A. Marshall
(Australia)
Learn the following words, word-combinations and notes. Read the text, translate it.
Vocabulary:
- to keep sb going
- coffee sweetened with glucose
- hair restorer
- cod-liver oil
- digestive powder
- to finish up with smth
- to have eucalyptus inhalation
- to go through smth
- to blame smb for smth
- to make smb bilious
- to cause a state of seasickness
- due to smbs desire
- to get indigestion
- to cut down lunch to nuts and raisins
- to follow smb's advice
- to be prohibited
Notes
that must be it ,
I'll fix it
I've got just the thing for you ,
Well! I must have slept !
It has been handed down for years
It is 10 a.m. and I have just finished a cup of black coffee sweetened with glucose. Alf recommended it. I have finished massaging my head with the hair restorer Bill gave me and I have taken the cod-liver oil recommended by my grandmother.
In two hours I shall take four concentrated liver pills, a dessertspoonful of digestive powder and half a cup of olive oil, all supplied by my friends. I shall have then lunch on nuts and raisins and finish up with a teaspoonful of my after-meals digestive powder and a wineglass of tonic.
I shall massage my head for the second time and have an eucalyptus inhalation. By this time I shall be feeling pretty bad and I shall have to lie down. I shall have to get strength to go through it all again at dinner-time.
I blame my friends for my sad condition.
A few weeks ago I could eat pork chops and cucumber salad. Now raisin makes me bilious and the sight of a plum pudding causes a state of seasickness.
It is all due to my desire to "keep going".
George started it.
He said: "You look white. You must eat plenty of raw liver. It makes blood."
"I don't like the taste of raw liver," I said.
"You take it in pills," he said. "It's concentrated. Each pill represents half a pound of liver, and you take four before each meal."
I did some calculating.
"That makes six pounds of liver a day," I said. "Isn't it too much?"
"Perhaps 1 am wrong," said George. "Probably each pill only represents half an ounce of liver. Yes, that must be it. In this case," he added, "you could take six."
"I think I'd better begin with four," I said.
"As you like," said George.
Next day I met Bill. I told him I was taking liver pills to keep going. "I've got just the things for you," he said. "Remember the tonic that my wife has been taking? I told you about it."
"Yes," I said.
"Well, I've been taking it, too, and I've never felt better. It's a prescription from a very good doctor. I'll get it for you." He got it.
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"There's plenty of iron and strychnine and arsenic in it," he said.
"Good", I said. "And what about your hair," he said.
"You're going bald as an egg."
"It's a fact," I agreed.
"I'll fix that," he said.
He went away and brought back a tobacco tin full of yellow ointment.
"I made this myself," said Bill. "It's a mixture of lard and sulphur. It has been handed down for years."
"What, that tin?"
"No, the prescription."
"The ointment smells as if it had been handed down," I said.
"Never mind that," said Bill." You rub it into your head three times a day."
"Before or after meals?"
"After," he said.
Alf came to see me one day. I explained how I was "keeping going".
"There's nothing better than black coffee and glucose," he said. "Take it in the morning and afternoon. Do you drink olive oil?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"Drink it," he said.
"I will," I said.
It was hard to keep going. I got indigestion.
George gave me the powder to be taken after meals and Alf the powder to be taken before eating. My grandmother recommended the cod-liver oil and the inhalation.
But the indigestion got worse.
At a meeting of friends it was decided that I should cut down my lunch to nuts and raisins.
"I'll never keep going on nuts and raisins," I said.
"It's a natural food," they said. "Look at the animals".
But there w ere no animals to look at.
However, I followed the advice of my friends. Now I had to prepare for bed an hour earlier to get through all the things I had to take. Then I couldn't sleep.
I told George.
"I can't sleep," I said.
He took me aside and gave me some tablets. They were the smallest tablets I had ever seen. You've never seen such small tablets.
"Take one when you get into bed." he said." but don't tell anyone that I gave them to you. They are prohibited." he said. "I got them from a chap that knows a doctor and they're only to be taken when you can't possibly sleep."
I took two on Sunday night. When I woke up the house was full of my friends. There was a doctor standing by my bed and it was Tuesday afternoon.
Well! I must have slept.
All my friends had their hats off and they are sort of friends who wear their hats anywhere.
Tomorrow I am off to the bush.
Keeping going in the city is too dangerous.
Vocabulary practice
/. Write in transcription, read and translate the following words and word-combinations:
Glucose; massage; restore; concentrated liver pills; dessertspoonful; teaspoonful; raisins plum pudding; raw liver; wineglass; an ounce; tonic; iron; 'strychnine; arsenic; tobacco; yellow ointment; a mixture of lard and sulphur; olive oil; inhalation; dangerous.
//. Translate into English:
; ; ; , ; ; ; ; ; ; - : ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; - ; .
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///. Reproduce the situations from the text where the active vocabulary is used. Think of your own sentences with the words from the list.
IV. Suggest words and word-combinations for the following
- to put an end
- to keep fit
- to accuse smb for smth.
- to be forbidden
- make smb irritable
- because of smb's wish
- to have nothing but nuts and raisins for breakfast
- to lead to a condition of seasickness
- to get stomach disorder
- to endure smth
- accept and act according to
- to breathe eucalyptus in
V. Choose the correct statement:
1. I blame my friend for
a) being sick
b) my sad condition
c) having a headache
2.It's a prescription from
a) a famous professor
b) a well-known physician
c) a very good doctor
3. At the meeting of friends it was decided that I should
a) take exercise regularly
b) cut down my lunch to nuts and raisins
c) eat a lot of fresh fruit
4. Now I had to prepare for bed an hour earlier to
a) get through all the things I had to take
b) read a lot of reference books on medicine
c) take a lot of pills
5. When I woke up
a) the sun was shining brightly
b) the house was full of noise
c) the house was full of my friends
6. Keeping going in the city is
a) very easy and pleasant
b) that what we must do
c) too dangerous
VI. Answer the following questions
- Who is the main character of the story?
- What happened to him?
- In what way did he want to keep him going?
- What did his friends recommend him?
- Did he follow their advice?
- Could the narrator improve his health?
VII. Topics for general discussion
- What kind of person was the narrator?
- Why did he follow his friends' advice?
- Do you think that pills and other medicines always help people?
- What really makes people fit?
| Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (16 December 191719 March 2008) was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist. Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England. As a boy he enjoyed stargazing and reading old American science fiction pulp magazines. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist and was involved in the early warning radar defence system. |
He was promoted Flying Officer on 27 November 1943 and was demobilised with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. After the war he earned a first-class degree in mathematics and physics at King's College London. In the postwar years, Clarke became the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1947-1950.
Clarke wrote a number of non-fiction books describing the technical details and societal implications of rocketry and space flight. The most notable of these may be The Exploration of Space (1951) and The Promise of Space (1968).
In 1953 Clarke met and quickly married Marilyn Mayfield, a 22-year-old American divorcee with a young son. They separated permanently after six months. "The marriage was incompatible from the beginning", says Clarke. Clarke never remarried.
Clarkes first professional sales appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946. In 1948 he wrote "The Sentinel" for a BBC competition.
Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008. Clarke held citizenship of both the UK and Sri Lanka. He was an avid scuba diver and a member of the Underwater Explorers Club. Living in Sri Lanka afforded him the opportunity to visit the ocean year-round.
His many predictions culminated in 1958 when he began a series of essays in various magazines that eventually became Profiles of the Future published in book form in 1962. A timetable up to the year 2100 describes inventions and ideas including such things as a "global library" for 2005. In the 1980s Clarke became well known to many for his television programmes Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World, Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe. In 1986 he was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America.
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In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours Clarke was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to British cultural interests in Sri Lanka". The same year he became the first Chancellor of the International Space University, serving from 1989 to 2004 and he also served as Chancellor of Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka from 1979 to 2002.
In December 2007 on his 90th birthday, Clarke recorded a video message to his friends and fans bidding them good-bye. Clarke died in Sri Lanka on 19 March 2008 after suffering from breathing problems. He was buried in Colombo in traditional Sri Lankan fashion on March 22.
Islands in the Sky
(extract)
- Clarke
(Britain)
The Contest
Vocabulary
- After all
- a competitor
- a semifinal
- a sudden hush
- to select the winner
- to lose a point
- to identify sth
- to be not fair
- to miss a question
- to pay all expenses
- to stick to the rules
- to clear throat
- to change ones mind
- to give up
- a determined man
- to grow out of sth
- an outgoing rocket
Notes
TV Quiz Master ,
the Junior Rocket Club
went back over a hundred years
the original Wright biplane
how far into space any planets rights extend
Hes never been as far as the moon
a councellor for a big atomic energy combine
Elmer Schmitz ['elmә ∫mits]
Martian colonist ['ma: ∫iәn kolәnist]
Joe Donovan [' ou 'donәvәn]
My uncle Jim had said, "Whatever happens, Roy, don't w orry about it. Just enjoy yourself." I remembered those words as "I followed the other competitors into the big studio, and I don't think I was nervous. After all, it was only a game.
The audience was already in its place, talking and waiting for the program to begin. We walked up on the stage and took our seats. I looked at the five other competitors and understood that each of them was quite sure that he was going to win.
There was a cheer from the audience as Elmer Schmitz, the TV Quiz Master, came into the studio. I'd met him before in the semifinals. He gave us some instructions, moved to his place and signalled to the cameras. There was a sudden hush as the red light came on.
"Good evening! This is Elmer Schmitz, presenting to you the finalists in our Aviation Quiz Program. The six young men we have here tonight..."
But I think it wouldn't be very modest to repeat the things he said about us. He said that we knew a lot about everything that flew in the air and outside it and had beaten about five thousand other members of the Junior Rocket Club in a series of contests. Tonight would be the final tests to select the winner.
It started easily enough. Elmer put a question to each of us in turn. The first questions were rather simple.
Then they became more difficult. Our scores were projected on a screen facing the audience, so we could not see them. But you could tell when you had given the right answer by the noise the audience made. I forgot to say that you lost a point when you gave the wrong reply. If you didn't know, it was best to say nothing at all.
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As far as I could tell, I had made only one mistake, but there was a boy from New Washington who hadn't made any.
"Now," said Elmer, "the last round! Each of you will see on the screen some kind of aircraft or rocket for one second, and after that you must identify it. Ready?"
A second seems awfully short, but it isn't really. You can see a great deal in that time. Some of the machines they showed us went back over a hundred years. One or two even had propellers! This was lucky for me: I had always been interested in the history of flying. That was where the boy from New Washington made a bad mistake. They gave him a picture of the original Wright biplane and he didn't know it. Afterward he said he was interested only in rockets, and that the test wasn't fair.
They gave me the Dornier-Do-X and a B-52, and I knew them both. So I wasn't really surprised when Elmer called out my name as soon as the lights went up. Still, it was a proud moment. The cameras were following me as I walked over to him.
"Congratulations, Roy!" said Elmer heartily. "You missed only one question. I announce you as the winner of this World Airways Contest!"
The audience applauded.
"You know that the prize is a trip, all expenses paid, to any place in the world. We are all interested to hear your choice. You can go anywhere you like between the North and South Poles!"
I had made my plans long ago. However, my voice trembled when I answered.
"I want to go to the Inner Station."
Elmer looked puzzled and surprised. It was clear that he didn't know what to say. Then he decided to make a joke of it.
"Ha, ha, very amusing, Roy! But the prize is a trip to any place on earth. You must stick to the rules, you know!"
He was laughing at me and that made me angry.
"I've read the rules very carefully," I said. "And they don't say 'on earth'. They say, 'to any part of the earth'. There's a big difference."
Elmer's smile disappeared. He looked anxiously at the TV cameras.
"Go on," he said. I cleared my throat.
"In 2054," I continued, "the United States signed a Convention which decided how far into space any planet's rights extended. Under that Convention, the Inner Station is part of earth, because it is inside the thousand kilometer limit."
The audience was on my side. Elmer made a few attempts to make me change my mind, but finally he gave up and said with a laugh:
"Well, you're a very determined young man, and you've won the prize after all. I hope they'll let you go."
Mom and Pop were pretty mad about the whole business, but it was too late for them to stop me. The only one who understood me was Uncle Jim (that's Pop's brother). He was counsellor for a big atomic energy combine, and he'd been to Mars two or three times, to Venus once, and to the moon so often he could not count the times.
I had wanted to go out into space ever since I was five. Iwas sixteen now, and rather big for my age. I had read everything I could find about aviation and astronautics. I had seen all the movies and telecasts from space. I had made models of famous spaceships. In my room I had hundreds of photographs not only of most of the famous ships, but all the important places on the planets as well.
At first Mom and Pop didn't mind this interest. They thought I'd grow out of it. "Look at Joe Donovan," they said. "He was going to be a Martian colonist when he was your age. Earth wasn't good enough for him! Well, he's never been as far as the moon and he's quite happy here."
But I wasn't so sure. I have seen Joe looking up at the sky, at the outgoing rockets, and sometimes I think he would give everything he owns to go with them.
Vocabulary Practice
I. Write the transcription, read and translate the following words and word compositions:
audience; Aviation Quiz Program; project; the wrong reply; screen; awfully; propeller; applaud; North and South Poles; the Inner Station; look puzzled and surprised; very amusing; convention; Mars; Venus; astronautics; telecast; famous spaceships; a Martian colonist; own; aircraft; afterward.
II. Translate into English:
, ; (); ; ; , ; - ; - ; -; ; ; ; - ; .
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III. Reproduce the situations from the text where the active vocabulary is used. Think of your own sentences with the words from the list.
IV. Suggest words and word combinations from active vocabulary for the following
- in spite of everything
- a resolute man
- to be not just
- to keep to the rules
- the participant
- to stop attempting something
- to become too big for something
- a leaving spaceship
- to meet the costs
- to change ones viewpoint or opinion
- to be not able to answer a question
- to determine smth
- unexpected silence
- to choose a winner
V. Choose the correct statement:
- I looked at the five other competitors and understood that each of them was quite sure that
a) the competition was very difficult
b) he was going to win
c) it was very complicated to become a winner
- Good evening, this is Elmer Schmits, presenting you
a) the finalists in our Aviation Quiz Program
b) the well-known film-stars
c) the world famous sportsmen
- This was lucky for me: I had always been interested in
a) maths
b) chemistry
c) the history of flying
- You know that the prize is a trip, all expenses paid, to
a) any place in the world
b) Australia
c) Africa
- Elmer Schmits made a few attempts to
a) help me choose another trip
b) talk me out of going to the Inner Station
c) make me change my mind
- The only one who understood me was
a) my best friend Nick
b) my grandfather
c) uncle Jim (Pops brother)
VI. Answer the following questions:
1. Who is the narrator?
2. What kind of competitions did he take part?
3. What questions helped Roy win the competition?
4. What was the prize for the winner?
5. What was Elmer Schmits, the TV Quiz Master, puzzled and surprised by?
6. Why did he call Roy a determined young person?
7. Why were Roys parents pretty mad about the whole business?
8. What had Roy been interested in since his childhood?
VII. Topics for general discussion
1. What kind of story is it?
2. Could the events of this story be real nowadays?
3. Would you like to go to space if you had such a chance?
| O. Henry is the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 June 5, 1910). O. Henry short stories are known for wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. Porter was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. His middle name at birth was Sidney; he changed the spelling in 1898. His parents were Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter and Mary Jane Virginia Swain Porter. As a child, Porter was always reading. He read everything from classics to dime novels. |
Porter graduated from his aunt Evelina Maria Porter's elementary school in 1876. He then enrolled at the Lindsey Street High School. In 1879, he started working as a bookkeeper in his uncle's drugstore and in 1881, at the age of nineteen, he was licensed as a pharmacist.
Porter took a number of different jobs over the next several years, first as pharmacist then as a draftsman, bank teller and journalist. He also began writing as a sideline to employment. Porter was a good singer and musician. On July 5, 1887 Porter married Athol Estes.
Athol encouraged her husband to pursue his writing.. Porter started as a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office (GLO) in 1887 at a salary of $100. The salary was enough to support his family, but he continued his contributions to magazines and newspapers.
In 1894 he worked full time on his humorous weekly called The Rolling Stone, which featured satire on life, people and politics and included Porter's short stories and sketches.
Porter, was found guilty of embezzlement in February 1898, sentenced to five years jail, and imprisoned on March 25, 1898 as federal prisoner 30664 at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio.
He had fourteen stories published under various pseudonyms while he was in prison, but was becoming best known as "O. Henry" after serving three years.
Porter's most prolific writing period started in 1902, when he moved to New York City to be near his publishers. He wrote 381 short stories while living there.
Despite the success of his short stories being published in magazines and collections, Porter drank heavily and died on June 5, 1910.
The Green Door
O. Henry
(the USA)
