Упр.16 Unit 1 ГДЗ English Михеева 11 класс

Приведем выдержку из задания из учебника Михеева, Афанасьева 11 класс, Просвещение: 16. Read the text and answer the questions after it. Singing a «Comic» Song (after Jerome K.Jerome) Speaking of comic songs and parties, reminds me of a rather curious incident at which I once assisted. We were a fashionable and highly cultured party. We had on our best clothes, and we talked pretty, and were very happy — all except two young fellows, students, just returned from Germany. The truth was, we were too clever for them. Our brilliant but polished conversation, and our high-class tastes, were beyond them. They were out of place, among us. They never ought to have been there at all. Everybody agreed upon that, later on. We discussed philosophy and ethics. We flirted with graceful dignity. Somebody recited a French poem after supper, and we said it was beautiful; and then a lady sang a sentimental ballad in Spanish, and it made one or two of us weep — it was so pathetic. And then those two young men got up, and asked us if we had ever heard Herr Slossenn Boschen (who had just arrived, and was then down in the supper-room) sing his great German Comic song. None of us had heard it, that we could remember. The young men said it was the funniest song that had ever been written, and that, if we liked, they would get Herr Slossenn Boschen, whom they knew very well, to sing it. They said nobody could sing it like Herr Slossenn Boschen; he was so intensely serious all through it that you might fancy he was reciting a tragedy, and that, of course, made it all the funnier. It was his air of seriousness that made it so irresistibly amusing. We said we yearned to hear it, that we wanted a good laugh; and they went downstairs, and fetched Herr Slossenn Boschen. He appeared to be quite pleased to sing it, for he came up at once, and sat down to the piano without another word. Herr Slossenn Boschen accompanied himself. The prelude did not suggest a comic song exactly. It quite made one’s flesh creep, but we murmured to one another that it was the German method and prepared to enjoy it. I don’t understand German myself. I learned it at school, but forgot every word of it two years after I had left, and have felt so much better ever since. Still I did not want the people there to guess my ignorance; so I hit upon what I thought to be rather a good idea. I kept my eye on the two young students who had taken a position behind the Professor’s back. When they tittered, I tittered; when they roared, I roared; and I also threw in a little snigger all by myself now and then, as if I had seen a bit of humour that had escaped the others. I noticed, as the song progressed, that a good many other people seemed to have their eyes fixed on the two young men, as well as myself. And yet that German Professor did not seem happy. At first, when we began to laugh the expression of his face was one of intense surprise, as if laughter were the very last thing he had expected to be greeted with. We thought this very funny: we said his earnest manner was half the humour. The slightest hint on his part that he knew how funny he was would have completely ruined it all. As we continued to laugh, his surprise gave way to an air of annoyance and indignation, and he scowled fiercely round upon us all (except upon the two young men who, being behind him, he could not see). That sent us into convulsions. We told each other that it would be the death of us, this thing. The words alone, we said, were enough to send us into fits, but added to his mock seriousness — oh, it was too much! He finished amid a perfect shriek of laughter. We said it was the funniest thing we had ever heard in all our lives. And we asked the Professor why he didn’t translate the song into English, so that the common people could understand it, and hear what a real comic song was like. Then Herr Slossenn Boschen got up, and went on awful.1 He swore at us in German, and shook his fists, and called us all the English he knew. He said he had never been so insulted in all his life. It appeared that the song was not a comic song at all. It was about a young girl who lived in the mountains, and who had given up her life to save her lover’s soul — I’m not quite sure of the details, but it was something very sad. It was a trying situation for us — very trying. We looked around for the two young men who had done this thing, but they had left the house in an unostentatious manner immediately after the end of the song. 1. Why do you think the two students played their joke on the guests? 2. How did they prepare the guests for the joke? 3. Why did many guests look at the two students while the professor was singing? 4. What made the professor furious? 5. Why had the two students left the party before it was over? 6. What does Jerome make fun of in the episode you’ve read? *Цитирирование части задания со ссылкой на учебник производится исключительно в учебных целях для лучшего понимания разбора решения задания.

Ответ

1. The two students played their joke because they wanted to amuse themselves and make fun of the fashionable guests who thought they were too clever and cultured.
2. They prepared the guests by praising the song as a very funny comic song and by saying that Herr Slossenn Boschen sang it in a very serious way, which made it even funnier.
3. Many guests looked at the two students because they suspected that the students were enjoying the joke and wanted to see their reaction while the professor was singing.
4. The professor was furious because the guests laughed at a sad song, thinking it was a comic one, and then asked him to translate it into English.
5. The two students left before the party was over because they knew the joke would be discovered and did not want to face the angry guests and the professor.
6. Jerome makes fun of the pretentiousness and snobbery of the guests, their false culture, and their foolish confidence in their own cleverness.