Unit XI

Chapters L-LIV

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

1. to attach oneself to

2. to have remarkable gifts

3. to rise to the greatest heights of one’s profession

4. to step into one’s shoes

5. to twist one’s heart

6. with all one’s belongings

7. to regret the sudden step

8. to play second fiddle to smb.

9. to see smb. out of the corner of one’s eyes

10. to raise one’s hand to smb.

11. to be a queer fish to smb.

12. to take smb. for granted

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

1. The author had an idea that some men were born out of their due place, and were strangers at their birthplace.

2. Abraham had a genius for surgery and a strong character.

3. Ata was only seventeen, she was a sensible girl, and didn’t expect any ceremony before the Mayor.

4. Ata’s house was a bungalow of unpainted wood, consisting of three small rooms and a kitchen.

5. Captain Brunot was impressed by the place where Strickland lived: it had the beauty of the Garden of Eden.

6. Ata gave Strickland what he wanted from a woman: she left him alone.

7. On the remote island Strickland aroused the same detestation with which he was regarded at home.

8. Native people took Strickland for granted.

9. Captain Brunot led a simple and innocent life in Tahiti and was full of regret about his old home in Brittany.

3. Fill in prepositions:

1. The narrator should have thought it needed a good deal … character to throw … a career after half an hour’s meditations, because you saw … another way … living a more interesting significance.

2. Ata hadn’t a drop … white blood … her.

3. Ata’s father had planted crotons round his property, and they grew … coloured profusion, gay and brilliant; they fenced the land … flame.

4. Strickland lived … a corner, hidden away … all the world, it was a feast … colour.

5. Captain Brunot had bought a couple … pictures, because he felt sorry … Strickland.

6. The broad road was shaded … pepper-trees, and … each side were the plantations, coconut and vanilla.

7. … England and France Strickland was the square peg … the round hole, but here the holes were any sort … shape, and no sort … peg was quite amiss.

8. There are men whose desire … truth is so great that to attain it they will shatter the very foundation … the world, … such was Strickland, only beauty … him took the place …truth.