Exercise 5. Make up a summary of the given excerpt.

Exercise 6. Comment on the following:

1. Characters - the Director, students, nurses, the kids;

2. Phrases - What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder;

- They were Alphas, of course, but even Alphas have been well conditioned;

- For that there must be words, but words without reason. In brief, hypnopaedia. The greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time.

Exercise 7. Translate the passage beginning with “The nurses stiffened to attention as the D.H.C. came in.” and ending with “Still yelling, the khaki babies were loaded on to their dumb-waiters and wheeled out, leaving behind them the smell of sour milk and a most welcome silence.”.

Exercise 8. Translate the following words and learn them for a dictation:

a notice board

a cherub

apoplectic

stiffened

invitingly

a waiter-dumb laden

a caste

to crawl

to suffuse

to touch

to grasp

to crumple

shriller

jerkily

to shrink away

indissolubly

a policy

to compel

a grave defect

to abolish

an elaborate apparatus

sibilant

a cot

to bend over

a speaker

crude

incrust

a suggestion

Exercise 9. Vocabulary. Read the following questions and work on the vocabulary from the text:

1. In the beginning of the passage we read about the caste system in this futuristic society. What do you know about the caste system? What was the first society that had castes in it?

2. Why do you think the author uses the letters of the Greek alphabet to name the castes? In what other cases do we use the Greek alphabet? What other Greek letters do you know?

3. When describing the babies approaching books and flowers, the author uses the words of the sense perception semantic field like to touch, to grasp, to crumple. What other words showing the same activity can you mention?

4. Reading about the “Elementary Class Consciousness” we learn that Alphas wear grey, Gammas wear green, Deltas wear khaki, Epsilons wear black. Why do the author gives the caste such colours? What are other colours that have negative connotation? Find examples in the Russian language too.

Exercise 10. Grammar:

A. What is the tense of the narration? Single out predicates in the Past Simple Tense. What form of the irregular verbs do we use in Past Simple Tense? Complete the table with the Past Simple Tense (the second form) of the following irregular verbs:

B. Complete the sentences using the right form of the verb in brackets:

1. A nurse _____ (to rise) as they _____ (to enter) and _____ (to come) to attention before the Director.

2. As they _____ (to approach), the sun _____ to (come out) of a momentary eclipse behind a cloud.

3. From the ranks of the crawling babies _____ (to come) little squeals of excitement, gurgles and twitterings of pleasure.

4. He _____ (to wave) his hand again, and the Head Nurse _____ (to press) a second lever.

5. In silence the nurses _____ (to obey) his command.

6. Primroses and landscapes, he _____ (to point out), have one grave defect: they are gratuitous.

7. Rosy and relaxed with sleep, eighty little boys and girls _____ (to lie) softly breathing.

8. The Director _____ (to open) a door.

9. The Director _____ (to rub) his hands. "Excellent!" he _____ (to say).

10. The Director _____ (to wait) until all were happily busy.

11. The Head Nurse, who _____ (to stand by) a switchboard at the other end of the room, _____ (to press) down a little lever.

12. The roses _____ (to flame up) as though with a sudden passion from within; a new and profound significance seemed to suffuse the shining pages of the books.

13. The students _____ (to take) it down in their little books.

14. There _____ (to be) a violent explosion.

15. There _____ (to be) something desperate, almost insane, about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now _____ (to give) utterance.

16. They _____ (to hurry out) of the room and _____ (to return) in a minute or two, each pushing a kind of tall dumb-waiter laden, on all its four wire-netted shelves, with eight-month-old babies, all exactly alike and all dressed in khaki.

Additional information about the author and the book.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 780