Professional Documents
Culture Documents
English Practical Course Workbook: Janeta Lupu
English Practical Course Workbook: Janeta Lupu
Third Edition
Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naionale a Romniei
LUPU, JANETA
English practical course workbook /Janeta Lupu. 3-nd ed. -
Bucureti: Editura Fundaiei Romnia de Mine, 2006
144 p.; 20,5 cm
Bibliogr.
ISBN 973-725-528-3
811.111(075.8)
JANETA LUPU
Third Edition
Foreword .. 7
GLOBAL ISSUES
Lesson 1. Globalization 9
The Present Tense .. 14
Lesson 2. International Crime .. 19
The Present Perfect Tense .. 23
Lesson 3. Demands of Human Solidarity . 27
The Past Tenses .. 29
Lesson 4. Communications .. 33
The Modal Verbs 37
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
Lesson 1. Education .. 43
The Subjunctive . 46
Lesson 2. Career ... 49
Direct and Indirect Speech . 56
Lesson 3. Family Life ... 59
The Passive Voice .. 63
Lesson 4. Feminism .. 67
The Sequence of Tenses . 71
LEISURE & ENTERTAINMENT
Lesson 1. Book review . 73
The Infinitive .. 77
5
Lesson 2. Sculpture .. 81
The Participle . 85
Lesson 3. Music.. 89
The Gerund . 93
Lesson 4. Beauty Pageants ... 97
Consolidation Exercises 103
Specimen Lesson Plan ... 107
Punctuation ... 108
Teaching English through Games 113
Translation Corpus ... 119
Bibliography . 144
6
FOREWORD
The author
7
8
GLOBAL ISSUES
Lesson 1
GLOBALIZATION
9
Challenges and Opportunities
Preamble
Economic aspects
10
Social aspects
Political aspects
12
Globalization and Democracy
Curiously enough, there are those who view the stability brought
about by globalization as a threat to democracy. You might think that
anything that promotes world peace and prosperity could hardly be a
threat to democracy. And yet the objectors do have a point, in a way.
What the loss of national sovereignty entailed by globalization means,
they say, is that in many instances individual nation-states will no
longer have the independence to act in accordance with the
democratically expressed wishes of their citizens; the will of the
people will inevitably be curtailed, frustrated, by a nations
international commitments and obligations to the world community.
That is undeniably true. Multilateral and transnational ties designed
to promote international cooperation and stability reduce the scope
for unilateral action and national self-determination (in a global
world, no nation go it alone). That notwithstanding, this particular
objection to globalization misses the mark.
The only acceptable form of democracy is one based on an
entrenched, constitutional respect for human rights, i.e., the rights
and liberties of individuals. This is what is called liberal democracy.
Perhaps the single most important element in liberal democracy is the
rule of law. It is the presence or absence of the rule of law that
determines whether a society can be said to be free or not.
(adapted from Globalization by G.B.
Madison, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy;
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario)
Bibliography:
13
Comprehension
Divide the text into units and make your own commentaries on
each of the aspects of globalization mentioned in the text.
The text is adapted from a longer essay. What characteristics of
the academic style can you infer from the text?
Find the meanings of the words in italics and use them in
sentences of your own.
Make sure you understand the meanings of the following
phrasal verbs and then make up sentences: to break into, to break off,
to break up, to blow off, to knock down, to point out, to hold up, to tell
off, to put off, to let down.
Grammar
Read the sentences of a diary and mind the use of the present
simple for daily habits with the following verbs: give, touch, start,
end, do, try, get up, have, collect, sort out, manage, collapse, update,
print off, drive, leave, grab, go.
14
with different time zones. Then I the e-mails and either action or
file them.
At 10.15 am I the post for my boss as I try to have everything
ready before I speak to him.
At 10.30 am I my boss a call. He dictation with me over the
phone for letters and e-mails.
At 1 pm I to get a break and a sandwich, although I try to
take two proper lunch breaks a week. Otherwise my day and in
one breath.
At 2 pm I to sort out my calls in between doing the typing,
which I try to finish before 4 pm. I usually e-mail, fax or read things
over the phone for my boss to proof.
At 5 pm I base with my boss and him on what he has asked
me to do, then I fax him a list of messages.
At 6 pm I home and , although I do go to the gym when I
have got the energy.
(from The Times, 2000)
a) in demonstrations
Pre-heat the oven to 190C. Place the red onions in a roasting tin
with the balsamic vinegar, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and seasoning.
Mix well and roast in the oven for an hour. Seal the chicken breasts on
both sides in the remaining olive oil over a medium heat before
brushing each one with pesto.
Add the tomatoes, pine nuts and shredded basil to the roasted
onions. Pour in the chicken stock and place the pesto-glazed chicken
breasts on top of the onion mixture. Return to the oven and roast for
16
25 minutes or until chicken breasts are tender. Serve with mash or
roast potatoes.
Hagi hits the ball off the back front, and it goes straight to the
boundary.
Note: The speaker may also use the present progressive in his/her
commentary; the chioce will depend either on the duration of the
action, or on the speaker's point of view.
c) in announcements:
d) in headlines:
17
I run to the bus stop and find I've just missed the bus! (real event,
colloquial usage).
When Hamlet meets his father's ghost, he learns the truth about
his uncle Claudius. (fictitious event)
f) in stage directions:
Written Assignment
18
Lesson 2
INTERNATIONAL CRIME
19
Terrorism
20
Money Laundering
Comprehension
Answer the following questions:
a) What do we mean by international crime?
b) What types of international crime do you know?
c) What may the causes of such crimes be?
d) What is domestic terrorism?
e) Why is it dangerous?
f) How do the terrorist organizations operate?
g) Who are the victims of the terrorist attacks?
h) What is money laundering?
i) What is the main motivation for money laundering?
j) How does money laundering affect the states?
k) How do the international institutions try to prevent international
crime?
Present Perfect
You often use the present perfect with some of the following
time adverbials. Which ones?
all my life, ever, just, last month, already, next week, lately, now,
for three days, never, so far, since 1989, yesterday, yet, recently.
23
Fill in the blanks using the present perfect of the following
verbs: hit, be awash, call in, display, donate.
a) One thing (to change) over the years and that is his
attitude to studying.
b) Judges (to become) their latest unwitting victims.
c) The company (to pick up) market share from rivals.
d) The IMF and the World Bank (to have) always their
critics, usually left-leaning academics.
e) The Net (to open) the way for new coalitions of dissidents
unionists, environmentalists, feminists, human-rights
campainers.
f) The anti-globalizers (to reach) the point where they are an
organized association, with their sections, their commissions,
and their treasury. They are the rebels of our age.
g) The actors union (to campaign) for casting on the gounds
of talent alone.
h) Her family (to spend) the last few years travelling from
country to country.
i) His remarks (to turn) the spotlight on the most emotive
issue within the teaching profession.
24
Present Perfect in Future Time Clauses
Written Assignment
25
Translate into Romanian:
26
Lesson 3
27
The teachings of the religions have often been adjusted to suit the
dominant social order as of male domination, slavery, the class and
caste system and not contested their evils over long periods of time.
Though their messages are universal and open to all persons and
times, they have not generally been concerned with their application to
global realities, especially in relation to the worldwide organization of
socio-economic life. While religious funadamentalisms lead to
unfortunate social conflicts, religious values can be the underpinning
base for coalitions for world justice and peace.
World religions, as international agencies with a message of
justice and good-will to all, have the opportunity and obligation to
face this crisis of humanity. Religions, led by persons of good-will
and generosity can be bases for global networking of the people of
good-will. They must endeavour to work together for the realization of
their core values and thus give meaning to the present search for
human solidarity and the safeguarding of nature for future generations.
Comprehension
28
Read the text attentively and consider its style; can you realize
what is the profession of its author?
Grammar
For the past three years, Lindita Rexhepi, an ethnic Albanian high
school student from the mining city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo,
has not been able to go home. She (be) 14 when Serb troops
(expel) her and her family from their cement-block home and
(force) them across the border into Montenegro. When the war
(end) in 1999, they (return) to find the narrow road into their
hillside neighbourhood blocked by Serbs. The last time Lindita
(try) to visit (be) nearly a year ago. Riding in a police car under the
protection of French troops from the NATO-led peace-keeping force
KFOR, she and her family (attack - passive) by a gang of men who
(lob) a tear-gas canister through the front window. I (freeze),
Lindita says of the incident. I (can) not even move my legs. Now,
we dont even try anymore.
(TIME, February, 2002)
29
Past events (Situations)
Past Progressive
Read the sentences and explain the use of the past progressive
in each situation:
30
Past Simple and Past Perfect
31
(be) purely physical and (explain) the needles jitters as the
nervousness of a conservative Catholic when asked about his
extramarital affair.
(TIME, February, 2002)
Written Assignment
32
Lesson 4
COMMUNICATIONS
34
The text above is a scientific essay written by Neal Stephenson
and published in New York Times, 2001. Scientific texts use what we
call ESP (English for Specific Purposes). ESP has certain
characteristics. Look at the next text and then try to infer the
chracteristics of scientific texts:
mo
m =
1- v2/c2
where the rest mass mo represents the mass of a body that is not
moving and c is the speed of light, which is about 3 105 km . sec-1, or
about 186,000m. sec-1.
Suppose that Moe is moving in the x-direction with a uniform
velocity u, and he measures the position of a certain point, shown in
Fig. 15 -1. He designates the x-distance of the point in his
coordinate system as x. Joe is at rest and measures the position of the
same point, designating its x-coordinate in his system as x'. The
relationship of the coordinates in the two systems is clear from the
diagrams.
How can you describe the text in point of its structure and
vocabulary?
35
Comprehension
After reading the first text, look up the meaning of the words in
italics using them in contexts of your own.
Talk with your colleagues about your e-mails and on-line chats.
Use as many special terms as possible. Here is a specialized word list
which might be of help to you: access, feed in, data banks, modem,
screen, keyboard, terminal, to edit, to insert, to delete, to justify, to lay
out, on-line, off-line.
36
Grammar
Functions of Modals
Ability/Inability
Possibility/Impossibility
Permission/Concession
37
Obligation/Duty
Necessity
Prohibition
38
Logical Assumption (negative)
Advice
Criticism
We should have made sure that the tickets were valid. (but we
didnt)
He ought to have cooked dinner. (but he didnt)
39
1. Dont drive so fast! We have an accident.
2. The news be true, of course.
3. I saw the Opera House yesterday and the place was full of
painters, so it be closed tomorrow.
4. Each student take only one book home.
5. In London buses you smoke on the upper deck, but you
smoke downstairs.
6. you give me the number of the Art Museum?
7. The fast reactor ( be) in operation by 2003.
8. The results of the experiments ( write) up carefully.
9. The road surface ( be) capable of withstanding very heavy
traffic loads.
10. Workers ( wear) overall all the time.
Put the verbs in brackets in the correct form and then translate
the text into Romanian:
40
Written Assignment
41
42
INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
Lesson 1
EDUCATION
43
Learning is their goal
Comprehension
Grammar
The Subjunctive
Other examples:
a) It is important that children associate education with men as
well as women.
b) It is important that we have parental support.
46
c) Fairness required that each bidder should have the
opportunity to allay the commissions concerns.
d) Its time that the Government acted to protect teachers from
this sort of intolerable pressure.
e) It was of paramount importance that members of the service
should have complete confidence in all their dealings.
Written Assignment
CAREER
50
How much could I earn? Around 20,000. Difficult to gauge
because you might be paid on a weekly or daily rate. Daily rates can
be between 100 and 400.
How could I progress? You will either become more highly paid
because your skills are in demand or move into another function, such
as producing or presenting.
Tips? Expect to work long hours and to travel in order to locate
information. Dont do this if you are worried by lack of job security.
There are hundreds of independent television producers who sell
programmes to TV companies and put together different teams for
each project. Try to get some work experience. See media guides in
your reference library.
(The Times, August, 2000)
51
The Cover Letter
Basics
The cover letter or letter of application is a personal statement of
interest in a particular position or company. A resume that is being
submitted by mail should always be accompanied by such a letter. It is
not necessary for on-campus interviews. It should be typed on the
same quality paper as the resume and limited to one page. Optimally,
it should be addressed to a specific person since this receives more
attention than one merely addressed to Personnel Director.In
preparing your letters, pay careful attention to the organization of
ideas, grammar and spelling. Edit it meticulously and get a second
opinion. Always use a standard business-letter format and maintain a
formal tone, even if you are well-aquainted with your contact within
the organization.
Format
A cover letter serves three basic purposes and is divided into
sections accordingly:
Statement of Purpose:
Begin with a statement of purpose. Name the position to
which you are applying and how/where you learned of the
position or organization.
Explanation of Qualifications:
Explain why you are interested in working for this employer
and specify your reasons for desiring this type of work.
Emphasize any qualifications you particularly want the
employer to notice and refer him/her to the enclosed resume.
Closing:
State your availability for an interview. Better yet, give a
time when you will recontact the company to further discuss
employment opportunities.
52
Sample Cover Letter
Maria Ionescu
28, Victoria Str.
Sector 1
Bucureti
maria@rol.ro
Prof./Dr.
Principal/Rector of
35, Str./Blv.
Sector/Code
August 1, 2002
Dear Mr./Mrs.
Sincerely,
Maria Popescu
53
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Who should use a curriculum vitae?
The curriculum vitae (or CV) is an essential document in
applications for academic employment. Persons applying for teaching,
research, and some administrative positions are expected to submit a
CV along with a rather detailed letter of application and other
supporting materials. The CV is also used by professional educators
who are seeking positions in school administration and other
education-related careers.
Generally, academic institutions are the only employers who
want to see a CV. Most other employers in private business and
government strongly prefer a short, one-page resume; sending these
employers a CV can, in fact, be counterproductive.
What is a curriculum vitae, and what is it used for?
A curriculum vitae is much like a resume, only much longer and
more detailed. The CV ranges from two to dozens of pages in length,
depending upon such factors as the extent of ones research record or
the stage of ones career. Entry level CVs in higher education tend to
be only a few pages in length.
In applying for positions in higher education, the CV generally
takes place of the printed application form. Typically, a position
announcement for an assistant professorship will ask for a letter of
application, a CV, a writing sample and other supporting materials.
Beside mailing the CV with application materials, you should
carry a few copies to any interviews or site visits. You should
generously give a copy to everyone with whom you interact during
your visits.
What information should I include on my CV?
The curriculum vitae is your opportunity to present yourself and
your qualifications in the format of your choice. It is important to keep
in mind that the CV is your document, and as such you want it to
present you in the best possible light with regard to the position for
which you are applying. The format and categories used on CVs can
vary among the academic disciplines; the suggestions offered here are
to be used as a generic model only.
54
In general, DO include any and all information that is pertinent to
your qualifications for the job. The following is a list of possible
categories of information to include:
Before starting to prepare your cover letter and CV, make sure
you understand all the words underlined as well as the ideas.
Grammar
56
7. We owe it to our ancestors, Mr. Lambert shouted.
8. I dont know if anybody really did suggest it but if they did,
they probably said it as a joke, the actress said.
9. What she is saying is that she wants the right people with
the right credentials to front all programmes, she added.
10. Their support in me has never wavered and their prayers and
good wishes have seen me through, the teacher declared.
11. I like to enhance beautiful faces Ive never been one for
slapping lots of make-up on, says Hamilton-Smith, make-up
artist.
12. Children who were previously quiet have a lot more to talk
about, the headmaster said.
13. All our children are at risk of dropping out of school at any
stage, he added.
14. It is working far better than ever I expected, Glens mother
said.
15. She says: I was worried that his opportunities would become
increasingly limited.
16. Almost 500 years ago, he started his confession, the rules
of Thomas Mores Utopia held this view of legislation.
17. In this country tax law has exploded, he pointed out.
18. What governments seem to want is to change our
behaviour, he continued.
19. In my experience tax incentives rarely achieve their
intended effect, he concluded.
20. The shrink told his patient: I may be a therapist but Im a
human being, too.
57
Written Assignment
58
Lesson 3
FAMILY LIFE
From time to time we all get angry. Parents and children both
have a right to be angry at times. Its all perfectly normal. To
understand the role anger plays in the parent child relationship, you
need to understand why your child is behaving in a particular way.
And you need to understand your reactions to that misbehaviour.
Through this understanding, you can learn to respond to a child in a
positive and constructive way.
The first step is to look at your own anger. Remember that
children learn from observing and will imitate your behaviour. How
we express anger is influenced by our culture, family background, and
the norms set by the people around us. While we can learn to choose
how we express anger, these influences are powerful. Psychologists
have grouped people into three general categories based on how they
express anger.
First, there are people who use a passive style and rarely express
anger directly. Instead, this type of person stuffs their anger inside,
which often leads to psychological or physical problems. Unresolved
issues build up until the person explodes, often at another person who
has little to do with the underlying cause of the anger.
60
In the second group are people who use an aggessive style and
react angrily to many different things. Their aggession is a way to
dominate others and control the situation. It also can be a barrier to
building relationships.
In the third group are people who use an assertive style to express
anger and communicate their feelings without blaming the other
person. The focus is on the behaviours involved, not on the persons
character.
What are some ways parents can begin to break the circle of
disagreement with their teens? First, recognize that teenagers must
become independent, to learn to become adult, just as they had to
learn to walk and talk to grow from infancy to childhood. The first
toddling steps away from the mother and the first No, I wont are
the beginnings of growth toward independence, the task of every
healthy child.
If becoming independent is the task of children, then the task of
parents must be to help their children reach independence by allowing
them to walk (and fall), talk (and make mistakes) and slowly take
control of their lives.
The changing parent/child relationship is bound to cause some
problems and stress in all families. Parents can no longer control every
part of their teens life, but they can keep communication lines open
and be a positive example for their teen to follow. The warmth with
which mature parents speak of their relationship with their teens is
evidence that the struggle to help and let the children go is well-
rewarded, for only then will they want to come back.
61
The following are among the questions that the nations courts
have had to wrestle with as the nature of American life has, in the
course of a generation, been revolutionized:
Does a father have the right to give his children his last name
even if his wife objects?
Can an expectant mother obtain an abortion without her
husbands permission?
Should a teenager, unhappy with her parents restrictions on
her smoking, dating, and choice of friends, be allowed to
have herself placed in a foster home?
Should a childless couple be permitted to hire a surrogate
mother who will be artificially inseminated and carry a child
to delivery?
Comprehension
62
Have another look at the Spectrum of family relations at the
beginning of the unit and state how many of them match the
status of the Romanian family.
Grammar
1. I hadnt been with the firm for more than four months when
they taught me the elements of marketing and made me a
sales representative.
2. They recently increased my salary by thirty per cent.
3. The trouble is that at the same time they reduced my expense
allowance by nearly half.
4. Now my firm has offered me a job in Hong Kong but I wont
take it because someone else has promised me a much better
job in Japan.
5. They should do away with income tax altogether.
6. If necessary they could put up value added tax by way of
compensation.
64
7. Unfortunately, you can always rely on this Government not to
do the right thing.
8. From the way people are speaking about this Government
one might think that they will not vote it back into power at
the next election.
9. However, the proverb Better the devil you know than the
devil you dont will probably decide the result in the
Governments favour.
10. They humiliated the UN forces when the Revolutionary
United Front rebels broke the terms of peace accords with the
government and took hundreds of UN soldiers hostage.
The ozone layer is what protects all life on earth from the harmful
effects of the suns ultra violet rays. The most frightening part is that
the damage is irreparable. Efforts were made in that direction when
the first hole over Antarctica was given official confirmation in 1985.
The world was thrown into panic, or so it seemed. Individuals,
galvanised into action, threw away their aerosols and stocked their
cupboards with the so-called ozone-friendly, pump-action
alternatives. However, as the shock wave of publicity subsided, people
gradually began to revert back to their old habits, probably imagining
that it was all alarmist propaganda designed to make money for
someone. Fortunately, drastic action was taken by the world
governments and a programme of chemical reduction was devised and
implemented which, it was hoped, would see the total phase-out of
CFCs (chlorofluoro carbons) by the year 2000. Yet, it was not drastic
enough. New holes are threatening.
65
Written Assignment
66
Lesson 4
FEMINISM
Pre-reading discussion
67
nevertheless we admit, provisionally, that women do exist, then we
must face the question what is a woman?
[] Profound changes have reshaped American family life in
recent years. In a decade, divorce rates doubled. The number of
divorces today is twice as high as in 1966 and three times higher than
in 1950. The rapid upsurge in the divorce rates contributed to a
dramatic increase in the number of single-parent households or what
used to be known as broken homes. The number of households
consisting of a single woman and her children has tripled since 1960.
A sharp increase in female-headed homes has been accompanied by a
startling increase in the number of couples cohabitating outside of
marriage. The number of unmarried couples living together has
quadrupled since 1970.
What accounts for these upheavals in family life? First, there has
been a sexual revolution. Contemporary Americans are much more
likely than their predecessors to postpone marriage, to live alone, and
to engage in sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Today, over 80
percent of all women say that they were not virgins when they
married, compared to less than a 20 percent a generation ago.
Extramarital sex also increased sharply. Back in the 1940s, just
eight percent of women under the age of 25 had committed adultery.
Today the estimated figure is 24 percent. Meanwhile the proportion of
children born to unmarried mothers has climbed from just five percent
in 1960 to over twenty percent today.
Feminism has been another major force that has transformed
American family life. The womens liberation movement attacked the
societal expectation that women defer to the needs of spouses and
children as part of their roles as wives and mothers. Militant feminist
activists like Ti-Grace Atkinson dennounced marriage as slavery
and legalized rape. The larger mainstream of the womens
movement articulated a powerful critique of the idea that child care
and housework were the apex of a womans accomplishments or her
sole means of fulfillment.
The feminist movement awakened American women to what
many viewed as one of the worst forms of social and political
oppression: sexism. The introduction of this awareness would go far
beyond the feminists themselves. Although only a small minority of
68
American women openly declared themselves to be feminists, the
arguments of the womens movement drastically altered womens
attitudes toward family roles, child care and and housework. As a
result of feminism a substantial majority of women now believe that
both husband and wife should have jobs, do housework, and take care
of children.
The changes that have taken place in family life have been
disruptive and troubling and have transformed the family into a major
political battleground. Without a doubt, the family will remain one of
the hottest political issues in the years to come.
(The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
History, 2001; the site updated on February 1,
2002)
Comprehension
70
Grammar
Supply the correct tense of the verbs in brackets; then turn the
passage into reported speech.
I apologise for not (type) all the letters, said the bosss
secretary, but I (have) too much work to do, she explained.
You always (make) this excuse, complained the boss; perhaps
you (not work) hard enough, he suggested.
No, that (not true), she denied. But I (arrive) rather late, she
admitted.
71
I (cut) your pay unless you (start, work) properly, the boss
threatened.
Afterwards the boss (wonder) if he (be) a bit too hard on her.
When Ann (join) our firm ten years ago, he said she already
(work) in the same business and (learn) a lot about it. For the first
five years with us, he added, she (work) in the Sales Department,
and (work) there when I (become) Managing Director, but since then
she (work) as my personal assistant. I sincerely hope, he pointed
out, that she (go on work) here until I (retire).
Written Assignment
Lesson 1
BOOK REVIEW
75
Since Waiting for Godot is an allegory written in a heartless
modern tone, a theatre-goer naturally rummages through the
performance in search of a meaning. It seems fairly certain that Godot
stands for God. Those who are loitering by the withered tree are
waiting for salvation, which never comes.
The rest of the symbolism is more elusive. But it is not a pose.
For Mr. Becketts drama adumbrates rather than express an
attitude toward mans experience on earth; the pathos, cruelty,
comradeship, hope, corruption, filthiness and wonder of human
existence. Faith in God has almost vanished. But there is still an
illusion of faith flickering around the edges of the drama. It is as
though Mr. Beckett sees very little reason for clutching at faith, but is
unable to relinguish it entirely.
Although the drama is puzzling, the director and the actors play it
as though they understand every line of it. The performance Herbert
Berghof has staged against Louis Kennels spare setting is triumphant
in every respect. And Bert Lahr has never given a performance as
glorious as his tatterdemalin Gogo, who seems to stand for all the
stumbling, bewildered people of the earth who go on living without
knowing why.
Although Waiting for Godot is a puzzlement, as the King of
Siam would express it, Mr. Beckett is no charlatan. He has strong
feelings about the degradation of mankind, and he has given vent to
them copiously. Waiting for Godot is all feeling. Perhaps that is
why it is puzzling and convincing at the same time. Theatre-goers can
rail at it, but they cannot ignore it. For Mr. Beckett is a valid writer.
Comprehension
Answer the following questions:
a) Do you enjoy reading?
b) What are your favourite writers?
c) Which do you prefer: prose or poetry?
d) As a philologist, you definitely read more than other students;
what are your reading habits?
e) What do you look for when reading?
f) Do you prefer to use the Internet instead of reading?
g) What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet?
76
Make sure you understand the words in italics in both texts, and
use them in contexts of your own.
Learn the following idioms by using them in sentences of your
own:
Grammar
The Infinitive
1. Absolve yourself and you will have the suffrage of the world.
2. Though the hen should sit all day, she could lay only one egg,
and, besides, would not have picked up materials for another.
3. Did you find a rhyme to niche?
4. A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man
perfected without trials.
5. They began to count the absentees.
6. I want him to act less rashly.
7. This is for him to account for.
8. He was the last to come.
9. Byron went to Greece to fight for her independence.
10. To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
(William Shakespeare, King John)
11. To know is to be powerful.
12. To be or not to be, that is the question.
(William Shakespeare, Hamlet)
13. He was known to be an expert in these matters.
State the tense, aspect and voice of the infinitive forms in the
following sentences:
1. I am glad to be flying in a Boeing 737 to Bangkok.
2. Anas was very glad to be invited to the party.
3. My yellow roses dont seem to have been damaged by the
storm.
4. I expect my daughter-in-law to come soon.
78
5. She seems to have been appointed as Sales Manager.
6. She was glad to have been driving her Honda for such a long
time.
7. The letter was to be answered by e-mail only.
8. The plane seems to have landed.
9. He is said to have been studying the problems caused by
radon for a couple of years now.
10. I like to spend my evenings listening to music.
79
Written Assignment
80
Lesson 2
SCULPTURE
Pre-reading discussion
82
John Van Alstine is widely known for works that combine stone,
steel, and found objects (sometimes industrial in origin and sometimes
natural or manmade forms cast in bronze). The work is abstract yet
allegorical, exhibiting an ongoing narrative that is carried forward by
the artists alchemical combination of forms and materials. He began
his career as a stone sculptor, emulating Brancusi, Arp and Moore, but
he soon became interested in Noguchis use of rough-hewn rocks and
in the Postminimalist strategies of Richard Serra and Jackie Ferrara,
among others. In the 1970s, he began assembling stones, taken
straight from the quarry, with added wood and steel elements.
His later works continue to juxtapose stone and steel, but in the
context of the inherent imagery of found objects that suggest human
industry and labor as well as the history and fate of the environment
and the landscape. Tether (Boys Toys) (1995) is a key work that
includes a huge airplane fuel tank that floats at the end of a chain
above a large round stone and an anchor. The assemblage suggests a
vessel or a missile and brings to mind both the constructive and the
destructive, the comic and the apocalyptic aspects of boys toys.
Van Alstines works establish places of contemplation about
humanitys many physical, cultural, and spiritual relationships with
the land and our planetary home.
(Glenn Harper, Washington Post, 2000)
83
Comprehension
84
Grammar
The Participle
Active: Passive:
Present: giving being given
going
Perfect: having given having been given
having gone
Past Participle: gone given
Participial Constructions
85
The Nominative with the Participle
e.g. There being no other person in the office, she lit her
cigarette.
All the candidates having been examined, the commission
left the classroom.
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Written Assignment
The world is filled with people who have worked hard but
have little to show for it. Something more than hard work
is necessary; it is creative thinking and firm belief in your
ability to execute your ideas. The successful people in
history have succeeded through their thinking. Their
hands were merely helpers to their brains.
Do you know how to fail? If you do, then you will know
also the secret of succeeding, for the two are forever
locked together.
87
Women can never be as successful as men; they dont
have wives to help them.
88
Lesson 3
MUSIC
Pre-reading discussion
89
Celibidache was much sought after for both his style of
conducting and his teaching of conducting. In interpreting works, he
was known for his very original tempi, which he believed were
necessary to let the complexity of sounds from a passage develop and
be heard in a concert hall (a phenomenon called epiphenomena).
Hence, the richer the music, the slower the tempo required; and
especially in his later years, when his legendarily generous tempi
helped to broaden the vision of the works performed under him.
In the art of conducting, Celibidache aimed to incorporate the
philosophy of Zen Buddhism. He was also actively involved in giving
masterclasses to budding conductors. Enthusiastic students claim that
they learnt more from simply observing him for an hour than in weeks
of lessons. Inspired Celibidache wannabes came away from
masterclasses embroiled in Zen teachings, transformed from rigid
human metronomes to conductors who move, beat and breathe with
the innate natural rhythmic flow of the body.
The celebrated Maestro died in Paris on August 14, 1996, from
the effects of a fall that he had suffered in Florence in May. Among
the many honours and awards bestowed on Celibidache are the
appointment to an Honorary Professorship of the Federal Capital
Berlin and the Bavarian Order of Merit. He is also an honorary citizen
of his hometown Jassy and a doctor honoris causa of the Jassy
Academy of Art. On his eightieth birthday he was awarded the Great
Cross of Distinction of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of
Germany and honorary citizenship of the city of Munich.
(Soon Kian Hing)
[]
Josh Ronsen: Celibidache, why is he so significant for you?
Iancu Dumitrescu: Above all, Celibidache is, in my opinion, one
of the greatest intelligencies of this century. He is thus a thinker, a
philosopher of unordinary stature, even among people of profession,
the philosophers
JR: Could you be more specific?
90
ID: Celibidache is a master of thought, of the process of thought,
certainly in a particular direction; he is a thinker who follows the
process of living thought, a Guru who leads his meditations in an
extreme synthesis, and at the same time in a flexible way, fresh, alive.
JR: How would you characterize Celibidaches art?
ID: Celibidache is a musician, a conductor of genius who applies
his motivations of thought to a material as fragile as music. For a guru
excuse me for insisting there is no separation between life and art.
This is the source of the radiant force, the magnetism of Celibidache,
my spiritual father. He does not conduct. He finds himself in a
complicity with the music, personifying a principle, that of the indepth
lived thing. It is a spiritual excursion which he realizes, by means of
the music, of the scores, in a world always incipient, an eternal
present.
JR: How did he influence your musical creation?
ID: Celibidaches thinking gave me a system of composition in
which phenomenology is assumed to the maximum, from where, if
you want, the success of his music, beyond its declared difficulty.
Thus, music occupies a place privileged by its temporal dimension,
not by concrete sound. []
91
Comprehension
92
Fill in the blanks with one of the idioms: on the quiet, out of the
question, be in the same boat, be in sbs shoes, through thick and thin,
on second thoughts, make ones day, in deep water, make waves,
frosty welcome.
Grammar
The Gerund
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1. Knowing is easier than guessing. 2. I hate being visited by
uninvited people. 3. After having shaken hands they parted. 4. She felt
proud of having been seen in company with a famous actor. 5. She
spoke much of her writing the essay. 6. We rely on his doing his job
properly. 7. Hearing these words, she couldnt help crying. 8. My
friend told me of his having taken Arabic lessons. 9. I dislike his
interfering in the affair. 10. He was accused of having entered the
country illegally.
Here are sentences containing -ing forms. State the name and
function of each of them.
95
Written Assignment
96
Lesson 4
BEAUTY PAGEANTS
Pre-reading discussion
Comprehension
True or false?
102
CONSOLIDATION EXERCISES
1. They say that this book was written by two people. (said)
2. There is nothing we can do about it. (done)
3. I hate them to leave me behind. (left)
4. You shouldnt take delight in other peoples failures. (gloat)
5. Could someone answer my question? (there)
6. It is usual for children to ask a lot of questions. (apt)
7. I disapprove of people who lie, he said. (disapproval)
8. Dont talk during the lesson! the teacher said. (forbade)
9. He flew to New York with no stop-overs. (direct)
10. A speech was delivered and the film was shown. (first/later)
11. Why dont you give all these old clothes away? (rid)
12. He felt that his employers didnt appreciate him. (granted)
13. She said she was worried about the problem of pollution.
(concern)
14. Some friends put his name forward to be spokesman.
(nominated)
15. He suffers from delusions and hallucinations. (prone)
16. The end of the film was completely unexpected. (taken)
17. A rejection of their offer would have been foolish. (accepted)
18. It obviously wasnt her intention to offend you. (mean)
19. You should do what your tutor advises. (advice)
20. She said she disliked loud music. (expressed)
106
SPECIMEN LESSON PLAN
107
PUNCTUATION
e.g. Ive told you once and Im telling you again; were in a
foreign country mind your behaviour!
108
The Comma (,)
e.g. Bob, Janet, Mary and Philip are all very hard-working.
It is used:
a) after affirmative or negative adverbs:
e.g. No, she said.
Yes, of course, they answered.
c) in coordinate clauses:
e.g. They went home, had a nice dinner, rested for a while and
then watched TV.
e.g. He told me about the book that he read, that he had to read
and that he liked to read.
e.g. This grammar book, which was published last year, is one
of the best Ive ever used.
The Dash ()
It is used:
a) in compound words:
110
d) in numbers between tens and units:
They mark the Direct speech in English, and are also used to
mark a quotation.
It is used:
a) in imperative sentences:
111
c) after interjections:
112
TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH GAMES
SPELLING GUESS
Level: any
Type: blackboard
Choose two teams of not more than 10 members each for this
game. One team decides on the word, and one of its members puts
dashes on the blackboard to represent the number of letters in the
word. Suppose the word chosen is chemistry. The player puts on the
blackboard:--------- (nine dashes). The play continues with each player
on the opposite team in turn calling out a letter. The letter is put in its
proper place if it belongs in the word. Suppose the first player says A.
Since there is no A in the word, the next member of the team calls a
letter. He says E, and the player at the blackboard puts it in its proper
place: --E------ Because E was correct, the player gets another turn.
If the word is completed before or by the time each member of
the team has called out a letter, the team scores one point.
For the second word, the teams reverse their roles. The game
continues in this way to any number of words the group decides on.
The person who has been chosen IT gives a three-letter word like
hat or bag and then begins to count to 12. The person addressed must,
before the count of 12, give words beginning with each of the three
letters in the word given or become IT.
For example, if the word is hat, the player might say, Hand,
arm, toe . If the word is bag, the player might say, Beam, apple,
gum.
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WORD FAMILIES
114
underlined in the word on the left. The student who gets the most
correct is the winner.
try winter, kind, fifty, play
his sister, this, zoo, soon
little machine, line, will, time
cold so, today, bottle, other
made map, want, mark, toothache
feet yes, meat, great, get
money young, song, put, thought
sit led, cooked, combed, opened
sat park, paper, dam, car
peace guess, ties, refuse, picnic
ruler soup, food, foot, funny
largest begin, bridge, light, bigger
get eight, receiver, team, bread
kind know, since, comb, place
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MENTAL HIDE-AND-SEEK
Level: any
Type: oral
Structure emphasized: Use of prepositions.
First, the group should decide on the limits of the territory to be
considered in the game, such as in the building, in the room, on the
grounds, in the city. Then one player thinks of a hiding place, in other
words, hides himself mentally. The others try to guess where he is
hiding and the player who guesses correctly becomes the next one to
hide. Since the game is imaginative, the player may be hiding behind a
picture, in a desk, on a high shelf, etc.
BROKEN PROVERBS
Level: advanced
Type: oral
The leader should have a master list of proverbs with the division
into halves indicated, e.g. A stitch in time / saves nine. The second
halves of all the proverbs on the list should be written on cards ahead
of time. Before the play begins, these cards should be spread out so
that all the members of the group can see them.
The play begins with the leader reading the first half of the
proverb on the list. The members of the group who recognize it grab
for the card containing the other half. The play continues in this way,
the player with the most cards at the end being the winner.
WHATS WRONG?
Level: advanced
Type: paper
Prepare in advance a number of sentences each having one word
that is obviously wrong. The object of the game is for the players to
rearrange the letters of each wrong word to make a word that fits the
meaning of the sentence. One point is scored for each correct word.
Here are some examples, with the solution written in parantheses
after each one:
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1. The rats shone brightly in the sky (star)
2. Betty likes melon in her tea. (lemon)
3. Why don t you enlist to what the teacher says? (listen)
4. The students listened carefully to the teacher s sword.
(words)
5. The sun moves around the heart. (earth)
6. The man was riding a fast shore. (horse)
7. The panel landed smoothly on the airfield. (plane)
8. There were flowers on the poles of the hill. (slope).
9. Soldiers must learn to charm. (march)
10. The nations of the world are untied in their fight for peace.
(united)
ANAGRAMS
Level: intermediate to advanced
Type: paper
In this game players may work individually or in teams of two or
three persons.
Give each player or team a list of words, each of which can be
rearranged into at least one other word. The lists may be typed
beforehand or written on the blackboard. Give the players a limited
time in which to rearrange each word in the list to form a second
word. The person or group that gets the most words correct is the
winner.
BUILDING WORDS
Level: intermediate to advanced
Type: paper
Write on the blackboard a list of 20 word endings: ted, ent, ket,
her, red, dow, sty, ure, ase, tch, wly, ter, ons, try, mes, ast, ics.
Give the players a limited time in which to make these endings
into words. The score is the number of correct answers. Any known
uncapitalized word is acceptable. The first three above might be
wanted, student, basket. The play may be repeated with other lists of
117
endings, not necessarily syllables, compiled from the list of
vocabulary the students have learned.
118
TRANSLATION CORPUS
120
fool in his time. Have another. And my boy as a rule took the cool
drink, the advice, and the consequent help which Lingard felt himself
bound in honour to give, so as to back up his opinion like a honest
man.
(Joseph Conrad - An Outcast of the Islands)
Paul would be built like his mother, slightly and rather small. His
hair went reddish, and then dark brown; his eyes were grey. He was a
pale, quiet child, with eyes that seemed to listen, and with a full,
dropping underlip.
As a rule he seemed old for his years. He was so conscious of
what other people felt, particularly his mother. When she fretted he
understood, and could have no peace. His soul seemed always
attentive to her.All the children, but particularly Paul, were
peculiarly against their father, along with their mother. Morel
continued to bully and to drink. He had periods, months at a time,
when he made the whole life of the family a misery. Paul never forgot
coming home from the Band of Hope one Monday evening and
finding his mother with her eyes swollen and discoloured, his father
standing on the hearthrug, feet astride, his head down, and William,
just home from work, glaring at his father. There was a silence as the
young children entered, but none of the elders looked round.
William was white to the lips, and his fists were clenched. He
waited until the children were silent, watching with childrens rage
and hate; then he said:
You coward, you daren't do it when I was in.
But Morels blood was up. He swung round on his son. William
was bigger, but Morel was hard-muscled, and mad with fury.
Dossnt I? he shouted. Dossnt I? Hae much more o thy
chelp, my young jockey, an Ill rattle my fist about thee. Ay, an I
sholl that, dost see.Morel crouched at the knees and showed his fist in
an ugly, almost beast-like fashion. William was white with rage.
Will yer? he said, quiet and intense. It ud be the last time,
though.
Morel danced a little nearer, crouching, drawing back his fist to
strike. William put his fists ready. A light came into his blue eyes,
almost like a laugh. He watched his father. Another word, and the men
121
would have begun to fight. Paul hoped they would. The three children
sat pale on the sofa.
Stop it, both of you. cried Mrs Morel in a hard voice. Weve
had enough for one night. And you, she said, turning on to her
husband, look at your children!
Morel glanced at the sofa.
Look at the children, you nasty little bitch! he sneered. Why,
what have I done to the children, I should like to know? But theyre
like yourself; youve put em up to your own tricks and nasty ways
youve learned em in it, you ave.
She refused to answer him. No one spoke. After a while he threw
his boots under the table and went to bed.().Paul hated his father. As
a boy he had a fervent private religion.
Make him stop drinking, he prayed every night. Lord let my
father die, he prayed very often. Let him not be killed at pit, he
prayed when, after tea, the father did not come home from work.
That was another time when the family suffered intensely. The
children came from school and had their teas. On the hob the big black
saucepan was simmering, the stew-jack was in the oven, ready for
Morels dinner. He was expected at five oclock. But for months he
would stop and drink every night on his way from work.
In the winter nights, when it was cold, and grew dark early, Mrs
Morel would put a brass candlestick on the table, light a tallow candle
to save the gas. The children finished their bread-and-butter, or
dripping, and were ready to go out to play. But if Morel had not come
they faltered. The sense of his sitting in all his pit-dirt, drinking, after
a long days work, not coming home and eating and washing, but
sitting, getting drunk, on an empty stomach, made Mrs Morel unable
to bear herself. From her the feeling was transmitted to the other
children. She never suffered alone any more: the children suffered
with her.().
She knew that the man who stops on the way home from work is
on a quick way to ruining himself and his home. The children were yet
young, and depended on the breadwinner. William gave her the sense
of relief, providing her at last with someone to turn to if Morel failed.
But the tense atmosphere of the room on these waiting evenings was
the same.
(D.H.Lawrence Sons and Lovers)
122
Ursula went home to Beldover faint, dim, closed up. She could
scarcely speak or notice. It was as if her energy were frozen. Her
people asked her what was the matter. She told them, she had broken
off the engagement with Skrebensky. They looked blank and angry.
But she could not feel anymore.
The weeks crawled by in apathy. He would have sailed for India
now. She was scarcely interested. She was inert, without strength and
interest.
Suddenly a shock ran through her, so violent that she thought she
was struck down. Was she with child? She had been so stricken under
the pain of herself and of him, this had never occurred to her. Now
like a flame it took hold of her limbs and body. Was she with child?
In the first flaming hours of wonder, she did not know what she
felt. She was as if tied to the stake. The flames were licking her and
devouring her. But the flames were also good. They seemed to wear
her away to rest. What she felt in her heart and her womb she did not
know. It was a kind of swoon.
Then gradually the heaviness of her heart pressed and pressed
into consciousness. What was she doing? Was she bearing a child?
Bearing a child? To what?
Her flesh thrilled, but her soul was sick. It seemed, this child, like
the seal set on her own nullity. Yet she was glad in her flesh that she
was with child. She began to think, that she would write to
Skrebensky, that she would go out to him, and marry him, and live
simply as a good wife to him. What did the self, the form of life,
matter? Only the living from day to day mattered, the beloved
existence in the body, rich, peaceful, complete, with no beyond, no
further trouble, no further complication. She had been wrong, she had
been arrogant and wicked, wanting that other thing, that fantastic
freedom, that illusory, conceited fulfilment which she had imagined
she could not have with Skrebensky. Who was she to be wanting some
fantastic fulfilment in her life? Was it not enough that she had her
man, her children, her place of shelter under the sun? Was it not
enough for her, as it had been enough for her mother? She would
marry and love her husband and fill her place simply. That was the
ideal.
123
Suddenly she saw her mother in a just and true light. Her mother
was simple and radically true. She had taken the life that was given.
She had not, in her arrogant conceit, insisted on creating life to fit
herself. Her mother was right, profoundly right, and she herself had
been false, trashy, conceited.
A great mood of humility came over her, and in this humility a
bondaged sort of peace. She gave her limbs to the bondage, and loved
the bondage, she called it peace. In this state she sat down to write to
Skrebensky.
Since you left me I have suffered a great deal, and so have come
to myself. I cannot tell you the remorse I feel for my wicked, perverse
behaviour. It was given to me to love you, and to know your love for
me. But instead of thankfully, on my knees, taking what God had
given, I must have the moon in my keeping, I must insist on having
the moon for my own. Because I could not have it, everything else
must go.
I do not know if you can ever forgive me. I could die with shame
to think of my behaviour with you during our last times, and I don't
know if I could ever bear to look you in the face again. Truly the best
thing would be for me to die, and cover my fantasies for ever. But I
find I am with child, so that cannot be.
It is your child, and for that reason I must revere it and submit my
body entirely to its welfare, entertaining no thought of death, which
once more is largely conceit. Therefore, because you once loved me,
and because this child is your child, I ask you to have me back. If you
will cable me one word, I will come to you as soon as I can. I swear to
you to be a dutiful wife, and to serve you in all things. For now I only
hate myself and my own conceited foolishness. I love you I love the
thought of you you are natural and decent all through, whilst I was
so false. Once I am with you again, I shall ask no more than to rest in
your shelter all my life
This letter she wrote, sentence by sentence, as if from her deeper,
sincerest heart. She felt that now, now, she was at the depths of
herself. This was her true self, for ever. With this document she would
appear before God at the Judgement Day.
124
For what had a woman but to submit? What was her flesh but
childbearing, her strength for her children and her husband, the giver
of life? At last she was a woman.
She posted her letter to his club, to be forwarded to him in
Calcutta. He would receive it soon after his arrival in India within
three weeks of his arrival there. In a months time she would receive
word from him. Then she would go.
She was quite sure of him. She thought only of preparing her
garments and of living quietly, peacefully, till the time when she
should join him again and her history would be concluded for ever.
The peace held like an unnatural calm for a long time. She was aware,
however, of a gathering restiveness, a tumult impending within her.
She tried to run away from it. She wished she could hear from
Skrebensky, in answer to her letter, so that her course should be
resolved, she should be engaged in fulfilling her fate. It was this
inactivity which made her liable to the revulsion she dreaded.
It was curious how little she cared about his not having written to
her before. It was enough that she had sent her letter. She would get
the required answer, that was all.
One afternoon in early October, feeling the seething rising to
madness within her, she slipped out in the rain, to walk abroad, lest
the house should suffocate her. Everywhere was drenched wet and
deserted, the grimed houses glowed dull red, the butt houses burned
scarlet in a gleam of light, under the glistening, blackish purple slates.
Ursula went on towards Willey Green.
(D.H.Lawrence The Rainbow)
126
undefinable connection between himself and Jack; who therefore
would never let him alone; never.
He paused, sun-flecked, holding up a bough, prepared to duck
under it. A spasm of terror set him shaking and he cried aloud.
No. Theyre not as bad as that. It was an accident.
He ducked under the bough, ran clumsily, then stopped and
listened.
He came to the smashed acres of fruit and ate greedily. He saw
two littluns and, not having any idea of his own appearance, wondered
why they screamed and ran.
When he had eaten he went towards the beach. The sunlight was
slanting now into the palms by the wrecked shelter. There was the
platform and the pool. The best thing to do was to ignore this leaden
feeling about the heart and rely on their common sense, their daylight
sanity. Now that the tribe had eaten, the thing to do was to try again.
And anyway, he couldnt stay here all night in an empty shelter by the
deserted platform. His flesh crept and he shivered in the evening sun.
No fire; no smoke; no rescue. He turned and limped away through the
forest towards Jack's end of the island.
(William Golding Lord of the Flies)
127
before. They were always cold, and usually hungry as well. Only
Boxer and Clover never lost heart. Squealer made excellent speeches
on the joy of service and the dignity of labour, but the other animals
found more inspiration in Boxers strength and his never-failing cry of
I will work harder!
In January food fell short. The corn ration was drastically
reduced, and it was announced that an extra potato ration would be
issued to make up for it. Then it was discovered that the greater part of
the potato crop had been frosted in the clamps, which had not been
covered thickly enough. The potatoes had become soft and
discoloured, and only a few were edible. For days at a time the
animals had nothing to eat but chaff and mangels. Starvation seemed
to stare them in the face.
It was vitally necessary to conceal this fact from the outside
world. Emboldened by the collapse of the windmill, the human beings
were inventing fresh lies about Animal Farm. Once again it was being
put about that all the animals were dying of famine and disease, and
that they were continually fighting amongst themselves and had
resorted to cannibalism and infanticide. Napoleon was well aware of
the bad results that might follow if the real facts of the food situation
were known, and he decided to make use of Mr. Whymper to spread a
contrary impression. Hitherto the animals had had little or no contact
with Whymper on his weekly visit: now, however, a few selected
animals, mostly sheep, were instructed to remark casually in his
hearing that rations had been increased. In addition, Napoleon ordered
the almost empty bins in the store-shed to be filled nearly to the brim
with sand, which was then covered up with what remained of the grain
and meal. On some suitable pretext, Whymper was led through the
store-shed and allowed to catch a glimpse of the bins. He was
deceived, and continued to report to the outside world that there was
no food shortage on Animal Farm.
Nevertheless, towards the end of January it became obvious that
it would be necessary to procure some more grain from somewhere. In
these days Napoleon rarely appeared in public, but spent all his time in
the farmhouse, which was guarded at each door by fierce-looking
dogs. When he did emerge, it was in a ceremonial manner, with an
escort of six dogs who closely surrounded him and growled if anyone
128
came too near. Frequently he did not even appear on Sunday
mornings, but issued his orders through one of the other pigs, usually
Squealer.
One Sunday morning Squealer announced that the hens, who had
just come into lay again, must surrender their eggs. Napoleon had
accepted, through Whymper, a contract for four hundred eggs a week.
The price for these would pay for enough grain and meal to keep the
farm going till summer came on and conditions were easier.
When the hens heard this, they raised a terrible outcry. They had
been warned earlier that this sacrifice might be necessary, but had not
believed that it would really happen. For the first time since the
expulsion of Jones there was something resembling a rebellion. Led
by three young Black Minorca pullets, the hens made a determined
effort to thwart Napoleons wishes. Their method was to fly up to the
rafters and there lay their eggs, which smashed to pieces on the floor.
Napoleon acted swiftly and ruthlessly. He ordered the hens rations to
be stopped, and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of
corn to a hen should be punished by death. The dogs saw to it that
these orders were carried out. For five days the hens held out, then
they capitulated and went back to their nesting boxes.
(George Orwell Animal Farm)
The matron had given her leave to go out as soon as the women's
tea was over and Maria looked forward to her evening out. The
kitchen was spick and span: the cook said you could see yourself in
the big copper boilers. The fire was nice and bright and on one of the
side-tables were four very big barmbracks. These barmbracks seemed
uncut; but if you went closer you would see that they had been cut into
long thick even slices and were ready to be handed round at tea. Maria
had cut them herself.
Maria was a very, very small person indeed but she had a very
long nose and a very long chin. She talked a little through her nose,
always soothingly: Yes, my dear, and No, my dear. She was always
sent for when the women quarrelled over their tubs and always
succeeded in making peace. One day the matron had said to her:
Maria, you are a veritable peace-maker!'
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And the submatron and two of the Board ladies had heard the
compliment. And Ginger Mooney was always saying what she
wouldn't do to the dummy who had charge of the irons if it wasn't for
Maria. Everyone was so fond of Maria.
The women would have their tea at six o'clock and she would be
able to get away before seven. From Ballsbridge to the Pillar, twenty
minutes; from the Pillar to Drumcondra, twenty minutes; and twenty
minutes to buy the things. She would be there before eight. She took
out her purse with the silver clasps and read again the words A Present
from Belfast. She was very fond of that purse because Joe had brought
it to her five years before when he and Alphy had gone to Belfast on a
Whit-Monday trip. In the purse were two half-crowns and some
coppers. She would have five shillings clear after paying tram fare.
What a nice evening they would have, all the children singing! Only
she hoped that Joe wouldn't come in drunk. He was so different when
he took any drink.
Often she had wanted her to go and live with them; but she would
have felt herself in the way (though Joe's wife was ever so nice with
her) and she had become accustomed to the life of the laundry. Joe
was a good fellow. She had nursed him and Alphy too; and Joe used
often to say:
Mamma is mamma but Maria is my proper mother.
After the break-up at home the boys had got her that position in
the Dublin by Lamplight laundry, and she liked it. She used to have
such a bad opinion of Protestants but now she thought they were very
nice people, a little quiet and serious, but still very nice people to live
with. Then she had her plants in the conservatory and she liked
looking after them. She had lovely ferns and wax-plants and,
whenever anyone came to visit her, she always gave the visitor one or
two slips from her conservatory. There was one thing she didn't like
and that was the tracts on the walks; but the matron was such a nice
person to deal with, so genteel.
When the cook told her everything was ready she went into the
women's room and began to pull the big bell. In a few minutes the
women began to come in by twos and threes, wiping their steaming
hands in their petticoats and pulling down the sleeves of their blouses
over their red steaming arms. They settled down before their huge
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mugs which the cook and the dummy filled up with hot tea, already
mixed with milk and sugar in huge tin cans. Maria superintended the
distribution of the barmbrack and saw that every woman got her four
slices. There was a great deal of laughing and joking during the meal.
Liz Fleming said Maria was sure to get the ring and, though Fleming
had said that for so many Hallow Eves, Maria had to laugh and say
she didn't want any ring or man either; and when she laughed her
grey-green eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness and the tip of her
nose nearly met the tip of her chin. Then Ginger Mooney lifted up her
mug of tea and proposed Marias health while all the other women
clattered with their mugs on the table, and said she was sorry she
hadn't a sup of porter to drink in it. And Maria laughed again till the
tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin and till her minute body
nearly shook itself asunder because she knew that Mooney meant well
though, of course, she had the notions of a common woman.
(James Joyce Dubliners)
Stephens mother and his brother and one of his cousins waited at
the corner of quiet Foster Place while he and his father went up the
steps and along the colonnade where the Highland sentry was
parading. When they had passed into the great hall and stood at the
counter Stephen drew forth his orders on the governor of the bank of
Ireland for thirty and three pounds; and these sums, the moneys of his
exhibition and essay prize, were paid over to him rapidly by the teller
in notes and coin respectively. He bestowed them in his pockets with
feigned composure and suffered the friendly teller, to whom his father
chatted, to take his hand across the broad counter and wish him a
brilliant career in after life. He was impatient of their voices and could
not keep his feet at rest. But the teller still deferred the serving of
others to say he was living in changed times and that there was
nothing like giving a boy the best education that money could buy. Mr
Dedalus lingered in the hall gazing about him and up at the roof and
telling Stephen, who urged him to come out, that they were standing
in the house of commons of the old Irish parliament.
God help us! he said piously, to think of the men of those
times, Stephen, Hely Hutchinson and Flood and Henry Grattan and
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Charles Kendal Bushe, and the noblemen we have now, leaders of the
Irish people at home and abroad. Why, by God, they wouldnt be seen
dead in a ten-acre field with them. No, Stephen, old chap, Im sorry to
say that they are only as I roved out one fine May morning in the
merry month of sweet July.
A keen October wind was blowing round the bank. The three
figures standing at the edge of the muddy path had pinched cheeks and
watery eyes. Stephen looked at his thinly clad mother and remembered
that a few days before he had seen a mantle priced at twenty guineas
in the windows of Barnardos.
Well thats done, said Mr Dedalus.
We had better go to dinner, said Stephen. Where?
Dinner? said Mr Dedalus. Well, I suppose we had better, what?
Some place thats not too dear, said Mrs Dedalus.
Underdones?
Yes. Some quiet place.
Come along, said Stephen quickly. It doesnt matter about the
dearness.
He walked on before them with short nervous steps, smiling.
They tried to keep up with him, smiling also at his eagerness.
Take it easy like a good young fellow, said his father. We're
not out for the half mile, are we?
For a swift season of merrymaking the money of his prizes ran
through Stephens fingers. Great parcels of groceries and delicacies
and dried fruits arrived from the city. Every day he drew up a bill of
fare for the family and every night led a party of three or four to the
theatre to see the Ingomar or The Lady of Lyons. In his coat pockets
he carried squares of Vienna chocolate for his guests while his
trousers pocket bulged with masses of silver and copper coins. He
bought presents for everyone, overhauled his room, wrote out
resolutions, marshalled his books up and down their shelves, pored
upon all kinds of price lists, drew up a form of commonwealth for the
household by which every member of it held some office, opened a
loan bank for his family and pressed loans on willing borrowers so
that he might have the pleasure of making out receipts and reckoning
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the interests on the sums lent. When he could do no more he drove up
and down the city in trams. Then the season of pleasure came to an
end. The pot of pink enamel paint gave out and the wainscot of his
bedroom remained with its unfinished and ill-plastered coat.
His household returned to its usual way of life. His mother had no
further occasion to upbraid him for squandering his money. He too
returned to his old life at school and all his novel enterprises fell to
pieces. The commonwealth fell, the loan bank closed its coffers and its
books on a sensible loss, the rules of life which he had drawn about
himself fell into desuetude.
How foolish his aim had been! He had tried to build a break-
water of order and elegance against the sordid tide of life without him
and to dam up, by rules of conduct and active interests and new filial
relations, the powerful recurrence of the tides within him. Useless.
From without as from within the waters had flowed over his barriers:
their tides began once more to jostle fiercely above the crumbled
mole.
He saw clearly too his own futile isolation. He had not gone one
step nearer the lives he had sought to approach nor bridged the restless
shame and rancour that had divided him from mother and brother and
sister. He felt that he was hardly of the one blood with them but stood
to them rather in the mystical kinship of fosterage, fosterchild and
fosterbrother.
He turned to appease the fierce longings of his heart before which
everything else was idle and alien. He cared little that he was in mortal
sin, that his life had grown to be a tissue of subterfuge and falsehood.
Beside the savage desire within him to realize the enormities which he
brooded on nothing was sacred. He bore cynically with the shameful
details of his secret riots in which he exulted to defile with patience
whatever image had attracted his eyes. By day and by night he moved
among distorted images of the outer world. A figure that had seemed
to him by day demure and innocent came towards him by night
through the winding darkness of sleep, her face transfigured by a
lecherous cunning, her eyes bright with brutish joy. Only the morning
pained him with its dim memory of dark orgiastic riot, its keen and
humiliating sense of transgression.
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He returned to his wanderings. The veiled autumnal evenings led
him from street to street as they had led him years before along the
quiet avenues of Blackrock. But no vision of trim front gardens or of
kindly lights in the windows poured a tender influence upon him now.
Only at times, in the pauses of his desire, when the luxury that was
wasting him gave room to a softer languor, the image of Mercedes
traversed the background of his memory. He saw again the small
white house and the garden of rose-bushes on the road that led to the
mountains and he remembered the sadly proud gesture of refusal
which he was to make there, standing with her in the moonlit garden
after years of estrangement and adventure. At those moments the soft
speeches of Claude Melnotte rose to his lips and eased his unrest. A
tender premonition touched him of the tryst he had then looked
forward to and, in spite of the horrible reality which lay between his
hope of then and now, of the holy encounter he had then imagined at
which weakness and timidity and inexperience were to fall from him.
Such moments passed and the wasting fires of lust sprang up
again. The verses passed from his lips and the inarticulate cries and
the unspoken brutal words rushed forth from his brain to force a
passage. His blood was in revolt. He wandered up and down the dark
slimy streets peering into the gloom of lanes and doorways, listening
eagerly for any sound. He moaned to himself like some baffled
prowling beast. He wanted to sin with another of his kind, to force
another being to sin with him and to exult with her in sin. He felt some
dark presence moving irresistibly upon him from the darkness, a
presence subtle and murmurous as a flood filling him wholly with
itself. Its murmur besieged his ears like the murmur of some multitude
in sleep; its subtle streams penetrated his being. His hands clenched
convulsively and his teeth set together as he suffered the agony of its
penetration. He stretched out his arms in the street to hold fast the frail
swooning form that eluded him and incited him: and the cry that he
had strangled for so long in his throat issued from his lips. It broke
from him like a wail of furious entreaty, a cry for an iniquitous
abandonment, a cry which was but the echo of an obscene scrawl
which he had read on the oozing wall of a urinal.
He had wandered into a maze of narrow and dirty streets. From
the foul laneways he heard bursts of hoarse riot and wrangling and the
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drawling of drunken singers. He walked onward, dismayed,
wondering whether he had strayed into the quarter of the Jews.
Women and girls dressed in long vivid gowns traversed the street from
house to house. They were leisurely and perfumed. A trembling seized
him and his eyes grew dim. The yellow gas-flames arose before his
troubled vision against the vapoury sky, burning as if before an altar.
Before the doors and in the lighted halls groups were gathered arrayed
as for some rite. He was in another world: he had awakened from a
slumber of centuries.
He stood still in the middle of the roadway, his heart clamouring
against his bosom in a tumult. A young woman dressed in a long pink
gown laid her hand on his arm to detain him and gazed into his face.
She said gaily:
Good night, Willie dear!
Her room was warm and lightsome. A huge doll sat with her legs
apart in the copious easy-chair beside the bed. He tried to bid his
tongue speak that he might seem at ease, watching her as she undid
her gown, noting the proud conscious movements of her perfumed
head.
As he stood silent in the middle of the room she came over to him
and embraced him gaily and gravely. Her round arms held him firmly
to her and he, seeing her face lifted to him in serious calm and feeling
the warm calm rise and fall of her breast, all but burst into hysterical
weeping. Tears of joy and relief shone in his delighted eyes and his
lips parted though they would not speak.
She passed her tinkling hand through his hair, calling him a little
rascal.
Give me a kiss, she said.
His lips would not bend to kiss her. He wanted to be held firmly
in her arms, to be caressed slowly, slowly, slowly. In her arms he felt
that he had suddenly become strong and fearless and sure of himself.
But his lips would not bend to kiss her.
In a sudden movement she bowed his head and joined her lips to
his and he read the meaning of her movements in her frank uplifted
eyes. It was too much for him. He closed his eyes, surrendering
himself to her, body and mind, conscious of nothing in the world but
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the dark pressure of her softly parting lips. They pressed upon his
brain as upon his lips as though they were the vehicle of a vague
speech; and between them he felt an unknown and timid pressure,
darker than the swoon of sin, softer than the sound or odour.
(James Joyce Portrait of the Artist)
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Romanian source texts
139
efort poetic de factur valryan, construind ecuaii de cuvinte i
aflndu-le rezolvarea.
S mai precizm un fapt de obicei ignorat: pentru a fi un bun
traductor (mai ales de poezie), cunoaterea perfect a limbii din care
traduci, calitatea de om de cultur, rbdarea sisific rmn obligatorii;
vital ns este cunoaterea cuprinztoare, de la origini pn n
prezent, n lung i-n lat, a propriei tale limbi. A limbii n care
traduci.Traductorul perfect trebuie s fie (vai!) i un scriitor
extraordinar el nsui. Dac nu exist echivalentul absolut, la
milimetru, ntre variantele culturale ale celor dou idiomuri, puntea
reprezentat de traducere se prbuete.
n ceea ce m privete traduc poezie de peste patruzeci de ani,
avndu-i ca obiect obsesiv de admiraie i de chin pe marii poei
francezi, englezi, germani, italieni, spanioli sau portughezi. Am fcut
publice un numr infim din traducerile mele, am publicat nc i mai
puine; dar echivalarea perfect a versurilor a rmas, pn astzi,
contactul meu privilegiat cu eternitatea.
(Mihai Zamfir, Dilema, nr.456, 23-29 noiembrie 2001)
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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