The main characters of the text are Joe, a schoolboy; Mr. Epperly, a farmer; his wife and three kids and Old Ranger, Mr. Epperly’s dog. Joe is the narrator of the story.

Yes, the main events of the story are arranged chronologically, but there are some author’s recollections in the text.

2.3. Answer these questions, which will help you to narrate the main episodes of the story:

Mr. Epperly’s neighbours demanded that Old Ranger be shot as Old Ranger had fought and killed the mad dog that bit Mr. Epprerly’s cow, and might have gone mad too. And Mr. Epperly was afraid for his children as they got used to keeping close to Old Ranger.

Mr. Epperly asked Joe to kill the Old Ranger for he couldn’t do it himself and the neighbours wanted the dog to be shot but there were no volunteers to do it among them.

Joe agreed to kill the dog because of a one-dollar bill, which was given him and he felt obliged to do it though he liked the dog very much.

Joe looked into Old Ranger’s eyes and couldn’t help recollecting the dog’s kindness and devotion and couldn’t stop thinking of dog’s misunderstanding of the aim of their walk. Old Ranger was glad to have a walk with Joe. And the second reason was the sight of Mr. Epperly’s crying kids.

Joe stuck the one-dollar bill into an empty castor-oil bottle and buried the bottle in some soft dirt under the corner of the fence.

Mr. and Mrs. Epperly and the three kids ran up to the dog when they heard him howling, and Joe didn’t know which of them got the most hugging.

2.7. Imagine you are Old Ranger and you can speak a human language. Now you’re recollecting your past life, your habitual behaviour in your master’s house (6 sentences):

My master’s name was Mr. Epperly; he was very kind and nice man. He had a family of five: he, his wife and their three children. All of them loved me with all their hearts. I considered myself to be a member of the family. I would go with them to the woods or stay in the garden. Mr. Epperly was a passionate hunter; and I liked to go to the hickory groves and tree squirrels with my master. But once a mad dog bit Mr. Epperly’s cow and I had to fight and killed that dog. And Mr. Epperly took me away from home, I didn’t know why. It was Joe, a nice boy, who took me to the stable near his home. He was good to me. One day I was taken back home and I didn’t know the way of expressing my happiness.

2.8. Imagine you are Mr. Epperly. After you asked Joe to kill the dog and gave him a one-dollar bill, you feel frustrated and distressed. You are extremely sorry for what you have done. You feel pretty ashamed. You wish you hadn’t done it. What do you wish you hadn’t done? (4 sentences):

I wish I hadn’t asked them for neighbours’ advice; I could have solved this problem myself.

2.12. To narrate the sequence of incidents the story “Good Morning” is composed of, one should know the main forms of the following verbs. Can you write their correct forms?

To hide	Hid – hidden – hiding	To run	Ran – run – running
To shoot	Shot – shot – shooting	To stick	Stuck – stuck – sticking
To slip	Slipped – slipped – slipping	To feed	Fed – fed – feeding
To get (bit)	Got – got – getting	To pull	Pulled – pulled – pulling
To lead	Led – led – leading	To untie	Untied – untied – untieing/untying
To rise	Rose – risen – rising	To fool	Fooled – fooled – fooling
To point (one’s gun)	Pointed – pointed – pointing	To keep (smb. penned up)	Kept – kept – keeping
To hug	Hugged – hugged – hugging	To bring	Brought – brought – bringing
To bury	Buried – buried – burying	To fire (a shot)	Fired – fired – firing
To buy	Bought – bought – buying	To search	Searched – searched – searching
To scold	Scolded – scolded – scolding	To feel	Felt – felt – feeling
To cry	Cried – cried – crying	To put	Put – put – putting
To try	Tried – tried – trying

2.14. Consult the Dictionary for adjectives with the help of which you can characterize 1) the boy; 2) Mr. Epperly; 3) Mrs. Epperly. Write them out. Practice the adjectives in the pattern:

1) If the boy hadn’t been kind and consistent, he would have killed Old Ranger.

If the boy hadn’t been sensitive, he couldn’t have thought of saving the dog’s life.

If the boy hadn’t been considerate, he would have paid no attention to the children’s tears.

2) If Mr. Epperly hadn’t been irresolute, he would have killed his dog himself.

If Mr. Epperly hadn’t been thoughtful, he wouldn’t have hesitated to shoot Old Ranger.

If Mr. Epperly hadn’t been merciful, he wouldn’t have thanked Joe after all.

3) If Mrs. Epperly hadn’t been merciful, she wouldn’t have thanked the boy for his action.

2.17. Speak about Joe’s character. The following questions may be of help to you:

Joe is presented by the author as a mixture of diverse qualities. He is shown as a sensitive, kind, honest, inconsistent and considerate person. Joe is a controversial and complicated personality. Being a magnetic personality, Joe is presented as a courageous and considerate boy. His kindness, tactfulness and responsibility seem to appeal enough to me. The episode in the woods depicts Joe as being sentimental and kind, honest and heedful. A desperate struggle, taking place inside him, is provoked by these qualities. The crying kids made him recollect his friendship with Old Ranger so he turned out to be a very affectionate and tender boy. Besides, Joe is honest and just. If he hadn’t been such, he might have appropriated the one-dollar bill without killing the dog. But he returned the money to Mr. Epperly. These qualities form the character of Joe.

I know the following types of climate: equatorial, subtropical, the climate of tropical monsoon, the climate of tropical deserts, maritime climate, continental climate, monsoon climate of the temperate latitudes mediterranean, antarctic climate, arctic climate and subarctic climate.

Climate is a region’s weather conditions measured over a long period of time. It is defined by features such as average temperature and precipitation, humidity, and degree of windiness. Determining factors include elevation, latitude, vegetation, location on a continent, proximity to large bodies of water and the warming of ocean currents.

Climates can change over short periods of time as well as over the long term. Short-term climate changes may be caused by sunspot activity, the warming of ocean currents, and variations in the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth, a factor directly affected by pollution. It is believed that the changing tilt of the Earth’s axis and the shape of its orbit also play a role in long-term climate changes.

The climate of my region is maritime. It is mainly influenced by proximity to an ocean or sea (in this case – the Baltic Sea), experiencing relatively mild long winters and comparatively cool summers; extremes of temperature are rare, and humidity is generally higher than in a continental climate. In St. Petersburg the weather is cloudy and rainy all the year round. The wind from the Gulf of Finland blows frequently.

The temperatures in winter and in summer are various. The averages t⁰ in January are at about 10-15 0C below zero, and in July the averages don’t go up 20-26 0C above zero.

It often rains in autumn and snows in winter and snow turns into rain frequently.

In my opinion the characteristic feature of the climate in our region is high humidity, which is caused by the vicinity of the Baltic Sea.

Winter sets in at the end of November in St. Petersburg and spring comes in April and sometimes at the very end of March. Summer sets in in June and autumn – in the second part of September.

Read the texts about the way agriculture is run in UK/USA. Write in short about the agricultural crops in the countries (10 sentences):

Three major grain crops of Great Britain are wheat, oats and barley. Cereal crops are grown in rotation with clover, grass and root crops among which sugar beet, potatoes and turnips are cultivated. Many kinds of fruit are grown in the south, such as apples, pears, plumps, cherries, strawberries and gooseberries. They are not for import and serve for making famous cider and perry. The chief fruit-growing areas are in the south-west Midlands and south-west and south-east England.

In the USA wheat is grown in three major wheat belts. The leading state in wheat production is Kansas. Speaking of other grain crops, barley and rye are grown not so exclusively to form their own belts. It’s important to mention that being accustomed to sandy soils and cool, moist climate rye doesn’t grow so extensively as in Europe. Besides, rye is often used as a cover crop to protect fields from erosion.

4) Give the names of 10 kinds of flowers which are sold in the flower shops or on markets in your home town;

6) Give the names of 5 agricultural crops which are grown in the region you live in.

10 most popular animals	10 species of fish	10 species of trees	10 kinds of flowers	10 vegetables	5 agricultural crops
A fox	Сrucian (carp)	An oak	A rose	Carrots	Rye
A bear	Pike	A pine(-tree)	A pink	Cabbage	Wheat
A squirrel	Roach	A birch	A tulip	Broccoli	Barley
A racoon	Carp	An asp	A narcissus, a daffodil	Potatoes	Oats
A mole	Sazan	A maple	A lily	Turnip	Millet
A lepus, (hare)	Perch	A mountain ash	A Chrysanthemum	Beetroot
A wolf	Tench	A fir, a spruce	An iris	Onion
An elk	Burbot	A poplar	A violet	Garlic
A hedgehog	Cat-fish	An alder(-tree)	A cyclamen	Cucumber
A marten	Smelt	An elm	An orchid	Tomatoes

Creative Tasks

I. Choose one of the poems to your liking and give your interpretation of the poem (See 3.7) – 5-7 sentences:

This poem has aroused a feeling of poetic satisfaction in me. I was attracted much by its rhythm and terseness. But terseness never means “senselessness”, so this poem seems to be very wise and full of sense.

Why should people speak much to seem wise? It’s not bad sometimes to be similar to “that wise old bird”. At any rate I think that animals are wiser in their own way. It is not necessary to speak much to show wisdom and knowledge. If a man is wise, everybody can see it, even if he keeps silence. Moreover, if a man speaks too mush, he can’t hear and notice many things around him as his chatter hinders him from the perception of the surroundings.

II. Write about the relief, the fauna, the flora and the climate of your region (20 sentences):

St. Petersburg is often called the “Northern Capital” as it is situated in the North-Western region of Russia. The dominating characteristic of this area’s relief is plain. The west part of the territory is covered with lowlands and marshes. The northern part of the territory bears the marks of shifting of shelf ice, which took place about 16 000 years ago.

The region has a maritime type of climate. This type of climate is characterised by mild long winters and comparatively cool summers. Winters are snowy; and snow turns into rain frequently. Sometimes dryness of summer causes ignition of peat and forest. Extremes of temperature are rare, and humidity is high. The averages of January are at about 10-15 0C below zero, and in July the averages don’t go up 20-26 0C above zero. In St. Petersburg the weather is cloudy and rainy all the year round.

The flora of the region is various. It is presented by both conifers and broad-leaved trees and shrubs. In the North-East fir-trees, blackberries and cowberries are widely spread. Pines grow almost everywhere, being unpretentious. Birches grow along with them forming its exclusive belt only in the south. All these threes turn into mixed forests, where ash-trees, lime-trees and maples join them.

Various animals present the fauna of the region. Brown bears, grey wolves, wild boars, red foxes, hares and red squirrels inhabit the forests of the region. There are many other animals but the above mentioned animals are the most widespread animals of the region.

Do you sometimes have a feeling that animals behave in a similar way people do? Can animals communicate? If they can, how are their messages expressed? What kinds of information do they exchange?

Of course, I can agree with this statement. Most of the pets and even wild animals behave in a similar way people do. They feel human-like feelings such as fear, pleasure, anxiety, displeasure etc. During their love games animals often flirt like people do, trying to attract their partners’ attention, and so on. Though animals often express these feelings in the same way as people do, they are sometimes difficult to understand, as we often do not expect such an expression of them.

All animals can communicate to express various feelings. Most animals use their voices for warning their babies or calling their love partners or informing about the whereabouts of a prey. Dolphins can “talk” on high frequencies and have a big vocabulary for expressing a wide spectrum of feelings.

Animals can “speak” different “languages”. The dog wagging his tail is known to express its pleasure, but the cat doing the same wants to show anger. We must know well the habits of animals to understand them better.