The Bramble Bush by Ch. Mergendahl
As Fran Walker, one of the nurses of the Mills Memorial Hospital, was sitting between rounds behind her duty desk, she often recollected her childhood, which would return to her as it had existed in reality bewildering, lonely, and frustrating.
Her father, Mr. Walker, had owned a small lumber business' in Sagamore, one of Indiana's numerous smaller towns, where Fran had lived in a large frame house on six acres of unused pasture land'. The first Mrs. Walker had died, when Fran was still a baby, so she did not remember her real mother at all. She remembered her stepmother, though – small, tight-lipped, thin-faced, extremely possessive of her new husband and the new house which had suddenly become her own. Fran had adored her father, tried desperately to please him. And since he desired nothing more than a good relationship between his daughter and his second wife, she had made endless attempts to win over her new mother. But her displays of affection had not been returned. Her stepmother had remained constantly jealous, resentful, without the slightest understanding of the small girl's motives and emotions.
Fran felt herself losing out, slipping away into an inferior position. She began to exaggerate – often lie about friends, feelings, grades at school, anything possible to keep herself high in her father's esteem, and at the same time gain some small bit of admiration from her mother. The exaggerations, though, had constantly turned back on her, until eventually a disgusted Mrs. Walker had insisted she be sent away to a nearby summer camp. "They award a badge of honour there," she had said, "and if you win it – not a single untruth all summer – then we'll know you've stopped lying and we'll do something very special for you."
"We'll give you a pony," her father had promised.
Fran wanted the pony. More than the pony, she wanted to prove herself. After two months of near painful honesty, she finally won the badge of honour, and brought it home clutched tight in her fist, hidden in her pocket while she waited, waited, all the way from the station, all during the tea in the living-room for the exact proper moment to make her announcement of glorious victory.
"Well?" her mother had said finally. "Well, Fran?"
"Well – ", Fran began, with the excitement building higher and higher as she drew in her breath and thought of exactly how to say it.
"You can't hide it any longer, Fran." Her mother had sighed in hopeless resignation. "We know you didn't win it, so there's simply no point in lying about it now."
Fran had closed her mouth. She'd stared at her mother, then stood and gone out to the yard and looked across the green meadow where the pony was going to graze. She had taken the green badge from her pocket, fingered it tenderly, then buried it beneath a rock in the garden. She had gone back into the house and said, "No, I didn't win it," and her mother had said, "Well, at least you didn't lie this time," and her father had held her while she'd cried and known finally that there was no further use in trying.
Her father had bought her an Irish setter as a consolation prize.
Answer the questions
What was the nurse doing while sitting between rounds behind her duty desk?
What kind of past did she have?
What was her family like when she was a little girl?
What kind of woman was her stepmother?
What was the stepmother’s attitude to the girl?
Why did Fran start lying and exaggerating?
Did her parents treat her fairly?
Could you predict such outcome while reading the story?
Find grammatical phenomena and structures which you have studied during the semester
Give Russian equivalents
bewildering, lonely, and frustrating
unused pasture land
inferior position
with the excitement
extremely possessive
to make endless attempts
eventually
to win the badge of honour
in hopeless resignation
to make her announcement of glorious victory
as a consolation prize
Discuss the following
“tight-lipped, thin-faced …”is a good example of descriptive words to speak about people’s appearance. Can you give some other examples of such participles with their Russian equivalents which would enrich your word stock?
What is your attitude towards the main character of the story?
What are your emotions after reading the story? Did you like the plot?
Retell the text briefly. Give a character sketch of the main hero(es).
What are your emotions after reading the story? Did you like the plot?
Give a character sketch of the main hero.
ТЕКСТ 13
The Beard by G. Clark
I was going by train to London. I didn't have the trouble to take anything to eat with me and soon was very hungry. I decided to go to the dining-car to have a meal.
As I was about to seat myself, I saw that the gentleman I was to face wore a large beard. He was a young man. His beard was full, loose and very black. I glanced at him uneasily and noted that he was a big pleasant fellow with dark laughing eyes.
Indeed I could feel his eyes on me as I fumbled with the knives and forks. It was hard to pull myself together. It is not easy to face a beard. But when I could escape no longer, I raised my eyes and found the young man's on my face.
"Good evening," I said cheerily, "Good evening," he replied pleasantly, inserting a big buttered roll within the bush of his beard. Not even a crumb fell off. He ordered soup. It was a difficult soup for even the most barefaced of men to eat, but not a drop did he waste on his whiskers'. He kept his eyes on me in between bites. But I knew he knew that I was watching his every bite with acute fascination.
"I'm impressed," I said, "with your beard."
"I suspected as much," smiled the young man.
"Is it a wartime device?" I inquired.
"No," said he; "I'm too young to have been in the war. I grew this beard two years ago."
"It's magnificent," I informed him.
"Thank you," he replied. "As a matter of fact this beard is an experiment in psychology. I suffered horribly from shyness. I was so shy it amounted to a phobia. At university I took up psychology and began reading books on psychology'. And one day I came across a chapter on human defense mechanisms, explaining how so many of us resort to all kinds of tricks to escape from the world, or from conditions in the world which we find hateful. Well, I just turned a thing around. I decided to make other people shy of me. So I grew this beard.
The effect was astonishing. I found people, even tough, hard-boiled people, were shy of looking in the face. They were panicked by my whiskers. It made them uneasy. And my shyness vanished completely."
He pulled his fine black whiskers affectionately and said: "Psychology is a great thing. Unfortunately people don't know about it. Psychology should help people discover such most helpful tricks. Life is too short to be wasted in desperately striving to be normal."
"Tell me," I said finally. "How did you master eating the way you have? You never got a crumb or a drop on your beard, all through dinner."
"Nothing to it, sir," said he. "When you have a beard, you keep your eyes on those of your dinner partner. And whenever you note his eyes fixed in horror on your chin, you wipe it off."
Answer the questions
1 Where did the author decide to go when he got hungry?
2 What kind of man did he see in the dining-car?
3 What was the reason of the man’s wearing a beard?
4 Do you agree that a beard help people gain self-assurance?
5 Do you like psychology? Are you fond of reading psychological novels?
6 Can you give any recommendations how to get rid of shyness and become more confident?
Give Russian equivalents
Loose
A pleasant fellow
I glanced at him uneasily
Fumble
dining-car
affectionately
raised my eyes
acute fascination
it amounted to a phobia
to escort to all kinds of tricks
my shyness vanished completely
human defense mechanisms
tough, hard-boiled people
you wipe it off
Find grammatical phenomena and structures which you have studied during the semester
What is your attitude towards the main character of the story?
What are your emotions after reading the story? Did you like the plot?
Retell the text briefly. Give a character sketch of the main hero(es).
Give a character sketch of the main hero.
TEXT 14