Hard Times

by Charles Dickens

I entertain a weak idea that the English people are as hard-worked as any people upon whom the sun shines. I acknowledge to this ridiculous idiosyncrasy, as a reason why I would give them a little more play.

                In the hardest working part of Coketown; in the innermost fortifications of that ugly citadel, where nature was as strongly bricked out as killing airs and gases were bricked in; at the heart of the labyrinth of narrow courts upon courts, and close streets upon streets, which had come into existence piecemeal, every piece in a violent hurry for some one man's purpose, and the whole an unnatural family, shouldering, and trampling, and pressing one another to death; in the last close nook of this great exhausted receiver, where the chimneys, for want of air to make a draught, were built in an immense variety of stunted and crooked shapes as though every house put out a sign of the kind of people who might be expected to be born in it; among the multitude of Coke­town, generically called "the Hands",—a race who would have found more favour with some peo­ple, if Providence had seen fit to make them only hands, or, like the lower creatures of the sea­shore, only hands and stomachs—lived a certain Stephen Blackpool, forty years of age.

                Stephen looked older, but he had had a hard life. It is said that every life has its roses and thorns; there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake in Stephen's case, whereby somebody else had become possessed of his roses, and he had become possessed of the same somebody else's thorns in addition to his own. He had known, to use his words, a peck of trouble. He was usually called Old Stephen, in a kind of rough homage to the fact.

Notes and exercises:

1.     Note the spelling of the following words which have an initial “c”:

Ü    citadel   cyclone city       cider     centre   civilian circular cypress

Ü    certain  cinema  cynic    circle    civil      ceremony          cemetery           cement

2.     Combine the adjectives in A with the nouns in B:

A.

Ü    exhausted          exhausting         exhaustive

B.

Ü    work                 weather             day                   report               information

Ü    inquiry             effort                statement          investigation      account

3.     Spell the words given in phonetic transcription:

þ      At the end of the 19^th century after a conference of nautical authorities [boiz] of types and colours individual to most harbour and river authorities were [sju:p¶´si:did] by a uniform system.

þ      As it turned out, the estate had been [´mo:(r)gidzd] by the count’s [di´send¶nts].

þ      No true scientist will [¶´komodeit] facts to theory.

þ      In [¶k´nolidzm¶nt] of his long and faultless service the [ref¶´ri:] was presented with a gold watch.

þ      The [¶´t¶:(r)ni] was wearing a spick and span [´wustid] suit.

þ      A [´hip¶krit] is one who, for the purpose of winning favour, [feinz] to be other and better than he really is.

þ      The boy has a [mis¶´leini¶s] collection of stamps.

þ      The pup which had been out the whole night in the heavy rain was in a most [´piti¶s] state.

4.     Word study:

entertain                   (here) to harbour; to admit (an idea) to consideration

acknowledge            to agree to the truth of; to admit

idiosyncrasy            a way of thinking or behaving that is peculiar to a person; personal mannerism

stunt                           to cramp; to enclose too narrowly; to retard the growth or development of

misadventure          bad luck; by misadventure—by accident

whereby                    by what; by which

a peck                        a measure of capacity for dry goods (=2 gallons or approximately 9 litres)

homage                     tribute paid to a person or merit; formal acknowledgment of allegiance, loyalty, duty of subject to sovereign

5.     Translate the following expressions and use them in sentences of your own:

to be fit for, fit as a fiddle, a fainting fit, a fit of coughing, to fall down in a fit, to laugh oneself into fits, a fit of energy, a fit of laughter, by fits and starts (fitfully), to be fit for a soldier, fit to eat, not fit to live, the weather is not fit to go out, the coat fits me, the key fits the lock, to fit out, an outfit;

to use his words, in his words, to repeat word for word, he never breathed a word of, the last word in comfort, in other words, it’s too exciting for words, he didn’t say it in so many words but that was what he meant, I’ve had no word from him yet, in a word, I didn’t believe a word of it, have a word for me with the secretary, he was as good as his word (he kept his promise)