Unit IV

Chapters XV-XIX

1. Study the following words and word combinations, explain their meaning in English, give the context in which they are used:

1. an urgent request

2. to be as mad as a hatter

3. to be responsible for one’s actions

4. to have a positive genius for covering up one’s tracks

5. to make a success of the adventure

6. to pour into one’s ear the long list of troubles

7. to be an object to excite love

8. a look of black astonishment

2. Say whether the following statements are true or false:

1. Mrs. Strickland’s sister had the efficient air, as though she carried the British Empire in her pocket.

2. Amy was sure that her husband would come back.

3. Mrs. Strickland was a woman of character.

4. It was kindness that prompted the offer of Mrs. Strickland to send her husband a certain sum of money, as he needed it.

5. Dirk Stroeve was a gifted painter and he sold a lot of pictures.

6. Dirk Stroeve considered Strickland to be a great artist and to have genius.

7. In Paris Strickland had been painting just the same stale, obviously picturesque things that he had painted for years in Rome.

8. The Dutch people were fond of Strickland’s pictures, they considered him to be a mature artist.

3. Fill in prepositions:

1. A man doesn’t throw … his business and leave his wife and children … the age … forty to become a painter unless there’s a woman …it.

2. They said that Charles Strickland had become infatuated … a French dancer, whom he first seen … the ballet … the Empire, and had accompanied her … Paris.

3. Mrs. Strickland had made a success … her business, and now had an office … Chancery Lane.

4. Dirk Stroeve brought romance … the homes … all sorts … people.

5. Though he had suffered so much … the ridicule … his friends, Dirk Stroeve, eager praise and naively self-satisfied, could never resist displaying … his work.

6. Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions … … the chaos … the world … the torment … his soul.

7. Dirk Stroeve reminded you … those jolly, fat merchants that Rubens painted.

8. Mr. Stroeve was … love … his wife, he could hardly take his eyes … her.