Unit IX

Chapters XL-XLIV

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

1. to bite one’s lip

2. to laugh at smb. up one’s sleeve

3. to ruin one’s life

4. to snatch smb. from the jaws of death

5. to hide a shameful secret

6. to give a sudden flash of anger

7. to speak with a passion of indignation

8. to try one’s tricks

9. to be on the threshold of a surprising adventure

10. to hold one’s tongue

11. lop-sided

12. pictures of still life

13. life-size portraits

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

1. When the narrator met Charles Strickland he didn’t want his company, because the sight of him brought back to him all the horror which he was not unwilling to forget.

2. The narrator was puzzled by Strickland, but he wasn’t eager to see how the painter regarded the tragedy he had caused in the lives of people who had used him with so much kindness.

3. Strickland didn’t want love, he didn’t have time for it and thought it was weakness.

4. In Strickland’s opinion, Blanche Stroeve didn’t commit suicide because he left her, but because she was a foolish and unbalanced woman.

5. The narrator was bitterly disappointed at first sight when he saw Strickland’s pictures, he thought that Strickland drew very badly and was unimpressed.

6. The narrator imagined that on seeing Strickland’s pictures he should get a clue to the understanding of his strange character.

7. Strickland’s real life consisted of dreams and of tremendously hard work.

8. Strickland was a man of great intelligence, but his views on painting were by no means out of the ordinary.

9. Strickland as well as Brueghel were trying to put down in paint ideas which were more suitable to literature.

3. Fill in prepositions:

1. It was characteristic … Strickland to display geniality anyone who showed a disinclination to meet him.

2. There was a tin … tobacco … the table, and taking … his pipe, Strickland filled it.

3. Blanche was a governess … the family … some Roman prince and the son … the house seduced her.

4. Strickland spoke … a passion … indignation.

5. Strickland stood before the narrator, motionless, … a mocking smile … his eyes.

6. Strickland placed a picture … the easel, and let the narrator look … it … a minute or two; then took it down and put another … its place.

7. Most … Strickland’s pictures have found their way … museums, and the rest are the treasured possessions … wealthy amateurs.

8. Facts were nothing to Strickland, … beneath the mass … irrelevant incidents he looked … something significant to himself.

9. The narrator never heard Strickland speak … those whose work had a certain analogy … his own.

10. Strickland’s humour was sardonic, he made one laugh sometimes … speaking the truth.