XX. Find a portrait and invent an interesting story to attract the listeners’ attention to it.
Essential Vocabulary
XVI. Work with the dictionary.
Find the following words and expressions in the text. Look up the meaning of the words and word combinations in the dictionary. Give their Russian equivalents, explain them in English:
to be extinct
to make up for many deficiencies
to avoid
disastrous idea of
to assume
to gaze
to contain - She could hardly contain the laughing excitement
to disapprove of
carnival junketing
to interrupt
indisposed
to stare at
to relish
reference
to flatter
to frown
irritably
to look embarrassed
to hesitate
wretched creature
to know how to look after himself.
to settle
to usher
emboldened
air of benevolence
sham Old Masters of yours.
XVII. Pick up in the text the expressions the author uses to characterize young Crowley.
XVIII. Pick up in the text as many structures with the model verbs and their equivalents as possible, translate them.
Ex. - There are still a few last things to be done.
-"How much did we settle it was to be?
XIX. Translate the following passages into Russian in writing. Comment on them.
1.
"From his portraits, which I have seen, the fourth Earl seems to have been a long-faced, gloomy, grey-looking fellow: One can never imagine him young; he was the sort of man who looks permanently fifty. His chief interests in life were music and Roman antiquities. There's one portrait of him holding an ivory flute in hand and resting the other on a fragment of Roman carving. He spent at least half his life traveling in Italy, looking for antiques and listening to music. When he was about fifty-five he suddenly decided that it was about time to get married. This was the lady of his choice," Mr. Bigger pointed to the picture.
2.
"His money and his title must have made up for many deficiencies.
3.
Mr. Bigger smiled vaguely, distantly. He was thinking of Venice — the Russian countess staying in his pension, the tufted tree in the courtyard outside his bedroom, then strong, hot scent she used (it made you catch your breath when you first smelt it), and there was the bathing on the Lido, and the gondola, and the dome of the salute against the hazy sky, looking just as it looked when Guardi painted it. How enormously long ago and far it all seemed now! He was hardly more than a boy then; it had been his first great adventure. He woke up with a start from his reverie.
// Interpret this flash of memory. Use the following expressions: to evoke, stir up a memory — пробуждать воспоминание; bitter memories — горькие воспоминания; dim, vague memories — смутные воспоминания enduring memories — неумирающие воспоминания; fond memories — нежные воспоминания; haunting, poignant memories — навязчивые воспоминания; pleasant memories — приятные воспоминания; unpleasant memories — неприятные воспоминания - Syn: remembrance, recollection, reminiscence//
4.
Mr. Bigger frowned, "Tell him to wait," he said irritably. He coughed and turned back to the Lord of the Manor. "If I had any capital to spare, I'd put it all into late Venetians. Every penny."
He wondered, as he said the words, how often he had told people that he'd put all capital, if he had any, into primitives, cubism, nigger sculpture, Japanese prints.
5.
A tall, pale youth with side whiskers appeared in the doorway. His eyes were dark and melancoly; his expression, his general appearance, were romantic and at the same time a little pitiable. It was young Crowley, the painter.
6.
Mr. Crowley looked embarrassed, he hesitated.How he hated having to do this sort of thing! "The fact is," he said at last, "I'm horribly short of money. I wondered if perhaps you wouldn't mind — if it would be convenient to you — to pay me for that thing I did for you the other day. I'm awfully sorry to bother you like this."
7.
He felt sorry for this wretched creature who didn't know how to look after himself.
8.
Mr. Crowley blushed like a girl. "I suppose you wouldn't like to have a show of some of my landscapes, would you?" he asked, emboldened by Mr. Bigger's air of benevolence.
Discussion
XX. Answer the questions:
1. How does Mr. Bigger describe The Fourth Earl Hurtmore?
2. How does he describe his wife?
3. What did Venice mean for Earl Hurtmore?
4. What did Venice mean for Lady Hurtmore?
5. Why did The Lord of the Manor doubt that it was the work of an Old
Master?
6. Why did he want to have some works by Old Masters?
7. What do we learn about the portrait and the painter (Giangolini)?
8. Is Giangolini a real figure?
9. How is Crowley represented in the story?
XIX. Final discussion.
1. What are the main characters of the story?
2. Are they representatives of different classes? What classes do they represent?
3. Does Mr. Bigger seem to you a typical art-dealer and his customer a typical bourgeois? Prove your point of view.
4. With what character of the story are the sympathies of the author?
5. Does the inside story have anything in common with outside story? Does the inside story seem to be in accordance with the taste and the expectations of the Lord of the Manor?
6. Do people often appreciate pieces of art not for their artistic value but for some story behind them?
7. What is your impression of the story? What is the main idea of the story?
(The world of art is opposed to the world of business)
XX. Find a portrait and invent an interesting story to attract the listeners’ attention to it.
Notes:
morbidezza – the delicate, subtle and lifelike rendering of flesh in painting, sculpture, engraving.
Anne Boleyn – about 1507-1536, second wife of Henry YIII of England, mother of Queen Elizabeth.
Nell Gwynn – 1650-1687, English actress, mistress of Charles II.
Duke of Wellington – 1769-1852, First Duke, known as The Iron Duke.
Ridotto – the hall where a musical and dancing entertainment is given.
Cara amica – ит. дорогой друг
cicisbeo (pl. cicisbei) ит. кавалер, постоянный спутник
Lido – an Italian island in the Adriatic South East of Venice, fashionable seaside resort.
Misericordia – Italian bural society, rendering service to all.
Santa Maria – a well known church in Venice