Task 3 (Letters 6-11)

1. Read the text and find in it the words and word combinations from this list, supply them with Russian equivalents.

Word List 3

frivolous

to be stuck

an abyss of ignorance

to catch up

to bubble over with excitement

to object to doing smth

nourishing

to have a ready pen

to be through with smth

to switch smb off

to fail

to stick to smth

to pretend

2. Remember the context in which they were used.

3. Answer the following questions:

1) What did Judy tell Daddy-Long-Legs about her clothes? Why do you think the subject was so important for the girl?

2) How did Judy feel having been dressed in checked ginghams all her life?

3) Why was Judy so much interested in Daddy-Long-Legs’ appearance?

4) What made Judy write: “You’re an actual old thing with a temper.” in Letter 7?

5) What was more important for Judy: “just to read plain books” or to do regular tasks? What in your view is more important for young people getting their education: to learn special subjects or “just to read plain books”?

6) Why did Judy write that her mind was “an abyss of ignorance”?

7) What do you know about the books Judy didn’t read in her childhood? What do you know about their authors?

8) Why did Judy buy “Little Women” and how much did the book cost?

9) In what way was Judy going to spend her Christmas vacation?

10) What Christmas presents did Judy get from her imaginary family?

11) Why did Judy intend to keep her text-books instead of selling them like most of the girls did when they were through with them?

12) Did Judy change her attitude towards Julia Pendleton? Why?

13) How did Jerusha Abbott commence to be an author?

14) Was she greatly upset of the fact that she had failed in maths and Latin? Why?

15) Did she miss a family of her own very much? (Did she feel rather lonely? awfully stormy?)

4. Find sentences in the text to prove that:

– Judy missed a family of her own very much;

– Jerusha was an industrious, conscientious, sincere, honest, inquisitive, grateful, naïve, tough girl;

– Judy had a sense of humour.

5. Develop these ideas from Judy’s letters.

1. When I started to the high school, I entered upon another period even worse than the checked ginghams.

2. The bitterness of wearing your enemies cast-off clothes eats into your soul.

3. Never, never to study at night no matter how many written reviews are coming in the morning.

4. I read, read and read. One book isn’t enough. I have four going at once.

5. I am not used to receiving Christmas presents.

6. I must always like you the best of all, because you’re my whole family rolled into one.

7. When I get started I seem to have a ready pen.

8. But I must love somebody and there’s only you and Mrs Lippett to choose between, you’ll have to put up with it, because I can’t love her.

9. She wanted to know what my mother’s maiden name was – did you ever hear such an impertinent question to ask?

10. The Freshman’s lot is not a happy one.

11. I’m much more intelligent than if I’d stuck to Latin.

6. Choose the correct answers to the questions. See how much you know about these English writers and their works.

1. When did Tennyson live?

a. 18^th century

b. 18^th-19^th century

c. 19^th century

d. 19^th-20^th century

2. What was Tennyson’s full name?

a. Lord Tennyson

b. Fred Tennyson

c. Lord Alfred Tennyson

d. Albert Tennyson

3. ”David Copperfield” was written by

a. Maurice Maeterlinck

b. Charles Dickens

c. William Thackeray

d. George Eliot

4. ”Jane Eyre” was written by

a. Emily Brontë

b. Charlotte Brontë

c. Ann Brontë

d. Jane Austin

5. ”Mother Goose” is

a. a she-goose

b. a person who tries to protect his or her little ones

c. the imaginary writer of nursery rhymes (old poems and songs for children)

d. a fairy tale

6. ”Jvanhoe” was written by

a. Charles Dickens

b. Walter Scott

c. George Eliot

d. William Thackeray

7. The full name of W. Thackeray was

a. William Makepeace Thackeray

b. William Alexandre Thackeray

c. William George Thackeray

d. William Maurice Thackeray

8. William Thackeray lived in

a. 1811-1863

b. 1820-1884

c. 1801-1891

d. 1795-1850

9. George Eliot is a pen-name of

a. Frank Collins, a writer who lived in the 18^th century and wrote books about the Royal family

b. Mary Ann (Marian) Evans (1819-1880) who wrote about English country societies

c. Irwing Washington, an American writer who moved to Great Britain and worked there.

10. Robinson Crusoe

a. was the name of a real sailor who had most striking adventures living alone on an island by using whatever he could find by his own cleverness

b. is a character from a story of the same name by Daniel Defoe.

12.