Translation

Exercise 4. Translate these sentences into Ukrainian.

1. The Pottery House was a square, ugly, brick house girt in by the wall that enclosed the whole grounds of the pottery itself.

2. No more the great crates with yellow straw showing through, stood in stacks by the packing shed. No more the drays drawn by great horses rolled down the hill with a high load. No more the pottery-lasses in their clay-coloured overalls, their faces and hair splashed with grey fine mud, shrieked and larked with the men. All that was over.

3. It was not to be sneezed at: they felt so themselves, and refrained from sneezing away such a fortune on any mere member of the proletariat.

4. He was an intelligent man who had had some education, but preferred to remain as if he were one with the rest of the working people.

5. Hadrian was just an ordinary boy from a Charity Home, with ordinary brownish hair and ordinary bluish eyes and of ordinary rather cockney speech.

6. Cousin Emmie, with her hair bobbed up in absurd little bobs round her forehead, was busily polishing the stair-rods, while Cousin Matilda was in the kitchen washing the drawing-room ornaments in a lather, her sleeves rolled back on her thin arms, and her head tied up oddly and coquetishly in a duster.

7. She now dressed herself most scrupulously, carefully folded her long, beautiful, blonde hair, touched her pallor with a little rouge, and put her long string of exquisite crystal beads over her soft green dress.

8. The young man was short of speech as a rule, but he could find his tongue with his 'uncle.'

9. Instantly, she was wakened from her late-at-night trance.

10. She had the calm self-control, self-indifference, of one who has suffered and borne her suffering.

Exercise 5. Find the equivalents for the following words and phrases.

A fly in the ointment; have expectations above the common; mere workers; to find one's tongue with somebody; to be pale round the gills; to black-browed in spite of one's blondness.

Reading Comprehension

Exercise 6. Explain what is meant by.

1. She looked up to Matilda, whose mind was naturally refined and sensible. 2. In all this ointment there was one little fly. 3. He would give a little contemptuous curve to his lip, and take on a shy, charity-boy grin, when refinement was thrust upon him. 4. He was the wreck of a handsome, well-built man. 5. Hadrian's new-fledged, cock-sure manliness evidently found no favour in her eyes. 6. Instantly, she was wakened from her late-at-night trance. 7. He had a keen memory stinging his mind, a new set of sensations working in his consciousness. 8. He too had his courage, as a rat has indomitable courage in the end. 9. She was at his mercy, for he was unscrupulous, his standard was not her standard. 10. When he sauntered near her, his hands in his pockets, she received him with that same commonplace kindliness which mastered him more than any contempt.

Exercise 7. Questions and topics for discussion

1. Where is the scene laid? Introduce the main characters of the story. Why was it difficult for Matilda and Emmie to find husbands? Point out the words conveying the atmosphere of the thorough industrial district.

2. How does the reader get to know about the estate the sisters would get? Why were they reluctant to get married? Dwell on their attitude to the proletariat members.

3. Matilda and Emmie were in no way similar, weren't they? Describe them in detail. Were they happy?

4. What Mr.Rockley was dying of? What kind of person was he?

5. Who was Hadrian? Did he feel a member of the Rockley family? How did he regard Cousin Matilda and Cousin Emmie? How did he leave the family? Did he write regularly? What did he do in Canada?

6. What made Hadrian come back to Europe? Did he visit the Rockleys?

7. What did Matilda and Emmie feel when they got to know that Hadrian was coming home to the Pottery House? How did they meet him? Were they well-prepared to receive Hadrian?

8. What impression did Hadrian produce on the sisters? What did they think about the reason of his arrival?

9. What did Hadrian tell about his plans? Was he going to stay in England? What attracted him in Canada? Was he talkative?

10. Speak about Emmie's attitude to Hadrian. Was she really prejudiced against him? What were both sisters thinking about?

11. What were Mr. Rockley's plans as for the estate? Did he include Hadrian's name in the will? What exactly did he want Hadrian to get after his death?

12. Matilda had a talk with her father concerning his will. What happened the next night? How did Matilda feel after that? Could she reason her feelings easily? Why did she want to cut off the memory in Hadrian and in herself?

13. What did the charity boy feel after the night event? What was the proposal he came up with to Mr. Rockley? What was Mr.Rockley's reaction to it?

14. What was the decision of Mr.Rockley? Can you approve of it? How did Emmie react to it? Dwell on her opinion about Hadrian. Did she succeed in changing her father's decision?

15. Comment on Hadrian's desire to marry Matilda. Speak of the possible motives of his proposal.

16. Matilda's behavior after the proposal. Sum up their talk with Hadrian.

17. Comment upon the ambiguity and figurative meaning of the title of the story.