Читаем Чивера

М.Ю. Родионова

ЧИТАЕМ ЧИВЕРА

Учебное пособие по домашнему чтению

Москва
Издательство «ФЛИНТА»
2021

УДК 811.111(075.8)
ББК 81.432.1я73

Р60

Ре це нзе нты:

д-р филол. наук, проф. Вологодского государственного университета
С.М. Кибардина;

канд. филол. наук, доцент Нижегородского государственного
лингвистического университета О.В. Петрова

Р60 

Родионова М.Ю.
Читаем Чивера [Электронный ресурс] : учеб. пособие по 
домашнему чтению / М.Ю. Родионова. — Москва : ФЛИНТА, 
2021. — 120 с.
ISBN 978-5-9765-4456-7
Учебное пособие по домашнему чтению предназначено для студентов 3-го курса переводческого факультета. Цель данного учебного пособия — формирование у студентов-переводчиков профессионально значимого навыка анализа текста, а также — обогащение словарного запаса студентов. Содержащиеся в учебном пособии 
задания призваны способствовать тому, чтобы студенты усваивали 
не только лексические единицы, но и стоящие за ними концепты.

УДК 811.111(075.8)
ББК 81.432.1я73

ISBN 978-5-9765-4456-7 
© Родионова М.Ю., 2021
© Издательство «ФЛИНТА», 2021

Contents

От автора  ..........................................................................................................4

A Woman without a Country  ............................................................................5

Another Story  ..................................................................................................12

The Season of Divorce  ....................................................................................23

The Sutton Place Story  ....................................................................................32

An Educated American Woman  ......................................................................41

The Wrysons  ...................................................................................................50

The Enormous Radio  ......................................................................................56

The Superintendent  .........................................................................................61

The Angel of the Bridge  ..................................................................................66

The Country Husband  .....................................................................................73

The Cure  ..........................................................................................................82

The Geometry of Love  ....................................................................................89

The Swimmer  ..................................................................................................96

The Housebreaker of Shady Hill  ...................................................................104

ОТ АВТОРА

В учебном пособии представлены задания и упражнения к 
рассказам американского писателя Джона Чивера. Пособие состоит из 14 разделов, каждый из которых содержит комплекс 
упражнений, выстроенный на основе одного рассказа и направленный на обогащение словарного запаса, на развитие навыков 
владения английским языком и на формирование умений аналитического чтения текста. Поскольку все эти рассказы имеются 
в свободном доступе в Интернете, сами их тексты в пособии не 
приводятся.
В заданиях, направленных на обогащение словарного запаса, на полное и правильное понимание стоящих за словами концептов, студентам предлагается дать определение, толкование 
значения слов в языке, а затем описать ситуации, в которых они 
употребляются в тексте, что позволяет не только сопоставить их 
языковое и контекстуальное значения, но и активизировать эти 
лексические единицы при обсуждении рассказов.
Помимо этого, пособие содержит задания, которые способствуют пониманию сюжетной линии и системному восприятию 
анализируемых рассказов. В каждом разделе представлены коммуникативные задания, предполагающие дискуссии, что помогает совершенствовать навыки формирования и выражения 
мысли и побуждает обучающихся к спонтанной, неподготовленной речи.
Такой набор упражнений и заданий нацелен не столько на 
знакомство с творчеством Д. Чивера, сколько на формирование 
умения анализировать прочитанный текст, извлекать из него 
максимум информации, поскольку пособие ориентировано преимущественно на студентов-переводчиков, для которых такое 
умение можно считать ключевым.

A WOMAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY
✧

I. Defi ne the words and phrases. Describe the episode in which the 
word or phrase is used:

1) a tree-splitting thunderstorm;
2) to board the plane;
3) a lumber-mill;
4) a county;
5) a tabloid;
6) a nightgown;
7) to run out of gas;
8) a rake;
9) to sue for;
10) custody;
11) humidity;
12) to surrender a claim;
13) the outcast of the society;
14) boodle;
15) high seas;
16) royalties;
17) freight;
18) a maritime state;
19) lettuce;
20) snorkel.

II. Find the words and phrases in the given extracts to fi t the 
following defi nitions:

1) a pub, typically one in the country, in some cases providing 
accommodation;
2) a break between two parts of a fi lm, concert, or show, etc;

...I saw her at the Passion Play in Erl — not at the Passion Play, 
actually, but at the inn in the village, where you have lunch during 
the intermission, and I saw her at the horse show in the Piazza 
di Siena, and that autumn in Treviso, boarding the plane for 
London. ...

3) showing a great effort and energy and refusing to give up or 
take a rest;
4) the responsible local executive at a mill controlled by 
absentee ownership;

...She was one of those tireless wanderers who go to bed night after 
night to dream of bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches. Although 
she came from a small lumber-mill town in the north where they 
manufactured wooden spoons, the kind of lonely place where 
international society is spawned, this had nothing to do with her 
wanderings. Her father was the mill agent, and the mill was owned 
by the Tonkin family — they owned a great deal, they owned whole 
counties, ...

5) a person’s inherent qualities of mind and character;
6) pretending to be poor;

...She was a plain girl with a sweet and modest disposition — 
qualities that she never lost — and they were married at the end of 
a year. Though immensely rich, the Tonkins were poor-mouthed, 
and the young couple lived modestly in a small town near New York 
where Marchand worked in the family offi ce. They had one child 
and lived a contented and uneventful life until one humid morning in 
the seventh year of their marriage. ...

7) to try to start the car;

...It was about seven when he kissed Anne goodbye. She had not 
dressed and was lying in bed when she heard him grinding the starter 

on the car that he used to take to the station. Then she heard the front 
door open and he called up the stairs. The car wouldn’t start, and 
could she drive him to the station in the Buick?...

8) petrol;
9) a device sounding a warning or other signal;

...She was stopped in front of the Beardens’, and they would give 
her some gasoline, she knew, or at least lend her a coat. She blew 
the horn and blew it and blew it, until she remembered that the 
Beardens were in Nassau. All she could do then was to wait in the 
car, virtually naked, until some friendly housewife came by and 
offered her help. ...

10) a formal meeting in a law court at which a judge and jury 
listen to evidence and decide whether a person is guilty of a 
crime;
11) dishonest and illegal behavior, misconduct or wrongdoing;

...Marchand left the house then, and Anne never saw him again. He 
died of a heart attack in a New York hotel ten days later. Her parentsin-law sued for the custody of the only child, and during the trial 
Anne made the mistake, in her innocence, of blaming her malfeasance 
on the humidity. The tabloids picked this up — “IT WASN’T ME, IT 
WAS THE HUMIDITY” — and it swept the country. ...

12) too strong to be defeated or overcome;
13) a constant desire to criticize other people or ideas and fi nd 
faults in them;

...In the middle of the trial she surrendered her claims, put on 
smoked glasses, and sailed incognito for Genoa, the outcast of a 
society that seemed to her to modify its invincible censoriousness 
only with a ribald sense of humor. ...

14) a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or 
faults of others;
15) to be ridiculed publicly;
16) to get very angry;

...From what she knew of life she was entitled to forgiveness, but 
she had received none, and her own country, remembered across 
the Atlantic, seemed to have passed on her a moral judgment that 
was unrealistic and savage. She had been made a scapegoat; she had 
been pilloried; and because she was genuinely pure-hearted she was 
deeply incensed. She based her expatriation not on cultural but on 
moral grounds. ...

17) a small amplifying device which fi ts on the ear, worn by a 
partially deaf person;

...She took a cab to a hotel on the Via Veneto, sent her bags upstairs, 
and went into the bar for a drink. There was a single American at the 
bar — a white-haired man wearing a hearing aid. He was alone, he 
seemed lonely, and fi nally he turned to the table where she sat and 
asked most courteously if she was American...

18) a continuous loud crashing or ringing sound;
19) а railway carriage;

...If she made the walk in the afternoon, she would sometimes have 
to wait at the grade crossing for a freight to pass. First there would 
be a sound in the distance like a cave of winds, and then the iron 
thunder, the clangor of the wheels. The freights went through there 
at full speed; they stormed through. But reading the lettering on the 
cars used to move her; used to remind her not of any glamorous 
promise at the end of the line but of the breadth and vastness of her 
own country, ...

20) be excited and agitated.

...It was time to go home, and she got a plane for Orly that night and 
another plane for Idlewild the next evening. She was shaking with 
excitement long before they saw land. She was going home; she was 
going home. Her heart was in her throat. How dark and fresh the 
water of the Atlantic looked, after those years away. ...

III. Answer the questions.

1. How did Anne get acquainted with her husband?
2. What kind of life did they lead?
3. What happened to Anne on her way back from the station?
4. How did it happen that nobody helped Anne when she ran 
out of gas on her way home?
5. Who helped Anne to get home?
6. Why did Anne’s parents-in-law sue for the custody of her 
only child?
7. Why didn’t she win the trial?
8. Why did she decide to go abroad?
9. Where did she settle down after her husband’s death?
10. Why did she try to conceal her nationality, lying to the porter 
that she was Greek?
11. What was the story of her incident acquaintance whom she 
met at the bar of the hotel?
12. What was his greatest desire on his tour around Europe?
13. What story did he tell Anne about one of his friends?
14. What reminiscences did the chat with her compatriot 
provoke?
15. Why wasn’t her attempt to return to the motherland successful?

IV. Agree or disagree.

1. Anne was a perfect match for Marchand Tonkin.
2. Marchand’s parents were a happily married couple.
3. Though being extremely rich, Anne and Marchand Tonkin 
led a modest life.

4. Nobody gave Anne a helping hand when she ran out of gas 
because she didn’t have any friends in the neighborhood.
5. Marchand Tonkin died because of her betrayal and cheating.
6. After her husband’s death Anne couldn’t earn her living and 
asked her parents-in-law to bring up her child.
7. She enjoyed living in Italy and completely forgot her past, 
and especially her nationality.
8. Anne enjoyed mountain skiing.
9. At her villa in Italy she usually treated her guests to baconlettuce-and-tomato sandwiches that were her favorite dish.
10. Unlike Anne, the stranger with whom she got acquainted in 
the bar was longing to return to the USA.

V. Comment on the extracts from the story given below. How do 
they characterize Anne?

1. ...She was one of those tireless wanderers who go to bed 
night after night to dream of bacon-lettuce-and-tomato 
sandwiches. ...
2. ...Her parents-in-law sued for the custody of the only child, 
and during the trial Anne made the mistake, in her innocence, 
of blaming her malfeasance on the humidity. ...
3. ...She based her expatriation not on cultural but on moral 
grounds. ...
4. ...She continued to polish her impersonation of a European, 
and while her accomplishments were admirable, she 
remained morbidly sensitive to criticism and detested being 
taken for a tourist. ...
5. ...But reading the lettering on the cars used to move her; used 
to remind her not of any glamorous promise at the end of the 
line but of the breadth and vastness of her own country. ...
6. ...She gripped her umbrella (Parisian) and her handbag 
(Sienese) and waited her turn to leave the plane, but as she 
was coming down the steps, even before her shoes (Roman)