Dialogue

A: Peter, it seems to me, we’ve got lost. Why are you as pleased as Punch?

B: Well, Jack. It’s so romantic to get lost in the forest. Take my word for it. The memories about this trip will come back to you for the rest of your life.

A: Stop being funny! You’d better start talking sense. You’ve always been so quick in the uptake. Do you have a compass with you at least?

B: Of course, not. I can’t make head or tail of how to make use of it.

A: I see. We’ve got in a mess. That’s too bad. What do we do now? Sitting here under the tree is out of the question. Let’s step on the first path we find and go forward along it.

B: Ten to one, we’ll get nowhere. We’ll be wandering about the forest for the rest of the week until some rescuers come to our help.

A: Have you any better ideas then? Don’t forget, we are both in the same boat and we are pressed for time. Look, it’s getting dark already. And we haven’t even got an electric torch.

B: Let me think. I’m just afraid of suggesting any ideas to you. If anything goes wrong it will be my fault. As far as you are concerned in this case, there will be no stopping your complaints. Do you promise me to take everything easy in case of a failure?

A: OK. There’s no point in arguing. Let’s listen to your plan as I’m all at sea and I can’t think at all.

B: The only thing we can do is to climb up that pine-tree and to look around. Only in this case we’ll get more or less clear idea about our location. Do you agree with me?

A: Have I got any choice? By the way, who will climb up the tree?

B: Of course, you. You just the very person to do it. You are tall, strong, let alone your boots. And my shoes are not for climbing the trees.

A: I see. OK, I’m climbing.

I. Translate into Russian

1. “Well, it doesn’t help…” “Then that’s too bad.” (M. Wilson)

2. “How did you get here, Van Hasseldt?” asked Alban again, very much at sea. (W.S. Maugham)

3. “So long, son,” he said. “Take it easy and don’t worry. When things look black and despair haunts you, just think of Copernicus.” (M. Wilson)

4. “Do I look the same as you thought I did Friday night?” he asked. “More or less,” she said. (M. Wilson)

5. They should spend the rest of the day in town. (I. Murdoch)

6. … anyway, we’re in the same boat together now, to sink or swim. (Th. Dreiser)

7. I made up my mind to abandon the writing of novels for the rest of my life. (W.S. Maugham)

8. The Easter holidays began happily… Yet she felt it would go wrong. (D. Lawrence)

9. For the rest of the evening he sat there. (A. Cronin)

10. That fellow never made head or tail of what he was told. (j. Galsworthy

II. Paraphrase the following sentences using the idioms studied

1. I’ve no time for a trip to the South, to say nothing of the money that would be needed.

2. When he saw his old friend he remembered the days of his childhood.

3. “Yesterday I lost my pen – mother’s gift.” “What a pity!”

4. When Soames learnt that Irene had left him, he was so puzzled that he did not know how to act.

5. I shall remember it all my life.

6. The paper was so complicated that I could make nothing of it.

7. There is no denying that the situation is very trying but don’t take it too much to heart.

8. My friend was almost right.

9. The two friends found themselves in the same position.