Plan for Discussion on the Text

1. Give some information about literary career of the author; his manner of writing.

2. Characterize the text under study. Say whether it presents a piece of narration, a description, character-drawing etc. If it contains different elements, name all of them.

3. Explain from whose point of view the story is told (first person narration, third person narration).

4. What is the setting for the story?

5. Speak on the plot of the extract.

6. Into what parts does the text fall? Characterize each.

7. Is the title of the text a speaking one?

8. What is the general slant of the text? Is it satirical, humorous, pathetic, unemotional? How can you prove it?

9. Who are the main characters? What is the author’s method of describing them? Point out the instances of direct or indirect characterization.

10. Can you trace where the author’s sympathy lies?

11. What is the main idea of the extract?

12. Where does the story reach its climax?

13. In which sentences is the resolution presented?

14. What is the message of the passage?

15. Comment on the expressive means of the language and its role in the passage under study (particularly such as: epithets, metonymy, metaphor, simile, irony, allusion, hyperbole, etc.).

16. Speak on the syntax of the text. Find sentences with parallel constructions, repetition and discuss the effect achieved by their use.

17. What is the style of the passage (the style of fiction, of scientific prose, official style, publicistic style)?

18. Expand on the problems touched upon in the extract.

19. Give a summary of your comments on the text.