Підручник Англійська мова 9 клас для спеціалізованих шкіл з поглибленим вивченням англійської мови - Л.В. Калініна - Генеза 2017 рік

Unit 3 Preparing For The Future

3.6. Text Files

You are going to read a part of H.G. Wells «A Slip under the Microscope». Do some pre-reading activities which will help you to understand the text better.

a) Before you read

• Content anticipation

Many teenagers are planning to get a college education. Think and decide what motivates them to do that.

• Language Anticipation

When school leavers become students their life is changing. In pairs, come up with possible activities students-beginners may have.

• Cultural Anticipation

Some British school leavers get scholarships for entering University. In groups, discuss what students may have scholarships and what are the advantages of them.

• Prediction

Judging by the title «A Slip under the Microscope» try to predict what the text may be about.

b) While you read

I. Read a part of the story and say why William Hill took pains to be the best in college.

II. Read the story again and mark True/False statements.

A SLIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

By H. G. Wells

William Hill was the son of a shoemaker in the little town of Landport. He had begun to read books at seven, and had read everything that came in his way after that. He was very clever at school, but he had to leave when he was fifteen to go to work. William’s job at a shoe factory was not an easy one, but the boy went on studying at nights. When he was in his last year at the Landport Evening School, he won a scholarship’ for the College of Science of London University.

William was a tall, energetic, pleasant-faced young man when he came to London. He came filled with a dream of becoming a great scientist and of changing the world he lived in. The scholarship was a chance that opened the gate into that wonderful land of science and discoveries which he loved. He had a pound a week, just enough, if he was very careful, to pay for his little room and simple food, for ink and for needles and thread. The last two things were very important for a man in William’s situation.

Studies, experiments, the biological laboratory filled William’s life. Once or twice a week he walked through the streets at night with his friend Thorpe, talking about science and life, discussing right and wrong, and how to remake the world. He was too busy to make other friends, but he began to notice a girl in the biology class who sat at the desk in front of him. She was a paying student,’ and William could see that she belonged to a class of people who usually do not make friends with shoemakers or their sons. But one day, the girl turned and asked him a question about something in biology. William answered, noticing that her eyes were very large and brown and her hands very white.

After that they often met and talked together in the lunch room, and college halls. William lent Miss Haysman books on biology and she lent him books of poetry. The girl never made Hill feel that the difference in their social class was important to her, and they became friends.

But there was another student, H. J. Sommers Wedderburn who made William feel class differences. Wedderburn’s perfect clothes, his manner, his cold way of speaking to scholarship students showed that he and Hill lived in different worlds. One day, Miss Haysman happened to mention that she and Wedderburn sometimes met at friends’ homes. «He’s very clever,» she said, «perhaps it comes from his father, the great eye specialist.» And suddenly William felt something besides class differences about Wedderburn.

The students took their first examination, in anatomy, the day before the winter holidays. When the examination results appeared on the college notice-board, Hill pushed through the group of students in front of the board and read:

CLASS 1

H.J. Sommers Wedderburn William Hill

There were only two names in the first class, but his name was second. «This is only the first round,» William thought as he went up to the laboratory. «The fight has just begun.» -»In the weeks that followed, Hill met Miss Haysman more and more often. Sometimes they went to the little art museum near the college, sometimes they met in the college garden or lunch room. But Wedderburn always invented an excuse to join them when he saw them together. He used to talk cleverly and lightly, laughing at Hill’s ’ideals’, and Hill used to become uncomfortable and angry with Wedderburn and himself because he couldn’t express his thoughts as easily as the other man.

1. William Hill’s favourite pastime in his school years was reading.

2. He left school at 15 to enter the college.

3. William’s dream was to become a scientist and to change the world for better.

4. William Hill studied physics and chemistry in college.

5. During one of the lectures he noticed a pretty girl with large brown eyes.

6. They were from different social classes and the girl always stressed it.

7. Another student Sommers Wedderburn also made William feel class difference.

8. The first exam in anatomy was the day after winter holidays.

9. William passed the exam well but wasn’t the first.

10. William Hill disliked Wedderburn and envied him a lot.

c) After you read

Talk

You read only the 1^st part of the story which showed how ambitious William was. Try and give the ending of the story. Will William Hill’s dream come true?

Conversation

William liked to talk with his friend Thorpe about science and life and how to remake the world. In pairs role-play a possible conversation between them.

Discussion

In the whole class, discuss the problem of class differences. How much is it typical of the 21^st century?