Historyczni Jankesi, pierwsi kolonizatorzy Connecticut i okolic, najczęściej mieszkali w wioskach czy raczej osadach stanowiących luźne zbiorowiska farm. Ci, którzy nie uprawiali roli, zajmowali się handlem, pracowali w bankach, byli nauczycielami. Spotkania mieszkańców Jankeskich miejscowości, tzw. open town meetings, sprzyjały rozwojowi demokracji bezpośredniej oraz postaw obywatelskich i po dziś dzień stanowią ważną na terenach Nowej Anglii instytucję samorządu. Stereotyp – żywy szczególnie na Północy – przypisuje Jankesom rygorystyczną, protestancką religijność, roztropność, zaradność i wynalazczość.
Ćwiczenia
1. Połącz wyrazy (1–10) z ich synonimami i definicjami (A–J).
1. bewilderment
2. devise
3. exasperating
4. eyesore
5. pant
6. personage
7. resentful
8. scuttle
9. telltale
10. unheeded
A. unnoticed, ignored
B. a very important person
C. to run quickly
D. the state of confusion
E. something very ugly
F. upset and angry
G. to plan
H. to breathe quickly and heavily
I. extremely annoying and tiring
J. a gossip, a child who informs grown-ups about other children’s misbehaviour
2. Uzupełnij zdania słowami i wyrażeniami z ramki.
teens; adolescent; elderly; sexagenerians; tender; over; spring; under
a) Alcoholic drinks mustn’t be served to customers who are ……………………………… age.
b) Learning foreign languages, especially pronunciation, comes easier in one’s ……………………………… age.
c) As a typical ………………………………, Luke lacks self-confidence, for which he tries to make up with ironic remarks.
d) The centre offers a wide range of activities for ……………………………… – even your grandma can take part in fitness classes!
e) You ought to have acted in a responsible way. You’re no ………………… ……………………………… chicken after all.
f) The town is chiefly inhabited by ……………………………… people – the young left for bigger cities in search of education and job opportunities.
g) When I was in my ………………………………, I dreamt of growing up and being independent.
h) Come on! Being middle-aged doesn’t mean you’re ……………………………… the hill!
3. Przeczytaj poniższe zdania. Cztery spośród nich zawierają błędy. Znajdź te błędy i popraw je.
a) Ladies and gentlemen, if you will return to your seats, we can commence the second part of our show.
b) We bought the bike at the spot. It was a great bargain.
c) Terribly cold it is!
d) If the weather will be fine, we’ll go swimming.
e) The apartment they rented three months ago.
f) You’re constantly getting to scrapes!
g) My son deserved a punishment, but at the same time I felt sorry for him. I had two minds about whether to punish him.
h) I’ll get you a nice dessert if you will finish dinner.
4. Wybierz jedno z zadań:
a) Jeśli czytałeś/czytałaś Anne of Green Gables („Anię z Zielonego Wzgórza”), opisz krótko kilkoro najważniejszych bohaterów powieści (np. Anię Shirley, Marylę Cuthbert, panią Rachel Lynde, Dianę Barry, Glberta Blythe), ich wzajemne powiązania i relacje (około 350 wyrazów).
b) Jane mówi do Ani: I suppose you won’t punish the girls by making them sit with the boys? Jest to oczywista aluzja do dawnych czasów, kiedy Ania musiała za karę siedzieć w jednej ławce z Gilbertem. Jeśli znasz poprzedni tom przygód Ani albo jego adaptację filmową, opisz historię jej znajomości z Gilbertem Blythe (około 250 wyrazów).
c) Zgromadź informacje na temat Wyspy Księcia Edwarda końca XIX wieku. Skąd wzięła się ta nazwa? Jakie były jej najważniejsze ośrodki? Ilu miała mieszkańców? Przygotuj na ten temat prezentację multimedialną (około 10 slajdów).
Part 2
Słownictwo
VI
All Sorts and Conditions of Men… and women
A September day on Prince Edward Island hills; a crisp wind blowing up over the sand dunes from the sea; a long red road, winding through fields and woods, now looping itself about a corner of thick set spruces, now threading a plantation of young maples with great feathery sheets of ferns beneath them, now dipping down into a hollow where a brook flashed out of the woods and into them again, now basking in open sunshine between ribbons of golden-rod and smoke-blue asters; air athrill with the pipings of myriads of crickets, those glad little pensioners of the summer hills; a plump brown pony ambling along the road; two girls behind him, full to the lips with the simple, priceless joy of youth and life.
“Oh, this is a day left over from Eden, isn’t it, Diana?”… and Anne sighed for sheer happiness. “The air has magic in it. Look at the purple in the cup of the harvest valley, Diana. And oh, do smell the dying fir! It’s coming up from that little sunny hollow where Mr. Eben Wright has been cutting fence poles. Bliss is it on such a day to be alive; but to smell dying fir is very heaven. That’s two thirds Wordsworth and one third Anne Shirley. It doesn’t seem possible that there should be dying fir in heaven, does it? And yet it doesn’t seem to me that heaven would be quite perfect if you couldn’t get a whiff of dead fir as you went through its woods. Perhaps we’ll have the odor there without the death. Yes, I think that will be the way. That delicious aroma must be the souls of the firs… and of course it will be just souls in heaven.”
“Trees haven’t souls,” said practical Diana, “but the smell of dead fir is certainly lovely. I’m going to make a cushion and fill it with fir needles. You’d better make one too, Anne.”
“I think I shall… and use it for my naps. I’d be certain to dream I was a dryad or a woodnymph then. But just this minute I’m well content to be Anne Shirley, Avonlea schoolma’am, driving over a road like this on such a sweet, friendly day.”
“It’s a lovely day but we have anything but a lovely task before us,” sighed Diana. “Why on earth did you offer to canvass this road, Anne? Almost all the cranks in Avonlea live along it, and we’ll probably be treated as if we were begging for ourselves. It’s the very worst road of all.”
“That is why I chose it. Of course Gilbert and Fred would have taken this road if we had asked them. But you see, Diana, I feel myself responsible for the A.V.I.S., since I was the first to suggest it, and it seems to me that I ought to do the most disagreeable things. I’m sorry on your account; but you needn’t say a word at the cranky places. I’ll do all the talking… Mrs. Lynde would say I was well able to. Mrs. Lynde doesn’t know whether to approve of our enterprise or not. She inclines to, when she remembers that Mr. and Mrs. Allan