Tommaso Argento in London (part I)

1. Listen to the story by Chris Rose about Tommaso Argento and find the English for:

- чувство меланхолии - вдали, на расстоянии - сесть на корабль - отправиться на корабле в Гаагу - путешествовать верхом - мрачный - познакомиться с полезными людьми - центр новой торговой империи - продуктивный - с другой стороны - швырять деньгами - по этой причине - осознать - на борту одного из кораблей - дать согласие - коммерция - взволнованно говорить - его словно громом поразило

- о нем ходили слухи - радикальные идеи - его обвиняли в ереси - он всегда шутил или врал - доставить письмо - лабиринт узких улочек - они выглядели ненадежными - он собрался с духом - убил жену из ревности - он не видел большого сходства - насмехались над его провинциальным акцентом - они выглядели как обычные воры - зловещий - он был арестован по обвинению в ереси - ему грозила смертная казнь - во весь голос

2. Answer the following questions:

1) What did Tommaso Argento come to Britain for? What was he supposed to study?

2) Why did his father want him back?

3) Whom did Tommaso meet in Oxford?

4) How did the young Italian come to meet Kit Marlowe?

5) What was Marlowe’s opinion of Tommaso’s sonnets?

6) Why did people say that Tommaso and the playwright looked alike?

7) Why was Marlowe getting more desperate and drunk?

8) What do you know about Christopher Marlowe and Giordano Bruno?

3. Some of the statements below are true and some are false. Choose the false statements and tell why they are incorrect.

1. Tommasso was looking forward to going back home.

2. Tommaso made a lot of important acquaintances in London.

3. Bruno was not a friendly man and didn’t speak very much.

4. Kit was always telling jokes or telling lies.

5. Tommaso gave Kit the letter and went away.

6. Tommaso told the young playwright a lot of stories about Venice.

7. Kit admired the young playwright’s accent.

8. Marlow’s friends looked like common thieves and criminals.

9. Tommaso thought that a poet’s life was dangerous.

10. Bruno was arrested for murder.

4.Describe London through Tommaso’s eyes. What is the difference between London and Venice?

5. Translate the following sentences into Russian. Make up three sentences after the patterns in bold type:

a) During his stay in London, this had been one of his favourite places to come when he wanted to be alone.

b) It wasn’t the long journey that worried him, it was simply the fact that he now had to leave London.

c) Tommaso thought there was something sinister about these people.

6. Make up a dialogue between: a) Tommaso and his father discussing his life in England; b) Tommaso and Kit Marlowe discussing Bruno’s fate.