1.

Read the author's biography and answer the questions

Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul,
Minnesota to a once well-to-do family that had lost much of its wealth and
influence.

Although Fitzgerald engaged actively in theater, arts and other campus

activities, his financial background was considerably poorer than those of his
classmates, and he resented what he perceived as his outsider status. He left
Princeton after three years and joined the Army during World War I. During
his army service, he was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama, where he fell in
love with Zelda Sayre, daughter of a State Supreme Court justice. She rejected
the young man, fearing he would not be able to support her.

Fitzgerald moved to New York and wrote the autobiographical novel This Side
of Paradise (1920), which immediately launched the 23-year-old writer to fame
and fortune. Impressed by his success, Zelda agreed to marry him, and the two
began a whirlwind life of glamorous parties and extravagant living in New York.

Unfortunately, the Fitzgeralds lived far beyond their means and soon found
themselves deeply in debt. They moved to Europe, hoping to cut back on
expenses. There, they befriended other expatriate writers including Ernest
Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.

While in Europe, Fitzgerald finished his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby (1925).
However, Europe proved no cheaper for the Fitzgeralds. As the couple's debts
mounted, Fitzgerald plunged into alcoholism and his wife suffered several
breakdowns. In 1937, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood to try screenwriting. He
fell in love with Sheilah Graham, a prominent Hollywood gossip columnist,
stopped drinking and began renewed literary efforts. In 1940, while in the
midst of writing a novel about Hollywood, The Last Tycoon, Fitzgerald died of
a heart attack at the age of 44. The Last Tycoon was published posthumously
in 1941.
 1. Was Francis Scott Fitzgerald's family prosperous?
2. What was he engaged with in university?
3. Where did he meet Zelda Sayre?
4. Why did they move to Europe? Who were they friends with?
5. When were these novels published: This Side of Paradise, The Great
Gatsby, The Last Tycoon?

2. Check the pronunciation of the following words

incline, privy, reserved, unsought, feigned, hostile, levity, quivering, plagiaristic,

marred, decency

3. Read a part of Chapter 1. Study the vocabulary and match

to explanations
a. very boring people
inclined (adj.)
b. very sensitive, usually about people
vulnerable (adj.)
c. behavior that is good and moral
privy to smth (adj.)
d. having an opinion, but not strong
judgements (n.)
e. to sort out
unsought (adj.)
f. very similar to original
veteran bores
g. to pretend
feign (v.) h. unfriendly and unpleasant
hostile (adj.) i. giving pressure to smth
suppressions (n.) j. to shake slightly
quiver (v.) k. to be told information that is not
parcel out (v.) told to many people
marred (adj.) l. opinion about something that you
plagiaristic (adj.) form after thinking carefully
decency (n.) m. found without any search
n. spoilt
 CHAPTER 1

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some

advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember
that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've
had."
He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative
in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than
that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that
has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim
of not a few veteran bores.

The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality
when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I
was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the
secret griefs of wild, unknown men.

Most of the confidences were unsought — frequently I have feigned

sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some
unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the
horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms
in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by
obvious suppressions.

Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid

of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested,
and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is
parcelled out unequally at birth.
4. Read the part once again. Answer the questions below

1. What facts do we know about the narrator?

2. Do you think the narrator is the main character? Why? Why not?
3. Look at the quote below. Who said that? How do you understand these
words?

3. Translate the passage

Most of the confidences were unsought — frequently I have feigned

sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some
unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the
horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms
in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by
obvious suppressions.
 Answers

Ex. 1
1. Was Francis Scott Fitzgerald's family prosperous? - No, they've lost
almost everything
2. What was he engaged with in university? - theatre and other campus
activities
3. Where did he meet Zelda Sayre? - in Alabama
4. Why did they move to Europe? Who were they friends with? - they
moved to save money and they were friends with Ernest Hemingway and
Gertrude Stein
5. When were these novels published: This Side of Paradise, The Great
Gatsby, The Last Tycoon? - 1920, 1925, 1940

Ex. 2
incline ['ɪnklaɪn], privy ['prɪvɪ], reserved [rɪ'zɜ:vd], unsought ['ʌn'sɔ:t],
feigned [feɪnd], hostile ['hɔstaɪl] , levity ['levɪtɪ], quiver ['kwɪvə],
plagiaristic [plagɪarɪstɪc], marred [mɑ:d] , decency ['di:s(ə)nsɪ]
Ex. 3
d, b, k, l, m, a, g, h, i, j, e, n, f, c