ENGLISH PRACTICAL COURSE second year course 1 pdf

The students’ competence in the realm of the four skills will be refined by means of complex practical activities including discourse analysis, comprehension checks, reading by skimming

DOMNICA ŞERBAN DENISA DR GUŞIN

ENGLISH PRACTICAL COURSE FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS

Coperta: Gustav Klimt – Lebensbaum (1909)

Referent ştiin ific: lector univ M d lina Crivoi

© Editura Funda iei România de Mâine, 2007

Editur acreditat de Ministerul Educa iei şi Cercet rii

prin Consiliul Na ional al Cercet rii Ştiin ifice

din Înv mântul Superior

Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Na ionale a României ŞERBAN, DOMNICA

English practical course for second year students/

Domnica Şerban, Denisa Dr guşin – Bucureşti:

Editura Funda iei România de Mâine, 2007

ISBN 978-973-725-943-1

I Dr gu şin, Denisa

811.111(075.8)

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Redactor: Andreea DINU Tehnoredactor: Brîndu şa B RBAT

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Bun de tipar: 26.10.2007; Coli de tipar: 11,25

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UNIVERSITATEA SPIRU HARET

FACULTATEA DE LIMBI ŞI LITERATURI STR INE

ENGLISH PRACTICAL COURSE FOR SECOND YEAR STUDENTS

EDITURA FUNDA IEI ROMÂNIA DE MÂINE

Bucureşti, 2007

CONTENTS

Preface ……… 9

Part I (The First Term) Introduction ……… 15

UNIT 1: EDUCATING MAN: GOING TO SCHOOL; READING BOOKS A Pilot Text: The Flight from the Enchanter ………. 18

I Reading Comprehension ……… 20

II Lexical Focus ……… 20

III Vocabulary Practice ……… 21

IV Grammar Practice ……….……… 22

V Translation ……… 25

VI Conversation ……….……… 26

VII Composition ……… 26

B Satellite text ……….… 27

I Reading ……… 27

II Comprehension Check-up ……….… 30

III Translation ……….……… 30

IV Building Vocabulary ……….……… 30

V Conversation ……… 31

VI Composition ……… 31

UNIT 2: PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL LIFE (1): LIFE AND DEATH; THE HUMAN BODY; RELATIONS AND FEELINGS A Pilot text: A Single Man ………. 32

I Reading Comprehension ……… 35

II Lexical Focus ……….…… 35

III Vocabulary Practice ……… 36

IV Grammar Practice ……….……… 37

V Translation ……….… 39

VI Conversation ……….………… 40

VII Composition ……….……… 41

B Satellite text ……….… 41

I Reading ……… 41

II Comprehension Check-up ……… 44

III Translation ……….……… 44

IV Building Vocabulary ……….……… 45

V Conversation ……… 48

VI Composition ……… 48

UNIT 3: PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL LIFE (2): INTER-HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS; LOVE AND MARRIAGE A Pilot text: The Betrayed Kingdom ……… 49

I Reading Comprehension ……… 51

II Lexical Focus ……… 51

III Vocabulary Practice ……… 52

IV Grammar Practice ……….……… 53

V Translation ……… 55

VI Conversation ……….……… 56

VII Composition ……….……… 56

B Satellite text ……….… 56

I Reading ……… 56

II Comprehension Check-up ……… 61

III Translation ……….……… 62

IV Building Vocabulary ……….……… 62

V Conversation ……… 63

VI Composition ……… 63

Revision Test I ……….… 64

Part II (The Second Term) Introduction ……… 71

UNIT 4: LIFE AND TECHNOLOGY A Pilot text: Computers will know us Better than We Know Ourselves … 73 I Reading Comprehension ……… 75

II Lexical Focus ……….… 75

III Vocabulary Practice ……… 75

IV Grammar Practice ……….……… 76

V Translation ……….… 78

VI Conversation ……….………… 80

VII Composition ……….……… 80

B Satellite text ……….… 81

I Reading ……… 81

II Comprehension Check-up ……… 84

III Translation ……….……… 84

IV Building Vocabulary ……….……… 84

V Conversation ……… 86

VI Composition ……… 86

UNIT 5: MAN AS ARTIST A Pilot text: The Listener ……… 87

I Reading Comprehension ……… 90

II Lexical Focus ……….… 90

III Vocabulary Practice ……… 91

IV Grammar Practice ……….……… 91

V Translation ……….… 94

VI Conversation ……….………… 94

VII Composition ……….……… 95

B Satellite text ……….… 95

I Reading ……… 95

II Comprehension Check-up ……… 99

III Translation ……… 99

IV Building Vocabulary ……… 99

V Conversation ……….……….… 102

VI Composition ……… 102

UNIT 6: MAN IN THE MIDST OF NATURE A Pilot text: Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine ……… 103

I.1 Reading Comprehension ……… 106

I.2 Further Text Discussion ……… 106

II Lexical Focus ……….… 107

III Vocabulary Practice ……… 107

IV Grammar Practice ……… 108

V Translation ……….…… 110

VI Conversation ……….… 111

VII Composition ……… 111

B Satellite text 1 ……… 111

I Reading ……… 111

II Comprehension Check-up and Text Discussion ……….… 114

III Translation ……… 114

IV Building Vocabulary ……… 115

V Conversation ……….……….… 115

VI Composition ……… 115

C Satellite text 2 ……… 115

I Reading ……… 115

II Comprehension Check-up ……… 120

III Translation ……… 120

IV Building Vocabulary ……… 120

V Conversation ……….……….… 121

VI Composition ……… 121

Revision Test II ……….… 122

Instead of a Key ……… 126

Appendix – Grammar Synopses ……… 137

– Composition Writing Synopses ……… 173

Bibliography ……… 179

The course aims at securing an important progress in the domain

of vocabulary and syntactic patterns (at the level of phrases, simple sentences and complex sentences), the acquisition of which should allow the students to efficiently apply their knowledge in various discourse contexts and in a wide range of textual genres The language chosen as main variety is Standard General English; besides we also introduce the basic core of English for Academic Purposes, as well as the minimal specialized vocabulary of English for Scientific and Technical Purposes and of English for Arts, with particular focus on musical terms

Our material consolidates the upper-intermediate level of English

by covering various other lexical areas The students’ grammatical awareness will be enhanced by applications focused on syntactic structures at phrase, simple sentence and compound or complex sentence types

The students’ competence in the realm of the four skills will be refined by means of complex practical activities including discourse analysis, comprehension checks, reading by skimming and scanning, talking about controversial topics or writing on given or relatively free topics

By the end of the academic year the students will have acquired the necessary competence in translating fictional and non-fictional texts into and from the target language, in essay writing, and in conversing on topics related to the selected text samples

The present English Practical Course consists of five thematically oriented units (Educating Man, Physical and Emotional Life, Life and

Technology, Man as Artist, Man in the Midst of Nature) developed in

six units, three per term

Each unit is made up of two parts: part A, focusing on the selected pilot text, mainly conveying the respective topic, and part B, focusing on the satellite text which is kindred with the pilot one from

a thematic point of view The latter helps the student go deeper into the already introduced subject matter; besides it provides further reading material opening new perspectives

Every pilot text is followed by reading comprehension, vocabulary practice and grammar practical activities and exercises, all designed so

as to consolidate both the semantic and syntactic knowledge stored by the students Part A also includes a translation section, testing the students’ ability to translate from the native language into the target one, as well as a conversation section, aiming at improving the students’ speaking competence

The last section is focused on composition aiming at developing the students’ writing skills, their creativeness

The second part of the unit, part B, reinforces the topic announced in part A, being built on the following sub-sections: the text reading section, introducing the satellite text; the comprehension check-up section, made up of a set of questions testing the students’ understanding of the text; the translation section, assessing the students’ ability to translate from the target language into the native one; the building vocabulary section providing the students with vocabulary lists of the respective domain; the conversation and the composition sections consolidating and refining the students’ speaking and writing skills

Two revision tests round off each of the two parts Their role is

to check the lexical and the grammatical cognitive material introduced

in the respective units

At the end of the book, in the appendix, there are several grammar and composition synopses meant to function as working instruments, which will help the students’ solve their tasks more efficiently These materials also facilitate exam preparation, by the systematic picture they provide Linguistic awareness in the domains

of grammar and discourse will also be consolidated if these synopses are assimilated by the second year student

We would like to conclude by referring back to the essential

final points of each section Our choice has been deliberately oriented towards fictional discourse as prior and non-fictional discourse, mainly media texts, as secondary We would like to motivate our option, by stating most openly that in our capacity as discourse analysts we consider, alongside many others discourse specialists that reading a fictional piece of work is tantamount to a new cognitive experience This experience is actually more striking from a cognitive point of view than a real world experience, since, in most cases it triggers the refreshment or even the building of new mental schemata Hence, the greater emotional involvement of the students who thus penetrate a captivating possible world in the realm of the imagination Imaginary worlds activate a richer vocabulary and a very diverse use

This book should be, therefore, not only a teaching tool, but also

a source of intellectual pleasure

The authors

PART I

(The First Term)

PART A (FOCUSED ON THE PILOT TEXT):

• The Text Section has a complex structure containing a pilot

text, thematically oriented and a text analysis and vocabulary practice

activities The pilot texts for the first semester are: The Flight from the

Enchanter by Iris Murdoch; A Single Man by Cristopher Isherwood; The Betrayed Kingdom by Richard Brautigan; The wide variety of

applications (activities and exercises) helps the students increase their vocabulary, and improve their reading and speaking skills

• The Grammar Section deals with applied Syntax topics In

the first semester the following issues are to be studied: sentence types

with respect to word order peculiarities and communicative functions;

uses of be, copula-like verbs, basic and derived predicatives, structures

with predicative adjuncts; monotransitives and ditransitives, the cognate object, prop-verbs, causatives and ergatives, reflexive and reciprocal transitives, transitive phrasal verbs; complex intransitive verbs Each issue is allocated a range of activities meant to revise and

go thoroughly into the main grammar structures

• The Translation Section contains a corpus of texts focusing

on the grammatical and lexical problems approached The texts are chosen from contemporary Romanian prose Syntactic and stylistic adequacy are checked

• The Conversation Section consists of three or four topics of

discussion thematically linked with the pilot text

• The Composition Section consists of two essays per unit

(one of which is obligatory) on topics related to the pilot text

• Self-Evaluation by Revision tests

PART B (FOCUSED ON THE SATELLITE TEXT):

• The Reading Section is meant to provide students with

further reading materials in the topic field announced in part A The

satellite texts for the first term are: Total Effect and the Eighth Grade

by Flannery O’Connor, In Bed by Joan Didion, Manners, Customs,

and Observances: Their Origin and Significance by Leopold Wagner

• The Comprehension Check-up Section is designed to see

whether students can get the gist of the prose – its underlying purpose and principal ideas – quickly and accurately

• The Translation Section points to the entire satellite text,

practising the students’ ability to render the syntactic and semantic structures of the respective text from the target language into the native language

• The Building Vocabulary Section introduces students to

various lists of words topic related, thus, increasing the students’ knowledge of the respective domain

• The Conversation Section consists of three or four topics of

discussion thematically related to the satellite text

• The Composition Section consists of two essays per unit

(one of which is obligatory) on topics related to the satellite text

UNIT 1

EDUCATING MAN: GOING TO SCHOOL;

READING BOOKS

Dame Jean Iris Murdoch (July 15, 1919 – February 8, 1999),

born in Dublin, Ireland, is known primarily as a novelist, but also as a

fine philosopher Her first published novel, Under the Net (1954), was

selected by the editorial board of the American Modern Library in

2001 as one of the 100 best English novels of the 20th century She produced twenty five novels throughout her prolific career as a writer Besides she wrote quite a few original essays on philosophical issues All her works prove a high professionalism and a deep insight into the human nature

In 1987, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the

British Empire

While still in her sixties, Iris Murdoch visited Romania, being accompanied by her husband John Bayly, a novelist and a university professor of English literature She delivered a brilliant lecture on the relation between art and philosophy to the then students of English in Bucharest The lecture was followed by the novelist’s exciting discussions with the students and teaching staff at the Bucharest University Department of English in Bucharest

Iris Murdoch was stricken by Alzheimer’s disease, from which she began to suffer in 1995 She was most devotedly taken care of by her husband The bitter years of mental disorder in the context of the couple’s tender love have been made into an unforgettable movie, IRIS, a shocking biopic directed by Richard Eyre Kate Winslet portrayed young Iris, Judy Dench created the image of the old writer

The excerpt below has been selected from her second novel The

Flight from the Enchanter (1956) The text is highly relevant for

topics like: the psychology of teenagers in the context of secondary school, the power relations holding between the authority as represented

by teachers and the pupils they are trying to train, the child’s drive to break free from the school environment

A PILOT TEXT: THE FLIGHT FROM THE ENCHANTER

(by Iris Murdoch – a fragment)

Annette put her coat on and was ready to go But now when she reached the door that led into the street she paused suddenly She turned around and looked along the corridor Everything seemed the same; the expensive flora, the watery reproductions of famous paintings, the much admired curve of the white staircase Annette stared at it all It looked to her the same, and yet different It was as if she had walked through the looking-glass She realized that she was free As Annette pondered, almost with awe, upon the ease with which she had done it, she felt that Ringenhall had taught her its most important lesson She began to walk back, peering through doorways and touching objects with her fingers She half expected to find new rooms hidden behind familiar doors She wandered into the library She entered quietly and found that as usual the room was empty She stood there in the silence until it began to look to her like a library

in a sacked city No one owned these books now No one would come here again; only after a while the wall would crumble down and the rain would come blowing in It occurred to Annette that she might as well take away one or two books as souvenirs Volumes were not arranged in any particular order, not were they stamped or catalogued She examined several shelves The books were chaotic, but in mint condition, since reading was not a popular activity at Ringenhall At

length she selected a leather-bound copy of the Collected Poems of

Browning, and left the room with the book under her arm She was by now feeling so happy that she would have shouted for joy if it had not been for the delicious spell which she felt herself to be under and which still enjoined silence She looked about her complacently Ringenhall was at her mercy

There were two things which Annette had wanted to do ever since she had arrived One of these was to carve her name on a wooden bust by Grinling Gibbons, which stood in the common-room There was something solemn and florid about this work, which made Annette itch for a blade The wood was soft and inviting However, she rejected this idea, not because the name of Grinling Gibbons carried, when it came to it, any magic for her, but because she had mislaid her pocket-knife The other thing which she had always

turned rapidly in the direction of that room and bounded in Tables and chairs stood by, silent with disapproval Annette looked up at the chandelier and her heart beat violently The thing seemed enormously high up and far away It hung from a stout chain; Annette had noticed this carefully when she had studied it in the past She had also remarked a strong metal bar, right in the centre of it, on which she had always planned to put her hands All about and above this bar were suspended tiny drops of crystal, each one glowing with a drop of pure light tinier still, as if a beautiful wave had been arrested in the act of breaking while the sun was shining upon it Annette had felt sure that

if she could swing upon the chandelier the music which was hidden in the crystals would break out into a great peal of bells But now it seemed to be very hard to get at

In her imagination Annette had always reached the objective by

a flying leap from the High Table; but she could see now that this was not a practical idea Grimly she began to pull one of the tables into the centre of the room On top of the table she placed one of the chairs Then she began to climb up By the time she was on the table she was already beginning to feel rather far away from the ground Annette was afraid of heights However, she mounted resolutely on to the chair Here, by standing on tiptoe, she could get her hands over the metal bar She paused breathlessly Then with a quick movement she kicked the chair away and hung stiffly in mid-air The chandelier felt firm, her grip was strong, there was no terrible rending sound as the chain parted company with the ceiling “After all”, thought Annette, “I don’t weigh much”

She kept her feet neatly together and her toes pointed Then with

an oscillation from the hips she began to swing very gently to and fro The chandelier began to ring, not with a deafening peal but with a very high and sweet tinkling sound; the sort of sound, after all, which you would expect a wave of the sea to make if it had been immobilized and turned into glass: a tiny internal rippling, a mixture

of sound and light Annette was completely enchanted by this noise and by the quiet rhythm of her own movements She fell into a sort of trance, and as she swung dreamily to and fro she had a vision of remaining there for the rest of the afternoon until the boarders of Ringenhall, streaming in for their dinner, would make their way round

on either side of her swinging feet and sit down, paying her no more attention than if she had been a piece of furniture

At that moment the door opened and Miss Walpole came in Annette, who was at the end of one of her swings, let go abruptly of the chandelier and, missing the table, fell to the floor with a crash at Miss Walpole’s feet Miss Walpole looked down at her with a slight frown This lady was never sure which she disliked most, adolescent girls or small children; the latter made more noise, it was true, but they

were often in the long run easier to handle

• What is the ‘important lesson’ Annette has been taught?

• What sort of person would do the two things Annette wanted

to do?

• How do you perceive her attitude to the school?

• Does the fact that she carries one of them out say anything about her character?

II Lexical Focus

• Look up the following words and phrases in a dictionary:

to ponder awe complacent(ly) at length

to peer leap violent(ly) at one’s mercy

to itch peal (a ~ of bells) breathless(y) on tiptoe

to bound ripple high up in the past

to glow grip far away on to the chair

to arrest height resolute(ly) with a frown

• Use the items from the prepositional phrases column in

contexts of your own

III Vocabulary Practice

1 Collocate the adjectives below with possible noun heads so as to

illustrate their range of meanings (i.e their polysemy):

wooden; watery; neat; grim; stiff; soft

2 Fill in with a verb indicating cutting and complete the list of

synonyms by further items, such as: carve, trim, clip, hew etc

a) In spring we always our trees

b) Let’s this interesting article!

c) Her hair is

d) You’d better this meat rather than it

e) An unknown artist has the statue of the Happy Prince

f) A lot of animals have been for food products

g) We had to our way through the thick jungle

3 Supply six items (minimally) in the series of synonyms:

a) for light emission (prototype: to shine)

b) for kinds of looking (prototype: to look)

c) for taking hold of something (prototype: to hold)

Provide minimal contexts and explain by short paraphrases the

main semantic distinctions

4 State the contextual meaning of the following words and

phrases in the fragment above and supply more contexts to illustrate the same or a different use

5 Make a list of all the phrasal verbs (with particle and/or

preposition) in the text and supply their contextual meanings

IV Grammar Practice

1 Match the two columns A and B:

A B

a) I would be grateful if you

could pass me the salad

declarative and interrogative

b) I insist that you come again

tomorrow night

interrogative c) Will you repeat the question? interrogative and declarative

d) Did you know they’ve married

this morning?

exclamatory and interrogative

e) How many times have I told

you not to do that?

2 Give examples of:

a) simple sentences (one predication – finite verb form)

b) compound sentences (coordinated clauses)

c) complex sentences (subordinated clauses)

Then using the following box with the most common

conjunctions make up sentences of your own by:

a) coordinating clauses

and nor then so

b) subordinating clauses

time when before while

condition if unless

purpose in order to so that

reason since because as

concession although though while despite

place where wherever

manner as like the way

relative which what whose

3 Give the correct ordering of the adjectives in the following noun

phrases; resort to the language tip under the list:

a/an (red, washable, cotton) skirt;

(brown, frightened, big) eyes

a/an (fifteen-foot, pale-red, age-old) wall

a/an (Greek, young, bright) student

(volcanic, black, tall) rocks

a/an (little, marble, Egyptian, brownish) statue

a/an (fluffy, pink, narrow, woollen, Turkish) cushion

Language Tip: The Order of Adjectives in front of a Noun

determiner opinion size shape age colour origin material purpose/

type nouna/the/two nice big round old blue French glass fruit bowl

4 Spot the errors (if any) and try to describe the respective

violation of grammatical rules of the sentences below:

a) *I asked him who was the car owner and he told to me it was possessed by his brother-in-law

b) *Yesterday it took place at the Elisabeta Palace a panel on higher education

c) *He suggested me that there was the thief in the back yard d) *Green peas he never eats, but he likes very much soya beans d) *Michael sent Frankfurt a large box

5 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate preposition:

a) Mary was not at all pleased the invitation, on the contrary she was indignant it

b) I have scarcely been satisfied my performance lately c) Some people are afraid spiders

d) All the passengers were impatient delay

e) She was shocked the news of his failure

f) What is he glad ?

g) My brother is eager success

h) We are all surprised your reply

i) I’m angry myself for having failed the exam

j) Stunt men’s life is fraught danger

6 Use the ‘copula-like’ verbs below to complete the sentences:

make stand

a) The prospect of a strike large in everyone’s mind

b) He withdrew from the competition when it clear that he stood no chance

c) There’s a lot of money idle at the bank

d) At the President’s entry everyone silent

e) The tennis-player to pieces in the second set

f) The cows are dry

g) She’s to be more and more like her mother

h) John convicted for treason

i) The snow (in)to slush

j) The seam unstitched

k) The telephone has dead

l) Mike’s journal open on the table

m) Susan a good wife for Bill

n) I godmother to the child

o) When her servant left to have a baby, Mrs Green had to cook

7 Specify whether the following adjectives are predicative,

modifying or both, and then use them in contexts of your own:

8 Identify the copular verb in the following quotations:

a) “Painting is a blind man’s profession”

b) “So are they all, all honourable men”

c) “To be or not to be – that is the question”

d) “It is a terrible thing for a man to find out that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth”

e) “A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car”

V Translation

Translate from Romanian into English:

1 Înc din adolescen mi-a pl cut sa scriu nuvele, povestiri şi chiar „romane” fantastice [ ] M-am apucat s scriu într-o duminic ; aveam toat ziua şi noaptea libere în fa a mea Îmi amintesc înc începutul şi sfârşitul povestirii: m aflam în laborator (în acel an eram pasionat de chimie şi îmi alc tuisem un mic laborator în pod) şi nu ştiu datorit c rei împrejurimi am adormit – dar, evident, cititorul nu ştia asta; nu i-o spusesem

2 P cat Nici eu nu prea ştiu mare lucru Dac s-ar fi urcat în tramvaiul sta, l-aş fi întrebat Îmi place s intru în vorb cu oameni cul i Tinerii aceştia, domnul meu, erau, desigur, studen i Studen i eminen i Aşteptam cu ei în sta ie şi i-am ascultat Vorbeau despre un anume colonel Lawrence şi de aventurile lui în Arabia Şi ce memorie! Recitau pe dinafar pagini întregi din cartea colonelului

3 – Când eram în dragoste cu Hildegard [ ] nu visam decât la asta: s facem împreun o excursie în Grecia

– Ai fost un prost, îl întrerupse fata Nu trebuia s visezi, trebuia s-o iubeşti

– Aveam dou zeci de ani şi ea nu împlinise înc optsprezece Era frumoas Eram amândoi frumoşi, ad ug

În acea clip îşi d du seama c era îmbr cat într-un costum ciudat.[ ] Se privi mirat în oglind , parc i-ar fi fost greu s se recunoasc

4 Eşti fantastic! exclam , Agripina […] Credeam c singura ta aventur , de care î i vei aduce aminte toat via a, va fi întâlnirea cu mine De mult voiam s -ti fac surpriza asta: s te smulgi din masa indivizilor de duzin s evadezi din cotidian şi banalitate întâlnindu-te

cu Agripina

De dou s pt mâni te urm ream de departe, te adulmecam şi te reconstituiam [ ] Aveai un secret şi nu-l ştiam, nu-l în elegeam Ascundeai o tain aşa cum ascund şi eu De aceea m interesai Erai

un personaj Meritai s-o întâlneşti pe Agripina, s ai şi tu o aventur fantastic

5 – În ultima vreme ne întâlneam destul de rar, la câ iva ani o dat Dar p stram leg tura, prin prieteni comuni, prin colegi; ne scriam mai rar, c ci eram amândoi foarte prinşi fiecare cu treburile şi

r spunderile noastre Şi totuşi când a aflat de la Hagi Pavel c voi veni

în a doua jum tate a lui iunie la Poiana-Dornei, mi-a scris, du-mi s petrecem câteva zile împreun , to i trei, aici, la caban Dar

propunân-de ce întrebi?

(Mircea Eliade, adaptare

dup În curte la Dionis)

VI Conversation

1 The social role of school – now and yesterday

2 Should teachers be role – models?

3 How does the educational system in your country differ from the educational system in other countries?

4 What was your last year in school like?

VII Composition

Topics for Essay Writing

1 Continue the fragment by imagining the further episode in

Annette’s relation with authority

2 “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his

influence stops.” (Henry Adams)

B SATELLITE TEXT

I Reading

Total Effect and the Eighth Grade

(a short story by Flannery O’Connor)

In two recent instances in Georgia, parents have objected to their eighth and ninth grade children’s reading assignment in modern fiction This seems to happen with some regularity in cases throughout the country The unwitting parent picks up his child’s book, glances throughout, comes upon passages of erotic detail or profanity, and takes off at once to complain to the school board Sometimes, as in one of the Georgia cases, the teacher is dismissed and hackles rise in liberal circles everywhere

The two cases in Georgia, which involved Steinbecks’s, East of

Eden, and John Hersey’s, A Bell for Adono, provoked considerable

newspaper comment One columnist, in commending the enterprise of the teachers, announced that students do not like to read the fusty works of the 19th century, that their attention can best be held by novels dealing with the realities of our own time, and that the Bible, too, is full of racy stories

Mr Hersey himself addressed a letter to the state school superintendent in behalf of the teacher who had been dismissed He pointed out that his book is not scandalous, that it attempts to convey

an earnest message about the nature of democracy, and that if falls well within the limits of the principle of “total effect,” that principle followed in legal cases by which a book is judged not for isolated parts but by the final effect of the whole book upon the general reader

I do not want to comment on the merits of these particular cases What concerns me is what novels ought to be assigned in the eighth and ninth grades as a matter of course, for if these cases indicate anything, they indicate the haphazard way in which fiction is approached in our high schools Presumably there is a state reading list which contains “safe” books for teachers to assign; after that it is

teacher’s knowledge, ability and taste, variable factors at best More often than not, the teacher assigns what he thinks will hold the attention and interest of the students Modern fiction will certainly hold it

Ours is the first age in history which has asked the child what he would tolerate learning, but that is a part of the problem with which I

am not equipped to deal The devil of educationalism that possesses us

is the kind that can be cast out only by prayer and fasting No one has yet come along strong enough to do it In other ages the attention of children was held by Homer and Virgil, among others, but by the reverse evolutionary process, that is no longer possible; our children are too stupid now to enter the past imaginatively No one asks the student if algebra pleases him or if he finds it satisfactory that some French verbs are irregular, but if he prefers Hersey to Hawthorne, his taste must prevail

I would to put forward the proposition, repugnant to most English teachers, that fiction, if it is going to be taught in the high schools, should be taught as a subject and as a subject with a history The total effect of a novel depends not only on its innate impact, but upon the experience, literary and otherwise, with which it is approached

No child needs to be assigned Hersey or Steinbeck until he is familiar with a certain amount of the best work of Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, the early James and Crane, and he does not need to be assigned these until he has been introduced to some of the better English novelists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

The fact that these works do not present him with the realities of his own time is all to the good He is surrounded by the realities of his own time and he has no perspective whatever from which to view them Like the college student who wrote in her paper on Lincoln that

he went to the movies and got shot, many students go to college unaware that the world was not made yesterday; their studies began with the present and dipped backward occasionally when that seemed necessary or unavoidable

There is much to be enjoyed in the great British novels of the 19th century, much that a good teacher can open up in them for the young student There is no reason why these novels should be either too simple or too difficult for the eighth grade For the simple they offer simple pleasures; for the more precocious, they can be made to yield subtler ones if the teacher is up to it Let the student discover, after reading the 19th century British novel, that the 19th century

American novel is quite different as to its literary characteristics, and

he will thereby learn something not only about these individual works but about the change which a new historical situation can effect in a literary form Let him come to modern fiction with this experience behind him, and he will be better able to see and to deal with the more complicated demands of the best twentieth-century fiction

Modern fiction often looks simpler than the fiction which preceded it, but in reality it is more complex A natural evolution has taken place The author has for the most part absented himself from direct participation in the work and has left the reader to make his own way amid experience dramatically rendered and symbolically ordered The modern novelist merges the reader in the experience; he tends to raise the passions he touches upon If he is a good novelist, he raises them to effect by their order and clarity a new experience – the total effect – which is not in itself sensuous or simply of the moment Unless the child has had some literary experience before, he is not going to be able to resolve the immediate passions the book arouses into any true, total picture

It is here the moral problem will arise It is one thing for a child

to read about adultery in the Bible or in Anna Karenina and quite

another for him to read about it in most modern fiction This is not only because in both the former instances adultery is considered a sin, and in the latter, at most, an inconvenience, but because modern writing involves the reader in the action with a new degree of intensity and literary mores now permit him to be involved in any action a human being can perform

In our fractured culture, we cannot agree on morals, we cannot even agree that moral matters should come before literary ones when there is a conflict between them All this is another reason why the high schools would do well to return to their proper business of preparing foundations Whether in the senior year students should be assigned modern novelists should depend both on their parent’s consent and on what they have already read and understood

The high school English teacher will be fulfilling his responsibility if he furnishes the student a guided opportunity, through the best writing of the past, to come, in time, to an understanding of the best writing of the present He will teach literature, not social studies or little lessons in democracy or the customs of many lands And if the student finds that this is not to his taste? Well, that is regrettable Most regrettable His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed

II Comprehension Check-up

1 What faults in the usual methods of teaching fiction to

high-school students does the author set forth?

2 What objections does the author have to assigning contemporary novels in high school?

3 What does the author want to be taught in high school?

4 What is the author’s opinion with respect to students’ tastes?

5 What is the author’s view on high school education?

III Translation

Translate the first three paragraphs of the satellite text

IV Building Vocabulary

• Write an essay on your own personality (self-portrait with

focus on the intellectual and emotional features) and education (all the stages)

V Conversation

1 What was good and what was wrong about your high school

years?

2 If you were in a position to change something about the

education system, what would you change? Argument your answer

3 “His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.” How

do you respond to this statement?

VI Composition

Write an essay on each of the following topics:

1 My own high school experience

2 “Owls are not really wise – they only look that way The owl

is a sort of college professor.” (E Hubbard)

UNIT 2

PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL LIFE (1):

LIFE AND DEATH; THE HUMAN BODY;

RELATIONS AND FEELINGS

Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an

Anglo-American novelist

The son of a British Lieutenant-Colonel belonging to the upper gentry, he was born in his family’s ancestral seat, Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, near Stockport in the northwest of England, and spent his childhood in various towns where his father was stationed His first

novel, All the Conspirators, is an anti-heroic story, written in a pastiche

of many modernist novelists, about a young man who is defeated by

his mother His second novel, The Memorial (1932), was another of

his stories of intergenerational conflict between mother and son, based closely on his own family history

Isherwood wrote a lightly-fictionalized autobiographical account

of his childhhood and youth, Lions and Shadows (1938), using the

title of an abandoned novel

In the opinion of many reviewers, Isherwood’s finest achievement

was his 1964 novel A Single Man During 1964 Isherwood collaborated

with the American writer Terry Southern on the screenplay for the

Tony Richardson film adaptation of The Loved One, Evelyn Waugh’s

caustic satire on the American funeral industry

A PILOT TEXT: A SINGLE MAN

(by Cristopher Isherwood – a fragment)

Waking up begins with saying AM and NOW That which has awoken then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into himself, until it has recognized I, and there from deduced I AM, I AM NOW HERE comes next, and is at least negatively reassuring; because HERE, this morning is what it had expected to find itself what’s called at home But now isn’t simply now NOW is also a cold reminder; one whole day later than yesterday, one year later than last

obsolete, until – later or sooner, perhaps no, not perhaps – quite certainly: It will come Fear tweaks the vagus nerve A sickish shrinking from what waits, somewhere out, dead ahead

But meanwhile the cortex, that grim disciplinarian, has taken its place at the central controls and has been testing them one after another – the legs stretch, the lower back is arched, the fingers clench and relax And now, over the entire inter-communication system, is issued the first order of the day: UP

Obediently, the body levers itself out of bed, wincing from twinges in the arthritic thumbs and the left knee, mildly nauseated by the pylorus in a state of spasm – and shambles naked into the bathroom, where its bladder is emptied and it is weighed; still a bit over 130 pounds, in spite of all toiling at the gym Then to the mirror What it sees there isn’t much a face as the expression of a predicament Here’s what it has done to itself, here’s the mess it has somehow managed to get itself into, during its fifty-eight years; expressed in terms of a dull harassed stare, a coarsened nose, a mouth dragged down by the corners into a grimace, as if at the sourness of its own toxins, cheeks sagging from their anchors of muscles, a throat hanging limp in tiny wrinkled folds The harassed look is that of a desperately tired swimmer or runner; yet there is no question of stopping The creature we are watching will struggle on and on until it drops Not because it is heroic: it can imagine no other alternative Staring and staring into the mirror, it sees many faces within its face – the face of a child, the boy, the young man, the not-so-young man – all present still, preserved like fossils on superimposed layers, and like fossils, dead Their message to this live dying creature is: Look at us – we have died – what is there to be afraid of?

It answers them: But that happened so gradually, so easily I AM AFRAID OF BEING RUSHED

It stares and stares Its lips part It starts to breathe through its mouth Until the cortex orders it impatiently to wash, shave, brush its hair Its nakedness has to be covered It must be dressed up in clothes, because it is going outside, into the world of the other people; and these others must be able to identify it Its behaviour must be acceptable to them

Obediently, it washes, shaves, brushes its hair; for it accepts its responsibilities to the others It is even glad it has its place among them It knows what is expected of it

It knows its name It is called George

By the time it has gotten dressed, it has become HE; has become more or less George – though still not the whole George they demand and are prepared to recognize Those who call him on the phone at this hour of the morning would be bewildered, maybe even scared, if they could realize what this three-quarters-human thing is they are talking

to But, of course, they never could – its voice’s mimicry of their George is nearly perfect Even Charlotte is taken in by it Only two or three times has she sensed something uncanny, and asked: ‘George, are you ALL RIGHT?’

He crosses the front room, which he calls his study, and comes down the staircase The stairs turn a corner; they are narrow and steep You can touch both handrails with your elbows and you have to bend your head – even if, like George, you are only five feet eight This is a tightly planned little house He often feels protected by its smallness; there is hardly enough room here to feel lonely

Nevertheless -

Think of two people, living together day after day, year after year, in this small space, standing elbow to elbow cooking at the same stove, squeezing past each other on the narrow stairs, shaving in front

of the same bathroom mirror, constantly jogging, jostling, bumping against each other’s bodies by mistake or on purpose, sensually, aggressively, awkwardly, impatiently, in rage or in love – think what deep, though invisible tracks they must leave, everywhere, behind them! The doorway into the kitchen has been built too narrow Two people in a hurry, with plates of food in their hands are apt to keep colliding there And it is here, nearly every morning, that George, having reached the bottom of the stairs, has his sensation of suddenly finding himself on an abrupt, brutally broken-off, jagged edge – as though the track has disappeared down a landslide It is here that he stops short and knows with a sick newness, almost as though it were for the first time: Jim is dead Is dead

He stands quite still, silent or at most uttering a brief animal grunt, as he waits for the spasm to pass Then he walks into the kitchen These morning spasms are too painful to be treated sentimentally After them he feels relief, merely It is like getting over a bad attack of cramp

APPLICATIONS

I Reading Comprehension

• Which are the main stages in the character’s ‘waking’ process?

• How is the relation between the brain and the parts of the body reflected in the text?

• What referential expressions are used to mark the identity of the main character?

• What tragedy is evoked by George in the final part of the fragment? Is it a climax or an anti-climax?

• What is the ‘role’ of the house in the fragment above?

II Lexical focus

• Look up the following words in a dictionary:

Verbs Nouns Adjectives

to shrink nausea(+ed) sick(-ish)/ ly

to clench bladder coarse/ ly

to wince predicament limp

to shamble reminder uncanny

to lever vagus nerve awkward

to harass pylorus brutally

to bewilder mimicry sentimentally

to squeeze handrail merely

• Memorize the items used to describe the human face

forehead

cheek

chin

temple nose jaw

eye mouth ear

cheekbone angle of the mouth dimple in the chin

III Vocabulary Practice

1 Explain the meaning of the Noun, Adjective and Verb single in

the sentences below:

a) The mountaineers were climbing in a single file

b) She decided to buy herself a single

c) He had to pay extra for a single room

d) Yesterday they played women’s singles

e) He asked me to pay in singles

f) His article starts by singling out the five key goals of US foreign policy (for praise/ blame/ criticism)

g) The peasants were singling the maize

h) He was wearing a single-breasted coat, as well as a single eyeglass

i) The single-engined train was puffing along the single track j) When I first met him he was a single man

k) Cigarette smoking is the single most important cause of lung cancer

l) Have you heard their latest single?

What do you think the compounds handed and

single-minded might mean?

2 Complete the following sentences with the correct preposition:

to, toward, on, onto, in, or into:

a) Mary has returned …….her home town

b) The little duck jumped ……the pond

c) Tom fell … the floor

d) She drove …… the river for two hours, but then she turned back before reaching it

e) Jane got … Tom’s brand new car

f) My little girl spilled her cereal …… the floor

3 Fill in the blanks with the appropriate verb in the series of

‘verbs of holding’: clasp, clench, clutch, grasp, grip, press, snatch,

seize, cling , claw:

a) She climbed into the car ing her hat so that the wind

b) The baby monkey to its mother’s back until it could climb

by itself

c) David suddenly ed my arm and pulled me away from the road

d) The hawk ed the fowl by its talons

e) The kid my hand with warm affection

f) The boxer ed his fists and started a new attack

g) She ed the knife in her hand and started carving the turkey h) He was ed from the claws of death

i) She ed at her husband’s sleeve, trying to stop him

j) The policeman ed the thief in the act of escaping

IV Grammar practice

1 Fill in with a suitable preposition so as to form a prepositional

phrase:

a) She has applied a transfer

b) She has applied the ointment the wound

c) She applied the task most diligently

d) For details you may apply the secretary or the booking office

2 Fill in with the appropriate particle or preposition (or both) and

then explain the meaning of the phrasal verb thus formed:

a) The smoke drifted to reveal the blackened shell of the building

b) He was excited by novel ideas which came drifting all kinds of sources

c) His upbringing seems to have left him incapable of sustained effort, he just drifts

d) He and his wife are drifting mutual indifference

3 Use the following intransitive verbs in contexts of your own so

as to illustrate their syntactic behaviour:

live cost walk go arrive

stretch weigh come dash last

4 Complete the sentences beginning as shown so that the meaning

stays the same Use constructions including the word in italics and add any other words, if necessary

a) My brother mended my vacuum cleaner for me

She by a famous designer

e) I’m having my passport photograph taken on Sunday

5 Insert the appropriate particle and check whether it can be

moved after the Direct Object:

a) He rarely managed to get (his jokes)

b) The newspaper whipped (sympathy) for them

c) They attempted to drum (support) from the students

6 Complete the sentences using the reflexive pronoun “themselves”

or the reciprocal pronominal phrase “each other”

a) They always send a card at New Year’s Eve

b) They really enjoyed on the cruise

d) Joan and Angelina went shopping together and looked out

g) The twin brothers smiled happily at

h) A lot of people injure doing jobs about the house

7 Analyse the underlined verb phrases in terms of meaning and

V Translation

Translate from Romanian into English:

1 Dac m-aş tunde în fiecare zi ar trebui s pl tesc o groaz de bani coafezei

2 Aş fi chemat ieri pe cineva s acordeze pianul, dac puteam

g si un om în stare s-o fac

3 Dac nu faci ce vreau, am s pl tesc s mi se trimit rochiile

de la Paris şi o s te coste mult mai mult decât dac f ceai ce te-am rugat

4 E ciudat c nu i-ai vopsit înc poarta

5 E neaşteptat c şi-a reparat maşina în loc s-o vând dup un accident aşa de grav

6 Trebuia s - i repari de mult cântarul, fiindc e stricat de un an încoace şi to i clien ii t i se plâng de luni de zile c -i înşeli

7 Nu se poate s -şi fi spoit camera înainte ca nevasta lui s termine de scos mobilele din ea

8 Se vede c şi-a dat la reparat pantofii, fiindc atunci când

ne-am desp r it pierduse un toc, iar acum v d c are ne-amândou tocurile,

ca de obicei

9 Puteai pune s fie antrenat calul acela, dac ai fi vrut s

câştige cursa

10 Dac mai pui copilul s înve e toat ziua, am s m sup r pe tine

11 Eram însurat de doi ani şi jum tate cu o coleg de facultate

şi b nuiam c m înşal

Din cauza asta nici nu puteam s -mi dau examenele la vreme Îmi petreceam timpul spionându-i prieteniile, urm rind-o, f când probleme insolubile din interpretarea unui gest, din nuan a unei rochii

şi din informarea l untric despre cine ştie ce vizit la vreuna din

m tuşile ei Era o suferin de neînchipuit care se hr nea din propria ei

substan Ne luasem din dragoste, s raci amândoi, dup

randez-vous-uri din ce în ce mai dese pe s lile universit ii şi dup lungi plimb ri

pe jos, prin toate cartierele pavate cu asfalt ale Capitalei, care erau şi cele mai singuratice, pe atunci Dup nunta noastr , care a fost într-un anumit fel t inuit , mi-a murit un unchi bogat, a c rui avere împ r it

in cinci p r i [ ] a putut s însemne pentru fiecare o adev rat

r sturnare social

Când zic „t inuit ” e un fel de a vorbi, c ci eram major şi din familia noastr nimeni nu m-ar fi putut opri Mama tr ia destul de greu, din pensia r mas de pe urma tat lui meu, dimpreun cu surorile mele, dar cred c nu m-ar fi împiedicat niciodat s m însor dup voia inimii, deşi, în general, cei care s-au c s torit din dragoste îi împiedic pe copiii lor s fac acelaşi lucru

(Camil Petrescu, adaptare dup

Ultima noapte de dragoste, întâia noapte de r zboi)

VI Conversation

1 Talk about the most important goals in your life right now

2 Describe any frustrations you may be experiencing in trying to achieve your goals

3 Talk about the time of day, the day of the week, and the season of the year you enjoy most

4 What are some of the activities you value most in life, and how do

you find the time to pursue them?