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Помагалото Write and Learn се състои от три секции – А, В, С, .

Cекции А и В съдържат неадаптирани текстове от съвременни
англоезични автори, подходящи съответно за диктовки и за преводи от
английски на български език. Секция С се състои от адаптирани
текстове на английски език с различна жанрова принадлежност,
подходящи за превод от английски език. Някои от публицистичните
текстове могат да се използват като модел за структуриране на
параграф и аргументация.
Помагалото е подходящо за специалността НУП и английски
език.

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Силвия Димитрова Грудкова

WRITE

and

LEARN

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 CONTENTS

1.A1 – A27 Dictations………………………………………..

2.Appendix 1 Homophones……………………………………………

3. B1 – B27 Texts for translation from English…………………….

4. C1 – C27 Adapted English texts……………………………………

5.Appendix 2 Grammar reference…………………………………

6. Appendix 3 Some Irregular verbs………………………

7. Bibliography………………………………………………………

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 A1 DICTATION

I first saw the earth – the whole earth – from the Shuttle Challenger
in 1984. The view takes your breath away and fills you with childlike
wonder. That’s why every shuttle crew has to clean noseprints off their
spacecraft’s windows several times a day. An incredibly beautiful tapestry
of blue and white, tan, black and green seems to glide beneath you at an
elegant, stately pace. But you are actually going so fast that the entire map
of the world spins before your eyes with each 90-minute orbit. After just
one or two laps, you feel, may be for the first time, like a citizen of a
planet.
All the colours and patterns you see – the visible evidence of the
complex working of the natural systems that make our planet habitable –
seem both vast and precise, powerful and yet somehow fragile. You see
volcanoes spewing smoke, hurricanes rolling the oceans and even fine
tendrils of Saharan dust reaching across the Atlantic. You also see the big,
grey smudges of fields, paddies and pastures, and at night you marvel at
the lights, like brilliant diamonds, that reveal a mosaic of cities, roads and
coastlines – impressive signs of the land of humanity. Scientists tell us that
our hand is heavy, that we are wiping out other species and probably
transforming our climate. Will the immense power of global systems
withstand the impact of humanity?
A Glimpse of Home
Kathryn Sullivan
1. Word study
habitable –adj.suitable for people to live in OPP uninhabitable
habitat -noun [C,U] the place where a particular type of animal or plant
is normally found (wildlife habitat)
impact -noun [C usually sing, U] 1.~ (of sth ) ( on sb/sth ) the powerful
effect that something has on sb/sth : the environmental impact of tourism ;
the impact of recession. 2.the act of one object hitting another ( it explodes
on impact ; side impact bars of a car )
tendril -noun 1. a thin curling stem that grows from a climbing plant 2.
(literary) a thin curling piece of sth such as hair.

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2.citizen / subject / national >these words mean a person who has the
rights given by a country or state to the people
citizen – most general, a person who has the legal right to belong to a
particular country (British citizens); a person who lives in a particular
place (citizens of......; senior citizen ).

subject- when the state is ruled by a king or queen

national – most often used when somebody is living in another country

3.Revision – Punctuation
• Full stop (.) In the US a full stop is called a “period”.
A sentence can end with this mark.(if it is not a question or an
exclamation )
• Comma (,)
-to separate parts of a series ( a tall, dark, distinguished gentleman ).A
comma between adjectives has the same effect as the conjunction and
-to separate the clauses of a compound sentence joined by a coordinating
conjunction –and, but, or, not, for, yet .When the clauses are very short, the
comma is not required.
-before and after a clause or phrase that gives additional information about
the noun it follows (Some words, like scurrilous, are difficult to spell.).
-to separate interjections ,sentence modifiers (however, moreover,
furthermore, therefore, nevertheless, in addition ) and absolute phrases
(The river being cold ,we did not go swimming.)
-to separate a tag question from the rest of a sentence (You live downtown,
right? )
-before or after “...said”, etc., when writing down conversations or before a
short quotation : (In his celebrated inaugural speech, Sir Winston Churchill
declared, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”)
-after clauses with if, when, after, etc. when these come first in the
sentence (If you press this button, the machine stops.)
-with non-defining relative clauses (Churchill, who lived to the age of 91,
enjoyed fine cigars.)
• Colon (:)
• Semicolon (;) Semicolons show a longer pause than a comma. The
two sentences are grammatically independent, but their meaning is
closely connected.

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 • Question mark (?)
• Exclamation mark (!)
• Apostrophe (‘) Used to show the possessive.(the teacher’s book, the
children’s playroom, two weeks’ holiday). They are used to show
where letters have been missed out in contracted forms (It won’t
do.), or where numbers have been missed out (27 December
’81./1981/ )
• Hyphen (-) Hyphens are used after certain prefixes in some
compound nouns (semi-detached), in some compound adjectives
(cross-legged), and in adjective phrases that consist of more than
two elements (a make-or-break situation). They are also used when
expressions of measurement, amount, and quantity are used as
adjectives before a noun (a five-star hotel ).
• Dash (-- )
• Dots /ellipses (…)
• Slash / Oblique (/)
• Quotation marks (“ “ )
• Brackets / Parentheses ( ) Brackets are used to separate extra
information, or a comment, from the rest of the sentence.[ When you
retire (as my grandfather used to say),you think old, you act old.]
• Square brackets [ ]

A2 DICTATION

To me, of course, my family was on the staid side. All that car-
washing, all that peeking from behind net curtains, all the nights spent in
front of the television, all the B&B holidays in Devon and Cornwall or
caravan in Frinton. I envied Gina’s exotic background- her mum a former
model, her dad a would- be rock star, the pictures in the glossy magazines,
even though the pictures were fading now.

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 But Gina remembered the missed birthdays of her childhood, a
father who was always preoccupied with his more recent, more exciting
attachments, the promised holidays that never happened, and her mother
going to bed alone, growing old alone, getting sick alone, crying alone and
finally dying alone. Gina could never be cavalier about an ordinary family.
It wasn’t in her.
The first Christmas I took Gina home, I saw her choking up when
my mum gave her a little present- just some smelly stuff in a basket from
the Body Shop, some soap in the shape of polar bears covered in cling
film- and I had her. She looked at those polar bears and she was hooked.

Man and Boy

Tony Parsons

1. Homophones

bear- n. Large heavy animal with thick fir

bear- v.t. ,v.i. Carry; give birth to.
Bare- adj.Without clothing, covering, decoration.

Missed- p.t., p.p. of miss( v.t.,v.i.) –Fail to hit, catch, see, etc.
Mist –n.Large mass of water vapour above the earth’s surface and like
a fog, but less dense.

Peek-v.i. glance or look quickly.

Peak-n. The crest or summit of a hill or mountain ending in a point.
Peak-v.i. Grow weak or thin, pine away.

2. Word study
Cavalier-adj. Not caring enough about sth important or about the
feelings of other people.

Choke up-phr.v.(AmE) to find it difficult to speak,because of the strong

emotion you are feeling.

Cling film-(AmE plastic wrap ) n.[U] a thin transparent plastic material

that sticks to a surface and to itself

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Estimate-v.[estimeIt] –sth(at sth) to form an idea of the cost,size, value
etc. of sth ,but without calculating it exactly. ( The project is estimated
to be worth $6 million.)
Estimate-n.[estimэt]- a judgement that you make without having the
exact details or figures.
* overestimate - verb,noun
* underestimate - verb, noun

hooked-adj.(not before noun ) –(on sth ) 1. Depend on sth bad (drugs)

2.enjoying sth very much that you want to see it or do it as much as
possible.

Nuclear family-n. a family that consists of father, mother and children,

when it is thought of as a unit in society.
* Extended family- a family group with a close relationships among the
members that includes not only parents and children but also uncles, aunts
etc.
* nuclear-free –adj. (a nuclear-free zone)
* nuclear power-n.[U]=nuclear energy
* nuclear waste-n.[U]used fuel usually radioactive.

Staid-adj.(-er,-est) not amusing or interesting; boring and old-

fashioned(staid image)

Would-be –adj.(only before noun) used to describe sb who is hoping to

become the type of person mentioned.

3. Revision - Past Simple (spelling of regular verbs)

3.1. Most verbs add –ed

played knocked peeked

*If the verb ends in – e, add –d

decide-decided like- liked unite-united

3.2. If the verb has only one syllable and one vowel and one consonant,
double the consonant.
Begged stopped hopped

!(prefer-preferred admit-admitted)

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!BrE-travel-travelled signal-signalled

4. Verbs that end in a consonant + y change to – ied.

Study-studied fry-fried apply-applied

!(picnic-picnicked)

A3
DICTATION

Mark and Colin had walked to the little church, and had their meal
there. After they had explored it, they had walked on, up into the hills,
intending to spend the whole day out before returning to the yacht. Though
the day had been fine, clouds had begun to pile up during the latter
part of the afternoon, so the twilight came early. The two brothers had gone
perhaps a little further than they had intended, and when at length they
regained the path with the “worn stones” that led down towards the church,
the dusk was already gathering. They were walking fast, not talking, their
rope-soled shoes making very little sound on the path, when suddenly, just
ahead of them round a bend in the track, they heard voices speaking Greek,
raised as if in some sort of quarrel. Thinking nothing of this, they held on
their way, but, just as they came round the bluff of rock that masked the
speakers from them, they heard shouts, a scream from a woman, and then a
shot. They stopped short by the corner, with a very eloquent little tableau
laid out just ahead of them at the edge of a wooded gully.
Three men and a woman stood there. Of the three living men, one
stood back, aloof from the rest of the group, smoking – apparently
unmoved. He seemed, by the very calmness of his gestures, no less than by
his position, to be demonstrating his detachment from what was going on.

The Moonspinners
Mary Stewart

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 1. Word study
Boats and ships:
liner, container ship, oil tanker, tug (tugboat), barge, trawler, raft,
hovercraft, ferry, motor boat, rubber dinghy, yacht, punt, rowing
boat, canoe, kayak

aloof – adj. [usually not before noun ] ~ from sb/sth

Not interested in other people
aloofness – noun [U]
keep/remain/stand aloof

bluff – (here) – n.[C] a steep cliff or slope, especially by the sea or a

river

3. Revision – Adverbs

3.1. Typical adverbial derivational endings

-ly -tastefully ,noticeably

-wise -lengthwise, otherwise
-ward(s) -homeward, backwards

3.2. The -ly ending . Spelling rules

3.2.1. When we form adverbs from an adjective + ly ,we do not leave out
e.
e.g. polite –politely
e.g. safe -safely
( Exceptions : true- truly ; simple –simply ; whole – wholly )

3.2.2. After consonant -y changes to - I + ly .

e. g . angry –angrily
lucky – luckily
3.2.3. –le changes to -ly
e.g. sensible – sensibly

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 possible – possibly
3.2.4. –ic changes to -ically
e.g. scientific - scientifically
e.g.dramatic -dramatically
(Exception : public – publicly )
3.2.5. The adverbs ending in -ly form the comparative and superlative
with more , most . ( E.g. you can do it more easily with a
computer .)

4. Rules to remember .

*In informal English we use sooner/ -est ;cheaper/ -est ; louder/ -est
; quicker /- est ; slower / -est .( E.g. He answered the quickest .)
!But more often , most often

*Remember the pattern : the ----er…………., the ----er (E.g. The

faster you call back , the better .)

* Less and least are the opposites of more and most .Less and
least are used with both long and short words .(E.g. We buy newspapers
less often these days)
* Before a comparative we use much ,a lot , far , rather , slightly ,
a bit ,
a little , any , no (negative meaning ) (E.g. Are you sleeping any better on
hard mattress? )

A4
DICTATION

I looked. Oddly enough the woman who sat there had by her
fantastic appearance attracted my attention the moment I was ushered into
the crowded drawing-room.
I thought I noticed a gleam of recognition in her eye, but to the best
of my belief I had never seen her before. She was not a young woman, for
her hair was iron-grey; it was cut very short and clustered thickly round her
well-shaped head in tight curls. She made no attempt at youth, for she was

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conspicuous in that gathering by using neither lipstick, rouge, nor powder.
Her face, not a particularly handsome one, was red and weather-beaten; but
because it owed nothing artifice had a naturalness that was very pleasing. It
contrasted oddly with the whiteness of her shoulders. They were really
magnificent. A woman of thirty might have been proud of them. But her
dress was extraordinary. I had not seen often anything more audacious. It
was cut very low, with short skirts, which were then the fashion, in black
and yellow; it had almost the effect of fancy-dress and yet so became her
that though on anyone else it would have been outrageous, on her it had the
inevitable simplicity of nature. And to complete the impression of an
eccentricity in which there was no pose and of an extravagance in which
there was no ostentation she wore, attached by a broad black ribbon, a
single eye-glass.

Jane
William Somerset Maugham

1. Word study

artifice – noun [U, C] (formal) the clever use of tricks to deceive sb

audacious – adj. Willing to take risks or to do something shocking

audacity - noun[U] brave but rude or shocking behaviour

conspicuous –adj. Easy to see or notice

-likely to attract attention
OPP: inconspicuous
conspicuous consumption – [U] the buying of expensive goods in order to
boast and show people how rich you are

ostentation – noun[U] an exaggerated display of wealth, knowledge or

skill that is made in order to impress people
ostentatious – adj.

2.Revision
Typical Noun-Forming Derivational Suffixes

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-age - message, massage
-ance / -ence -tolerance, difference
-ard – drunkard
-cy – discrepancy
-cian –politician
-dom – freedom
-er /or –lecturer, animator
-our /-iour / -eur / -eer / -ar -honour, behaviour, amateur, mountaineer,
liar
-ess – actress
-hood – brotherhood
-ism – professionalism
-ist – capitalist
-ity – superiority
-ment – appointment ( y>I after consonant :embodiment )
-ness - fondness ( y > I ) after consonant : happiness, laziness, but
shyness, dryness -silent –e remains :strangeness
-sion (ssion) – decision, admission
-ship –membership
-th – strength
-tion ( -ation, -ition ) –collection, (hesitation, repetition )

3.Spelling:
-ance/-ant
Words which are related to verbs ending in –ate or nouns in –ation take
-ance/-ant: lubricate-lubricant; migrate-migrant; participate-participant;
variation-variant
Common words ending in –ance/ant: abundance, acquaintance,
appearance, constant, contestant, extravagant, grievance, hindrance,
inhabitant, maintenance, nuisance, relevant, vengeance
-ence/-ent
Words in which the second last syllable is –fer-, -isc-/esc-, -sist- usually
have the ending –ence/-ent: conference, difference, preference, adolescent,
fluorescent, reminiscent, consistent, persistent ( but resistance, resistant)
Common words ending in –ence/-ent: apparent, competent, continent,
correspondent, eminent, existence, experience, innocent, intelligent,
experience, negligent, occurrence, permanent, repellent, reverent ,sentence

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A5
DICTATION

He rose and placed his candle unsuspectingly on the floor near his
loom, swept away the sand without noticing any change, and removed the
bricks. The sight of the empty hole made his heart leap violently, but the
belief that his gold was gone could not come at once – only terror, and the
eager effort to put an end to the terror. He passed his trembling hand all
about the hole, trying to think it possible that his eyes had deceived him;
then he held the candle in the hole and examined it curiously, trembling
more and more. At last he shook so violently that he let fall the candle, and
lifted his hands to his head, trying to steady himself, that he might think.
Had he put his gold somewhere else, by a sudden resolution last night, and
then forgotten it? A man falling into dark water seeks a momentary footing
even on sliding stones; and Silas by acting as if he believed in false hopes,
warded off the moment of despair. He searched in every corner, he turned
his bed over, and shook it, and kneaded it; he looked in his brick oven
where he laid his sticks. When there was no other place to be searched, he
kneeled down again and felt once more all round the hole. There was no
untried refuge left once more all round the hole. There was no untried
refuge left for a moment’s shelter from the terrible truth.

Silas Marner
George Eliot

1.Word study
despair – noun, verb \\ despairing adj. \\despairingly adv.

footing – noun [sing.] the position of your feet when they are safely on the
ground or some other surface (She slipped and lost her footing.)
resolution – 1.решение,резолюция

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 2.решителност,твърдост
3.решение
4.развръзка

violent adj.involving or caused by physical force that is intended to hurt or

kill sb / very strong and sudden /extremely bright colour

2. Revision –Adjective Derivational Endings

-ish - boorish, skittish ; bluish, whitish

-ar regular, polar
-al - alphabetical, comical
-ar nuclear, circular
-ful cheerful, careful, spoonful, handful { Spelling: consonant + y
> I (beautiful, merciful ) }
-some awesome, winsome
-y sunny, uncanny ,nosy =nosey
-ic atmospheric, choleric
-able/ible debatable, sensible { Spelling:1.silent –e from –ce and –ge
remains (noticeable, changeable ) before –able 2. silent –e is dropped
before –ible ( responsible ) 3. consonant + y> consonant + I before -able
(deny –deniable ) but ! enjoyable 4. unforgettable }
-ous, -ious various, conscious { Spelling: sometimes these endings
change the vowel of the word –space-spacious, grace-gracious }

-ing amusing, interesting

-ed concerned, disputed

3.Spelling: -able
adaptable reliable
detachable respectable
debatable sizeable
fashionable usable
indispensable unmistakable
indefinable biddable
likeable unforgettable
payable preferable
noticeable justifiable

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A6
DICTATION

Next year we met again at Simpla- she with her monotonous face
and timid attempts at reconciliation, and I with loathing of her in every
fibre of my frame. Several times I could not avoid meeting her alone; and
on each occasion her words were identically the same. Still the
unreasoning wail that it was all a ”mistake”; and still the hope of
eventually “making friends”. I might have seen, had I cared to look, that
that hope only was keeping her alive. She grew more wan and thin month
by month. You will agree with me, at least, that such conduct would have
driven anyone to despair. It was uncalled for; childish; unwomanly. I
maintain that she was much to blame. And again, sometimes, in the black,
fever- stricken night- watches, I have begun to think that I might have been
a little kinder to her. But that really is a “delusion”. I could not have
continued pretending to love her when I didn’t; could I? It would have
been unfair to us both.
Last year we met again- on the same terms as before. The same
weary appeals, and the same curt answers from my lips. At least I would
make her see how wholly wrong and hopeless were her attempts at
resuming the old relationship. As the season wore on, we fell apart- that is
to say, she found it difficult to meet me, for I had other and more absorbing
interests to attend to.

The Phantom Rickshaw

Rudyard Kipling
1.Homophones
might- n. strength, force, power / p.t. of may

mite – n. anything very small; small child

meet- v. come upon, come face to face

meat- n. the flesh of animals used as food
mete n. boundary, limit

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 2.Word study

reconcile- v.[VN] 1.~sth (with sth ) to find a satisfactory way of

dealing with two or more ideas that seem to be opposed to each other
2.[usually passive ] ~sb with sb to make people friends again after an
argument or a disagreement
reconcilable- adj.
reconciliation- n.[sing. U ] ~between A and B ; ~with sb

wail-n./v. a long loud high cry expressing pain or sadness

wan-adj. Looking pale and weak

Adv.-wanly
!WAN – n. [pl.WANs ] the abbreviation for “wide area network “ –
( a system in which computers in different places are connected )
fever-stricken
stricken-adj. In compounds- seriously affected by the thing
mentioned (poverty-stricken, panic-stricken, grief-stricken
be on terms [IDM] to have …relationship with sb
in terms of sth-in the aspect of
fall apart-[PHR V] 1.to be in a very bad condition so that parts are
breaking 2. to have so many problems that it is no longer possible to exist
or function .
fall behind(sb/sth) fail to keep level with sb/sth
fall for sb(inf.) to fall in love with sb
fall in to form lines
fall into sth to be able to be divided into sth
fall through not to be completed or not to happen

3.Revision- English Compounds

In ordinary English spelling, compounds are sometimes spelled as single
words (hovercraft ), sometimes the parts are connected by a hyphen
(ready-made ),and sometimes they are spelled as two words (acid rain ).In
most cases in the compounds the main stress is on the first syllable ; in the
phrases (composed of the same words in the same order ) the main stress is
on the last syllable (`blackbird ;black `bird ).
3.1. Compound nouns `

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 a.N + N ( bath towel, boyfriend, death blow )
b.V + N ( breakfast, pickpocket )
c. N + V (sunshine, nosebleed )
d.V + V (make-believe )
e.Adj. + N (deep structure, fast-food )
f.Particle + N (downtown,in-town )
g.Adv. + Particle (now generation )
h.V + Particle (cop-out,dropout )
i.Phrase compounds:( son-in-law )

3.2. Compound verbs

a.N + V (skydive )
b.Adj. +V (fine-tune )
c.Particle +V (overbook )
d.Adj.+ N ( brownbag )
3.3 Compound adjectives
a.N + Adj. (card-carryng, childproof )
b.V + Adj. (fail-safe )
c.Adj.+Adj. (open-ended )
d.Adv. + Adj. (cross-modal )
e.Particle + Adj. (overqualified )
f.N+N (coffee table )
g.V + N (roll-neck )
h.Adj. + N (red-brick ,blue-collar )
i. Particle + N (in-depth )
j.V + V (go-go, make-believe )
k.Adj./Adv.+V (high-rise )
l.V + Particle (see-through, tow-away )
3.4. Compound adverbs
uptightly
Source: Bauer

4.Memorize the following compounds :

book token, culture shock, computer software, fishing trip, food
poisoning, home town, junk food, junk mail, junk shop, light shop, light
bulb, language barrier, money worries, passenger boat, speed limit, time
limit, time consuming, well off

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air-conditioned, full-time, home-grown, home-coming, home-made, house-
proud, house-plant, house-warming, light-headed, nail-biting,

agoraphobia, bookworm, bookmaker, ballpark, housebound, homesick,

leadfree, moonshine, offhand, psychological, racehorse, seascape,
tablecloth
treadmill, tumbledown, waistline, witchcraft
5.Spelling: - ible

audible negligible
comprehensible permissible
credible reversible
edible sensible
eligible susceptible
feasible visible
gullible legible

A7
DICTATION

There was a great crop of cherries at the farm. The trees at the back of
the house, very large and tall, hung thick with scarlet and crimson drops,
under the dark leaves. Paul and Edgar were gathering the fruit one evening.
It had been a hot day, and clouds were rolling in the sky, dark and warm.
Paul climbed high in the tree, above the scarlet roofs of the buildings. The
wind, moaning steadily, made the whole tree rock with a subtle, thrilling
motion that stirred the blood. The young man, perched insecurely in the
slender branches, rocked till he felt slightly drunk, reached down the
boughs where the scarlet beady cherries hung thick underneath, and tore
off handful after handful of the sleek, cool-fleshed fruit. Cherries touched
his ears and his neck as he stretched forward, their chill finger-tips sending
a flash down his blood. All shades of red, from a golden vermilion to a rich
crimson, glowed and met his eyes under a darkness of leaves.
The sun, going down, suddenly caught the broken clouds. Immense piles
of gold flared out of the south-east, heaped in soft, glowing yellow right up
in the sky. The world, till now dusk and grey, reflected the gold glow,

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astonished. Everywhere the trees, and the grass, and far-off water, seemed
roused from the twilight and shining.
Sons and Lovers
D.H. Lawrence

1.Word study
bough - noun (literary) a large branch of a tree

vermilion – adj. Bright red in colour

perch – 1. verb ~ on sth (of a bird) to land and stay on a branch 2.

~(sb/yourself)(on sth) to sit on sth (especially on the edge of it)
noun – 1. a place where a bird rests(a branch or bar for this purpose) 2. a
high seat or position

rise (rose, risen) used without an object – to move from a lower to a

higher position; to increase in number or quantity

raise – v. used with an object

rouse – verb 1.[VN] ~sb (from sleep, bed) 2. ~ sb/yourself (to sth) to make
sb want to do sth when they were not active or interested in doing it 3. to
make sb feel a particular emotion (formal) also arouse (verb),arousal
(noun)[U] : emotional/sexual arousal

2.Revision – Полу- и Среден in English

half-
half-bath (n. AmE a small room in a house, containing a washbasin
and a toilet )
half-hour (also half an hour ) n. a period of 30 minutes
half mast -n. IDM at half mast (flag flown at the middle of the mast as
a sign of respect for a person who has just died)
half-price -adj. Costing half the usual price
halfway – adv. At an equal distance between two points; in the middle
of a period of time
half-sister –n. a person’s ~ is a girl or a woman who has either the same
mother or father as them – compare STEPSISTER

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halfwit-n. a stupid person /adj.-half-witted

hemi-
hemisphere - n.-one half of the earth, especially the half above or
below the EQUATOR
-either half of the brain
hemispherical - adj.
hemitrope
hemistich

mid- ; middle-
midday-n. [U] 12 o’clock or the period around this time (SYN-noon )
midlife-n.[U] part of your life when you are neither young nor old
(midlife stresses )
midwife n. a person, especially a woman, who is trained to help women
give birth to babies
midsummer n.[U] the middle of summer, especially the period in June
in northern parts of the world ,in December in southern parts

middle-aged adj. 1.neither young nor old 2.rather boring and old-
fashioned
The Middle Ages n. in European history, the period from about AD
1000 to AD 1450
middlebrow adj. (usually disapproving of books ,music ,art >of good
quality but not needing a lot of thought to understand- compare
HIGHBROW,LOWBROW )
middleman n. 1.a person or a company that buys goods from the
manufacturer and sells them to sb else 2. a person who helps to
arrange things between people who don’t want to talk directly to each
other (SYN intermediary, go-between )
middle-of-the-road adj. (of people, policies, etc > not extreme,
acceptable to most people ) eg a middle-of-the-road newspaper

semi-
semi-colon - n. the mark (;)
semi-detached - adj. (BrE) a house joined to another house by a wall
on one side
semi-skimmed - adj. (of milk) that has had a lot of the fat removed
semi-opaque

22
 semi-circle

demi-
demigod – полубог
demilune
demiwolf

A8
DICTATION

He opened the window to its fullest extent. By standing on tiptoe

and turning his head sideways, he could just see his mother hurrying down
the platform towards the mobile canteen. As she reached it and fumbled in
her handbag, a whistle shrilled and doors began to slam along the length of
the train. His mother came away from the canteen at a trot, then stopped
and retraced her steps. Timothy groaned under his breath: she must have
forgotten her change. Now she was running along the platform, holding
outstretched the pie in its cardboard box, like a relay-runner’s baton. He
withdrew his head from the window, and extended his arm in its place.
When she was about ten yards away the train began to move. For a few
seconds the gap remained stable, then began to grow wider. His mother
staggered to a halt, gasping for breath, clutching her side with her free
hand. He waved and smiled, trying to convey that it didn’t matter. But that
was the last view he had of his mother: standing on the platform, gasping
for breath, disappointment lining her face, still holding outstretched, like a
rejected gift, the Lyon’s Individual Fruit Pie.
Out of the Shelter
David Lodge

1.Word study

fumble – verb(at/with/in sth)(for sth) to use your hands in an

awkward way when you are looking for something or doing something
relay – noun [ri:lei] a race between teams in which each member of
the team runs or swims one section of the race (a relay team/squad)
trot – noun,a trotting speed, taking short quick steps
trotter – noun, a pig’s foot, especially when cooked and eaten as
food

23
 2.Revision –The Comparison of Adjectives
• One-syllable adjectives (tall, safe ) usually have the er, est
ending.
• Spelling rules: 1.e>er,est, e.g. nicer, nicest; brave-braver,
bravest, safe-safer, safest 2. y>ier, iest after a consonant, e.g.
lucky-luckier, luckiest
• Words ending in a single vowel + single consonant letter
>double the consonant e.g. thin-thinner, thinnest; sad-sadder,
saddest (w does not change-e.g.new-newer,newest)
• Some two-syllable adjectives have er, est ,some have more,
most 1.Words ending in a consonant + y>er, est e.g. easy-
easier, easiest (also busy, dirty, happy, pretty, silly, tidy )
2.Some words can have both-e.g.narrow-narrower/more
narrow, narrowest/most narrow. 3.Words ending in ful, less,
ing, ed and many others have more, most – careful,
hopeless ,boring, annoyed, afraid, certain, correct, exact,
famous, frequent, modern, nervous, normal, recent.
• With three-syllable adjectives and longer ones we use more,
most e.g. It’s the most exciting team ever.
• Irregular forms: good-better-best; bad-worse-worst; far-
farther/further – farthest/furthest
elder, eldest + noun can be used instead of older, oldest only for
people in the same family. E.g .My elder brother got divorced last
month.
3. Spelling: fore-
forearm, forebear, foreboding, forecast, forecaster, foreclose,
foreclosure, forecourt, forefather, forefinger, forefoot, forefront,
foregone (IDM- foregone conclusion > it is certain to happen),
foreground, forehand

A9 DICTATION

The car rattled very slowly over a long wooden bridge across
a channel of large almost spherical speckled stones. A little trickle of water,
the colour of brown sherry, forced an eratic way among the stones
and spread out on the seaward side into a shallow rippled expanse bordered
with tangles of glistening yellow seaweed. A few white-washed one-room
cottages huddled in disorderly group near to the road. Marian noticed that

24
some of them were roofless. No people were to be seen. Below and
beyond, framed on each side by the perpendicular black cliffs, whose great
height was now apparent, was the sea, total gold. The house, Riders , had
come into view again behind them. The car began to climb the other side
of the valley. Marian was suddenly overcome by a crippling panic.
She was very frightened at the idea of arriving. But it was more than that.
She feared the rocks and the cliffs and the grotesque dolmen and the
ancient secret things. Her two companions seemed no longer reassuring but
dreadfully alien and even sinister. She felt for the first time in her life,
completely isolated and in danger. She became in an instant almost faint
with terror.
The Unicorn
Iris Murdock

1.Word study

dolmen – noun,a pair or group of upright stones with a large flat

stone on top, to mark in ancient times where sb was buried
ripple – verb, to move or to make something move in ery small
waves ^rippling muscles^
trickle – noun, a small amount or number of sth, coming or going
slowly(a steady trickle of tourists)
2.Silent letters
• Silent b in -bt-(doubt, debt, debtor, subtle )
• Silent b in -mb- (comb, climb, bomb, lamb, limb, crumb,
dumb, numb )
• Silent k and g before n in initial position (know, knife, knee,
kneel, knit, knead, knock, knob, knot, gnaw, gnu, gnome )

• Silent g before –n-,-m- in middle position (reign, resign,

design, campaign, sovereign, sign, benign,

• ght = t (brought, bright, daughter, fought, taught, thought,

sight, night, knight, tight, right, weight )

• gh in final position (sigh, bough, high ,thigh )

25
3. Spelling: -ance/-ant | -ence/-ent
Words which are related to verbs ending in –ate or nouns in –ation take
-ance/-ant: lubricate-lubricant; migrate-migrant; participate-participant;
variation-variant
Common words ending in:
–ance/ant: abundance, acquaintance, appearance, constant, contestant,
extravagant, grievance,hindrance, inhabiant, maintenance, nuisance,
relevant, vengeance
Words in which the second last syllable is –fer-, -isc-/esc-, -sist- usually
have the ending –ence/-ent: conference, difference, preference, adolescent,
fluorescent, reminiscent, consistent, persistent ( but resistance, resistant)
Common words ending in:
-ence/-ent: apparent, competent, continent, correspondent, eminent,
existence, experience, innocent, intelligent, experience, negligent,
occurrence, permanent, repellent, reverent ,sentence

A10 DICTATION

Beyond what one thinks of the Kennedys themselves, there remains

the large question: What sort of men ought we to be governed by in the
coming years? With the high cost of politics and image-making, it is plain
that only the very wealthy can afford the top prizes. And among the rich,
only those who are able to please the people on television are Presidential.
With the decline of religions, the moral sense has become confused, to say
the least, and intellectual or political commitments that go beyond the
merely expedient are regarded with cheerful contempt not only by the great
operators themselves but also by their admirers, and, perhaps, by the
electorate itself. Also, to be fair, politicians working within a system like
ours can never be much more than what the system will allow.
Hypocrisy and self-deception are the traditional characteristics of the
middle class in any place and time, and the United States today is the

26
paradigmatic middle class society. Therefore we can hardly blame our
political gamesmen for being, literally, representative. Any public man has
every right to try and trick us, not only for his own good but, if he is
honorable for ours as well. However, if he himself is not aware of what he
is doing or to what end he is playing the game, then to entrust him with the
first magistracy of what may be the last empire on earth is to endanger us
all.
The Holy Family
Gore Vidal

1.Word study

expedient – adj.(of an action)useful or necessary for a particular

purpose, but not always fair or right expediency(noun,U)
magistracy – noun[sing.+sing./pl.verb)
paradigmatic – adj.being a typical example or pattern of sth
- belonging to the set of all the different forms of a
word
? small or little
small- is opposite of big and large .It can be used in the comparative and
superlative with adverbs such as rather, quite, fairly, pretty. (The kitchen is
rather small ).Small + number, group, children, business, house.
Little- shows how you feel about a person or a thing. It is only used before
a noun and is rarely used in the comparative and superlative; also used
with proper names.

2.Revision – Silent letters

• h is silent at the beginning of some words (honour, heir, hour, );also
in ( rhyme, rhythm, exhaust, exhibit, which, what )
• silent -l- (balm, calm, calf, folk, half, talk, walk, salmon, should
,would ,could ,colonel )
• silent –s- (isle, island, aisle )
• silent –t- (bustle, bristle, castle, christen, chestnut, fasten, hasten,
often, soften, wrestle )

27
 • silent –n- in –mn at the end (autumn, column /but columnist/,
condemn, damn, solemn ,solemnly /but solemnity/ )
• silent –w- (who, whom, wrong, write, wrist, wring, wrap, wry,
wrestle, wreck, answer, sword )

A11 DICTATION

I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever
felt so in my life, and I knew I could pray now. But I didn’t do it straight
off, but laid the paper down and sat there thinking – thinking how good it
was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to
hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the
river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time,
sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we floating along, talking
and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places
to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I’d see him standing my
watch instead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how
glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him
again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and
would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think
of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I
saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so
grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and
the only one he’s got now; and then I happened to look around and see that
paper.
It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-
trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, between two things, and I
knew it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then said to
myself:
“All right, then, I’ll go to hell” – and tore it up.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

1. Word study

28
feud – noun- ~(between X and Y ); ~ (with sb ) ; ~ (over sb/sth ) a bitter
argument that continuous over a long period of time (family feud –within
the family or between two families
-verb- ~ (with sb )
feuding- noun [U] (bitter feuding between rivals )

swamp- noun [C,U ] an area of ground that is very wet or covered with
water and in which plants are growing (tropical swamps )
swampy- adj.

? ground, land, soil, earth ?

ground – the surface of the earth that is not the sea or the sky ( 1000 feet
above the ground
-the hard surface you walk on outside
-an area of soil >(fertile/soft ground )
land – surface of earth; area used for a particular purpose (also lands )
property>fertile land, arid~, stony ~, flat ~, agricultural ~, waste ~, 700
acres of land ; countryside, region, country (native land, foreign lands ) no-
man’s-land

earth-our planet, trees and plants grow in earth ( BrE )

soil- what you put your plants and seeds in (also compost )

2.Revision of the ING –form

• We normally leave out e when we add ing to a verb >come-

coming; drive-driving. But double e remains >see-seeing.
• When a verb ends in ie it changes to y > lie-lying; die-dying.
• Y does not change > study-studying; hurry-hurrying.
• The final consonant doubles when a one-syllable verb ends with one
vowel and one consonant >run – running, win – winning.
• The latter rule is also true for words of more than one syllable but
only if the last one is stressed > permit – permitting, prefer –
preferring.

29
 • In British English l is usually doubled >label – labelling, travel –
travelling.

A12 DICTATION

The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it ‘the Riddle House’,

even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived
there. It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows
boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its
face. Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest
building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict and
unoccupied.
The Little Hangletons all agreed that the old house was ‘creepy’.
Half a century ago, something strange and horrible had happened there,
something that the older inhabitants of the village still liked to discuss
when topics for gossip were scarce. The story had been picked over so
many times, and had been embroidered in so many places, that nobody was
quite sure what the truth was any more. Every version of the tale, however,
started in the same place: fifty years before, at daybreak on a fine
summer’s morning, when the Riddle House had still been well kept and
impressive, and a maid had entered the drawing room to find all three
Riddles dead.
The maid had run screaming down the hill into the village, and
roused as many people as she could.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Joanne K. Rowling
1.Word study
derelict –adj. (esp. of land and buildings ) not used or cared for and
in bad condition .
-noun (formal ) a person without a home , a job or property
SYN- vagrant

creepy – adj. 1.causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or slight horror

-2. strange in a way that makes you feel nervous.

30
 rouse – verb 1.to wake sb up, especially when they are sleeping
deeply 2.[VN] to make sb feel a particular emotion (to rouse sb’s anger,
fear, curiosity )

2.Revision-Negative Prefixes

dis- disapprove, disbelieve, disappoint, disconnect,

dissatisfy, dissolve, dislike, dishonest
il -(+l) illegal, illogical, illegitimate, illiberal
im (+m/p ) impossible, impersonal, improper, impatient,
immoral, immoderate

in- invisible, incessant, innumerable, inaccurate,

inappropriate, inadequate, injustice
ir (+r) irregular, irresistible, irrelevant, irresolute
non- non-stop, nonsense, non-citizen, non-essential,
non-flammable, non-resident, non-standard, non-violent
un- uncertain, uneasy, unknown, undo, unlike,
unnecessary, unnatural, unable, unfamiliar
3. Fill in with dis-, il-, im-, ir-, in- :
…..able, …..obey, …..approve, …..agree, …..content, …..loyal, …..
mobile, …..proper, …..movable, …..regular, …..replaceable, …..polite,
…..rational, …..probable, …..responsible, …..mortal, …..decent, …..
definite, …..decisive,…..describable, …..discretion, …legible, …..liberal,
…..rational, …..remediable, …..relevant, …..respect

A13 DICTATION

In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to
hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain
hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough
to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray
him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not
a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others
to command.
‘And anyway all these notions are only a trick,’ he said to himself.
‘He’d spot me and cow me, before I could so much as shout out. He’d spot
me, pretty quick, if I put the Ring on now, in Mordor. Well, all I can say is:
things look as hopeless as a frost in spring. Just when being invisible

31
would be really useful, I can’t use the Ring! And if I get any further, it’s
going to be nothing but a drag and a burden every step. So what’s to be
done?’
He was not really in any doubt. He knew that he must go down to
the gate and not linger any more. With a shrug of his shoulders, as if to
shake off a shadow and dismiss the phantoms, he began slowly to descend.
With each step he seemed to diminish. He had not gone far before he had
shrunk again to a very small and frightened hobbit. He was now passing
under the very walls of the Tower, and the cries and sounds of fighting
could be heard with his unaided ears. At the moment the noise seemed to
be coming from the court behind the outer wall.

The Return of the King

J. R. R. Tolkien

1.Word study

betray-verb [VN] ~ sb/sth (to sb ) 1.to give information about sb/sth to an

enemy 2. to hurt sb who trusts you ,by not being loyal or faithful to them
betrayal –noun [U,C] (the many disappointments and betrayals in her life)

burden- noun , the ~(of sth),a ~ on/to sb a duty, responsibility, etc.

that causes worry or hard work (to bear, carry, ease, reduce the burden )
linger- verb [V] ~ (on ) to continue to exist longer than expected ; to stay
alive but become weaker
shrink – shrank ,shrunk – shrunk verb 1.to become smaller ,especially
when washed in water that is ts too hot
2.to become or to make sth smaller in size or amount
noun-(slang ) a psychiatrist or psychologist

2.Revision-Some common prefixes

inter (=between ) intercity (adj.), interlink (v.), intermediate, intersect

mis (=wrongly ) misbehave, miscarriage, misconduct, mislay,
misunderstand ,misuse,
multi (=many ) multicoloured, multicultural, multilingual, multinational
poly (=many ) polyglot, polygraph(=lie detector), polytechnic
over (=too much) overbook, overcharge, overdue, overestimate,overkill

32
post (=after ) post-war, postgraduate, posthumous, postscript
pre (=before ) precede, preconception, predict, preheat, preliminary
re (= again )reunion, reassign, reclaim, redraft, refund
under (= too little ) underpaid, underprivileged, understaffed

A14 DICTATION

We always had the same meal on Saturday nights at Pencey. It was

supposed to be a big deal, because they gave you steak. I’ll bet a thousand
bucks to reason they did that was because a lot of guys’ parents came up to
school on Sunday, and old Thurmer probably figured everybody’s mother
would ask their darling boy what he had for dinner last night, and he’d say,
“Steak.” What a racket. You should’ve seen the steaks. They were these
little heard, dry jobs that you could hardly even cut. You always got these
very lumpy mashed potatoes on steak night, and for dessert you got Brown
Betty, Which nobody ate, except maybe the little kids in the lower school
that didn’t know any better – and guys like Ackley that ate everything.
It was nice, though, when we got out of the dining room. There were
about three inches of snow on the ground, and it was still coming down
like a madman. It looked pretty as hell, and we all started throwing
snowballs and horsing around all over the place. It was very childish, but
everybody was really enjoying themselves. I didn’t have a date or
anything, so I and this friend of mine, Mal Brossard, that was on the
wrestling team, decided we’d take a bus into Agerstown and have a
hamburger and maybe see a lousy movie.

The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger

1.Word study

buck- noun [C]1. (informal, especially AmE ) a US or an Australian

dollar 2. a male deer, hare or rabbit
-PHR V- BUCK UP =cheer up
lousy- adj.1.( informal ) very bad SYN awful 2. [only before noun ]
(informal) used to show that you feel annoyed or insulted because you do

33
not think that sth is worth very much : My daughter went to London and all
she bought me was that lousy T-shirt. racket- noun
1.[sing.]a loud unpleasant noise 2.[C] a dishonest or illegal way of getting
money 3. (also racquet ) a piece of sports equipment in tennis, squash,
badminton.

2.Learn the spelling of some words with the prefixes DE- ,DI- :

defy(v.), defiance(n.), defiant(adj.),degree, dejected, delay,

deliberate, deliver, delude, demand ,delicious, demarcation, demeanour,
denote, department, depend, depress, deprived, description, destroy,
destruction, destructive, detest, develop, devotion, devotee, device, devout

diaphragm, divert, diverge, divide, division, divorce, divine, diverse

diversity, dilute, dimension, diminish, disheveled

A15 DICTATION

There was something so awful in the priest’s controlled anger that a

hush came for a moment over the crowd. Attar, with a worried expression,
had actually began to perform his task of distributing these paltry wages
before he was brushed aside, while there arose a wild loud long wail,
followed by another, deep horrible savage noise – the voice of their
loathing of the infidel Christian, the voice of Jahad or Holy War. One or
two advanced to the priest with extended palms showing the little
crumpled cheap bank notes which they had received in the place of
expected millions. But Father Macdonnel raised his hand for silence, and
through Attar spoke to them. They listened appalled at what he said.
If they thought they were merchants, he began, they were mistaken.
They were looters. Their names had all been taken. It was not customary to
reward looters but to punish them. Did they know what the punishment for
looting was? It was – death. (He suspected, rightly, that Attar would not
like to translate this, so he said it three times, and added some gestures.)
Strictly, he went on, they were all under sentence. If there was one more
word of complaint their names, all of them, would be given to the Military
Police and there would be mass execution. He had no more to say. The

34
choice was theirs. He had spoken. A minute later dust rose high into the air.
Without waiting for their money, with the rapid patter of the feet of fear,
they rushed off to their houses and hid in them for the rest of the day and
most of the next. Attar was worried.

The Sacred and the Profane

Christopher Sykes

1.Word study

infidel – noun (old use) an offensive way of referring to sb who does not
believe in what the speaker considers to be the true religion

loot – verb, to steal things from shops or buildings after a riot, fire, etc.
-noun[U]money and valuables taken by soldiers from the enemyafter
winning a battle
looter (n), looting (n)

paltry – adj. Too small to be considered important or useful

- having no value or useful qualities

2.Revision – Spelling of plurals

• Most nouns add – s in the plural (sprouts, stars, sunsets )

• The silent –e remains ( prince-princes, plate-plates, house-
houses )
• If the noun ends in – s /-ss / -sh / -(t)ch, /-x / add -es (bus-
buses, kiss-kisses ,wish-wishes, watch-watches , fax-faxes )
• If the noun ends in a consonant + y, y changes to –ies (poppy-
poppies, diary-diaries, story-stories )
• But if the noun ends in a vowel + y, -y does not change
(days, toys, keys )
• Irregular plurals (child – children, man – men, woman –
women, mouse – mice, foot – feet, tooth – teeth, goose –

35
 geese, louse – lice, ox – oxen, penny – pence /pennies for
individual coins / )
The final –f / -fe changes in a limited number of nouns
wife – wives loaf – loaves
wolf – wolves life – lives
knife – knives self – selves
calf – calves shelf – shelves
leaf – leaves thief – thieves
sheaf – sheaves half – halves
! Some nouns add -s or -ves in the plural: scarfs/scarves, hoof/hooves

A16 DICTATION

I suppose I had slept for about four hours, when I woke suddenly
thinking I heard a noise in the garden. And, immediately, before my eyes
were open, cold terrible fear seized me – not fear of some thing that was
happening, like the fear in the wood, but fear of something that might
happen.
Our room was on the first floor, looking out on to the garden – or
terrace, it was rather a wedge-shaped block of ground covered with roses
and vines, and intersected with little asphalt paths. It was bounded on the
small side by the house; round the two long sides ran a wall, only three feet
above the terrace level, but with a good twenty-feet drop over it into the
olive yards, for the ground fell very precipitously away.
Trembling all over, I stole to the window. There, pattering up and
down the asphalt paths, was something white. I was too much alarmed to
see clearly; and in the uncertain light of the stars the thing took all manner
of curious shapes. Now it was a great dog, now an enormous white bat,
now a mass of quickly travelling cloud. It would bounce like a ball, or take
short flights like a bird, or glide slowly like a wraith. It gave no sound –
save the pattering sound of what, after all, must be human feet. And at last
the obvious explanation forced itself upon my disordered mind; and I
realized that Eustace had got out of bed, and that we were in for something
more.

The Story of a Panic

E. M. Forster

36
1.Word study

save – verb, noun, preposition, conjunction

-prep.(also save for ) (old use or formal ) =except something (I knew
nothing about him save his name )
-conjunction (old use or formal )= except ( Nothing else was found
save that she had borne a child .)
seize – verb [VN] 1.~ sth (from sb ) to take sb/sth in your hand suddenly
and using force 2. ~ a chance, an opportunity, the initiative
seizure-noun [U,C ]- Collocations: ADJ.> biggest, drugs, land,
heroin, etc. V. seizure + make ; PHRASE :search and seizure ( The
Act confers powers of entry, search and seizure on the police
wraith –noun ,the ghost of a person that is seen a short time before or after
that person dies.

2.Personal-masculine/feminine-nouns
emperor
bachelor empress
spinster
god
gentleman goddess
lady
hero
king heroine
queen
host
monk hostess
nun
waiter
uncle waitress
aunt
widower
bridegroom widow
bride
headmaster
duke headmistress
duchess

37
A17 DICTATION

He drew his fingers over his eyes, trying to find out where he was.
Then he turned away. He saw the horse standing in the path. He went up to
it and mounted. It hurt him to sit in the saddle. The pain of keeping his seat
occupied him as they cantered through the wood. He would not have
minded anything, but he could not get away from the sense of being
divided from the others. The path led out of the trees. On the edge of the
wood he pulled up and stood watching. There in the spacious sunshine of
the valley soldiers were moving in a little swarm. Every now and then, a
man harrowing on a strip of fallow shouted to his oxen, at the turn. The
village and the white-towered church was small in the sunshine. And he no
longer belonged to it – he sat there, beyond, like a man outside in the dark.
He had gone out from everyday life into the unknown and he could not, he
even did not want to go back.
Turning from the sun-glazing valley, he rode deep into the wood.
Tree-trunks, like people standing grey and still, took notice as he went. A
doe, herself a moving bit of sunshine and shadow, went running through
the flecked shade. There were bright green rents in the foliage. Then it was
all pine wood, dark and cool.

The Prussian Officer

D. H. Lawrence

1. Word study
canter- verb (of a horse or a rider ) to move or make a horse move at
a fairly fast speed
fallow- угар
fleck –verb [VN]~ sth (with sth ) to cover or mark sth with small
areas of a particular colour or with small pieces of sth ( Her hair was
flecked with paint )

38
 harrow –verb to break up the earth that has been ploughed before
planting
harrowing – adj. shocking or frightening and making you feel upset
(~experience )

2.Revision-Gender (Higher animals )

masculine animal feminine animal

buck doe
bull cow
cock hen
dog bitch
gander goose
lion lioness
stallion mare
tiger tigress

2. Spelling – the suffix –OUS

-ous -ious -eous -uous

venomous conscious homogeneous continuous
monotonous impious piteous spirituous
monstrous conscientious advantageous ambiguous
famous precarious gorgeous strenuous
miraculous fastidious spontaneous superfluous

39
A18
DICTATION

When the door had closed behind him the widow looked at the
money on the table. She picked up the notes and fingered them, the thought
tumbling over in her mind, before going to the dresser and taking her purse
from the drawer. She examined its contents and then put it away again,
closing the drawer, and went quietly upstairs to her room.
She took a chair and stood on it to reach into the cupboard over the
built-in wardrobe for the shoe-box in which she kept all her and Christie’s
savings. She knew almost at once by its lightness that it was empty, but she
removed the lid just the same. Her heart hammered and she swayed on the
chair. Nearly a hundred pounds had been in the box, and it was gone. All
the money they had in the world.
She put the box back in he cupboard and stepped down, replacing
the chair by the bed. She put her hand to her brow and thought furiously,
pointlessly. Christie was quiet in his room. She went out and stood for a
few moments outside his door. Then she went downstairs and felt in every
pocket of the wet clothing on the hearth. Nothing. She sank into a chair
and put her head in her hands and began to sob silently.

The Search for Tommy Flynn

Stan Barstow

1.Word study
hearth-noun 1.the floor at the bottom of the fireplace (= the space
for a fire in the wall of a room; the area in front of this 2. (literary ) home
and family life

2.Vocabulary building
2.1different ways of touching things

-touch, feel, finger, handle, rub, stroke, pat, tap, squeeze, hold,

-taking something quickly – grab, snatch,

-holding things tightly – clasp, clutch, grasp, grip
2.2 words for “cry”
• Cry –the most general word for producing tears when you
are unhappy or hurt, or when you are extremely happy.

40
• Blubber – (informal) to cry noisily, especially in an
annoying way.
• Sob – to cry noisily, taking sudden, sharp breaths.
• Wail – to cry in a loud, high voice.
• Weep – to cry quietly and for a long time
• Whimper – to cry making low, weak noises.

41
 Be in tears ; burst into tears ; cry your eyes out

3.Revision – the possessive/genitive case

• ‘S is used with singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in

S: a man’s job, men’s work
a woman’s intuition, women’s clothes
a child’s voice, the children’s room
• A simple apostrophe (‘) is used with plural nouns ending in s
the eagles’ nest, the girls’ bedroom, the Browns’ car

• Classical names ending in S usually add only the apostrophe:

Sophocles’ plays
• With compounds or names consisting of several words, the
last word takes the ‘S: my sister-in-law’s house Henry the
Eight’s wives
• The possessive case can also be used of ships and boats (also
possible of planes, trains and other vehicles): the yacht’s mast,
the train’s heating system
• In time expressions: a week’s holiday, in three years’ time, two
hours’ delay, ten minutes’ break (= a ten-minute break)
• In expressions of money + worth :$1’s worth of stamps
• With for + noun + sake: for art’s sake, for heaven’s sake
• Certain nouns can be used in the possessive case without the
second noun (shop): the baker’s, the butcher’s, the chemist’s
Sotheby’s (also without apostrophe Harrods
• Winter and summer can be made possessive but not spring
and autumn (a winter’s day=a winter day; a summer’s
morning = a summer morning)
• Of + noun is used for possession: 1. when the possessor noun
is followed by a phrase or clause: I took the advice of a couple
I met on the train and continued my journey. 2. with
inanimate possessors: (the roof of the house, the keys of the
car)It is often possible the second noun to be used
attributively (the house roof, the car keys)

3. Add –ation to form nouns. Make changes if necessary:

42
 adapt fascinate
pronounce imitate
invite accommodate
determine concentrate
imagine motivate
starve occupy
inspire separate
explore found
appreciate recreate
exaggerate communicate
admire centralize
associate explain

A19 DICTATION

Hearing them he thought of how he had wandered about the lawns

and gardens trying to find courage enough to go into the house again in the
hope of seeing a second time the girl who had been reading to the old man.
He could not forget the melancholy intensity of her face. But when finally
he had hurried along the terrace the door had been locked.
He walked along by the lake. The grass was spongy and noiseless to
walk on, the air very still and warm under the shelter of the rhododendrons,
and pigeons made a soft complaint in the silence.
Abruptly he was aware of something moving on the opposite bank.
He half stopped and looked. It seemed like a group of yellow irises
fluttered by a little deliberate wind. Then he saw that it was someone in a
yellow dress. The sleeve was waving. He stopped quite still. The sleeve
seemed to be making signals for him to go on.
He began to walk slowly along the bank and the woman on the
opposite bank began to walk along in the same direction, hurrying. At the
end of the lake, where the water sluiced in, was a wooden bridge. The
woman began to run as she approached him. Her dress was very long and
hampered her movements and she paused on the bridge to straighten her
skirt and then hurried on again to meet him.

Woman Who Had Imagination

43
 H. E. Bates

1.Word study
abruptly – adv .suddenly and unexpectedly, often in an unpleasant
way ( abrupt – verb, abruptness – noun)
deliberate – [dilibэrэt] adj. Done by purpose rather than by
accident | verb – [dilibэreit] to think very carefully about sth,
usually before making a decision
sluice – [slu:s] verb to wash sth with a stream of water; (of water)
to flow somewhere in large quantities

2.alone,lone, lonely

alone, on my own, by myself – less formal, describe a person or thing that

is separate from the others. They do not mean that the person is
unhappy.(She did the homework on her own.(=without anybody’s help)

lone, solitary, single – there is only one person or thing there.

Lonely (AmE-also lonesome) –alone and sad (Are you lonesome tonight?)

3.Some plural invariable nouns

binoculars, glasses, spectacles, braces, flannels, knickers, pyjamas,
pajamas(AmE), tights, trousers,
arms (weapons),contents, fireworks, goods, greens, guts, heads(heads or
tails?), holidays, lodgings, looks, manners, means, spirits, valuables, wits
4.Some singular invariable nouns
love, gold, silver, music, homework, bread, beer, lamb(meat), cheese,
news, measles, rickets, linguistics, athletics, billiards, draughts (BrE )

5.Put in –t-, -ss-, -s- to form nouns ending in –tion, -ssion, -sion:

admi…ion, emo…ion, ero…ion, expan…ion, divi….ion, dimen…ion,

discu…ion, deci…ion, excur…ion, emi…ion, cau…ion, confe…ion,
confu…ion, transcrip…ion, impre…ion, occca…ion, proce…ion, except…
ion, permi…ion, por…ion, pollu…ion, preten…ion, provi…ion

44
A20
DICTATION

But the thing that really disappears overnight is your youth. I tried to
artificially recreate mine, but it hasn’t really worked. As soon as you
become responsible for someone very, very young, it suddenly makes you
feel very, very old. For one thing you are exhausted, both physically and
emotionally, and if you have any time to still do any of the things you did
as a young man, you will find yourself struggling to tackle them with the
weary foreboding of an overwhelmed pensioner. By the time the children
start to be less physically demanding you’ve aged ten years in the space of
two or three, so it’s too late to get it back anyway. You will look in the
mirror at the greying hair and sagging face and you will think, Where the
bloody hell did he come from? But you don’t just look old and feel old in
your bones, you think old. You fuss and you worry about your children, but
you don’t realize or care that you’re walking down the street with odd
socks and your hair sticking up. You become fretful and sensible and
organized, and if you ever do anything carefree and spontaneous together
it’s because two weeks ago you set aside an hour to do something carefree
and spontaneous together. The day that baby comes out it’s over. Your
independence, your youth, your pride – everything that made you what you
were. You have to start again from scratch.

The Best a Man Can Get

John O’Farrel

1. Word study
foreboding- noun [U,C] a strong feeling that sth unpleasant is going to
happen
Adj. (a foreboding feeling that something was wrong )
overwhelm- verb [VN] 1. To have such a strong emotional effect on sth
that it is difficult to resist or know how to react ( She was overwhelmed by
feelings of guilt )
overwhelming - adj.( Collocations –verbs :be, seem | become )
overwhelmingly – adv.
saggy/sagging adj. (informal ) no longer firm; hanging or sinking down in
way that is not attractive
IDM from scratch –without any previous preparations or knowledge ( He
decided to dismantle the machine and start again from scratch )
2. Singular invariable nouns

45
 • Concrete mass nouns -gold, silver, armour (a piece, a suit of armour
) , bacon, bread,furniture, (a piece of~, an article of ~ ),grass ( a
bit,blade of ~ ),rice,sugar
• !Some can also be count – cake, chalk, chocolate, ice, land, lamb,
chicken, beer, coffee ,paper
• Abstract mass nouns ( no plural with a few exceptions with change
of meaning)
Homework, music, abuse ( =misuse ),advice, business (C =shop ),
information, work (C = product ), evidence, fever (C also ), research, youth
(C also )
Invariable nouns ending in -s ( take singular verb ) -news, measles,
rickets, linguistics, mathematics, politics, billiards, darts, draughts (BrE)

2. Memorize the nouns ending in –th:

broad breadth
heal health
long length
strong strength
true truth
wide width
But: height, weight

A21 DICTATION

His wife had been through with him before but it never lasted. He
was very wealthy, and would be much wealthier, and he knew she would
not leave him ever now. That was one of the few things that he really knew.
He knew about that, about motor-cycles – that was earliest – about motor-
cars, about duck-shooting, about fishing, trout salmon and big sea, about
sex in books, many books, too many books, about all court games, about
dogs, not much about horses, about hanging on to his money, about most
of the other things his world dealt in, and about his wife not leaving him.
His wife had been a great beauty and she was still a great beauty in Africa,
but she was not a great enough beauty any more at home to be able to
leave him and better herself and she knew it. If he had been better with
women she would probably have started to worry about him either. Also,

46
he had always had a great tolerance which seemed the nicest thing about
him if it were not the most sinister.
All in all they were known as a comparatively happily married couple, one
of those whose disruption is often rumoured but never occurs. They had a
sound basis of union. Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce
her and Macomber had too much money for Margot ever to leave him.

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

Ernest Hemingway

1.Word study
afraid adj. – Collocations –VERBS- be, feel, look, seem | become, grow |
make sb ADV. –deeply, desperately, extremely, horribly, mortally, really,
terribly, very | almost ( She was almost afraid to open the letter ) ;a bit,
half, a little, rather, slightly ; just, simply ; genuinely, suddenly, physically
PREP.-for, of PHRASE – nothing to be afraid of

occur – verb(-rr-) 1.to happen (used in formal situations) 2. ~ + adv./prep.

To exist 3. occur to sb – an idea or thought comes into sb’s mind; ~(+
that); (+ to inf)
occurrence – noun [C,U]

sinister – adj. Evil or dangerous; making you feel that something bad will
happen

2.Plural of nouns ending in –o (-os and –oes )

After a vowel, in proper names, in short abbreviations the spelling is

usually –os (studios, zoos, Romeos, Eskimos, kilos, photos, pros
(professional )
Noun -os -oes

Concerto concertos
Tango tangos
Tobacco tobaccos
Buffalo buffalos buffaloes
Cargo cargos cargoes

47
Motto (mottos ) mottoes
Volcano volcanos volcanoes
Echo echoes
Embargo embargoes
Hero heroes
Negro Negroes
Potato potatoes
Tomato tomatoes
Veto vetoes

A22 DICTATION

All my life I have lived among his brothers but this one has been my
friend. Besides, if I wrote about his brothers I should have to begin by
attacking all the lies that the poor have told about rich and the rich have
told about themselves – such a wild structure they have erected that when
we pick up a book about the rich, some instinct prepares us for unreality.
Even the intelligent and impassioned reporters of life have made the
country of the rich as unreal as fairy-land.
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and
me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes
them soft where we are hard, and cynical were we are trustful, in a way
that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They
think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had
to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when
they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they
are better than we are. They are different. The only way I can describe
young Anson Hunter is to approach him as if he were a foreigner and cling
stubbornly to my point of view. If I accept his for a moment I am lost – I
have nothing to show but a preposterous movie.

The Rich Boy

F. Scott Fitzgerald

1.Word study
refuge –noun [U,C] 1.[C] a place,person or thing that provides shelter and
protection 2.a building that provides temporary shelter 3.(BrE) = traffic

48
island > an area in the middle of the road where you can stand and wait for
cars to pass until it is safe for you to cross
refugee noun (political /economic refugees ); a refugee camp

preposterous –adj. (formal )1.completely unreasonable, in a way that

shocking or annoying 2.unusual in a silly or shocking way SYN
outrageous

cling verb (cling-clung-clung ) 1.hold tightly 2.stay close PHR V –cling

(on) to sth Collocations – still | rigidly, stubbornly, tenaciously |
desperately, fiercely

3. Foreign plurals
3.1 Latin
bonus – bonuses; campus – campuses; genius – geniuses; minus – minuses;
cactus – cactuses – cacti; syllabus – syllabuses – syllabi;

area – areas; sofa – sofas; umbrella – umbrellas; villa – villas

formula – formulas – formulae; alga – algae;

medium – mediums – media; erratum – errata; apex – apexes – apices;

appendix – appendixes (anatomical ) – appendices ( in books )

2.2Greek
metropolis – metropolises; analysis – analyses; axis – axes, basis – bases,
crisis – crises, diagnosis – diagnoses, hypothesis – hypotheses, oasis –
oases, synopsis – synopses, thesis – theses

criterion – criteria, phenomenon – phenomena, demon - demons

A23 DICTATION
I found Goering lying face downward on his bunk. I turned him over
to find he was already dead. In the commotion that immediately followed I
quite forgot Goering’s letter. An autopsy a few days later showed that he
had died from poisoning; the court came to the conclusion that the cyanide
capsule that had been found in his body must have been implanted in one
of his cigars.

49
 As I had been the last to see him alone, it took only a few whispers
before my name was linked with his death. There was, of course, no truth
in the accusation, indeed I never doubted for one moment that the court
had delivered the correct verdict in his case and that he justly deserved to
be hanged for the part he had played in the war.
So stung was I by the continual behind-the-back accusations that I
might have helped Georing to an easy death by smuggling in the cigars that
I felt the only thing to do in the circumstances was to resign my
commission immediately for fear of bringing further dishonor to the
regiment. When I returned to England later that year and finally decided to
throw out my old uniform I came across the envelope again. When I
explained to your mother the details of the incident she begged me to
destroy the envelope, as she considered it had brought enough dishonour to
our family already, and even if it did point to whoever had been
responsible for helping Georing to his suicide, in her opinion such
knowledge could no longer do anyone any good.

A Matter of Honour
Jeffrey Archer

1.Word study
anticipation noun 1.the fact of seeing that sth might happen and perhaps
doing sth about it 2.a feeling of excitement about sth (good ) that is going
to happen. Collocations: verb – be full of ~ ; prep.- in ~ of ; phrases – a
feeling / sense of ~ , a shiver / thrill of ~ .
anticipate (verb); anticipatory (adj)

sight, eyesight, view

sight –a general word for the ability that people have to see(to lose
your sight);- act of seeing (Some people faint at the sight of blood );
-how far you can see (in sight, out of sight ); what you can see ( He was
a sorry sight, soaked to the skin.); interesting places (pl.);
eyesight – how well sb is able to see (also sight ); a sight/an eyesight
test
view – the whole area you can see from a particular place

2.Spelling -IE /EI

I before E except after C

50
Believe, die, lie, relieve
Receive, perceive, deceive

(Some exceptions to the rule: beige, counterfreit, deign, eight, either, feint,
foreign, freight, height, heifer, heir, leisure, neighbour, neither, reign, rein,
seize, sleigh, sleight, their, veil, vein, weight, weird )

A24 DICTATION

Discipline can be best achieved when we have learned not to

confuse it with ideas of reward and punishment. Reward and punishment
are two sides of the same coin. There is no middle way between them.
Children enjoy discipline, and may even crave it when it is lacking, but
reward and punishment do not provide it. Reward is “You are acceptable if
you behave this way” (and implies “You are not acceptable if you do not”).
Reward also suggests, “I do not think that you are able to take pleasure in
what you achieve, therefore I will make pleasure for you by what I can
give.” This is a robbery of the child’s sense of accomplishment. The adult
is grabbing the credit for accomplishment for himself and elevating
himself by being the one who give rewards. When you reward a child he
learns to do things for the rewards instead of doing things because they are
helpful. Additional damage is done when the child begins to expect that
someone should reward him, and he may refuse to perform when rewards
are not forthcoming.
Punishment says “There is something wrong with you.” When you
punish a child you discourage him and develop resistance in him. Inflicting
pain invites bitterness and a desire for retaliation. It does not stimulate
cooperation.

Winning Children Over

Francis X. Walton,
Robert L. Powers

1.Word study
crave-verb (written ) to have a very strong desire for sth

51
craving- noun ~ for sth | ~ to do sth ( a desperate craving to be loved )
imply - verb 1.to suggest that sth is true or that you feel or think sth,
without saying so directly 2.to make it seem likely that sth is true or exists
imply or infer ? > If a speaker or writer implies something, they suggest it
without saying it directly. When you infer something, you come to the
conclusion that this is what the speaker or the writer means.
retaliation- noun [U]~(against sb/sth )(for sth ) action that a person takes
against somebody who has harmed them in some way (The revenge might
have been in retaliation for the arrest of the terrorist suspects.)

2.Revision – omission of a final E

• Words ending in a consonant + e drop the e before a suffix
beginning with a vowel: believe + er = believer, move + able
=movable ( but dye and singe keep their final e before ing to avoid
confusion with die and sing )
Age, ageing(BrE), aging(AmE)
Likeable (BrE), likable (AmE)
• A final e is retained before a suffix beginning with a consonant:
fortunate – fortunately hope – hopeful
immediate – immediatelysincere – sincerely
• The e in able/ible is dropped in the adverb: comfortable –
comfortably, incredible/incredibly
• The final e is dropped in the words: argue – argument, due – duly,
true – truly, whole – wholly
Words ending in ee do not drop an e before a suffix: agree – agreed,
agreeing, agreement
3.Word formation – verb>noun

improve improvement translate translation

arrange arrangement create creation
manage management prepare preparation
govern government compare comparison
excite excitement solve solution
involve examine
encourage immigrate
advertise repute

52
53
A25 DICTATION

And then friends began to have their children. I would see them,
exhausted, pushing trolleys round the supermarket, toddlers in tow,
begging, cajoling, pleading with them not to push the stack of loo rolls to
the floor or open packets of crisps. The children persisted, screaming with
fury when thwarted, staring in blank incomprehension as their mother told
them again and again both not to do it and why not to do it.
I saw rational, capable women fighting back tears of frustration,
counting not just to 10 but to 110 in an effort to retain an authority that
their offspring knew only too well that they had lost. Children, I gradually
realised with horror, while utterly delightful in many ways, were not as
rational as I thought.
When my own babies arrived I fervently hoped that they would
automatically be angels. They were not. Like all other children, my three
wanted toys wished to create a glorious clatter by upsetting the pyramid of
canned tomatoes in the shop.
When explanations and just plain “No, don’t do that” proved
ineffective, I took a deep breath and smacked them. The shock and the
humiliation which their faces registered were just as I recall from my own
childhood. But the affray was over in moments, with both parent and child
absolutely clear as to what had just occurred. I do not recall ever having to
smack the children twice for the same misdemeanour.

Katie Grant
The Express, August 3, 1999
1.Word study

affray –noun [C,usually sing. ,U ] ( law ) a fight or violent behaviour in a

public place
cajole –verb ~ sb (into sth/into doing sth)| ~ sth out of sb- to make sb do
sth to make sb do sth by talking to them and being very nice to them
SYN- coax ( They cajoled me into agreeing to take part in the project )
misdemeanour noun –1. (BrE ) (formal ) an action that is bad or
unacceptable, but not very serious . 2. ( esp. AmE ) a crime that is not
considered very serious-cf. felony- the act of committing a serious crime
such as murder or rape ( a charge of felony ).
thwart – verb [VN ] (often passive ) ~ sth | ~ sb (in sth ) to prevent sb
from doing what they want to do ( to ~ sb’s plans, ambitions, efforts )

4. Verb suffixes

-IFY ( mainly from nouns and adjectives ) – amplify, certify,

electrify, liquefy, codify, justify, clarify, exemplify, simplify
-EN ( from adjectives )- blacken, deafen, lessen, madden, quicken,
sadden, widen
-IZE/-ISE (from nouns and adjectives ) ( -YZE/-YSE )

agonize, centralize, colonize, characterize, civilize, legalize, normalize,

nationalize, reorganize, summarize, subsidize, sympathize, specialize

advise, arise, apprise, compromise, comprise, despise, comprise, devise,

disguise, exercise, franchise, merchandise, surprise, premise, supervise

analyse (AmE – analyze ) paralyse ( AmE –paralyze )

A26 DICTATION

“Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!”
The sticks fell and the mouth of the new circle crunched and
screamed. The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its
face. It was crying out against the abominable noise something about a
body on the hill. The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over
the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd
surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on the beast, screamed, struck,
bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth
and claws.
Then the clouds opened and let down the rain like a waterfall. The
water bounded from the mountain-top, tore leaves and branches from the
trees, poured like a cold shower over the struggling heap on the sand.
Presently the heap broke up and figures staggered away. Only the beast lay
still, a few yards from the sea. Even in the rain they could see how small a
beast it was; and already its blood was staining the sand.
 Now a great wind blew the rain sideways, cascading the water from
the forest trees. On the mountain-top the parachute filled and moved; the
figure slid, rose to its feet, spun, swayed down through a vastness of wet
air and trod with ungainly feet the tops of the high trees; falling, still
falling, it sank toward the beach and the boys rushed screaming into the
darkness.
Lord of the Flies
William Golding

1. Word study
abominable – adj. Extremely unpleasant and causing disgust
abominably – adv.
abominable Snowman = YETI
surge – [V] 1.[+ adv./prep.] to move quickly and forcefully in a particular
direction 2. to fill sb with a strong feeling 3. (of prices, profits) to increase
suddenly in value
surge (noun) Collocations: 1.feeling
• Adj. Great, huge | wild | abrupt, sudden, swift | initial |fresh, new,
renewed | familiar
• + Verb |sweep (over/through) sb/sth
prep. With a ~ | ~ of (an abrupt surge of adrenalin)
2. movement/increase
• adj.dramatic, extraordinary, great, huge, massive | growing | sudden,
unexpected | temporary | last-minute, overnight, recent | storm, tidal
• prep. ~ in ( a dramatic surge in the demand)
• phrase a surge forward

ungainly – adj. Moving in a way that is not graceful (SYN – awkward)

3. Revision – spelling of words ending in CE and GE

• Words ending in ce/ge retain the e before a suffix beginning with
a/o: courage – courageous, manage – manageable, notice –
noticeable, outrage – outrageous, replace – replaceable
• Words ending in ce change the e to i before ous: grace – gracious,
malice – malicious, space – spacious, vice – vicious
A27 DICTATION

The truth about the working-class accents of private school-

children, is that they fool only some. Listen carefully, and you can usually
tell that here is a person from a family that speaks in upper-class accents,
who has assumed a working-class accent for his or her own reasons. But
I’m all for these new accents because they are like Eurocheques. They give
you access almost anywhere.
There are still some pockets of English society in which old, posh
accents matter. Among the very old and grand and among a certain kind of
bone-headed, landed young. Chloe’s son will be able to assume their
accents as easily as he’ll be able to put on a dinner jacket.
He has developed this working-class accent not just to appear
classless. It’s difficult, these days, for children to rebel against their
parents, who have lived through sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Accent,
however, is something else. It’s one way they can really get their parents’
backs up.
But Chloe shouldn’t worry. If her son is thoughtful, intelligent and
well-educated, who cares what his accent is? Just because he speaks like a
lager lout, it doesn’t follow that he head-butts people in pubs and keeps 10
Alsatians in horrible conditions in his backyard. Far better to have a
universal accent, than have an impeccable accent and spout total bilge
from morning to night.

I Hate my Son’s Working-class Accent

Virginia Ironside
The Independent, July 1999

1. Word study
language –noun 1.use of words in agreed way as means of human
communication 2.system of words of particular community > argot|
cant | dialect |idiom |jargon| lingo | parlance | patois | slang | speech |
tongue | vernacular
3. faculty of speech
speech day – annual prize-giving day in school
speech therapy – treatment for defective speech
lager lout- noun (BrE) a young man who drinks too much alcohol and then
behaves in a noisy and unpleasant way.
bonkers –adj.[not before noun] (informal ) completely crazy and silly
get / put sb’s back up IDM (informal ) to annoy somebody

2.Memorize these personal nouns ending in -OR

ancestor collector professor protector
actor debtor inspector supervisor
aggressor doctor governor survivor
author donor manipulator sailor
ambassador director narrator sculptor
bachelor editor operator visitor
benefactor emperor oppressor vendor
creator inheritor orator warrior
 APPENDIX 1

HOMOPHONES

1. arc
ark

2. aren’t = are not

aunt

3. ion
iron

4. idol
idle

5. aisle
isle

6. ad
add
7. allowed
aloud

8. ascent
assent

9. earn
urn

10. bard
barred –p.t.,p.p. of bar

11.buy
bye

12. bough
bow –V to bend the head or body as a sign of respect

13. band
banned –p.t.,p.p. of ban

14. but
butt

15. berth
birth

16. bare –adj.

bear –noun
bear – verb

17. base
bass

18. bell
belle-noun (old fashioned) a beautiful woman

19. berry
 bury

20. bean
been- p.p. of be

21. beach
beech

22. bloc
block

23. blew – p.t. of blow

blue

24. boy
buoy

25. bore – p.t. of bear

bore – verb, noun
boar

26. boarder
border

27. boll
bowl

28. bread
bred-p.t.,p.p.of-breed

29. break
brake

30. breach
breech

31. die
dye

32. dear
 deer

33. descent
dissent

34. discrete
discreet

35. dual
duel

36. dew
due

37. doc
dock

38. doe
dough

39. draft
draught

40. jam
jamb

41. air
ere- (conj.,prep.,old use ) before
heir

42. aid
aide

43. farther
father

44. find
fined – p.t., p.p. of fine

45. foul
 fowl

46. fir
fur

47. fair
fare

48. fin
Finn

49. feat
feet – pl. of foot

50. flower
flour

51. flea
flee

52. floor
flaw

53. flew – p.t. of fly

flu

54. formally
formerly

55. fort
fought – p.t., p.p. of fight

56. franc
frank
57. gamble
gambol

58. gait
gate

59. grate
great

60. grill
grille

61. grease
Greece

62. groan
grown – p.p. of grow

63. higher
hire

64. hangar
hanger

65. heard – p.t., p.p. of hear

herd

66. hair
hare

67. heroin
heroine
68. hear
here

69. he’ll
hill

70. him
hymn

71. hall
haul

72. hoarse
horse

73. hole
whole

74. holy
wholly

75. who’s = who is /who has

whose

76. elusion
illusion

77. in
inn

78. it’s = it is / it has

 its

79. eaves
eves

80. yoke
yolk

81. cast
caste

82. council
counsel

83. carrot
carat

84. currant
current

85. colonel
kernel

86. cubical
cubicle

87. clause
claws – pl. of claw
88. complement
compliment

89. core
corps –(noun)[ko:(r)] 1. a large group of an army 2. a group of people
involved in a particular activity (diplomatic corps)
- pl. corps[ko:z]

90. coarse
course

91. caught – p.t., p.p. of catch

court

92. crews – pl. of crew

cruise

93. liar
lyre

94. lead – chemical element (Pb)

led - p.t., p.p. of lead

95. lain – p.p. of lie

lane

96. lessen
lesson

97. leak
leek

98. law
lore
99. loan
lone

100. marshal
martial

101. miner
minor

102. manor
manner

103. mantel
mantle

104. mat
matt

105. mustard
mustered – p.t., p.p. of master

106. mare
mayor

107. made
maid

108. male
mail

109. main
mane

110. maize
maze

111. missed – p.t., p.p. of miss

mist
112. meat
meat

113. morning
mourning

114. knight
night

115. none
nun

116. naval
navel

117. knead
need

118. knew – p.t. of know

new

119. knot
not

120. gnaw
nor

121. know
no

122. oar
or
ore
awe

123. altar
alter

124. aural
 oral

125. palette
pallet

126. per
purr

127. pair
pear

128. pail
pale

129. pain
pane

130. peer
pier

131. peak
peek

132. plain
plane

133. plaice
place

134. paw
pore

135. pole
poll

136. pray
prey

137. praise
 prays – 3rd p.sing. of pray

138. principal
principle

139. right
rite
write

140. rain
reign
rein

141. raise
rays – pl. of ray

142. ring
wring

143. read
reed

144. road
rode – p.t. of ride

145. root
route

146. side
sighed – p.t.,p.p.of sigh

147. sight
site

148. some
sum

149. son
 sun

150. sail
sale

151. savory
savoury

152. cell
sell

153. cent
scent

154. cereal
serial

155. sea
see

156. scene
seen – p.p. of see

157. seas – pl. of sea

sees – 3rd p.sing.of see
seize

158. saw
soar
sore

159. sauce
source

160. sort
sought – p.t., p.p. of seek

161. spa
spar
162. stake
steak

163. stationary
stationery

164. steal
steel

165. stalk
stork

166. storey
story

167. straight
strait

168. suite
sweet

169. shear
sheer

170. tire
tyre

171. thyme
time

172. tear –noun

tier (a wedding cake with three tiers)

173. toe
tow

174. too
 two

175. vain
vein

176. one
won

177. wear
where

178. way
weigh

179. wail
wale
whale

180. waste
waist

181. weather
whether

182. which
witch

183. war
wore – p.t.of wear

184. thrown – p.p. of throw

throne

185. threw – p.t. of throw

through

186. their
there
they’re = they are
B ( 1 –27 )
TEXTS FOR TRANSLATION

B1 TRANSLATION

More time passed. I learned to play that silly game well enough to
get a couple of dozen professional papers published in some of the more
respectable journals. I really didn’t enjoy that kind of writing. The staff I
did in the books I wrote, where the rules of the writing style were
considerably more relaxed, were much more fun to do. But still, you do
what you have to do.
As I mulled over all of this, I remembered the phrase “dumbing
down”. It’s a thing professionals say when they have the task of taking
professional writing and changing it to appeal to a mass audience. It’s an
arrogant phrase, of course. That arrogance is expressed in both “dumbing”
in the sense that new audience is considered intellectually weaker than the
previous audience, and “down”, in that the new target audience is
considered to be beneath the old.
But that phrase, I now believe, is used in another sense. It is used to
address the issue of turning formal writing into the informal form more
appropriate for the mass audience – which is often the world of
practitioners – have no use for a formal, stodgy style.
The more I thought about all this, the more a new phrase seemed
appropriate to me. A phrase that describes a process of taking informal,
casual, colorful writing, and turning it into style required by professionals.
I like to think of that process as “dumbing up”. By that I mean catering to
the verbally impoverished society that demands formal and stodgy writing,
even when doing so doesn’t add either precision or accuracy to what has
been written.

Stodgy by Design,
and the Notion of “Dumbing Up”
Robert L. Glass
in Communications of the ACM
February 2002
B2
TRANSLATION

All my images of this particular birthday seemed to be driven from

some glossy American sitcom.
When I thought of turning thirty, I thought of attractive thirty –
nothing marrieds snogging like teens in heat while in the background a
gurgling baby crawls across some polished parquet floor, or I saw a circle
of good-looking wisecracking friends drinking latte and showing off their
impressive knitwear while wryly bemoaning the dating game. That was my
problem. When I thought of turning thirty, I thought of somebody else’s
life.
That’s what thirty should be – grown-up without being disappointed,
settled without being complacent, worldly wise, but not so worldly wise
that you feel like chucking yourself under a train. The time of your life.
By thirty you have finally realized that you are not going to live forever, of
course. But surely that should only make the laughing, latte-drinking
present taste even sweeter? You shouldn’t let your inevitable death put a
damper on things. Don’t let the long, slow slide to the grave get in the way
of a good time. Whether you are enjoying the last few years of unmarried
freedom, or have recently moved on to a more adult, more committed way
of life with someone you love, it’s difficult to imagine a truly awful way of
turning thirty.

Man and Boy

Tony Parsons

B3 TRANSLATION

But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed in

my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong
to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has
given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it.
Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the
world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I
do not weep at the world – I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the
granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is
sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is
doing well, thank you. I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the
stretch to look behind and weep. Slavery is the price I paid for civilization,
and the choice was not with me. It is a bully adventure and worth all that I
have paid through my ancestors for it. No one on earth ever had a greater
chance for glory. The world to be won and nothing to be lost. It is thrilling
to think - to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise
or twice as much blame. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the
national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to
weep.
How It Feels to Be Colored Me
Zora Neale Hurston

B4
TRANSLATION

The same energy which inspired the rooks, the ploughmen, the
horses, and even it seemed, the lean bare-backed downs, sent the moth
fluttering from side to side of his square of the window-pane. One could
not help watching him. One was, indeed conscious of a queer feeling of
pity for him. The possibilities of pleasure seemed that morning so
enormous and so various that to have only a moth’s part in life, and a day
moth’s at that, appeared a hard fate, and his zest in enjoying his meagre
opportunities to the full, pathetic. He flew vigorously to one corner of his
compartment, and, after waiting there for a second, flew across to the
other. What remained for him but to fly to a third corner and then to a
fourth? That was all he could do, in spite of the size of the downs, the
width of the sky, the far-off smoke of houses, and the romantic voice, now
and then, of a steamer out at sea. What he could do he did. Watching him,
it seemed as if a fibre, very thin but pure, of the enormous energy of the
world had been thrust into his frail and diminutive body. As often as he
crossed the pane, I could fancy that a thread of vital light became visible.
He was little or nothing but life.

The Death of the Moth

Virginia Woolf
B5 TRANSLATION

During World War II, John F. Kennedy had no business piloting a PT

boat, given the condition of his back; his son probably had no business
piloting a plane, given the condition of his foot. But they both grabbed life
by the lapels.
There was a complexity to him that wasn’t apparent at first glance,
when he seemed a kind of playful man-child. At some moments, Kennedy
didn’t care what people thought; he refused to be constrained by who he
was or feel forced to live up to expectations. When he was criticized for
auctioning off many of his parents’ possessions, he shrugged impishly, then
laughed privately at the idea of his cousin Maria’s husband, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, paying a fortune for golf clubs that Kennedy would have
given him free if he had asked.
But the security and self-confidence masked a need to prove the doubters
wrong. IF Kennedy was driven by anything, it was to show that he wasn’t
a dilettante – that he was a serious person, even if he didn’t take himself
too seriously. He was immensely proud of having insisted on an idea
people dismissed as foolish – George, a glossy magazine about politics –
and making it work.
Kennedy seemed to have both more and fewer social graces than other
people. He was almost always warm toward well-wishers, especially if
they seem down on their luck – extraordinarily accessible for someone so
seemingly inaccessible. But he was happy to take the privileges that came
with what he and his friends jokingly called “the JK factor” – the
willingness of everyone from tennis coaches to store clerks to do him
favors.
The Legacy: Huddling against History
Jonathan Alter, in Newsweek, 26 July, 1999

B6 TRANSLATION

When a matured man discovers that he has been deserted by

Providence, deprived of his God, and cast without help, comfort, or
sympathy, upon a world which is new and strange to him, his despair,
which may find expression in evil-living, the writing of his experiences, or
the more satisfactory diversion of suicide, is generally supposed to be
impressive. A child, under exactly similar circumstances as far as its
knowledge goes, cannot very well curse God and die. It howls till its nose
is red, its eyes are sore, and its head aches. Punch ad Judy, through no fault
of their own, had lost all their world. They sat in the hall and cried; the
black-haired boy looking on from afar.
The model of the ship availed nothing, though the gray man assured
Punch that he might pull the rigging up and down as much as he pleased;
and Judy was promised free entry into the kitchen. They wanted Papa and
Mamma gone to Bombay beyond the seas, and their grief while it lasted
was without remedy.
When the tears ceased the house was very still. Antirosa had decided
that it was better to let the children “ have their cry out”, and the boy had
gone to school. Punch raised his head from the floor and sniffed
mournfully. Judy was nearly asleep. Three short years had not taught her
how to bear sorrow with full knowledge. There was a distant, dull boom in
the air - a repeated heavy thud. It was the sea – the sea that must be
traversed before anyone could get to Bombay.
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Rudyard Kipling

B7
TRANSLATION

And it is this that makes the cocksureness of women so dangerous,

so devastating. It is really out of scheme, it is not in relation to the rest of
things. So we have the tragedy of cocksure women. They find, so often,
that instead of having laid an egg, they have laid a vote, or an empty ink-
bottle, or some other absolutely unhatchable object, which means nothing
to them.
It is the tragedy of the modern woman. She becomes cocksure, she
puts all her passion and energy and years of her life into some effort or
assertion, without ever listening for the denial which she ought to take into
count. She is cocksure, but she is a hen all the time. Frightened of her own
henny self, she rushes to mad lengths about votes, or welfare, or sports, or
business: she is marvelous, outmanning, the man. But alas, it is all
fundamentally disconnected. It is all an attitude, and one day the attitude
will become a weird cramp, a pain, and then it will collapse. And when it
has collapsed, and she looks at the eggs she has laid, votes or miles of
typewriting, years of business efficiency – suddenly, because she is a hen
and not a cock, all she has done will turn into pure nothingness to her.
Suddenly it all falls out of relation to her basic henny self, and she realizes
she has lost her life. Having lived her life with such utmost strenuousness
and cocksureness, she has missed her life. Nothingness!

Cocksure Women and Hensure Men

D.H. Lawrence

B8 TRANSLATION

An oyster has an irregular shape. The valves are rough and their lips
hard to find. Crooked and wrinkled, the hairline crack between the valves
can’t be widened with the blade of a knife; the point must enter first.
Furthermore, a big Chincoteague doesn’t fit the left hand. One must hold
the animal slanting against the edge of the kitchen sink and poke around,
seeking the slot by touch as much as by sight. It takes painful practice.
When the knifepoint finds a purchase, push carefully and quickly before
the oyster realizes what’s afoot and gets a firmer grip on itself. Push in the
wrong place – it’s easy to mistake a growth line for the groove – and the
knife takes a life of its own. It can skid and open up your hand. This
delicate work requires patient agility to find the groove, push the knife
in, then slit the muscle and open the critter without losing too much
juice.(Restaurants serve oysters on their flat shell. It’s better to throw that
one away and lay the delicacies on a bed of crushed ice in the roundest
half-shell which holds its delicious liquor. Sprinkle each one with lemon
juice – a healthy oyster will wriggle the slightest bit at this to prove it’s
alive – lift the dishlike shell to the lips, and drink the oyster down. It’s a
delicious, addicting experience.)

The Wild Edge: Life and Lore of the Great Atlantic Beaches
Philip Kopper
 Notes:

valve – one of the parts of the shell of a mollusk

purchase – an entry

B9 TRANSLATION

In court there was his father and mother; that was the worst of it.
They’d come down from Scotland and they sat there in the courtroom,
looking at me, you did it, you killed him, it was you run over Joey. Every
time I met their eyes, it was like being stabbed. I wanted to explain, I
wanted to come down from the witness-box and tell them, that I’d loved
Joey, that I’d worshipped Joey, that I’d do anything literally, to make him
come alive again…that I wished it had been me instead of him. Only I
could tell that they just wouldn’t listen. Even when the verdict was given,
death by misadventure, they kept on looking at me just the same; I couldn’t
blame them. After all, I’d killed him, hadn’t I? Whatever the coroner said,
whether I’d done it on purpose or I hadn’t.
I wrote to them after, trying to explain things, but I never got any
answer. They’d even had this lawyer to question me. What speed was I
doing and when exactly had I seen him and why was I so slow in putting
on the brakes? Ridiculous questions that couldn’t possibly do any good;
trying to catch me, playing games with me. What’s the point of it? As if all
this can bring him back again. If they could only do that, they could jail me
for life, I’d go willingly. They could even hang me if they wanted.
And my parents, on the other side of the court from what they were,
looking at them now and then, but them never looking back. “As if you
were a criminal,” my mother said, “as if you’d for a minute meant it.”
The Thing He Loves
Brian Glanville

B10 TRANSLATION
 Wellington is said to have chosen his officers by their noses and
chins. The standard for them in noses must have been rather high, to judge
by the portraits of the Duke, but no doubt he made allowances. Anyhow, by
this method he got the men he wanted. Some people, however, may think
that he would have done better to have let the mouth be the deciding test.
The lines of one’s nose are more or less arranged for one at birth. A baby,
born with a snub nose, would feel it hard that the decision that he would be
no use to Wellington should be come so early. And even if he arrived in the
world with a Roman nose, he might smashed it up in the childhood, and
with it his chances of military fame. This, I think you will agree with me,
would be unfair.
Now the mouth is much more likely to be a true index of character.
A man may clench his teeth firmly or smile disdainfully or sneer, or do a
hundred things which will be reflected in his mouth rather than in his nose
or chin. It is through the mouth and eyes that all emotions are expressed,
and in the mouth and eyes therefore that one would expect the marks of
such emotions to be left. I did read once of a man whose nose quivered
with rage, but it is not usual; I never heard of anyone whose chin did
anything. It would be absurd to expect it to.
But there arises now the objection that a man may conceal his
mouth, and by that his character, with a moustache. There arises, too, the
objection that a person, whom you thought was a fool, because he always
went about with his mouth open, may only have had a bad cold in the head.
In fact the difficulties of telling anyone’s character by his face seem more
insuperable every moment. How, then, are we to tell whether we may
safely trust a man with our daughter, or our favourite golf club, or
whatever we hold most dear?

Sings of Character
A. A. Milne

B11 TRANSLATION

The door of the cavern was big enough to roll a hogshead in, and on
one side of the door the floor stuck out a little bit, and was flat and a good
place to build a fire on. So we build it there and cooked dinner.
We spread the blankets inside for a carpet, and eat our dinner in
there. We put all the other things handy at the back of the cavern. Pretty
soon it darkened up, and begun to thunder and lighten; so the birds were
right about it. Directly it begun to rain, and it rained like all fury, too, and I
never see the wind blow so. It was one of these regular summer storms. It
would get so dark that it looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the
rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked
dim and spider-webby; and here would come a blast of wind that would
bend the trees down and turn up the pale underside of the leaves; and then
a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to
tossing their arms as if they was just wild; and next, when it was just about
the bluest and blackest – fst! It was as bright as glory, and you’d had a little
glimpse of treetops a-plunging about away off yonder in the storm,
hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again in a
second, and now you’d hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, and
then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the other
side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down-stairs – where it’s long
stairs and they bounce a good deal, you know.

The Adventures of Hucklebery Finn

Mark Twain

B12 TRANSLATION

There is little constancy in the life of an actor. We are, on the face of

it, a rootless lot. I’m sometimes asked if I feel Welsh and I have to answer
that I don’t feel particularly Welsh or British or anything. I’ve spent many
years in America and many months in other parts of the world, so I
suppose I have an international identity.
A sense of place is a European characteristic; it’s certainly a
powerful Welsh characteristic, especially compared to my experience of
American life which tends to be rootless, nomadic and transient. This
rootlessness, however, is something that strikes a chord in me with my
restless nature.
Despite – or perhaps because of – the itinerant lifestyle, I have in
recent years become deeply involved in one special place in Wales, a mass
of rock, mountain, valley and moor known as Snowdonia.
It seems strange to think that Snowdonia, a rugged, defiant place,
can at the same time be so intimidating yet so fragile. But the pressures on
the environment today are formidable. Ripping out the heart of nature
seems to be a modern obsession. Snowdonia must survive. I sincerely
believe that we need places like this to replenish the human spirit in an
increasingly hectic and materialistic world.
 A Supporting Role
Sir Anthony Hopkins, in A View of Wales, 1996

B13 TRANSLATION

It was about ten after twelve or so then, and so I went back and
stood by the door and waited for old Phoebe. I thought how it might be the
last time I’d ever see her again. Any of my relatives, I mean. I figured I’d
probably see them again, but not for years. I might come home when I was
about thirty-five, I figured, in case somebody got sick and wanted to see
me before they died, but that would be the only reason I’d leave my cabin
and come back. I even started picturing how it would be when I came
back. I knew my mother’d get nervous as hell and start to cry and beg me
to stay home and not go back to my cabin, but I’d go anyway. I’d be casual
as hell. I’d make her calm down, and then I’d go over to the other side of
the living room and take out this cigarette case and light a cigarette, cool as
all hell. I’d ask them all to visit me some time if they wanted to, but I
wouldn’t insist or anything. What I’d do, I’d let old Phoebe come out and
visit me in the summertime and on Christmas vacation and Easter
Vacation. And I’d let D. B. come out and visit me for a while if he wanted
a nice, quiet place for his writing, but he couldn’t write any movies in my
cabin, only stories and books. I’d have this rule that nobody could do
anything phony when they visited me. If anybody tried to do anything
phony, they couldn’t stay.

The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger

B14 TRANSLATION

In the traditional interpretation of the novel, Holden’s reference to

his brother is simply another indication of his unrealistic desire to freeze
innocence and thwart phoniness. But Chapman, who wrote “This is my
statement” in the flyleaf of his copy of the Salinger novel, was not a typical
reader. To him the “catcher” speech was the book’s final and transcendent
message, which would make Allie the real hero of The Catcher in the Rye.
Allie, in his reading, is the only character to come out unscathed. Death,
then, would have presented itself to Chapman as the only safeguard against
loss of innocence.
Unfortunately, this idea, as I have set it out here, is not as absurd or
outrageous as it sounds. If Chapman’s intention was to secure, and even
improve, the legend of John Lennon, the artist of perfect integrity, he
succeeded. Gone now is the John Lennon who once smeared excrement on
the walls of his dressing room; who claimed that the Beatles were a bigger
item than Christ. In his place is a sort of rock-and-roll Gandhi. Because of
his violent death, anything about him that is base or even unkind has been
erased. In the most extraordinary way, John Lennon today is viewed as a
man of pristine innocence – “a genius of the spirit,” Norman Mailer has
called him. And all because Mark Chapman, standing outside the Dakota
apartments, caught him in the rye.

On First Looking into Chapman’s Holden

Daniel Stashower

B15 TRANSLATION

Sunday 15 January

9st (excellent), alcohol units 0, cigarettes 29 (v.v. bad, esp. in 2 hours),

calories 3879 (repulsive), negative thoughts 942 (approx. based on av.per
minute), minutes spent counting negative thoughts 127 (approx.)

6 p.m. Completely exhausted by entire day of date-preparation. Being a

woman is worse than being a farmer – there is so much harvesting and
crop spraying to be done: legs to be waxed, underarms shaved, eyebrows
plucked, feet pumiced, skin exfoliated and moisturized, spots cleansed,
roots dyed, eyelashes tinted, nails filed, cellulite massaged, stomach
muscles exercised. The whole performance is so highly tuned you only
need to neglect it for a few days for the whole thing to go to seed.
Sometimes I wonder what I would be like if left to revert to nature – with a
full beard and handlebar moustache on each shin, Dennis Healey
eyebrows, face a graveyard of dead skin cells, spots erupting, long curly
fingernails like Struwelpeter, blind as bat and stupid runt of species as no
contact lenses, flabby body flobbering around. Ugh, ugh. Is it any wonder
girls have no confidence?
7 p.m. Cannot believe this has happened. On the way to the bathroom, to
complete final farming touches, I noticed the answerphone light was
flashing: Daniel.
Cannot believe it. Am stood up. Entire waste of whole day’s bloody effort
and hydro-electric body-generated power. However, one must not live
one’s life through men but must be complete in oneself as a woman of
substance.

Bridget Jones’s Diary

Helen Fielding
stand sb up –PHRV (informal) to deliberately not meet sb you have
arranged to meet, especially sb you are having a romantic relationship with

B16 TRANSLATION

No – it was worse than solitude. She closed the door again and sat
down to wait for the end. The disintegration went on, accompanied by
horrible cracks and rumbling. The valves that restrained the Medical
Apparatus must have been weakened, for it ruptured and hung hideously
from the ceiling. The floor heaved and fell and flung her from her chair. A
tube oozed towards her serpent fashion. And at last the final horror
approached – light began to ebb, and she knew that civilization’s long day
was closing.
She whirled round, praying to be saved from this, at any rate, kissing
the Book, pressing button after button. The uproar outside was increasing,
and even penetrated the wall. Slowly the brilliancy of her cell was
dimmed, the reflections faded from her metal switches. Now she could not
see the reading-stand, now not the Book, though she held it in her hand.
Light followed the flight of sound, air was following light, and the original
void returned to the cavern from which it had been so long excluded.
Vashti continued to whirl, like the devotees of an earlier religion,
screaming, praying, striking at the buttons with bleeding hands.

The Machine Stops

E. M. Forster
B17 TRANSLATION

Old men and the sea. One old man’s name is Nogi, and he sits on a
rusted mooring post with his stiff, starched back to the gleaming ripples of
the bay. Below and behind him, the 24-ton trawler with its harpoon lolls in
a greasy slick against the concrete of the quay. To both left and right, sharp,
clean cliffs, painted with pines and the special clinging, forest mist of
Japan, hold the harbour safe from the chill and oily rollers of the Pacific
beyond.
It is a special day for Nogi. His overalls are freshly laundered freshly
pressed – you can see the crisp lines, you can see the fresh stains. White-
haired, stiff-backed Nogi is not surprised to see my interpreter and me. We
are here, in this remote, dying village on the northern Honshu coast, at his
invitation, to hear him speak and to tell the West his tales.
Behind Nogi, gulls float, then dip. Their beaks snip at the drifting,
ugly bits that wallow in the troughs. If they were more numerous, those
gulls, more daring, then they would be up here with us on the quay. There
are ugly bits everywhere. I have one pulped beneath my shoe. The smell, I
know from past experience, will sit on me for days. There is not yet a soap
devised that will clear this smell quickly. It is the smell of a huge, spilled
stomach.
Behind us, the village delegation shuffles its eight feet, murmurs for
quiet. Somebody photographs us photographing Nogi. Pursuing the
business to its bitter end, a friend will, later still, send me photographs of
photographers photographing me photographing Nogi. I am potential
propaganda.

Whalers
Hugh Paxton, in BBC Wildlife Magazine, 1995

B18 TRANSLATION

The young fellow, who wanted to join Tutin’s firm, was obviously
anxious to be well with him. Tutin was amused by his compliments. But
suddenly it struck him that there was some truth in them.
 After all, most of his happiness was in his home, and it was a very
considerable happiness. How and when it had began to re-establish itself
he could not tell. He had not noticed its arrival. He had not noticed it at all.
It wasn’t romantic – it had nothing exciting about it. It was not in the least
like that matrimonial dream of young lovers, an everlasting honeymoon
agreeably variegated by large and brilliant cocktail parties for envious
friends; it was indeed the exact opposite – a way of life in which
everything was known and accepted, simple and ordinary, where affection
was a matter of course and romantic flourishes not only unnecessary but
superfluous, even troublesome. As for parties, they were perhaps
necessary, but what a bore, really, what a waste of time, that is, of peace, of
happiness.
And it seems to Tutin that he has made a great success of life in its
most important department, at home. How wise he had been to make all
those subtle adjustments in his relation with Clare, necessary to render
possible their continued life together.
As for Phyllis, he has seen her once in a film, an extra in a crowd
scene. It is a night-club and she is a hostess – he is entranced – he feels his
heart beat double time – he thinks. ‘I might be her husband now, and living
just such a life as those roisterers.’

Period Piece
Joyce Cary

B19 TRANSLATION

The ever-grasping government machine can now go on thrusting its

greedy, bony fist into the pockets of old people who saved for their
retirement. Thanks to the Court of Appeal’s decision on Friday, the foul
policy of plundering the old to pay for their own care until there is almost
nothing left of their lifetime savings can go on unhindered.
I was telephoned recently by a lady who had been driven almost out
of her mind by the prying and arrogance of the authorities when her
husband fell seriously ill and needed nursing care. Strangers came and
fingered through her bank statement – can you imagine this?
This is the generation – provident, hating debt, who scrimped all
their lives for the security of a house and for something to hand on to their
children. They also paid their taxes and so called “national insurance”.
Now they live in dread of the first signs of serious illness. For it will not
just mean pain but the seizure of their cash and assets to pay for “care”
that only a millionaire could afford. Oh, I know that it would be expensive
to look after these people, as governments once promised to do.
But I can’t help thinking that in all the vast and wasteful range of
government spending there are plenty of things that could be cut back to
stop this injustice to the old.
Without the right to inherit there would be no true private property.
And without private property we are all completely at the mercy of the
State.
How dare they put this tax on dying?
Peter Hitchens, in The Express, July 19, 1999

B20 TRANSLATION

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the
man and woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and
accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is
the New York of the commuter – the city that is devoured by locusts each
day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person
who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of
something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last – the city
of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts
for New York’s high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its
dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give
the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidarity and continuity, but
the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to
set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small
town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her
neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his
suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New
York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with
the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the
Consolidated Edison Company.

The Three New Yorks

E.B. White
B21 TRANSLATION

The water felt cold, and the strength took a long time to come back
to Jimmy’s muscles. But his brain was clear and he used the interval to
think what to do. He knew from experience that the way to get clear of one
of these currents was not to swim head-on against it, as he had been trying
to do, but to swim diagonally through it, aiming at the shore but only
indirectly, at an angle of thirty or forty degrees. When he felt able to start
again, he steered at this angle, pulling Hopper with him. But at once he
noticed a change in Hopper. He was not struggling, nor even holding his
body rigid. He was simply floating on the water, offering no resistance.
Jimmy lifted his head up and tried to look at Hopper’s face, but it was
difficult from that angle. Hopper seemed to have his eyes open: was that a
good sign? Had he calmed down, trusting in Jimmy and waiting for them
to get back to shallow water?
The current was dragging at them; Jimmy could feel it. He stopped
thinking and put every atom of his strength into swimming steadily
backwards at the angle he had chosen. His arms and legs worked like
small, potent machines. Now and again, when fatigue threatened to put
cramp into his muscles, he altered his stroke or varied the ratio of leg-
thrusts to arm-thrusts. Hours seemed to go by. He did not dare raise
himself and look towards the shore in case it was no nearer, or even further
off. He knew that if it was he would despair and give up. But he must keep
on, not only for his own sake but for Hopper’s.
The Life Guard
John Wain

B22 TRANSLATION

At eighteen, when he went to New Haven, Anson was tall and thick-
set, with a clear complexion and a healthy color from the ordered life he
had led in school. His hair was yellow and grew in a funny way on his
head, his nose was beaked – these two things kept him from being
handsome – but he had a confident charm and a certain brusque style, and
the upper-class men who passed him on the street knew without being told
that he was a rich boy and had gone to one of the best schools.
Nevertheless, his very superiority kept him from being a success in college
– the independence was mistaken for egotism, and the refusal to accept
Yale standards with the proper awe seemed to belittle all those who had.
So, long before he graduated, he began to shift the centre of his life to New
York.
He was at home in New York – there was his own house with “the
kind of servants you can’t get any more” – and his own family, of which,
because of his good humor and a certain ability to make things go, he was
rapidly becoming the centre, and the debutante parties, and the correct
manly world of the men’s club, and the occasional wild spree with the
gallant girls whom New Haven only knew from the fifth row. His
aspirations were conventional enough – they included even the
irreproachable shadow he would some day marry, but they differed from
the aspirations of the majority of young men in that there was no mist over
them, none of that quality which is variously known as “idealism” or
“illusion”. Anson accepted without reservation the world of high finance
and high extravagance, of divorce and dissipation, of snobbery and of
privilege. Most of our lives end as a compromise – it was as a compromise
that his life began.

The Rich Boy

F. Scott Fitzgerald

B23 TRANSLATION

He stood naked, staring at the image of Emmanuel Rosenbaum in

the hotel mirror. He didn’t like what he saw. First he removed the teeth,
then began to click his own up and down: he had been warned that the
gums would ache for days. Then painstakingly he shed each layer of his
bulbous nose, admiring the skill and artistry that had gone into creating
such monstrosity. It will be too conspicuous, he had told them. They will
remember nothing else, had come the expert’s reply.
When the last layer had been removed, the aristocratic one that took
its place looked ridiculous in the center of such a face. Next he began on
the lined forehead that even moved when he frowned. As the lines
disappeared, so the years receded. Next the flaccid red cheeks, and finally
the two chins. The Swiss bankers would have been amazed at how easily
the sharp rubbing of a pumice stone removed the indelible number on the
inside of his arm. Once more he studied himself in the mirror. The hair,
short and greying, would take nature longer. When they had cut his hair
short and smeared that thick mudlike concoction all over his scalp, it made
him feel like a deloused animal. Moments later he stood under a warm
shower, his fingers massaging deep into the roots of his hair. Black treacly
water started to run down his face and body before finally disappearing
down the drain. It took half a bottle of shampoo before his hair returned to
its normal colour, but he realized that it would take considerably longer
before he stopped looking like one of these moronic staff sergeants in the
United States Marines.

A Matter of Honour
Jeffrey Archer

Notes:
Примерен превод:

Той стоеше гол пред хотелското огледало и се взираше в образа

на Емануел Розенбаум. Не хареса видяното. Първо махна
изкуствените челюсти и затрака със зъби: бяха го предупредили, че
венците ще го болят в продължение на дни. После усърдно започна да
маха пласт по пласт огромния си нос, като се възхищаваше на
умението и артистичността, с която е създадена такава уродливост.
Беше им казал, че ще бие на очи. Експертите отговориха, че по този
начин никой няма да запомни нищо друго.
Махна и последния слой и отдолу се показа неговият
аристократичен нос – изглеждаше смешен в средата на такова лице.
После се залови с набразденото чело, което дори се мърдаше, докато
се мръщеше. С изчезването на всяка бръчка се връщаха и годините.
Дойде ред на увисналите червени бузи и накрая на увисналата двойна
гуша. Швейцарските банкери биха се изненадали като видят колко
бързо изчезнаха неизличимите числа на ръката му, когато ги изтри
енергично с пемза. Още веднъж се разгледа в огледалото. Късата
посивяла коса скоро щеше да израсне. Когато отрязаха косата му и
намазаха цялата му глава с гъстата, прилична на кал смес, той разбра
как се чувства ирландец, намазан с катран и овалян в пера. Малко по-
късно стоеше под топлия душ и масажираше здраво с пръстите си
корените на косата. Черна лепкава вода струеше по лицето и тялото
му и накрая изтичаше в канала. След половин бутилка шампоан
косата му възвърна нормалния си цвят, но той знаеше, че ще мине
доста време, преди да престане да изглежда като сержант от
Американския военноморски флот.

B24 TRANSLATION

It was with Gerry and Kath that my son spent his last hours. He was given
the Ecstasy tablet at college and had gone straight to their flat.
At the inquest, it was decided that he had suffered an adverse
reaction to the drug and had died in the night from heart and lung failure.
He had left Gerry and Kath’s flat, cycled the six miles home, and died
alone in his bedroom.
One of the things that hurt most after Luke’s death were the snide
comments about what sort of family he must have come from to have died
from drugs. People assumed he must have come from a broken home or
been a latchkey kid. In fact, I had given up my career to look after our
children and had only just gone back to teaching full time.
We were an ordinary family with no skeletons in our cupboard and –
so we thought – no need to worry about drugs. We had brought our
children up to know right from wrong and I thought that was good enough,
but Luke was always inquisitive. Maybe he just wanted to try this drug and
see what it was like. He made one bad decision, and it cost him life.
When we approached his college and asked why students were not
given more information about drugs, they denied any problem, which
made me furious. We ignore this drug menace at our peril. I have seven-
year-olds in my class at school who wear designer clothes with drugs logos
and already know what a spliff is.
As parents, we were guilty of being naïve, and there are still far too
many parents who are just like we were. It’s no good thinking this won’t
happen to your family. It happened to us – it can happen to anybody.

Ecstasy Killed My Son

The Sunday Times, March 19, 1995
B25 TRANSLATION

The streets were narrow, cobbled, slippery with slime of refuse.

Houses were crammed together, and there were a lot of furtive alleys.
Chamberpots, or jordans, were emptied out of windows. There was no
drainage. Fleet ditch stank to make a man throw up his gorge. But the city
had its natural cleansers – the kites, graceful birds that made their nests of
rags and refuse in the forks of trees. They scavenged, eating anything,
with relish. One of Will’s first surprising sights may have been their
tearing at a freshly severed head on the spikes by the law-courts. And,
countering the bad man-made odours, the smells of the countryside floated
in. There were rosy milkmaids in the early morning streets, and sellers of
newly gathered cresses.
It was a city of loud noises – hooves and raw coach-wheels on the
cobbles, the yells of traders, the brawling of apprentices, scuffles to keep
the wall and not be thrown into the oozy kennel. Even normal conversation
must have been loud, since everybody was, by our standards, tipsy.
Nobody drank water, and tea had not yet come in. Ale was the standard
tipple, and it was strong. Ale for breakfast was a good means of starting
the day in euphoria or truculence. Ale for dinner refocillated the wasted
tissues of the morning. Ale for supper ensured a heavy snoring repose. The
better sort drank wine, which promoted good fellowship and led to sword-
fights. It was not what we could call a sober city.

from Shakespeare
Anthony Burgess

B26 TRANSLATION
 Travis’s disgust, if not his loathing, becomes ours also as we ride
with him in his cab through the city of dreadful night where, as one critic
has observed, “Red lights and steam rising through sidewalk gratings are a
Dantean reminder of human decay.” Moreover, Travis’s madness, when he
finally embarks upon his orgy of vengeance, is not without moral method;
for his purpose is to rescue a child prostitute from the clutches of the pimps
and parasites who live off her earnings. His mission is accomplished in a
climatic shootout, a phantasmagoria of blasted bodies and bursting arteries,
which aficionados of movie violence have ranked among the bloodiest
ever filmed. It was not simply blood, however; the soundtrack resounded
not only with gunfire but with the agonized screams, cries and mumblings
of the maimed and butchered: an appalling stereophonic spectacle of
slaughter which left many in the audience shaken and nauseated, utterly
repelled by the cruel insanity of the carnage.
That was presumably the effect intended by the director and writer.
But there were others in the audience, no small number, who cheered
Travis on in his vengeful rampage and laughed at the suffering of the
victims. Scorsese is reported to have reflected afterward: “When I was
filming it, I never thought there would be such strong responses to the
violence.”

The Violent Arts: Pop Goes the Culture

Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson

B27 TRANSLATION

I can’t think that this really needs to be said again, but this is all the
most total rubbish. Of course, we all have our prejudices about linguistic
use; personally, I dislike the use of the word “pristine” to mean “clean”, or
“jejune” to mean “childish”, while seeing that it’s a bit of a lost battle. And
other people’s views on language always seem either prissy – just fancy
caring that everyone now says “bored of” – or slack. I have no particular
opinion about “different to” or “different from”, but the now common
American usage “different than” makes me wince.
And certainly it isn’t hard to come up with some really revolting
abuse; the other day, on a pompous American wildlife programme on the
telly, I heard someone say “Domestic animals face challenges utterly
unique than those presented to their wild cousins.” But really – how often
does this need to be said? – language changes. It doesn’t get worse or
better, it just changes.
The whole history of the English language is a history of a
simplification of grammatical structures. English nouns used to have
genders, like French; the accusative whom used to have a parallel form in
which, and I dare say there were plenty of people around to complain that
things were going to the dogs when it started to disappear. And I wonder if
a lot of the targets of complaints here serve to identify the next stage of
simplification.
God save us from self-appointed guardians of the language, whose
structures on correctness serve mainly to introduce spectacularly ludicrous
new errors, who have a vague belief that it is somehow wrong to begin a
sentence with “and” or end one with a preposition, who stand in the way of
ordinary, vivid speech and writing. The users of English can look after it
perfectly well. As for those maiden-auntish “rules” deriving from 18th-
century Latin grammarians – well, frankly, I’m just bored of them.

I’m Bored of Pedantic Grammarians

Philip Hensher
The Independent, 25 June 1999

Translations from Bulgarian ( C 1 – C 27 )

C1

Става дума за Търново. Търново събуди интерес към нашата

история, но заедно с това ми даде възможност да забележа някои
характерни черти на нашия човек, за които ще говоря по-нататък и
които се опитах да покажа в романите си. Мисля, че ако останех да
живея в тоя град, моята писателска дарба би тръгнала по други
пътища и би се лишила от жизнерадост и ведрина. Тоя град за мене
беше пълен с тъга. Колкото и живописен да е, той носеше в ония
години някаква мръсотия, каквато се долавя в балканските градове
през които е минала турската разпасана стихия и е наложила
мизерния си отпечатък и манталитет, смесена с гръцка, арменска,
циганска и българска душевност. Неговата романтика ми напомня
стара плът,вмирисана на оцет и на износена дреха. Тъкмо в тая
старинна загнилост се крие очарованието му, което привлича
художниците и туристите. Представата ми за него е съпроводена от
същата кисело-пиянска миризма на туршии с краставици, от
бабаитски викове на пияници, от бумкане на тъпан, или от призивните
звуци на флигорна, пронизващи простора в пропастта към Янтра.
Неговата живописност допълва останалото и човек чувствува, че тук
витае далечната загадъчна сянка на неспокойното му минало от
Средновековието до военните години, със земетресението в 1913г., с
холерата и поражението на Добро поле ...

Недописани спомени
Емилиян Станев

бабаит - husky
бабаитлък – bravado, Dutch courage
разпасан, разюздан – undisciplined, raffish

С2

Всичко това аз набързо и наговорих или в този смисъл. Тя

мълчеше и не ми възразяваше. Цялата тази сцена се разигра много
набърже. В тези моменти тя си държеше ръцете една на друга.
Отведнъж направи едно движение с ръката си към гърдите и едно
глухо изгърмяване се чу. Аз веднага скочих и преди още тя да се
залюлее, я прегърнах. Ужасно беше моето положение в този момент,
защото така неочаквано беше всичко това за мене. Всичко след това,
което съм извършил, сега едва си припомням, може би по–нататък да
си проясня моментите. След като я сложих на канапето, отърчах да
събудя слугинята, хазяите и да викам за помощ да извикат доктор.
Когато се върнах, намерих Лора, че се е смъкнала до канапето на
пода. Тогава трябва да съм я разгърдил, защото спомням си, че
правеше някакви слаби движения още с устните си и мене ми се
струваше, че мъчно диша. Като видях раната и кръв, ужасът още
повече ме обзе. Тогава трябва да съм отишъл до масата и трябва да
съм написал записката и след това да съм се гръмнал. За всички тези
моменти в паметта ми засега е съвсем неясно, не помня какво съм
написал в записката. След някое време чух, че някой говори в стаята.
По гласа можах да позная, че е доктор Николиев.

Из Житейската драма на Яворов

Никола Гайдаров
разгърдвам – bare the chest/bosom of
глух (за звук) – hollow, dull, indistinct, muffled
глух шепот – a stifled whisper

С3

Професор Честер Частертон живееше на петдесет и осмия етаж

на един нюйоркски небостъргач. Той беше бележит учен: един
истински професор с очила, бяла брада и широко скроени дрехи. Като
всеки чистокръвен американец професор Частертон обичаше не само
науката, но и спорта – ето защо той беше необикновено здрав човек,
макар, че от деня на рождението му се бяха изминали точно
шестдесет и пет години. Покрай многото научни апарати, в кабинета
на господин професора имаше и всевъзможни уреди за гимнастически
упражнения, между които най- важно място заемаха железните гири
от сто килограма. Тях нашият учен дигаше съвсем свободно над
главата си с два пръста. Впрочем, всички тия подробности са напълно
излишни, тъй като настоящият разказ е изграден върху събитие, което
ще ни представи господин професора не като спортист, а като един
гениален човек на науката.
И тъй, слушайте! Когато световните вестници разгласиха
новината за успеха на професор Честер Частертон, всички учени от
всички краища на земното кълбо отправиха поздравителни телеграми
до своя американски колега. В самата Америка пък се образуваха
веднага триста и седемнайсет дружества, които си поставиха за цел да
измислят най- оригиналния юбилей на професора.
MADE IN USA
Светослав Минков

дружество - association, society

- an athletic club
-company, firm, partnership, society,(Am corporation)
-a limited liability company ( Ltd.)
- an insurance company
C4

На другата година, за голям мой ужас, Пондьо беше пак мой

ученик. Не само това, а и партията на баща му дойде на власт и той
зае видна служба в градеца. Пристигна Пондьо мазен, ухилен и със
сини очила. И още по-тъп. Мъчих го, въртях го, усуквах го дано
изкопча нещо от него – не ще и не ще! Пак му писах слаби бележки за
срока. Тогава пък тръгнаха околийският началник, приставът,
акцизният, председателят на околийското бюро, депутатът и трима
детективи. Изредиха се, знаеш, един след друг и ми дадоха да разбера
недвусмислено, че или Пондьо трябва да мине, или пък аз да си
замина. Мислих, мислих: четири деца имам, нито къща, нито имот
някакъв, а посред зима къде да ходя? Писах му пак тройките и се
отървах временно. За да не се излагам поне пред учениците си, виках
го у дома да го занимавам безплатно, та дано каже нещо, кога го вадя
на урок. Тъй вървя работата цели три години, защото партията на
баща му управлява толкова. Пондьо мънка, аз помагам и се потя, той
мънка, аз го подсещам и накрая пиша тройката. Като паднаха от власт,
аз се окуражих отново и пак му писах двойките. Че като ме емнаха
тогава: бре анонимни писма, бре клюки ... Анархист съм бил,
дъновист съм бил, рушвети съм взимал, в разврат съм потънал и какво
ли не!
Наш Пондьо
Чудомир

С5

Отвсякъде се затичаха хора. От колата се измъкна убиецът.

Беше младо момче, без никакви косми, но набръчкано като бабичка.
Някои се опитваха да вдигнат баща ми, но повечето се натрупаха
около момчето. Един го хвана за яката, друг го блъсна с юмрук по
врата. Изглеждаха като побеснели. Момчето се тресеше като
парцалена кукла. После се хвърли по лице на разкаляния асфалт,
скубеше косата си и виеше, но аз разбрах, че се преструва. Хората се
отдръпнаха отвратени, някои мрачно отминаха. През цялото време аз
не помръднах.
Качиха баща ми на една случайна кола. Видях разбитата му
глава, знаех, че е мъртъв. Но никой не ме забеляза, никой не разбра, че
съм с него. Един милиционер отведе момчето с колата, тълпата бавно
се разпръсна. Само там, дето беше паднал татко, на асфалта, се
червенееше малко петно. Най- сетне и аз си тръгнах. Прекосих като
насън страшната улица и поех към дома. Колкото и да бях сломена
вътрешно и убита, нито за миг не забравих, че съм с новото палто.
Просто се движех като мъртвец с ново палто, едва премествах краката
си, крачка по крачка, все едно накъде.
Не помня как съм се върнала у дома, какво съм казала на мама.
Помня само, че лицето и стана бяло като тесто, но очите и бяха съвсем
пусти. Нямаше никаква мъка в тях, но и никаква радост, нищо освен
пустота.

Бариерата
Павел Вежинов
С6

Всъщност Неси нямаше неща, които всички други хора

имаха.Така например той нямаше детство. Дали наистина в тая крехка
възраст у децата не се образуват именно ония неща, които му
липсваха. Чувствата например? Въображението? Или пък съвестта,
която всички единодушно твърдяха, че му липсва?
 Той все по- често сядаше в малката квартална градинка,
внимателно наблюдаваше децата, които щъкаха по алеите- децата,
които крещяха, които се блъскаха, които си издърпваха от ръцете
играчките, които се цапваха внезапно с детските си юмручета и след
това надаваха неистов рев- и удареният, и побойникът. Никак не
разбираше как това може да предизвика толкова умиление във
възрастните хора, които ги пазеха.”Всъщност- мислеше той- децата по
нищо не се различават от възрастните, само дето са по- откровени в
своите действия. Какво свястно нещо може да се образува у тях,
когато целите кипяха в стихията на своите лудории и пакости?”
Изведнъж той загуби всякакъв интерес към децата. Просто не
заслужаваше да си губи времето с тях, там нямаше да намери нищо.
Стоеше умислен в ранните утрини пред прозореца, дишаше по навик
дълбоко и силно. По навик, наистина, иначе що за глупост да се
грижиш за това жалко и тленно човешко тяло, което, така или иначе,
годините неминуемо ще отмъкнат в гроба. Така мислеше той.

Белият гущер
Павел Вежинов

С7

“Ама ще кажат, че ние лъжеме като цигани! Добре де, даже и да

лъжеме като цигани, кой друг ще те излъже с хубаво бъдеще, ако не
сме ние. Мигар е малко това да излъжеш човека с хубаво бъдеще, с
хубава невеста и с много пари!Кой ще те тебе излъже по тоя начин,
ако не сме ние!”
Жената млъкна, умълчаха се и другите циганки, сякаш тоя
въпрос за хубавото бъдеще бе отправен към сержанта и чакаха той да
се появи на прозореца и да им отговори. Но сержантът не им
отговори, през това време той подаде протокола на патрула за подпис,
човекът с откраднатия кон прочете, запротестира, че трябва да плаща
обезщетение на един голтак циганин заради някакво клъцнато ухо, че
трябва да плаща, щото са му откраднали коня, взе си той капата, без
да тури подпис под протокола, и тръгна да слиза по скимтящите под
нозете му дървени стълби, като бълваше змии и гущери. Със змии и
гущери патрулът разпръсна циганките, скупчени пред съвета, отвърза
коня и го поведе подир себе си, а циганките се скупчиха и на свой ред
почнаха да бълват подире му змии и гущери. По едно време жената на
конекрадеца попита:” Че лошо ли щеше да му е на коня да го
откраднат! Че тоя кон с нас свят щеше да види и да си поживее
живота той с нас!”

Всички и никой
Йордан Радичков

конекрадец – horse-thief, horse-stealer, (Am horse-lifter

бълвам змии и гущери – shower abuses (against), call down fire and
brimstone

С8

-Отраснали сме заедно с Момчил, Маноловия син. Един ден

преди много години се къпехме в реката и видяхме, че сме различни.
Оттогава се свенях от него и ме теглеше да го видя. Миналата пролет
разбрах как идват децата на света. И оттогава исках той да е баща на
децата ми. Хубаво ми беше да го посрещам във воденицата, хубаво ми
беше да излизам горе, на високата планина, и да го виждам край
овцете му. Когато знаех, че ще дойде, обличах най – милата си руба,
когато знаех, че ме слуша, пеех най – милите си песни. А сега дойде
Манол. Погледна ме и аз онемях. Той дойде при мене, както цар иде
при слугинята си, приближи се, както вълкът приближава агнето.
Говореше ми, че къщата му е празна, че животът му минава, че иска
да има още синове и дъщери. И аз се преклоних на рамото му. И хем
той стоеше над мене и аз не можех да отида против волята му, хем
стоях нависоко, а той стоеше под мене и гледаше нагоре. Бях като
една, която сънува. Обич ли е това, отче,или магия?
Що можех да и кажа? Що знаех аз за обичта и защо дойде тя при
мене? Рекох и, както би рекъл и баща и:
- Всичко е от Бога. Питай сърцето си.
А тя ме гледаше с отворени, ясни очи, в които нямаше срам и
разкаяние. И ми рече полека:
Знам, че е грехота, ала ако питах сърцето си, бих ги взела
.и двамата.

Време
разделно .
Антон Дончев
Notes:
Примерен превод:

“Momchil, Manol’s son and I grew up together. One day, many

years ago, we were bathing in the river and we saw that we were different.
From that time I became shy of him, and I was drawn to see him. Last
spring I found out how children come into the world. And from that day I
wanted him to be the father of my children. I was happy to welcome him to
the water-mill, and I was happy to go up in the high mountain and see him
beside his sheep. When I knew that he was coming, I put on the garments I
loved best, when I knew that he was listening to me, I sang my dearest
songs. And now Manol has come. He looked at me and I was struck dumb.
He came to me as a king comes to his maidservant; he approached me as
the wolf approaches the lamb. He spoke to me and told me that his house
was empty, that his life was passing, that he wanted to have more sons and
daughters. And I leaned against his shoulder. And he stood above me, so
that I could not go against his will, yet at the same time I stood higher, and
he stood beneath me, and looked up. I was like one who was dreaming. Is
that love, Father, or magic?”
What could I say to her? What did I know of love? And why had she
come to me? I said to her what her father would have said, “Everything
comes from God. Ask your heart.”
And she looked at me with clear, open eyes in which there was no shame
and no repentance. And she said to me slowly, “I know that it is a sin, but if
I asked my heart, I would take both of them.”

С9

Нуждата от оправдание не възникна така бързо, както Иван

мислеше в последно време. Отдалечеността и годините, прекарани в
климатичния интернат, боледуването, което го правеше по-различен,
бяха помогнали в известна степен да постигне целта си. Разкаянието
го навестяваше само в случаите, когато раздрънкания москвич,
скърцайки и подскачайки по неравния път, влезеше в двора на
интерната. Иван изпитваше смесени чувства на срам и състрадание.
Седеше до майка си и баща си на пейката, предназначена за гости,
ядеше полека от домашните сладки, пиеше от бозата, която винаги
носеха, и се надяваше никой да не го види в тоя момент. Наивният
стремеж на родителите му да внесат домашния дух в сивия безличен
живот на санаториума му се струваше обидно глупав. Иван нямаше
нужда от всичко това и въздъхваше с облекчение едва когато
москвичът се загубеше зад завоя. Отново можеше да се завърне към
онова, което му даваше сила – тук, сред всички деца, поставени при
равни условия, доминираше онзи, който се осланяше само на себе си.
Съвсем рано Иван разбра, че опорната точка за личността трябва да
бъде в нея.
В първите минути след заминаването на близките му той наистина
бе щастлив. Угризенията идваха малко по-късно. Той започваше да се
съмнява, да страда, че може би ги е огорчил, да се обвинява, че е лош
и неблагодарен, да търси начин да изкупи вината си.

Синът на Мария
Светослав Мичев
С10

От единадесет часа чаках, вече беше дванадесет и четвърт, а той

все не идваше.Масата бе застлана с бяла покривка, празните чинии
светеха на нея, до всяка бе поставена снежнобяла салфетка.
В чест на Георг Хених майка ми бе приготвила лек бульон и
някакво ястие със сложен сос и чешки кнедли.
На масата горяха свещи. Майка ми прибърсваше бюфета всяка
втора минута с чиста кърпа. Баща ми пушеше цигара и уж четеше
вестник, но от половин час насам погледът му бе забит на едно и също
място и при всеки лек шум в коридора се надигаше от стола.
Георг Хених щеше да ни гостува за първи път. Всеки от нас
имаше основания да се вълнува. Баща ми- защото сърцето му се
късаше от жал по стареца и дейната му натура се бунтуваше при вида
на едно човешка същество, което, примирено с обстоятелствата,
умира всеки ден по малко. На него много му се искаше да откъсне
дядо Георги от жалкото ежедневие, да го разнообрази, да му достави
някаква радост. Но как? Той вадеше джобния си часовник всяка втора
минута, обръщаше глава към вратата, повдигаше се от стола и
сигурно му се искаше, както и на мен, да хукне към улица “ Волов”, за
да види какво става.
 Във фамилното чувство на майка ми зееше огромна дупка. Бяха
я пробили най- близките и роднини. Вече десета година родителите и
се държаха така, сякаш дъщеря им е жива погребана. Живееха само на
стотина километра от София, а бяха толкова далече, колкото ако се
намираха на Северния полюс.

Балада за Георг Хених

Виктор Пасков

кнедли - dumplings
дупка-hole, pit- the road is full of (pot-)holes- a bullet-hole-keyhole
- a slot- a hollow, cavity- a gap-a burrow (of a fox, hare)- a den, lair (of a
bear)- a mouse-hole
IDM – a mere nobody; a second fiddle (последната дупка на кавала)

С11

Нещо странно има в хорото: уж всички стъпват в един ритъм,

правят движения едни и същи, а всеки в играта е неповторим: един се
пъчи, като че хорището е негово; втори стъпва предпазливо; трети “
бие” стъпалата отвисоко, без да мисли какво мачка, а четвърти плахо
се извива. Един полюлява рамене, друг- бедра; кой каквото има, пуща
го в играта, показва истинското си лице, проявява истинското си
сърце. И гледаш как маските човешки падат, как покривалата се
събличат и пред тебе се появяват неочаквани лица, неподозирани
характери, които изживяват в ритъма на играта себе си, освобождават
се от себе си. Защото танцът е не само мускулно, а преди всичко
вътрешна движение, една и з п о в е д, целителна и облекчителна. И
защото при танца човекът си признава неща, които никога не назовава
с думи- нито пред себе си, нито пред останалите хора.
Ето защо, като научих от моя познайник Колю Фъртуната, че в
Царимир ще има събор, оставих си работата, качих се на таксито му и
тръгнах. Денят бе топъл и душен. Като наближихме Царимир,
движението се сгъсти, но затова пък просналите се край пътя зелени
простори излъчваха свежест и прохлада. Напъвах се да чуя звуците на
хорото, но не долавях ни тъпан, ни дявол.

Събор в Царимир
Николай Хайтов
С12

Уличката беше тъмна и крива. Звездната светлина се отразяваше

в късовете стъкла и в парчетата от стомни, които лъщяха между
калдъръма. В краката на лекаря подскочи жаба, на едно място
замириса на коприва. Котка се мушна под някаква врата, едно куче
започна да го лае. Стъпките на Янакиев отекваха с равномерните
удари на неговия бастун между стените на заспалите къщи. Когато
наближи дългата трапецовидна къща, стори му се, в тъмнината се
мярна силует и безшумно изчезна в уличката.
Янакиев отвори вратата и влезе в тесния, малко наклонен двор. В
преддверието зад прозорците слугинята беше сложила лампа.
Светлината падаше върху тревясалите плочи и върху стъпалата пред
входа, лъчите унило достигаха пейката, на която при хубаво време
болните чакаха реда си. Там и сега седяха двама души. Лампата
огряваше краката им, обути в цървули. Мисълта, че пак трябва да
преглежда нечисти тела, го разгневи. Днес поради пазарния ден пред
къщи имаше цял керван селски коли. До два часа следобед бе
преглеждал селянки и селяни, деца, които пищяха в кабинета и
плачеха в чакалнята, беше оперирал абсцеси, беше се карал на болни,
за дето са ходили при разни фелдшери и баби, преди да дойдат при
него.
Той се спря за секунда и каза категорично и строго:
- Ако сте дошли за преглед, елате утре. По това време не
преглеждам!
Иван Кондарев
Емилиян Станев

С13

Раменете му бяха запазили атлетическата си осанка, бухналата

коса беше същата, само леко посивяла и слегната, поради което ушите
му изглеждаха пораснали.
 Той подкара без да предупреди. Като сменяше скоростите под
сребристото му сако се размърдваше торс, от който лъхаше здраве.
Преместих се към другия край на седалката, за да разгледам по-добре
Васил, и забелязах още нещо – шията му се беше издължила,
някогашната линия на профила, която издаваше непреклонен нрав, бе
изгубила изразителността си. Другото, което ме разтревожи, беше
постоянната скептична усмивка, изкривила интелигентските устни и
страните му, пригодили се към тази усмивка.
Докато мислех за всичко това, Васил понечи да ме заприказва,
но завладя вниманието му. Забравил ме, той задмина без мигач един
тъмносин мерцедес. Направи и друго – вместо да продължи със
същата скорост, забави посред пътя, спря и ме покани да се преместя
при него. Мерцедесът изсъска на сантиметри от нас, а като се
настаних до Васил, той беше порозовял, тракна вратата, защото аз не
я затворих добре, и се впусна с луда бързина. Озадачи ме хазартната
страст, с която изпревари мерцедеса. Не ми остана време за
размишление, толкова близо прелетяхме край мерцедеса, че затворих
очи. Когато погледнах, Васил беше се отпуснал, следеше в огледалото
победената кола, после попита:
- Пеша ли мислеше да се прибираш? – Усмивката му стана
саркастична, ироничната жилка в гласа охлади радостта ми от
неочакваната среща.

Колкото по-тъмна е нощта

Арманд Барух
С14

Ти си страшно нетърпелив. Нетърпеливи са твоите чувства,

които призовават да бъдат съобщени по- скоро, по- скоро,
нетърпеливи са мислите ти, които настояват да си отидат от теб и да
срещнат своите приятели и противници, нетърпеливо е тялото ти,
което иска доказателства за твоето съществуване.
Поради това твоите дела са изопачени от нетърпеливостта.
Всичко това трябва да стане по-бързо, сякаш времето е твой враг и те
преследва безпощадно, сякаш утре сутрин ще настъпи краят на света
и ти си пропилял живота си.
Това не е вярно: ти раздаваш ценно спестените секунди с
разхищаващата щедрост на всеки срещнат, като общителността те
превръща в лекомислен прахосник на време, докато тръгнеш и отново
бързаш по- нататък. Това е просто механизмът на твоя живот. Дори и
да искаше, ти не би могъл да осмисляш своите идеи дълбоко и
подробно, тъй като те могат да ти се откъснат като бързи видения, и
щом като ти им предлагаш време и пространство, те сами се
унищожават. Ти живееш в тяхната родилна треска и допускаш да
бъдеш въодушевяван от техния темп, без да мислиш за целта, за
резултата.
Ти живееш, за да избухнеш.
Ти не можеш да се приближиш, ти тичаш; ти не се изкачваш, ти
не се докосваш, а се втурваш.
Ти си нетърпелив при даването и вземането, бърз като длъжник
и като кредитор и това ти отнема мъдростта и спокойствието, мъката и
чакането и може би трайността на връзката. Твоето нетърпение е най-
страстно търсене на твоето търпение.

Есета
Георги Марков

С15

В 1943г., напротив, смъртта на цар Борис разтърси една нация,

която, макар и разклатена от световните събития и разделена по много
въпроси, все още се радваше на ред и на непокътнат държавен строй.
Внезапно смъртта на царя разкри на всички безнадеждността на
положението. И погребението на Борис се превърна тогава в символ:
като, че ли цялата нация се отправи да присъства на собственото си
опело.
Мъчно би било да се опише другояче необикновения народен
изблик на скръб и проявлението на неовладяна мъка, каквито не бяха
виждани никога в България. През дните преди опелото в “ Св.
Александър Невски “ и погребението в Рилския манастир огромни
тълпи се придвижваха мълчаливо към площада пред храм- паметника,
чакайки търпеливо реда си да влязат и се поклонят пред покойния цар.
Жените не се и опитваха да сподавят риданията си; мъжете не се
срамуваха да плачат открито; пушките, вдигнати “за почест!”,
трепереха в ръцете на войниците.
Тържественото държавно погребение се състоя на 5 септември.
Дълга процесия последва ковчега пеша, от “ Св. Александър Невски”
и през улиците, забулени с траурни знамена, до Централната гара. Там
чакаше погребалният влак, който щеше да отнесе тленните останки на
царя до Рилския манастир.
Този ден в столицата не можеше да се види лице, което да не е
обляно от сълзи. По пътя на кортежа хората в тълпата сваляха
почтително шапки и се кръстеха. Мълчаливият въпрос, който се
четеше по всички устни, сякаш можеше да се долови навсякъде: “
Защо ни изоставяш сега? Какво ще стане сега с България?”

Корона от тръни
Стефан Груев

С16
Тъй като любопитството към всичко, що бе свързано с живота
на Елена, не го оставяше дори в тоя момент, Бенц почна да разглежда
портретите. Повечето бяха стари семейни снимки, но между тях
имаше и такива, които го развълнуваха. Тия захвърлени портрети бяха
за него като история, разкриваща узряването на един чаровен образ.
Елена бебе, учудена от света. Елена момиченце, ефирно и нежно
създание, като децата в приказките. Елена на четиринадесет години, в
моряшкия костюм и поза на осъзнато кокетство. Елена в муселинова
рокля и широкопола сламена шапка, с тайнствен поглед, устремен в
първите миражи на любовта ... Всичко това бе тъй мило и скъпо за
Бенц, щото той не можеше да не почувствува сълзи в очите си.
Сладостен и неизразим възторг му пречеше да откъсне поглед от
снимките. Той прекара в това състояние повече от час.
Един внезапен шум от затваряне на пътната врата го стресна и
накара да се ослуша тревожно. Не чу нищо повече. Като че някой бе
влязъл в къщата, но това предположение му се стори съвсем
невероятно. Когато слугата си отиваше, Бенц видя с очите си от
прозорчето на тавана как заключи пътната врата и взе ключа със себе
си. Ала трясъкът от затварянето бе ясен и в това Бенц не можеше да се
съмнява. Той беше свикнал да различава тоя шум между всички
други.
Поручик Бенц
Димитър Димов

С17

Въпреки, че още след раждането на първото ни дете започнах да

гледам на жена си като на свръхчовек, окончателно се убедих в това
едва след като останах за няколко дена сам с него… и останалите две,
които ни се родиха междувременно.
Никога не сме планирали да бъдем многодетно семейство. Аз
дори не си спомням да съм планирал да се женя. Всичко стана толкова
бързо. Един ден срещаш невероятно красиво момиче в коридора на
университета, предупредителният звънец в главата ти, който не е
обаждал толкова отдавна, ти казва да бъдеш внимателен, но ти не му
обръщаш внимание, казваш “ здравей, аз съм еди –кой -си” / или
какъвто там е твоят начин да се запознаваш с невероятно красиви
момичета/ и изведнъж- тряаас!- двамата сте заобиколени от огромно,
шумно и мацащо всичко около себе си с картофено пюре домочадие.
Не ме разбирай погрешно. Да имаш дете е едно от най- хубавите
неща, които могат да се случат в живота на един мъж, но освен
благословия децата са и логистичен кошмар, израстващ върху
несъвършенството на социалните норми, които ни пречат да ги
оставяме сами в къщи с голяма купа храна, достатъчна за поне една
седмица. Със сигурност си чувал това и преди, но ще повторя: когато
станеш родител, дори най- простички и тривиални нещица като това
да отидеш на кино, да заминеш на триседмичен пиянски фест в
Гърция и да прекараш няколко последователни вечери с 19- годишни
дебютантки в Какао, Ескейп или която и да е модната дискотека в
момента, стават, меко казано, невъзможни.
Не искам да си приписвам фалшиви заслуги. Естествено, по-
голямата част от тежестта, свързана с отглеждането на децата, понася
жена ми. Преди да свържем съдбите си, както казват във все още
омразните и на двама ни сериали, тя обича да си поспива до
единайсет, да обикаля новите клубове и да обира парите на общите ни
приятели на билярд. Днес нещата стоят по- различно.

Татко наш
Калин Велев

С18

Трето правило на гения:

Ако си гений, а дори и да не си, докато си правиш приживе
музея и някой майстор на фаянс ти рече, че тази каменна плоча не се
съчетава с онзи стар пън, приличащ на дракон, че за колона не могат
да се използват автомобилни гуми или изобщо по какъвто и да било
начин прояви съмнение, че си луд – просто вземи камък и убий
майстора. Защото иначе той ще те убие (особено ако си в България).
Вътре в самия театър-музей има огромни пана, които
изобразяват, но не са най-великите му картини. Истината е, че
репродукциите изглеждат по-съвършени от истинските платна. Точно
в това се състои шегата на гения – тиражирай несъвършенството на
гланцирана хартия и ще имаш пари. Тиражирай гениалността на
гланцирана хартия и ще имаш мит. Дали е направил и двете. Дали е
направил и двете?
Посетителите на музея също са глупави. Глупави са като крави,
които случайно са стъпили върху платното на художник. С очите си
видях как туристите снимаха на тълпи всичко, което им приличаше на
картина или инсталация, включително и един пожарен кран. Вярно,
свръхмодерен пожарен кран, от пластмаса с цвят на слонова кост и с
фалическа форма, но все пак пожарен кран. Дали и Гала сигурно се
въртят в гробовете си като вентилатори. От смях.
ПСИХЕДАЛИЧНО
Мартин Карбовски
Сп. Егоист,2003

С19

Стават боксьори и хокеисти, съпруги с деца и с белопердести

кухни, някои от тези щангисти и футболисти забогатяват наистина,
обграждат се от обществото с обич и известност, влизат в едно волво
като това тука, купуват на бившото Анче от махалата палто за три
хиляди лева и ето, след някоя друга година от тяхното хлапенце
започва да се излъчва невидимата и непогрешима миризма на принче.
Всъщност – смая се той – всички имат някакъв шанс, господи! Борци,
пианисти, професори, летци, офицери, търговци. Заварчици, бармани,
кофражисти. Тогава как – изтръпна Иван Борозанов – може да се
говори за равенството сериозно? Ах, равенство няма – ужаси се
момчето от мисълта си – и няма цивилизация, в която изобщо да е
възможно. И как – ако зная, че оставам зад същата изгнила ограда, в
същата окъртена къща, със същите изкривени обувки, с които бързам
по улицата, за да не се виждат – как ще се бия жестоко на ринга? Ще
се лиша от всичко останало заради топката, щангата, цифрите,
песента, стика и шайбата в хокея – за какво? За да си остана където
бях ли? Да няма лудия блян по онова, което околните толкова просто
си притежават, а аз да тренирам, да уча, да свиря – лудо и на поразия?
Глупости ... И как – ако зная, че никога няма да падна по-ниско от
другите, някой ще ме накара да си помръдна и пръста? Защо? О,
такива идиотщини ще ви измисля и така ще се забавлявам, като ги
върша – където и когато си искам – стига само да ми гарантирате
равенството.

Принцовете
Дончо Цончев
кофражист – shuttering/casing worker

С20

Колко непокорни дъщери са чували от бащите си след

изчерпването на разумните аргументи за усмиряване онова последно,
завършващо и неподлежащо на оспорване: “ Докато живееш в моето
семейство и те издържам, ще правиш каквото ти казвам ”. Може да не
ти го кажат, а да ти го покажат, като ти спрат примерно издръжката,
или поне ти намалят дневните. Пипи обаче се издържа сама / и май е
единственото дете в литература, която може да се похвали със същото
/. Къщата, вярно, и е наследство, но парите са спечелени от
плаванията. Макар с едно изречение коварно да съобщава, че
всъщност и ги е дал баща и, аз съм за по- свободното тълкувание- дал
и ги е, за да и плати като моряк от екипажа, а не просто ей така.
Освободена от майка си и близкото присъствие на баща си, пък и
финансово независимо, Пипи няма друг път, освен да върви срещу
конвенционалната патриархална логика. Кратко сравнение с
приятелката и Аника показва какво имам предвид. Аника е
миловидна, кротка, спретнато облечена, изчервява се и плаче. Точно
каквото патриархалното общество очаква от момиченцата. Пипи е
екстравагантна, смела, нахално червенокоса и луничава, и не плаче.
Аника ходи на училище, без да се замисля каква работа ще и свърши.
Така трябва. У Пипи няма подобно преклонение пред авторитетите.
Учителката е обявена за скучна и услугите и са отказани. И какво като
всички спят с глава на възглавницата? На нея повече и харесва да
сложи там краката си, за да мърда свободно с пръсти. Аника се мъкне
навсякъде с братчето си Томи. От малка я свикват да се държи здраво
за другия пол, защото е неспособна да се справя само. Пипи ходи сама
където си пожелае. Интересното е, че Томи винаги е заразен от
ентусиазма на Пипи, но винаги идва момент, когато лигавата Аника се
уплашва от нещо и се разревава, а на Томи и Пипи им се налага да се
връщат и да я успокояват. В крайна сметка да се разревеш пред трудна
ситуация е човешко, но пък е и най- лесното, което можеш да
направиш. Интелигентността по дефиниция е умение да се справяш с
непознати ситуации, реването никъде не присъства в нея.

Girl Power
Елена Кодинова

С21

Освен че по дрехите посрещат, от тях зависи самочувствието и

здравето ни. Те са в контакт с най-големия орган на тялото ни –
кожата, която е с площ 1,6 – 1,8 кв.м. и е 9% от теглото ни. Кожата е
границата между организма и околната среда, които обменят
вещества, механични, температурни въздействия. Дрехите създават
специфичен микроклимат и ни предпазват като остров сред морето на
външния свят. Тъканите, в зависимост от вида и от обагрянето си,
пропускат и отразяват в различна степен светлината. Бялата,
небесносинята, жълтата и светлозелената коприна е прозрачна за
ултравиолета. Плътните и тежки тъкани, особено в черен, червен и
виолетов цвят, са по-непроницаеми. Най-прозрачен е полиамидът,
който пропуска 70% от лъчите не само през процепите, но и през
самите влакна. Синтетиката свети под влияние на слънчевата
радиация. Интензивността на луминисценцията зависи от материала и
успешно се използва от младите дами в дискотеките.
Има любопитни изследвания, според които облекло, създаващо
положителен заряд, пречи на проникването на кислорода в тялото.
Високият електростатичен заряд на материите от синтетични влакна
има лечебен ефект при някои болни. От тези платове се прави
медицинско бельо за страдащи от остри и хронични полиартрити,
ревматизъм и болести на периферните нерви (радикулит, ишиас). При
триене това бельо става източник на отрицателно заредени йони,
които действат на нервните окончания и притъпяват болката.

Сп.ГАРД,2003 Лилия
Златарска
С22

…..Пътувайки в таксито към Интернет-клуба, започвам да

обмислям стратегии и планове, и откривам, че нищо не ми хрумва.
Човек представа няма как би приключило едно нещо, ако няма с какво
да го сравни. Както и да е, идеята беше да се включа в Интернет като
начинаещ юзър. Със себе си не взимам нито един диск със софтуер,
даже не си взимам торбата с магиите, защитите срещу лошите и
личния си Интернет сървайвъл кит, който включва няколко браузъра
за DOS, един от пълните варианти на Unix и всякакви други благинки.
Пристигам на Славейков, купувам си първото кафе от Макдонълдс и
радостен влизам в Столична библиотека, където се намира клубът.
Животът в Интернет-клубът си тече по строгите правила. Хората
идват, чатят, проверяват си пощата, изправят се ядосани или
усмихнати, и си излизат. В началото си изпивам дневната доза
мултивитамини и се подготвям за дългото стоене. Към 15 часа е
първата ми почивка за обяд. Навън слънцето ме кара да съжалявам, че
не съм си взел очила, или поне скрийн-филтър.След кратко 15-
минутно лутане си избирам храна, която е малко по-различна от тази в
раницата, и пак се връщам. Бавно, но сигурно бюрото ми започва да
се запълва с всякакви боклуци, найлонови пликчета и хартии.
Загрижени, хората от клуба ми предоставят собствено кошче. Трогнат
съм. Към 18 часа изяждам кроасаните. В 6 часа обявявам за
приключен първия ден онлайн.

Оплетен в мрежата
Ценков
сп. Егоист,2002

С23

След 11 Септември, както обичат да казват хората без

въображение, нищо не е същото. Но хората без въображение по
изключение са прави: светът наистина застина в неназоваем ужас, а
вкусът ни към всякакъв вид изкуство започна да ни се струва
незначителен в сравнение с мащабите на тази немислима трагедия.
Медиите побързаха да обявят края на една епоха и началото на друга.
Дори холивудските продуценти вдигнаха нос от стъклото с нарязани
линийки и започнаха да пресмятат как трябва да се промени киното,
че да не нарани чувствата на основния си потребител –средния
американец.
В цялото това объркване най-зле, като че ли се почувстваха
художниците и визуалните артисти по принцип. От тях се очакваше да
коментират събитието скорострелно и с нужното смирение. Тъй като
работят с визия, те неминуемо са разгадали замисъла на терористите
докрай – да превърнат атаките от 11 септември в най-голямото
медийно зрелище, което историята познава; времето между двата
самолета дори беше изчислено така, че преди втория цялата
американска журналистика да се стече на мястото и да получи хубави
кадри на живо.
Ние всички, аз и ти, сме проникнати от спомена за този телевизионен
запис, излъчван хилядократно в следващите дни. Визуалните артисти
пък получиха нещо като травма, съзнавайки, че вече едва ли е
възможно да се създаде визуално произведение на изкуството, по-
въздействащо от този свръх реализъм. Съвпадението с подобни
холивудски сцени в дизастър-филмите също не беше случайно –
терористите използваха това клише, повтаряно на кино ad nauseam, и
го манипулираха съвършено, превръщайки го в гротескна реалност.
Накратко, 11 септември се оказа визуален факт, който направо
унищожи въображението, или поне го направи за известно време
жалко и излишно.

Михаил Романов
сп.Егоист

С24

Тапицираната с виолетов плат корона на кралицата-майка

Елизабет, над която се вижда прочутият диамант “Кохинор”, леко се
полюшва върху възглавницата, поставена върху ковчега и. Докато
погребалната церемония бавно върви през Лондон – от Уестминстър
към готическия параклис “Сейнт Джордж”, където Елизабет ще бъде
погребана, от всякъде се разнасят ръкопляскания. 25 крале и кралици,
32-ма членове на кралската фамилия и голяма част от световния
политически елит правят реверанси и поклони, докато ковчегът
минава покрай тях.
 Камбаната на Уестминстърското абатство удря 101 пъти. По
веднъж за всяка година от дългия живот на покойната. Принц Чарлз с
усилие сдържа сълзите си, а кралицата Елизабет ІІ сподавя мъката си,
като не проронва нито дума по време на церемонията.
В деня на самото погребение – 9 Април, един милион англичани
излезнаха из улиците на Лондон за последно “сбогом”. Дори 192-
мата гайдари, съпровождащи ковчега, не можеха да заглушат
последните им обяснения в любов. Нито търпението им от
предишните дни.
Британците наистина обичат кралица Елизабет. Тя е
последният представител на една епоха, в която короната е била
истински положителен символ на нацията. За разлика от сега, когато
скандалите за бъкингамските обитатели са доста повече от
позитивните случки в тях, поне според пресата.
Съдейки по коментарите и публикациите, кралицата-майка е
била сърдечен човек. За разлика от доста сдържаната и дъщеря –
сегашната кралица Елизабет ІІ, покойната е запомнена с топлотата,
усмивките, разбирането си към хората. Нацията помни, че тя е
останала в Лондон по време на бомбардировките през Втората
световна война – за да бъде със своя народ. Сега народът беше с нея в
последния и път.

Погребението на кралицата
В-к 168 часа, Април 2002

Buckingham Palace
Westminster Abbey
Houses of Parliament

погребален – funeral; funereal, funerary; mortuary

~ knell, toll
~a funeral/dead march
~a threnode, threnody (песен)
~hearse-cloth
~a burial service
~cerements (погребални одежди)
некролози - obituaries

С25
 Усети познатото чувство на разруха, тъга и самотност, сред
които остро проблясваше подозрението, че тя пак бе намерила някого
и навярно нямаше да държи сметка за приличието. Но мисълта за това
не го възмути, а само засили нуждата от нея. Въпреки своята леност и
паразитен живот тя бе запазила нещо от здравината на миналото си и
от дните, когато работеше в клиниката. Това бе навикът да мисли и да
се смее на себе си – горчивата мъдрост на издигнатото, но покварено
същество сред един свят, който загиваше. И той обичаше духа и,
защото тази мъдрост му липсваше. Един германец не можеше да
прояви никога нравствената сила на славяните – да се смее на себе си.
Фон Гайер излезе на улицата, запали цигара и тръгна към морето,
което сега беше тихо и синьо, а при залеза щеше да добие нови
цветове. Горещите часове на деня бяха преминали и слънцето
клонеше към хоризонта. Обзе го желание да се изкъпе и поплува, а
после да седне на брега и остане там, докато стане време за вечеря и
види отново Ирина. Куцайки бавно, той излезе от селището и тръгна
по една пътека през маслиновата гора към плажа зад хълма с
развалините, който бе забелязал на идване от моторната лодка. Между
клоните на маслиновите дървета прозираше кобалтовосиньо небе, а
при всяко възвишение блясваше ултрамариновата повърхност на
залива. Въздухът бе наситен с миризма на непознати субтропични
треви. Най-.сетне стигна до едно място, от което се виждаше целият
плаж.

Тютюн
Димитър Димов

кобалтово синьо – cobalt blue

кобалтово стъкло - smalt

С26

И тук опираме до въпроса, какво всъщност представляват

европейските измерения в образованието и във висшето образование
като частност, след като за тях няма специални разпоредби? Очевидно
и страните членки на ЕС, както и присъединяващите се страни, имат
твърде различни образователни практики и традиции, които до голяма
степен затрудняват взаимното признаване на дипломите и
квалификациите, и пречат на свободното движение на хора, стоки и
услуги, което е основното кредо на общността. Всъщност
европейските стандарти за висше образование, разработени за
нуждите на общността, не съществуват. Затова не е случаен и фактът,
че доколкото ги има, европейските директиви са съсредоточени главно
в областта на взаимното признаване на образователните сертификати
и квалификации, където т.нар. регулирани професии (архитекти,
лекари и юристи), за които има разпоредби, могат да се разглеждат
само като частен случай. Придобиването на квалификация и
образователна степен обаче е само крайната точка от дълъг и сложен
образователен процес, който има своята национална специфика, и
затова пътят към взаимното признаване на квалификациите е дълъг и
доста труден. Той преминава през създаването на общоевропейско
образователно пространство. Идеята за създаването на такова общо
пространство се избистри през последните две години и до голяма
степен това се дължи на предизвикателствата, които глобализацията
на висшето образование постави пред националните образователни
системи.

Европейските стандарти за висше образование –

движеща се мишена
Анна-Мария Тотоманова

Education:
a BA – a Bachelor of Arts
a BS – a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Surgery
a BSAdv – a Bachelor of Science in Advertising
an MA – ( a Master’s degree)
an MBA – (a Master of Business Administration)
a PhD – (Doctor of Philosophy)

a freshman, a sophomore, a junior, a senior, the campus, the class of

(year) - випуск
С27

Но архитектурата никога не е била дело само на архитектите и

строителите. Тук винаги си е казвал думата и тоя, за когото тя е
създавана. В такъв смисъл архитектурата напомня чуждоземно
растение, което, пренесено в друга страна, или полинява и изсъхва,
или се приспособява към новите климатични условия. Русенската
архитектура е такова именно приспособило се към местните условия
растение. Доскоро младите архитекти махаха пренебрежително с ръка
и се зачервяваха, когато им се заговореше за старите русенски сгради:
оставете тая еклектика, какво хубаво виждате в нея? И не можеха да
се дадат сметка, че именно еклектиката, подборът и приспособяването
на класическите ордери е създал тоя топъл, провинциален и
великденски вид на русенските централни улици и площади. Нашият
съгражданин не е могъл да понася мрачните барокови фасади на
стария виенски дворец Хофбург, нито грандиозните, но потискащи
планове на римските дворци от 18 век. Той е приел като по-поносими
човешките пропорции, леките и приветливи съчетания на формите,
единството в разнообразието. Украсявайки своя дом с неокласическа
стенопис, русенецът е търсил връзка и с възрожденската живопис, с
познатите декоративни алафранги. Каква в същност е русенската
стара архитектура – барокова, ампир, ренесанс, сецесион? Трудно е да
се каже. Напоследък журналистчетата, които обичат силните изрази и
изненадващите открития, обявиха Русе за бароков град. А Русе е
толкова бароков, колкото всеки град, строен в края на миналия век, в
тоя кръстопът на архитектурата, когато барокът се освобождава от
почти всичко бароково и се превръща в лесен преход към
сантименталния сецесион. Всъщност в Русе могат да се видят всички
стилове, но смесени, сдобрени и усмихнати. И в това е цялата магия
на Русе.
Когато Русе беше Русчук
Георги Чендов

Styles in architecture:
Empire (ампир)
Romanesque
Norman (Brit.)
Gothic
Tudor
Elizabethan
Georgian
Victorian
Art-Deco
Art-Nouveau
Modern
Contemporary
classical, original, imposing, majestic, decorative, ornate, avant-garde,
medieval, ancient

D (1 – 27) Адаптирани български текстове

D1

Верният превод търси предимството да запази чертите на чуждия

автор и чрез уважението към него да внесе нещо ново и по–различно в
живия контекст на съвременната родна литература.
Преводачът, независимо от творческия си ранг, независимо дали е
поет – преводач, или преводач – преводач,независимо дали от свое
име, или от името на читателите, няма никаква основание да
“авторизира автора”, произволно да го съкращава или многословно да
обяснява неговата мисъл.
Верният поетически превод не е културна информация, а ново
естетическо въздействие.
Верният превод трябва да запази не само в общи рамки формата и
съдържанието на творбата, но и ония детайли, които придават аромата
на поетическото цвете.
Ако има изкуство в превода, то е умението да се доближим до
оригиналния текст и да го преизразим. Нали тъкмо в това е
истинският смисъл на преводаческата дейност – да стигнем до
художествените стойности на оригиналното. В този смисъл дейността
на преводача не е само езикова.
Дори да се мъчи повече от чуждия автор, преводачът може само да
излъска или потъмни създадените вече художествени ценности, да им
направи хубава отливка или подобие, да дозира,да отнема и да
привнася. И ето че тук се губи мярката – някои си мислят, че
привнесеното е изкуство, равно на авторовото. При поетическия
превод стойността на привнесеното обикновено е по–малка от
стойността на изоставеното.

Несъответствия
Димитър Стефанов
D2
Наближаваше Димитровден, голям празник и имен ден на него
и на благоверната му съпруга, стрина Мита. Тъпка, нервна и бърза
като невестулка, стрина Мита заедно с двете си дъщери
предприемаше генерално приготовление и почистване на къщата.
Почнаха от сряда. Всъщност те бяха почнали от преди два месеца
новите пердета за гостната, но в сряда изнесоха вече на двора юргани,
дюшеци, пътеки и покривки и ги тупаха, лъскаха печките, измиха
дъските из стаите и салончето и запряха котката в зимника, за да не
цапа с мръсните си крака по мокрото.
На другия ден стрина Мита ходи на пазар и купи два вида
бонбони – едните от 60 лева килото, а другите – шоколадени – от
скъпите. Като се върна, смеси ги наедно в бонбониерата. След това се
заловиха да лъскат дръжките на вратите и прозорците, избърсаха и
корнизите. Бай Митьо занесе двата виенски стола да се наплетат,
понеже бяха продънени, а дъщерите подреждаха цветята. Малката
почисти саксиите от угарките, които редовно, като в детска спестовна
касичка, спущаше баща и, а голямата избърса с мокър парцал едно по
едно листата на фикуса. Вечерта жените до късно бродираха
пердетата, а бай Митьо бавно и грижливо си изрязваше ноктите. В
събота гладиха и понеже някои съседки обичаха да надничат навред,
подредиха скрина и гардероба, свалиха от окачалката старите
панталони, каскета на баща си и вехтата кърпа за лице и ги занесоха
на тавана.
Имен ден
Чудомир

D3

По-късно разбрах, че не в разкош, а в бедност е тънел

Асеновград. Особено македонската махала, където смених няколко
квартири. Като се притури и онаследената ни от бога бедност, идеята
да издавам вестник “Фукарейшън” дойде естествена ката жаждата за
вода. Това бе илюстрован седмичник за хумор и сатира в тираж един
брой. Твърде рано ме разглези съдбата – бях едновременно главен
редактор, издател, художник и списувател на вестника.
Всъщност бях не главен, а гладен редактор. През два-три дена
прескачах до село за хляб с една от тези торби, която беше като парче
нива – на сиви и кафяви бразди. Такава беше съдбата и на останалите
гимназисти. Например снабдяването на бъдещия писател Хайтов беше
оскъдно. От глад или от виталност, помня как веднъж изяде туршията
на бъдещия професор по овощарство и печените картофи на един друг
бъдещ професор. А веднъж, бъдещият професор по лозорство Йордан
Иванов – тогава Даньо, беше изкъртил дюшемето на хазаина си, за да
търси падналите между дъските два лева. Той имаше изобретателен
ум. В училище при прегледите за чистота ни караха да си събуваме
единия крак. Живеехме в студени квартири, при това чешмите бяха
навън. Той се сети да си мием само единия крак и него да показваме
при прегледа. Често пъти някои с по-бавни рефлекси забравяха дали
левият или десният е годен за преглед и биваха изгонени.
С думи и без думи
(Срещи и разговори с Борис Димовски и неговите герои)
Нина Андонова

D4

Първите книги съдържали истории, стихове, съобщения за

исторически събития, молитви и текстове на закони. Писарите
издрасквали думите върху плочки от влажна глина. Когато изпичали
глината, тези плочки ставали твърди.
Египтяните правели книги по два начина. Грамоти и исторически
съчинения, които трябвало да издържат дълго, били писани върху
кожа. За обикновеното писмено съобщение бил достатъчен по – лек
материал. Това била вид хартия, правена от растението папирус. С
четка и мастило били изписвани думи върху дълги ивици папирус.
След това ивиците били навивани и държани в калъфи.
Гърците и римляните също имали ръчно написани книги, чиито
текстове пишели върху папирус. Купували го от Египет. Ако пък
нямали папирус, тогава използвали материал, който се наричал
пергамент.
Първият пергамент не бил създаден за книгите. Народите в Азия
го използвали преди около 3000 години за своите барабани. Правели
го от кожите на кози или телета, които омекотявали и ги търкали с
нож, докато станат достатъчно тънки. Влажният пергамент бил бял и
толкова здрав и жилав, че римляните използвали пергаментни ролки
за най – важните си текстове.
 В Средновековието християнските монаси също пишели на
пергамент, но не го правели на ролки. Те го нарязвали на еднакво
големи листа и ги зашивали от лявата страна. Тогава с перо и цветно
мастило преписвали върху тях стари текстове, например Библията
или молитви и пътеписи, или пък съобщения за природни чудеса.
Преписването отнемало много време, а пергаментът бил много скъп.

Първите книги
Из Детска енциклопедия

D5

Преди повече от хиляда години живял един млад китаец, който

много обичал да чете. Той трябвало да заема книги от приятелите си,
защото бил беден. По онова време всички книги били написани на
ръка, ето защо били много редки и скъпи. Младият китаец добре
разбирал, че неговите приятели не дават с голяма охота книгите си.
Той се чувствал много неудобно и се питал какво може да се направи,
та в бъдеще младите хора да не изпадат в такова неловко положение.
Когато пораснал и научил много неща, той изобретил
книгопечатането.
Първите книги били печатани така: върху дебело и гладко парче
дърво един резбар издълбавал текста на една цяла страница; този блок
след това бил използван, за да се отпечата страницата. По – късно
китайците използвали за всяка дума отделно парче дърво. Малките
парченца дърво можели да бъдат сложени в рамка и да бъдат
оформени като голям блок. Те били използвани – в различни
съчетания – отново и отново. По – късно някой създал писмени знаци
от метал. Това било значително откритие, защото металът бил по –
твърд и печатал по – точно от дървото. Книга, изцяло печатана с
метални парченца, била създадена в Корея през 1409г.
Гутенберг често бива наричан откривател на книгопечатането. Той не
го е открил,но е питежавал първата голяма печатница в Европа, която
печатала книги с подвижни букви. През 1454 г. той отпечатал своята
първа книга с подвижни букви – Библията. Той изобретил нещо
друго, много важно – подходяща метална сплав и добър метод за
произвеждане на букви.

Книгопечатането
 Из Детска енциклопедия

D6

Още от древни времена народите от цял свят са чествали началото

на новата година. В северните части на света тези празници
обикновено са през зимата, когато късите дни започват да се
удължават.
В древния Рим календарът на Цезар определил 1 януари за начало
на годината. Хората основно почиствали своите домове и ги
украсявали за новогодишния празник. На този ден децата получавали
подаръци. И днес за всички народи,които използват християнския
календар, нова година започва на 1 януари.
Мюсюлманският новогодишен празник се нарича Мухарам. Датата
на този празник е променлива, защото мюсюлманите използват
календар, които се опира на фазите на луната. Ето защо тяхната
година има само 364 вместо 365 дни. Мухарам продължава също като
еврейският новогодишен празник десет дни. На много места първият
ден започва много сериозно. Хората не се мият, мъжете не се бръснат
и се носи същото траурно облекло като на погребение. Привечер
всички излизат на улиците и си пожелават щастлива нова година.
Разменят си монети.
Според стария китайски календар традиционната нова година
започва на първия ден на първата луна. Според западния календар
това обикновено е ден от началото на месец февруари. Подготовката
за тържествата обикновено започва цял месец по – рано и празникът
продължава 15 дни. Къщите старателно се почистват. Вратите се
боядисват с червена боя, за да отблъснат лошите духове. Артисти и
музиканти устройват представления, свирят и пеят. Така е цели две
седмици. Тогава идва заключителният празник, празникът на
фенерите. Начело на шествието е дълъг дракон, носен от много хора.
Той не е замислен да плаши хората, а е символ на щастието и където
се появи,всички радостно запалват своите фойерверки.

Нова година
 Из Енциклопедия на обичаите и нравите

D7

Данъците били въведени за пръв път преди около 5500 години в

шумерските градове. В онези времена владетелят там бил
едновременно крал и върховен свещеник – почти като бог. Народът
давал на тази важна личност своята дан – жито, плодове, вълна,
изобщо една част от всичко,което служело за храна и облекло.
Отначало кралете с техните царедворци ще са живели с онова, което
доброволно им давали. Но по – късно вече било наредено на всеки
селянин, рибар и занаятчия колко трябва да даде. Това били първите
данъци.
Данъците създали възможност с част от стоките, които
населението не използва непосредствено за живеене, да се
осъществяват общи задачи за доброто на всички. Оттогава всички
правителства се опират на данъци, за да управляват своите страни.
Данъците довели и до писменост. Хората носели все повече и
повече стоки в складовете на краля, които се намирали в столицата.
Там всичко трябвало да бъде преброено и да се контролира дали всеки
си е издължил данъците. Ранните списъци за данъците показват
прости рисунки на животни,кошове с жито и други стоки –
чертичките означавали бройките. С тези малки рисунки в Шумер
започнало писането – от него се развила днешната писменост.
В хода на историята са събирани какви ли не странни данъци – за
лодки, за разводи, за прозорци, за залагания при конни състезания и
дори за правото да ce гласува.

Данъците

Из Енциклопедия на обичаите и нравите

D8

При кръстоносните походи през Средновековието рицарите обичат

да носят гербове. Отначало този знак е поставян върху дрехите, които
рицарите носят над доспехите си. Те използвали плащове, защото
металните доспехи лесно се нагряват от слънчевите лъчи.
Повечето гербове имат своя история.Те изобразяват птици, цветя,
лъвове, дракони, които играят важна роля в живота на рицаря. Гербът
е наследяван от следващите поколения.
Когато започва първият кръстоносен поход, папата нарежда на
воините си да носят като герб знака на кръста. Към него всеки по
желание прибавя и други знаци. Кръстът е знак,че носителят му е
християнин.
Идеята да се носят гербове много се харесва на благородниците.
Те украсяват с тях своите крепостни врати,нареждат да ги поставят
върху различни съдове и знамена. С течение на времето князете
назначават в дворовете си херолди, които познават традициите в тази
област. От тези херолди произлиза ХЕРАЛДИКАТА – науката за
гербовете, от която научаваме много за старите благороднически
родове.
Постепенно се създават поредица от правила за изработване на
гербове. Най – важното условие е: гербът трябва да се разпознава
отдалеч. И за цветовете има изисквания. Например златото и среброто
не трябва да се докосват помежду си. Това правило по – късно се
прилага и при европейските флагове – с едно изключение: на флага на
Ватикана златото и среброто се докосват.
В миналото гербът е символ, принадлежащ само на един
род.Същевременно много градове и страни си създават собствени
гербове и ги използват и до днес. Някои национални флагове
произлизат от гербове.

Гербът
Из Енциклопедия на обичаите и нравите .

D9
 Египтяните вярват, че котките имат девет живота. Цифрата девет е
свещена за тях, защото три пъти съдържа три, а три е свещено число
още от най – стари времена. Никой не може с точност да каже защо
хората му придават особено значение.
В много страни през древността цифрите имат магическо
значение. Например вавилонците възприемат числото седем като
свещено. Те смятат, че седмият син на един седми син притежава
свръхестествени сили.
За много японци и до днес някои числа означават щастие и
богатство, а други – нещастие. Това създава големи трудности за
телефонните служби, защото никой японец не желае да има
определени числа в своя телефонен номер. Дори когато някой не е
суеверен, той се съобразява със суеверни приятели или клиенти. От
друга страна, много хора там са готови да платят големи суми за едно
щастливо число. Нещастното число често се дава на чужденци,които
нямат такива предразсъдъци.
И цветовете, както и числата, са възприемани от много племена
като носещи щастие или нещастие. За някои индиански племена
червеното е лош, синьото е добър цвят. За мохамеданите зеленото е
свещен цвят. За древните гърци черното е цвят на смъртта. Това
вярване оказва голямо въздействие по – късно. Като знак за скръб и до
днес се носи черно облекло. В Китай,напротив,бялото е цвят на
смъртта.

Из История на Стария свят

D10

През 1863г. много английски футболни клубове се обединяват

в една лига и се определят твърди правила. Играта се разпространява
по цялата планета и е приета в програмата на Олимпийските игри.
Днес футболът е най – популярната игра в света. Тя се радва на
милиони привърженици защото изгражда твърдост на характера и
умение за действия в екип.
През 1823г. в Англия възниква една разновидност на
футболната игра. В училище на град Ръгби по време на игра един
ученик изведнъж престава да спазва футболните правила. Той хваща
топката с ръце, държи я здраво и се втурва към противниковата врата.
Когато играчите преодоляват изненадата си, си казват, че идеята на
това момче,съвсем не е толкова лоша. Оттогава се развива нова форма
на футбола,наречена ръгби. Във всеки отбор участват 15 играчи и е
много популярна в Англия.
По – късно ръгби е възприета от спортистите в САЩ и бързо се
разпространява из всички щати.Но едно важно правило е променено:
играчите могат не само да носят топката с ръце, но и да я хвърлят.
Днес по света се играят най – малко десет различни форми на
футбола. Но за олимпийските състезания по футбол важат едни и
същи правила за всички федерации.

Из Историята на футболната игра

D11

Веднъж в Назарет дошъл римски воин и обявил на жителите

му заповедта на римския император. “Израил повече не принадлежи
на евреите.Сега Израил е част от Римската държава. Всеки от вас е
длъжен да се върне в онзи град или в онова село, където по – рано е
живял със своите родители. Римските воини ще преброят всички и ще
запишат колко души живеят във всеки град или село. Такава е
заповедта на император Август “ – завършил пратеникът.
Йосиф чул думите на римлянина и като се върнал вкъщи,
започнал заедно с Мария да се готви за път към далечния град
Витлеем. Във Витлеем било многолюдно,хората идвали от всички
краища за преброяването. Те отивали в страноприемницата, за да
намерят място за нощуване. Затова, когато Йосиф и Мария
пристигнали в града, нямало вече свободни места в
страноприемницата. За да не нощуват под открито небе,отишли в
обора. Той бил постлан със слама, а по средата се намирали яслите, от
които се хранели животните.
Настъпила нощта.Всички жители на Витлеем заспали. Всички,
освен Йосиф и Мария.Щастливи,те седели един до друг, а Мария
държела на ръце току що родения си Син, който щял да направи
много хора щастливи.
Мария завила сина си в топла дреха и го положила в яслите.
Сега те били неговата люлка.
През тази нощ, недалеч от град Витлеем седели пастири. Те
разговаряли около огъня. Изведнъж от небето се спуснала светлина и
пастирите видели Ангел. “ Не бойте се – казал Ангелът. – Аз дойдох
да ви съобщя голяма радост. Сега във Витлеем ви се роди Спасител,
Който е Христос Господ. “

Раждането на Иисус
От Лука свето Евангелие, гл.1

D12

Самотата е най-тъжната равносметка на човека. Защо и как

стигнаха дотук неговите работи, защо и къде сбърка, не може ли тази
къща сега да е пълна с веселия глъч на деца, синове, дъщери и внуци.
Пита се старият човек – все тъжни въпроси, още по-тъжни отговори.
Доде нощта приседне върху клепките му и ги притисне. Но и сънят не
е сън. Ненаспал се, неналежал се – сили се да стане старият човек, но
се сеща, че като стане, няма о какво да се залови, никой няма да му
потропа на вратата, да го попита свършил ли си е работата. Никой
няма да се разсърди, че не е станал рано.
Тъжни ли станаха тези приказки, няма ли много отчаяние в тях?
Нима така завършва винаги човешкият живот? Да ме простят онези
веселяци оптимисти, които, когато имат чаша бира пред себе си и
парче свинска пържола, мислят, че имат всичко. А нека и не ми се
сърдят, пожелавам им никога да не познаят самотата.
Но тъй или иначе тя нас чака. Или нея. Лежали ли сте в
болница? Виждали ли сте как умират хора на съседното легло? Снощи
сте си приказвали тихо с човека, за да не събудите заспалите. И заедно
сте се надявали сутринта пак да дочакате сестрата, понесла тавата с
инжекциите. А тази сутрин тя ще направи една инжекция по-малко.
Там където ...
Марко Семов

D13

Музейният пазител се обърна назад и погледът му обходи

широкия салон – наредените опълченци, направени от восък,
черошовия топ, насочен към прозореца, ятаганите, окачени по
стената, железните ризници, колесниците, старите знамена,
боздуганите – и като разбра, че всяко нещо си е на мястото, притвори
бавно вратата и завъртя два пъти ключа. Беше късно, шумовете на
големия град затихнаха, пълната месечина се показа между
разкъсаните облаци и почна да наднича през прозорците. Един лунен
лъч се плъзна по рамото на някаква голяма каменна статуя без глава,
изправена в музейния двор и прониза стъклото на прозореца. Влезе в
салона, устреми се право към старото знаме, самотно разперено сред
овехтели и забравени свити знамена, и озари платното. Очерта се
червеният кръст на знамето, окръжен със златошита украса, светна
позлатеният връх на дървената дръжка. Восъчните опълченци
насреща погледнаха знамето, напрегнаха своята стара памет,
спомниха си нещо далечно, спогледаха се, поклатиха глава и
задрямаха. Знамето попита огненото небесно око:
-Ти, като гледаш по цялата земя, виждаш ли оня балкански връх с
големия бял паметник от гранит?
Самарското знаме
Ангел Каралийчев

D14

Слушайте хубаво! Аз съм учил десет години по медицината,

рязал съм трупове в клиниката, работил съм като вол да свърша сред
лишения в чужбина, само за една цел: да бъда полезен – на
човечеството – ще кажеш? – Да, но по-напред съм мислил за мене си.
За мене си станах доктор: Не че щяло да има болни на света.
Разбираш? България – свободна сега. За мене се изражава тая свобода
само в леснотията да се обогатя; такова е също значението на науката
за мене. Ти ми се учудваш на теорията? Напразно. Аз съм странен
само за това, че я изповядвам. Другите, всичките я следват
мълчешката и минуват за патриоти, за безкористни служители на
обществото, за идеалисти. Те лъжат. Те пари искат да печелят само и
добре правят. Днес парата управлява света и съвестите. Когато имаш
пари, сиреч когато душата ти е благодарна от живота, само тогава си
способен да бъдеш и патриот, и честен и да мислиш за чуждото благо.
Защото, помни, само доволният корем можем може да бъде
нелицемерно честен. Всичките ония гладници, които крещят
“народът”, на ума си казват “джобът”. Тия думи не се римуват добре,
но страшно добре се римуват в живота. Римувай ги и ти винаги, и
няма да сбъркаш.
Нова земя
Иван Вазов

D15

Замествах известно време следователя в Н.,околийски градец в

западната част на страната. Градчето се намираше между каменисти
хълмове. По тези места не растат нито плодове, нито зеленчуци.
Хората се хранят само с царевица, на която казват жито. Участъкът
беше голям, но нямах много работа. Произшествия се случваха рядко,
най- често дребни кражби и побоища. Може би , защото знаех, че съм
временно там, типичната провинциална среда не ми тежеше. Дори
понякога ми харесваше. Бях ерген, имах куче и ловджийска пушка и
често се разхождах из околностите на градчето. Понякога, вместо да
провеждам разпит в града,сам ходех из съседните села. Началникът
ми нямаше нищо против, хората бяха доволни,а и на мене ми беше
приятно.
Особено обичах есенните дни – ония слънчеви, слабо замъглени
дни, в които няма нито шум, нито движение. Сухи долове, покрити с
опадала шума, нивя, крайпътни сливи с останал тук там плод, някоя
кирпичена хижа на хълма – всичко това беше приказно хубаво и
приличаше на голямо царство, което се готви за сън...
 Незначителна история
Константин Константинов

D16

Вътре в рейса хората се полюшваха, дремеха или спяха. Рейс

като рейс, ще закара хората по селата, всички го знаят по тези пътища
– и старите къщи в розово или резедаво, и новите прозорчета с бели
перденца, саксии с мушкато и петунии, мокри огради с някогашни
вратници, дълги стопански сгради. Знаеха го и миризмите, че те бяха
вътре в него, и те се люшкаха – мирис на спарено, на мокри дрехи, на
бои, вълна във вързопи, на животни и поле, на предобедна ракия. И
лицата на хората се люшкаха – старец със син каскет, ученици с пъпки
по лицата и блян по жените, затаен в очите като дива омраза, войник в
отпуск, баби с еднакви черни елечета, жени с пълни колене и чорапи,
пристегнати с ластик до червено, бременни булки с няколко бебета,
посиняло от хрема старче
И пак ръми навън, пак се потят стъклата, пак хората дремят.
Светът е капки, капки е светът. На стъпалото до вратата млад мъж с
хлътнали бузи рее очи из полето, шлиферът бял и дълъг, в ръката
чанта. Косата му рано побеляла, в очите диоптри, стъклата
проблясват, връзката синя, на бели точки, с голям възел. До мъжа
ученичка с дебели прасци, с вирнато носле, в очите се чете свенлив
срам, сладка дрямка, спомен за целувка в тъмно кино, естрадна мечта,
модно списание. Ах, как ръми, как е мокро всичко. Светът е капки,
капки е светът.

Слово за живия автобус

Васил Попов
 D17

Парижкото кафене е приятен кът за отмора и за срещи. По

всяко време тук човек може да види най – разнообразна публика,
която не брои минутите и укрепва самочувствието си понякога само с
чаша ситронада.
Животът на парижкото кафене прилива навън,по тротоара.
Посетителите обичат да чувствуват близостта на улицата, пъстрото
шествие на минувачите, затова до късна есен и дори през зимата те
предпочитат откритата тераса на кафенето пред неговата затворена
уютност.
Търговци и чиновници, рентиери, интелектуалци и търсачи на
приключения се разполагат спокойно край малките масички. Тук –
там престарели дами флиртуват с подозрителни млади мъже, по –
нататък трепти смехът на странно същество – полумъж, полужена, -
още по – нататък някой брадат художник с кадифен панталон и барета
е зареял поглед в пространството. Той смучи по навик угасналата си
лула и с достойнство отпива от чашата си глътка перно.
Другаде по света влюбените дирят за своите сантиментални
откровения глухи и усамотени кътчета, но в Париж, изглежда, тъкмо
кафенето е тяхното благословено убежище. Допрели глави, влюбените
двойки седят с часове един до друг, в мълчалива прегръдка. И само от
време на време техните профили оживяват и устните им се сливат в
целувка. Тия лирични сценки на парижкото всекидневие не смущават
и не дразнят никого – околната публика си пие невъзмутимо кафето и
с деликатно безразличие не забелязва откритото предизвикателство
към отживелия пуритански морал.

Парижки бележник
Светослав Минков

D18
 Първото нещо, което видял космонавтът Нийл Армстронг от
борда на космическия кораб “ Аполо – 11”, било Великата китайска
стена. Едно от най – големите и изкусни строителни съоръжения на
всички времена, през вековете е преграждала и откривала пътя към
богатствата и загадките на Китайската империя.
Строежът и започва през 220г. пр.н.е. .
Първоначалният план бил стената да бъде укрепление срещу
набезите на номадските племена от север, но също така да бъде
доказателство за властта и величието на императора.За построяването
и са използвани повече строителни материали, отколкото за всяка
друга постройка на планетата.
Любопитен факт е, че от кулите чрез димни сигнали можело да се
разпространява информация по цялата стена с невероятна бързина.
Новината стигала от единия до другия и край за 24 часа – преди
появата на телефона това било поразителна скорост.
В изграждането на съоръжението участвали около 300000 души.
По всяка вероятност много хора загинали по време на строежа и били
погребвани на работното си място. Затова започнали да наричат
стената най – дългото гробище на света или Стената на сълзите.
Данните за дължината и са много различни – правата линия между
двете крайни точки е 2450км., но с всички разклонения и извивки
общата обиколка стига около 6500км. А като знаем, че река Нил е
около 6500км, спокойно можем да кажем, че Великата китайска стена
е колкото най – дългата река в света.
По своите функции стената била не само крепостен зид, но и път.
Ширината и била около 5,5м. Нейната средна височина е 9м, а
височината на кулите – 12м.
Невероятното съоръжение през 1961 е обявено от китайското
правителство за археологически паметник. Тогава започва неговата
реставрация като туристическа атракция.

Великата китайска стена е колкото Нил

Мария Чаначева

D19
 Лясковец е типично земеделско селище. Поминъкът на
населението е земеделие и лозарство, а по – късно и градинарство.
През първата половина на ХIХ в. лясковчани вече са известни като
опитни градинари. Те работят не само в родното си село, а и в много
други градове, като излизат и извън пределите на страната – в Сърбия,
Румъния, Русия и Унгария.
Хората се замогват и започват да благоустрояват селото. През
този период са построени големите църкви, направено е училище и е
основано читалището. Построени са много нови къщи. Дворовете са
големи, оградени с каменни зидове, с високи порти, през които може
да мине кола, и малки врати за пешеходци. Дворът е разделен на две
части: стопански двор и къщен двор – с къщата и цветна,зеленчукова
и овощна градина.
Характерно за лясковските къщи, строени до Освобождението, е
че те имат едно и също разпределение на помещенията. Традицията е
да има еднакъв семеен бит, независимо от имотното състояние.
Къщите с южно или югоизточно изложение, покрити с турски
керемиди и с голяма стряха. Те са двуетажни,като стълбата за етажа е
външна.Къщите са изградени от местни строителни материали –
камъни, дърво и глина. Подовете са от греди, отгоре наковани с дъски.
Таваните също.
Според разпределението и предназначението на помещенията
лясковската къща спада към “балканската къща”, разпространена в
Елена, Трявна, Габрово и околните им села.

Из сб. Лясковец в миналото

Арх. Георги Данчев

D20

За да сложите точка на ремонтираното си жилище, трябва да

изберете подходящи аксесоари. На “Стройко 2000” можете да си
купите всякакви изделия от ковано желязо, хром или дърво.
Домашният декор ще е завършен напълно, ако си купите с отстъпки
завеси и подходяща дамаска за мебелите. Повечето фирми предлагат и
ушиване на пердета срещу минимална сума. Банята можете да
дооформите с хромирани или позлатени сапунерки и държачи за
кърпи.
Участват много фирми, предлагащи най – новите постижения в
осветлението. По желание можете да направите поръчка от новия
каталог с осветителни тела. Особено интересна е колекцията на
Масив, предназначена за баня. Цените на осветителните тела се
движат от 30 до 190лв. За огледалата с вградени лампи фирмата дава
три години гаранция, като всички модели са 100% обезопасени и
влагоустойчиви.
Масичките за телевизор и аудиотехника на “Канор” са
функционални и с оригинален дизайн. Направени са от екологично
чисти материали. Цветовете са неутрални и лесно се комбинират с
останалите мебели от итериора.
Красивите предмети още повече подчертават модерно
обзаведения дом. Ако сте избрали тръбна мебел, красив и
същевременно изключително практичен аксесоар би бил чайникът от
стъкло на известната германска фирма “Йена Глас”.

В-к 168 часа, 2002

D21

“Съвременните деца възприемат по – лесно учебния материал,

когато е под формата на игра,а текстът е раздробен на по – малки
части, придружени с илюстрации”, установил е от личен опит
Лъчезар Цепов, на 32год., който от пет години преподава свободно
избираемия предмет “Европейски цивилизации”. В момента е учител
по история и по европейска цивилизация в частно основно училище
“Св.Климент Охридски”. Чете лекции в Софийския университет. Има
дисертация върху рицарството и кръстоносните походи. С други думи,
знае много интересни неща, заради които не само студентите, но и
малките му ученици го слушат в захлас.
Работата му с деца го довела до идеята да вмъкне скучния
понякога материал от задължителната програма по история в
увлекателна компютърна игра,която да се използва за обучение в
българските училища. В проекта се включили и други млади хора –
историци и компютърджии. Едните разработили самата игра, другите
направили интерактивните табла и сайтовете. Проектът е
спонсориран от фондация “Отворено общество”. Търси се
издател,който да пусне играта на диск. Към нея ще бъдат добавени
още музика и звук. Екипът желае продуктът да се разпространява
свободно чрез Интернет и да достигне до всички български ученици и
студенти, а защо не и до всеки любознателен нашенец.

Компютърна игра измисли учител по история

Слава Радославова

D22

Именитият художник Андрей Лекарски дойде от Париж, за да

ни представи уникалната си “джобна изложба”. Оригиналните му
платна са подредени в Националната художествена галерия.
Художникът, излагал в най – престижни световни салони,
разкрива, напоследък ставали “странни неща” в творческия му
процес. “Вече не се замислям защо правя дадено нещо, дали трябва да
го правя, а действам интуитивно. Максимата ми е : искаш – правиш.”
Така той се опитва да обясни как е стигнал до идеята да съчетае
електронната технология с човешкото художествено въображение.
Точно това лежи в основата на неговата цифрова или по – модерно
казано – дигитална живопис.
Като съвременник на хай – тек революцията,художникът е
открил фантастичните възможности на компютъра и на дигиталния
принтер, способността им светкавично да “ваят” познати образи и
сюжети, да довеждат до съвършенство колорита на произведенията.
50 са представените картини, част от които дигитални копия на
авторски творби. Други представляват колажи от шедьоври на
художници – класици. И тъй като цялата експозиция е прехвърлена в
няколко диска, г-н Лекарски я нарича още “джобна изложба”.
Естествено това я прави изключително мобилна – в рамките на
няколко дни тя може да бъде разпечатана примерно в Париж, Лондон,
Токио, Сингапур.

Компютърна живопис предизвиква класиката

В-к Седмичен труд,2002
D23

Сила на звука между 90 и 100 децибела може да доведе до

инфаркт. С такава сила обаче гърмят уредбите на почти всяка родна
дискотека или клуб. В България има нормативни документи,
според които музиката в едно заведение не може да превишава 85
децибела, и то на порции от 20 минути парчето. После трябва да
има пауза. Повечето собственици на заведения смятат
разпоредбите за остарели. Но човешкото ухо и неговите
възможности за възприемане на шума не се влияят от пазарните
интереси. Понякога от слушането на силна музика се стига до
припадъци и нарушения в равновесието. Особено опасни са
внезапните силни шумове, които могат да доведат до разкъсване на
тъпанчето. Изключително вредни са и слушалките. Там
максимумът за слушане на музика е до 30 минути. Трябва на всяка
цена да има ограничители на звука в заведенията. Но под мотото
“клиентите искат това” в повечето заведения надуват уредбите до
дупка. Дори не знаят до какви децибели стига силата на звука, тъй
като апаратурата няма такива индикатори. Вярно е, че музиката
действа като дрога, тъй като при слушането се отделят ендорфини.
Понякога тя има и обезболяващ ефект. Ако ни харесва, можем да я
слушаме и по – силно, но това не означава, че не трябва да има
ограничения. Министерство но здравеопазването трябва да
промени нормативните документи и хигиенните норми трябва да
се контролират в заведенията, където ходят ученици, тъй като
възрастовата граница в дискотеките е паднала много ниско.

Високите децибели водят до припадъци

Елена Стоянова
D24
Когато кинозрителите и извънземните си определиха
конспиративни срещи по тъмни места през уикенда за 4 юли
1997г., неразбираемият акроним МIВ бе бързо декодиран като
краткото название на един от най – хитовите филми на
американската киноиндустрия.
Оригиналният “Мъже в черно” спечели над 587млн.
долара от излъчването му по цял свят. Суперхитът се превърна в
един от най – касовите филми на 1997г. Филмът запозна публиката
с агентите Кей и Джей, двойка елитни интергалактически ченгета,
наблюдаващи дейността на извънземните на Земята за специалната
агенция – МIВ.
Сега мъжете в черно се завръщат. Може би си спомняте,че на
финала на първата част “по невнимание” изтриха паметта на
главното ченге – агент Кей - в ролята Томи Лий Джоунс. Оказва
се ,че в това си състояние Кей години наред подрежда писма в
провинциален пощенски офис. През това време младокът – агент
Джей прави кариера в МIВ и се превръща в страшилище за всички
новобранци в агенцията. Нещата не изглеждат зле до момента, в
който на сцената се появява зловещата прелъстителка Серлийна,
решила да си разчисти сметките със Земята и старите си
познайници...
Във втория филм има интересни нови персонажи. Едва ли
ще сдържите смеха си при вида на Краля на попмузиката Майкъл
Джексън, който през целия филм се моли да го вземат на работа в
М1В.
Със сигурност очакваната премиера преди Коледа на видео и
DVD ще продължи победния ход на Мъжете в черно.

MIB
М -Тел ревю,2002
D25

В утринта на миналата събота от радиото и телевизията

научихме за развръзката със заложниците в Москва.
Междувременно стават известни все повече подробности за
терористичния акт и последвалите го действия на руските
спецслужби. И колкото повече факти излизат на светло, толкова
повече става ясно – руското правителство не е имало друг изход
освен да атакува сградата. Жесток избор - или да спасиш колкото
се може повече хора, или да загубиш всичките.
Аналогията на случилото се в Москва с терористичния акт
срещу кулите – близнаци в Ню Йорк би трябвало да ни накара да
бъдем по – умерени в атаките си срещу руснаците. Когато гръм
удари, ехото постепенно заглъхва. Понякога това носи успокоение,
понякога – не. Историята ни учи, че тероризмът винаги се е крил
зад високопарни лозунги, но за съжаление и отговорите срещу него
най – често са същите. В един сложен и доведен до ръба на абсурда
свят понякога решенията могат да бъдат безкрайно прости и
логични. А ние, българите, колкото и малки да сме,за добро или за
зло, сме на един кръстопът. Оттук минават и добрите, и лошите. На
оживено кръстовище обикновено слагат светофар. Сега той свети
жълто. И това трябва да ни държи нащрек. Особено в една страна,
пълна с таратайки.

Терор – за един по – добър свят?

Стоят Узунов
В–к Седмичен труд,Х,2002

D26
Пъблик рилейшънс игарае важна роля в развитието на
съвременните демократични общества. И е незаменим елемент за
постигане на разбирателство и хармония между различни
структури и организации. Възниква в началото на ХХв и
постепенно става част от новото информационно общество.
Предпоставките за тази технология, а напоследък и наука, се
откриват в края на Х1Хв. Тогава възникват нови направления в
науките за обществото и човека – социология, психология,
социална психология. Създават се теории в областта на
управлението, усъвършенстват се техниките в рекламата и
пропагандата.
През 20-те и 30-те год. на ХХв. се създават теоретичните
основи и принципите на ПР и започва да се използва в някои
политически и икономически организации.
В наши дни ПР е важен елемент на демокрацията и средство
за защита правата на личността и нейното достойнство. Допринася
за хармонизиране на комуникациите между различни групи,
общности и държави. Намира приложение в управлението на
съвременните кризи и разрешаване на конфликти –
междуличностни, междугрупови и междуорганизационни. ПР
може да се използва за противодействие на пропагандата и други
манипулиращи хората техники и учения.

Пъблик рилейшънс
Руси Маринов

D27

Изборът на средно училище, колеж или университет е

сложна и отговорна задача за желаещите да продължат своето
образование, а в много случаи и за техните родители. Още по –
сложно е търсенето на учебно заведение в чужбина, особено ако не
познавате детайлно образователната система на съответната
държава и начините за кандидатстване.
По света има хиляди отлични училища за средно
образование, както и висши учебни заведения. Като консултант с
доказан опит и професионализъм в областта на образованието,
 Евроскул Холидейз има амбицията да Ви помогне да направите
избора на Вашето учебно заведение по – лесен и максимално
успешен.
Нашата консултация включва първоначален разговор с
кандидата или с неговите родители; последващо попълване на
въпросник, съдържащ лични данни, предпочитаната страна, или
избрана специалност. В следващия етап ще Ви предоставим
няколко варианта на учебни заведения, които ще обсъдим
съвместно. Следва подготовката на необходимите документи за
кандидатстване, попълване на формулярите и явяване на изпити,
ако това е необходимо. Пътят до получаване на съобщението, че
сте приети в избраното учебно заведение и заминаването Ви, ще
извървим заедно.
Евроскул Холидейэ
Сп. “Училища Европа”,2002

E Adapted English Texts

E1
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of
the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And
God bless them, and God said to them, “Be fruitfully and multiply, and fill
the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the
earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit;
you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every
bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that
has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was
so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very
good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them. And on the seventh day God finished his work and he rested. So God
blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all
his work which he had done in creation.

GENESIS
` The first book of Moses

E2
Of humble origins, Muhammad founded one of the world’s great
religions, and became an immensely effective political leader. He was born
in the year 570, in the city of Mecca, in southern Arabia, at that time a
backward area of the world, far from the centers of trade, art and learning.
Orphaned at age six, he was reared in modest surroundings. Islamic
tradition tells us that he was illiterate. His economic position improved
when, at the age of twenty-five, he married a wealthy widow. Nevertheless,
as he approached forty, there was little outward indication that he was a
remarkable person.
Most Arabs at that time were pagans, who believed in many gods.
When he was forty years old, Muhammad became convinced that the one
true God (Allah) was speaking to him, and had chosen him to spread the
true faith. For three years, Muhammad preached only to close friends and
associates. Then, about 613, he began preaching in public. In 622, fearing
for his safety, he fled to Medina, where he had been offered a position of
considerable political power.
The flight was the turning point in the Prophet’s life. During the next few
years, while Muhammad’s following grew rapidly, a series of battles were
fought between Medina and Mecca. This war ended in 630 and he returned
to Mecca as conqueror. When Muhammad died in 632, he was the effective
ruler of all of southern Arabia.
The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History
Michael Hart

E3
Wonder built in me as I traced out her last day. The morning
Grandma had spent working on a quilt, another of her rainbow-paneled
splendors, for a helpful neighbor who looked in on her often. Sometime
she had telephoned to a friend at a ranch out of Ringling, asking to be
brought a fresh supply of eggs when the woman came to town. At noon
she was phoned by her son, and as usual in this checking calls, they talked
for several minutes. In the afternoon a funeral was held for a member of
one of the last families of the Sixteen country: Grandma did not go to the
rites, but at the coffee hour held afterward at Senior Citizens Club she
helped with the serving and chatted with friends for an hour or more.
Someone had driven her home, where she had her supper alone. In the
evening, there was to be the weekly card party back at the Senior Citizens
Club, and she phoned to ask for a ride with her best friend in a group - a
woman who had run one of the White Sulphur saloons that had so often
thorned Grandma’s earlier life. They had nearly arrived at the card party
when, in the midst of something joked by one or the other of them
Grandma cut off in the middle of a chuckle and slumped, chin onto chest.
The friend whirled the car to the hospital a block away. A doctor instantly
was trying to thump a heartbeat-rhythm into Grandma, but could work no
flicker of response from her. She had gone from life precisely as she had
lived it, with abruptness and at full pace.
Grandma’s Last Day
 Ivan Doig

E4
We came then near the river. We spent a long time walking about the
noisy streets flanked by high stone walls, watching the working of cranes
and engines and often being shouted at for out immobility by the drivers
of groaning carts. It was noon when we reached the quays and, as all the
labourers seemed to be eating their lunches, we bought two big currant
buns and sat down to eat them on some metal piping beside the river. We
pleased ourselves with the spectacle of Dublin’s commerce – the barges
signalled from far away by their curls of woolly smoke, the brown fishing
fleet beyond Ringsend, the big white sailing vessel which was being
discharged on the opposite quay. Mahony said it would be right skit to run
away to sea on one of those big ships, and even I, looking at the high
masts, saw, or imagined, the geography which had been scantily dosed to
me at school gradually taking substance under my eyes. School and home
seemed to recede from us and their influenced upon us seemed to wane.
We crossed the Liffey in the ferryboat, playing our toll to be
transported in the company of two labourers and a little Jew with a bag. We
were serious to the point of solemnity, but once during the short voyage
our eyes met and we laughed.

An Encounter
James Joyce

E5
Protecting the child’s right to play is no easy job. It goes far beyond
setting up an environment where play can occur. It includes knowing what
goes on when children play, so that the environment can, in a sense, grow
with the children, both as a group and as individuals. It means knowing
when and how to intervene in the play and when to stay on the sidelines. It
means comprehending the limits of play, knowing when play is not
enough, knowing when children need the satisfaction of accomplishment
in the real world and when soaring on the imagination of others is more
appropriate.
Protecting the children’s rights to play also takes the teacher, as an
interpreter of play, to other adults, including parents, principals and
directors, custodians, other educators, and policy makers. Not an easy job!
Especially when the teacher has so many other concerns: boots that stick,
mittens that disappear, juice that spills, blocks that topple, lunch that comes
too early or too late, and volunteers that don’t come at all; angry children,
sad children, hurt children, happy children, all needing attention; parents to
greet and to call; lists to be checked, orders to be sent, reports to be
written; computers to be monitored, songs, stories, and books to be chosen.
The list goes on and on. And for too many, nagging in the background,
concern over inadequate salaries and benefits.
Despite these demands, most early childhood teachers enjoy their
work. Ironically, they sometimes find it difficult to explain what they do.
Too often their questioners assume that they “only play with little kids.”

Looking at Children’s Play

Patricia Monighan-Nourot

E6
Before them was a great stretch of country having a floor as smooth and
shining and white as the bottom of a big platter. Scattered around were
many houses made entirely of china and painted in the brightest colours.
These houses were quite small, the biggest of them reaching only as high
as Dorothy’s waist. There were also pretty little barns, with china fences
around them; and many cows and sheep and pigs and chickens, all made
of china, were standing in groups.
But the strangest of all were the people who lived in this queer country.
There were milkmaids and shepherdesses, with bright-coloured bodices
and golden spots all over their gowns; and princesses with most gorgeous
frocks of silver and gold and purple; and shepherds dressed in knee
breeches with pink and yellow and blue stripes down them, and golden
buckles on their shoes; and princes with jeweled crowns upon their heads,
wearing ermine robes; and funny clowns in ruffled gowns, with round red
spots upon their cheeks and tall, pointed caps. And, strangest of all, these
people were all made of china, even their clothes, and were so small that
the tallest of them was no higher than Dorothy’s knee.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Lyman Frank Baum

E7
An enormous puppy was looking down at her with large round eyes,
and feebly stretching out one paw, trying to touch her. “Poor little thing!”
said Alice in a coaxing tone, and she tried hard to whistle to it, but she was
terribly frightened all the time at the thought that it might be hungry, in
which case it would be very likely to eat her up in spite of all her coaxing.
Hardly knowing what she did, she picked up a little bit of stick, and
held it out to the puppy; whereupon the puppy jumped into the air off its
feet at once, with a yelp of delight, and rushed at the stick, and made
believe to worry it; then Alice dodged behind a great thistle, to keep herself
from being run over, and the moment she appeared on the other side, the
puppy made another rush at the stick, and tumbled head over heels in its
hurry to get hold of it; then Alice, thinking it was very like having a game
of play with a cart-horse, and expecting every moment to be trampled
under the feet, ran round the thistle again; then the puppy began the series
of small charges at the stick, running a very little way forward each time
and a long way back, and barking hoarsely all the while, till at last it sat
down a good way off, panting, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth,
and its great eyes half shut.
The King’s argument was that anything that had a head could be
beheaded, and that you weren’t to talk nonsense.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll
E8
By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown
up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and
jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved
more slowly. For it knew now where it was going. But all the little streams
higher up in the Forest went this way and that, quickly, eagerly, having so
much to find out before it was too late.
There was a broad track, almost as broad as a road, leading from the
Outland to the Forest, but before it could come to the Forest, it had to cross
this river. So, where it crossed, there was a wooden bridge, almost as broad
as a road, with wooden rails on each side of it. Christopher Robin could
just get his chain on to the top rail, if he wanted to, but it was more fun to
stand on the bottom rail, so that he could lean right over, and watch the
river slipping slowly away beneath him. Pooh could get his chin on to the
bottom rail if he wanted to, but it was more fun to lie down and get his
head under it, and watch the river slipping slowly away beneath him. And
this was the only way in which Piglet and Roo could watch the river at all,
because they were too small to reach the bottom rail. So they would lie
down and watch it…and it slipped away very slowly, being in no hurry to
get there.
Winnie-the-Pooh
A. A. Milne

E9
To suppose anything else is to suppose that there is more to the
human brain than the matter that composes it. The brain is made up of cells
in a certain arrangement and the cells are made up of atoms and molecules
in certain arrangements. If anything else is there, no signs of it have ever
been detected.
But how long will it take to build a computer complex enough to
duplicate the human brain? Perhaps not as long as some think. Long before
we approach a computer as complex as our brain, we will perhaps build a
computer that is complex enough to design another computer more
complex than itself. In other words, once we pass a certain critical point,
the computers take over and there is a “complexity explosion”. In a very
short time thereafter, computers may exist that not only duplicate the
human brain - but far surpass it.
 Then what? Well, mankind is not doing a very good job of running
the earth right now. Maybe, when the time comes, we ought to step
gracefully aside and hand over the job to someone who can do it better.
And if we don’t step aside, perhaps Supercomputer will simply move in
and push us aside.

The Difference between a Brain and a Computer

Isaac Asimov

E10

There is one difference between sexes on which virtually every

expert and study agree: Men are more aggressive than women. It shows up
in 2-year-olds. It is even constant across cultures. And there is little doubt
that it is rooted in biology – in the male sex hormone testosterone.
If there is a feminine trait that’s the counterpart of male
aggressiveness, it’s what social scientists awkwardly refer to as
“nurturance”. Feminists have argued that the nurturing nature of women is
not biological in origin, but the signs that it is at least partly inborn are too
numerous to ignore. A recent study showed that women easily read
emotions such as anger, sadness and fear. The only such emotion men
could pick up was disgust.
What difference does it make in the real world? Among other things
women appear to be somewhat less competitive – or at least competitive in
different ways – than men. Students of management styles have found
fewer differences than they expected between men and women who reach
leadership positions, perhaps because many successful women deliberately
imitate masculine ways. Men tend to make decisions on their own, while
women consult colleagues and subordinates more often. In small groups
men will typically dominate the discussion, spending more time talking
and less time listening.
Men versus Women
U.S. News and World Report,1998

E11

In spite of my earnestness, I found reading a pleasurable activity. I

came to enjoy the lonely good company of books. Early on weekday
mornings I’d read in my bed. I’d feel a mysterious comfort then, reading in
the dawn quiet – the blue-gray silence interrupted by the occasional
churning of the refrigerator motor a few rooms away or the more distant
sounds of a city bus beginning its run. On weekends, I’d go to public
library to read, surrounded by old men and women. Or, if the weather was
fine, I would take my books to the park and read in the shade of a tree. A
warm summer evening was my favorite reading time. Neighbors would
leave for vacation and I would water their lawns. I would sit through the
twilight on the front porches or in backyards, reading to the cool, whirling
sounds of the sprinklers.
Still, there were pleasures to sustain me after I’d finish my book.
Carrying a volume back to the library, I would be pleased by its weight. I’d
run my fingers along the edge of the pages and marvel at the breadth of
my achievement. Around my room, growing stacks of paperback books
reinforced my assurance.
The Achievement of Desire
Richard Rodriguez

E12
I suppose every family has a black sheep. Tom has been a sore trial to his
for twenty years. He had begun life decently enough: he went into
business, married and had two children. The Ramsays were perfectly
respectful people and there was every reason to suppose that tom Ramsey
would have a useful and honourable career. But one day, without warning,
he announced that he didn’t like work and that he wasn’t suited for
marriage. He wanted to enjoy himself. He left his wife and his office. He
had a little money and he spent two happy years in the various capitals of
Europe. Rumours of his doings reached his relations from time to time and
they were profoundly shocked. They shook their heads and asked what
would happen when his money was spent. They soon found out: he
borrowed. He was charming and unscrupulous. I have never met anyone to
whom it was more difficult to refuse a loan. He made a steady income
from his friends and he made friends easily. But he always said that the
money you spent on necessities was boring; the money that was amusing
to spend was the money you spend on luxuries. For this he depended on his
brother. He did not waste his charm on him. George was a serious man and
insensible to such enticements.
The Ant and the Grasshopper
W. Somerset Maugham
 E13
Newspapers, magazines, television, radio – collectively termed “the
media” – play a vital and influential part in daily life in Britain. They
inform and educate, question and challenge – and, of course, they
entertain. And, with their long tradition of independence and freedom
from state control, they boost democratic debate on the issues of the day.
The media industry is being transformed by new technology. In
broadcasting, for example, greater diversity has already been opened up by
satellite and cable transmission; and at the dawning of the digital era there
are major implications not only for sound and picture quality but also for
choice and range of services. In recognition of this potential, a more
flexible legislative framework for the development of digital broadcasting
in Britain was introduced.
Over the last 75 years the BBC has built up a reputation for high
quality radio and television services, and continues to be the cornerstone of
British broadcasting. Set up as a public corporation in 1927, its
constitution, finances and obligations are governed by a Royal Charter and
Agreement. The corporation is headed by a board of 12 Governors,
appointed by HM the Queen on the advice of the Government. The
Governors are ultimately responsible for maintaining programme
standards, ensuring that the BBC provides a balanced service, and seeing
that controversial matters are treated impartially.

Media in Britain

E14
The pulse of the socially aware beats through an invisible web
of connections that are largely provided and exploited by that mighty fixer
of our times – exaltedly labelled as the Public Relations Consultant.
There are two breeds of PR consultants. There are the Max Cliffords
of this world – professionals whose symbiosis with the media creates
stories of apocryphal proportions – or keeps equally important ones out of
the public gaze.
Max Clifford is London-based, as are the Public Relations
Consultants mentioned below. They have counterparts in just about every
country in the world, but are particularly prolific in America where they go
under the label of Publicists.
 There are the Liz Brewers – old school well-born hostesses who
have used their address books to fashion a living. They get retained by
foreign tycoons who want to break onto the social scene effortlessly and
are prepared to pay for the service.
Young aristocrats aspiring to turn their social connections into
business portfolios, middle-aged hostesses with much time on their hands
and media executives with a wealth of accounts – any of them and then
some turn their hand to PR at one time or another.
To some, it comes naturally and effortlessly, because they have been
born into it. To others, it’s a fun networking job which leads to other
ventures – or marriage.
The best option for any hopeful R&F (rich and famous) is to
cultivate two distinctly different types of PR consultants – a professional
one who has access to and influence over the media, and a trendy one who
counts among his/her friends the faces of the moments – an eclectic
mixture of pop stars, actors and sundry celebrities, as well as young heirs
to old titles.

How to Become Rich and Famous

Valentina Artsrunik

E15
Most successful executives I know work long hours, but they don’t let
work interfere with the really important things in life, such as family and
fly fishing. This differentiates them from the workaholic who becomes
addicted to work just as people become addicted to alcohol. Symptoms of
work addiction include refusal to take a vacation, inability to put the office
out of your mind on weekends, a bulging briefcase, and a wife, son or
daughter who is practically a stranger.
Counseling can help people cope with such problems. But for
starters, do a bit of self-counseling. Ask yourself whether the midnight oil
you are burning is adversely affecting your health. Ask where your family
comes in your list of priorities, whether you are giving enough of yourself
to your children and spouse, and whether you are deceiving yourself by
pretending that the sacrifices you are making are really for them.
Above all else, good time management involves an awareness that
today is all we ever have to work with. The past is irretrievably gone, the
future is only a concept. My favourite quotation is by an anonymous
philosopher:
Yesterday is canceled check.
Tomorrow is a promissory note.
Today is ready cash. Use it!

Managing Your Time

Edwin Bliss

E16

It's definitely true that when I was growing up, I got the message, though it
was never stated this explicitly, that because I was smart I could not be
attractive. Those two things just existed in different worlds. I'm what the
historian Arthur Marwick calls "personable." That is, I'm perfectly decent
looking. I'm not a raving beauty. But because being smart was the most
fundamental characteristic of my life as a young person, even if I had been
a raving beauty, I would not have been considered good-looking and I
would not have considered myself good-looking. I also got the message
that being interested in clothes, which I am very interested in, was
superficial, and was something that people like me didn't do. So I
channeled that interest into becoming a costume designer in my high
school. I didn't have a lot of clothes of my own, but I designed costumes,
and did a lot of historical research. It was all very intellectual.

I'm fortunate, because I'm younger than Hillary Clinton. People of her
generation and earlier got the message much more strongly than I did that
to be feminine—to be a real woman—you must be interested in fashion.
You must suffer to be beautiful. Those ideas used to be fundamental to
feminine identity. Then Hillary's generation rebelled and rejected all of
that, and then, lo and behold, she wakes up and she's living in the nineties.
And she's First Lady and on TV, and she has both the opportunity and the
responsibility to pay attention to how she looks. She's certainly a woman
who is naturally decent looking. I mean, she's not a supermodel, but she's
attractive. But she clearly had not paid a great deal of attention to or
derived a great deal of enjoyment out of her personal presentation through
most of her career. And it suddenly became quite a public issue.

The Joy of Style

Virginia Postrel, Atlantic Unbound, 2003

E17

Try to think of success as a journey, an adventure, not a

specific destination. Your goals may change during the course of that
journey, and your original ambitions may be superseded by different, larger
ones. Success will certainly bring you the material things you want, and a
good, healthy appetite for the comforts and luxuries of life is an excellent
road to success, but basically you’ll know you have reached your goal
when you have gone that one step further, in wealth, fame or achievement,
than you ever dreamed was possible.
How you become a success is, of course, your business. Morality has
very little to do with success. I do not personally think it is necessary to be
dishonest, brutal or unethical in order to succeed, but a great many
dishonest, brutal and unethical people in fact do succeed. You’d better be
prepared for the fact that success is seldom won without some tough
infighting along the way. A lot depends on your profession, of course.
There is a great deal of difference between setting out to become a success
in a Mafia family and trying to become vice president of a bank, but the
differences simply consist of contrasting social customs and of what is the
appropriate way to get ahead in a given profession or business. Whether
you are hoping to take over a numbers game or an executive desk, you
have to make the right moves for your circumstances. In the former
example, you might have to kill someone; in the latter, you might only
have to find ways of making your rivals look foolish or inefficient. In
either case, you have to accept the rules of the game and play to win, or
find some other game.

Defining Success
 Michael Korda

E18
Harry lay flat on his back, breathing hard as though he had been
running. He had awoken from a vivid dream with his hands pressed over
his face. The old scar on his forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of
lightning, was burning beneath his fingers as though someone had just
pressed a white-hot wire to his skin.
He sat up, one hand still on his scar, the other reaching out in the
darkness for his glasses, which were on the bedside table. He put them on
and his bedroom came into clearer focus, lit by a faint, misty orange light,
that was filtering through the curtains from the street lamp outside the
window.
Harry ran his fingers over the scar again. It was still painful. He
turned on the lamp beside him, scrambled out of bed, crossed the room,
opened his wardrobe and peered into the mirror on the inside of the door. A
skinny boy of fourteen looked back at him, his bright green eyes puzzled
under his untidy black hair. He examined the lightning-bolt scar of his
reflection more closely. It looked normal, but it was still stinging.
Harry tried to recall what he had been dreaming about before he had
awoken. It had seemed so real…there had been two people he knew, and
one he didn’t… he concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember…
The dim picture of a darkened room came to him… there had been a
snake on a hearth-rug… a small man called Peter, nicknamed Wormtail…
and a cold, high voice…

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Joanne K. Rowling

E19
Then we were all three on him. I remember the savage strength and
speed of the body which was no old man’s body; I saw him duck beneath
the sheriff’s arm and the entire wig came off; I seemed to see his whole
face wrenching itself furiously free from beneath the makeup which bore
the painted wrinkles and the false eyebrows. When the sheriff snatched the
beard and mustache off, the flesh seemed to come with it, springing quick
and pink and then crimson, as though in that last desperate cast he had had
to beard, disguise, not his face so much as the very blood which he had
spilled.
 It took us only thirty minutes to find old Mr. Pritchel’s body. It was
under the feed room in the stable, in a shallow and hurried trench, scarcely
covered from sight. His hair had not only been dyed, it had been trimmed,
the eyebrows trimmed and dyed too, and the mustache and beard shaved
off. He was wearing the identical garments which Flint had worn to the jail
and had been struck at least one crushing blow on the face, apparently with
the flat of the same axe which had split his skull from behind, so that his
features were almost unrecognizable and, after another two or three weeks
underground, would perhaps have been unidentifiable as those of the old
man. And pillowed carefully beneath the head was a big ledger almost six
inches thick and weighing almost twenty pounds and filled with carefully
pasted clippings which covered twenty years or more.

An Error in Chemistry
William Faulkner

E20
A few days later she watched the furniture being lifted away, the
books and ornaments in tea-chests, the crockery and saucepans and cutlery,
even the gas cooker and the refrigerator. When everything was gone she
walked about the empty rooms. Why had she not asked the sandy- haired
man who had come? Why had she not made tea for him and persuaded him
to tell her anything at all? Through a blur of mistiness she saw her mother
as a child, playing with her brother in the garden he had mentioned. Helena
stood in the centre of the room that had been her mother’s bedroom and it
seemed to her then that there were other children in the garden also, and
voices faintly echoing. Trees and shrubs defined themselves; a house had
lawns in front of it. ‘ Come on!’ the children good- naturedly cried, but her
mother didn’t want to. Her mother hated playing. She hated having to
laugh and run about. She hated being exposed to a jolliness that made her
feel afraid. She wanted peace, and the serious silence of her room, but they
always came in search of her and they always found her. Laughing and
shouting, they dragged her into their games, not understanding that she felt
afraid. She stammered and her face went white, but still they did not
notice. Nobody listened when she tried to explain, nobody bothered.
 Her Mother’s Daughter
William Trevor
E21
Your early life as a fetus may have influenced your sexuality as an
adult – and your fingers tell part of the story. Researchers in California
have used relative finger lengths to show that sexual orientation is partly
determined by events in the womb.
In animals, prenatal exposure to the male sex hormone testosterone
seems to influence sexual orientation. But it is not easy to measure fetal
hormone levels in humans. One indirect way is to look at the size of a
person’s fingers. In women, the index finger, called the second digit or 2D,
is about the same length as the ring finger, 4D. In men, the ring finger is
often considerably longer, leading to a lower 2D:4D ratio. This sex
difference is clear from infancy, and researchers attribute it to
masculinising hormones during fetal development.
Marc Breedlove and his colleagues at the University of California at
Berkley found something striking in gay women: their index to ring finger
ratios resembled those of heterosexual men. This suggests that at least
some lesbian women were exposed to higher than average levels of male
hormones before birth. What they found in men is less clear-cut. John
Manning of the University of Liverpool has found that in gay men the
finger ratios veer more towards the feminine. ”The geographical difference
swamp the sex difference,” he says. “There is more difference between a
Pole and a Finn than between a man and a woman.”

Alison Motluk
In New Scientist, 1 April 2000

E22
A rumor needs no true parent. It only needs a willing carrier, and it
found one in Sophie. She had been there – on one of those August
evenings when the sun’s absence is a mockery because the heat leaves the
air so heavy it presses the naked skin down on your body, to the point
that a sheet becomes unbearable and sleep impossible. So most of
Brewster was outside that night when the two had come in together,
probably from one of those air-conditioned movies downtown, and had
greeted the ones who were loitering around their building. And they had
started up the steps when the skinny one tripped over a child’s ball and the
darker one grabbed her by the arm and around the waist to break her fall.
“Careful, don’t wanna lose you now.” And the two of them had laughed
into each other’s eyes and went into the building.
The smell had began there. It outlined the image of the stumbling
woman and the one who had broken her fall. Sophie and a few other
women sniffed at the spot and then, perplexed, silently looked at each
other. Where had they seen that before? They had often laughed and
touched each other – held each other in joy or its dark twin – but where
had they seen that before? It came to them as the scent drifted down the
steps and entered their nostrils on the way to their inner mouths. They had
seen that – done that – with their men.

The Two
Gloria Naylor

E23
Fear of physical and emotional deprivation are the two greatest
anxieties of man. Hunger and starvation are the basic forms of the first,
desertion – of which death is only the last and ultimate form – of the
second. The young child does not understand death and thus does not fear
his own, while that of his parents is feared in the form of permanent
desertion. Although in our society children do not actually starve, everyone
experiences more or less severe pangs of hunger at one time or another;
and all children suffer temporary desertion when their parents are not
available. These two forms of the first real deprivations most children
experience become greatly magnified in the unconscious, where they
come to stand for, and are symbols of anxiety.
Family holidays celebrated around a table set with an ample and
festive meal thus combat the child’s greatest anxieties, both as real
experiences and, what is much more important, also on a symbolic level.
The “gathering of the clan” reassures the child that for his security against
desertion he need not rely solely on his parents, that there are many other
relatives who would be available in a crisis and would protect him against
desertion. The ample meal similarly provides security, both on the real and
much more important on a symbolic level against starvation anxiety. In this
way such family holidays are, both as a conscious experience and on an
unconscious level, one of the most reassuring experiences the child can
have in regard to his most fervent anxieties.

Magic Days
Bruno Bettelheim

E24
A slap in time saves nine. You know it makes sense.
Presumably, all the old slappers who answered the poll would go
along with that. How else could they justify smacking their own children?
What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
I have never smacked my children and they have never smacked me.
Needless to say, my two sons do not always do what they are asked, what
they are told, or what they should; certainly they often don’t do what I
want. That leads to all sorts of argument, anger and frustration. But never
to smacking.
I can’t imagine - barring some psychotic episode – why one would
do it. If you are not brave enough or mad enough to hit an adult, why
would you hit a child? Because it’s easy, that’s why. Because you’re bigger
and stronger.
Perhaps it was different in the days when smacking at home and at
school was simply a part of life, the routine response to every small
naughtiness. People thought of it as an act of loving care.” It hurts me
more than it hurts you. But you’ll thank me one day.” That argument
doesn’t wash nowadays.
Every parent knows that life with children can be full of torture. You
are tired when they aren’t; they are noisy and messy and often very boring.
There are plenty of times when anything that would stop them in their
tracks – a smack, a punch, CS gas, the neutron bomb – would be welcome.
But every parent knows that every act of physical suppression comes from
weakness, not strength.
In a poll, seven out of 10 are in favour of smacking. Seven out of 10
also said that they thought that having children improved the quality of
their lives. Are they, I wonder, the same seven out of 10. I hope not.

David Robson
The Express, August 3, 1999
 E25

This is the story of a sturdy American symbol which has now spread
throughout most of the world. It is a simple pair of pants called blue jeans.
Blue jeans are favored equally by bureaucrats and cowboys; bankers and
deadbeats; fashion designers and beer drinkers. They draw no distinctions
and recognize no classes. This ubiquitous American symbol was the
invention of a Bavarian-born Jew, Levi Strauss.
In 1848 he decided to take his chances in New York, to which his
two brothers already had emigrated. For two years he was a lowly peddler,
hauling some 180 pounds of sundries door-to-door to eke out a marginal
living. When a married sister in San Francisco offered to pay his way
west in 1850, he jumped at the opportunity, taking with him bolts of canvas
he hoped to sell for tenting.
It was the wrong kind of canvas for that purpose, but while talking
with a miner, he learned that it was almost impossible to find sturdy pants
that would stand up to the rigors of the diggings. Opportunity beckoned.
On the spot, Strauss measured the man’s girth and inseam with a piece of
string and, for six dollars in gold dust, had the canvas tailored into a pair
of stiff but rugged pants. The miner was delighted with the result, word got
around about “those pants of Levi’s,” and Strauss was in business. The
company has been in business ever since.

The Jeaning of America – and the World

Carin C. Quinn

E26
He didn’t answer Lydia. Preoccupied, he let the lights glow softly on
ahead of him, extinguish behind him as he padded to the nursery door. He
listened against it. Far away, a lion roared.
He unlocked the door and opened it. Just before he stepped inside,
he heard a faraway scream. And then another roar from the lions, which
subsided quickly.
 He stepped into Africa. How many times in the last year had he
opened this door and found Wonderland, Alice, the Mock Turtle, or
Aladdin and his Magic Lamp, or Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, or Dr.
Doolittle, or the cow jumping over a very real-appearing moon – all the
delightful contraptions of a make-believe world. How often had he seen
Pegasus flying in the sky ceiling, or seen fountains of red fireworks, or
heard angel voices singing. But now, this yellow hot Africa, this bake oven
with murder in the heat. It seemed that, at a distance, for the past month, he
had heard lions roaring, and smelled their strong odor seeping as far away
as the study door. But, being busy, he had paid no attention.
George Hadlley stood on the African grassland alone. The lions
looked up from their feeding, watching him. The only flaw to the illusion
was the open door through which he could see his wife, far down the dark
hall, like a framed picture, eating her dinner abstractedly.

The Veldt
Ray Bradbury

E27
Gloria was affectionate towards some of her children but for Kevin she
harboured an intense loathing. In his spare and chilling prose he describes
how at the age of seven he was taken into care for the first time. It was the
day before his birthday and he came downstairs chatting to his brother
about the presents he was going to receive. This was pure fantasy. The
Lewises never celebrated birthdays. His mother interpreted his
conversation as insolence and laid into him. Slaps, punches and bites were
her usual means of attack. Then she pulled off his trousers and after
thrashing him with his belt, she flung him across the room. He cracked his
head open on a window sill. Blood flowed. His mother threw him a rag
and told him to clean himself up. A little later he wobbled into school
where he collapsed in the playground. In the sick bay his wound was
examined by two teachers. Their concern surprised him. “ It’d been a bad
morning but not particularly out of the ordinary as far as I was concerned.
Why were they all so transfixed?” He was taken to a children’s home
 where the staff were friendly and everything was clean. In passages of
heartbreaking frankness, he evokes his delight at the simple pleasures of
ample meals and laundered sheets.
His sojourn in paradise was brief. After two years he returned to
hell. The beatings resumed, but now he resisted his mother by refusing to
cry when she hit him. This only fuelled her anger.

The Kid: a True Story

Lloyd Evans, in arts.telegraph.co.uk,July,2003

APPENDIX 2

Grammar Reference

1.Active tenses and their passive equivalents

Tense / verb form Active voice Passive voice

Present simple keeps is kept

Present continuous is keeping is being kept
Present perfect has kept has been kept
Present perfect has been keeping
continuous
Past simple kept was kept
Past continuous was keeping was being kept
Past perfect had kept had been kept
Past perfect continuous had been keeping
Future simple will keep will be kept
Future continuous Will be keeping
Future perfect Will have kept Will have been
kept
Future perfect continuous Will have been
keeping
2.The infinitive

2.1Form

Present infinitive To work, to do (It seemed

Present continuous infinitive
Perfect infinitive
Perfect continuous infinitive
Present infinitive passive
Perfect infinitive passive
impossible to do it.)
To be working, to be doing (He
seems to be working a lot lately)
To have worked, to have done
(You should have done it)
To have been working, to have
been doing (He appears to have
been working a long time.)
To be done
To have been done

3.2 The bare infinitive after some verbs and expressions:

• After need and dare, except when they are conjugated with
do/did; will/would ( I dared not tell him./ You needn’t say
anything.)
• Feel, hear, see, watch (see, hear in the passive take the full
infinitive): (I saw him run./He was seen to enter the building.)
• Make; let; would rather/sooner; rather/sooner than; had
better
But and except take the bare infinitive when they follow do +
anything/nothing/everything (She does nothing but complain.)
3.3 Split infinitives (an adverb is put between the to and the verb)
It would take ages to really master that subject.
3.4 The infinitive used to replace a relative clause
• After the first, the second, ……the last, the only and
sometimes after superlatives ( He is always the first to come and
the last to leave.\He was the only one to survive in the crash.)
• The infinitive can be placed after nouns/pronouns to show hoe
they can be used or to express the subject’s wishes (I have letters
to write./ I have nothing to declare./ a house to let)
3.Forms of participles:
Active: freezing; frozen; having frozen
Passive: being frozen; having been frozen

4.Forms of gerunds:
Active: praising ; having praised
Passive: being praised; having been praised

5.Order of adverbs: Adverbs and adverb phrases of manner, place and time
when they occur in the same sentence
• Expressions of manner usually precede expressions of place (The
child climbed awkwardly out of the window.)
• Away, back, down, forward, home, in, off, on, out, round, up
usually precede adverbs of manner (She walked away sadly. They
went home quietly.) These adverbs can be followed by a verb of
motion + a noun subject: (Away went the runners. Down fell the
Chinese vase. Round and round flew the plane.) But if the subject is
a pronoun it is placed before the verb: (Away they went. Round and
round it flew.) There is more drama in this word order but the
meaning is the same.
• Here and there precede adverbs of manner except with the adverbs
hard, well, badly: (We stood there silently. They work well here.)
• Time expressions can follow expressions of manner and place but
they can also be in front position: (They train hard in the gym every
day. Every day the people queue patiently at the bus stop.)

6.Sentence adverbs
6.1 actually (= in fact/really ), apparently, certainly, clearly, evidently,
obviously, presumably, probably, undoubtedly
• Can be placed after be ( These children are obviously intelligent.)
• Before simple tenses of other verbs ( She actually lives next door.)
• After the first auxiliary (They have presumably missed the flight.)
• At the beginning or the end of a sentence or clause (Apparently they
knew the town well.)
6.2 admittedly, (un)fortunately, frankly, honestly, (un)luckily,
naturally etc. are usually in the front position though the end position is
also possible. Separated by comma. Honestly and naturally can also be
adverbs of manner.( Honestly, he didn’t steal the money. He didn’t get the
money honestly.)

7.Subject – Verb Agreement

7.1 Subject separated from the verb

Very often the subject and the verb are separated by a prepositional phrase.
It has no effect on the verb.
Subject + (prepositional phrase ) + verb
( The quality of these recordings is not very good.)
(The effects of cigarette smoking are extremely harmful.)

The expressions together with / along with / accompanied by / as well as

also have no effect on the verb
( The actor, along with some friends, is going to a party tonight.)
If the conjunction and is used instead of one of these phrases, the verb
would be plural. (The actor and some friends of his are going to a party
tonight.)

7.2 Words that take singular verb and pronouns:

some + sing. noun, somebody, someone, something
any + sing. noun, anybody, anyone, anything
nobody, no one, nothing / every, everybody, everyone, everything,
/each. ( Nobody works harder than her.)

7.3 EITHER / NEITHER

When either and neither are followed by or and nor the verb can be
singular or plural depending on whether the noun following or and nor is
singular or plural. The same rule applies if or / nor appears alone.

(Either / neither ) + noun + ( nor /or ) + plural noun + plural verb

( Neither Debra nor her friends have seen the film before.)

(Neither / either + noun + (nor /or ) + singular noun + singular verb

(Tom or Jim is fixing the computer.)
(Either Carol or her husband makes the breakfast every morning.)
7.4 COLLECTIVE NOUNS
Many words indicating a number of people are singular. In some cases they
are plural if the sentence indicates that the individual members are acting
separately Parliament,Congress,Vatican,organization, government,
committee, family, team, jury, group, army, club, class, crowd, public,
audience ( majority and minority – in AmE they are usually singular if
they are alone; if they are followed by a plural noun, they are usually
plural: The majority believes…; The majority of the students believe…| Cf
in BrE- Only a minority of students is/are interested in politics.)
Nouns indicating groups of certain animals mean the same as group and
thus are considered singular: flock of birds, sheep; herd of cattle, pack of
dogs, school of fish, pride of lions.

7.5 Gerunds as Subjects

If a sentence begins with gerund, the verb must be singular.
(Dieting is very popular nowadays.| Being responsible is one of his
greatest assets.)

7.6 A NUMBER OF / THE NUMBER OF

a number of + plural noun + plural verb…

( A number of reporters were at the press-conference in the morning.)
a number of = many
the number of + plural noun + singular verb…
(The number of days in a week is seven. )

8. Verbs as Complements (the infinitive and the gerund )

8.1 Verbs that are always followed by the infinitive:

8.2 Adjectives followed by the infinitive: anxious, boring, dangerous,

hard, eager, easy, good, strange, pleased, prepared, ready, able, usual,
common, difficult. (It is dangerous to drive in bad weather. She is anxious
to see her family.)

8.3 Verbs followed by the gerund: admit, appreciate, avoid, can’t help,
consider, delay, deny, enjoy, finish, mind, miss, postpone, practise, quit,
recall, regret, report, resent, resist, resume, risk, suggest.
(They reported seeing the suspect the previous night. They regretted not
inviting him to the party.)

Begin, can’t stand, continue, dread, hate, like, love, prefer, start can be
followed by either the infinitive or the gerund but -ing is more general.

8.4 Verb + preposition + -ing: approve of, be better off, count on, depend
on, give up, insist on, succeed in, think about, think of, keep on, put off,
object to, look forward to, confess to.

8.5 Adjective + preposition + -ing: accustomed to, afraid of, capable of,
fond of, intent on, interested in, successful in, tired of.

8.6 Stop, remember, forget, try can be followed by either the infinitive or
the gerund with a change in meaning,

8.7 Begin, start, continue + the gerund/ infinitive with no change in

meaning.(It started snowing / to snow.)

8.8 Pronouns before the infinitive: subject + verb + complement form {

noun, pronoun} +[ to + verb]. (You should prepare your son to take his
examinations. They tried to persuade him to change his mind.)
Pronouns before the gerund: subject + verb + possessive form {noun,
pronoun } + [ verb+ing]. (We don’t approve of Jeffrey’s buying this
expensive car. We understand your not being able to bear it any longer.)
Some common verbs which are followed by the infinitive and which
require an indirect object: allow, ask, beg, convince, expect, instruct,
invite, order, permit, persuade, prepare, promise, remind, urge, want.

9. The Verb Need

Subject( living thing) + need + infinitive
(He needs to go there.)
Subject (thing) + need + {gerund / to be + past participle}
(The roof needs mending. / The roof needs to be mended.)

Need is a main verb and a model verb. I don’t need to leave-it’s still
early.(BrE and AmE =it isn’t necessary)
You don’t need to leave yet – we never go to bed so early.(BrE=you don’t
have to)
We didn’t need to show our tickets.( it wasn’t necessary and perhaps we
didn’t do it)
You needn’t have written the essay.(you did something that wasn’t
necessary )

10. The Present Subjunctive

The Present Subjunctive is the simple form of the verb when used after
verbs, adjectives, and nouns that express a necessity, plan, or intention for
the future .
Subject + verb (any tense) + that + subject +[verb in simple form]
(The university requires that all the students take that course.)
Verbs: order, command, insist, demand, request, ask, recommend,
propose, suggest and others with similar meaning.
Adjectives important, vital, essential, necessary, desirable.
Nouns: order, request, proposal, suggestion.
The Present Subjunctive is used in formal style. It can be avoided by using
should.( We insisted that he call her./ We insisted that he should help her.)
The present subjunctive is also used in certain exclamations to express a
wish or hope. (Bless you! God save the queen!)

11.Phrases, Clauses, Sentences

11.1 Phrase – the traditional definition > a group of words that does not
contain a verb and its subject and is used as a single part of speech; any
phrase may be one or more words long.
The Prepositional Phrase (PP ) = Head (preposition) + Object (noun
phrase)
( on the waterfront ; beyond the blue horizon )

The Adjective Phrase (AP) = ( Intensifier ) + Head + (Complement )

Typical Intensifiers: very, quite, rather, too, more, most, only.
Complements: prepositional phrases, noun clauses beginning with the
conjunction that; infinitive verbal phrases.
(impertinent, very impertinent, unaware that everyone had confessed,
afraid to make any move.)
The Noun Phrase (NP)/simple, complex/ = ( Premodifier ) Head
(Postmodifier)
Simple premodifiers: article, demonstrative pronoun, genitive pronoun,
indefinite pronoun, Wh-word, numeral, ordinal, noun ( the battle, that
page, her vision, some recipes, which book, seven wonders, second
thoughts, metal shields )

The Verb Phrase ( VP) = Head (agree,worked)

Auxiliary(ies) + Head (has sung)
Head + Object(s)/Complement (The teacher
demanded respect. We consider him unreliable.)
Head + Modifier(s) (They left early. They
walked a great deal. She left to milk the cow.)
Combinations of the above

Verbal Phrases (VblPs) /traditionally verbals/ = Participles, Gerunds,

Infinitives

11.2 Clause – a clause is a grammatical unit which contains a subject and a

predicate. A clause can be analysed into the elements: Subject, Verb,
Complement, Object and Adverbial.

Subject > A subject is a noun phrase or a clause with a nominal function; it

occurs before the verb phrase in declarative clauses, agrees in number and
person with the verb phrase (where applicable).

Object > An object (direct or indirect) is a noun phrase or a clause with

nominal function; normally follows the subject and the verb; by the passive
transformation assumes the status of subject.

Complement > A complement (subject or object) is a noun phrase, an

adjective phrase, or a clause with nominal function; follows the subject,
verb phrase, and (if present) object.

Adverbial > An adverbial is an adverb, adverb phrase, adverbial clause,

noun phrase, or prepositional phrase; it is generally mobile and generally
optional.

11.2.1 Basic clause patterns:

 • Subject Verb Head ( NP + VP /intransitive verb/).

• Subject Verb Head Direct Object ( The doctor stitched the

wound./ The divorce upset her.)
• Subject Verb Head Subject Complement ( He felt sorry. The
milk turned sour. )
Linking verbs: be, appear, become, feel, get, go, grow, look, make, prove,
seem, smell, sound, taste, turn.

• Subject Verb Head Direct Object Object Complement (The

children painted all the walls green.)
Idiomatic Object Complement Expressions: cut the story short (cut S
short), drain S dry, make S clear, make S possible, push S open, shake S
free, leave S clean, make S plain, pack S tight, put S straight.

• Subject Verb Head Indirect Object Direct Object (George

gave me the roses.)
• Subject Verb Head Direct Object Recipient/Benefactive ( NP
AUX [V/vp/ NP PP]
(She baked a birthday cake for Angela.)

• Subject Verb Head Direct Object Location ( David put his

bicycle in the laundry room./He put his bicycle away.)

Simple sentence – contains only one clause.

Complex sentences – contain more than one clause

12. Types of subordinate clauses : finite; nonfinite.

12.1 Types of nonfinite clauses: Reduced adverbial, Gerund, Reduced

relative, Infinitive.
Reduced adverbial: e.g. While living in Rome, Anna picked up some
Italian.
Gerunds: e.g. Giving grammar lectures is always a challenge.
Reduced relative: e.g. Anyone hoping to get on the train should have a
ticket.
To-infinitives: e.g. We want Jim to leave immediately.
Bare infinitives: e.g. We saw Jim leave. (with verbs of perception: see,
hear, feel, and others such as do, let, make )

12.2 Finite clauses (Adverbial, Relative, Noun )

Functions of subordinate clauses
12.2.1.Adverbial clauses:
• Time clauses: After you left the party, things began to swing./
As soon as the postman came, Jill ran to the front door.
• Place clauses: Brackets should be used only where they are
appropriate.
• Conditional clauses: If you understand this, you will be able
to do the exercise.
• Purpose clauses: We packed food for six meals so (that) we
could stay out in the forest overnight.
• Result clauses: She was so stunned that she couldn’t speak.
12.2.2.Relative clauses: The visitors who viewed the exhibition were
satisfied.
12.2.3.Clauses that function in the nominal range:
• As direct objects: John claims that he has earned his first million./
I know what the thief took.
• As indirect objects: We gave whoever was there a piece of the
wedding cake.
• As complements: The proposal is that we should teach language,
not grammar. / He dyes his hair whatever colour his car is./ The
idea that the Earth is flat has been disproved.
12.2.4 Miscellany: Gerry is tough to live with. / It was Henry Ford who
invented the assembly line. / What irritates me is the amount of sports on
TV.

13. Inversion after negative introductions

Some expressions can be placed first in a clause to give more emphasis or
more dramatic effect. The subject and verb are then inverted. If there is no
auxiliary verb, do/does ; did are used, as in a question.

Rarely /seldom…; Never…; At no time…; Under no circumstances…; On

no account…; Nobody…; Nowhere (else)…; Not (a person / a soul / a
thing etc. ….); Not only…but also…; Hardly / scarcely…when… ; No
sooner…than… .
( Never have I heard such nonsense. Not only does he drop ash on the
carpet, but he also spills his tobacco.)

Only (before adverbs of time).E.g. Only now do I understand why she

behaved like that.
Little, few, so, such (when not followed by a noun).E.g. Such is life!

Inversion instead of if in conditional sentences

(Had she arrived earlier, she would have seen a most remarkable sight.)

14. Other, another, others

Other +plural noun (more of the set)

Other +uncount noun (more of the set)
The other +singular noun (last of the set ) (This dictionary has a page
missing .Give me the other./the dictionaries are two/ )
The other + plural noun (the rest of the set )
Another + singular noun (one more ) ( I don’t like this hat. Give me
another.)
The other is specific. If the subject is understood, we can omit the noun
and keep the determiner and other functions as a pronoun.. If a plural
count noun is omitted, other becomes others.(I don’t want these
dictionaries. Give me the others.)

15. Quantifiers
They can be used before a noun: some /any , much / many, each /every,
more /most, a little /little, a few /few, fewer/ less, several, all/no, enough

With count nouns only: (not) many …, a few…, very few…, fewer…,
several… .
With singular count nouns only: each…, every… .
With plural count nouns only: both… .
With uncount nouns only: (not) much…, a little…, very little…,less… .
With both count and uncount nouns: some…, (not) any…,more /most,
all /no…, enough… .
No, all, every, and each cannot be used without a noun.
Most of the quantifiers can be used with of + the / my…/those, etc. +
noun. No and every cannot. For no and every, we use none, every one or
all. (All of the seats were occupied.) In formal English, none is followed
by a singular form of the verb.(None of the lecturers has arrived yet.)
If all is followed by a relative clause, it can mean everything.(We spend
all we earn.) This structure can have a negative meaning (=nothing more
or only this ).( All I want is somewhere nice to go.)
Before a noun with a determiner (the, my…,this ) both all and all of are
possible. ( They slept all (of) the time.)
With personal pronouns, we use all of.( All of you have excellent
qualifications.)

16. Order of adjectives: Determiner(1), Opinion(2), Size(3), Age(4),

Shape(5), Colour(6), Origin(7), Material(8), Compound(9) + Noun
( two(1)lovely(2)brown(6)leather(8)riding(9) boots )

Appendix 3
IRREGULAR VERBS

PAST PAST
INFINITIVE TENSE PARTICIPLE

arise arose arisen появявам се

awake awoke awoken събуждам (се)
be was, were been съм
bear bore born, borne нося, понасям
beat beat beaten бия
become became become ставам
begin began begun започвам
bend bent bent навеждам се
bet bet bet обзалагам се
bid bade, bid bidden, bid нареждам,предлагам
bind bound bound свързвам
bite bit bitten хапя
bleed bled bled кървя
blow blew blown духам, вея
break broke broken чупя, счупвам
breed bred bred отглеждам
bring brought brought нося, донасям
broadcast broadcast broadcast разпространявам,
излъчвам по радио
build built built строя
burn burnt, burnt, burned горя, изгарям
burned
burst burst burst избухвам

buy bought bought купувам

cast cast cast хвърлям, мятам
catch caught caught хващам, улавям
choose chose chosen избирам
cleave cleaved, cleaved, *cleft цепя, разцепвам
*cleft,
*clove
cling clung clung прилепвам се
come came come идвам
cost cost cost струвам
creep crept crept пълзя
cut cut cut режа, сека
deal dealt dealt раздавам(карти);търгувам
dig dug dug копая
dive dived; dived гмуркам се,
(AmE пикирам
also dove)
do did done правя
draw drew drawn тегля; рисувам
dream dreamt, dreamt, мечтая; сънувам
dreamed dreamed
drink drank drunk пия
drive drove driven шофирам
dwell dwelt, dwelt, dwelled живея, обитавам
dwelled
eat ate eaten ям
fall fell fallen падам
feed fed fed храня
feel felt felt чувствам, усещам
fight fought fought бия се, боря се
find found found намирам
fit fitted; (AmE fitted; (AmE прилягам; изпробвам
usually fit) usually fit)
flee fled fled бягам, побягвам
fling flung flung запращам, мятам
fly flew flown летя
forbear forbore forborne въздържам се

forbid forbade forbidden забранявам

forecast forecast, forecast, предвиждам
forecasted forecasted
foresee foresaw foreseen предугаждам,
предвиждам
foretell foretold foretold предсказвам
forget forgot forgotten забравям
forgive forgave forgiven прощавам
freeze froze frozen замръзвам
get got got; (AmE, получавам, ставам
spoken)gotten
give gave given давам
go went gone, *been отивам
grind ground ground меля
grow grew grown раста
hang hung, hung, *hanged закачам, окачам
*hanged ∗беся
have had had имам
hear heard heard чувам
heave heaved, heaved, *hove вдигам, повдигам
*hove
hew hewed hewed, hewn сека, посичам
hide hid hidden крия, скривам
hit hit hit удрям
hold held held държа
hurt hurt hurt наранявам
interweave interwove interwoven втъкавам
keep kept kept пазя; продължавам
kneel knelt; (AmE knelt; (AmE коленича
also also
kneeled) kneeled)
knit knitted, knitted, *knit плета
*knit
know knew known знам, познавам
lay laid laid поставям
lead led led водя, ръководя
lean leaned; (BrE leaned; (BrE облягам се, накланям се,
also also навеждам се
leant) leant)
leap leapt, leaped leapt, leaped скачам, прескачам
learn learnt, learnt, learned уча, научавам
learned
leave left left оставям, напускам
lend lent lent давам на заем
let let let позволявам, оставям
lie lay lain лежа, простирам се
light lit, *lighted lit, *lighted запалвам, осветявам
lose lost lost губя, загубвам
make made made правя, произвеждам
mean meant meant означавам, знача
meet met met срещам(се)

mistake mistook mistaken бъркам; припознавам се

mow mowed mown, mowed кося
pay paid paid плащам
plead pleaded; pleaded; (AmE пледирам, позовавам се
(AmE also pled) на, умолявам
also pled)
prove proved proved;(also доказвам, изпробвам,
proven in AmE) оказвам се
put put put слагам, поставям
quit quit; (BrE quit; (BrE also оставям, махам се,
also quitted) погасявам
quitted)
read read read чета
rend rent rent късам, разкъсвам
rid rid rid отървавам

ride rode ridden яздя, карам колело

ring rang rung звъня
rise rose risen ставам, изправям се
run ran run тичам, бягам
saw sawed sawn; (AmE режа с трион
also
sawed)
say said said казвам
see saw seen виждам
seek sought sought търся
sell sold sold продавам
send sent sent изпращам
set set set поставям, слагам
sew sewed sewn, sewed шия
shake shook shaken разтърсвам, клатя
shear sheared shorn, sheared стрижа
shed shed shed меня(козина), роня
shine shone, shone, *shined блестя, сияя
*shined

shoe shod shod обувам, подковавам

shoot shot shot стрелям
show showed shown, *showed показвам
shrink shrank, shrunk свивам(се)
shrunk
shut shut shut затварям
sing sang sung пея
sink sank,∗ sunk sunk потъвам, затъвам
slit slit slit цепя, разцепвам
smell smelled; smelled; (BrE мириша
(BrE also smelt)
also smelt)
smite smote smitten удрям, тормозя
sow sowed sown, sowed сея, посявам
speak spoke spoken говоря
speed speeded, speeded, sped движа се бързо, карам с
sped превишена скорост

spell spelt, spelt, spelled изричам/пиша буква по

spelled буква
spend spent spent харча; прекарвам(време)
spill spilled; (BrE spilled; (BrE разливам
also spilt) also spilt)
spin spun spun завъртам се
spit spat; (also spat; (also spit плюя
spit es- es-
pecially in pecially in
AmE) AmE)
split split split разцепвам
spoil spoiled; spoiled; (BrE развалям, разглезвам
(BrE also also
spoilt) spoilt)
spread spread spread разстилам
spring prang; sprung скачам, извирам
(AmE
also sprung)
stand stood stood стоя прав, заставам
stave staved, staved, *stove пробивам, разбивам
*stove
steal stole stolen крада, открадвам
stick stuck stuck залепвам
sting stung stung жиля, ужилвам
stink stank, stunk stunk воня, смърдя
strew strewed strewed, strewn обсипвам, осейвам
stride strode - крача, прекрачвам
strike struck struck; (AmE удрям
also
stricken)
string strung strung завързвам с канап;стягам
се, напрягам се
strive strove, striven, *strived мъча се, силя се
*strived
swear swore sworn кълна се
sweep swept swept мета
swell swelled swollen, swelled подувам се
swim swam swum плувам
swing swung swung люлея(се)
take took taken взимам
teach taught taught уча, преподавам
tear tore torn късам, разкъсвам
tell told told казвам, разказвам
think thought thought мисля
throw threw thrown хвърлям
thrust thrust thrust бутам, ръгам
tread trod trodden, trod стъпвам; тъпча
undergo underwent undergone понасям, претърпявам
undo undid undone развалям; премахвам
wake woke woken събуждам (се)
wear wore worn нося (дреха)
weave wove, woven, тъка, изтъкавам
*weaved *weaved
wed wedded, wedded, wed женя се, венчавам се
wed
weep wept wept плача
wet wet, wetted wet, wetted мокря; напикавам
win won won побеждавам, спечелвам
wind wound wound вия се; навивам
withdraw withdrew withdrawn оттеглям(се)
withhold withheld withheld забавям, попречвам
withstand withstood withstood устоявам
wring wrung wrung стискам силно,
изцеждам (мокра дреха)
write wrote written пиша, написвам

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