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:

Lomov: Well, you see, it’s like this. [Takes his arm] I’ve come to you, honoured Stepan Stepanovitch, to trouble you with a request. Not once or twice have I already had the privilege of applying to you for help, and you have always, so to speak... I must ask your pardon, I am getting excited. I shall drink some water, honoured Stepan Stepanovitch.[Drinks.]
Chubukov: [aside] He’s come to borrow money. Shan’t give him any! [aloud] What is it, my beauty?

1. Where has Lomov gone?
2. Why has Lomov gone there?
3. Find the word in the passage that means ‘opportunity or benefit’.

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:
It’s cold... I’m trembling all over, just as if I’d got an examination before me. The great thing is, I must have my mind made up. If I give myself time to think, to hesitate, to talk a lot, to look for an ideal, or for real love, then I’ll never get married. Brr... It’s cold! Natalya Stepanovna is an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking, well-educated.

1. Who is feeling cold here? Why?
2. How do people normally feel before an examination?
3. Give the meaning of the phrase ‘mind made up’.

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:
In the first place, I’m already 35 — a critical age, so to speak. In the second place, I ought to lead a quiet and regular life. I suffer from palpitations, I’m excitable and always getting awfully upset; at this very moment my lips are trembling, and there’s a twitch in my right eyebrow. But the very worst of all is the way I sleep. I no sooner get into bed and begin to go off, when suddenly something in my left side gives a pull, and I can feel it in my shoulder and head.

1. Why is Lomov now in a hurry to get married?
2. What happens to him on account of his palpitations?
3. Find a word from the passage which means ‘emotional’.

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Then smoke. Here are the matches. The weather is splendid now, but yesterday it was so wet that the workmen didn’t do anything all day. How much hay have you stacked ? Just think, I felt greedy and had a whole field cut, and now I’m not at all pleased about it because I’m afraid my hay may rot. I ought to have waited a bit. But what’s this ? Why, you’re in evening dress.

1. Who is speaking these words and to whom?
2. What does she offer him?
3. Find a word from the passage which means the same as ‘heaped’.

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’.