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

      6. Find in the text the English equivalents for:

      приступы головокружения, сделать вывод, серьезные осложнения, с точки зрения медицины, нащупать пульс, следовать указаниям, состояние здоровья, огромная скидка, приятный аромат, состоящий из четырех блюд, делать что-то нарочно, восхищаться пейзажем.

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

      remedy, recollect, sea trip, gaze, to be against, ordinary, disease, begin, main, in the present instance.

      8. Explain and expand on the following.

      1. I was a hospital in myself.

      2. I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a weak wreck.

      3. My parents did not know, then, that it was my liver and they used to put it down to laziness.

      4. If you want rest and change, you can’t beat a sea trip.

      5. A sea trip does you good when you are going to have a couple of months of it, but, for a week, it is wicked.

      6. It is a curious fact, but nobody ever is sea-sick – on land.

      7. When the front of the ship rises, you lean forward, till the deck almost touches your nose; and when its back end gets up, you lean backwards.

      8. The only one who wasn’t inspired with the suggestion was Montmorency.

      9. Answer the following questions.

      1. How many people are there in the room? Why are they “bad”?

      2. How does the narrator know about his illness?

      3. Why is the narrator a good gift for a medical class?

      4. Where does the narrator go after visiting the library? Why?

      5. Can the chemist help the narrator? Why / why not?

      6. What is the general symptom of the narrator’s disease? How did his relatives help him to cure the disease in his childhood?

      7. What remedy do the friends find to cure their diseases?

      8. Why is the narrator against a sea trip?

      9. Who isn’t inspired by the common decision to go up the river? Why?

      10. Who is Montmorency?

      10. Retell the chapter for the persons of Harris, the doctor, the narrator’s brother-in-law, Montmorency.

      CHAPTER II

      We pulled out the maps, and discussed plans. We arranged to start next Saturday from Kingston. Harris and I would go down the river in the morning, and take the boat up to Chertsey, and George, who would not be able to get away from the City till the afternoon (George goes to sleep at a bank from ten to four each day, except Saturdays, when they wake him up and put him outside at two), would meet us there.

      Should we “camp out” or sleep at inns? George and I were for camping out. We said it would be so wild and free.

      Slowly the golden memory of the dead sun fades from the hearts of the cold, sad clouds. Silent, like disappointed children, the birds have stopped their song. From the dim woods on the both banks, Night’s ghostly army, the grey shadows, creep out with noiseless steps; and Night, upon her gloomy throne, spreads her black wings14 above the darkening world, and, from her phantom palace, lit by the pale stars, reigns in calmness.

      Then we run our little boat into some quiet bay, and the tent is set up, and the supper cooked and eaten. Then the big pipes are filled and lighted, and the pleasant chat goes round like quiet music; while, in the pauses of our talk, the river, playing round the boat, whispers strange old tales and secrets, sings low the old child’s song that it has sung so many thousand years – will sing so many thousand years to come, before its voice grows harsh and old – a song that we think, somehow, we understand.

      And we sit there, by its bank, while the moon, who loves it too, bends down to kiss it with a sister’s kiss, and throws her silver arms around it15; and we watch it as it flows, ever singing, ever whispering, out to meet its king, the sea – till our voices die away in silence, and the pipes go out – till we, common, everyday young men enough, feel strangely full of thoughts, half sad, half sweet, and do not care or want to speak – till we laugh, and, rising, knock the ashes from our burnt-out pipes, and say “Good-night,” and, lulled by the splashing water and the rustling trees16, we fall asleep under the great, still stars, and dream that the world is young again.

      Harris said: “How about when it rained?”

      You can never inspire Harris. There is no poetry about Harris. Harris never “cries, he knows not why.” If Harris’s eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions, or has put too much Worcester17 over his chop.

      If you were to18 stand at night by the sea-shore with Harris, and say:

      “Listen! Do you not hear? Is it but the mermaids singing deep below the waving waters; or sad spirits?” Harris would take you by the arm, and say:

      “I know what it is, old man; you’ve got a cold. Now, you come along with me. I know a place round the corner here, where you can get a drop of the finest Scotch whisky you ever tasted – put you right in less than no time.”

      Harris always knows a place round the corner where you can get something brilliant in the drinking line. I believe that if you met Harris up in Paradise (supposing such a thing likely), he would immediately greet you with:

      “So glad you’ve come, old fellow; I’ve found a nice place round the corner here, where you can get some really first-class nectar.”

      In the present instance, however, as for the camping out, his practical view of the matter was just in time. Camping out in rainy weather is not pleasant. It is evening. You are wet through, and there is a good two inches19 of water in the boat, and all the things are damp. You find a place on the banks that is not quite so wet as other places you have seen, and you land, and two of you start to fix the tent.

      It is wet and heavy, and it flops about, and falls down on you, and clings round your head and makes you mad. The rain is pouring steadily down all the time. It is difficult enough to fix a tent in dry weather: in wet, the task becomes extremely difficult. Instead of helping you, it seems to you that the other man is simply playing the fool

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