Материалы к курсу

Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации

КУБАНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

ASSIGNMENTS FOR HOME READING

Based on F.S. FITZGERALD’S NOVEL

“THE GREAT GATSBY”

Материалы к курсу

Краснодар 2005

Министерство образования и науки
Российской Федерации

КУБАНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

ASSIGNMENTS FOR HOME READING

based on F.S. FITZGERALD’S NOVEL

“THE GREAT GATSBY”

Материалы к курсу

Краснодар 2005

Рецензент:

Доктор филологических наук, профессор
Кубанского государственного университета

В.И. Тхорик

Assignments for home reading based on f.s. fitzgerald’s novel “the great gatsby”: материалы к курсу / Сост. И.П. Хутыз. Краснодар: Кубанский гос. ун-т, 2005. 41 с.

Данные материалы предназначены для изучения и активизации новой лексики с учетом семантических связей и стилистических особенностей текста романа Ф.С. Фицджеральда «Великий Гэтсби». Коммуникативная направленность пособия предполагает развитие аналитического мышления и умения вести дискуссии на английском языке по проблемам, освещенным в романе.

Адресуется студентам III–IV курсов языковых вузов для занятий по домашнему чтению.

Печатается по решению редакционно-издательского совета
Кубанского государственного университета

The Great Gatsby
By F.S. Fitzgerald (Chapter 1)

1. Find the following expressions in the text and describe the situations in which they were used:

vulnerable bizarre imperceptibly

to be inclined to eyesore desolate

to be privy to wistfully reciprocal

riotous elaborate languidly

wholesale supercilious to submerge

bond business effeminate coherence

weather-beaten fractiousness to vanish into air

conviction pungent sedative

securities to be buoyed up insincerity

editorial conscientious libel

hemisphere irrelevant abandoned

2. Answer the following questions:

1. What can you say about Nick’s family? What did you learn about his past?

2. Why did Nick decide to go East?

3. Describe Nick’s newfound place of living?

4. How did Nick describe Tom Buchanan? Do you think he admired his friend?

5. Whom did Nick meet inside the house?

6. What happened during the dinner? Describe everyone’s reaction to the unexpected phone call.

7. How did Nick feel after his visit to the Buchanans?

8. Describe the relationship between Daisy and her husband. What can be inferred about it from their conversations?

9. What do we learn about Nick’s neighbour from this chapter?

10. Note down all the geographic names and locations used in this chapter. In what situations are they used? Can you say that the author is constantly comparing the West to the East?

11. What epithets does Fitzgerald use to describe Daisy and her friend Jordan? Would you like to add anything to those descriptions?

12. What colours (in what situations) are used in this chapter? What connotations do they have?

13. Give character sketches of:

Nick Carraway

Daisy Buchanan

Tom Buchanan

Jordan Baker

14. Sum up the events described in this chapter.

3. Find the following expressions in the text and use them in the examples of your own:

привычка к сдержанности в суждениях; чутье к; сулили раскрыть сверкающие тайны; одно из самых своеобразных местечек; причудливый и несколько зловещий контраст; достигать в чем-то самых вершин; с размахом поистине ошеломительным; без особых к тому причин; сокрушительная сила; забормотать извинения; неспокойная темнота.

4. Insert prepositions where necessary and translate the sentences:

1. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself … this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came … that in college I was unjustly accused … being a politician, because I was privy … the secret griefs of world, unknown men. 2. No, Gatsby turned out all right … the end; it is what preyed … Gatsby, what foul dust floated … the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed … my interest … the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men. 3. I never saw this great-uncle, but I’m supposed to look like him – with special reference … the rather hard-boiled painting that hangs … father’s office. 4. I bought a dozen volumes … banking and credit and investment securities, and they stood … my shelf … red and gold like new money … the mint, promising to unfold the shining secrets that only … Midas and Morgan and Maecenas knew. 5. My house was … the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards … the Sound, and squeezed … places that rented … twelve or fifteen thousand … a season. 6. The front was broken … a line of French windows, glowing now … reflected gold and wide open … the warm windy afternoon, and Tom Buchanan … riding clothes was standing … his legs apart on the front porch. 7. We were in the same senior society, and while we were never intimate I always had the impression that he approved … me and wanted me to like him … some harsh, defiant wistfulness … his own. 8. We walked … a high hallway … a bright rosy-coloured space, fragilely bound … the house by French windows … either end. 9. … any rate, Miss Baker’s lips fluttered, she nodded … me almost imperceptibly, and then quickly tipped her head back again. 10. I looked back … my cousin, who began to ask me questions … her low, thrilling voice. 11. “Oh, I’ll stay … the East, don’t you worry,” he said glancing … Daisy and then back … me, as if he were alert … something more. 12. I meant nothing … particular … this remark, but it was taken … … an unexpected way. 13. It’s up … us, who are the dominant race, to watch … or these other races will have control … things. 14. Things went … bad … worse, until finally he had to give … his position.

5. Explain the meaning of the following expressions:

inclined to reserve all judgments; ragged edge of the universe; commuting town; paternal contempt; how you ever get anything done is beyond me; reciprocal curiosity; grasped the meaning; sedative questions; the most advanced people; on account of rumour.

6. Give synonyms and antonyms to the following adjectives and verbs used in this chapter:

1. Hard-boiled, hesitant, riotous, superficial, sinister, defiant, desolate, deft, velvet, slender.

2. Mutter, confer, extend, inhabit, glitter, anchor, flutter, hover, flicker, nourish.

7. Translate into Russian any passage describing one of the characters mentioned in this chapter. Comment on the transformations you have chosen while translating the text.

The Great Gatsby
By F.S. Fitzgerald (Chapter 2)

1. Find the following expressions in the text and describe the situations in which they were used:

transcendent plunge (in) bloom

borough haughtily incredulously

saunter (about) distort become entangled

assumption rakish pour (over smb)

waste land undergo a change artificial

sumptuous intently clench

vitality audibly search

vicinity flounce console

defer to absorbing

upholstery obscene

8. Answer the following questions:

1. Describe the Valley of Ashes. What does it signify in the novel?

2. Who or what is Dr. T. J. Eckleburg?

3. How did Nick get acquainted with Tom’s mistress?

4. Describe Myrtle Wilson and her husband? Does their way of living contrast strongly with that of the Buchanans?

5. What colours are used to describe the Wilsons and their place of living?

6. What can be said about Mrs. Wilson’s apartment in New York?

7. Who was invited to Mrs. Wilson’s party?

8. Was Mrs. Wilson different in New York? Why? How did the change of dress affect Myrtle?

9. How did Myrtle meet Tom?

10. What are the signs that helped Nick to understand Tom’s real attitude to Myrtle?

11. How did the party at Myrtle New York apartment end?

12. Comment on the meaning of the following phrases:

The supercilious assumption was that on Sunday afternoon I had nothing better to do.

Her laughter, her gestures, her assertions became more violently affected moment by moment…

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

13. Give character sketches of:

Myrtle Wilson

Catherine Wilson

George Wilson

The McKees

14. Write out all the comparisons you have come across in the chapter. Comment on those, which were the most unexpected for you.

15. Sum up the events described in this chapter.

9. Find the following expressions in the text and use them in the examples of your own:

причудливые сады; свалка; задержка здесь бывает всегда; тщедушный мальчишка итальянец с серым лицом; быть до нелепости похожим; видел будто сквозь мутную дымку; стремление природы; отклонить комплимент; засмеялась ни с того ни с сего; подивился хитроумию этой лжи; и в подметки не годиться.

10. Insert prepositions where necessary and translate the sentences:

1. But his eyes, dimmed a little … many paintless days, … sun and rain, brood on … the solemn dumping ground. 2. I went … … New York with Tom … the train one afternoon, and when we stopped by the ashheaps he jumped … his feet and taking hold … my elbow, literally forced me … the car. 3. When he saw … us a damp gleam … hope sprang … his light blue eyes. 4. We waited … her down the road and … … sight. 5. We backed … … a grey old man who bore an absurd resemblance … John D. Rockefeller. 6. The sister, Catherine, was a slender, worldly girl … about thirty, … a solid, sticky bob … red hair, and a complexion … powdered milky white. 7. What I say is, why go … living … them if they can’t stand … them? 8. Mr. McKee was asleep … a chair … his fists clenched … his lap, like a photograph … a man … action. 9. Yet high … the city our line … yellow windows must have contributed their share … human secrecy … the casual watcher … the darkening streets, and I saw him too, looking … and wondering. 10. Then I was lying half asleep … the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station, staring … the morning Tribune, and waiting … the four o’clock train.

11. Give synonyms and antonyms to the following adjectives and verbs used in this chapter:

1. Join, perceive, resent, saunter, peer (into), beam, commence, flounce, bloom, breed.

2. Desolate, invisible, eternal, sumptuous, discreetly, solemn, blurred, intense, obscene, artificial.

12. Translate into Russian any description that impressed you the most. Comment on the transformations you have chosen while translating the text.

The Great Gatsby
By F.S. Fitzgerald (Chapter 3)

13. Find the following expressions in the text and describe the situations in which they were used:

scamper tortuously ditch

permeate lull apparition

understudy florid bond

ill at ease swamp wafer

whereabouts elude mellow

cordial convivial racy

credulity sheepishly loiter

spectroscopic tantalize divergence

impetuously tumultuous virtue

14. Answer the following questions:

1. How did Gatsby transport his guests?

2. What preparations for the party at Gatsby’s could be usually observed?

3. How did Gatsby’s guests behave?

4. What were Nick’s feelings about the party? Whom did he meet there?

5. How did Nick meet Gatsby? What was Nick’s first opinion of him?

6. How did Gatsby interact with his guests?

7. Whom did Nick and Jordan meet at the library?

8. What happened at the end of the party when the guests were leaving?

9. What story did Nick recall about Jordan, and what was the catalyst for his remembering?

10. What was Nick mostly occupied with in those days?

11. Describe the signs of Gatsby’s unlimited fortune.

12. Comment on the meaning of the following sentences:

In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.

A dim background started to take shape behind him, but at her next remark it faded away.

The bored haughtily face that she turned to the world concealed something – most affectations conceal something eventually, even though they don’t in the beginning – and one day I found what it was.

Dishonesty in a woman is a thing your never blame deeply…

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine…

13. Sum up what you have learned about the following characters (is your attitude to these characters gradually changing?):

Gatsby

Jordan

Nick

14. Write out words and expressions referring particularly to the period described in the novel (the 20s). What do you know about America of that period?

15. Find the following expressions in the text and use them in the examples of your own:

выжимать сок; пестреть всеми цветами радуги; земля отворачивается от солнца; стать на короткий радостный миг центром внимания кружка; досадное стечение обстоятельств; без риска выглядеть бесприютным и жалким; с презрительным любопытством; пошли бродить по саду; мороз побежал у нас по коже; убежденный в нашем недоверии; всплески пустого беспечного смеха; с ленивой усмешкой; уходя от разговора с чисто городской нелюбовью к конкретности; редкостная глубина удивления; зловещая пауза.

16. Insert prepositions where necessary and translate the sentences:

1. There was a machine … the kitchen which could extract … the juice of two hundred oranges … half … an hour if a little button was pressed two hundred times … a butler’s thumb. 2. Laughter is easier minute … minute, spilled … prodigality, tipped out … a cheerful word. 3. Once there they were introduced … somebody who knew Gatsby, and after that they conducted … themselves according … the rules … behaviour associated … an amusement park. 4. Dressed … … white flannels I went over … his lawn a little after seven, and wandered … rather ill … ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know – though here and there was a face I had noticed … the commuting train. 5. They were … least agonizingly aware … the easy money … the vicinity and convinced that it was theirs … a few words … the right key. 6. Welcome or not, I found it necessary to attach myself … somebody before I should begin to address cordial remarks … the passers-by. 7. One of the men nodded … confirmation. 8. As our credulity switched back … her she leaned forward … enthusiasm…9. We were sitting … a table … a man … about my age and a rowdy little girl, who gave way … the slightest provocation … uncontrollable laughter. 10. He excused himself … a small bow that included each … us … turn. 11. She got … slowly, raising her eyebrows … me … astonishment, and followed … the butler … the house. 12. The wives were sympathizing … each other … slightly raised voices. 13. … the contrary, they were merely casual events in a crowded summer, and, until much later, they absorbed … me infinitely less than my personal affairs.

17. Give synonyms to the following adverbs and adjectives used in this chapter:

1. Gravely, tortuously, evidently, precisely, hastily, entirely, gradually, infinitely, deliberately.

2. Rowdy, rare, eternal, corpulent, wan, jovial, sinister, crisp, incessant, mellow, jaunty.