Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Natalya : No, you’re simply joking, or making fun of me. What a surprise! We’ve had the land for nearly three hundred years, and then we’re suddenly told that it isn’t ours! Ivan Vassilevitch, I can hardly believe my own ears. These Meadows aren’t worth much to me. They only come to five dessiatins, and are worth perhaps 300 roubles, but I can’t stand unfairness. Say what you will, I can’t stand unfairness.

1. What surprises the speaker?
2. What does she find ‘unfair’?
3. Find a word in the passage that means opposite to ‘gradually’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Natalya : No, you’re simply joking, or making fun of me. What a surprise! We’ve had the land for nearly three hundred years, and then we’re suddenly told that it isn’t ours! Ivan Vassilevitch, I can hardly believe my own ears. These Meadows aren’t worth much to me. They only come to five dessiatins, and are worth perhaps 300 roubles, but I can’t stand unfairness. Say what you will, I can’t stand unfairness.

1. What surprises the speaker?
2. What does she find ‘unfair’?
3. Find a word in the passage that means opposite to ‘gradually’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Ours! You can go on proving it for two days on end, you can go and put on fifteen dress jackets, but I tell you they’re ours, ours, ours! I don’t want anything of yours and I don’t want to give anything of mine. So there.

1. Who speaks these words and to whom?
2. What are they fighting over?
3. Find a word from the passage which means the same as ‘confirm’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
But, please, Stepan Stepanovitch, how can they be yours? Do be a reasonable man! My aunt’s grandmother gave the Meadows for the temporary and free use of your grandfather’s peasants. The peasants used the land for forty years and got accustomed to it as if it was their own, when it happened that.

1. Who speaks these words and to whom?
2. What do ‘they’ stand for?
3. Give the meaning of ‘accustomed’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Chubukov : [yells] He’s coming, I tell you. Oh, what a burden, Lord, to be the father of a grown-up daughter! I’ll cut my throat I will, indeed! We cursed him, abused him, drove him out; and it’s all you... you.

Natalya:No, it was you!

Chubukov:I tell you it’s not my fault. [Lomov appears at the door] Now you talk to him yourself.

1. What does the speaker refer to as ‘a burden’?
2. What does Chubukov blame Natalya for?
3. Find a word in the passage that means ‘mistake’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
I’m thinking of having a go at the blackcock, honoured Natalya Stepanovna, after the harvest. Oh, have you heard? Just think, what a misfortune I’ve had! My dog Guess, who you know, has gone lame. He is old, but I wouldn’t take five Squeezers for him. Why, how can you? Guess is a dog; as for Squeezer, well, it’s too funny to argue. Anybody you like has a dog as good as Squeezer.

Natalya:No, it was you!

Chubukov:I tell you it’s not my fault. [Lomov appears at the door] Now you talk to him yourself.

1. Who speaks these lines?
2. What misfortune does he refer to?
3. Find a word from the passage which means the same as ‘bad luck’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Natalya : There’s some demon of contradiction in you today, Ivan Vassilevitch. First you pretend that the Meadows are yours; now, that Guess is better than Squeezer. I don’t like people who don’t say what they mean, because you know perfectly well that Squeezer is a hundred times better than your silly Guess. Why do you want to say he isn’t?

1. What does Natalya blame Lomov for?
2. What do Natalya and Lomov first argue about?
3. Find a word in the passage that means ‘opposition’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Don’t excite yourself, my precious one. Allow me. Your Guess certainly has his good points. He’s purebred, firm on his feet, has well — sprung ribs, and all that. But, any dear man, if you want to know the truth, that dog has two defects : he’s old and he’s short in the muzzle.

1. Who speaks these words to whom?
2. Why is the listener excited?
3. Give the meaning of the word ‘purebred’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
It’s not true! My dear fellow, I’m very liable to lose my temper, and so, just because of that, let’s stop arguing. You started because everybody is always jealous of everybody else’s dogs. Yes, we’re all like that! You too, sir, aren’t blameless! You no sooner begin with this, that and the other, and all that... I remember everything!

1. Who gives this advice to whom?
2. What according to the speaker is not true?
3. Give the meaning of the word ‘blameless’.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Drink this! No, he doesn’t drink. It means he’s dead, and all that. I’m the most unhappy of men! Why don’t I put a bullet into my brain? Why haven’t I cut my throat yet? What am I waiting for? Give me a knife! Give me a pistol! [LOMOV moves] He seems to be coming round. Drink some water! That’s right.

1. Who offers water to whom?
2. What has happened to Lomov?
3. Give the meaning of the phrase ‘put a bullet into my brain’.

Why does Lomov come to Chubukov’s house? How does Chubukov react to his arrival?