3. Explain what the writer means.

1. giving the name of "Good Hope Fort" to the place where Elizabeth and John went for their holiday. (29)

2. describing spring in the following way: "at length spring came and buds broke in the obscene wilderness round the house." (17) "They arrived on a gusty April afternoon after a train jour­ney of normal discomfort." (30) What atmosphere or what mood do the attributive words create?

3. The irregular polyhedron of memory rolled uncertainly and came to rest. (33)

4. Explain if you agree or disagree with the following observations of the author and why.

1. ... soldiers in far-distant camps think of their wives with a tenderness they seldom felt at home. (17)

2. ... in a few hours the whole tale had floated away in those lightless attics of the mind where films and dreams and funny stories lie spider-shrouded for a lifetime, unless, as sometimes happens, an intruder brings them to light. (28)

5. Explain which of the following phrases could be said to be:

1. the theme of the story

Your home is what you make it.

The outgoing class is inherently incapable to come to grips with the changing world.

War and its effect on a man's mind.

2. the message of the story

Those who are unable to accommodate the change will be damned.

It's human to think other people responsible for the faults of our own.

War is a crime because it cripples people's minds.

6. Speak on or write an essay about your assessment of the story and your impressions of it.

The Bum

1. Discuss some problem-questions.

1. What does the writer portray at the beginning of the story (1-5)? What's the role of this part for the developing the central idea of the story?

2. What feeling does the description of the beggars evoke in the reader - anger, pity, shame, repulsion, sorrow or any other? And what did the writer feel watching them? Is such state of .poverty still characteristic of Central American countries?

3. What's the author's idea of the Russian national character as it's revealed in paragraph 8? Do you think there is something in the author's words or is he mistaken?

4. What could have happened to the red-haired man, to your mind?

5. Do you think that the description of the buzzards that the author mentions several times is only a part of the landscape or does it create a certain atmosphere in the story?

2. Sum up the author's statements about 1) Time (1); 2) Reading (2) in your own words or the words from the text which in your opinion will best sum up the author's idea. Say how far you agree with the view expressed by the author.

3. Explain what the writer means.

1. describing the bum as "a wreck of humanity" (6)

2. when he says: "Life had taken him, rent him on its racks, torn him limb from limb, and then flung him, a bleeding wreck, on the stone steps of that church." (14)

4. Say if you agree or disagree with the following observations of the writer. How are these observations connected with the central problem of the story? Do they throw some light on what might have happened to the red-haired man?

1. The gesture is grand and like all grand gestures absurd. (1)

2. There are hundreds, thousands of youths who enter upon the hard calling of the arts with extravagant hopes; but for the most part they come to terms with their mediocrity and find somewhere in life a niche where they can escape starvation. (13)

5. Speak on how the bum's response to the sudden attack of the policeman and his final gesture with the banknote characterize him.

6. Explain which of the following phrases could be said to be:

1. the theme of the story

The arrogance of youth.

Never cheat on life or life will cheat on you.

Unexpected things always happen.

2. the message of the story Grand gestures are absurd.

It takes more than arrogance to be a somebody. One must know how to compromize.

7. Speak on or write an essay about your assessment of the story and your impressions of it.