Chapters 21 and 22

Vocabulary work

I. Learn the following words and expressions:

- mock-horrified - society - to ruffle one’s hair - sensible - genuinely - to kidnap smb. - to presume smth. - deliberately - to pull wishbones - to take a hint - to help one no end

- hostility - fold-out table - adjacent - coincidence - to loathe - handbook - feebly - admiration - to elucidate - appropriate - baggy - obedient

II. Answer the questions:

1. How does Marcus and Ellie’s second conversation go? What do they talk about?

2. What did Will think about Marcus-Ellie relationship possibility?

3. Why did Ellie come over to Marcus’s class?

4. How did the Christmas dinner at Marcus and Fiona’s begin? Name all who came.

5. What was Marcus’s attitude towards his mother’s presents.

III. State who these words belong to. Translate and reproduce the situations in which they are used:

1. “I don’t know what I think of grunge.”

2. “I’ll bet you her boyfriend is twenty-five, drives a Harley Davidson and works as a roadie for some band.”

3. “I don’t believe that. A good-looking boy like you? We’ll have to fix you up.”

4. “… Marcus, you and I have some unfinished business to attend to, don’t we?”

5. “And you couldn’t hope for more responsible parents.”

6. “I’m obviously not one hundred per cent convinced that I want to come to your house for Christmas.”

7. “What’s the joke?”

IV. Translate into English:

- наткнуться на кого-л.;

- фотография на обложке;

- держу пари;

- на что вы все уставились;

- поторапливайся;

- принять приглашение;

- у меня (некоторые) сомнения;

- не принимая во внимание;

- на свою беду.

Oral practice

V. Comment on the following:

1. Loads of kids acted as if they weren’t scared, but dropped the act the moment a teacher said anything to them. Ellie could keep going forever, though, and there was nothing Mrs Morrison could do. (p. 152)

2. ‘There’s no such thing as bad publicity.’ (p. 154)

3. It struck him that how you spent Christmas was a message to the world about where you were at in life, some indication of how deep a hole you had managed to burrow for yourself, and therefore spending three days bombed out of your head on your own said things about you that you might not want saying. (p. 156)

4. Fiona and her ex seemed to look back on their relationship as the thing that had brought them together in the first place, rather than something that had gone horribly wrong and driven them apart. It was as if sharing a home and a bed and having a child together was like staying in adjacent rooms in the same hotel, or being in the same class at school – a happy coincidence that had given them the opportunity for an occasional friendship. (p. 159)

VI. Give a good literary translation of the following:

1. “‘OK,’ said Marcus. ‘Hang on a minute.’ He wanted them to wait simply because he wanted the moment to last longer: he didn’t know whether Ellie and Zoe would come looking for him ever again and, even if they did, he doubted whether they’d announce to the world, or the part of the world eating sandwiches in his classroom, that he was their friend.” (p. 153)

2. “The conversation had already been extended way beyond Will’s comfort point, and now he was beginning to worry that he would eventually be forced to articulate the cruellest of truths: that Marcus’s mother was, like her son, a lunatic; that even disregarding the sanity aspect of things they were both a pair of losers anyway; that he couldn’t imagine a gloomier Christmas; that he would much, much rather revert to his original plan for oblivion and the entire output of the Marx Brothers than pull wishbones with either of them; that any sane person would feel the same way. If the kid couldn’t take a hint, what option did he have?” (p. 158-159)

3. “Having decided with such unshakeable firmness that he would absolutely definitely not be celebrating 25 December with Fiona and Marcus, it came as something of a surprise to him to find himself accepting an invitation from Marcus the following afternoon to do exactly that.” (p. 156)

VII. Agree or disagree with the following statements:

1. Ellie didn’t know that Kurt Cobain was a singer.

2. Ellie and her friend thought Marcus was funny.

3. Will invited Marcus to bring Ellie over.

4. Ellie was afraid to talk to headmistress.

5. Marcus felt proud when Ellie and Zoe came looking for him.

6. Ellie and Zoe wanted to adopt Marcus.

7. Marcus invited Will to Christmas dinner because he didn’t want him to be alone.

8. Will argued with Fiona at Christmas.

VIII. Retell the 21^st Chapter as if you were:

1. Marcus

2. Ellie

3. Zoe

Retell the 22^nd Chapter as if you were:

1. Marcus

2. Will

3. Fiona

4. Clive / Lindsey.

Writing

IX. Write a one-page summary of the Chapters 21,22.

X. Make up your own story (8-10 sentences) using your active vocabulary.