IV. Design a language lesson for the 9th-10th form that could be efficiently taught by film.

* hardware — technical equipment such as tape- and cassette-recorders, film- and slide-projectors, record players, television and videotape recorders, computers, etc.; software — slides, films, records and other materials used with the equipment.

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UNIT FOUR

TEXT FOUR

DANGEROUS CORNER опасный поворот

By John Boynton Priestley

(Three fragments from the play)

 John Boynton Priestley (1894 - 1984) is one of the outstanding English authors of today. His early books (1922-26) were of a critical nature. It was the success of his novel "The Good Companions " (1929) which brought him world fame. In early thirties Priestley began his work as a dramatist  драматург. "Dangerous Corner" (1932) — one of the series of Seven Time Plays — was his first effort  in dramatic art.  Priestley's other most famous novels are "They Walk in the City", "Angel Pavement  мостовая", "Wonder Hero", "Far Away". "Let the People Sing". "Bright Day" and many others.

I

The scene is laid in a cosy drawing-room гостиной. Several men and women — some of them members of the same family, others their intimate friends — are idly  праздно discuss­ing a wireless play they have just heard. The host  and hostess  of the party are Robert Caplan and his wife Freda.

Gordon: What did you hear?

Freda: The last half of a play.

Olwen: It was called "The Sleeping Dog".

Stanton: Why?

Miss M.: We're not sure — something to do with lies, and a gen­tleman shooting himself-

Stanton: What fun they have at the B.B.C.!

Olwen (who has been thinking): You know I believe I understand that play now. The sleeping dog was the truth, do you see, and that man — the husband — insisted настоял upon на disturbing it.

Robert: He was quite right to disturb it.

Stanton: Was he? I wonder. I think it a very sound сильная idea —the truth as a sleeping dog.

Miss M. (who doesn't care): Of course, we do spend too much of pur  time telling lies and acting them.

Betty (in her best childish  manner): Oh, but one has to. I'm always fibbing привираю. I do it all day long.

Gordon (still fiddling вертя в руках with the wireless): You do, darling, you do.

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Betty: It's the secret of my charm.

Miss M. (rather grimly сурово): Very likely. But we meant something much more serious.

Robert: Serious or not, I'm all for it coming не скрываю. It's healthy полезно.

Stanton: I think telling the truth is about as healthy as skidding занос round a corner at sixty.

Freda (who is being either malicious  злобной or enigmatic): And life's got a lot of dangerous corners — hasn't it, Charles?

Stanton (a match for her or anybody else present): It can have — if you don't choose your route маршрут well. To lie or not to lie — what do you think, Olwen? You're looking terribly wise...

Olwen (thoughtfully): Well — the real truth — that is, every sin­gle little thing, with nothing missing at all, wouldn't be dangerous. I suppose that's God's truth. But what most people mean by truth, what that man meant in the wireless play, is only half the real truth. It doesn't tell you all that went on inside everybody. It simply gives you a lot of facts that happened to have been hidden away припрятаны and were per­haps a lot better hidden away. It's rather treacherous  ненадёжная stuff. ...

II

The conversation  drifts to Martin Caplan, Robert's brother, who committed   sui­cide  six months ago. Robert insists on knowing certain trifling  незначительных facts relating to the day of the suicide . Yet, what looks trifling and innocent  enough at first, leads to graver and still graver discoveries. Finally Robert is confronted  столкнулся with facts whose ugliness he finds himself unable to bear.

In the beginning of the fragment that follows Olwen, a friend of the Caplans, argues  спорит with Robert pointing out to him once more that half truth is dangerous.

Olwen: The real truth is something so deep you can't get at it this way, and all this half truth does is to blow преувеличивает everything up. It isn't civi­lised  культурно.

Stanton: I agree.

Robert (after another drink, cynically): You agree!

Stanton: You'll get no sympathy  from me, Caplan.

Robert: Sympathy from you! I never want to set eyes on видеть you again, Stanton. You're a thief вор, a cheat мошенник, a liar , and a dirty cheap seducer  обольститель.

Stanton: And you're a fool, Caplan. You look solid, but you're not. You've a good deal in common with that cracked  выживших из ума brother of yours. You won't face up to real things. You've been living in a fool's paradise, and now, having got yourself out of it извлечённым by to-night's efforts — all your do­ing — you're busy building yourself a fool's hell to live in. ...

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III

Freda: I'm sure it's not at all the proper thing to say at such a moment, but the fact remains that I feel rather hungry. What about you, Olwen? You, Robert? Or have you been drinking too much?

Robert: Yes, I've been drinking too much.

Freda: Well, it's very silly of you.

Robert (wearily): Yes. (Buries  прячет his face in his hands.)

Freda: And you did ask for all this.

Robert (half looking up): I asked for it. And I got it.

Freda: Though I doubt if you minded беспокоился very much until it came to дошло до Betty.

Robert: That's not true. But I can understand you're thinking so. You see, as more and more of this rotten stuff came out обнаруживается, so more and more I came to depend on уповаю my secret thoughts of Betty — as some­one who seemed to me to represent some lovely quality of life.

Freda: I've known some time, of course, that you were getting very sentimental and noble великодушный about her. And I've known some time, too, all about Betty, and I've often thought of telling you.

Robert: I'm not sorry you didn't.

Freda: You ought to be.

Robert: Why?

Freda: That kind of self-deception's  самообмана rather stupid.

Robert: What about you and Martin?

Freda: I didn't deceive myself. I knew everything — or nearly everything — about him. I wasn't in love with somebody who really wasn't there, somebody I'd made up выдумал.

Robert: I think you were. Probably we always are.

Olwen: Then it's not so bad then. You can always build up строить anoth­er image for yourself to fall in love with.

Robert: No, you can't. That's the trouble. You lose the capacity  for building. You run short of у тебя кончаются the stuff that creates beautiful illusions, just as if a gland had stopped working.

Olwen: Then you have to learn to live without illusions.

Robert: Can't be done. Not for us. We started life too early for that, possibly they're breeding воспитывают people now who can live without illusions. I hope so. But I can't do it. I've lived among illusions —

Freda (grimly сурово): You have.

Robert (with growing excitement): Well, what if I have? They've given me hope and courage. They've helped me to live. I suppose we, ought to get all that from faith  in life. But I haven't got any. No reli-

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­gion or anything. Just this damned  farmyard двор фермы to live in. That's all. And just a few bloody glands and secretions  and nerves to do it with. But it didn't look too bad. I'd my little illusions, you see.

Freda (bitterly): Then why didn't you leave them alone, instead of clamouring  требуя for the truth all night like a fool?

Robert (terribly excited now): Because I am a fool. Stanton was right. That's the only answer. I had to meddle  вмешаться, like a child with a fire. I began this evening with something to keep me going хватило бы мне. I'd good memories of Martin. I'd a wife who didn't love me, but at least seemed too good for me. I'd two partners I liked and respected. There was a girl I could idealise. And now —

Olwen (distressed  страдающий): No, Robert — please. We know.

Robert (in a frenzy в бешенстве): But you don't know, you can't know — not as I know — or you wouldn't stand there like that, as if we'd only just had some damned  silly little squabble  перебранку about a hand at bridge игре в бридж.

Olwen: Freda, can't you — ?

Robert: Don't you see, we're not living in the same world now. Everything's gone всё пропало. My brother was an obscene  грязный lunatic  сумасшедший—

Freda (very sharply): Stop that.

Robert: And my wife doted on не могла надышаться him and pestered  докучала him. One of my partners is a liar  and a cheat and a thief. The other — God knows what he is — some sort of hysterical young pervert  извращенец — (Both women try to check сдерживать and calm him.) And the girl's a greedy ненасытные little cat on the tiles трубах—

Olwen (half screaming): No, Robert, no. This is horrible, mad. Please, please don't go on. (Quieter.) It won't seem like this tomorrow.

Robert (crazy now): Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I tell you, I’m through устал. I’m through. There can't be a tomorrow. (He goes swaying  шатаясь to the door.)

Freda (screaming moves to Olwen and grips her arm): He's got a revolver  in his bedroom.

Olwen (screaming and running to the door): Stop, Robert! Stop! Stop!

For the last few seconds the light has been fading постепенно затухает, now it is completely dark. There is a revolver  shot, a woman's scream, a moment's silence, then the sound of a woman sobbing рыдания.

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY

Vocabulary Notes

1. malicious  1) злобный, злой 2) злоумышленный, злонамеренный, совершённый со злым умыслом a feeling, showing or caused by, ill-will or spite, as a malicious person (remark, tone, face, etc.), e.g. How can

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you set the child against his parents? It's a malicious thing to do. Why do you always speak ill about all your comrades? Don't be so malicious.

malice  злоба, злой умысел n active ill-will; spite; desire to harm others-; bear smb. malice wish smb. harm, e.g. I bear you no malice.

2. match 1) равный по силам противник, достойный соперник 2) вещь или предмет, подходящие к другой или составляющие с ней пару 3) пара (предметов, людей) 4) а) партия; пара (при женитьбе) б) брак; бракосочетание 5) сочетание 6) матч, соревнование, состязание 7) а) сговор б) пари n 1) a game; a contest of skill, strength, etc. 2) a person who is able to meet another as an equal (in skill, strength, intellect, etc.), e.g. He has met his match. Soon it became clear that the younger boy was quite a match for the big one. 3) a person or thing that is exactly like another, or that agrees or corresponds perfectly, e.g. The coat and the hat are a good match (i.e. agree in colour and style), 4) a marriage, e.g. I'm told they are going to make a match of it (i.e. they are going to get married). 5) a person considered from the point of view of marriage, e.g. He is a very good match.

3. treacherous  1) вероломный, изменнический, предательский 2) ненадёжный; непрочный (о поверхности) a 1) false; untrustworthy; disloyal, as a treacher ous friend 2) betraying smb.'s trust; involving disloyalty, as a treach erous action 3) appearing good, but not to be depended on, as treach erous weather, a treacherous smile, e.g. The mountain roads were enveloped in such a treacherous fog that driving at night involved a serious risk.

treachery  вероломство, измена, предательство n treacherous action; act of betraying smb., e.g. No one knew yet by whose treachery it was that the deepest secrets of the family had become public property. Syn. betrayal, e.g. This act of his was a betrayal of all that they both had held sacred.

treacherousness  вероломство; предательство; измена; ненадёжность n quality of being treacherous, e.g. Before that incident I hadn't been aware of the latent treacherousness in his na­ture. Note: An act of treachery is described by the verb betray, e. g. You may be confident that I'll never betray your secret. A person guilty of treachery is described by the noun traitor, e.g. Mrs. Cheveley knew that Sir Robert Chiltern had begun his political career  as a traitor, by selling a Cabinet secret for a considerable sum of money.

4. deceive 1) а) обманывать; сознательно вводить в заблуждение б) обманывать, вводить в заблуждение, сбивать с толку 2) (deceive oneself) обманываться, вводить себя в заблуждение 3) изменять vt cause smb. to believe what is not true, e.g. Don't try to deceive me, I know what really happened.

deception обман, жульничество; ложь; измышления, неправда, хитрость n the act of deceiving or being deceived, e.g. There are few things as difficult to forgive as deception; self-deception  самообман believ­ing something not because it is true but because one wants to believe it, e.g. With a shock I realized that she didn't lie when she told ev­erybody about her coming marriage; she half-believed it herself: it was a pitiful case of self-deception  самообмана. Syn. deceit n Word Discrimination: deception, deceit  1) обман 2) хитрость; лживость.

Deception and deceit are closest when used in the meaning of act of deceiving. Yet, even in this case there is a difference. Cf. The boy’s

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deceit made his mother very unhappy. (Deceit here implies telling lies.) As a politician he often practised deception. (Deception implies making false promises, producing a false impression, treacherous tricks, cheating, etc.) Deceit maybe also used as a characteristic of a person, e.g. Deceit is quite foreign to her nature.

Deception и deceitблизки, когда употребляется в значении действия введения в заблуждение. Однако даже в этом случае есть разница. Ср. The boy’s deceit made his mother very unhappy (Deceit здесь, подразумевает ложь.) As a politician he often practised deception. (Deception подразумевает ложные обещания, произведение ложного впечатления, коварные уловки, обман и т.д.) Deceit может быть также использован в качестве характеристики человека, например Deceit is quite foreign to her nature.

deceitful  1) неискренний, лживый; предательский, коварный; изменнический 2) вводящий в заблуждение; обманчивый, ложный

deceptive  обманчивый, вводящий в заблуждение a deceiving, producing a false impression, e.g. Appear­ances are deceptive. The evidence against him was rather deceptive.

5. breed (bred, bred) 1) вынашивать (детёнышей) ; высиживать (птенцов) 2) размножаться, плодиться 3) порождать, вызывать 4) выводить, разводить (животных) ; вскармливать 5) воспитывать, обучать 6) возникать, появлятьсяvt\) give birth to young, e.g. Rabbits breed quickly. Birds breed in spring. 2) cause animals, birds, etc. to have young by choosing pairs (male and female) and bringing them to gether, e.g. He makes a living by breeding horses. 3) bring up, look after, teach, educate, e.g. It is a heroic country indeed that breeds such sons. He's an Englishman born and bred (i.e. by birth and edu cation). 4) be the cause of, e.g. War breeds misery and ruin. Famil iarity breeds contempt. Syn. bring up (соrr. noun upbringing воспитание).

breeding 1) разведение, выращивание (животных, растений) 2) размножение 3) происхождение, родословная; предки 4) хорошие манеры, воспитанность; образованность 5) расширенное воспроизводство ядерного топлива n good manners and behaviour; knowledge given by training and education, e.g. He's a man of fine breeding. Word Discrimination: upbringing, breeding.

Upbringing denotes process, breeding denotes result,

well - bred 1) благовоспитанный; обходительный, любезный; имеющий хорошие манеры 2) породистый, чистокровный (о животном) a having or showing good manners

ill-bred грубый, невоспитанный a badly brought up, rude, e.g. A well-bred person is always mindful of others, an ill-bred one is so absorbed in himself, that the rest of the world might as well not exist.

6. faith  1)вера, доверие 2) вера, вероисповедание 3) честность; верность, лояльность 4)обещание, ручательство, слово n 1) trust, confidence, reliance, e.g. Faith means believing something without proof. Have you any faith in what he tells you? Robert shot himself because he had lost faith in the people surrounding him. put one's faith in smth. (smb.) trust; feel confidence in smth. (smb.), e.g. I advise you not to put your faith in such a remedy. 2) a system of religious belief, as the Christian or Mohammedan faiths

faithful  1) верный, преданный; стойкий 2) верующий, правоверный 3) добросовестный, сознательный, честный 4) обязывающий 5) точный, совпадающий a loyal; keeping faith; deserving trust, as a faithful friend, a faithful wife

unfaithful  1) а) вероломный, изменнический, предательский б) неверный, изменяющий (в любви, супружестве) 2) неточный; недостоверный 3) неверующий; неверный a treacherous; be (un)faithful to smb. (often applied to husband or wife)

faithfulness  ) верность, преданность; лояльность 2) достоверность, точность 3) добросовестность n loyalty, the quality of being true to smb. or smth., e.g. His faithfulness to duty was never doubted.

7. check 1) проверять, контролировать 2) останавливать(ся); сдерживать; препятствовать 3) делать выговор; давать нагоняй 4) объявлять шах 5) амер. отмечать галочкой 6) амер. сдавать (вгардероб,вкамеру хранения,вбагаж и т. п.)  vt 1) examine  a thing to find out whether it is accurate, usually by comparing it with something else, e.g. Will you check these figures (see that they are right) ? check on smb. (smth.) начинать работу; приступать к работе try and find out whether the previous information or knowledge about

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smb. or smth. is true to fact, e.g. "Here are some names and address­es of people who were witnesses," said the police inspector. "Of course, they'll have to be checked on." 2) hold back, control, stop, e.g. We have checked the advance of the enemy. He couldn't check his anger.

check 1) контроль, проверка 2) обследование, исследование 3) критерий (оценки и проверки) 4) контрольный штемпель; отметка, галочка (знак проверки) 5) ярлык; багажная квитанция 6) номерок (в гардеробе) 7) счёт в ресторане 8) контрамарка; корешок (билета) 9) фишка, марка 10) = cheque 11) шах (в шахматах) 12) задержка; пауза, перерыв; внезапная остановка 13) отпор, отражение нападения 14) ограничение, сдерживание; контроль 15) клетка (на ткани) ; клетчатая ткань 16) делянка 17) трещина, щель (в дереве) 18) = check-rein мартингал (в верховой езде) n 1) a control; a person or thing that keeps back or makes it impossible to do things, e.g. Wind acts as a check on speed, keep (hold) in check control, e.g. Human emotions are held in check by social convention. 2) a sudden stop or delay, e.g. Tom's illness gave a check to our plans. His ambitions received a sharp check. 3) an examination of the accuracy of a thing, e.g. If we both add up the figures, your result will be a check on mine. 4) a ticket or a piece of paper, wood or metal with a number on it given in return for smth. (for hats and coats in a theatre, for bags, luggage, etc.)

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