V. Express your viewpoint on the ideas enclosed in the following passages:

1. ”His mum had explained him once that sometimes people needed opposites, and Marcus cold see how that might work…” (p. 247).

2. “ Marcus thought about whether life was shit, and whether Ellie’s life in particular was shit, and then he realized that Ellie spent her whole time wanting life to be shit, and then making life shit by making things difficult for herself…..somehow it reminded him of Will and his pictures of dead drug-takers; maybe Ellie was like Will. If either of them had real trouble in their lives, they wouldn’t want or need to invent it for themselves, or put pictures of it on the walls….” (p. 248, 249).

VI. Imagine that you are a police officer from Royston. Tell your fellow worker about the funny thing that happened to two teenagers who got off the train in your town last night.

Task Set 12

(Chapters 34-36)

I. Study the active vocabulary:

• the last straw (proverb “It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back”) (p. 258)

• miss smth. out = leave out, overlook, not pay attention to smth. (p. 258)

• underpin verb (p. 259)

• gather smth.= deduce , conclude (p. 259)

• avenge (of) smth/on smb. (p. 260)

• pull off infml. (p. 260)

• take one’s time (p. 260)

• diddums Br. interj. (p. 261)

• give smb. a piece of one’s mind (p. 261)

• hand it to someone (p. 263)

• of sorts (p. 263)

• end up (doing smth.) (p. 267)

• have it both ways (p. 268)

• little things (p. 268)

• outing (p. 273)

• snipe at smb. (p. 274)

• get the hang of smth./ smb. infml. (p. 277)

• flatten out (p. 278)

II. Paraphrase the following sentences (using the units from the active vocabulary):

1. It's Mary's own fault if she feels she is not paid attention to at the party.

2. After failing his driving test eight times, John at last was a success.

3. I could conclude nothing from his statement. It was too complicated.

4. Jack is double-faced. He will never criticize you openly.

5. I’ll say this for George – he still remains a gentleman in such a horrible situation.

6. The city itself is surrounded by still higher peaks, so to some extent it is in a valley.

7. With that man driving you never know what happens to you in the end.

8. But countries should choose between alternatives, it’s impossible to get the best of the two : the cost of a cleaner environment may sometimes be fewer jobs in dirty industries.

9. Very often it’s trifles that make a difference.

10. She began to adopt those little things which the pretty woman who has vanity invariably gets.

11. The government should stabilize the prices.

12. The opposition party put people in the crowd to make caustic remarks about the speaker.

III. Translate the following sentences:

1. – Это была последняя капля. Теперь она непременно подаст на вас заявление в суд.

– Ничего, у меня еще будет шанс отомстить.

2. Не торопитесь, обдумайте все хорошенько и завтра сообщите о своем решении.

3. Тише! Не надо плакать! Ничего страшного не случилось.

4. Тогда придется отложить наш поход в боулинг до следующей недели. Ты хочешь получить два горошка на ложку – и в боулинг сходить и в ресторан? Не выйдет!

5. Нужно отдать ей должное – она всегда говорит людям открыто то, что о них думает.