2011 Spring Semester Homework Name: Paca Cristina Florentina Year: II Group: 6

I. Read the following text and circle the correct answers A Digest of Henry Fieldings Life

5p

On October 8, 1754, Henry Fielding died at Lisbon, where he had gone in a last desperate attempt to recover his health. He was only forty-eight, but had lived hard and had been ill for some time, taking all manner of dreadful medicines and waters that probably did him more harm than good. When he joined the ship for Lisbon at Rotherhithe he had already lost the use of his limbs and had to be hoisted on board in a chair. In his journal of the voyage he describes how the sailors and watermen on the Thames hurled insults at him and roared with laughter. He goes on to say: It was a lively picture of that cruelty and inhumanity in the nature of men, which I have often contemplated with concern and which leads the mind into a train of very uncomfortable and melancholy thoughts. How surprised Fielding would be if he knew that 200 years later such brutal conduct to a dying man would be unthinkable and that yet, after such a gain in decency and sensitiveness, we should be prepared to slaughter one another by the million! But after the first shock of surprise, he would have enjoyed the grim irony of our situation, with a special relish of the solemn, empty speeches we make in the prospective slaughterhouse. This man who would never see his fiftieth year had not lived wisely but had seen far more of life, on many levels, than most men who lived to be a hundred. He came of aristocratic stock, though his own branch of two great families was not very wealthy. What little money young Harry Fielding had, he soon spent. He was a tall, powerful fellow, with enormous zest, fond of the bottle and any kind of amusing company, impudent, very generous. Once he borrowed some money from a bookseller with the express purpose of paying his taxes, but being appealed to by a friend even poorer than himself he gave him the money. When the tax-collector appeared, Fielding said to him: Friendship has called for the money; let the collector come again- It would be an interesting experiment to try this sentiment on the Somerset House of our day. To keep himself going, Fielding took to writing plays and before he was thirty had had many comedies and burlesques produced. He had no particular genius for the stage, and these hastily written pieces, mostly filled with topical satire, are no great shakes though the only one I have ever seen, Tom Thumb, made me laugh, I must confess. What is far more important, it even made Swift laugh, no easy conquest. In 1737, just after Fielding had entered theatrical management, the Government, weary of being lampooned by such wild wits, introduced a bill for the compulsory licensing of plays by the Lords Chamberlains. This ruined Fielding, who had no hope of escaping censorship, for he was the most notorious of the satirical playwrights. I hate to say anything in favour of censorship, licences, and

Lord Chamberlains, but it is a fact that Fieldings immediate loss was our gain. The mediocre playwright vanished and in his place appeared the great novelist. But not at once. He took to the law and after reading hard, often following a hard night in a tavern, was called to the Bar, and secured, probably through the Duke of Bedford, an appointment as magistrate at Bow Street. All the evidence suggests that Fielding, in spite of a style of life not calculated to win the confidence of the higher legal authorities, was in fact an uncommonly good magistrate. He was both zealous and shrewd, and, being a creative type of man, was not content to fall into mere routine. Although his health was now failing, he tried to introduce many sensible reforms, and was able to break up many of the murderous gangs of thieves that operated not far from his court. By this time he had turned novelist, bringing to the novel, still a most uncertain form, not only a lively imagination and a fine sense of narrative construction, but also his immense breadth of experience, his acquaintance with many different sides of life, his knowledge of country squires, town wits, fashionable ladies, alehouse sluts, lawyers, parsons, schoolmasters, rogues and vagabonds. His prodigal living may have emptied his pockets but it had given him a rich store of memories, a wealth of observation, a magnificent equipment for the writing of fiction. (J.B. Priestley)

Answer the following questions: 1. How old was Henry Fielding when he died? almost fifty 2. Why did he have to be hoisted on board? he was legless 3. How does he describe the behaviour of the sailors and watermen on the Thames? as a picture of human cruelty and brutality 4. What would Fielding enjoy, if he were able to contemplate twentieth century life? the grim irony of our situation 5. How much of life did Fielding see? more than a man who lived to be a hundred 6. The word zest in the context means: Zeal 7. What was Fieldings attitude to money? he was a spendthrift 8. As a playwright he was:

a failure 9. Why did he stop writing plays? he had no hope to escape censorship 10. Did English literature stand to lose or gain because Fielding stopped writing for the stage? to gain, because the mediocre playwright was replaced by the great novelist II. Complete the following grammar exercises A. Put the verb in the right tense: 5p

1. When I was a teenagerfootball. c. I played

2. your grandparents recently? b. Have you seen

3. The candidate..from flu when the officer interrogated him. c. was suffering

4. She wont be able to see her friend next week because shein Paris for a few days. d. will be staying

5. If he hadnt arrived in the right moment, his father.arrested by the Police. d. should have been

B. Rewrite the sentences beginning with the words given:

1. I can never find the time to go jogging, John said. John said(that) he could never find the time to go jogging .

2. The children have found most of the eggs, but some are still out there.

Most of the eggs have been found by the children, but some are still there.

3. If it werent for Easter, we would have no holiday. We wouldnt have had holiday, if it wouldnt be Easter

4. It really wasnt necessary for you to come.

5. People say that computer games are bad for you.