Exercise 2.Прочитайте отрывок из романа и выполните задания 1 – 7, выбирая букву A, B, C или D. Установите соответствие номера задания выбранному вами варианту ответа.
I had first become acquainted with my
Italian friend by meeting him at certain great houses where he taught his own
language and I taught drawing. All I then knew of the history of his life was
that he had left
Without being actually a dwarf – for
he was perfectly well-proportioned from head to foot – Pesca was, I think, the
smallest human being I ever saw. Remarkable anywhere, by his personal
appearance, he was still further distinguished among the mankind by the
eccentricity of his character. The ruling idea of Peska's life now was to show
his gratitude to the country that had given him a shelter by doing his utmost
to turn himself into an Englishman. The Professor aspired to become an
Englishman in his habits and amusements, as well as in his personal appearance.
Finding us distinguished, as a nation, by our love of athletic exercises, the
little man, devoted himself to all our English sports and pastimes, firmly
persuaded that he could adopt our national amusements by an effort of will the
same way as he had adopted our national gaiters and our national white hat.
I had seen him risk his limbs
blindly unlike others at a fox-hunt and in a cricket field; and soon
afterwards I saw him risk his life, just as blindly, in the sea at
We had met there accidentally, and
were bathing together. If we had been engaged in any exercise peculiar to my
own nation I should, of course, have looked after Pesca carefully; but as
foreigners are generally quite as well able to take care of themselves in the
water as Englishmen, it never occurred to me that the art of swimming might
merely add one more to the list of manly exercises which the Professor believed
that he could learn on the spot. Soon after we had both struck out from shore,
I stopped, finding my friend did not
follow me, and turned round to look for him. To my horror and amazement,
I saw nothing between me and the beach but two little white arms which
struggled for an instant above the surface of the water, and then disappeared
from view. When I dived for him, the poor little man was lying quietly at the
bottom, looking smaller than I had ever seen him look before.
When he had thoroughly recovered
himself, his warm Southern nature broke through all artificial English
restraints in a moment. He overwhelmed me with the wildest expressions of
affection and in his exaggerated Italian way declared that he should never be
happy again until he rendered me some service which I might remember to the end
of my days.
Little did I think then – little did
I think afterwards – that the opportunity of serving me was soon to come; that
he was eagerly to seize it on the instant; and that by so doing he was to turn
the whole current of my existence into a new channel. Yet so it was. If I had
not dived for Professor Pesca when he lay under water, I should never, perhaps,
have heard even the name of the woman, who now directs the purpose of my life.
1. Peska
taught
A) drawing.
B) Italian.
C) English.
D) politics.
2. Peska
impressed people by being
A) well-built.
B) well-mannered.
C) strange.
D) ill-mannered.
3. Peska
tried to become a true Englishman because he
A) was thankful to the country that had
adopted him.
B) enjoyed Englishman's pastimes and amusements.
C) loved the way the English did
athletic exercises.
D) was fond of the eccentric fashions
of the English.
4. ‘…
risk his limbs blindly’ means Peska
A) didn’t look where he went.
B) was unaware of
danger from others.
C) caused a
problem for others.
D) acted rather thoughtlessly.
5. The
author didn't look after Peska carefully because
A) they both had been engaged in the
peculiar English exercise.
B) foreigners were generally bathing
not far from the shore.
C) the author was sure that Peska would
learn swimming on the spot.
D) the author was sure that Peska was a
very good swimmer.
6. Peska
wanted to do the author some favour as
A) it was in his warm nature.
B) the author had saved his life.
C) the author was his best friend.
D) he wanted to look English.
7. Peska
managed to
A) change the author’s life completely.
B) become English to the core.
C) meet a woman who later directed his
life.
D) turn his existence into a new
channel.