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V. Supplementary reading. A Tragedy in the air. There's No place like Ноше
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Ех. 52.
Reconstruct the following situations into dialogues.
1. You want to have a room reserved at a hotel for a friend of yours who is supposed to come in a day or two. Receptionist informs you that they are heavily booked. You are much disappointed and entreat him to help you. He tells you that he will try to do his best but so far can't promise anything definite.
2. You are at the airport. The customs officer asks you if you have anything to declare. You answer in the negative saying that you have only personal belongings in your two suitcases. He doesn't make you open your suitcases and allows you to go to the Passport Control. You thank him and walk to complete the airport formalities.
3. Mrs. Brill wanted to go to New York by air. She went to the agency and inquired if she could book a seat to New York. The clerk answered that they still had some seats available for the next day. So she paid for the ticket, took the change, and returned home. The next day Mrs. Brill arrived at the airport in good time to complete the necessary formalities.
4. A young clerk wants to spend his first three-weeks holiday travelling abroad. The travel agent advises him on the tours available for the season. He is looking for the package tour he can afford.
Topics for Oral Compositions
1. Describe your last trip by train.
2. Tell about your first trip by plane.
3. Once you travelled by sea. Describe the ship and the voyage.
4. You've decided to reserve a room at a hotel. Tell about it.
5. Which do you prefer - to travel by plane or by train. Give your reasons.
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V. SUPPLEMENTARY READING
A Tragedy in the Air
The plane had taken off from the airfield in London and the journey to South Africa, to Johannesburg to be exact, had started.
It was just after the war and it was not a jet as is the case nowadays, but it was a big plane with four engines, and four propellers, of course. When a few minutes later w" e were crossing the Channel, one of the engines went wrong, but the stewardess (a smashing blonde) said there were three engines left and the passengers were quite safe.
However, when the plane reached, the Mediterranean Sea, the second engine broke down but the stewardess told us there was nothing to worry about because two engines were quite enough to keep us in the air.
As we got near to the shores of Africa, the rumour spread that only one propeller was
working. The stewardess kept her mouth shut this time, but we came to the conclusion the plane must have developed engine trouble and so it had.
Presently we were flying over the jungle in Central Africa and my fellow travellers were terribly upset; women were holding their children tighter and tighter and men were drinking more and more heavily. There was also a parson there who was saying a prayer in a loud voice. I too was terribly frustrated and as I looked down at the bush, I couldn't help thinking of cannibalism, death and other " pleasant", things.
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At that moment the loud-speaker was switched on and the captain's voice was heard: " Ladies and gentlemen, I have tragic news for you. " The faces of all the passengers turned pale. Some burst into tears and the prayer stifled in the parson's mouth. My heart sank into my boots...
The captain continued in a gloomy voice: " It is my sad duty to inform you that England has lost its last football match against Scotland. "
(from " Shaggy Dog. English " by T. Lodziszewski)
Ex. 53.
Make up a dialogue between two passengers of this airplane during the flight. (Use the key words below).
Go wrong, the stewardess, worry, to keep in the air, to develop engine trouble, to fly over, to say a prayer, loud-speaker, turn pale, switch on.
There's No Place Like Ноше
(abridged)
by James Grover Thurber
If you are thinking about going abroad and want to preserve your ardour for travelling, don't pore over(1) a little book COLLINS' POCKET INTERPRETERS: FRANCE, which I picked up in London. Written especially to instruct the English how to speak French in the train, the hotel, it is, of course, equally useful — 1 might also say equally depressing — to Americans. 1 have come across a number of these " helps-for-travellers. "
Each page has a list of English expressions, one under the other, which gives them the form of verse. The French translations are run alongside. Thus, on the first page, under " The Port Arrival", we begin (quietly enough) with " Porter, here is my baggage! " From then on disaster follows fast and faster until in the end, as you shall see, all hell breaks loose. The volume contains three times as many expressions to use when one is in trouble as when everything is going all right. I am going to leave out the French translations.
Trouble really starts in the canto called " In the Customs Shed". Here we have: " I cannot open my case. " " I have lost my keys. " " Help me, to close this case. " " I did not know that I had to pay. " " I don't want to pay so much. " " I cannot find my porter. " " Have you seen porter 153? " We have a graphic picture of a tourist lost in a jumble of thousands of bags and scores of customs men, looking frantically for one out of at least a hundred and fifty-three porters.
Our tourist (accompanied by his wife, I like to think) finally gets on the train for Paris — having lost his keys and not having his porter — and it comes time presently to go to the dining-car, although he probably has no appetite, for the customs men, of course, have had to break open that one suitcase. Now, I think, it is the wife who begins to grumble: " Someone had taken my seat. " " Excuse me, sir, that seat is mine. " " I cannot find my ticket in the compartment. " " I will go and look for it. " " I have left my gloves (my purse) in the dining car. "
Next comes " The Sleeper", which begins ominously with " What is the matter? " and ends with " May I open the window? " " Can you open this window, please? " We realize, of course, that nobody is going to be able to open the window and that the tourist and his wife will suffocate. In this condition they arrive in Paris, and the scene there, on the crowded station platform, is done with superb economy of line: " I have left something in the train. " " A parcel, an overcoat. " " A mackintosh, a stick. " " An umbrella, a camera. " " A fur, a suitcase. " The travellers have now begun to go completely to pieces.
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Next comes an effective little interlude about an aeroplane trip which is one of my favourite passages. " I want to reserve a glace in the plane leaving tomorrow morning. " " When do we start? " " Can we get anything to eat on board? " " When do we arrive? " " I feel sick". " Have you any paper bags for air-sickness? " " The noise is terrible. " " Have you any cotton wool? " " When are we going to land? " This brief masterpiece caused me to cancel the air trip from London to Paris and go the easy way, across the Channel.
We now come to a section called " At the Hotel", in which things go from worse to awful: " Did you not get my letter? " " I wrote to you three weeks ago. " " I asked for a first-floor room. " " If you can't give me something better, I shall go away. " " The chambermaid never comes when I ring. " " I cannot sleep at night, there is so much noise. " " I have just had a wire. I must leave at once. " Panic has begun to set in, and it is not appeased any by the advent of " The Chambermaid": " Are you the chambermaid? " " There are no towels here. " " The sheets on this bed are damp. " " This room is not clean. " " I have seen a mouse in the room. " " You will have to set a mouse trap here. " (I am sure all you brave people who are still determined to come to France will want to know how to say " mouse trap" in French: it's souriciere, but you better bring one with you. ) " These shoes are not mine. " " The bulb is broken. " " The radiator is too warm. " " It is cold in this room. " " This is not clean, bring me another. " " I don't like this. " " I can't eat this. Take it away! "
I somehow now see the tourist's wife stalking angrily out of the hotel, to get away from it all (without any shoes on) and, properly enough, the booklet seems to follow her course — first under " Guides and Interpreters": " I will not give you any more. " " I shall call a policeman. " " He can settle this affair. " Then under " Inquiring the Way": " I am lost". " I was looking for " Someone robbed me. " " That man robbed me. " " That man is following me everywhere. "
Our couple finally get on their feet again, for travellers are tough — they've, got to be — but we see under the next heading. " Common Words and Phrases", that they are left forever punch-drunk and shattered: " Can I help you? " " Excuse me. " " Carry on! " " Look here! " " Look down there! " " Look up there! " " Why, how? " " When, where? " " Because. " " That's it! " " It is too much, it is too dear. " " It is very cheap. " " Who, what, which? " " Look out! " Those are Valkyries, one feels, riding around, and above, and under our unhappy husband and wife. The book sweeps on to a mad operatic ending of the tragedy, with all the strings and brasses and woodwinds going full blast: " Where are we going? " " Where are you going? " " Come quickly and see! " " I shall call a policeman! " " I shall stay here. " " Will you help me? " " Help! Fire! " " Who are you? " " I don't know you". " I don't want to speak to you. " " Leave me alone. " " That will do. " " You are mistaken. " " It was not I. " " I will give you nothing. " " Go away now! " " It was nothing to do with me. " " Where should one apply? " " What must I do? " " What have I done? " " I have done nothing. " " I have already paid you. " " I have paid you enough. " " Let me pass! " " Where is the British consulate? " The oboes take that last, despairing wail, and the curtain comes down.
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So you're going to France?
Note:
1. pore over - сосредоточенно изучать
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