In different, steaming jungles in Vietnam.

Thorny branches and oblong

pointed leaves had been standing since

the Bronze age. Here, the Goddess

Athena made peace with Zeus by offering

these olive trees bearing fruit, a healing shade.

Exercise 4. Discuss the poem with your friend or group-mate. Remember that you are not in competition with anyone, and that you will progress at your own rate:

Exercise 5. Listen and decode a song, translate and transcribe every line. Write down the unknown words into your dictionary. Use them in sentences of your own.

Exercise 6. Discuss the decoded song with the group.

Exercise 7. Read the list of synonyms. Work for precision with a minimum of tension. After you have accurately mastered the words for clarity, work for speed in repetition. Use the words in sentences of your own:

Desire, longing, craving, yearning, appetite, lust, long for, crave, covet, want, request, ask, need, wish, aspiration, urge.

Exercise 8. Imagine you and your friend are at one of the London theatres. Speak on the play you have seen. Repeat proper names for clarity of articulation.

Exercise 9. You have found a strange object. Describe it. Express your astonishment. Mind the usage of adjectives: amazing, awesome, hilarious, funny, cute, bright, awkward, nice, tiny, fine, antediluvian, ancient, old, prehistoric, mysterious, enigmatic etc. Repeat them for clarity of articulation.

Exercise 10. Read and transcribe the idioms below. Explain how you understand them: holy cats, well met; where are you snailing; where are you snuffling, get lost; how goes the enemy; I have it on the tip on my tongue, come down; still dishing your friends; you’ve got a fat city.

Exercise 11. Read, translate, transcribe and memorize a poem or a short text in prose. Repeat for clarity of articulation.

Unit nine

Exercise 1. Read, translate and transcribe the following poem by American poet Carol Levin from the collection “Place one foot here”. Write down all unknown words into your dictionary. Use them in sentences of your own:

A Tender Ordinary Down Home Boy Before He No’ed

Against the surge and surprised

as a spawning salmon suddenly

plunging upstream--

pushing against.

Urge forces my friend forward

fear should

be talking him back. No.

Greetings in his pocket neatly folded.

On time. Informed

by the cayenne

smack of the word on his lips--

his voice refuses

to take the oath.

He looks past the impliable neck

and raised right hand

of the Induction

Sergeant, no

no conscription

no military,

no yes sirs and Yes

Sir, no servant of manipulation,

no uniform. The no

sweeps him into the surge

of lawyers and hearings

and prison ahead and he tightens

his gut, keeps from soiling

his pants as he hears his own

Voice spilling. He will not

war. Not this war. Surprised at

the rush of energy that impels

him to say no

Nam---. Touched by the cold

spray of events wishing

to undo death. Fiercely longing

for mother’s goodnight

don’t-let-the-bedbugs-bite, kiss.

Exercise 2. Speak about your family. Use more adjectives to characterize your “folks”: tender, kind, polite, caressing, thoughtful, delightful, quick, bright, accurate etc. Repeat for clarity of articulation. Work for precision with a minimum of tension. After you have accurately mastered the phrases for clarity, work for speed in repetition.

Exercise 3. Repeat the following poem by Carol Levin over and over, pay your special attention to the usage of adverbs and adjectives . Mind your intonation. Be able to comment on the Intonation patterns:

Geography of Harmony

After an eyeful of ancient ruins

on an island in the Aegean, we’re

crammed tight as humanly possible. Lucky

with two seats, one each and one

child on each lap, people pushing over us.

Approximately fifty French teenage girls

share straps or seats swaying as they ride giggling

against the weary villager’s dejected faces, sweat

drenched trousers and shirts. A few at first, then all

the girls begin to sing old French folk songs. Fresh