5. Lunch was at one, and four courses.
6. the beef the strawberries and cream seemed happy, either seemed discontented like.
7. Harris said that he never able to get sick at sea.
8. I met him in the coffee-room of a Bath hotel, about his voyages.
9. The hard work would give us a good appetite, and us sleep well.
10. If I a rat, you wont stop.
5. Match the words with definitions.
6. Find in the text the English equivalents for:
приступы головокружения, сделать вывод, серьезные осложнения, с точки зрения медицины, нащупать пульс, следовать указаниям, состояние здоровья, огромная скидка, приятный аромат, состоящий из четырех блюд, делать что-то нарочно, восхищаться пейзажем.
7. Find the words in the text for which the following are synonyms:
remedy, recollect, sea trip, gaze, to be against, ordinary, disease, begin, main, in the present instance.
8. Explain and expand on the following.
1. I was a hospital in myself.
2. I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a weak wreck.
3. My parents did not know, then, that it was my liver and they used to put it down to laziness.
4. If you want rest and change, you cant beat a sea trip.
5. A sea trip does you good when you are going to have a couple of months of it, but, for a week, it is wicked.
6. It is a curious fact, but nobody ever is sea-sick on land.
7. When the front of the ship rises, you lean forward, till the deck almost touches your nose; and when its back end gets up, you lean backwards.
8. The only one who wasnt inspired with the suggestion was Montmorency.
9. Answer the following questions.
1. How many people are there in the room? Why are they bad?
2. How does the narrator know about his illness?
3. Why is the narrator a good gift for a medical class?
4. Where does the narrator go after visiting the library? Why?
5. Can the chemist help the narrator? Why / why not?
6. What is the general symptom of the narrators disease? How did his relatives help him to cure the disease in his childhood?
7. What remedy do the friends find to cure their diseases?
8. Why is the narrator against a sea trip?
9. Who isnt inspired by the common decision to go up the river? Why?
10. Who is Montmorency?
10. Retell the chapter for the persons of Harris, the doctor, the narrators brother-in-law, Montmorency.
CHAPTER II
We pulled out the maps, and discussed plans. We arranged to start next Saturday from Kingston. Harris and I would go down the river in the morning, and take the boat up to Chertsey, and George, who would not be able to get away from the City till the afternoon (George goes to sleep at a bank from ten to four each day, except Saturdays, when they wake him up and put him outside at two), would meet us there.
Should we camp out or sleep at inns? George and I were for camping out. We said it would be so wild and free.
Slowly the golden memory of the dead sun fades from the hearts of the cold, sad clouds. Silent, like disappointed children, the birds have stopped their song. From the dim woods on the both banks, Nights ghostly army, the grey shadows, creep out with noiseless steps; and Night, upon her gloomy throne, spreads her black wings14 above the darkening world, and, from her phantom palace, lit by the pale stars, reigns in calmness.
Then we run our little boat into some quiet bay, and the tent is set up, and the supper cooked and eaten. Then the big pipes are filled and lighted, and the pleasant chat goes round like quiet music; while, in the pauses of our talk, the river, playing round the boat, whispers strange old tales and secrets, sings low the old childs song that it has sung so many thousand years will sing so many thousand years to come, before its voice grows harsh and old a song that we think, somehow, we understand.
And we sit there, by its bank, while the moon, who loves it too, bends down to kiss it with a sisters kiss, and throws her silver arms around it15; and we watch it as it flows, ever singing, ever whispering, out to meet its king, the sea till our voices die away in silence, and the pipes go out till we, common, everyday young men enough, feel strangely full of thoughts, half sad, half sweet, and do not care or want to speak till we laugh, and, rising, knock the ashes from our burnt-out pipes, and say Good-night, and, lulled by the splashing water and the rustling trees16, we fall asleep under the great, still stars, and dream that the world is young again.
Harris said: How about when it rained?
You can never inspire Harris. There is no poetry about Harris. Harris never cries, he knows not why. If Harriss eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions, or has put too much Worcester17 over his chop.
If you were to18 stand at night by the sea-shore with Harris, and say:
Listen! Do you not hear? Is it but the mermaids singing deep below the waving waters; or sad spirits? Harris would take you by the arm, and say:
I know what it is, old man; youve got a cold. Now, you come along with me. I know a place round the corner here, where you can get a drop of the finest Scotch whisky you ever tasted put you right in less than no time.
Harris always knows a place round the corner where you can get something brilliant in the drinking line. I believe that if you met Harris up in Paradise (supposing such a thing likely), he would immediately greet you with:
So glad youve come, old fellow; Ive found a nice place round the corner here, where you can get some really first-class nectar.
In the present instance, however, as for the camping out, his practical view of the matter was just in time. Camping out in rainy weather is not pleasant. It is evening. You are wet through, and there is a good two inches19 of water in the boat, and all the things are damp. You find a place on the banks that is not quite so wet as other places you have seen, and you land, and two of you start to fix the tent.
It is wet and heavy, and it flops about, and falls down on you, and clings round your head and makes you mad. The rain is pouring steadily down all the time. It is difficult enough to fix a tent in dry weather: in wet, the task becomes extremely difficult. Instead of helping you, it seems to you that the other man is simply playing the fool20. Just as you get your side beautifully fixed, he lifts it from his end, and spoils it all.
Here! what are you up to21? you call out.
What are you up to? he objects; let it go, cant you?
Dont pull it; youve got it all wrong, you stupid fool! you shout.
No, I havent, he yells back; let go your side!
I tell you youve got it all wrong! you roar, wishing that you could get at him; and you pull your ropes that all his pegs are out.
Ah, the idiot! you hear him mutter to himself; and then comes a savage haul, and your side goes away. You start to go round and tell him what you think about the whole business, and, at the same time, he starts round in the same direction to come and explain his views to you. And you follow each other round and round, swearing at one another, until the tent falls down, and leaves you looking at each other across its ruins, when you both indignantly exclaim, in the same breath:
There you are! What did I tell you?
Meanwhile the third man, who has been baling out22 the boat, and who has spilled the water down his sleeve, and has been cursing away to himself steadily for the last ten minutes, wants to know why the tent isnt up yet.
At last, somehow or other, it does get up, and you land the things. It is hopeless attempting to make a wood fire, so you light the methylated spirit stove23, and crowd round that.
Rainwater is the chief component of diet at supper. The bread is two-thirds rainwater, the beefsteak-pie is extremely rich in it, and the jam, and the butter, and the salt, and the coffee have all combined with it to make soup. After supper, you find your tobacco is damp, and you cannot smoke. Luckily you have a bottle of the stuff that cheers, if taken in right quantity, and you go to bed.
There you dream that an elephant has suddenly sat down on your chest, and that the volcano has exploded and thrown you down to the bottom of the sea the elephant still sleeping peacefully on your chest. You wake up and realize that something terrible really has happened. Your first impression is that the end of the world has come; and then you think that this cannot be, and that it is thieves and murderers, or else fire, and this opinion you express in the usual method. No help comes, however, and all you know is that thousands of people are kicking you, and you are being suffocated.
Somebody else seems in trouble, too. You can hear his faint cries coming from underneath your bed. Being determined to sell your life expensively, you fight, hitting out right and left with arms and legs, and yelling, and at last something gives way, and you find your head in the fresh air. Two feet off24, you see a half-dressed hooligan, waiting to kill you, and you are preparing for a life-and-death struggle with him, when you realize that its Jim.
Oh, its you, is it? he says, recognizing you at the same moment.
Yes, you answer, rubbing your eyes; whats happened?
The tents blown down, I think, he says. Wheres Bill?
Then you both raise up your voices and shout for Bill! and the ground beneath you heaves, and the faint voice that you heard before replies from out the ruin:
Get off my head, cant you?
And Bill struggles out in an aggressive mood he believes that the whole thing has been done on purpose.
In the morning you are all three speechless, having to catch severe colds at night; you also feel very quarrelsome, and you swear at each other in hoarse whispers during the whole of breakfast time.
We therefore decided that we would sleep out at fine nights and in hotel, or inn, like respectable people, when it was wet, or when we wanted a change.
Montmorency greeted this compromise with much approval. He does not enjoy romantic loneliness. To look at Montmorency you would imagine that he was an angel sent upon the earth, for some reason in the shape of a small fox-terrier. There is a sort of Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-so-mething-to-make-it-better-and-nobler expression about Montmorency that has been known to bring the tears into the eyes of old ladies and gentlemen.
When first he came to live at my expense25, I never thought I should be able to get him to stop long26. I used to sit down and look at him, as he sat on the rug and looked up at me, and think: Oh, that dog will never live. He will be taken to the bright skies that is what will happen to him. But, when I had paid for about a dozen chickens that he had killed; and had dragged him, growling and kicking, by the scruff of his neck, out of a hundred and fourteen street fights; and an angry woman, who called me a murderer, had brought me a dead cat, then I began to think that maybe theyd let him remain on earth for a bit longer, after all.
Having thus settled the sleeping arrangements to the satisfaction of all four of us, the only thing left to discuss27 was what we should take with us; and this we had begun to argue, when Harris said hed had enough oratory for one night, and proposed that we should go out and have a smile28, saying that he had found a place, round by the square, where you could really get a drop of Irish worth drinking.
George said he felt thirsty (I never knew George when he didnt); and the debate was, by common agreement, postponed till the following night; and the assembly put on its hats and went out.
Exercises1. Read the chapter and choose the correct answer.
1. The friends arranged to start
a) next Sunday.
b) next Saturday.
с) next Monday.
2. You can a) never ignore Harris.
b) always inspire Harris.
с) never inspire Harris.
3. Harris always knows a place round the corner where
a) you can get something to drink.
b) you can get some nectar.
с) to eat properly.
4. Camping out in rainy weather is
a) not pleasant.
b) nice and pleasant.
с) wet and damp.
5. To fix a tent in rainy weather is
a) difficult enough.
b) easy enough.
с) extremely difficult.
6. The chief component of diet at supper is
a) bread and butter.
b) rainwater.
с) soup.
7. The friends decided to sleep out
a) at fine nights.
b) when it was wet.
с) when they wanted a change.
8. Montmorency
a) disapproved the compromise.
b) was against the compromise.
с) greeted the compromise with approval.
9. Montmorency looked like
a) a small fox-terrier.
b) a murderer.
с) an angel.
10. The only thing left to discuss was
a) where to sleep.
b) what to take.
с) what to do.
2. Learn the words from the text:
damp, pour, spoil, savage, exclaim, approval, propose, attempt (v), struggle, calmness, arrange, postpone, meanwhile, roar, steadily, swear, quantity, proper, whisper, crowd.
3. Practice the pronunciation of the following words.
4. Fill in the gaps using the words from the text.
1. George would not to get away from the City till the afternoon.
2. The tent is and the supper and .
3. If Harriss eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris raw onions.
4. Harris always a place the corner.
5. The rain steadily down all the time.
6. You wake up and that something terrible real -ly .
7. And Bill struggles out in an aggressive he believes that the whole thing has been done on .
8. Montmorency enjoy romantic loneliness.
9. I to sit down and look at him, as he on the rug and up at me.
10. Harris proposed that we go out.
5. Match the words with definitions.
6. Find in the text the English equivalents for: