How I met a good friend
методическая разработка по английскому языку (9 класс)

How I met a good friend

Preface

One morning a new student came into our class. Though only fourteen years old, she was not very tall and much shorter than her classmates. She had moved with her family to our small southern town from a town in the northern part of our big country. The girl was quiet and calm.

As for our class, we were friendly no doubt, as we had learned to never judge a book by its cover. But that day the way the girl wore her clothes made a strange impression on us.

She wore baggies - blue jeans, and a long bluish grey cardigan with big pockets. The cardigan was not her size for sure, as it was almost up to her knees. The shoulders of the cardigan hung down almost to her elbows. Some of our intemperate girls even sniffed scornfully, as she seemed weird or odd to them.

But be patient! First things first, as our teacher liked to say.

As the girl stood before the class with her head down looking at the floor and waiting for permission from the teacher to take a sit we learned her name was Sasha.

1-й рисунок – Саша стоит с опущенной головой у входной двери в кабинет, учительница ее претдставляет классу.

Sasha chose to sit alone at an unoccupied desk near the back of our class. Later we would evaluate her abilities and found she was always ready with her home tasks on all subjects. Was she jumped-up or hotshot? No. Never. She never even raised her hand on the lessons. She just sat quietly while drawing pictures in her notebook.

Sasha never tried to show off her intelligence, by quoting somebody’s wise sayings, and neither did she try to impose herself on anyone. She had a younger sister who was seven years old, and after school Sasha was always hurrying to pick her little sister up to go home.

After about a month, we could occasionally found out that the girls were orphans and they lived together with an old lady – their mum’s good friend. They shared a one room flat on the ground floor of an eight story building on the next street over from our school. Moreover, they lived next door to one of our classmates. We learned that sadly Sasha’s parents had died a few years back in a car accident while still living in the north.

Саша сидит за предпоследней партой у окна одна и рисует в черновике

To cheer her up we decided to get together on the coming holidays and arrange a party. The other students even offered to collect some money to buy some new and modern clothes for Sasha and her younger sister. Our parents and teachers joined us and a few of the most responsible of our girls went shopping one day and bought two blouses, two skirts, two jackets and two pairs of beautiful shoes for them.

We kept our gifts a secret until the day the party arrived.

Sasha showed up at the party with her sister. Expecting to be admonished she said, “I couldn’t leave her at home alone”. Our new girlfriends wore the same clothes they were wearing for school every day.

As soon as we gave them our presents, Sasha closed her face with her arms, as it was a great surprise for her. We watched as tears dropped off her reddened cheeks. No one could find the right words to calm her down for some moments. Then Mike said that he read in a book that if a person can cry then she has a big and kind heart. We could tell that Sasha felt uneasy, however Mike’s kind words caused her to stop crying and calm down.  

Саша закрыла лицо руками, рядом стоит маленькая сестра… ребята дарят подарки. Стоят у входной двери в квартиру одноклассника.

It was fun to play different games at our party. We also realized that we had a lot of similar interests and we were not bored with each other.

So, we made good friends and Sasha proved to be a good companion both in class and out of class.

Улыбающиеся лица одноклассников…

Chapter I

Fresher

We met on the ground floor at the cloakroom of our university. It was for the first time I met her alone. She was always accompanied by a few girls talking loud and laughing sometimes.

        She started the conversation first:

- Hey, hi! How are you today? – And her smile was very pleasant. – Tania, - she said while extending her hand to greet me.

- Hi, quite well, thanks, and you? – I replied smiling in return. “Sasha”, I said.

- Not bad, not bad, - she repeated the phrase the way the local guys did.

- Where are you going now? – She asked looking into my eyes.

- I’d be happy to find a good cafe somewhere around here, - I said, - As I’m hungry as a bear! The classes were so long! I haven’t got used yet to studying for such a long time.

- Ah, you’re a fresher, right? Where are you from?

- I’m from Russia.

- Ok! – She said and I felt a question in her look, - So, fancy a bite to eat? – She offered after a moment.

- Excuse me, Tania, I speak English, but I need a teacher of the British slang, - I answered.

- No problem! Five hundred pounds an hour! – She offered laughing.

- And the lessons should be every day! – I offered returning a smile.

We laughed a bit and she explained her offer in other words:

        - Let’s go and have a snack somewhere?

- With pleasure but where?

- I’m inviting you! We call such places eateries.

- Ea-te-ries, - I repeated slowly while trying to keep this new word in my mind. 

        And we left our university building.

• We’ll quite fancy the walk, ok? – She asked and added – It’ll take us about 10 minutes but we’ll save some money, do you mind?
• No, I don’t. But what are you talking about? – As I smiled back at her again.
• We’ll walk there, ok?
• Ok, to see the neighborhoods would be also interesting to me. But could you repeat the first phrase? I haven’t remembered it yet.
• We will quite fancy the walk, - she said slowly for me. And added:
• I’m feeling a bit peckish too.
• What are you feeling too? – I asked her in perplexity again.
• I’m hungry a bit, - she translated while smiling, and we were then talking all the way to the café.

She turned out to be good company. She told me about the streets and buildings, about people and traditions. But first things first.

My new awesome tutor

The café was very cozy. We were sitting near the window and could see people passing by, but they were not seeing us. The pane was covered with a special film. We had well done bacons with vegetables, fresh orange juice and cherry jelly for dessert.

• Would you like a lift home? – She said after she paid the bill.
• A lift home, - I asked, repeating her last words. – I suppose in English it means to go home by car, right?
• Bingo! – as she smiled.
• I’d prefer to walk; I live not far from here. – I said.

• Hey, you speak like grown up, like lady, you know? We say like this: I’d fancy the walk, and that’s it. I’ll teach you; you should get used to our talk and nobody then will never say that you’re a drip.
• What? I’ve never heard such a word, what does it stand for?
• Ah, we say drip when we consider a person a bore, unpleasant, or repulsive, got it?
• Yes. Drip… Strange how you’ve chosen this word to use… - I said.
• When water drops are dripping from above, they drip, - She continued explaining, - and we get sick and tired of it, of dripping. The same with persons.
• We also say of a person that one is the biggest drip going if one is a blockhead, one is a ne’er-do-well.
• I see, if one should be lazy, they could be called lazybones.
• You got it!

So, she became my teacher of English from this very phrase, which I remembered at once. And then later I learned a lot of other things, but first things first.

Tania

        I don’t know why, but we made friends immediately. On the way from the café we were talking every day and it seemed to me that slang vocabulary in English was endless.

• How was that, girl? – She asked me smiling every time we met at the cloakroom after lectures.
• Nothing serious, just a few bruisers! – Answered I one day, and we were laughing, or I answered like this – I had nightmare of a day! – or – Everything’s just awesome! – I tried to diversify my answers.

Here I’d like to describe my wonderful new friend, as it would be even more interesting to you, the readers, to imagine her when I’ll be depicting further events.

She was rather tall, above 5 feet high, but slim and well-proportioned. Her long curly brown hair was laying on her shoulders, and her fringe or quiff combed to the right was slightly closing her right eye, when she was bowing her head ahead. Her eyes were blue, her brows were slightly bent up on edges, with long black lashes which meshed nicely when she was closing her eyes.

In short, she was the kind of girl boys like very much. It seemed like she never gave way to her hang-ups, as she seemed to have answers on each and every question. But her smile! With her charming smile she could disarm the whole army! No kidding!

Here’s one more short story about one of our adventures. We were on our way home after the lectures. There was a good TV series on and we left for that. So, we decided to take a short cut to cross the street but not through a pedestrian crossing. Just as we stepped onto the pavement, a strong and tall policeman appeared before us. We stopped and he asked us to show our IDs. He was going to write out a fine to us, but Tania asked his name and used her smile weapon… The policeman seemed to be paralyzed and while he was staring at her, she took our IDs out from his hands and we vanished.

A bit of the History

        So, when after studies we were walking home we talked a lot and I did really study a lot new in English, as my good company had a ready tongue! She seemed to know everything! And I started to feel that I respect her more and more.

        It’s not a secret that the English say that they do not have weather, they have climate. It’s often foggy in London or rainy. That’s why the Romans called this island the Foggy Albion. Let us dive into history for a while!

        When the first Romans were approaching the island they could see white cliffs and after they moored to the land they called the island Albion, from Latin Albus, what means White. It was near Dover. There are a lot of White Cliffs, so now we know where the first invaders moored.

        Now about the climate. It’s absolutely unpredictable. It can be sunny in the morning but in half an hour it can poor like cats and dogs! Then strong winds can come but after one more hour the sun can be again among the clouds. So, native Londoners always have umbrellas with them and by this you can easily determine who is a tourist in the street, and who is local.

        First, I was also unwary and was not taking umbrella with me. My English teacher taught me some good phrases as to the matter. She said, that when they would like to say that somebody is unwary, they say that he throws caution to the wind.

        Another good phrase she used one day when we were not feeling good was:

• I’m feeling under the weather today, a cold snap is supposed to be tomorrow, as I noticed that when the weather changes, and changes quickly, I start feeling bad.
• It makes sense, I mean the phrase – I said, - To feel under the weather – as it is really the weather that influences us, our state.
• Nothing to worry about! – Said my good company smiling, - Tomorrow it’s gonna be as right as rain!
• I haven’t caught you, what are you talking about? – I used this question often.
• OK, we say ‘as right as rain’ when we want to say that everything’s gonna be alright.
• Aaahh, - I said in a drawling manner, - I got you now, thanks.
• We will weather the storm, won’t we? – She asked me smiling.
• Again! What is that – to weather the storm?

My good company laughed and said:

• We will overcome, got it?
• Sure, thanks! - was my reply.

Weather on the cool side

        It was late autumn already. The weather was on the cool side and rains intensified from day to day. Our long walks along the ancient streets of Cambridge remained only in memories.

“Hey, my dear friendess, nice to see you! How are you dear?” – I heard a familiar cheerful voice. That was my good friend Tania. Her lectures ended the same time as mine did.

“Ah, Tania! Hi dear! Long time no see! I am happy to see you!”, and I hugged her.

“Sasha”, said she slightly frowning and added, “You know what?” she asked me softly looking around like an experienced agent.

I decided to play along with her, and plunging my head into my shoulders looked around too and asked her softly,

“What?”

There were a lot of students and tutors around us near the cloakroom and some of them repeated our play and froze in plunged-head poses. Maybe it was funny to watch the scene from aside, but we kept ourselves masterfully from not bursting out laughing. Tania caught me by my hand, pulled slightly and we rushed away. After two or three steps, she turned back and shouted to the stood put,

“Melt!”

The scene melted immediately. Nobody pursued us.

“Tonight after seven we gonna have a party. Will you join us?” she said when we turned one of the hall corners and stopped at last.

“Shall I have any weapon with? I got a huge pan”, as I tried to continue the play.

“I’m gonna teach you. You should learn all those crazy animals”, was her serious reply.

“You mean elephants, wolves, mice, sheep…” I tried to enumerate, but she interrupted me.

“Yeah, right, all of that stuff. So?” her brows gracefully curved expressing a question.

“How can I refuse such a tempting offer?” I said revealing my strong desire to groove.

“At seven, shake?” and she offered me her right hand to shake.

“Shake!” I answered smiling and shaking her hand on the side.

“Animals”

        Since the day I first came to Cambridge, I never visited a party. “Dancing! Games! Fun! English jokes!” were my only but happy thoughts all the way to my dorm. I felt excited. “What to wear? How to behave? What to tell?” - Ideas were jumping out of my head one by one, sparkling a wide smile on my face. I had to leave my dorm just after 6 p.m. There were two more hours left and I could barely wait for the long-hoped-for evening.

My good friend lived across the river Cam in Grantchester on the way from Newnham borough down south by Grantchester road. Not far. Just a few minutes driving by taxi.

“What a snail!” said the driver when we were approaching the Grantchester road.

“Where? Big?” I asked trying to keep the conversation going.

He turned to me, looked at me as if studying and concluded, “Student. Frosh. Where did you come from? Europe?” He went on watching the road looking at the rearview mirror.

“Bingo!” I smiled to him and asked him in my turn, “But where’s the snail?”

“Ah”, now he smiled and explained, “We call “snails” those who do something slowly. Look at the car ahead. He’s driving twenty miles per hour! He doesn’t apparently know where to go”.

“I see now. We call such persons tortoises,” I answered.

“So do we, but snails are even slower, aren’t they?”

“They are.” I could not think of anything other than the upcoming party.

“Have a look at those street chickens”, said the driver and pointed at the pigeons scurrying off the road, “they’re quicker than the car ahead, aren’t they?”

“Indubitably”, said I.

Finally, we turned onto the Grantchester and drove off quicker. The traffic was not heavy, but a couple of the cars tried to overtake the others and my taxi driver let out a chuckle, “Oh those squirrels!”

I looked around the old tall trees, standing on the roadside, smiled and asked him in surprise, “Really! Where? Big?”

“Ha-ha”, he giggled, “Ahead already. We call “squirrels” the drivers who constantly try to overcome others. Do you know hogs?”

“Not acquainted personally but heard before about those male pigs”, I answered.

“Ha-ha! “Hogs” are those who interfere the passage of other cars. Have you seen pigs reclining at ease in their pigsties?”

“My grandparents have a house in the country. I used to visit them every summer before beginning my studies here. So, I have seen those grunting guys”.

“Now you know what I meant while we were driving here”. The driver slowed down, turned to a two-storied English house and parked. “Here we are!”

“Have a nice day and nice passengers!” I wished a good taxi driver.

“Have a nice evening too!” he wished me with a kind smile, got in his car and disappeared around the corner.

        “Welcome and come in, Tanya said, as she opened the door wide and stepped a little to the side for me to pass.

The spacious hall on the ground floor was furnished in the Victorian style. There was a big fireplace, which with its chimney went straight into the ceiling. A couple of sofas stood by the walls, decorated with pictures of different sizes and colors. A few armchairs snuggled around a carved occasional table right in front of the fireplace. Three tall cabinets with colorful vases, different small ceramic, metal or wooden statues and big old books in expensive folios on the shelves looked like embedded into the walls. This entire quiet picture was enlivened with two big windows which were smiling friendly to the guests with their colorful panes.

I stopped a few steps from the front door and started to scrutinize everything with an undisguised interest.

“Hey” I heard my slang tutor’s buoyant voice, “Come, I’ll introduce you to the animals”. I obeyed and we came up to a young lad sitting in one of the armchairs and flipping through a magazine.

“This is Henley”, she pointed with her arm to the lad. The young man rose from his seat, bowed his head and pronounced politely,

How do you do!* Nice to meet you!”

*As soon as it is not a question but a formal greeting, the author took the liberty to use the phrase with the exclamation mark.

“Sasha”, I pronounced with a curtsy and shook his hand, “Nice to meet you too”.

        “Henley is our lion”, Tania continued.

        “Lion?” I examined my new acquaintance with a light smile. Sure, it was difficult for me not to chop in a joke, but I restrained.

        “We call “lions” those, who distinguished themselves in something”, explained Tania with her calm voice and added, “Henley is our future in Physics”.

        “No, Tania, please”, Henley touched her shoulder, and addressing me continued, “We’re working on an interesting project, that’s it”.

        “If someone could just imagine the project theme?” my tutor raised her point finger up.

“Nothing serious”, said Henley, “Who knows what it will become when we are finished”.

“Lion”, I tried to keep the ball rolling, “Never heard about the other meanings”.

“More”, Tania continued, “Just imagine, pens with built-in infrared sensors for intuitive brain stimulation by signals that activate memory!”

I stood trying to figure out what Tania said.

“The problem is a real bear”, Henley noticed me perplexed and immediately explained, “When the problem is a bear, it is a very difficult problem”.

        The doorbell rang and Tania ran to open the door. We turned to the incomer.

        “This’s my elder brother Dave”, said Tania when they came up to us. “He’s one of those eagles flying high”.

        “Ah, this is that girl who studies hard here! Hi! How are you?” he smiled.        “Still long way to go”, I smiled in return and introduced myself, “Sasha”.

        “He’s a cadet of a military flight school”, explained Tania, “we call them eagles. Don’t mix up with bad grades!” Those present laughed.

         “Lion and eagle, Tania,” I said bending my fingers, “I know now. I’ve never heard of the meanings you’ve said, thanks a lot!”

        “Wait”, she asked, “come over here”. She came to the fireplace where two quiet guys were pretending to nap.

        She pointed to one of them in an expensive suit and said,

“His father’s working on an elephant, so he’s a wealthy heir.”

Young man turned to us and stood up stretching his hand to shake,

“Mike”, his smile was open and sincere. I shook his hand. The lad looked neat and tidy. He was not like the son of a rich family. My teacher noticed my scrutiny and whispered into my ear,

“Dead duck. He engaged.”

        “Elephant? What’s that?” I frowned, and leaned over to whisper into Tania’s ear,

“But why the duck is dead, Tania?”

        She whispered back in return,

“That means the project which is doomed to failure.”

I looked at Tania and smiled.

         “This is Bradly. Our talented musician”, as Tania continued introducing her friends.

        The guy picked up the guitar which stood near the armchair and started singing as an opera singer,

“We were green as grass

   When I took your hand

   And the whole world held it’s breath”,

Tania tried to stop Bradly shouting out loud,

“Br-aaa-d-ly! Please, don’t sing so loud. The widows will fly out.”

“Ooops, sorry, Tania. I promise during this party to be a camel.”

“Very kind of you”, as my best teacher thanked him.

Tania kissed him on his cheek showing her appreciation and we heard the doorbell ring again. While Tania was inviting new guests to enter, I questioned Bradly, “What does that mean to be a camel?”

“Ah”, he smiled and explained, “Camel is a symbol of humility and restraint. So, it’s better to be camel at Tania’s parties rather than grizzly or bear, which means to be rude and impudent. And what animal do you identify yourself with?”

I said,

“I am a cross between different animals, strange as that may sound. I have an endless love to study, read, work and exchange ideas.”

While we were talking and waiting for the guests, someone switched the TV on and then what I heard impressed me again. I decided to dive into learning the language so deeply that I surprised myself. 

“It’s awesome that I have such a talented and kind tutor now”, I thought.

Colors

The evening became more and more brown and we decided to set the fire in the fireplace.

“Hey, look, he’s red!” I heard the voice of my good teacher.

I turned to the TV screen and looked over a few men sitting at the round table and discussing something. Neither of them was red and I asked Tanya,

“Red? Why? No. They look like they haven’t been to the sea for ages!”

“Ha!” Tanya grinned, not turning back from the screen and continuing listening to the speaking man attentively; then she added explaining,

“He’s getting on a soap-box, and that it’s strange. Why do the TV guys invite him? Indeed, reds provoke peoples.

“Even pinks!” said Henley and added, “Almost all Pollies set illiterate people by the ears, I guess, as it’s easy”.

“Tanya”, - elder brother addressed to her, “I figure, we have to explain to Sasha the meaning of the phrase you just mentioned”, - here he turned to me and asked politely, - Have you ever heard “get on a soap-box” and have you got the meaning?

“I’m trying to follow, but…” I could not finish my sentence.

Dave felt that and continued,

“That means the TV program guest gives a speech”.

“Thanks, Dave, I see now”, - said I drawlingly, turned to Tanya and asked her, “and because of what is he red? And what are those pink Pollies?”

“Let’s flip over to the other channel”, Tanya offered and turned to me,

”Sasha, we call reds those who espouse radical political views. Do you agree it’s no good?”

“Sure. I agree”.

“If we say that some Polly is pink, it means that he is of moderate political views”.

“So much new and interesting information for me, so I have to start writing it down, guys. Please, give me a second”. I said and took a notebook out of my vanity case.

“And he’s greening! Look! It’s so obvious, you see?”

“I haven’t caught the meaning of “greening””…, - I started feeling uneasy.

Tanya and others noticed that and smiled to me.

“Sasha, you’re a student. You’re here to study. Never worry to ask me any questions, anytime and anywhere, alright?” I felt warm tones in Tanya’s voice.

“But I’m afraid, I’ll wear you out”, I tried politely to raise an objection.

“Never. You – never. You’re my good friend and I set about to teach you”, was her calm answer, “Mistakes are not asked questions”, she finished with a kind smile.

“To green also means to lie, to be untrue, you see?” said Bradley.

“And what if a person is honest and sincere? Do you use any color to describe him?” was my question.

“We call them white, Sasha”, explained Mike. “And if somebody is fair we say that they are white”.

“I’ve seen that lady before”, said Bradley, “She visited one of our grand rehearsals. If I’m not mistaken, she’s from the Blues”.

“She’s a blues singer?” I surprised, “And why has she started to do politics?”

Bradley smiled to me and offered,

“Please, open your notebook and add one more meaning for the Blue”. He started to pace, as a teacher at the board when he explains a new rule.

“To belong to the Blue means to belong to the Tory Party. Have you set it down?” He looked at me and raised his right brow. Having made sure that I could continue writing down, he added, “Blue is one of the official colors of this Party. One more their color is Green”. Bradley finished his speech, stopped near me, and rocking on his heels, pretended to be an important person, slightly raised his chin, took out from his inner pocket a tube for tobacco smoking and put it in his mouth, said, “I know everything. Just ask me!”

Now I decided to play along and pretended to be a famed journalist. I brought my pen to the lips, nipped it within, raised my look to the ceiling, as if looking for a very important question and asked Bradley,

“Could you kindly tell us, Mr. Bradley, of when will money be cancelled?”

The rest of the guys were watching the scene with great interest and after my question intended to lough quietly, covering their mouths with their hands.

“You’re not Gray, folks! We never get bored with you!” laughed Tania.

“Maybe you could give me some new meanings of other colors instead, Mr. Bradley? I felt him being in some confusion and wanted to encourage, so this question flew out of my mouth immediately.

“A-ha”, said Bradley and made a few steps forward. Then he turned to me and said, “Yellow”, he paused, “Yellow is used for describing meanness and cowardice. Also, we use yellow when we see an envious or jealous glance. Have you managed to write this down?” he smiled to me.

“Undoubtedly! Please, give me more!” I cheered him up.

“Yellow is also used to describe a coward as in running from a battle,” he continued.

“Ok now”, he started to pace again, “Black. This color becomes terrible when somebody does something illegal. For instance, we say, “That was a black military operation””.

The channel was flipped over.

“Let’s have a drink, folks!” offered Tania, “And I’d like us to better continue with plants instead of politics”.

Plants