Unit three

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:

Hope the Future Goes Slower Than The Past

You make me struggle

to fathom time. Hard

to do, since we

left time isn’t

the same as before. Figure

It’s cuz we're concentrating

on each single moment.

Counting backwards from your

last letter we were

four days in Dubrovnik

after the decrepit bus

from stifling Rijecka, before

that Treiste, where we

lost conception concentrating on

attempting to acquire a

car, their argument was

lost on us -- complication

concerning Hellenic taxes. We’re

hustling to Athens tomorrow,

or maybe after, we’ll

hop a ship. Time

Is reality’s accordion. Unexpectedly

wasted a lot and

our hearts have very

long to-do lists.

I thought this was

June, joie de vivre.

Today I’m thirty two

and the day I

actually write this poem

will be in November’s

dog days almost winter.

Exercise 2. 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. Continue the list of relatives. Speak about your family:

Well, my father has a sister,

And her name’s Patricia Grand,

And her children are my cousins,

And their mother is my aunt.

Well, my father has a sister,

And her name’s Patricia Grand,

And her husband is my uncle

And his wife well that’s my aunt.

Well, my father has a sister,

And her name’s Patricia Grand,

And her brother is my father,

And his sister well is my aunt.

And my aunt has got a brother,

And her brother’s name is Chris,

And his wife well that’s my mother,

Can you tell me who Chris is?

Exercise 3. Read the following poem by Carol Levin. Repeat the lines over and over, change the numerals (adjectives). Accuracy first, the speed! Make a recording of the way you sound as you begin your studies, and then make a comparison, recording every six to twelve months.

The Day I Was Hurled Into the Vortex of the Energy of Our Universe

Thirty-two, summer 1968

convinced my life

was over before anything

ever happened.

I took drama

Into my own hands and alongside

my daughter, son and my - -

notorious casanova, landed

for a first ever look at New York City.

Elbow to elbow with thousands

standing silent on 5th Ave barely

breathing watching the murdered

Robert Kennedy’s funeral cortege.

Still subdued at four that afternoon,

we boarded tourist-class

the Cristoforo Columbo, Italian

liner. One step, a sole movement to the plank

launched us from New York America to Italy

and a maelstrom of mystifying Italian.

We flustered down a labyrinth

of levels to our cabins and lost

our elfin eight year old girl

on board somewhere as the ship

bellowed, shook and bellowed again

drowning my voice hollering her name,

as we began our glide at sunset

past Mother Liberty lifting her lamp.

Panicked I ran decks up and down searching

my missing moppet, simultaneously

taking in the scale of blazing

orange sky, a luminous

platter of full moon, fellow ships

on the Hudson, the landscape

and the fact that something was

actually happening in my life.

Exercise 4. Read the poem, continue the dialogue with your neighbour. Remember that you are not in competition with anyone, and that you will progress at your own rate:

• - Hello, please have a seat. What would you like to eat?

• - I think, I’ll have a stake, and then for desert some cake.

• - Would you like it on a bun, with some springs, perhaps well done?

• -Yes, I like it on a bun, Yes; I’d like my stake well done.

• And I’d like some ketchup too.

• - Oh, I think it’s right for you!

• With the baked potatoes please,

• Lots of cream and lots of cheese,

• And some salad would be nice,

• And bring me some water with ice.

Exercise 5. Sing the following old cowboy song¹, translate and transcribe every line. Write down the unknown words into your dictionary. Use them in sentences of your own:

Eyes like the morning sun,

Cheeks like a rose,

Laura was a pretty girl,

God Almighty knows,

Weep all you little rains

Wail winds wail,

All alone, alone, along

The Colorado trail.

Exercise 6. Make up a list of mushrooms according to the model in exercise 2, Unit 1Read, translate and transcribe each word on the list. Use the terms in sentences of your own.

Exercise 7. Read the following dialogue. Work for precision with a minimum of tension. After you have accurately mastered the phrases for clarity, work for speed in repetition. Give three forms of irregular verbs, continue the dialogue: