8. Ambrose

1. Pronounce and translate the words given below:

stirrup(pump), genteel, plight, musquash, to wangle, gullible, piccalilli, to burgeon, warren, memorabilia, grandeur, Hoover, supine, negligee, tam-o’shanter, heirloom, magnanimous.

2. Pick out and translate:

1. military terms, abbreviations and idioms;

2. words denoting plants;

3. onomatopoeic words.

3. Reproduce in a situation:

to bolt up the stairs (p. 161) a jumble sale (p. 161) to order a second round (p. 162) to sit the war out (p. 166) a terrible hoarder (p. 168) a status symbol (p. 168) with the greatest disdain (p. 169) to stir the embers (p. 173) a fish out of water (p. 178) to close ranks (p. 181) snippets of news (p. 181) to come up trumps (p. 182) patience cards (p. 182)

to take up cudgels on behalf of smb. (p. 183) spurned love (p. 183) barrage balloons (p. 183) to start off on the wrong foot (p. 186) water under the bridge (p. 187) a shotgun marriage (p. 187) to do a swift about-face (p. 188) to be in a fix (p. 188) to gauge the effect (p. 189) like a vice (p. 190) a punch-line (p. 192)

3. Whom do these epithets refer to?

Lonely and homesick and bored; cheerful and carefree; keen and enthusiastic; bemused and incapable; romantic and Bohemian; dull and stereotyped; legless and incapable; feminine and intensely genteel; sad and downtrodden; vulnerable and helpless; worldly and mundane; morose and gloomy; shaken, appalled and furiously angry; calm and untroubled; unperceptive and unfeeling; stunning and distinctive; very clever and brainy; sentimental and magnanimous.

3. Discuss the chapter you’ve read according to the following points:

1. Why was Penelope dissatisfied with her new occupation? What duties did she perform?

2. Speak of Ambrose and his first date with Penelope.

3. Why was Ambrose so impressed by Penelope’s home? What are the traits of his character that stand out in this episode?

4. Describe the house in Oakley Street in detail. What is meant by Bohemian lifestyle?

5. What feelings possessed Ambrose when he was “on his tour of inspection”? What meaning did he ascribe to the 4 ½-litre Bentley?

6. Describe the London you have read about in the chapter.

7. Speak of Penelope’s stay at Carn Cottage. What changes took place in Porthkerris?

8. How did Sophie take the news about her daughter’s pregnancy? Recount their conversation. Compare it with Ambrose’s telephone talk with his mother.

9. Dwell on the Coombe Hotel and its inhabitants. Note words and phrases which impart the humorous tinge to the descriptions.

10. How did Ambrose and his mother react to the news about the forthcoming baby?

11. Describe the wedding. Why did Dolly want to outshine the bride? How does the episode characterize her?

12. Introduce Aunt Ethel. What impression did she produce on people?

13. Describe the incidents with “Marjorie” and “Carn Cottage”. Comment on them.

* The chapter contains words of some songs which were popular in Europe in the 1940-ies. What role do they play in the text?

9. Sophie

1. Pronounce and translate the words given below:

to gloat, to augur, to pummel, paddock, tirade, to besot, Gibraltar, eiderdown, incendiary, awry.

2. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian and write out the idioms they contain. Make up sentences of your own to illustrate their meaning.

1. After the long months of separation, there came a telephone call out of the blue. (p. 195)

2. But it did not augur well for Ambrose’s visit. (p. 196)

3. It is perhaps we who are out of line. (p. 198)

4. Penelope made a face. (p. 199)

5. Most of the evacuees, unable to bear their exile another moment, had returned, in dribs and drabs, to London. (p. 200)

6. She’s the spitting image of Betty Grable. (p. 202)

7. Even when she was down in the dumps, she could always provide that smile for him. (p. 204)

3. Comment on:

1. Due to a number of adverse circumstances, the visit was an unqualified disaster. (p. 195)

2. Penelope had always held her own private theories about babies. (p. 195)

3. Penelope stared at the child with sinking disbelief. (p. 195)

4. And Sophie’s quick Gallic temperament flared to match her own. (p. 196)

5. “The house rejected him and he didn’t fit.” (p. 198)

6. “There is nothing for it, but to accept the situation and carry on.” (p. 199)

7. “She’ll be a Renoir.” (p. 200)

8. “Children are resilient.” (p. 201)

9. She was the only one of them instantly besotted by the infant. (p. 202)

10. Wise in the ways of women, he understood and sympathized. (p. 203)

11. “I’m too old for junketings, and junketings are exactly what you need.” (p. 204)

12. Nothing left. (p. 207)

4. What symbolic significance is attached to the extract from the book Sophie had been reading? What made her life a happy one?

Refer the following statements to the contents of the chapter you have read:

1. Beauty lies in the lover’s eye. (a proverb)

2. Misfortunes never come singly. (a proverb)

3. They say all’s fair in love and war. (a cliché)

4. Love cannot be forced. (a proverb)

5. Love means not ever having to say you’re sorry. (E. Segal)

6. People are never quite what you think they are. (W. Golding)

7. Faults are thick were love is thin. (a proverb)

8. Every cloud has a silver lining. (a proverb)

9. Every heart knows its own bitterness. (a proverb)

10. Actions speak louder than words. (a proverb)

5. Choose one proverb to illustrate with the episode form the chapter under discussion. Justify your choice.

6. Make up a plan to the chapter and be ready to retell the events according to it.