Three men in a boat / Трое в лодке, не считая собаки. Книга для чтения на английском языке. Джером Клапка Джером
ever know, on this line,” we said, “what you are, or where you’re going. You know the way, you slip off79 quietly and go to Kingston.”
“Well, I don’t know, gentlemen,” replied the noble fellow, “but I suppose some train has to go to Kingston; and I’ll do it. Give me the half-crown.”
Thus we got to Kingston by the London and South-Western Railway. We learnt, afterwards, that the train we had come by was really the Exeter mail, and that they had spent hours at Waterloo, looking for it, and nobody knew what had become of it.
Our boat was waiting for us at Kingston just below bridge, and we went to it, and we stored our luggage round it, and we stepped into it.
“Are you all right, sir?” said the man.
“Right it is,” we answered; and with Harris at the sculls and I at the tiller-lines, and Montmorency, unhappy and deeply suspicious, in the prow80, we started our travel on to the waters which, for a fortnight, were to be our home.
1. Read the chapter and mark the sentences T (true), F (false) or NI (no information).
1. The narrator was going to get up at 9 o’clock.
2. George was still sleeping when his friends woke up.
3. Montmorency ate chops and cold beef for breakfast.
4. The narrator considers weather forecasts to be very useful.
5. The narrator had a good time staying in a hotel in Oxford.
6. We usually prefer people who prophesy good weather, even if their words don’t prove correct.
7. The friends gathered quite a small crowd to help them with the luggage.
8. There wasn’t any timetable at Waterloo station.
9. The friends had to pay an engine-driver to get to Kingston.
10. George was deeply suspicious at the beginning of the sea trip.
2. Learn the words from the text:
fortnight, interrupt, waste, instead of, weather forecast, occasional, beforehand, meanwhile, wonder, pay attention to, circumstance, afterwards, rumour, on the contrary, beg, convinced, suspicious, prove, grocer, starve.
3. Practice the pronunciation of the following words.
4. Fill in the gaps using the words from the text.
1. It … Mrs. Poppets … woke me up next morning.
2. If I … … you, you’d … lain there for the whole fortnight.
3. He … have been up … himself with eggs and bacon or … the dog instead … sprawling there.
4. We told him that he … have … go without shaving that morning, as we … going to unpack that bag again for him.
5. Montmorency … … two other dogs to come and see him, and they … whiling away the time by … on the doorstep.
6. And so, finding that he … not disappoint us, and … only … his time, he … the cigarette that I … carefully rolled up for …, and … .
7. There … a melon by itself in a bag, because it was … bulky … go in anywhere.
8. … this time, quite a small crowd … collected, and people … asking each … what … the matter.
9. The porter … took our things thought it … go from number two platform, while another porter … heard a rumour that it … … from number one.
10. We learnt … the train we … come by was really the Exeter mail, and that they had … hours at Waterloo, looking … it, and nobody … what … become of it.
5. Match the words with definitions.
6. Find in the text the English equivalents for:
прогноз погоды, мне интересно (почему…), вместо того (чтобы), поздняя осень, обращать внимание на, местная газета, оставаться дома, тратить драгоценное время, сказать наверняка, проспать, знать заранее, злиться на кого-то.
7. Find the words in the text for which the following are synonyms:
respond, foretell, annoying, soaked, obtain, apparently, ordinary, decide, cry, extremely.
8. Explain and expand on the following.
1. It was Mrs. Poppets that woke me up next morning.
2. I do think that this “weather-forecast” fraud is about the most annoying.
3. The barometer is useless: it is as misleading as the newspaper forecast.
4. But who wants to be foretold the weather?
5. Then Harris and I carried out our luggage on to the doorstep, and waited for a cab.
6. By this time, quite a small crowd had collected.
7. Nobody at Waterloo ever knows where a train is going to start from.
8. We learnt, afterwards, that the train we had come by was really the Exeter mail.
9. Answer the following questions.
1. Did the friends wake up at the time they planned? Why / why not?
2. Why did Harris and the narrator decide to save George?
3. What is the narrator’s attitude to weather forecasts? Why?
4. How did the narrator and his friends spend the holiday he recollects about?
5. What does the narrator think about barometers and weather foretelling?
6. What show did the street boys get interested in? Who was the first?
7. What kind of people Biggs’s boys usually were?
8. Did the friends face any problem at Waterloo station? What was it?
9. How did the friends get to Kingston?
10. Was Montmorency happy to start the journey?
10. Retell the chapter for the persons of the narrator, Biggs’s boy, George, Harris, Montmorency.
CHAPTER VI
It was a wonderful morning, late spring or early summer, as you care to take it81. The attractive streets of Kingston, where they came down to the water’s edge, looked quite picturesque in the flashing sunlight, the river with its barges, the neat villas on the other side, Harris, in a red and orange blazer, grunting away at the sculls82, the distant glimpses of the grey old palace of the Tudors83, all made a sunny picture, so bright but calm, so full of life, and yet so peaceful.
I thought about Kingston, or “Kyningestun,” as it was once called in the days when Saxon kings were crowned there. Great Caesar crossed the river Thames there, and the Roman legions camped upon its hills. Caesar like Elizabeth, some years later, seems to have stopped everywhere: only he didn’t stay at the public houses.
The English Queen was crazy about public houses. There’s hardly a pub within ten miles of London that she does not seem to have looked in, or stopped at, or slept at, some time or other. I wonder now, supposing Harris became a
to slip off – ускользнуть
Harris at the sculls and I at the tiller-lines, and Montmorency, unhappy and deeply suspicious, in the prow – Харрис на веслах, я у руля, и несчастный, полный подозрений Монморанси на носу лодки
as you care to take it – как вам больше нравится
grunting away at the sculls – кряхтящий на веслах
the Tudors – Тюдоры – королевская династия Англии в 1485–1604 гг.