1. Think about the subtitle of the second part. How does it comment on its contents?
2. Complete the table below:
| Chapter
| Highlights
Fill in the gaps.
| Important Quotes
Think about the issues the author addresses and the ideas he comes up with.
| Words and phrases
| Definitions/Translation/Use
|
|
| Pat _________________.
Harry recollects____________.
__________________ meets Pat at the end of his first day at school.
| “He can’t even do his shoes up!”
“I wanted Pat to feel as secure as that.”
“If you don’t like it, we can stop.”
| 1.brand new
2.to do one’s shoes up
3.to bend the world to one’s own will
4.a special treat
5.to breathe hard
|
|
|
| Harry is on____________. They go to the cinema and then for a walk.
Cyd tells Harry about___________.
Cyd and Harry exchange stories about________________.
| “Dating is a young person’s game.”
“The first film we see together is really important.”
“The way she told it, her parents never came off their honeymoon.”
“I just chose wrong.”
“I lost my moorings there for a while.”
| 1.to get out of practice
2.to change for the worse
3.to tighten one’s belt
4.to rub off on to somebody
5.to take for granted
|
|
|
| Peggy is allowed to______________.
Eamon Fish comes to Harry because _______________________________.
| “Pat wanted to blow up the Death Star. Peggy wanted to hang drapes.”
“What did I do all day?”
“I would like anyone who liked my boy.”
| 1.to drive somebody up the wall
2.to register
3.to turn somebody down
4.as deaf as a post
5.on a part-time basis
|
|
|
| Pat is _____________.
Harry is watching _______________ while they are shooting their pilot show.
Harry visits _________________.
| “It was a mother’s indulgence.”
“Divorce makes children hide their hearts.”
“Everybody looked at me as if I were a genius.”
“He wanted me to have it all.”
“One more chance to get it right.”
| 1.to give the blues
2.to sneer at somebody
3.a big shot
4.to take the opportunity
5. sulky
|
|
|
| Harry gets visitors –_______________.
_____________ go for a walk, she comes to his place after work.
| “The boy is welcome to crash with us any time.”
“We have to be sure we want the same things.”
| 1.to make a mountain out of a molehill
2.to be out of fashion
3.out of the blue
4.to look in on somebody
5.to see past/beyond something
|
|
|
| ______________ fails to collect Peggy, so Harry takes his son and Peggy home. Harry feels alienated from ________________.
The narrator thinks about the modern ______________.
Harry buys ____________ for Peggy and his son. Harry meets Cyd who tells him that Peggy is______________.
| “They all looked at me as though I were the enemy.”
“We mess up our lives, and it is these forlorn figures who pick up the bill.”
“I don’t want my daughter to meet strange men who might be out of my life very soon.”
| 1.not to have a clue
2.thin-skinned
3.to give a wide berth
4.to carry the can
5.to get attached to somebody
|
|
|
| Harry talks to Eamon because of ______________.
Harry doesn’t like ____________ Cyd has set.
The narrator thinks why men of his age go out with ______________.
Harry hires _____________ to cover for him and cook for Pat but it doesn’t work.
| “But I’m a man, okay?”
“I don’t want you to be an uncle to Peggy.”
“The younger woman has fewer reasons to be bitter.”
“She knew as much about child care as I knew about theoretical physics.
| 1.to take off
2.to get a grip on oneself
3.to split up with somebody
4.to cover for somebody
5.to show willing
|
|
|
| Harry, Cyd and their kids celebrate _____________ at the place of Harry’s parents.
_____________ has a conversation with Harry’s parents.
Cyd and Harry ______________ after the party.
| “That kind of unconditional love was impossible.”
“The state can never take the place of a parent.”
“Some women have to work, but it doesn’t mean their children don’t come first.”
“Everybody had a good time. Except you.”
| 1.a smasher
2.to feel for somebody
3.to go down the wrong hole
4.to come first
5.to make an effort
|
|
|
| The narrator thinks about how to build a relationship with ____________.
Harry thinks about Peggy’s __________ Jim.
| “Being a parent is mostly intuitive.”
“Was I meant to be her friend or her father?”
“You can’t compete with blood.”
| 1.flesh and blood
2.sweetness and light
3.to get off lightly
4. to drop the bomb
5.to compete with smb
|
|
|
| Harry is trying to figure out who his son ____________.
Harry has a talk with his dad about ________________________.
Harry’s ________ gets mutilated.
Harry and Cyd ______________.
When they are back they ______________ in their house.
| “He looked like both of us.”
“Everything seems so broken up.”
“You must see the doctor.”
“I wanted to hold on to the moment.”
“They were useless at housework, just as they will be useless at everything else they attempt in their brainless, designer-labelled lives.”
| 1. to get into a marriage
2. to have the heart
3. to make one’s blood boil
4. to give the thumbs up
5. to have the time of one’s life
|
|
|
| Gina is _________ from Japan. She meets Harry ________________.
Harry is at his parents’ place and meets his ________________ there.
Gina _____________ and promises to bring him home a couple of hours later.
| “How could she imagine that it was only a couple of months? It was actually more than four.”
“This was my father’s family – a family of men, shrewd, tough Londoners who were sentimental about children…who prided themselves on knowing how the world worked.”
“They didn’t hear me.”
| 1. to turn heads
2.skin deep
3.around the clock
4. to make a fuss about something
5. to pride oneself on something
|
|
|
| Harry’s mother calls him at work to tell him that ____________________.
Harry and his mum are in _______________.
| “There was lots that could be done. But there was also nothing that could be done.”
“He was protecting us.”
| 1. to cut down on smth
2. to take smb’s place
3. to stay in touch
4.a short-term relationship
5. to torment and torture smb
|
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