Mastering the pronunciation

Consult dictionaries. Put down the transcription of the following words. Practise reading them.

wrestle ______________________              fraud _____________________________

browse ______________________              whim _____________________________

peer of the realm ______________     to christen _________________________

rapport ______________________             vehicle ____________________________

missile ______________________     treachery __________________________

hilarious _____________________             hastily ____________________________

 

Think over the answers to the following questions and get ready to discuss them in class.

Chapter Four

Will and Angie’s Relationship

1. Who did Will see at the record shop when he was browsing there one day? What attracted him in the girl most?

2. How did Will begin the conversation when he met the same (as he thought) girl in the café?

What was the girl’s reaction? Do you find her behavior strange?

 

3. What did Will feel when Angie told him that she had two kids?

Did he show his feelings? Why did he pretend?

Describe Angie (her looks, her voice, etc).

 

Speak on the advantages and disadvantages of relations with single mothers.

 

4. Did Will enjoy being good in all respects?

5. How did they split up? Did Will suffer much?

 

Chapter five

Marcus and His Mum

1. What did Marcus feel when his mum started crying?

What did he think the reasons for her crying were?

 

2. How did the children treat Marcus at school?

Speak on Marcus’s troubles at school.

Did Marcus know how to behave to avoid being bullied?

 

 

 Why didn’t Marcus’s friends Nicky and Mark want to hang

around with him anymore?

3. What was Marcus’s mum’s occupation?

4. What were her principles? What did she think about money?

 

Chapter six

Will at SPAT

1. Why did Will decide to pretend to be a single father?

Was it easy for him? What prevented him from believing it?

2. Was Will scared to join a single parents’ group?

3. Had Will ever pretended to be someone he was not? Was he a success?

 

4. What is SPAT?    Describe the place.

 

Do some linguistic research

In the book the full name of SPAT, a society for single parents, is Single Parents Alone Together.

But can it mean anything else?

Consult dictionaries for possible meanings of the word ‘spat’.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Try to explain why Will was taken aback when he saw that note on the door.

 

What does the sentence “It was trying too hard” mean (p.33)?

 

5. Who were the members of SPAT?

What was the reason most of them had split up with their husbands?

What was the bad news Will had to the members of SPAT?

Was he happy to announce it?

· Watching Video in Class

Director     Paul Weizt, Chris Weitz

 

Will           Hugh Grant

Marcus     Nicholas Hoult

Fiona         Toni Collette

Angie       Isabel Brook

Suzie        Victoria Smurfit

Christine Sharon Small

Episodes 1-4 (16 min: 00:00-16:30)

 

Plot:

· Will at home;

· Marcus at home;

· Will rejects being a godfather;

· Will meets Angie;

· Fiona’s crying;

· Marcus at school;

· Will joins SPAT.

 

While watching

 

Who of the characters of the film and under what circumstances said (or thought) the following?

_______ All men are islands. This is an island age…. I like to think I’m pretty cool.

I like to think I am Ibiza.

 

_______ I didn’t fit at my old school. I definitely didn’t fit at my new one.

 

_______ ‘You’re 38 and you’ve never had a job or a relationship that lasted longer

than two months.’

 

_______ ‘You don’t have to walk me to school any more now.’

 

_______ ‘Who are you?’

    ‘I’m me.’

    ‘And what are you not?’

    ‘A sheep.’

    ‘Right. And what does a sheep go?’

    ‘Baa-a.’

_______ It was hard work to be wonderful all the time.

 

_______ ‘You’re breaking up with me?’

    ‘You’re self-centered bastard.’

    ‘You useless, superficial loser.’ 

 

_______ ‘I am not ready to launch into a relationship with anybody new.’

 

_______ Passionate sex, a lot of ego massage and a guilt-free parting.

    Fabulous, sexy, gorgeous single mums.

 

_______ ‘We don’t really want you hanging around with us anymore.’

‘We never had trouble with them before we started hanging out with you.’

 

_______ There you have it. I was having a shit time at home and a shit time at school.

 

_______ ‘… and then one day her bags were packed, and my best friend was waiting

outside in his Ferrari.’

 

_______ What a performance! I was even fooling myself.

 

After watching

Some events are presented differently in the screen version of the novel.

What are the differences between the book and the film? Complete the table.

 

	Book	Film
Will
Marcus
Angie
SPAT
?

 

· What are your impressions of the film?

Do you think the actors are a good choice?

Mike Leigh (20) –   is an English writer and director of film and theatre. He makes British arthouse films. By taking his girlfriend to a Mike Leigh film, Will is trying to seem fashionable and impress her.

 

she’d let him put a variety pack in the supermarket trolley (25) – Most breakfast cereals come in large cardboard boxes. A variety pack contains six little packs containing different cereals. Coco Pops is a cereal found in one of these packets, and is probably the most popular of all six flavours.

Ginger! Chris Evans! Speccy! (28) – mocking, derisive words for having red hair and glasses. Chris Evans was a DJ with red hair, glasses and an alcohol problem, often mocked in the press.

Marcus knew all the stuff about sticks and stones and names (30). – This alludes to the saying: “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me”.

soup kitchen (32) – a place where free food is offered to the poor, usually run by volunteers. Will liked to imagine doing something useful – as long as he did not actually have to do it.

VSO (32) – Voluntary Service Overseas, a large international charity that sends volunteers to work in difficult parts of the world.

SPAT (32) – a fictional organization, but there are many similar ones.

Worzel Gummidge (33) – a living scarecrow in a children’s story. Aunt Sally was a wooden painted figure who also came alive.

Lorena Bobbitt (35) – famous in 1993 when she cut off her husband’s penis with a kitchen knife while he was asleep in Virginia, USA. The angry women at SPAT obviously sympathise with her.

 

surly (17) – угрюмый, сердитый; грубый

husky (17) – с хрипотцой (голос)

withering look (17) – испепеляющий взгляд

to hurl oneself (18) – броситься, метнуться

gambit (18) – гамбит; начальная определяющая фраза, установочный тезис (в дискуссии)

to decapitate (18) – обезглавливать, отрубать голову

to write sb off (infml) (19) – списать к/л со счета

hastily (19) – опрометчиво, поспешно, необдуманно; впопыхах

crow’s feet (20) – гусиные лапки, морщинки (у уголков глаз)

peer of the realm (20) – (in Great Britain and Northern Ireland) any member of the nobility entitled to sit in the House of Lords (пэр Соединённого Королевства)

blemish (20) – дефект, несовершенство, порок, изъян

cogitation (20) – обдумывание; размышление, раздумье

to rant (20) – разглагольствовать

Redeemer (20) – искупитель

rapport (20) – a sympathetic relationship or understanding (хорошие взаимоотношения, взаимопонимание; согласие)

to the core (20) – целиком, глубоко, насквозь; ≈ до мозга костей

hands down (21) – without effort; easily (легко, без усилий; бесспорно, несомненно)

to repel (21) – отвергать, претить; вызывать отвращение, неприязнь; отпугивать; отталкивать

appal = appall (21) – ужасать; потрясать; приводить в смятение

overlap (22) – накладка

I am not sure this is working out (22) (infml)

    How is your new job working out? — Как у тебя дела на новой работе?

I hope it all works out very well for you — Я надеюсь, что у тебя все будет хорошо.

Their marriage doesn't seem to be working out — По-видимому, их семейная жизнь не

ладится.

Things didn't work out at all well for him — Дела у него сложились неважно.

Things didn't work out that way — Все получилось по-другому.

I'm sure things will work out for the best — Я уверен, что все устроится наилучшим

образом.

I've never been able to work him out — Я никак не мог понять, что он за человек.

I can't work out why the deal went wrong — Я не могу понять, почему сорвалось это дело.

I tried to work out what she meant — Я пытался понять, что она имела в виду.

You can work that out for yourself — Сами пораскиньте мозгами.

Surely he can manage to work things out for himself — Я думаю, он сам во всем разберется.

puffed-up (25) – одутловатый; отёкший

snuffled up (25) – с заложенным носом

ladder (25) – кладовая (для продуктов)

soppy (26) – сентиментальный, слащавый (soppy – мокрый, сырой)

pitiful (26) – несчастный, ничтожный; презренный, низкий; недостойный, жалкий

pathetic (26) = pitiful (жалкий, вызывающий презрение)

lousy (26) (infml) – низкий, подлый, отвратительный (букв.: вшивый)

go round the bend (27) (infml) – go mad, crazy

nerd (28) – the kind of person who is obsessively interested in (for example) computers or mathematical problems; who cannot communicate with other people except by talking about his own narrow view of life, and who is mocked for being boring and also weird.

geek (28) – means much the same as ‘nerd’.

hilarious (28) – very funny

sunk (29) – past form of ‘sink’ – тонуть (здесь: Ответь им – он пропал.)

his mind went blank (29) – на него нашло затмение, он перестал соображать

a blow job (29) (vulgar, taboo) – an act of oral sex performed by a woman on a man

hang round (30) = hang about – околачиваться, шляться, отираться, слоняться

insult (n.) (30) – оскорбление

missile (30) – any object or weapon that is thrown at a target - (метательный) снаряд

waif (31) – беспризорник, бесхозное имущество

groovy (31) – (infml, old-fashioned) fashionable, attractive and interesting (клёвый)

dearth of prey (32) – нехватка добычи

to report for duty (32) – выйти на дежурство

a beaten-up B-reg 2CV (33) – a very small French car, old, battered and damaged

just for good measure (34) – as an extra precaution or beyond requirements (на всякий случай, в дополнение к тому, что было необходимо)

take the cue (34) – понять намёк

scatty (35) (infml) – from “scatterbrained” – чокнутый

he came out (36) – he announced that he was gay (a homosexual).

just for the hell of it (36) – просто так, без причины

Did you get dumped then? (36) – Так она тебя бросила?

Lesson 3