“Please, teacher, I found these in Mr. Wright’s field,” he said shyly, “and I came back to give them to you because I thought you were the kind of lady that would like them, and because…” he lifted his big beautiful eyes… “I like you, teacher.”
“You darling,” said Anne, taking the fragrant spikes. As if Paul’s words had been a spell of magic, discouragement and weariness passed from her spirit, and hope upwelled in her heart like a dancing fountain. She went through the Birch Path light-footedly, attended by the sweetness of her orchids as by a benediction.
“Well, how did you get along?” Marilla wanted to know.
“Ask me that a month later and I may be able to tell you. I can’t now… I don’t know myself… I’m too near it. My thoughts feel as if they had been all stirred up until they were thick and muddy. The only thing I feel really sure of having accomplished today is that I taught Cliffie Wright that A is A. He never knew it before. Isn’t it something to have started a soul along a path that may end in Shakespeare and Paradise Lost?”
Mrs. Lynde came up later on with more encouragement. That good lady had waylaid the schoolchildren at her gate and demanded of them how they liked their new teacher.
“And every one of them said they liked you splendid, Anne, except Anthony Pye. I must admit he didn’t. He said you ‘weren’t any good, just like all girl teachers.’ There’s the Pye leaven for you. But never mind.”
“I’m not going to mind,” said Anne quietly, “and I’m going to make Anthony Pye like me yet. Patience and kindness will surely win him.”
“Well, you can never tell about a Pye,” said Mrs. Rachel cautiously. “They go by contraries, like dreams, often as not. As for that DonNELL woman, she’ll get no DonNELLing from me, I can assure you. The name is DONnell and always has been. The woman is crazy, that’s what. She has a pug dog she calls Queenie and it has its meals at the table along with the family, eating off a china plate. I’d be afraid of a judgment if I was her. Thomas says Donnell himself is a sensible, hard-working man, but he hadn’t much gumption when he picked out a wife, that’s what.”
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Zaznacz właściwą odpowiedź (A, B lub C).
1. Mr. Harrison
A) wasn’t a tidy person, which worried Mrs. Robert Bell.
B) owned a pet hardly anybody approved of.
C) was especially fond of teaching his parrot nasty words.
2. Mrs. Rachel Lynde believed
A) Lavendar Lewis was a weird woman, which had made Stephen Irving break up with her.
B) Anthony Pye would have been troublesome because he was an orphan.
C) people from places other than Prince Edward Island were always suspicious.
3. Anne got into scrapes because
A) she sold someone else’s property.
B) she was cheated by the person who bought something from her.
C) she sold a farm animal without Marilla’s consent.
4. Jane, Gilbert and Anne
A) had different opinions about the idea of corporal punishment at school.
B) were all going to teach at Avonlea.
C) thought sitting boys and girls at the same desks was the cruelest punishment ever.
5. Among her pupils, Anne especially liked
A) Anthony Pye.
B) Paul Irving.
C) Barbara Shaw.
O słowach
WIEK
“The other evening Mrs. Sloane was reading a newspaper and she said to Mr. Sloane, ‘I see here that another octogenarian has just died.”
Octogenarian oznacza osiemdziesięciolatka, osobę między 80. a 89. rokiem życia. Orientacyjny wiek człowieka można opisać za pomocą wyrażeń:
to be in one’s teens/twenties/forties/late fifties – mieć kilkanaście lat/być po dwudziestce/czterdziestce/sporo po pięćdziesiątce, np.:
She was a beautiful woman in her early thirties.
Była piękną kobietą, która niedawno przekroczyła trzydziestkę.
I only started learning to play tennis when I was in my forties – and look at my backhand!
Zaczęłam uczyć się gry w tenisa dopiero po czterdziestce – a spójrzcie na mój backhand!
Jest oczywiście wiele słów i wyrażeń określających wiek człowieka. Oto niektóre z nich:
newborn – noworodek
baby/infant – niemowlę
toddler – małe dziecko, dziecko uczące się chodzić, szkrab. Określenie to odnosi się do dzieci między 12. miesiącem a 2. lub 3. rokiem życia.
child (l.m. children) – dziecko
pre-teen/tween – młody nastolatek, dosłownie: osoba między okresem dzieciństwa a nastoletniości (tween pochodzi od between). To określenie odnosi się do dzieci między 8. a 12. rokiem życia.
teenager – nastolatek
adolescent – osoba w wieku dojrzewania
adult/grown-up – dorosły
middle-aged – w średnim wieku
elderly man/woman/person – starszy mężczyzna/starsza kobieta/starsza osoba
senior – senior
sexagenarian – osoba w wieku 60–69 lat, sześćdziesięciolatek
septuagenarian – osoba w wieku 70–79 lat, siedemdziesięciolatek
nonagenerian – osoba w wieku 90–99 lat; dziewięćdziesięciolatek
A oto kilka idiomów związanych z wiekiem:
tender age – młody wiek
to be under age – być niepełnoletnim
to be no spring chicken – być nie pierwszej młodości
to be in one’s prime/in the prime of one’s life – być w kwiecie wieku
to be over the hill – mieć już z górki, być w podeszłym wieku
to be long in the tooth – być w podeszłym wieku
to live to a ripe old age – dożyć sędziwego wieku
UWAGA, SPÓJNIK!
„If” w znaczeniu „although”
„But Mr. Harrison opened it, smiling sheepishly, and invited her to enter in a tone quite mild and friendly, if somewhat nervous.”
Pan Harrison zaprosił Anię tonem łagodnym i przyjaznym, chociaż (if) nieco nerwowym.
Spójnik if bywa używany w znaczeniu zbliżonym do although (chociaż, mimo że), np.:
Her composition, if slightly awkward, deserves the highest mark.
Jej wypracowanie, mimo że nieco niezgrabnie napisane, zasługuje na najwyższą ocenę.
W tego typu wypowiedziach po if występuje najczęściej tylko przymiotnik lub dłuższy opis (nie zaś całe zdanie). Porównaj przykłady:
Their reply didn’t sound promising although it was polite and friendly.
Ich odpowiedź nie brzmiała obiecująco, mimo że była grzeczna i przyjazna.
Their