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п ищ а д ля р а зм ы ш лений кза игр ы ва я сосм ер тью

м олятся на него ей богу/ч естное слово

CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

to dash off - to do quickly and without serious attention to fall to somebody - to fall in love

DISCUSSION

1.Comment on the following: ‘She wished to despise him because so long as she only hated him she knew that she was very near loving him’(ch.XXXVI)

2.Comment on Waddington’s remark: ‘… you and I are the only people here who walk quite quietly and peacefully on solid ground. The nuns walk in heaven and your husband – in darkness.’What did he mean?

3.Where’s the first direct reference to the title of the novel?

4.Speaking not ironically, is a wife’s place always by her husband’s side? (ch. XXXVIII)

HOMEWORK: Ch. XXXIX – XLIII Translate into Russian:

‘It has been a great pleasure… Only foolishness.’(narration)

(ch. XLIII)

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Unit 8 Chapters XXXIX - XLIII

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1.Give a short summary of each chapter.

2.Answer the following questions:

How are the English and French different in their attachment to the native country? What about you? Would you feel comfortable outside Russia? What levels of speaking a foreign language are mentioned in ch. XL?

Were you impressed by a new character – the Mother Superior? Describe her in full detail and select one or two key character adjectives portraying her. Do you find the statement ‘… this was a woman whose beauty, depending on character, had grown with advancing years’paradoxical?

How did Kitty feel in ‘another world situated neither in place nor in time’? What made her cry in the final episode of ch.XLIII? Support your answer with your home translation.

VOCABULARY WORK

1.Find and translate the following into Russian:

to ask an indiscrete question she can impress with awe inoffensive way

lost all sense of direction smile hovered upon her lips look of approval

in the Chinese fashion

gained a peculiar savour from the circumstances it takes their minds off the danger

2.What is the difference between sewing, hemming and stitching? (ch. XLII)

3.Translate Waddington’s witticism into Russian: ‘I can say that at all events I never drink except to an excess.’

CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

a mite - a small child, especially one for whom one feels sorry

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to bundle out - to make leave in a rough manner

to retrace one’s steps - to go back exactly the way one has come

DISCUSSION

Can you trace a racist touch in Kitty’s perception of orphaned Chinese children at the convent? (ch. XLII)? Was that the first display of a white man’s arrogance in the novel? ( go back to ch. XXXVI).

HOMEWORK: Ch. XLIV - XLVIII

Find 10 interesting and/or useful expressions to be remembered

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Unit 9 Chapters XLIV - XLVIII

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1.Give a brief account of the events in ch. XLIV – XLVIII

2.Answer the following questions:

How did Kitty feel in ‘another world situated strangely neither in space nor in time’?

What was the reason for Kitty’s contempt for herself? Was Kitty accepted at ‘the garden of spirit’? If not, why?

Speak on Kitty’s failed attempt to reconcile with her husband.

What was Kitty’s diagnosis concerning Walter? How was she accurate? Can you share Kitty’s impatience with Walter? Find an impressive sustained metaphor explaining her feelings.

What trouble reduced the Mother Superior to tears? What were Kitty’s points for working in the convent?

VOCABULARY WORK

1.Share and pool home selected expressions (10).

2.Find all nouns and adjectives which characterize the Mother Superior. Present some of them in contrasting pairs reflecting her deep and complex nature.

e.g. condescention - humility austerity – gentleness, etc.

3.Find a modified version of the English proverb ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’. How are they different?

Can you think of any corresponding Russian sayings?

CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

to look to - to depend on

to throttle out - to seize by the throat to stop breathing

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DISCUSSION

1.Comment on the Mother Superior’s words: ‘One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one’s soul’. (Ch. XLVIII)

2.Kitty seems to be at the starting point of her long way towards spiritual regeneration, doesn’t she?

HOMEWORK: Ch. XLIX – LIII Translate into Russian: ‘Kitty had a queer feeling…

Oh, the relief and sense of liberation!’ (Ch. LII)

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Unit 10 Chapters XLIX - LIII

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1.Retell ch. XLIX – LIII without going into too many details.

2.Answer the questions:

What were Kitty’s duties at the convent? What unexpected talents did she have? What were her relationships with the children?

Are you prepared to deal with the children or handicapped professionally?

3.Speak on the early activities of the convent and closely related life story of one of the sisters.

4.What was wrong with Waddington’s morals?

5.What was Kitty cured of? Present the translated passage from ch.LII and comment on it.

6.What is the symbolic significance of Kitty and Waddington’s visit to a Buddhist monastery?

VOCABULARY WORK

1.Find and translate the following into Russian:

bantering tones

to surrender to her instincts she forced her lips into a smile

she didn’t dislike a bit of scandal the pranks I used to play

a wayward child

once they were in such straits she loves him to distraction it is very wicked of him

2.Find the following ‘care expressions’in the text (Ch. XLIX):

to keep an eye on somebody to be in charge of somebody

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to take care of somebody

to give into somebody’s care Do you know more?

CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

to lead on - to influence into doing something they shouldn’t do on sufferance - with permission, though not welcomed

top heavy - not properly balanced because of too much weight at the top

DISCUSSION

‘Beautiful people spark a subconscious brain reaction, which is long remembered though not self-dependent… ’

TV programme

‘Beauty is … a gift of God, one of the most rare and precious, and we should be thankful if we are happy enough to possess it and thankful, if we are not, that others possess it for our pleasure.’(Ch. LII)

Who do these citations refer to?

Is life easier for beautiful people?

HOMEWORK: Ch. LIV - LVII

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за р а зиться/п од цеп ить болезнь

меня не обм а неш ь в та кихд ела х

да ю ч естное слово

вы игр а ть вр ем я бр осить в лицоуп р ек

на ш ла м естод ля жа лости п р остил суп р ужескую невер ность

CHALLENGING VOCABULARY

to put oneself out - to take trouble to help not to matter a rap/straw - of no importance

DISCUSSION

Comment on Kitty’s words: ‘But it’s loving that’s the important thing, not being loved. One’s not even grateful to the people who love one; if one doesn’t love them, they only bore one.’Do you agree?

HOMEWORK: Ch. LVIII – LXII Translate into Russian: ‘Kitty shook hands with her…

… the breeding of uncounted centuries’ (Character description) (Ch. LVIII)

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Unit 12 Chapters LVIII – LXII

COMPREHENSION CHECK

1. Answer the following questions:

Do you think it was possible for Waddington to resist the Manchu lady’s love and devotion? Is it natural to love an idol, or as Kitty put it, ‘a phantom’?

What was Kitty’s reason for seeing her? What impression does this exotic woman produce on you?

Comment on the new interest the nuns and the Mother Superior took in Kitty. Find a similie showing the Mother Superior’s new attitude.

What was Kitty’s only desire in her new condition? Was she on the verge of some break-through in her relations with Walter?

What was the Mother Superior’s most memorable day? Could you devote your life to religion?

Look for one more similie in the most reflective of all chapters set for homework (Ch. LXI). What does it have to do with the atmosphere of this chapter.

Do you remember the stylistic device of suspense? How does it work in ch. LXII? Was the time of the event calculated precisely?

VOCABULARY WORK

1.Describe the Manchu princess in Russian (home translation). Find at least 10 adjectives making the image very special.

2.Translate the following into Russian:

haphazard sojourn it offends my taste the hint of a smile

it (the Way) leads nowither on a flimsy pretext