strickland’s real life consisted of dreams and of tremendously hard work.

8. Strickland was a man of great intelligence, but his views on painting were by no means out of the ordinary.

9. Strickland as well as Brueghel were trying to put down in paint ideas which were more suitable to literature.

3. Fill in prepositions:

1. It was characteristic … Strickland to display geniality anyone who showed a disinclination to meet him.

2. There was a tin … tobacco … the table, and taking … his pipe, Strickland filled it.

3. Blanche was a governess … the family … some Roman prince and the son … the house seduced her.

4. Strickland spoke … a passion … indignation.

5. Strickland stood before the narrator, motionless, … a mocking smile … his eyes.

6. Strickland placed a picture … the easel, and let the narrator look … it … a minute or two; then took it down and put another … its place.

7. Most … Strickland’s pictures have found their way … museums, and the rest are the treasured possessions … wealthy amateurs.

8. Facts were nothing to Strickland, … beneath the mass … irrelevant incidents he looked … something significant to himself.

9. The narrator never heard Strickland speak … those whose work had a certain analogy … his own.

10. Strickland’s humour was sardonic, he made one laugh sometimes … speaking the truth.

Discussion.

Give the précis of the part. Answer the questions and motivate your answer:

1. Why did the narrator welcome the opportunity to see Strickland’s pictures?

2. Why did the narrator fail to recognize at once the beauty and the great originality of Strickland’s pictures?

3. Do you agree with what the author says about the tragic union of Strickland and Blanche Stroeve?

4. Do you agree with the author that art is really a manifestation of the sexual instinct?

5. Do you think a talented man can sacrifice not only himself but others for his aim?

6. Why can’t one call Strickland a witty, intelligent man?

7. What was Strickland’s opinion of the great artists of the past?

8. What made the narrator think that Strickland was an odious man, but a great one?

5. Comment on the paragraph in which the author says that a man’s work reveals him (chapter XLII); that each of us is alone in the world (Chapter XLII).

6. Enact a conversation between the narrator and Strickland about Blanche Stroeve’s death.

Unit X

Chapters XLV-XLIX

1. Study the following words and word combinations, explain their meaning in English, give the context in which they are used:

1. to revive one’s interest in smb.

2. to be fond of gossip

3. to give smb. an ingratiating smile

4. to keep body and soul together

5. to look for trouble

6. to be in constant need of money

7. a man of consequence

8. to buy for a song

9. to be beyond one’s means

10. to collect oneself

11. to be taken aback

12. to make head or tail of something

13. to take a keen interest in smth.

2. Say whether the following statements are true or false:

1. Strickland achieved completely the realization of his dream in Tahiti.

2. The narrator became richer for his acquaintance with Captain Nichols.

3. The narrator prepared to regard Captain Nichols as a trustworthy witness.

4. Strickland made a great impression on the people who came in contact with him in Tahiti.

5. M. Cohen’s wife couldn’t hang up the picture, because she and her husband couldn’t make head or tail of it.

6. Mrs. Johnson was a rich woman, to know her was a priviledge.

7. Mrs. Johnson was the best cook on the island, and she adored good food.

8. Strickland could swear he had lived in Tahiti before.

9. Mrs. Johnson was not sorry for Strickland, because he never had any money and he couldn’t stick to anything.

3. Fill in prepositions:

1. No artist achieves completely the realization … the dream that obsesses him.

2. Beachcombers are easy … approach and affable … conversation.

3. The narrator tried to put some connexion … the various things Captain Nichols told him about Strickland.

4. Tough Bill was not the man to put … … with humiliation at the hands … a common sailor.

5. The narrator liked the picture … Strickland, starting … the age … forty-seven, when most men have already settled comfortably … a groove, … a new world.

6. The old Frenchman’s brother would not have given the cost … postage … the picture, he never thought Strickland had genius.

7. Strickland reached Tahiti … six months … he left Marseilles.

8. He had a few pounds … his pocket, … he had found work … Sydney, and he took a small room … a native house outside the town.

4. Discussion. Give the précis of the part. Answer the questions and motivate your answer:

1. What kind of island was Tahiti? Why does the author compare it with a lovely woman graciously prodigal of her charm and beauty?

2. Who was Tiaré Johnson and what part did she play in Strickland’s life?

3. What was Strickland’s attitude towards the people he came in contact with? What impression did he produce on them?

4. What created a change in public opinion of Strickland’s pictures in Tahiti?

5. What did the old trader and his wife think of the public before Strickland died and became renowned? Did they think much of the picture afterwards?

6. Do you think Strickland liked his life in Tahiti? Why could he swear that he had lived there before?

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1070