Chapters 9 and 10

Vocabulary work

I. Learn the following words and expressions:

- score - heart attack - coincidence - witness - to commit a crime - to be imprisoned - loaf (of bread) - defense - a waste of time - to sink - crucial - to wade - to be in the clear - pattern - pill bottle

- to spot smth. - ambulance - nightmare - fair enough - circumstances - that’s not the point - bright (boy) - to pump one’s stomach - vending machine - bag of crisps - to grumble - anxious - hospital casualty department - right on cue - to stay overnight - to hail a cab

II. Answer the questions:

1. What happened to the duck? Did Marcus get in trouble because of it?
2. Describe Fiona’s situation. Why do you think she did it?
3. Who took care of Marcus while his mother was in the hospital?
4. What was Will’s attitude towards the situation? What did he do?

III. State who these words belong to. Translate and reproduce the situations in which they are used:

1. “I was told that you had something to do with it. You know that’s a criminal offence, don’t you?”
2. “They’re my favourite animal. Well, second favourite. After dolphins. They’re definitely my favourite bird, though.”
3. “Boys will be boys.”
4. “This isn’t anything to do with you, Marcus. You know that, don’t you? I mean, you’re not the reason she… You’re not the reason she’s here.”
5. “What are you supposed to tell a kid whose mum has just tried to top herself?”
6. “Of course they’ll know the difference. And if they don’t, we’ll tell them.”
7. “That’s where I want to go. Not that anyone cares.”

IV. Translate into English:

- читать чьи-то мысли;

- вот-вот собиралась умереть от сердечного приступа;

- обвинить во лжи;

- загораживать дорогу;

- настаивать на чем-то;

- сердиться на кого-то;

- отослать домой;

- придумай что-нибудь;

- догадаться, сообразить;

- горсть мелочи;

- получить разрешение на что-л.

Oral practice

V. Comment on the following:

1. They’d put two and two together and make five, and he’d be imprisoned for a crime he never committed. (p. 54)

2. Marcus was never able to work out why Suzie had insisted on coming back to the flat with him. <…> She was never able to explain why she had done it. (p. 57)

3. But this was the scariest thing he’d ever seen, by a million miles, and he knew the moment he walked in that it was something he’d have to think about forever. (p. 58)

4. … if the only things that separated Fiona from the rest of them were Suzie’s reassuring car keys and Will’s expensive casual clothes, then she was in trouble anyway. You had to live in your own bubble. (p. 62)

VI. Give a good literary translation of the following:

1. “Marcus couldn’t believe it. Dead. A dead duck. OK, he’d been trying to hit it on the head with a piece of sandwich, but he tried to do all sorts of things, and none of them had ever happened before. He’d tried to get the highest score on the Stargazer machine in the kebab shop on Hornsey Road – nothing. He’d tried to read Nicky’s thoughts by staring at the back of his head every maths lesson for a week – nothing. It really annoyed him that the only thing he’d ever achieved through trying was something he hadn’t really wanted to do that much in the first place. And anyway, since when did hitting a bird with a sandwich ever kill it? Kids must spend half their lives throwing things at the ducks in Regent’s Park.” (p. 54)

2. “Everything about that two minutes was mysteriously memorable, even at the time, somehow: climbing the stairs, the cooking smells that got trapped in the hall, the way he noticed the pattern on the carpet for the first time ever. Afterwards he thought he could recall being nervous, too, but he must have made that up, because there wasn’t anything to be nervous about. Then he put the key in the door and opened it, and a new part of his life began, bang, without any warning at all.” (p. 57)

3. “When the ambulance came there was a long, complicated discussion about who would go to the hospital and how. Will was hoping he’d be packed off home, but it didn’t work out like that. The ambulancemen didn’t want to take Suzie and Marcus and the baby, so in the end he had to drive Megan and Marcus there in Suzie’s car, while she went with Marcus’s mother in the ambulance. He tried to stay tucked in behind them, but he lost them the moment they got out on to the main road. He would have liked nothing better than to pretend he had a flashing blue light on the top of the car, drive on the wrong side of the road and crash through as many red lights as he wanted, but he doubted whether either of the mothers ahead of him would thank him for it.” (p. 59)

VII. Stage a dialogue between Will and the park-keeper about the dead duck. Give as many arguments against Marcus’s being guilty as you can think of.

VIII. Agree or disagree with the following statements:

1. Marcus killed a duck intentionally.
2. The park-keeper saw Marcus throw a French loaf at the duck.
3. Suzie has never followed Marcus inside the house before.
4. Fiona took some poison in order to kill herself.
5. Marcus travelled to the hospital with his mother.
6. Will didn’t want to go to the hospital, but he had to.
7. Marcus cried at the hospital.
8. The doctors suggested that Fiona stays in the hospital for a week.

IX. Retell the 9^th and 10^th Chapters as if you were:

1) Marcus

2) Suzie

3) Will.

Writing

X. Write a one-page summary of the Chapters 9,10.

XI. Make up your own story (8-10 sentences) using your active vocabulary.