Three men in a boat / Трое в лодке, не считая собаки. Книга для чтения на английском языке. Джером Клапка Джером

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СКАЧАТЬ And when I do get to the sea, it is rough and quite insulting.

      One huge wave catches me up and throws me in a sitting posture, as hard as ever it can, down on to a rock which has been put there for me. And, before I’ve said “Oh! Ugh!” and found out what has gone, the wave comes back and carries me out to mid-ocean. I begin to strike out for38 the shore, and wonder if I shall ever see home and friends again, and wish I’d been kinder to my little sister when a boy (when I was a boy, I mean). Just when I have given up all hope, a wave retires and leaves me sprawling like a star-fish on the sand, and I get up and look back and find that I’ve been swimming for my life in two feet of water. I hop back and dress, and crawl home, where I have to pretend I liked it.

      In the present instance, we all talked as if we were going to have a long swim every morning.

      George said it was so pleasant to wake up in the boat in the fresh morning, and dive into the clear river. Harris said there was nothing like a swim before breakfast to give you an appetite. He said it always gave him an appetite. George said that if it was going to make Harris eat more than Harris ordinarily ate, then he should protest against Harris having a bath at all.

      He said there would be quite enough hard work in pulling sufficient food for Harris up against stream, as it was.

      I urged upon George39, however, how much pleasanter it would be to have Harris clean and fresh about the boat, even if we did have to take a few more hundredweight40 of provisions; and he got to see it in my light, and withdrew his opposition to Harris’s bath.

      Agreed, finally, that we should take three bath towels, so as not to keep each other waiting.

      For clothes, George said two suits of flannel would be sufficient, as we could wash them ourselves, in the river, when they got dirty. We asked him if he had ever tried washing flannels in the river, and he replied: “No, not exactly himself like; but he knew some fellows who had, and it was easy enough;” and Harris and I could hardly believe he knew what he was talking about, and that three respectable young men, without position or influence, and with no experience in washing, could really clean their own shirts and trousers in the river Thames with a bit of soap.

      We were to learn in the days to come, when it was too late, that George was a miserable liar, who could evidently have known nothing about the matter. If you had seen these clothes after – but, as the shilling shockers41 say, we anticipate.

      Georgу suggested taking a change of underwear and plenty of socks, in case we got upset and wanted a change; also plenty of handkerchiefs, as they would do to wipe things, and a pair of leather boots as well as our boating shoes, as we should want them if we got upset.

Exercises

      1. Read the chapter and mark the sentences T (true), F (false) or NI (no information).

      1. The first thing to settle was what to buy.

      2. Harris looks like Uncle Podger.

      3. George reminds the narrator of his Uncle Podger.

      4. Uncle Podger needs help of his whole family to hang a picture.

      5. The first list three friends made was all right.

      6. People often load their boats of life with foolish things.

      7. The friends decided to take a tent.

      8. The narrator likes bathing.

      9. George would like to dive in the morning.

      10. Some fellows would wash friends’ flannel suits in the river.

      2. Learn the words from the text:

      agitation, nail, gradually, hammer, handkerchief, tool, grunt, thumb, toe, permit, sensible, wisdom, fasten, canvas, disadvantage, towel, evident, sufficient, remind, injured.

      3. Practice the pronunciation of the following words.

      4. Fill in the gaps using the words from the text.

      1. Now, you get a bit of paper and write …, J., and somebody give me a bit of pencil, and then I … make out a list.

      2. He could not find his handkerchief, because it was in the pocket of the coat he … … off, and he did not know where he … put the coat.

      3. Two people … have to hold the chair, and a third … help him up on it, and hold him there, and a fourth … hand him a nail, and a fifth … pass him up the hammer, and he … take hold of the nail, and drop it.

      4. Harris … be just that sort of man when he … up.

      5. We must not think of the things we could do …, but only of the things that we can’t do … .

      6. I … your pardon, really. I … forgot.

      7. We will have a boat with a cover. It is ever so much …, and … comfortable.

      8. I … not know whether you … ever … the thing I mean.

      9. One huge wave catches me up and … me in a sitting posture, … hard … ever it can, down on to a rock which … … put there for me.

      10. Harris said there … nothing … a swim before breakfast to give you an appetite. He said it always … him an appetite.

      5. Match the words with definitions.

      6. Find in the text the English equivalents for:

      на следующий вечер, листок бумаги, сказать обиженным тоном, потерять из виду, поднимать шум, вовремя, записать, обходиться без чего-либо, бесполезный хлам, выбрасывать за борт, забегать вперед, на случай если.

      7. Find the words in the text for which the following are synonyms:

      next, arrange, begin, yell, hand (v), keep, beside, permit, fear, bathe.

      8. Explain and expand on the following.

      1. That’s Harris all over – so ready to take the burden of everything himself, and put it on the backs of other people.

      2. Harris always reminds me of my poor Uncle Podger.

      3. Uncle Podger would gradually start the whole house.

      4. The first list we made out had to be torn up.

      5. Throw the lumber over, man!

      6. “We won’t take a tent,” suggested СКАЧАТЬ