3

Рис. 14 - Лампочка

4

Рис. 15 - Колба

5

Рис. 16 - Сервант

6

Рис. 17 - Держатель для колбы

Task 3. Match the words from the extract with their synonims

1. solace

2. ailing

3. menacing

4. sealed-off

5. self-absorption

6. sour

a. tired, exhausted

b. gloomy

c. threatening

d. sick, unhealthy

e. state when you are into your thoughts, into yourself

7. weary

8. cantankerous

f. isolated

g. quarrelsome

h. consolation, comfort

Task 4. Match the words with their definitions

1. Drive out

2. Lord it (over)

3. Tuck into

4. Wince

a. Make a slight involuntary grimace or shrinking movement of the body out of pain or distress

b. Eat food heartily

c. Make somebody leave the house

d. Act in a superior and domineering manner towards someone

“Grandfather wasn't the same person in his shed as he was in the house”. Are there places where you are a different person than at your house? Why do you behave differently there? __________________________________________________________________

ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ 6

(обязательное)

Книга для учителя для 6 уроков курса по современной британской прозе

J. K. Rowling and A Casual Vacancy (2012)

If you have started the discussion about modern literature with asking students what modern writers they know, J. K. Rowling would probably be the only one they named. While the most part of the students have a notion about Harry Potter (through books or movies), few of them knows anything about her biography.

Start the lesson with brainstorming ideas about Rowling's biography. Write facts students know about J. K. Rowling on the board and elicit as much information from students as possible. Aim: to introduce students to the topic, to find the line between known and unknown, to make students motivated to learn more about J. K. Rowling.

After that ask them to read the text about Rowling they have in the Workbook and write down five new facts they've found out about her and her books. Aim: to find out new information about J. K. Rowling, to improve reading skills.

With modern writers we have a priceless opportunity to read their interviews, quotations, real words.

Ask students to read the quotations and to try to insert an appropriate word. Explain difficult words like `have a knack for something', etc. and tell them the right answers after listening to their variants.

We do not need _________ to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: We have the power to imagine better. (answer: magic)

It is our ________... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. (answer: choices)

Humans have a knack for choosing precisely the things that are ______ for them. (answer: worst) (to have a knack for means to be good at something, to have an acquired or natural skill at doing something)

The ________ has been a boon and a curse for teenagers. (answer: Internet) (a boon is a thing that is helpful or beneficial)

If you don't like to _______, you haven't found the right _____. (answer: read; book)

________ are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out. (answer: books)

Ask students to express their opinion, agreeing or disagreeing with Rowling's words.

Aim of the task: to learn more about J. K. Rowling's views on different things, improving reading skills by developing the contextual guess and to let students express their own opinions thus developing speaking skills.

Reading an extract

Before reading the text itself, it may be useful to say a few words about the novel. Aim: to create general picture of what the book is about. Ask one student to read the text aloud and translate it if necessary.

Then ask students to read the text to themselves. The text is provided with the translation notes to facilitate reading. Aim: to introduce students to an extract from Casual Vacancy.

After reading the extract, students answer the question stated before - why Krystal is in Tessa's office. Then ask students to fill in the chart (in pairs or in small groups). Aim: to check comprehension and draw students' attention to details. The chart with possible answers is presented below. Check the task orally all together.

Таблица 10 - Информация о главной героине (ответы)

Evidence	Statements from the text which prove it
Krystal didn't like school. (lines 20-23)	Krystal frequently walked out of school when upset, angry or bored … escaped into days of truancy
Krystal wasn't a polite girl. (lines 27-32)	Don't swear at me, please, Krystal (or any rude word from Krystal's speech)
Schoolchildren laughed at Krystal. (lines 32-35)	They glanced through the glass pane in the door; one of them grinned at the sight of the back of Krystal's head.
Krystal often lied. (lines 45-49)	… they lied, misbehaved and cheated routinely... Tessa thought she recognized this as authentic outrage, as opposed to the synthetic kind that Krystal was adept at producing.
Krystal was a frequent guest at Tessa's office. (lines 56-60)	Nearly two years of gossamer-fine trust, laboriously spun between them, was stretching, on the point of tearing.
Krystal wanted to look older than she was. (lines 55-59/62-65)	…girl's heavily pencilled eyes … the fingernails were … untidily painted Besides, teenagers tend to think that if they swear, they look older
Krystal was nervous. (lines 70-74/80-84)	She heard Krystal fidget. Krystal banged the leg of Tessa's desk with her foot, beating out a rapid rhythm.
Krystal's family situation was from ideal. (lines 90-95)	People in Krystal's mother's circle died … with such frequency that they might have been involved in some secret war of which the rest of the world knew nothing. Krystal had told Tessa how, when she was six years old, she had found the corpse of an unknown young man in her mother's bathroom.
Krystal was sure she would give up her hobby. (lines 99-103)	The rowing eight would be finished. Nobody except Barry could have brought Krystal Weedon into any group and kept her there. She would leave, Tessa knew it; probably Krystal knew it herself.

When you've made sure that students have understood the text, you can proceed with discussing it. First the questions can be suggested for pair-discussion and later you can ask some students to share their ideas with the whole class. Aim: to discuss the characters and their behavior thus enhancing comprehension of the extract and improving speaking skills.

Discussion questions

1. Do you think Tessa Wall was behaving as a school psychologist should behave? Was she carrying on the dialogue with this girl in the right way? (Should she have been stricter or more supporting?)

2. If Barry Fairbrother were alive, could he be the person who would completely change Krystal's life in your opinion? Do you believe that one person like a teacher or friend can change your life, making you a much better person and leading you to a happier future?

3. Do you think Tessa's and Krystal's second names are speaking? (Wall and Weedon (from `weed' meaning a plant that grows very quickly where it is not wanted and covers or kills more desirable plants)?

4. Can you try to imagine what future the girl will have?

After that students look closer at Krystal's speech. Aim: to focus students' attention on some language peculiarities they come across while reading, reminding them of how speech is important in analyzing characters because it can tell a reader a lot about them.

The following questions can be asked:

1. In the text you've come across some spelling peculiarities, for example: 'Your 'usband said sumthin' abou' Mister Fairbrother, right, an' I couldn't hear …'. This method is called eye dialect. It means nonstandard spellings that indicate a standard pronunciation, deliberately used by an author to indicate that the speaker uses a nonstandard or dialectal speech. Do you think the person speaks incorrectly or it's just one of the ways to show everyday colloquial speech?

2. Is her speech polite?

3. Can people's speech tell us a lot about a person? What? (age, social status, educational level). What conclusion can we make about her social status judging by her speech?

Focus on socio-linguistics

This text has quite a lot of socio-linguistic components which can be studied. Divide students into 4 groups and give them the following task (jigsaw reading). Aim: to introduce students to some names of English realities thus creating background knowledge, to introduce them to the etimology of the word `boycott', thus increasing students' motivation. The usage of jigsaw reading allows a student to speak more than in a usual whole-group discussion and introduces forms of peer learning which increases students' motivation and engagement in the learning process.

Task: You are divided into 4 groups. Each group has an explanation of one reality there's in the text. You read the text in group and become experts in this sphere. In your group fill in the blank about the realia you've read about. Be ready to explain the ideas to your classmates.

When the students have read the text, divide them in different groups so that now each group consists of 4 people who have read different texts. Students listen to each other's explanations and complete the information in their Workbook.

The explanations for the groups can be as in Worksheet 1 (См. Приложение 7).

The approximate answers are as follows (written in underlined italics):

1. “A group of sixth-formers carrying folders had arrived in the library”.

Is the sixth-former in a British school the same as in Russia? If not, who are they?

They are 16-18 years old.

They study at Sixth Form Colleges.

They study to pass the exams which allow them to go to a university.

They study for 2 years.

2. “The room set aside for the guidance department at Winterdown Comprehensive opened off the school library”.

The people who work in a guidance department are called guidance counselors or school counselors.

There functions are to help students with difficulties in interpersonal relationship, with family problems that affect the school life, with improving child's self-esteem, etc.

Their main focus is on students' career development.

3. “An' he's still gave me … detention!'“

Detention is a kind of punishment.

If you are given detention, you have to go to a certain part of school during a specific time and remain there for a specific period of time.

If you've committed something really bad, you'd probably have to go to school on a non-school day, for example, on Saturday.

4. “Tessa hardly ever looked at herself in full-length mirrors, and boycotted shops where this was unavoidable”.

Initially, the word `boycott' (either verb or noun) was the surname of Captain Charles C. Boycott.

This man was a (retired) British army captain and lived in the 19^th century.

At that time there was a conflict between Irish farmers and landlords, because there was a crisis in the country, farmers were poor and couldn't pay the rent.

Boycott tried to punish the farmers but they united against him: Boycott's laborers and servants stopped working, and his crops began to rot as no one worked on his fields.

Since then his name has been used to describe this particular protest strategy.

Students complete the information in their Workbooks and you may check it when you'll collect the Workbooks at the end of the topic. You can also address some questions to the students. Aim: to check how efficiently students have worked in groups. The questions can be as follows:

1. What do schoolchildren go to Sixth Form colleges for? (to study at universities after finishing these colleges)

2. What do guidance counselors do? (help students with difficulties in interpersonal relations, with family problems that afeect school like, with improving their self-esteem and with student's career development)

3. What does a detention mean? (it means that you have to go to a certain part of school during a break or after lessons or on a non-school day and stay there for a specific period of time)

4. How did the word boycott appear? (in the 19^th century there was a confich between nirish farmers and landlords because farmers were poor and couldn't pay the rent. Boycott was a retired British army captain, he tried to punish his farmers but they united against him, stopped working and his crops began to rot. Since then his name has been used to describe this particular protest strategy)

Focus on language

After that students work closer on the language used by the writer. Aim: to enlarge students' (passive) vocabulary by working on collocations and phrasal verbs.

Task 1. Match the words to make the phrases from the text

1. boosting

2. walked out

3. devoid

4. filled

5. sarcastic

6. authentic

7. numb with

8. rueful

A. with dread

B. of workaday morals

C. self-esteem

D. smile

F. fatigue

G. of school

H. outrage

I. remark

Key: 1.C 2.G 3.B 4.A 5.I 6.H 7.F 8.D

Task 2. Choose the right particle for the phrasal verb used in the text

in up out in up

1. Can you imagine that he turned ______ at the party?! Nobody expected to see him there!

2. She entered the room suddenly, with a lot of noise, just burst _____ it.

3. He was listening to music and beating _______the rhythm of his favourite songs by a hand.

4. I was comfortably sitting in an armchair, watching TV but I had to get ____ to walk my dog.

5. My elder sister is always listening ____ my talks with friends. She knows all my secrets!

Key: 1.up 2.in 3.out 4.up 5.in

Task 3. In the next sentences three verbs which in the story were used with preposition `down' are missed. Insert them in the appropriate form.

slump slow let

1. When you close the roller-blind, you _____ them down.

2. If a person is very tired or depressed or angry, he can ______ down in a chair or on a sofa meaning that s/he sits heavily and limply.

3. When you start to calm down and stop breathing so fast, your breaths _____ down.

Key: 1.let 2.slump 3.slow

What meaning does usually the preposition `down' has? (From a higher to a lower point of something, also figurative)

Can you give any examples with other verbs used with it? (calm down, bring down)

Finally, there's a fun fact about Harry Potter books which you may use as you wish.

Multiculturalism and Kazuo Ishiguro

Multiculturalism is a typical feature of English literature nowadays so it seems necessary to get students acquainted with it. The text presents a short explanation of multiculturalism which students may read aloud or in pairs. Aim: to introduce students to multiculturalism. Then students are to answer the questions suggested below. It can be organized as pair work; then you may ask several students to share his/her ideas and opinion with the whole class. Aim: to provide better understanding of what multuculturalism is through discussion and drawing interdisciplinary connections, at the same time developing speaking skills.

Notes. Question 1. What is multiculturalism to do with globalization? (Students should remember what they have learnt about globalization at their social studies class and draw a conclusion)

Question 2. What qualities do we need to live a globalized world? List 5 of them. (possible answers: be tolerant, know English (maybe several foreign languages), know about other cultures not to unintentionally offend foreigners, be open-minded, etc.)

Question 3. Can you think of any Russian writers who left the USSR/Russia and wrote their works in other languages? (V. Nabokov and I. Brodskij are probably the brightest examples)

Question 4. Who are called marginal people? What is it like to be a marginal person? Is marginalization nowadays a typical, unavoidable feature of our society? (Students have already spoken about these issues at their social studies classes so they can recall information and express their opinions)

In the text there is information about the Booker Prize. If students know what it is, they proceed with other tasks, but if they do not know, read the information given in their Workbook.

Kazuo Ishiguro

Ask students to read the text and to try to remember as much as they can. Then ask the mto turn over the page and fill in the crossword. Aim: to introduce students to Ishiguro's biography, encouraging them to remember more facts about the author and motivating them by using a crossword in order the check their comprehension.

Answers:

Рис 11 - Кроссворд по биографии Кадзуо Исигуро (ответы)

After reading and filling in the crossword it may be interesting to watch the following video (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqDUstHYx4Q). This is a short official interview taken soon after his winning the Nobel Prize in which Kazuo Ishiguro speaks about his childhood memories, genres in literature and his teenage dreams to become a musician. Aim: to find out more about the writer and improve listening skills. The pre-listening task suggested below will also contribute to the development of students' probability prediction mechanism.

You may organize pre-listening as follows:

Task. Now we are going to watch a short interview with Kazuo Ishiguro taken by the official Nobel Prize YouTube Channel and learn some interesting facts about the writer. But before watching, please, discuss the following questions in pairs and make some predictions.

1. Why has the reporter brought Ishiguro his favorite childhood toy?

2. Why does he think that we should not classify books according to their genres?

3. What did he want to become when he was a child?

After the pair discussion ask several students to share their predictions with their classmates. Then they listen to the interview and write down Ishiguro's answers to the questions above. After that they go through them and check all together. See Worksheet 2 (См. Приложение 8).

Author's words

Aim: to introduce students to a view on life that migrants have and to what an international novel is, give students opportunity to express their thoughts thus deleping reading and speaking skills.

Ask your students the following question: Ishiguro was born to Japanese parents but lives in the UK since his childhood. Do you think he feels more like an Englishman or a Japanese? They express what they think and then read Ishiguro's words. Translate unknown words.

“I'm not entirely like English people because I've been brought up by Japanese parents in a Japanese-speaking home. My parents didn't realize that we were going to stay in this country for so long, they felt responsible for keeping me in touch with Japanese values. I do have a distinct background. I think differently, my perspectives are slightly different." When he was asked to what extent he identifies as either Japanese or English the author answered, "People are not two-thirds one thing and the remainder something else. Temperament, personality, or outlook don't divide quite like that. The bits don't separate clearly. You end up a funny homogeneous mixture. This is something that will become more common in the latter part of the century--people with mixed cultural backgrounds, and mixed racial backgrounds. That's the way the world is going”.

“I am a writer who wishes to write international novels. What is an 'international' novel? I believe it to be one, quite simply, that contains a vision of life that is of importance to people of varied backgrounds around the world. It may concern characters who jet across continents, but may just as easily be set firmly in one small locality”.

Ask students if they can think of any `international novels' they have ever read. Why do they think they are international?

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009)

When students have learnt a bit about the author, they can move on to reading an extract from his short story. Before doing it, ask them to read the text. Aim: for students to get some general information about the nocturnes.

As the nocturne under study (Come rain or come shine) has the same title as a song, it could be a good idea to listen to the song first. Aim: to introduce students to the song with the same title thus providing ground for students' suppositions about the plot and the mood of the story (to develop students' probability prediction mechanism): to improve listening skills and to introduce students' to the music of 1950-1960s, creating some background knowledge.

In the Workbook there's a note about the song and students may read it if interested. The task for students may be as follows:

Now we are going to read some extracts from the nocturne Come rain or come shine. But before doing it we will listen to a song that has the same title as this nocturne.

`Come rain or come shine' and `rain or shine' mean always, no matter what happens, in any case.

Your task while listening is to the song is to fill in the gaps.

The answers they should fill in are written in underlined italics.

Come rain or come shine

I'm gonna love you, like nobody's loved you Come rain or come shine High as a mountain, deep as a river Come rain or come shine I guess when you met me It was just one of those things But don't you ever bet me 'Cause I'm gonna be true if you let me You're gonna love me, like nobody's loved me Come rain or come shine We'll be happy together, unhappy together Now won't that be just fine The days may be cloudy or sunny We're in or out of the money But I'm with you always I'm with you rain or shine

After that in a whole-group discussion ask the following questions: Did you like the song? What is it about? Keeping in mind that the song has the same title as the nocturne, can you try to predict what the story will be about? Some facts about the plot, about the relationships of the main heroes? Will it be a happy story or a sad one?

Reading the story

Aim: to introduce students' to one of K. Ishiguro's Nocturne (by reading extracts).

During a lesson it is not possible to read the whole nocturne. To acquaint students with the nocturne, three extracts have been chosen. They are taken from the first part of the story and present its outset, where readers meet the main characters, find out the relationships between them and the current situation they are in. Not to spend much time on reading in itself, use jigsaw-reading strategy. Divide your class into two groups and give each group one extract or two. They are almost equal in length. Together with the extracts each group receives a set of questions. However, they can answer only some of them. To find answers to all of them they need to mingle. Aim: to check students' comprehension of the extracts or to correct it (if needed) during the group discussion. So when students are through with reading and answering the questions, divide them into groups again, this time so that in each group there are people who have read different extracts. Communicating in this small group, students find out answers to all the questions. The cards for students with texts and questions are presented in Worksheet 3 (Приложение 9).

The answer to the questions are found in the following extracts:

1. What is the narrator's name? (both) (answer: Ray/Raymond)

2. What are the relationships between Charlie and the narrator? (group 1) (answer: close friends)

3. What were the relationships between Charlie and his wife Emily at the time when the narrator arrived? (group 1) (answer: rather tense)

4. What does the narrator do for work? (group 1) (answer: English teacher)

5. What do Charlie and Emily think about Ray's work? (group 2) (answer: terrible, exploitative, not at the level of his abilities)

6. Why do Charlie and Emily think that Ray is not a successful person? (group 2) (answer: not wealthy, not married, etc)

7. What is Emily unsatisfied with? (group 2) (answer: she wanted Charlie to achieve more)

8. What does being Mr Perspective mean? (group 2) (answer: be a bad example of how a person wasted his talent and his whole life)

9. Why did the narrator go to London at the beginning of summer? (group 1) (answer: to stay with his friends)

10. What favour did Charlie want the narrator to do? (group 1) (answer: `let Emily look after you, get her in a good mood and keep her that way', be an example of an unsuccessful person so that Emily understands that Charlie is doing great)

Comprehension questions and tasks

Aim: to enhance students' understanding of the characters by comparing them. Students continue working in groups.

1. Do these sentences describe Ray's or Charles's life? Write R or C near each one.

He has stability in life (С)

He makes friends all over the world (R)

He is quite wealthy (С)

He lives in foreign countries (R)

He gets to know other cultures (R)

He travels but for business (С)

2. Compare Charlie and Ray. Add more criteria if you feel it's needed. Possible answers are presented below.

Та

блица 11 - Сравнение главных героев (ответы)

Criteria for comparison	Charlie	Ray
Job	Businessman, good, well-paid job	Teacher, changes his jobs and counries he lives in
Wealth	Wealthy, big house, no money-problems	Not as wealthy as Charlie
Family status	Married (happily?)	Not married, (unhappy) relationship with `some airhead girl with a drink problem'
Satisfaction with life	Students' own opinions

Discussion questions

Then students express their opinions on the discussion questions in a group or pair and then they discuss it all together. Aim: to develop students' speaking skills and critical thinking, let them discuss their life attitude principles by providing them with an opportunity to express freely their opinions about lifestyles, real friendship and success.

Then ask students to comment on the following quotes

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it. (Maya Angelou, American poet)

Success? I don't know what that word means. I'm happy. But success, that goes back to what in somebody's eyes success means. For me, success is inner peace. That's a good day for me. (Denzel Washington, American actor)

Focus on language

In these extracts students have come across some interesting vocabulary, so it's useful to do the following task. The following tasks may be given as homework and then checked when you collect the Workbooks.

Task 1. Match the words or phrases from the extract you read with their synonyms. Aim: to enlarge students (passive) vocabulary.

1. tedious

2. to swap stories

3. a life-long friend

4. it's dead simple

5. to be moved by smth

6. to be destined for

7. to vanish

8. to give smb a hand with smth

a. it's very simple

b. to disappear

c. to be affected, touched, impressed by smth

d. to tell stories to each other, to exchange stories

e. to help smb with smth

f. dull, tiresome, boring

g. a friend since your childhood and for the whole life

h. to be certain to achieve something: certain to have a particular job, status like following a pre-existing plan

Answer key: 1.f 2.d 3.g 4.a 5.c 6.h 7.b 8.e

Task 2. There are many words which can be built using the root `achieve'. Try to translate these words and then insert them in the sentences. Aim: to develop students' wordbuilding skills.

This exercise can be of use as there is a word-building task in the State exam.

to achieve

an achievement

an underachievement

an overachievement

an achiever

an overachiever

achievable

unachievable

achievability

1. Their gold medal at the Olympics was a(n) _________________ because they were expected to get a silver or a bronze but not a gold.

2. It is often a good idea to start with smaller, easily ____________ goals.

3. They call themselves `dreamers, believers, ____________ ' and they are really motivated to succeed.

4. She got only C for her exam what definitely was a(n) ____________________ as she studied well and everyone was sure she would get A.

5. He was an ambitious person, worked hard and finally he managed to ____________ all his goals.

6. The Committee has demonstrated the ______________ of its objectives.

7. It was a great _____________ for her and she was satisfied as two months of hard work paid off.

8. This result is _______________ in such a short period of time.

9. My friend who studies at the US University is an _______________ - she works extremely hard and always gets only A-levels for all her papers.

Answer key: 1. overachievement 2.achievable 3.achievers 4.underachievement 5.achieve 6.achievability 7.achievement 8.unachievable 9.overachiever

Task 3. In the text you came across a phrase: … to get a job in any faraway corner you fancied.

The verb to fancy can be tricky for students as it has several meanings. Ask students to read the information below, translate the examples and built their own ones. Building their own examples will help students to memorize its usage. Aim: to introduce students' to the word fancy, explaining the meanings of it and practicing it.

Task 4. The next task can be used as additional or can be done at lesson together if time allows. Doing the task in the Workbook (p.) students get to know more idioms with the word `leg' because in the text they came across the idiom: to be on one's last legs (Things are on their last legs with us). Aim: to introduce students' to English idioms with the word leg and enhance their motivation to learn the language.

1. to be on one's last legs

2. to pull someone's leg

3. to cost someone an arm and a leg

4. not have a leg to stand on

5. to give someone a leg-up

6. to shake a leg

7. with one's tail between one's legs

a. cost somebody a lot of money

b. hurry up

c. be very tired or ill

d. tease somebody, make somebody believe something that is untrue

e. have nothing to support one's opinion

f. in a obedient or sad manner

g. help somebody towards success

Answer key: 1.c 2.d 3.a 4.e 5.g 6.b 7.f

Now insert the idioms from the table to complete these sentences

a) You can't say that, you _______________________________!

b) After working all day, he felt he _______________________________.

c) Move! _______________ or you'll be late again!

d) The defeated player left the field _____________________________.

e) When he joined the company I noticed his talent, so I _____________________________ he needed.

f) I don't believe you, you are _______________________.

g) I don't have enough money to buy this computer. It would ______________________.

Answer key:

a.don't have a leg to stand on

b.was on his last legs

c.shake a leg

d.with his tail between his legs

e.gave him a leg-up

f.pulling my leg

g.cost me an arm and a leg

Tell students about the expression “Break a leg!” but add that though one can say: `Break a leg on your final exams!', this idiom is usually used to wish good luck to artists before some performance.

Additional task

There hopefully will be some students who will like the story and read it up to the end. In the Workbook there are some questions which the students can answer in writing after finishing. Aim: to let students express their thoughts and ideas after reading the whole nocturne at the same time letting them have more practice of writing.

Graham Swift and Chemistry (2008)

Ask one student to prepare a story about Swift's biography to tell the rest of the class at the beginning of the lesson. Aim: to introduce students' to the biography of Graham Swift. To ensure that other students are listening and to make listening more actively, ask them to do a multiple-choice task while listening.

Obviously, before creating a task you need to have a look at the information the student has chosen for the story so that the task agrees with his/her story. The sample text (the student can base his story on) is presented in Worksheet 4 (См. Приложение 11) and the task for while-listening activity with keys is below.

1. Graham Swift works in the genres of

a) short story and novel

b) novel only

c) short story, novel and poetry

3. He studied at

a) Cambridge and York Universities

b) Oxford University

c) London University

3. Main heroes of his books are usually

a) children

b) ordinary middle-aged people

c) old people

4. One of the main themes of his books is

a) personal histories and how they are connected to the world's events

b) politics

c) war

5. Swift was awarded

a) Nobel prize for literature

b) Booker Prize

c) Pulitzer prize

6. His novels are (several answers are possible)

a) Last Orders

b) Great Expectations

c) Saturday

d) Waterland

e) Shuttlecock

f) Never Let Me Go

Answer key: 1.c 2.a 3.b 4.a 5.b 6.a,d,e (Great Expectations - Charles Dickens; Saturday - Ian McEwan; Never Let Me Go - Kadzuo Ishiguro)

There are some interesting quotes by Swift. Let students work in pairs, choose one quote they like most and comment upon it. Then ask some of them to say to their classmates what quotes they like.

I share my name with an aerobatic bird that can whiz across a whole summer sky in seconds. A swift is so equipped for speed that it can scarcely cope with being stationary. Translate the unknown words in this quote and ask students why they think Swift has mentioned this parallel with a bird.

Aim of the task: to make students more interested in the writer's personality and improve their speaking skills.

Chemistry (2008)

Unlike the previous lessons when students read only extracts from the books, with Chemistry we suggest reading the whole story to be able to discuss the author's ideas and the themes. It is obviously impossible to read the entire story at a lesson so reading it should be students' homework. Aim: to introduce students to the short story Chemistry by Graham Swift. Chemistry is not a long story but it's quite demanding from the point of view of the language. It may be quite a challenge to read it in original, so we suppose it's okay to allow learners to read the story in Russian translation if they find the original variant too difficult. The whole class-work will be done in English and they will work on the language too, but it is of primary importance that students come to the lesson having a clear picture of the story in their heads. There is a lot to speak about in this story, which is included in GCSE. The work on this short story is based on the Cambridge guides for students which aims at helping students understang the story more profoundly in order to write an essay on it at the exam.

Title

It is no doubt more like a pre-reading task and if the time allows, it is perfect to do it before reading. However, taking into consideration the school timetable, all the tasks will be most probably done after reading.

Students work in pairs and write down their ideas about meanings of the word chemistry they can think of. Then ask a couple of students to share their ideas with the classmates.

After that students match three quotations to the people who you think said them.

1. I wanted to do math and physics, but my father made me do chemistry because he thought there would be no jobs for mathematicians.

2. We've all seen great actors and actresses who are missing a certain chemistry. And it's not about getting along or not getting along.

3. The explosive story of chemistry is the story of the building blocks that make up our entire world - the elements. … everything is made of elements.

a) Jim-al-Khalili, British physicist, broadcaster and presenter of science programmes on BBC

b) Stephen Hawking, English physicist, cosmologist

c) Johnny Galecki, American actor

Keys: 1.b 2.c 3.a

Aim of the task: to expand comprehension of the title of the story by discussing several meanings of the word.

Reading the story

Comprehension questions are needed just to check if students have read the text. Long, detailed answers are not necessary. Aim: to check students' general understanding.

1. What relationships did the son, mother and grandfather have in different periods of their life (before boy's father died, after this death, after Ralph moved in)? (Answer: before boy's father died - tense relations (explain why), after boy's father died they lived in harmony, quietly, calmly, contentredly; after Ralph moved in - conflict, tense relations again)

2. What choice did the boy's mother make between her new boyfriend and her family? Was it an easy choice? Why?

3. “We stood at the ceremony, Mother, Ralph and I, like a mock version of the trio - Grandfather, Mother and I - who had once stood at my father's memorial service”. Why does the author call them a “mock version”? What has changed since the funeral of the boy's father? (Answer: the relations were absolutely different, that's why it's called a `mock version')

Then students look closer on some important parts of the story.

Task 1. Read the first paragraph of the story.

a) Ask the students to fill in the table they have in their Workbooks. They are to prove with evidences the statements about the relations in the family. Aim: to explore the main characters (the boy, his mother, his grandfather) and their relationships more profoundly. This task can be done in pairs or in small groups. This and all the following tasks certainly imply that students have texts in original. Possible answers are given below:

Таблица 12 - Информация о семье главного героя (возможные ответы)

Statement	Evidence
They relied on each other.	The whole process of launching a boat where the actions of both grandson and grandfather were important
Grandfather dominated them.	As if Grandfather were pulling us towards him on some invisible cord
They enjoyed each other's company.	The repeated would meaning, it was a habitual action, something they used to do often so perhaps they liked it.
They did not want other people to disturb them.	We would go even in the winter - especially in the winter, because then we would have the pond to ourselves
They had become a self-contained unit.	There was this invisible cord between them

Task 2. This task helps students to understand the character better.

The character of Ralph is introduced soon after this point in the story.

a) Ask students to read three paragraphs that begin It was some months … up to And all this was because Grandfather had said to Mother. What impression of Ralph do they you have from this paragraph?

b) What do we learn about his relationships with the other characters? Ask students to complete a table to show what evidence they you can find in the story to support these statements about Ralph. Aim: to explore the character of Ralph. Possible answers are given below:

Таблица 13 - Информация о Ральфе (возможные ответы)

Ralph
Statement	Evidence
He wants the boy to like him.	He offers the boy to buy him a new boat
He is short-tempered.	“Ralph suddenly barked…”
He is used to getting his own way.	He shouted at grandfather as is he ordered and other had to obey
He is greedy.	“his hands clenched on his knife and fork”
He is determined to be the alpha male in the house .	“Why don't you leave her alone?”

As stated above this and similar table-work can be done in small groups or in pairs.

Additional task. If someone is particularly interested or wants to do this task for an extra mark, it can be offered to him/her. Create a similar table for the character of the mother. Think of five statements about her, and find evidence to support each one. This task may be especially useful for students who are going to take literature as their final exam as it helps their deeper understanding of the literary text. Aim: to explore the character of the mother further.

Task 3. Where does the story happen? The writer's choice of a setting is important in any story.

Ask students to read this extract from the last paragraph in the story. What impression do they get of the pond in the park?

I had nowhere to go. I went down to the park and stood by the pond. Dead willow leaves floated on it. Beneath its surface was a bottle of acid and the wreck of my launch.

Now ask them to look at the description of the pond at the start of the story and to write notes about (possible answers are given in brackets):

a) the layout (the pond was circular)

b) the season (winter)

c) the effect of the wind (the wind causes the water to move and is compared to the sea)

d) the privacy it allows (“we would have the pond to ourselves”).

Do they think it is a pleasant place? Ask the students to give reasons for their answer.

Aim of the task: to explore how setting contributes to creating the mood of the story.

Task 4. Ask students to working with a partner and discuss the following questions (possible answers are given in brackets).

1. When the boat sinks, Grandfather says: You must accept it - you can't get it back - it's the only way

a) What do you think he is really talking about? (death of a close person)

b) When she hears this, the mother's face is described as `very still and very white, as if she had seen something appalling'. Why do you think she reacts like this? (She still couldn't accept her husband's death? She was the one to damage the boat in order to make it sink? She felt it was a sign of their happy life as “self-contained unit” to come to an end? She realises her husband will not return and she has to move on with her life?)

c) The narrator describes the family as living `within the scope of this sad symmetry'. What do you think he means by this?

2) In the paragraph beginning `My father's death was a far less remote event than my grandmother's …', the narrator makes a distinction between adult and childish grief. What do you think are the distinctions?

After group-work it may be interesting to ask several members of different groups to see if the groups' ideas differ.

Aim of the task: to explore and discuss the key moments of the story

Task 5. How can you prove the following interpretations of the boy's personality?

a) He is lonely (he still misses his father a lot, there are no friends around, his mother is absorbed with her boyfriend, after his Grandfather's death the boy goes alone to the pond)

b) He is imaginative (visitations of ghosts)

c) He feels his world is threatened (he describes the house after Ralph's moving in as a menacing place)

d) He loves his mother and wishes to protect her (he describes his mother as trapped and helpless when Ralph was hugging her)

e) He loves his grandfather and feels sorry for him (he went to speak with him in the evening, he was afraid Ralph would hit him, his death was very sorrowful for the boy)

f) He is cruel (he thought about throwing the acid in Ralph's face to make him ugly and unattractive to his Mother)

g) He feels he can explain his grandfather's suicide (he understands that `a suicide can be a murder' as he realises that his Grandfather was almost forced to commit a suicide)

Aim: to explore the character of the boy further.

Task 6. The narrator's standpoint

It's important to draw students' attention to the fact that it (as many Swift's books) is a first-person narration. Ask students: Is this story a third-person narration or a first-person narration? Why do you think the author has decided to use this type of narration? What can it help us to understand?

It seems significant to notice that on the one hand any first-person narration enables us to feel the emotions of the character closely and to participate in the events. On the other hand, we always should keep in mind that other characters might have a different viewpoint and a completely different way of thinking about what happened.

Question: By whom is the story told in your opinion: by an adult who recalls his childhood or from the point of view of a boy? Why do you think so?

Aim: to remind students' of how the narrator's standpoint is important in a piece of literature and what a first-person narration can help us to understand/feel in general and in this story.

Task 7. What the characters say and do

In order to make a character believable for the reader, the writer has to give enough information about what the character says and does. Aim of the following tasks: to help students see how characters' words and actions contribute to making character believable and to forming our attitude towards them; and how charaters' words reveal their inner state.

Ask students to look at this extract from the opening paragraph of the story:

For some reason it was always Grandfather, never I, who went to the far side. When he reached his station I would hear his `Ready!' across the water. A puff of vapour would rise from his lips like the smoke from a muffled pistol. And I would release the launch … As it moved it seemed that it followed an actual existing line between Grandfather, myself and Mother, as if Grandfather were pulling us towards him on some invisible cord, and that he had to do this to prove we were not beyond his reach. When the boat drew near him he would crouch on his haunches. His hands - which I knew were knotted, veiny and mottled from an accident in one of his chemical experiments - would reach out, grasp it and set it on its return.

In this paragraph, Swift creates an impression of the characters of both the boy and his grandfather, and of the relationship between the three characters.

1. Working in pairs, students are to think about:

a) how the family is presented as a selfcontained unit (the success depended on actions of them both)

b) the physical description of Grandfather's hands (what effect does this have on the reader?) (the description is not complimentary and could be viewed as quite grotesque)

c) words or phrases that suggest Grandfather wants to be the most important person in the family (he was the one to shout `ready', he `was pulling them on some invisible cord').

2. How does what Grandfather says reveal aspects of his feelings and attitudes? The first point has been completed for you as an example (possible answers are given).

Таблица 14 - Чувства дедушки и его отношение к другим членам семьи (возможные ответы)

Quotation	Grandfather's feelings and attitudes
`You must accept it - you can't get it back - it's the only way'	Grandfather is still feeling the loss of his wife and is trying to accept it. he understands that death nust be accepted as being a part of life.
`Leave her alone? What do you know about being left alone?'	He knows a lot about hard moments they've overcome together. He has been affected by his wife's death and hasn't forgotten it.
`You don't make curry any more the way you did for Alec, the way Vera taught you.'	Probably, jealousy because Alec was his son and choosing Ralph the mother is like replacing him, betraying his memory. Also he wants to keep Vera's memory throught the curry, which used to be their family tradition.
`I thought you would come.'	He knows his grandson perfectly. They have a close bond.
`Anything can change. Even gold can change.'	Probably, he wants to explain how life changes when someone dies or he reflects the mother changing and doesn't welcome it.
`They change. But the elements don't change.'	He may mean that certain things will never change like the love he had for his wife.

Task 8. Aim: to explore how the dialogues show the relationships and attitudes of the characters towards each other.

Swift puts some ideas and attitudes into his characters' mouths that indicate their own attitudes and feelings, for example their attitudes to Grandfather. He does this by allowing the boy to witness these incidents.

With a partner, students are to explain what you think each of the following quotations reveals about the other characters' attitudes towards Grandfather. One quotation has already been completed as an example (possible answers are given).

Таблица 15 - Отношение других членов семьи к дедушке (возможные ответы)

Quotation about Grandfather	What this reveals about the speaker's feelings and attitudes towards him
Ralph: `Why don't you leave her alone?!'	Irritation probably because Ralph feels that the Grandfather is treating the mother like a child, which he does not like.
Ralph: `For Christ's sake we're not waiting all night for him to finish! Get the pudding!'	Anger or even hatred. Ralph wants to assert his authority but this role earlier belonged to Grandfather.
Mother: `You're ruining our neal - do you want to take yours out to your shed?!'	Annoyance or anger towards Grandfather because he wants to assert his authority which poses a threat to Ralph.
Mother: `Grandpa was old and ill, he wouldn't have lived much longer anyway.'	She is showing that she is glad, or at least relieved, that he is dead and treats his death as being of little consequence.

Task 9. Aim: to explore the purpose of introducing the image of ghost

Swift uses ghosts as a part of the story. The ghosts of the boy's father and grandfather both appear to him.

a) What do you think is important about what his father tells the boy? (The boy has vivid imagination and maybe the appearance of the ghost shows that he has accepted his father's death. It also links the sinking of the boat to the breakdown of the family.)

b) What does this suggest to the reader about how the boy now views his mother? (He views her negatively)

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