III. Post-reading

3.1. Dreams, dreams, dreams...

Impersonate Princess Felicity for a while. Speak about your dearest dreams as if talking to your best friend.

3.2. ROLEPLAY. Choose some of the scenarios below to dramatize in class.

A. This is an argument between royal parents and their daugh­ter. The characters are the King, the Queen, the Princess, and the Chief Adviser.

B. This is a meeting in the mountains to discuss the castle builders' contest. The characters are Nathaniel, the run-away bodyguard, his bosom Friend, and Nathaniel's parents.

C. This is a conversation of local people, very advanced in years, about how Nathaniel charmed Felicity with his ice palace. The characters are two men and two women who once helped build the great ice castle.

3.3. POETRY CORNER. Read the poem Dreams by Langston Hughes and say whether it carries the message similar to that of the story.

Hold fast to dreams/For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird/That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams/For when dreams go

Life is a barren field/Frozen with snow.

BREAKUP

I. Pre-reading

1.1. SHARE your ideas about the things that mean spring to you

1.2. DISCUSS all the subtle changes that take place not only in nature but in people's souls when spring comes.

1.3. SHARE your recollections of the craziest thing you've ever done. What pushed you to do it?

II. Reading

2.1. Understanding the title.

Here is the title of the story written by Jonathan T. Stratman. Do you think the plot will focus on people's feelings/relationships or on something else?

2.2. READING FOR PLEASURE AND ENRICHMENT. Read and answer the question: Did Will earn more than a dog that day?

The following words will be useful for better understanding of the events.

Wail — a long high sound

Homestead — a farm and an area of land around it

Tripod — a support with three legs

Slant — to slope

Floe — an area of floating ice

Teeter up — to stand or move unsteadily

Longshoreman — a worker whose work is to load and unload ships

Pulverize — to crush into powder

He was supposed to be doing his arithmetic. Instead, Will Benson sat wondering about his dad — where he was and when he'd be home. Suddenly, the piercing wail of a siren shattered the ticking-clock silence of the drowsy schoolroom, and the students jumped to their feet.

"This is it," said Mr. Brindle. "Breakup. Class dismissed."

The ice breaking up on the Tanana, one of Alaska's biggest rivers, meant the end of the long arctic winter. In Nenana it was tradition that everybody drop everything and run to the river. Dad, thought Will, jogging with his classmates, now you can come back for us.

It was nice to have somebody to call Dad since Will's own father had left when Will was only two. This dad, whose name was Jim, had married Will's mother and moved them to Alaska. Everything had been great until about six months ago when he'd moved out to their homestead property in the wilderness to finish what would soon be their log cabin home.

"Please," Will begged, "take me with you."

"You're better off in town," said his dad. "Too lonely out there."

But Will knew the real reason his dad had left him; he'd heard his mother and dad talking in the night.

"He doesn't know a thing about life in the wilderness."

"But how will he ever learn?" asked Will's mother.

"Maybe it can't be learned. Maybe you're just born with it, like a sense of adventure."

As they reached the riverbank, Will and the others could see sheets of river ice, some as huge as baseball diamonds, rising and falling, grinding and crushing. All eyes fixed on the large green log tripod, frozen into the river ice and connected to a special timing clock by a steel cable. When the ice moved the tripod, the clock stopped, and whoever guessed that precise day, hour, and minute would win a lot of cash. Some years the tripod would move, blowing the siren, and the ice would simply sweep away.

Other years, like this one, the ice would move a little, and then just sit while other ice stacked up behind, increasing the pressure-and the danger.

You'd have to be totally crazy to step even one foot out on that ice, Will thought. "Look, a dog!" someone cried. "A dog trapped out on the ice."

Will slipped through the crowd to the edge of the dock for a bet­ter look. Sure enough, not fifteen feet from the safety of the river shore stood a skinny, black dog.

"Get a plank," someone shouted. Quickly they found a long board, slanted it down to the ice, and tried to coax the dog to safety. Will's ears filled with the roar of the river, just as his heart filled with fear at the sight of those huge, pounding, gnashing slabs of ice. But his eyes met those of the little dog, who reacted to all the coaxing and shouting by abruptly turning her head and looking the other way.

"Ahhh, let the river eat her," said a rough-faced man.

"No," cried Will. In an instant, he'd made up his mind. "If she's not coming up, I'm going down."

Quickly he darted, sliding feet first down the long, smooth plank to the roller-coaster rise and fall of the ice below. A quick glance above him showed a sea of faces, all eyes on him. What have I done? thought Will. This is crazy! Just then, the little black dog lolled her head around and looked at him. Gingerly, he started toward her, arms out from his shoulders for balance. Abruptly the berg sank, dipping Will to his ankles and filling his shoes with water.

"Ice water," Will gasped. He pictured himself sliding off into the river and being pulverized by pieces of ice the size of railroad cars. But the berg rose, and Will, who'd been too frightened to breathe, took a breath and started forward. His heart sank as he realized that the little dog sat on an entirely separate section of ice, with another smaller "cube" between them.

"That piece will never hold me," moaned Will, heart racing. "Blackie," he called, for he had already decided what to name her. "Blackie, come!" But the cry choked off as the iceberg dropped again, water rising first to Will's knees, then to his thighs, and he felt himself sliding toward the edge. Just as he began to panic, the entire berg teetered up, lifting him into the clear again.

In the distance, he heard the siren start again. "This is it, this time the ice is really going." With a new sense of urgency, he started for the dog. Then somehow, above the noise of the wind, the ice, and the crowd, he thought he heard his name. "Will, behind you!" Spinning around, he took in the situation at a glance. "Dad, what are you doing here?" Will shot a look in the direc­tion his father was pointing, and his heart sank. As though in slow motion, a huge slab was sweeping toward Will, coming closer and closer. Then it rose and began driving Will's iceberg under the water. Only one chance, thought Will, tensing himself. A two-foot wave, pushed along by the ice, washed past him, wetting him to the waist and nearly sweeping him away.

At the last instant Will's hands found the edge of the new berg, the old one disappearing beneath him in the deep, black, freezing water. In a single move, he vaulted to the larger, more stable ice floe and discovered, to his surprise and great joy, that Blackie had done the same. In several quick steps, he reached the dog, grabbed her up in both arms, and turned to run for the safety of the wooden plank and the waiting crowd. Both had disappeared. With the ice moving, he now faced instead a blank wall of timbers with the crowd of people fifteen feet above him. Dad, where are you? he wondered, search­ing the crowd. What am I going to do? Set into the face of the dock were several cut-out, graded slips where the longshoremen could walk down to tin' level of the river to load cargo into small boats..It had been from just such a slip that the plank had been extended to Blackie, making it easy for Will to slide down-and quite difficult to get back up.

Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw the next slip approaching. He squeezed himself as close as he dared to the extreme edge of his ice floe, but it wasn't enough. A channel of some two to three feet of swiftly flowing water still separated him from dry land. He watched in vain for signs of another plank and the chance to throw Blackie to safety and scramble up. Then, with a mighty crack, the extreme shore edge of the ice broke off, leaving him balanced on a tiny slab. It was too small to support him and the dog.

"Too late," he shouted, as the berg began a slow forward roll, toppling Will, with Blackie still clutched in his arms, toward the black swirling surface of the unforgiving river.

Will could never be sure what happened next He found himself sus­pended in air, hanging by his parka hood, half-strangled by the collar.

"Drop the dog," somebody shouted.

"No," cried a familiar voice, "let him be." Slowly, Will's rescuer managed to swing him by his parka to safety. Lying in the dirt, hands to his throat and gasping for breath, Will became suddenly conscious of the excitement swirling like river ice around him. Blackie licked his face, and the crowd shouted and pounded Will's dad, who had rescued him, on the back.

Scrambling to his feet, Will faced his dad. "You came back," said Will. "I was afraid you were going to leave me again."

Will was amazed to see tears spring into the corners of his father's eyes. "Leave you?" he said, pulling Will into his arms. "I may not always be right here," he said quietly, "but I'll never leave you."

An old man with a wrinkled face stepped up to Will and shook his hand. "You saved my dog," he said. "You're a brave boy. A foolish boy — you could have been killed — but brave nonetheless."

"Your dog," said Will, "but I was hoping..." Disappointment made him hang his head.

"My dog all right," said the man. "She's very valuable, a trained lead dog."

"We'll buy her," said Will's dad.

"She's not for sale," said the old man with a stern look. But then he clustered all of his wrinkles into a smile. "She's yours, boy — a gift. An adventurous boy deserves a dog, and you've got adventure in your bones."

"He does," agreed Will's dad. "That's why I'm taking him out to the homestead soon."

He smiled at Will. "OK?"

Will nodded happily, clutching Blackie, who was licking his nose. And all the way home he felt different, better than he'd ever felt, and he guessed it must be the adventure in his bones.

2.3. True or false?

1. Break-up was a routine event in Alaska.

2. Will was happy to have a father.

3. Will's father didn't believe the boy had any stamina.

4. Saving the dog seemed a crazy idea, so nobody volunteered.

5. But for Will's father both the boy and the dog would have been lost.

6. The boy got the dog as a gift for his adventurous feat.

7. The episode changed Will's father's attitude to his son.

8. The one character who got the most out of it was the dog.

2.4. Points of view.

1. Why did they say so? Please, explain.

2. Father: "You must be born with a sense of adventure to live in the wild."

3. Will: "One must be crazy even to step on the ice."

4. Will: "I was afraid you were going to leave me again."

5. Father: "I may not always be here, but I'll never leave you."

6. Will: "What am I going to do?"

7. The old man: "You've got adventure in your bones."

2.5. Emotion by motion.

You can add more emotion to your speech if you use verbs of motion. Study the following definitions, and then translate the sentences.

dart = move suddenly and quickly in a particular direction

jog = run slowly and steadily especially for exercise

scramble = climb up or over with difficulty, using hands to help

slide = move smoothly over a surface while continuing to touch it

slip = accidentally slide a short distance

spin = turn around and around quickly

swirl = turn around quickly in a twisting circular movement

vault = jump over in one movement, using hands or a pole to help

1. I looked at the merry-go-round and my head began кружиться.

2. He перепрыгнул the fence and ran off into the night.

3. The climbers hardly managed вскарабкаться the steer slope.

4. The mother бросилась and pulled her child away from the fire.

5. The park was full of бегущих people who took no notice of each other.

6. Jack поскользнулся and fell on the icy sidewalk.

7. There was a merry crowd of kids катающихся on a long patch of ice.

2.6. Storing vocabulary.

Fill in the right word from the list below.

1. The mother persuaded the baby boy to make a step.

2. Relax, and try not to be so stiff.

3. A stone broke the window and the room was covered with a carpet of glass.

4. The teacher had the reputation of a strict disciplinarian and behaved that way.

5. Some authors were inspired by the life far away from civi­lization.

6. That ride with its slopes and curves is not for me, I'd rather sit in the shade.

7. He felt his way along the dark tunnel carefully.

8. The referee let out a shrill whistle.

Choose from the following: piercing (to pierce), to shatter, wilderness, to coax, a roller-coaster, gingerly, to tense, stern

2.7. Colloquial English.

Change the following sentences, making them sound more literary.

1. "This is it." said Mr Brindle. "Break up. Class dismissed."

2. "You're better off in town", said Will's dad.

3. He doesn't know a thing about life in the wilderness.

4. In Nenana it was tradition that everybody drop everything and run to the river.

2.8. Hearty idioms.

Idioms are to be learnt and used. Match the correct translations of the idioms below.

Брать за сердце Камень на сердце Открывать сердце С тяжёлым сердцем Положа руку на сердце Сердце разрывается на части

Open-heartedly With a heavy heart Lay bare one's heart One's heart is breaking Touch somebody's heart Have something weigh upon one's heart