6. Look up the following synonymous and semantically related words. Explain their difference and illustrate them by your own examples.

a) Delicate – gentle – tactful;

b) Delicate – frail – fragile – groggy – shaky – weak;

c) To adore – dote on – worship smb

7. Describe the characters of the story using the words and expressions below.

1. Louise

a (complete) humbug

frail, thin, delicate, with pale cheeks

leave smb with a weak heart

to take the greatest care of oneself

to be dismayed

to have a heart attack; her heart failed her

to be laid up

to hang by a thread

to have an unconquerable spirit

to be at death’s door

to fall down dead

to outlive/ survive smb;

to survive smth (a shock, a strain etc)

to save smb trouble

delicate/ precarious health

a wretched invalid

a submissive wife

to follow smb to the grave

(not) to give way to a private grief

uncomplaining

to carry out a stupendous bluff

to have the time of one’s life

to be prepared for the worst

on smb’s account

to be a burden to smb

to cultivate the society of painters and artists

to worship smb with an anxious adoration

2. Louise’s husbands: Tom Maitland and George Hobhouse

a big husky fellow

a fine athlete

to entrust smb to smb as a sacred charge

to excel in games

to undertake the charge

to dote upon smb

to catch one’s death of cold

to keep smb warm

to leave smb a comfortable fortune

to resign one’s commission

to have (no) stamina

to throw up one’s career

to grow on smb

to rejoin one’s regiment

not to let smb stir a finger

to redouble one’s attention towards smb

c) Iris, Louise’s daughter

to take care of smb

to live with an invalid

to sacrifice oneself for smb’s sake

to have a chance to lead a life of one’s own

to issue invitations

to postpone marriage indefinitely

to desert smb

to be hard on smb

to beg smb on one’s bended knees

to be radiant

to lead to the altar

d) the story-teller

to bother with smb

not to lose the opportunity of doing

to say smth (disagreeable) behind smb’s back

to make one’s meaning plain

coarse, brutal, vulgar

to be puzzled

to drop smb

to seek smb’s acquaintance

to gall/ cross smb

to look upon smb as smb (a comic figure)

to acknowledge oneself mistaken and defeated

to share a secret

to look at smb full and square

to have (no) compassion for smb

8. Bring out the implicit meaning of the following stretches of text.

1) She was a mistress of cold praise.

2) It might be that she was attracted to me, as a pair of crooks might be attracted to one another.

3) She was the most submissive wife a man could have, but her heart failed her and she would be laid up, sweet and uncomplaining, for a week.

4) … her life hangs on a thread. But she has an unconquerable spirit.

5) He resigned his commission. Louise’s health forced her to spend the winter at Monte Carlo and the summer at Deauville.

6) At last she yielded as she always yielded …

7) She felt, however, that in such a crisis she must not give way to a private grief.

8) She died gently forgiving Iris for having killed her.