Analytical reading-Part 10

From Stepping Westward

Malcolm Bradbury

O

n the day after, the teaching programme began. The wooden hut occupied by the English Department was next to one of the main paths that led across the campus, so that from their offices the members of the faculty could see the co-eds flouncing past their windows, notebooks in their arms, on their way from class to class. On fine days they wore neat blouses and skirts or else cut-off jeans and T-shirts with the Greek letters of their sororities painted in white across their backs; on wet ones they wore slickers in red and blue and yellow or, if it was cold, quilted or fur-lined jackets with hoods. The men wore denims and shirts, or sweaters with the university crest across the bosom. They were a bright sight, and Walker spent a good deal of time peering through the fly-screens on his windows at this campus display. It took place every hour, when the bell rang, the floors boomed, and classes emptied out. The faculty dashed in and out of their offices, taking off and putting on their jackets, servicing the many needs of the students. You could see them as you walked down the corridors, teaching affably, the door open, their voices genial from the podium. The teaching associates, who taught only the composition classes and were usually working for graduate degrees as well, were packed six or eight to an office and could be seen there, with the doors again open, marking themes, preparing classes, writing novels, smoking and occasionally eating lunch. All these people were mentors for Walker in the conduct of his academic life, these men of abstract ideas who read Shakespeare in the morning and played with a football on the grass in the afternoon. They were neither convincingly intellectual nor convincingly philistine; they mixed the materialistic and the aesthetic approaches; they were coarse where they might be sensitive and sensitive where they might be coarse.

Notes and comments:

blind path-едва забележима пътека

beaten path/track-(и прен.) утъпкан път

pathfinder-водач, изследовател (на непознати, непроучени, диви земи)

the path of a tornado-посоката на движение на торнадо

to dash to the ground-тръшкам o земята

to dash to pieces-разбивам на парчета

to make a dash for-затичвам се към

to dash somebody’s hopes-унищожавам нечии надежди

philistine-еснафски

coarse jokes-груби шеги

coarse-featured-с груби (едри) черти (за лице)

coarse-minded-неделикатен, груб

Give the meaning of each of the following words:

digger, brawler, flier, onlooker, drawer, stammerer, swimmer, diner-out, dyer, chatterer, hopper, comer-by, designer, whisperer, spinner, finder-out, burnisher, admirer, snuffer, baby-sitter, carver, avenger, sower, propeller, can-opener, atomizer, silencer, tooth-picker, fanner, eraser, three-decker, condenser, poker, two-seater, boiler, six-bedder, lawyer, collier, courtier, glazier, soldier, sawyer, grazier, cashier, generator, compressor, creditor, creator, indicator, collector, oppressor, survivor, radiator, selector, conductor, inheritor, insulator, inspector, protector, visitor, refrigerator, director, conqueror, manipulator, lubricator, elector, supervisor, vendor, operator, editor, sailor 

Memorize the following words and use them in sentences of your own:

scholar, friar, commissar, registrar, pillar, singular, bursar, burglar, pedlar, liar, beggar, grammar, dollar, familiar, circular, spectacular, altar, caterpillar, regular, cellar, collar, peculiar, sugar, calendar