Assignments

1. Make sure you know the pronunciation of the following words. Write them down and transcribe them.

delicacy, mask, cynical, melancholy, alter, trousseau, Monte Carlo

2. Prepare an expressive reading of the first paragraph of the story.

3. Scan the text of the story to find the answers to the following questions. First read the questions, be sure you’ve got them well in mind and then start scanning. Stop reading the text the moment you have found the necessary information.

1. What puzzled the narrator about Louise?

2. What illness had she suffered as a child?

3. Who was Louise’s first husband?

4. Why did Tom Maitland die?

5. What happened to George Hobhouse?

6. Where did Louise go to live after the war?

7. Who was taking care of her?

8. What happened on Iris’s wedding day?

4. Read the story carefully and write out sentences in which the following words and phrases are used. Memorize the words and phrases. Use them when discussing the story.

behind one’s back

to take an opportunity

to make one’s meaning plain

intimate

to be puzzled

to leave sb. alone

to take smth. for

to adore

to worship

to take care of

to hang on a thread

to be at death’s door

to outlive

to survive

to catch one’s death of

to be as good as one’s word

to sacrifice

to make oneself useful

on no account

to have pity for sb.

to be a burden on (to)

to carry out a bluff

to fly into a passion

to stir a finger

to save sb. trouble

to be out of the question

to gamble

to flirt

to brace oneself with

to give way to

to distract one’s mind

to have the time of one’s life

to grudge

to be hard on sb.

to make a noise

on sb.’s account

to postpone

5. Paraphrase or explain the following sentences.

1. I could never understand why Louise bothered with me.

2. … behind my back she seldom lost the opportunity of saying a disagreeable thing about me.

3. Perhaps she knew that I alone saw her face behind the mask …

4. She had too much delicacy ever to make a direct statement.

5. Louise was inconsolable.

6. He was not such a brute as to cross her.

7. It is possible that the habit would have grown on him …

8. She had the time of her life.

9. I looked at her full and square.

10. I fully expected her to fly into a passion.

6. Translate the following sentences into Russian paying attention to the different shades of meaning of the world “delicate”.

1. They knew how delicate she was and they wouldn’t let her do a single thing.

2. When Tom Maitland proposed to her they were dismayed, for they were convinced that she was much too delicate for marriage.

3. She had too much delicacy ever to make a direct statement.

4. The international situation is very delicate at present.

5. … she did not know how, with her delicate health, she was going to bring up her dear Iris.

6. That delicate instrument can record very slight changes.

7. Support or challenge the following statements. Make suitable quotations to prove your point of view.

1. Louise was not as weak as she pretended to be.

2. Louise was unaware of what the narrator really thought about her.

3. Louise ruined the lives of her husbands.

4. Louise’s friends realized that she was carrying out a bluff.

5. The narrator treated Louise with a great deal of irony.

6. But for the narrator Iris’s marriage would have been postponed for an indefinite time.

8. Study the story carefully and ask why–questions on it. Have these questions answered by your fellow-students.

9. Pick out words and phrases which describe:

1. Louise as a young woman;

2. Louise as a woman of over forty;

3. Louise’s first husband Tom Maitland;

4. Louise’s second husband George Hobhouse.

Get ready to speak on these points. Use the vocabulary of the story and the words and phrases you’ve written out.

10. Find words and phrases which show:

1. What Louise thought about the narrator;

2. What the narrator thought about Louise.

Speak on the relations between the narrator and Louise. Use the words and phrases you’ve written out.

11. Look through the story again and comment on the methods used by Louise to make the whole world comply with her wishes and whims.

12. Dramatize the last dialogue between the narrator and Louise. Give the indirect version of the dialogue.

13. Tell the story:

1. As one of Louise’s friends might tell it;

2. As her daughter Iris might tell it.

14. Opinion questions.

1. What made Louise keep up her acquaintance with the narrator?

2. What made the people surrounding Louise believe that she had a weak heart?

3. How would you explain Louise’s death right on the day of her daughter’s marriage?

4. Have you ever come across people like Louise? What is your attitude to such people?

15. Give a character sketch of Louise.

16. Divide the story into logical parts. Entitle each.

17. Make up an outline of the story.

18. Give a brief summary of the story.