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PREFACE
This book is intended for students of English of pedagogical institutes and universities. It has purely practical aims. The purpose of the book is to help students to discriminate between words that form synonymic groups, but differ in the shades of meaning, in nuances and in usage. Within a synonymic group the words may also vary in stylistic colouring. Accordingly, the book deals with lexical and stylistic synonyms. The words which denote the same basic notion but differ in shades of meaning are called 1ex i c a I synonyms. For instance, in the synonymic group look, glance, view, sight, glimpse each word denotes the basic notion of the act of seeing which is common to all of them. However, these words differ from one another in some shades of meaning, and consequently in usage and in combinations with other words. Thus, glance denotes 'a quick and sudden look', and is also used as a component of such phraseological expressions as, to give a glance, to cast a glance, etc. Sight means 'the act of seeing' only when it is applied as a component of certain phraseological expressions, such as, to catch sight Of, to lose sight Of. Lexical synonyms may also differ in the intensity of the action, quality or emotion expressed by the words of the synonymic group. Such words as throw, fling, hurl illustrate the difference in the intensity of action. Sty lis tic synonyms are words which differ from one another in stylistic colouring. They are: colloquial, poetical, official words, scientific terms, etc. Thus, within the group dismiss, discharge, sack, fire, both sack and fire are the colloquial variants of dismiss and discharge. Behold is a poetical word as compared with its stylistic synonym see. The synonymic group may contain the word which expresses the 3

basic notion in the most general way. For example, within the group shake, tremble, quiver, shiver, shudder, - shake implies any kind of movement or vibration, whereas tremble and quiver, besides this, denote also a slight and tremulous motion; shiver and quiver imply shaking chiefly caused by the sensation of cold, while shudder suggests shaking as a result of disgust, fear, etc. Shake is thus a neutral word, which in this book is referred to as the general term. Due to the fact that the basic notion is common to all the members of a synonymic group, synonyms may be interchangeable within certain limits. It depends on the collocation of which the given synonym is a component: both high and tall are applied to plants (a tall, high tree,' tall, high grass), but only tall is applicable to people or animals. Both climb and mount occur in the collocation to climb (mount) the stairs; but to climb a tree; to mount a horse. Likewise: a famous writer, but a notorious criminal; the edge of the table, but

the rim of the moon.

Words making up a synonymic group may be polysemantic, and thus may enter into a number of other synonymic groups. For instance, take, a highly polysemantic word, is a component of several synonymic groups. To define its precise meaning the student of Eng1ish must refer to the context. Compare: He took the boy by the arm (= seized, grasped). I took her to the station (= accompanied). I decided to take money from her (= to accept). He took the responsibility upon himself (= assumed). The study of synonyms, therefore, should involve the analysis of both the similarity and difference between them in particular situations. Accordingly, the synonymic groups contained in the book are regarded from various points of view: (a) similarity; (b) difference in shades of meaning; (c) the way they are phrased. The book may prove useful both for oral and written practice, also at seminars in lexicology and style, for self-instruction and as reference material as well. It is intended for advanced courses of study, and therefore can be handled by those students who have a considerable knowledge of English. In selecting the synonymic groups, the authors were guided by the frequency of their application, by the difficulty in discriminating between the words which they comprise and by the number of combinations into which these words enter. Besides, the authors considered it desirable to choose such synonymic groups in which the members are polysemantic and are therefore components of several groups. They are, for example, take, seize, snatch, grasp, grip, clutch, 4

grab; take, assume; take, receive, accept; take, bring, fetch; bad, ill, wicked, eoil; bad, poor and others. Within each synonymic group only the most characteristic meanings of the words (lit. and fig.) have been dealt with.
The book is divided into three parts; the first comprises synonymous nouns, the second - synonymous adjectives, and the thirdsynonymous verbs. The number of synonymic groups chosen is 65, the total number of words being 241. Considering the scope of the present work, it was not possible for the authors to include more word'S, because a considerable number of pages were to be devoted to exercises, which are of great importance in that kind of study. In each part of the book, the synonymic groups are arranged in alphabetical order. Each synonymic group presents a section consisting of an expla .. nation and exercises. The illustrati ve material has been chiefly taken from modern English and American writers and from some scientific magazines. The types of exercises vary, depending upon the peculiarities of the components of each synonymic group. They include tasks which will help the students to discriminate between the synonyms, to analyse cases where the synonyms are interchangeable, to memorize certain word combinations. The aims of other exercises are to train students to make the proper choice of words. Part of the exercises is devoted to translation from Russian and to selecting the proper English equivalents for the Russian word combinations. The purpose of these exercises is to teach the students to observe the difference between the Russian and English collocations. For example, the Russian BhlCOKHAmay correspond to the English high, tall and lofty, as dependent on the collocations. Thus, BhlCOKaHcrena, BhlCOKHA lJeJlOBeK, asrcoxoe rrpH3BaHFIe are rendered in English as a high wall, a tall man, a lofty calling. On the other hand, the English word high may correspond to different Russian words. For instance, such collocations as, high pressure, high speed, high wind are rendered in Russian respectively as asrcoxoe ,naBJIeHHe,60JIhIlIaH CKOPOCTh, CHJIhHblA nerep. Some exercises are intended to demonstrate the polysemantic character of the words belonging to definite synonymic groups. Here the students are given a number of sentences where these words occur both in the meanings which unite them in the synonymic groups and in the shades of meaning peculiar to each of them separately. Besides, the authors considered it useful to introduce exercises based on determining for themselves the meanings not referred to in the explanation. The students' task is thus to define such meanings by consulting the dictionary. In this way the authors' desire is to develop the students' ability to

observe linguistic facts. There are also exercises on paraphrasing, on word substitution, and others. The authors do not suggest any particular method of handling this book. Nor do they think it necessary that the synonymic groups should be studied in succession. Yet, the following recommendations rna y be offered. The students should study the explanation, thoroughly taking note of the collocations and sentences which illustrate the difference in the shades of meaning and in usage. However, the definitions are not meant to be learned by heart. The explanation of the synonymic group should be read at home and discussed in class. Some of the exercises may be done in class and some assigned as home-work, which, of course, should be checked up in class. It is up to the teacher to choose the exercise for class or home work. If all the exercises cannot be done because of the lack of time or because of other considerations, part of them may be used as suitable material for tests. Since this kind of book is the first attempt to combine reference material on synonyms with material for training, the authors will be grateful to all those who wish to send their criticism and ad vice.

•••

TABLE

OF

CONTENTS

NOUNS (1) (2) (5) (7) (8) (9) (10)

(11) (6) (3) (4)
AFFAIR, business, concern, matter, thing ANIMAL, beast, brute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. APPOINTMENT, engagement, date . . . . . . . . . CARE, concern, solicitude, anxiety, worry. . . . CHANCE, opportunity, occasion . . . . . . . . . . CORNER, angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EDGE, border, rim, brim, brink, verge. . . . . e EXPERIENCE, experiment .............. FAULT, guilt LOOK, glance, view, sight, glimpse . . . . . . . OCCURHENCE, event, incident, episode, accident.

. . . .
•

. . . .
•

.. .. .. .. ..
• •

. . . . .
•

. . . . .
•

.. .. .. .. "
••

9 17
20 23

27

. . . . • . ..
r • • • • • ••

. . . . . . .. . . . . . ..

39 41 44 49

31 33

ADJECTIVES
(13) (14) (15) (16) (17)
(18) (12)
ALONE, lonely, lone, solitary, forlorn. . . . . . AWARE, conscious, sensible. ........... BAD, ill, wicked, evil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BAD, poor .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BARE, naked, nude DARK, dim, obscure, gloomy. . . . . . . . . . . EMPTY, vacant, blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FALSE, wrong. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FAMOUS, notorious, distinguished, eminent FIRM, hard, solid. ................. HIGH. tall, lofty. .................. LIABLE, subject, susceptible, sensiti ve, exposed, ROUGH, harsh, uneven, rugged . . . . . . . . . ROUGH, rude, crude, raw SHARP, keen, acute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . STJ{ANGE, odd, queer, quaint

(19) (20)
(23)

.. .. .. .. ~. ..... ..... ..... .... .... opeu .... . . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

..

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

(22) (24) (26) (27)

(25)

(21)

. . . . . . . ..

53 57 60 63 65 68 72 76 79 82 87 90 94 97 100 104
7

VERBS (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33)

AGREE, consent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ANSWER, reply, respond, retort . . . . . . . . . . . . APPEAR, emerge .................. APPRECIATE, value, cherish ASK, inquire, question, interrogate BEAR, endure, suffer, stand, tolerate BEGIN, commence, start CHOOSE, select, elect, pick. CLIMB, ascend, mount ..... CONTINUE, last .... CREEP, crawl .... DECLINE, refuse, reject . DEDICATE, devote. .. DESCEND, dismount, alight. DISMISS, discharge, sack, fire .. ESCAPE, avoid, evade, elude EXPECT, h ope, awal.Of FASTEN, fix, attach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FINISH, complete, conclude, end . GET, obtain, acquire, gain, win, earn .. GO, leave, withdraw, retire, depart, quit, clear out (off) ... INVENT, discover LEAVE, abandon, forsake, desert LET, allow, permit LIVE, dwell, lodge, stay, stop, put up. PULL, draw" drag PURSUE, chase, follow SEE, behold, perceive, survey, contemplate, observe, notice,
0 • 0 • 0 • 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 0 • 0 • 0 0 •• 0 • 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 0 • 0 0 • 0 •• 0 •• 0 • 0 • • 0 • 0 • 0 0" • • • • 0 0 0 • 0 • 0 • 0 • • 0 • • • • 0 • • • • 0 • 0 0 • • • • 0 • 0 • 0 • 0 0 • 0 • • • • • • • • 0 • 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 •• 0 • 0 •• 0 •• 0 •• 0 • 0 • 0 ••• 0 • • 0 • • 0 • • • • • • • • 0 0 0 0 •• 0 •••••• 0 •• 0 • 0 0 • 0 • 0 •••••• 0 0 0 • 0 0 •• 0 •• 0 • 0 •••••••• 0 •• 0 •• 0 ••••••••••••• 0 0 • 0 ••••• 0 •

107 109 113 115 117

120 124 128 131

(34)
(35)
(36)

(37)
(38)

(39)
(40) (41 ) (42) (43) (45) (46) (47) (48)

(44)

134 137 140 143 145 148 151 155

160

••••

••

•••

(49) (50)
(51) (52) (53) (55)

•••••••••••

165 170 174 179

180

•••••••

••

••

••

••••

185 189
191

••••••••

••

••

••

••

(54) (56) (57) (58) (59) (60)

(61) (62)
(63)

•••

•••••••••••••••

••

197

(64) (65)

SEEM, look, appear SHAKE, tremble, quiver, shiver, shudder SHOW, exhibit, display, demonstrate, manifest STAY, remain, linger. ............... TAKE, seize, snatch, grasp, grip, clutch, grab TAKE, bring, fetch TAKE, receive, accept TAKE, assume . . . . . . . . . . . . THROW, fling, hurl, toss, cast TRY, attempt, endeavour, strive, struggle
0 •• 0 0 •••• 0 • 0 0 • 0 0 • 0 ••• 0 ••••••••• 0 0 • 0 ••• 0 • • •••••••• 0 0 0 • •

discern

..........

•••

••••

•••••

••••

•••••

.. ...
0 0 ••••••••

••

•••

201 206 209 213 217 221 227 230

•••••

. 236 242
• •

234

Bibliography .......................... Key to the Exercises Index of the Words Making up the Synonymic Groups.
0 ••••••••

••

246 249 2.52

•••

NOUNS

(1) AFFAIR,

business,

concern,

matter,

thing

parison when they mean 'something that is done or dealt with'. The members of this group often occur in similar colloca tions. Affair, business, concern are used interchangeably in the following collocations: it's (not) my (his, her, etc.) affair (business, concern) === I (he, she, etc.) must (not) do it; it's no affair (business, concern) of mine = I have nothing to do with it and am not interested in it.
1. I said nothing, it was not my affair. (Du Maurler) 2. Why he should have chosen to come to the Cote d'Azur at Monte Carlo was not our concern, his problems were his own... (Dti Maurier) 3. "It's my business," she thought, "to feel as he does ... " (Gals worthy )

Affair,

business, concern, matter, thing come into com-

Affair, business are used in the expression to mind (attend to) one's own business (affair) which means:
1. 'Not to interfere', 'not to meddle into people's doings'.
1. "Mind your own affairs, Justine," she said sharply. (Caldwell) 2. Why didn't he mind his own business? (Maugham)

2. 'To give care or thought

to some work'.

When he finished eating, he got up and put on his hat. "Have some affairs to attend to in the village," he said shortly. (Caldwell)
::= A polysemantic word may belong to more than one group of synonyms. Concern is one of them. It enters into several synonymic groups, one of which is analysed below (4).

Inean 'happenings',

Affair,

business,

are interchangeable when they 'events in general', 'dealings'.

thing

1. It's a bad business. (Galsuiarthy} 2. This is a most distressing thing... I do feel for you and your husband most acutely. (Du Maurier) 3. Now, are you going to tell me, without compulsion, what you know about this affair? (Voynich) 4. Can't possibly be a sportsman and play for money. Oh, dirty business, eh, Dersingham? (Priestley)

Affair, business, matter, thing are used in the collocation the whole affair (business, matter, thing).
1. To him the whole affair would be happier as soon as he didn't feel mean... (Greene) 2. Believe me, Miss Cherrell, I am deeply sorry about the whole business. {Galsneorthy] 3. If Farrish expressed disapproval, it would be too late to re-do the job, and the whole matter would have to be dropped. (Heym) 4. The whole thing had been so wretched and awkward for Beatrice. (Du

Maurier)

Affairs, matters, things are used in the collocations to arrange (adjust) affairs (matters, things); a state of affairs (matters, things).
an excuse for eating out of doors and, besides, she to arrange things. (Mansfteld} 2. '" his brother could not adjust matters ... (Dreiser) 3. Several inquiries by telephone could not be properly answered, always an unsatisfactory state of affairs. (Priestley)

1. It's so delicious

to have loved having

Business, things business (things).

occur in the collocation the nature of

he speculated as to the nature of

On the way home that evening

this business. (Dreiser)

While some of these words are used interchangeably, each of them has its own peculiarities. Affair implies: 1. 'A performance', 'a proceeding'.
1. ... the Manderley ball was generally an annual affair ... Quite a big show. (Du Maurier) 2. He did not accompany us himself,
but we had the address 'who had first examined of Sergeant Coventry, of the local police, into the affair. (C. Doyle)

2. 'Personal or public transactions'.

1. ... no word was spoken that had not immediate reference to the affairs of the office. (Priestley) 2. I don't think there is any
10

necessity to bring Inspector Welch into the affair ... (Du Maurler) 3. "Shall I talk to them for you, Father?" "By George, if you woul d, Dinny! I hate pushing our affairs." (Gatswortby)

3. 'Occurrences and pursuits of life'.

1. Since the tragic Ferse affair she his idea of a niece ... (Ga/sworthy) 2. his reputation had been badly dented, all inchl You keep out of my affairs!" His pouch, (Priestley) one of those oilskin had been more than ever But Loomis, realizing that shouted, "I will not budge (Heym) was nearly empty ...

4. 'Material things' (in colloquial language).

affairs,

Business means: 1. 'One's regular occupation', earns a living', 'one's work'.

'the way in which one

1.... he was tired and ... he wished the day's business was over so he could go for a shower. (Len Doherty) 2. The society at the Boltons' might have been a valid excuse for neglecting business much more important than his. (M. Twain)

2. 'Duty',

as, a teacher's business is to help his pupils.

It is the business of the police to find a culprit. (Greene)

3. 'A commercial enterprise', 'a shop or company', also 'commerce', 'trade', 'buying and selling'.
1.... Twigg and Dersingham had probably a couple of tea plantations as well as a business in veneers and inlays. (Priestley) 2. I won't tell you how to run your business. (Heym) 3.... in the cubicle ... two middle-aged Chinese transacted business, sipping tea, their pipes laid aside. (Greene)

The expression on business means 'wi th the defini te purpose',' for the purpose of doing business', the expression to have no business (to be here) - ,to have no right to be here'.
1. I've got to go over to Canterbury to see a man on business. (Maugham) 2. You've got no business here. Get back to the villagel (Heym)

Concern, like business, means 'a commercial enterprise'. In this meaning it can be used both in the singular and In the plural.
1. 1 won't upset your farm. You can go on with it, when you come Lack, [ust as you like ... It's not charity. I'm buying it as a busi11

ness concern. (D. Lessing) 2. Claridge and Molton was one of the soundest concerns in the business. (Priestley)

The expression to have no concern with something means 'to have nothing to do with something' .
... I felt I had looked upon something personal to himself

with

which I had no concern. (Du Maurier)

Matter often means 'the subject which occupies us or to which our attention is given'.
1. His eye caught a strip of faded tapestry which startled him into speech to the momentary oblivion of bigger matters. (Chesterton) 2. Not a word had ever been spoken between them on a matter now nearly four years old ... (Galsmorthy)

The word matter is often modified by an of-phrase. In such cases the meaning of the collocation depends on the meaning of the of-phrase, as, a matter of dispute (= the subject that must be disputed); a matter of honour (= something that is connected with one's honour); a matter of seven days (= something that requires a period of seven days); a matter of fact (== a fact, reality); a matter of course (== something to be expected in the natural course of events).
1. That of course is a matter of opinion. (Maugham) 2.... after all, the whole thing has been very hurried, hasn't it? A matter of a few weeks. (Du Mourter)

In the expressions what's the matter anything the matter?-matter means 'wrong', the use of the definite article.)

(with you)?, is 'trouble'. (Note

1. Why, what's the matter? (Mansfield) 2. "What do you want," he said, "is something the matter?" (Du Maurier) 3. "Don't shout!" he cried. "What's the matter with the boy?" (Mansfield) 4. Collie looks rather worried. Is anything the matter? (Maugham)

In the expression for that matter or for the matter of that - matter means 'so far as that is concerned'.
I

He had been

for

very fond of her when she was a child that matter, he was still fond of her ... (Priestley)

and,

Thing means: 1. 'A material

People
12

object'.
a great many things.

say he imports

(Greene)

2. 'A fact',

'act',

'course',

'idea',

etc.

1.... in the meantime, there were a hundred and one little things to be done. (Priestley) 2. One thing at least was clear. (Chesterton) 3. We have no secrets now from one another. All things are shared. (Du Maurier) 4. The expression of her personality through the room, the conviction that she knew things which were beyond him, confounded him. (Cronin) 5. Before the War he had tried various things with no particular success ... (Priestley)

3. 'Circumstances',

'conditions',

'happenings',

'incidents'.

1. I'm scared stiff but things are better than they might be. (Greene) 2. I'm a contralto singer. But things have been so bad lately that I've been doing a little. (Mansfield) 3. If only her people didn't love her, and she them, how simple things would bel (Galsworthy) 4. And if you don't mind me saying so, sir, I'm very pleased things are looking up like this. (Priestley)

4. 'Belongings', off your things.

'clothes',

as, put on your things;

take

Sit down; when I've taken off my things we shall go into the next room and have tea and be cosy. (Mansfield)

Thing preceded by an attribute may be applied to persons or animals, the whole phrase expressing emotion, the colouring of which depends on the meaning of the attribute, as, poor thing; she is a nice little thing!; she is a spiteful old thing!
1. What creepy things cats arel (Mansfield) 2. "Don't little thing," she said. "Don't cry." (Mansfield) cry, poor

The word thing is often preceded by the definite article and such attributes as, only, best, worst, first, usual, chief, very, etc. In such cases the meaning of the collocation depends on the meaning of the attribute.
the only thing I could do, to share his pain. (Greene) 2. Honesty isn't everything, but I believe it's the first thing. (Priestley) 3.... the best thing you can do is to plead guilty
1. It was

and throw yourself on the mercy of the court. {Ivuiugham}

13

EXERCISES I. Account for the use of the synonyms in the following sentences referring to the explanations given above.

(A) 1. ... all I hope and want is that no one will agitate themselves over me and my small affair. (Galsworthy) 2. Marriages break. Often they break quicker than an affair like ours. (Greene) 3. I saw there was a question asked, but I don't know Hubert's version of the affair. (Galsworthy) 4. But the old man counts for a good deal in the affair, and I don't know him; that's the point. (Chesterton) 5. Well, she knew something of my affairs. They are large, Mr. Holmes -large beyond the belief of an ordinary man. (C. Doyle) (B) 1. The naphtha lamps of the booths at Mile End were bright and distracting, and the hum of the evening business was good despite the smell. (Coppard) 2. I had no business here. I had come blundering like a poor fool on the ground that was preserved. (Du Maurier) 3. Look here, Fowler, I thought you'd come here on business. (Greene) 4. He wants to talk to you privately - about business. (Greene) 5. He had, because of his naturally common-sense ideas and rather pleasing disposition, built up a sound and successful business here. (Dreiser] 6. My dear old boy, you're a damned good chap and ... all that sort of thing, but this is business. (M allgh am) 7. I'd forgotten that unfortunate business. I was quite on your side, Fowler ... (Greene) 8. "Business good?" "So-so. Not so good as it might be." (Priestley) 9. My business seems to be attending to other people's business. (Galsmorthy] (C) 1. These immense and highly rationalised concerns, often possessing their own printing and binding works... are compelled to seek books to keep them going. (R. Fox) 2. You don't know what I'm escaping from. It's not from the war. That's no concern of mine. I'm not involved. (Greene) (D) 1. Ah, in such matters he was on the side of his father. (Coppard) 2. Even so trivial a matter as cooking an egg demands an attention.. . (C. Doyle) 3. Andrew brooded angrily, wondering if he should not take the matter further, write to Joe Morgan, demand something more than a mere apology. (Cronin) 4. What's the matter with him? He seems all funny to-day. (Mallgham) 5. I'm sorry to force myself on you. It's a matter of life and death. (Mallgham) 6. Can you throw any light on the matter now? (Du Maurier) 7. It's only a matter of money, isn't it? (Maug/1anl)
14

(E) 1. He was efficient, he knew that; under hi m thlngs moved smoothly. (Drelser} 2. That's the way things arc going all the time 110W ••• (Priestley) 3. Proud and sure moved the horseman's figure, the quick, bright thing, in which \VCiS concentrated all the light of this morning, which for the rest Jay fragile, shining shadow. (Lawrence) 4. It's not a very nice thing that you're doing. (Maugham) 5. There is one thing I'm going to ask you to do for me. (Maugham) 6.... in some faroff wood, when dawn was coming she would slip off her old things and put on these, and an early train at a distant station would bear them away on their honeymoon journey ... (Galsworthy) 7. There's one or two things I'd like to know about, of course. (Priestley) 8. "The .best thing you can do, Stanley," said Mr. Smeeth... "is to drop these silly tricks." (Priestley) 9. 1 have lunched, Jack. But coffee would be the very thing, also some brandy. (Galsworthy) II. Point out the words belonging to the synonymic group; state what other synonyms might be applicable in each of these sentences. 1. It was so furtive, the whole business, and I did not want to catch Mrs, Danvers in the wrong. (Du Maurier) 2. "Why was Mr. de Winter up so early?" she asked. "That was Mr. de Winter's business," I said. (Du Maurier) 3. For some women this state of affairs, making comfort and tranquillity impossible, would have had its compensations ... (Priestley) 4. He had arranged matters so that Tolachian would get his lesson - next time, Tolachian would think twice before trying to make a fool of him. (Heym) 5. "Don't interfere with this, Frank," he said, "this is my affair entirely." (Du Maurier) 6. He had kissed me too, a natural business, comforting and quiet. Not dramatic as in books. (Du Maurier) 7. I wash my hands of the whole affair. (Du Maurier) 8. "Why COUldn't he mind his own business?" said Dr. Macphail. (Mallgham) 9. Where did the staircase lead? What was the errand of the little maid? It was no business of his, he kept repeating - no business of his. (Huxley) 10. What business is it of yours ... ? (B. Shaw) 11. You mind your own affairs. (B. Shaw) 12. What would become of the Army if everybody decided to meddle in everybody else's business? (Hey m) 13. It was nothing to do with me ... it was not exactly my affair. (Du Maurier) 14. He had no more of a notion than any of you what the whole affair's about. (Greene) 15. Believe if we knew who Baker was we'd be getting to the bottom of the whole business ... (Du Maurier)
15

III. Comment on the use of business and affair ing sentence.

in the follow-

He looked much too good for Angel Pavement, the name of the street where business is merely business and a rather haphazard and dusty affair at that. (Priestley) IV. Translate into Russian. 1. The thing that should have kept them apart had brought them together. (Galsworthy) 2. He died when he was only seventeen. Isn't it a terrible thing to die so young as that? (Joyce) 3. Things haven't been going too well lately ... (Maugham) 4. Then there were older men, ex-officers many of them, who knew about all kinds of things... (Priestley) 5. Anyhow, there's no good bothering now. The thing's done. (B. Shaw) 6. Have another bottle of beer and I'll try to give you an idea of things. (Greene) 7. He broods over that business, Mother, Only one thing would do him good, and that's to fall in love. (Oalsmorthy) 8. We've no business here. It's their country. (Oreene} 9. Tell him my sister was in business once in Singapore. (Greene) 10. Look here, do you want me to teach you your business? (Maugham) 11. ... Turgis, in the absence of Stanley, went out to discover the caller's business. (Priestley) 12. I'll help you get a start in business. (Dreiser) 13. He probably would be beaten. And then there was the matter of a court-martial. (Hey m) 14. The whole affair, as it turned out, was not worth more than a paragraph, and a humorous paragraph at that. (Greene) 15. "It was a horrible affair all the same," said Mr. Sheridan. (Mansfield) 16. This is nothing, you understand, an affair of no importance compared with what is happening a hundred kilometres away at Hoa Binh. That is a battle. (Greene) 17. "This case will be a matter of form, of course," said the sergeant... (D. Lessing) V. Translate into English using as many synonyms as possible in each case. 1. B 1JeM .lJ,eJIo? 2. 51 .lJ,OJI>KeHnorosopars c BaMI1 no J1.eny. 3. 3a1JeM BbI rOBOpl1Te MHe raxae seura? 4. 3TO sonpoc >K113HI1 M cxepra. 5. 51 He X01JY BMelliMBaTbC5I B 9TO J1.eJIo. 6. Baur COBeT OKa3aJIC51 01JeHb nOJIe3HbIM B 9TOM J1.eJIe. 7. 3TO BOI1POC rpex
J1.Heti.

8. 3TO saxeuareasnue
nexoropue BeCTI1 B a.

ero

JII11JHOe neno.

9. HaIlII1

KOHCTPYKTOPbI C03)J.aIOT

nema. 10. 3TO He saure J1.eJIo. 11. MeH5I cMYJIl.aIOT BellLI1. 12. ITpeacne 1JeM yexart., BbI .lJ,On>KHbI npnI10P5lJ1.0K lI,eJI3. 13. 3TO neao 4eCTJ.f. 14. 3TO ,AeJIO

.lJ,J.f pexrop

16

(2) ANIMAL, beast,

brute

in a synonymic group as denoting quadrupeds. Besides, all these words in their figurative sense may be applicable to man. Brute in current English is most1y used in its figura tive sense. Animal and beast, * when used literally, are applied both to domestic and wild quadrupeds.
1. The horse moved around in small circles. The Rittmeister moved it under a fir. The animal stood still .•• (Aldridge) 2. "Look at that horse." "It is a great beast," the Colonel said. (Aldridge) 3. The dog grew up ... This animal had the face of a clown and the body of a hyena. (Kantor) 4. Then they would crouch under the hurdle again, with the boy gazing into the beast's dark, fond eyes and whispering "Caesar, Caesarl" and gradually lowering his face to the dog's to be licked at last by its warm tongue. (H. Bates) 5. "You're both talking rot," said Margot. "Just because you've chased some helpless animals [buffaloes, lions, etc.] in a motor car you talk like heroes." (Hemingway) 6.... when a man gets up at four o'clock and goes out into a summer morning, and beasts, birds, trees stare at him and he feels as if all had been made new. (Qalsworthy)

Animal, beast, brute can be arranged

applicable to any living thing except a plant. Men, birds, insects, fish and reptiles are all animals. When used figuratively, the word animal often suggests the idea of the physical qual ities dominating over the spiritual nature of a man or a woman. It may be used, though not necessarily, in an ironical or derogatory sense.
it was rather the blind, instinctive sureness of movement of an unhampered young animal that irritated the officer to such a degree. (Lawrence)
It was not that the youth was clumsy:

Animal, apart from the other members of the group, is

Animals used for carrying things, such as, horses, dogs, mules, donkeys, etc. are called 'beasts of burden', whereas animals that kill other animals for food, such, as lions, tigers, wolves, etc. are called 'beasts of prey'.
17

Beast and brute, in reference to people, mean 'being cruel, disgusting.' Of these two brute has a stronger implication of cruelty.
1. Sorry I was such a beast last night, Stella. (aalsworthy) 2. He told her he had been a brute to her... (Cronin) 3. Had any man ever such a cruel moment to go through? Whatever he did, he felt he would be a beast. (aalsworthy) 4. Can't get on with these brutes: they don't seem human. (Oatemorth») 5. Any man that tolerated and blessed the Fascists is a man of no feeling and of cynical mind. Is he a brute? Or am I a brute for killing them? (Aldridge)

Brute, besides, may be used applied to small living creatures.

ironically

when

it

is

He had once taken a bee out of her hair, had stung him. (Galswortby)

and the little brute

When followed by an of-phrase, the word brute implies the idea of cruelty, stupidity, also strength or great size, as, a brute of a man (= a cruel stupid man), a brute of an animal (= a very large and strong animal).
I remember her at sixteen getting up on one of her father's horses, a big brute 0/ an animal too, that the groom said was too hot for her to ride. (Du Maurier) EXERCISES

I. Account for the use of the synonyms in the following sentences referring to the explanations given above.

the key-hole... Backwards and forwards, like an animal in a cage. (Du Maurier) 2. Grown into a jolly little beast... He's too fat though. He needs more exercise. (Du Maurier) 3. Only a man could climb a ladder, and yet I COUldn't think of it as a man like myselfit was as though an animal were moving in to kill, very quietly and certainly, with the remorselessness of another kind of creation. (Greene) 4. Evie's been swearing at me. Such language, my dear. Called me a drunken brute. (Maugham) 5. Oh, curse the money. He's a rich man and you haven't got a bob between you. You are all in it. All of you. You all want to get something out of it. You brutes. You beasts. (Mallgham) 6. You look at groves of entwined trees, and picture the animals that might be lurking there... (D. Lessing) 7. Her neck, shoulders, and arms were slenderly, even
18

1. I watched him too, through

too delicately, fashioned, but she had strong, well-shaped legs; and was indeed the complete attractive young female animal. (Priestley) 8. I'm being rather a brute to you, aren't I? (Du Maurier) II. Discriminate between the literal and the figurative ing of the synonyms in the following sentences. mean-

1. Some of those half-caste Indian fellows are devils, according to his account; no sense of discipline and perfect brutes with animals. (Oalsworthy) 2. "I think he is hunting dog," said Bill, with pride... He waited upon the sniffling little beast with more tender consideration than ever he showed to any customer. (Kantor) 3. Even gentle beasts and birds lived by the law of self-preservation... (Oalsworthy) 4. Not one of you remembered that he'd risked his life for you a hundred times. You brutes. (Maugham) 5. Freda gurgled: "Ouch! You are a beast 1" (Oalsworthy) 6. We'll go to London. I'll show you the world. And I will take care of you, I promise, Megan. I'll never be a brute to you! (Oalstoorthy] 7. Macomber saw three huge black animals looking almost cylindrical in their long heaviness. (Hemingway) 8. She walked towards the light, as any sagacious animal instinctively WOUld, and some water plopped on her soft cheek ... (H. Bates) 9. He [the boy] pushed open the baize door, came up like a small earth animal in his grey flannel shirts ... (Greens)
beast might be used indiscriminately.

III. State in which sentences

the words

animal,

brute

or

a strong, handsome beast. 2. Mowgli was brought up among wild animals. 3. I was rather a brute to you, wasn't I? 4. White Fang's master was a beast; he flogged the wretched animal ruthlessly. 5. Uncle Tom's Cabin deals with the cruel treatment of Negro slaves; their masters were merely brutes. 6. The dog's team moved with difficulty; the exhausted animals struggled through wind and snow. IV. Choose suitable words from place of those which are italicized. the synonymic group in

1. The boy looked at the horse with admiration,

1. Mr. Murdstone was very cruel to his stepson. lion cubs were playing with their mother; the people Zoo were attracted by the graceful movements of the young creatures. 3. The mischievous boys carried away puppy from the mother-dog; the poor little thing

2. The in the lively, a little whined

19

trembling with fear. 4. Pardon me, I was rude and cruel. 5. The fascists committed atrocious crimes during the Great Patriotic War. Those cruel, disgusting men were justly punished.

(3)

APPOINTMENT,

engagement, date

when they mean 'an agreement to meet someone in a particular place at a fixed time'. These words differ stylisticall y. Appointment and engagement are used both in literary and colloquial style. Date in the sense of 'appointment' and 'engagement' is typical of colloquial style. Originated in the USA, date in the above meaning is now used both in America and in England. It is applied to agreed meetings between people in general and to meetings between a man and a woman in particular.
1. I tear I can only give you a short time, tor I have an appointment at eleven. (C. Doyle) 2. I have got an engagement at the Majestic, and I can't manage before nine. (Greene) 3. "Pardon me," said the woman suddenly: "You got a date?" "No, I'm going home after this." (Oalsworthy)

Appointment,

engagement, date come into comparison

Appointment and engagement are used in the collocation to break an appointment (an engagement).
1. I even thought of sitting there throughout the evening and breaking my appointment. (Greene) 2. When he heard that you were going to be here for dinner, I He broke an important engagement to come. (T. S. Eliot)

Appointment is used pointment.

in the collocation

to make an ap-

She made the appointment, and she was to spend the night in the cottage on purpose to see me alone. (Du Maurier)

somebody.

Both appointment and date may be followed by the preposition with, as, to have an appointment (a date) with
1. "Do you mean he's out?" "No, gone. Gone tor good." "ButI don't understand. Are you sure? I had an appointment with him to-night." (Priestley) 2. As he walked silently up the hill 20

towards Winnie's he hoped Doreen with him to-morrow night. .. (Sillitoe)

would

not forget her date

Date may be used in the colloca tion to make some day (hour) a date.
Let's make Wednesday night a date. (Du Maurier)

In spite of their identity both appointment and engagement have their own shades of meaning and may be used in different senses. Appointment is often used in reference to a person who because of his profession or position in life keeps a calendar and fixes his meetings with people who wish to consult him professionally, as, to have an appointment with

a doctor (a dentist, a lawyer a secretary, a manager, director, some state official, etc.).
J

He had (Cronin)

made

an appointment

with

Doctor

Thoroughgood ...

Engagement often suggests the idea of invitation, as, an engagement to play tennis; an engagement for Sunday (tor dinner, for a theatre); a business engagemet; numerous en" gagements for the season (often said of lecturers, actors).
1. Would it flatter you too much if I told you I had put off a previous theatre engagement to come here? (Cronin) 2. "I only wanted to tell you," said she... "Miss Smith won't dine with us to-night." Philip put down the paper. "Oh, what's happened? Previous engagement?" (Mansfield) 3. I've got an engagement as pianist, with a travelling theatrical company. (Lawrence)

Besides the word engagement has the meaning agreemen t between a man and a woman to marry.

of an

This was the occasion of an "at home" to celebrate the engagement of Miss June Forsyte, old Jolyon's granddaughter, to Mr. Philip Bosinney. (Oalsworthy) EXERCISES

I. Account for the use of the synonyms referring planations given above.

to the ex-

see him at the office in the morning? (Du Maurier) 2. "You haven't got any engagement then for this evening?" he said ...
21

1. WOUldn't it be better if you made an appointment to

"We might take a walk." (Lawrence) 3.... before Eliza came, she used to have to find things and remind me of my appointments. (B. Shaw) 4.... this week-end, this arrival at Victoria, had loomed in Miss Matfield's mind like some unusually desperate appointment at the dentist's. (Priestley) 5. "I want to stay here," she said mildly. She has a date, he thought, to meet some man or other. (Sil/itoe) 6. His secretary, Mr. Ferguson, only told me this morning of his appointment with you, (C. Doyle] II. State in which sentences engagement and appointment could be used interchangeably and where only one of them suits. 1. She knows where my things are, and remembers my appointments and so forth. (B. Shaw) 2. No sooner was tea over than Repton remarked that he had an engagement somewhere. (Coppard) 3. As from a distance he remembered that he had two appointments this afternoon at Welbeck Street. (Cronin) 4. They finished their ices and one looked at her watch. "We'd better be going," she said, "to be on the safe side." I wondered idly what appointment they had. (Oreene) 5. She had marked down the engagements as I said she would. (Du Maurier) 6. I saw no reason for such secrecy, but I did as she asked accepting the appointment. (C. Doyle) 7. "What are these pearls doing here?" "You can have them if you like." "Can I really? It'll be an engagement present." (Maughaln) 8. My cousin made a definite appointment in that note ... She deliberately asked me to drive down to Manderley that night ... (Du Maurier) III. State in which sentences the word date might be applicable and what change of meaning the use of it would produce. 1. "Why not Sunday?" He made an evident effort and said, "I have an engagement," (Oalsworthy) 2. "I've got her engagement diary locked in my room," said Mrs. Danvers slowly. (Du Maurier) 3. That, at least, was an engagement he did not wish to miss. (Cronin) IV. State whether engagement or appointment should be filled in the blanks. 1. Then the dead woman had a note upon her making an __ at that very place ... (C. Doyle) 2. No doubt she made an __ with him, and saw him ... (Du Maurier) 3. "You know I've joined the Tawaras permanently as pianist." "No, I didn't know that! ... And you say it is a permanent __ ?" (Lawrence) ..:. Receiving the same day a request for an interview 1 22

from a Press Syndicate whose representative would come down to suit his convenience, Michael made the , and prepared an elaborate exposition of his faith. (Qalsworthy)

v. State in which sentences the word appointment is used in a sense different from that given in the above explanation. Translate these sentences into Russian.
1. And Andrew thought, as at the Committee meeting when he had been given the appointment: "That man is my friend." (Cronin) 2. On the other hand Miss Dunbar, as I understand it, admits that she had made an appointment to meet Mrs Gibson at the Bridge. (C. Doyle) 3. The late Sir Conway ... knighted in 1901 on his appointment to Spain, had been in the diplomatic service. (Qalsworthy) 4. The personality of Hughes was substantially summed up in the fact that he talked eloquently and earnestly through the whole of dinner, but left immediately after to be in time for appointment. (Chesterton) VI. State the blank. which of the synonyms suits best to be filled in

Clarise was a lively, fun-loving, dark-haired girl of twentyone who liked to go out on late __ . (Caldwell) VII. Replace the italicized words and phrases by suitable words belonging to the synonymic group and make other changes where necessary. 1. I have an arrangement to meet the head of the chair on Monday at 5 p. m. 2. The sick man was to consult the doctor after the prescribed course of treatment. 3. The singer had an invitation to take part in numerous concerts during next season. 4. The secretary reminded the manager that he was to meet the scientist from Czechoslovakia.

(4)

CAR.E, concern,

solicitude,

anxiety,

worry

Care, concern, solicitude, anxiety, worry come into comparison when they mean 'a troubled state of mind'. They can be arranged in various grou ps in accordance with their closeness to one another in some shades of meaning, in which they can be used interchangeably. Care, worry mean 'a troubled state of mind which is

* Concern enters into another synonymic group (1).

23

worn with care (worry); life full of cares (worries); (worry) left its marks on her face.

caused by a heavy burden or a sense of responsibility',

care

as,

1. Their children, his writing, her household cares had not quenched all their souls' tender fire. (Joyce) 2. I couldn't worry -- pain took away care. (Greene) 3. But she's efficient, you know, and will take all housekeeping worries off your hands. (Du MGurier)

both stress an uneasy state of mind caused by troubles or doubts.

1. ... and he wandered here and there through the streets, looking at every face he met devoured by a hundred anxieties. (Galsworthy) 2. Often he would join her in a state of worry or irritation and come away soothed and tranquillized. (Cronin)

Anxiety,

worry come close to each other in that they

because they imply a serious interest and thoughtfulness for the well-being of a person who is in a state of trouble on the part of another person, as, to have concern (solicitude) for somebody's fu-

Concern, solicitude are interchangeable

ture; to be filled with concern (solicitude) somebody's illness.

on account of

1. He longed for her to ask, to show some concern as to how he had spent three hours away from her. (Cronin) 2. The face of his nephew, kindly and wrinkled, was gentle with an expression of concern, "... I am sorry if it troubles you." (Galsworthy) 3. There was something fishy about Dondolo's solicitude [for a soldier], something frightening. (Heym)

to somebody's care; to be under somebody's care. Solicitude

The members of this synonymic group, however, differ in some nuances. Care suggests protection, as, to be left
She is delicate ... She needs care. She deserves care. (Greene)

government's

implies a very high degree of interest in and attention to a person's or people's misfortune or well-being; it means 'profound concern', as, the people's welfare is our

chief solicitude.

Something had happened during the interval of waiting. It was not the women, who were all sympathetic smiles and solicitude; ... it was the men. (Priestley)

Anxiety
24

stresses a feeling of fear and uncertainty

caused

by some misgiving or apprehension, as, to [eel anxiety because of the coming storm; to await the doctor's verdict with anxiety.
He opened the letter with some anxiety - somehow or other he had a presentiment of evil. (G. Eliot)

Worry stresses a state of vexation; thus, a person is in a state of worry when he is irritated by people, by difficult problems, situations and the like.
He had always been a happy contented man - no worries, easygoing, amicable. (Cronin)

Besides, worry means as, this child is a worry.

'a cause of anxiety

or trouble',

EX ERCISES I. Account for the use of the synonyms. State which members of the synonymic group, if any, are close in meaning to the italicized words.

1. It was always a day of some anxiety for the French High Command and perhaps of a certain hope for the Caodaists [a political party in South Viet-Nam], for what could more painlessly emphasize their own loyalty [to the French Government] than to have a few important guests shot outside their territory? (Greene) 2. What has been a menace for the Etat Major in Hanoi, a worry for the full colonel in Nam Dinh, to the lieutenant in the field is a joke, a distraction, a mark of interest from the outer world ... (Greene) 3.... he [Bramwell] told Andrew that Emrys Hughes ... had been acting strangely lately, getting into trouble at the mine, losing his memory ... Andrew expressed his concern. (Cronin) 4. Lord! Why am I lecturing you, though? As if we hadn't enough worries of our own. (Cronin) 5. Her anxiety about his beliefs seemed to him comic, but touching. (Galsworthy) 6. Abramovici read the text. Then he screwed up his face. "What a shame that it never will be printed." Bing lit a cigarette to hide his concern. (Heym) 7. I drummed with my fingers on the table, uncertain of myself and of him. Was he still laughing at me, was it all a joke? He looked up, and saw the anxiety on my face. (Du Mallrier) 8. My heart, for all its anxiety and doubt, was light and free. (Du Maurier) 9. And if the trade had been left to his care,
25

it would have rapidly disappeared. (Dreiser] 10. ... I realized with a little stab of anxiety that he must have forgotten all about me. (Du Maurier) 11. Davison was worried, and his anxiety was not decreased when a message was brought him that he was to report to the Orderly Room at four. (Aldington) 12. Concern swept into her eyes, she studied his pale and travel-grimed face with real anxiety. (Cronin) II. Pick out the sentences in which the words care, concern, anxiety are not synonymous with the words forming the group analyzed and have different meanings. Give the Russian equivalents of these words in each case. 1. He undid the catch, shook out the cartridges, and examined it with care. (C. Doyle) 2. It's no concern of mine but he'll tell me. (Priestley) 3. If she was happy, she saw happiness in the faces of others. If she was unhappy, she saw sympathetic concern on the faces of others. (Bennett) 4. What is certain, however, is that this door has no concern with the building next to it and above it. .. (Priestley) 5.... it was always he who inquired with great anxiety about my health ... (Greene) 6. And in my shyness and anxiety to please, those schoolgirl phrases would escape from me again ... (Du Maurier) 7. She met his scrutiny for the first time, fully revealing the vexation and anxiety in her eyes. (Cronin) 8. Everywhere she went she carried her anxiety about with her. (Sean 0' Casey) 9. Davison looked at the Adjutant with bewildered anxiety. (Aldington) 10. Tonight she would leave anxiety and fear and troubling thoughts alone and apart for a while in Jim's arms ... (Sean o 'Casey ) III. What members of the synonymic group might be used in place of the italicized words in accordance with the context? 1. Why am I telling you of those wretched affairs? As if you hadn't enough troubles of your own. 2. She was filled with fear and uncertainty in the face of the forthcoming test. 3. The young man saw deep interest and sympathy in his father's eyes fixed on him. 4. The patients were left under the charge of a trained nurse. 5. The woman opened the telegram with apprehension; she was prepared for the sad news. 6. She was known as a kind woman showing interest and thoughtfulness for her friend's well-being. 7. A letter came informing the mother of her son's recovery; at last she was relieved from fear and suspense. 8. The girl led a comfortable life free from

trouble.
26

IV. Translate

into English.

3a60Ta 0 6y ny uie 1\1 neren; 6ecnoKoticTBO 0 3.l1.0pOBbe orua; iKl13Hb, nOJIHaH 3a60T; 6ecrroKotlcTBo 0 6e30nacHocTH uraxrepos: iKllaTb C 6ecrroKotlcTBoM IlI1CbMa; npOHBJI5ITh npl13HaKH 6ecnoKOHcTBa; H3HypeHHaH 3aOOTaMJi; sariora 0 6JJarOCOCToHHIHI napona.

(5)

CHANCE,

opportunity,

occasion

Chance, opportunity, occasion are comparable when they mean 'a convenient or favourable moment'. Chance and opportunity are very close in meaning and occur in similar collocations, as, this is a good (lucky, odd) chance (opportunity).
1. Even so, it was a lucky chance that he could do it. (Aldridge) 2. Run along and make friends with Mrs. Danvers, it's a good

opportunity.

(Du Maurler)

Both words occur in such phraseological expressions as, to have (give, take) a chance (an opportunity).
you're through. (Maugham) 2. George especially, the elder of the two, ... was both a disappointment and a mystery. George had had opportunities that he himself had never had. (Priestley) 3. He was a drunkard. I gave him a chance to mend his ways, but he wouldn't take it. (Maugham} 4. Nature destined her to be a saint, and it's damned lucky for her that I'm around to give her the opportunity of earning a heavenly crown. (Maugham) 5. You might take a chance ... None of the rest of us can, for one reason or another. (Galsworthy) 6. Pyle was taking no such opportunity as they came round the floor again ... (Greene)

1. You're

young,

you'll

have plenty

of chances before

The words chance and opportunity by an infinitive and a gerund.

may be followed both

1. He did not have a chance to go to the plantation town very often... (Caldwell) 2. I had danced with Phuong just for an opportunity to speak to her. (Greene) 3. Here he stopped long enough to give Mr. Goath a chance of describing the state of the cabinet-making and wholesale, furnishing trades... (Priestley) 4. I'm glad to have the opportunity of talking to you, Doctor.

(Cronin)

27

Occasion, in the above sense, is used not so frequently as the other two synonyms .
... he might be permitted to talk to her, and, in his confusion, the scintillating conversations he had so frequently conducted in his imagination between himself and a bevy of queenly young ladies of the highest society, and which he regarded as a form of rehearsal for an occasion such as which now presented itself, fled from him on the four winds. (Cronin)

Chance and occasion, besides, have some meanings of their own. Chance denotes a happening taking place unexpectedly without any cause that can be seen or understood.
Thus Godbole ... remembered an old woman he had met in Chandrapore days. Chance brought her into his mind ... (Forster)

In this meaning chance forms the collocation by chance (= not on purpose; as it happens).
Suppose Page did, by some chance, resume active practice - how well he would look, fighting the old man for patients. (Cronin)

Chance also implies probability, or possibility, as, a chance of success, a chance of winning, a chance of recovery.
1. And what of the future, her prospects, their chance of happiness together? (Cronin) 2. Let you cross the Park without me, and miss the chance of being arrested for walking with a young female. (Oalsworthy)

In this sense chance forms another collocation: on the chance which is equivalent to in case, in view of the possibility.
One night he went to the theatre on the blind chance that he might see her there, and from the second balcony he did see her. (London)

Occasion implies: 1. A special moment or time when something takes place; preceded by the preposition on it means 'at this (that) time', 'at times'.
1. I seldom remember the occasion of my first meeting with anyone who has subsequently become an associate or friend. (T. S. Eliot) 2. And then I met Celia. I She was different from any girl I'd ever known I And not easy to talk tOI on that occasion. 28

(T. S. Eliot) 3. This was probably the peak of U ncle Sid's glory, the time he would most wish to remember. From then on his tale shows a certain fall- though it still flared up on occasions. (Laurie Lee)

2. A special happening

or event.

1. For Mrs. Brodie the emotional influence of the occasion [the departure of her son to India] had provided a strong stimulus, as though she felt at last able to identify herself in a situation worthy of a leading character in one of her beloved novels. (Cronin) 2. "Your wife has left you?- ... "She left a note to say that she was leaving me; but I don't know where she's gone." "This is an occasion. - (T. S. Eliot) EXERCISES

I. Account for the use of the synonyms referring to the explanations given above. Translate the sentences into Russian. l. Once he had the odd chance to pick up a playing-card, which he tore in pieces. {Coppard} 2. He felt foolish, chafed at his lack of opportunity, longed for whirlwind and tempest. (Cronin) 3.... she was afraid she would not get a chance to spend a single penny of it herself. (Caldwell) 4. Though he did not expect Christine until the morning, there was just the chance that she might already have arrived. (Cronin) 5. "Do you think we'll find buffalo tomorrow?" "There's a good chance of it. They feed out early in the morning and with luck we may catch them in the open." (Hemingway) 6. It wasn't a formal occasion, this: Tony clung to the thought. There was a court case, to come yet, which would be properly conducted. (D. Lessing) 7.... what is more formal than a family dinner? I An official occasion of uncomfortable people I Who meet very seldom, making conversation. (T. S. Eliot) 8. To Mamma he said, "I'll be back when you see mel" This was his valediction on such rare occasions as he chose to bid his wife farewell. .. (Cronin) 9. It was as though she still had something to say to me, and could not decide upon the words, yet waited there for me to give her opportunity. (Du Maurier) 10. Jon had opportunities of appreciating what few sons can appreheud - the whole-heartedness of a mother's love. (Oalsworthy) 1l. How good of you to ring. You weren't by any chance thinking of coming to see me? (Lindsay) 12 .... it was as if they were only just in time for a train, they hadn't a chance of saying good-bye ... (Greene) 13. However willing you might 29

be to do your bit and to take your chance with the rest, flesh and blood revolted from so chill and formal a holocaust. (Aldington] 14. "... would you speak to him?" I would have refused, but he ga've me no chance, and before I could put down the receiver I heard Frank's voice. (Du Mauriel) 15.... there were some remarkable particulars in which this assembly of 1295 differed widely from the present Parliament at St. Stephen's. Some of these differencies, such as those which sprang from the increased powers and changed relations of the different orders [social classes] among themselves, we shall have occasion to consider at a later time. (Green) II. Which of the synonyms in the following sentences?
(opportunity, occasion) is used

l. He was a temperate man who touched alcohol only rarely ... , but this __ demanded to be marked in the true family tradition. (Cronin) 2. In the end, deciding that he would find better __ for work on the lakes, he had started for Buffalo. (London) 3. And on several __ , when somebody was coming whom I particularly wanted you to meet, you didn't arrive until just they were leaving. (T. S. Eliot) 4.... there were a dozen narrow fronts, and between the canals, among the farm buildings and the paddy fields, innumerable __ for ambush. (Greene) 5. This is a very particular __ I As you ought to know. It will be the first time I For eight years that we have all been together. (T. S. Eliot) 6. "Mary, Mary, don't dare answer your father back!" ... came Mamma's voice from the other end of the table. But although its purpose was to propitiate her, interjection was on this __ a tactical error ... (Cronin) 7. Her method of attack was so downright and sudden that there was seldom _ to escape. (Du Maurier) 8. "May I offer you some gin and water?" - "No, thank you. This is a different __ ." (T. S. Eliot) III. Point out in which sentences chance is synonymous with opportunity; in which it is used in the sense of probability, and where it means 'a happening'. 1. Snatching at the chance, we poured out, talking tumultuously and joining the boys from the other classes... (Lindsay) 2. Many years ago he had lost a great friend, a woman, who believed in the Christian heaven and assured him that after the changes and chances of this mortal life they would meet in it. (Forster) 3. "Well, now you have another chance," Rogov said. "Disarm your soldiers." (Aldridge) 4. There was a
30

mighty chance that she would have misbehaved about it... (Caldwell) 5. I'd go back to-morrow if I had the chance. (Greene) 6. You haven't got much chance of marrying in a place like this. (Maughaln) 7. And the chances are that it'll go on like this till we're all weary old women. (Maugham) 8. Never mind! You'll have other chances. (Du Maurier) 9. I envied the most homesick officer condemned to the chance of death. (Oreene) 10. There won't be a chance before dinner. I've got some letters that I must go. (Oals-worthy) 11. I never had another chance. And now ... now. Oh, I'm so unhappy. (Maugham) 12. There was the more reason why they should go because there seemed to be no reasonable chance of not going.
(Oalswortlzy )

(6)

CORNER, angle

Corner, angle come into comparison as meaning 'the space where two lines or surfaces meet'. These words have different spheres of application. Corner means 'the space enclosed by two walls or sides', as, the corner of a house (a room, a table, a box, a street, a road, a handkerchief, etc.): also, the corner of an eye (a mouth). Depending on the context, the word corner may be preceded by different prepositions, thus we say: round the corner; in the corner; into the corner; at the corner (Amer.Engl. on the corner).
1. He was already around the corner of the lane and being led down the main road. (Aldridge) 2.... he [the policeman] led him round the corner, up the stone stairs into the little bare overheated room where Justice waited. (Greene) 3. I sat down in the corner of the lounge behind a pillar ... (Du Maurier) 4. Wolfe lay there, opening his eyes experimentally. They registered deep orange and brown and burned at the tops of the eyeballs and in the corners until he closed them again. (Aldridge)

Angle means 'the shape or space formed by two straight lines or surfaces that meet'. It is preceded by the prepositions [rom, at, as, from various angles; at a right angle.
1. From here a county road goes at right angles towards the west ... (Steinbeck) 2. At the angle of the side gable and the front wall ... was a short round tower. .. (Cronin)
31

cially, in geometry and in sciences connected with niques, as, an acute angle; an obtuse angle; a right angle. As a rule, corner, and angle are not interchangeable. However, the following example shows that this thing is possible.
I could see the window in an angle blowing softly. (Du Maurter) of the passage, the curtain

Angle, besides, is used as a term in mathematics,

espetech-

Both these words may be used literally and figuratively. Corner in the collocation turn the corner literally means 'to go round the corner into another street'; figuratively it denotes 'to pass safely from a crisis in illness, or from a dangerous situation'. The collocation to drive a person into a corner figuratively means 'to put a person into a difficult position'. Angle figuratively means 'a point of view' .
EXERCISES

I. Which of the words (corner, angle) should be used in the following sentences?

of Italian Road. (Cronin) 2.... and persons entering find in the __ to their right two tall file cabinets at right __ to one another against the walls. (B. Shaw) 3.... the Baron took three lumps of sugar, putting two in his cup and wrapping up the third in a __ of his pocket handkerchief. (Mansfield) 4.... he came back to the street, called a Negro who was standing with several other Negroes on the __ , and handed him the reins. (Caldwell) 5. I kept glancing at the files of kopjes which, seen from a different __ , seemed to change with every step... (Sommerfield) 6. Look at the __ she [the ship] is lying at. It's much shallower here than I thought. (Du Maurier) 7. And now while Frederick sat silent in one __ of the speeding car, she sat silent in the other... (Bennett) 8. What very nice attics! I think the many __ which the rood makes, the different slants, you know, are so attractive. (Lawrence) 9. I should just like to take a taxi to the __ of Tottenham Court Road (B. Shaw) 10. From the far __ of the seat Margaret Macomber looked at the two of them. (Hemingway) 11. The brick basement of the mill was unaltered, but its upper structure, of massive wood, began to show __ and curves where there had been only straight lines. (Bennett)
32

1. ... he almost bumped into Mrs. Bramwell at the __

12. Some of them were scrambling down the cliff face to get a closer view of the stranded ship. She lay at an awkward __ , her stern tilted. (Du Maurier) 13. In the __ of my tent is the rifle I carried at the siege of Kobbo ... (R. Fox) 14.... he went into a __ by the bar to write his telegram. (areene) 15. Baines put his head back and tilted his dark respectable man-servant's hat to a better __ as the bus swerved round the artillery memorial. (Greene) 16. She was looking at the farm from outside as a machine for making money: that was how she regarded it. She was critical entirely from this __ . (D. Lessing) II. Discriminate between the literal and the figurative meaning of corner and angle in the following sentences. Give the Russian equivalent in each case. 1. The peer was moving from one hedge to the other in the corner of the field to which he had been assigned. (Galsworthy) 2. He owned, when driven into a corner, that he seemed to have been wrong about the crew, and that all had behaved fairly well. (Stevenson) 3.... She sent the iron flying into' a far corner with a vicious swing. .. (Sean o 'Casey) 4.... he was inching himself up from his slumped position, helped by the nose-down angle of the plane. (Aldridge) 5. New angles of criticism, arguments that had never before been uttered by an educated voice ... all this created a curious and double excitement. (Chesterton) 6. In the terraces behind dubious girls leant against the railings, and a street band blew harshly round a corner. (Greene) 7.... then we turned away ... towards the Black River, really black, full of shadows, missing the angle of the light. .. (Greene) III. Render in English the following word combinations:

yroa; non
meanue

Ilozt

npHMbIM yr )10M yrOJIKH

yr JIOM;

45°; aa yr JIy YJIHUbI I'epueaa 11 Heacxoro: ry6; non pa3JIHQHbIM yrJIOM 3peHHH.

aa

yr JIOM;

B yr JIy

CTOJIOBOtl;

ocrpun
ony-

(7)

EDGE, border,

rim, brim, brink, verge

Edge, border, rim, brim, brink, verge come into comparison as meaning 'the line or some narrow space which marks a limit of a thing'.
33

Some members of this synonymic group may occur in similar collocations, such as, the edge (border) of a wood

(a field); the edge (border, rim) of a lake; the edge (verge) of a road (a chair).

1. He stopped the car, and I could see that the edge of the road bordered a vertical slope... (Dti Maurier) 2. Once or twice he found himself nodding and had to pull himself awake and swerve the car from the verge of the road. (Macken) 3. His publisher moved forward on to the edge of his chair. (Galsmorthy) 4. Jule, who had wriggled on to the very verge of his chair, said ...

(Galsworthy)

Mark that the word verge in the above collocations is used in literary style. The members of this group, though identical in meaning, are mostly different in usage. Edge is used to denote: 1. The extreme end of some space or the surface of something, as) the edge of a sofa (a bed, a table; a book;

a street, a city; the sky; a stream; a precipice).

1. She sat down

on the edge of the table, swinging her legs, watching me. (Dti Maurter) 2. He sat down on the edge of the sofa. .. (Du Maurier) 3. J welei [a district] was on the edge of the city. (Maugham)

2. The sharp side of a cutting instrument or a tool, as, the edge of a knife (a carver, a blade); the sharp teeth on the edge of a saw.
Gabriel took his seat boldly at the head of the table and, having looked to the edge of the carver, plunged his fork firmly into the goose. (Joyce)

Border is used to denote a narrow strip which forms the edge of something, as, a border of a handkerchief (a dress, a table-cloth, etc.): also, a border of flowers.
Miss Forrester ... examining the carnations in the border below the sitting-room window, made Mrs. Hathaway quite an eloquent speech ... (Greene)

Border,

besides, means 'the frontier

of a country'.
border

It will show you a piece of country up near the Chinese you will not have seen before. (Greene)
34

Rim is usually applied to things which have a circular or curving edge, as: the rim of the moon (the sun, a bucket or pail, a pan, a wheel, a glass, a cup, spectacles); to have rims to one's eyes.
cleared the Juan Chicoy stood up from the ground... blue eyes goggled contentedly over the (Cronin) 3. I thought ... what a contrast I ed and swollen face and red rims to my

1. When the rim of the sun

to the east, (Steinbeck) 2. His pale rim of his milk mug. must make with blotcheyes. (Du Maurier)

mountains

the cup filled to the brim. Brim, besides, means 'the projecting

the edge of a vessel or a hollow; it is mostly used in the collocation full (filled) to the brim, as, part of a hat'.
shabby hat, too

Brim denotes

I can remember as though I wore it still ... my broad about the brim ... (Du Maurier)

Brink denotes the edge of something steep; as, the brink of a precipice (a high bank of the river).
I hesitated a moment, like a driver nerve ... (Du Maurier) on the brink,

then lost my

some misfortune

When used figuratively, brink means 'the extreme limit' as, on the brink of breakdown (ruin),· on the brink of

(disaster).

1. He was ... a man whom my own professional eye would judge to be on the brink of an absolute nervous breakdown. (C. Doyle) 2. '" he realised that, by going out with a single girl he may one day - unwittingly and of course disastrously - find himself on the dizzy and undesired brink of the hell that older men called marriage ... (Sillitoe)

Verge is mostly used figuratively. Like brink, it denotes the extreme limit, as, on the verge of breakdown (ruin.] .
... he had been on the

verge

of a

breakdown

last

year.

(Du

Maurier)

Verge also occurs in some other collocations, such as, on the verge of seventy,· on the verge of death (suicide, bereavement); on the verge of experience, etc .
... relatives on the verge of bereavement stubbed iron stanchions and piles of luggage. (Cronin) their toes over

* Here on the brink means 'on the brink of a precipice'.

35

EXERCISES I. Account for the use of the synonyms explanations given above.

referring

to the

1. The next moment he had come out into the daylight at the top of a steep bank, at the bottom of which a path ran round the rim of a large ornamental lake. (Chesterton) 2. By the evening they were at the Norwegian border. (Aldridge) 3. On the brink of disaster she pulled herself up ... (D. Lessing) 4. I seemed always on the verge of some wonderful experience and then it never happened. (T. S. Eliot) 5. In the bedroom she dug out a close-fitting black felt hat ... she pushed her hair up inside the hat and angled the brim rakishly. (Steinbeck) 6. I watched him over the rim of my glass. (Du Maurier) 7. "What is the matter?" "Apoplexy. Nervous shock. He's been on the verge all day. I doubt if we shall find him alive." (C. Doyle) 8. There was a tree on the edge of the lawn he could smell from his bedroom window. (Du Maurier] 9. They picked up their pans and began to eat again, scraping with their chopsticks, eyes watching Pyle and me over the rim of the pan. (Greene) 10. Johnny had decided that his father should have an epitaph; so he cut up a piece of a cardboard box, gave it a border of black ink, composed a verse and tacked the card to the cross with some little nails. (Coppard) 11. ... she may have been rather surprised if you sat on the extreme edge of the chair and answered "Yes" and "No" like someone after a new job... (Du Maurier) 12. She was now upon its brink before she understood that it was the Leven [river] ... , but as she stood terrified, listening upon the high exposed bank, for an instant, in her fearful extremity, she was tempted to let herself slide into these invisible booming waters below, to forget and be forgotten. (Cronin) H. Translate the italicized word combinations.

1. ... he wore a little darkish moustache cut just to the edge of his lips, which were thin and sensitive.. . (Galsworthy) 2. ... Lady Crowan, balancing a piece of cake on the edge of her saucer, looked up at Maxim. .. (Du Mallrier) 3. Jasper [the dog] came trotting in from the halL.. He came fussing up to me, biting the edge of my skirt. (Du Maurier] 4. Francis Macomber had, half an hour before, been carried to his tent from the edge of the camp in triumph ...
36

(He m ingway ) 5.... the mountains ranged across the pale edge of the morning shy. (Lawrence) 6. She lurched against the side of the perambulator and then fell over the edge of a bottomless precipice: at which she was consider ably surprised. (H. Bates) 7. She had been watching me then as I stood at the edge of the woods ... (Du Ivlaurler] 8. He went to the edge of the stream and looking down at the little pool, thought: "Youth and spring! What has become of them all, I wonder?" (Gals worthy ) 9. I could hear a Senegalese sentry on the river's edge shift his stance. (Greene) 10. I bent down to Jasper, putting my hand on his collar, and looked round the edge of the door. (Du Maurier] 11. Then he sat down on a red blanketed edge of the bed ... (Cronin) 12.... there were only two living beings in all that length besides myselftwo soldiers with camouflaged helmets going slowly away up the edge of the street, their sten guns at the ready. (Greene) 13. Footsteps could be heard, coming down to the edge of the field. (Greene) 14. I hesitated at the edge of the lawn. (Du Maurier] 15. Still not seeing her he ran along the edge of the water calling her as loudly as he could. (Cald·well) 16. Mr. Lammond stood where sand and shingle met, between the bathing-hut and the small figure approaching the sea's edge. (Bennett) III. Point out in which sentences the other words of the synonymic group might be applicable and where only one suits. 1. The path led out of the trees. On the edge of the wood he pulled up and stood watching. (Lawrence). 2. When he got me there, he lowered me flat in the shallow mud below the bank of the edge of the field. (Greene) 3. Arthur knelt down and bent over the sheer edge of the precipice. (Voynich) 4. He didn't even see the chair in his way and he stumbled and laid his hand on the edge of my table. (Greene) 5. Jule took off his hat and held the brim like a fan to the side of his head. (Caldwell) 6. The cocoanut trees, thick and green, came nearly to the water's edge. (Mallgham) 7. He knew that he was on the verge of a great, a colossal breakdown. (Cronin) 8. Like the wind Hadjir-Hala rode to the borders of his great homeland and saw ... that his country was the prey of the birds and gazelles. (R. Fox) 9. I cut the page right out of the book. I left no jagged edges and the book looked white and clean when the page was gone, (Du Maurier) 10.... here was he on the brink of ruin ... (Cronin)
37

IV. Translate into Russian the italicized parts of the sentences. Note the different ways of rendering the figurative meaning of 'Verge. 1.... he was a thick-set, burly man with a shock of griz-

zled hair, a brown, weather-beaten face, and blue eyes which were keen to the verge of fierceness. (C. Doyle) 2. He was a big man, as tall as me, on the verge of forty. (1. Braine) 3.... her progress was impeded by the traffic of a town all the verge of national holiday. (Galsmorthy] 4. He had been educated at Harrow and Christ Church, he enjoyed hunting and all other fields of sports, and, though his circumstances were comfortable to the verge of affluence, his pleasures were temperate and innocent. (Huxley) 5. He paused, open-mouthed, on the verge of the pit of his own depravity and utter worthlessness to breathe the same air with her. (London) 6. Soames paused all the verge of a whistle. (Galstoorihy] 7. Dinny, when she left those two on the verge of acquaintanceship, had paused ... (Qalsworthy)
V. Insert the proper word in the blanks. Mind that in some instances different synonyms might be applicable in one sentence.

1. The man sat down, drew the lamp to the __ of the table and began to read. 2. The hunter's attention was suddenly attracted by a wild goat grazing on the __ of the field. 3. The deer pursued by dogs stopped short at the __ of a precipice. 4. The boy cut his finger with the fine __ of the knife. 5. The rainbow crossed the sky from __ to __ . 6. The bright __ of the full moon was obscured by a passing cloud. 7. The girl walked about the room tearing at the __ of the handkerchief nervously. 8. The sick man sat up on the __ of the bed. 9. It was growing quite dark when the tourists at last reached the __ of the wood. 10. The professor wore glasses with bright gilt __ . 11. The woman was on the __ of dying; the operation on the heart brought her to life.
VI. Traslate into English.

1. liOMI1K JIeCHI1KaCT05IJIua onyunce neca. 2. Kpas r lIy60xor o KOJIO.lI.UabIJII1 BbIJIO)l{eHbIKaMHeM.3. KOTeHoK, CI1.lI.Ha 6 n KpaIO cxaaenxa, BHI1MaTeJIbHOCJIe.lI.I1JI a aeraromen nrauett. s 4. lieBOqKa cxyuteaao CMOTpeJIa ua He3HaKOMua 113-flO.lI. umpoKI1Xnoaea IllJI5IflbI. 5. PbI6aKI1, yneceaasre B Mope, 6bIJII1 na KpaIO rI16eJII1, HO I1X nonoripaao cnacareasuoe cyzmo. 6. JIa6opaHT HaflOJIHI1JI p06I1pKY no xpaen 3eJIeHOBaTOtf)f{I1.lI.KOCTblO n H ua-ran ee Me.n;JIeHHO narpesars.

38

(8)

EXPERIENCE,

experiment

are compared as words meaning 'a practical way of finding out some facts which are not obvious'. These words have different spheres of application but are apt to be confused. Experience implies 'knowledge gained by observing or doing things' or 'the process of gaining such knowledge within the period of one's life', as, to speak from expean individual way of finding group of people, as, his (their)

Experience,

experiment

rience; to learn by experience. The word experience is applied

when speaking both of out facts and of that of a

people's experience in wartime.

experience

in teaching;

1. The experience of his long life had taught him that blindalley situations mostly solve themselves, somehow. (Heym) 2. Well, Doctor Manson, the Committee has experience of testimonials, and these two refer to your good self in such genuine terms that the Committee has been much impressed. (Cronin)

besides, means 'something that a person has undergone or enjoyed as a result of his activity', as,

Experience,

to have a pleasant (unpleasant, rience.

interesting,

unusual)

expe-

1. I have had such a dreadful experience with a taximan; he was most sinister. (Mansfield) 2.... He saw by his wife's open mouth and pale face that she was enjoying an alarming experience. (Maugham)

implies 'a process of gaining knowledge by subjecting things, living or inanimate, to a test'. The word experiment is used when one speaks of a process of finding out a general truth or a scientific law, of proving or disproving a theory or hypothesis, as, an experiment in chemistry (physics, biology, teaching, etc.).
is to put herself in your hands for six months for an experiment in teaching, she must understand thoroughly what she's doing. (B. Shaw) 2. I only wanted to do a few simple experiments to tie up with my clinical work. (Cronin)
1. If the girl

Experiment

39

EXERCISES

I. Account for the use of the synonyms referring explanations given above.

to the

1. It was the most marvellous experience to see her face stripped of that frozen blankness, tender, happy, solicitous of him. (Cronin) 2. He smiled when Andrew related experience with the sewer in the typhoid epidemic at Blaenelly. (Cronin) 3.... they were eating their ice-cream with concentration as though they were making an experimeni in the college laboratory. (Greene) 4. I've had a lot of experience and I'm afraid what you say wouldn't do. (Chesterton) 5. "You haven't the experience," she continued, "you don't know that milieu." (Du Maurier) 6. I'll bet you all the expenses of the experiments. (B. Shaw) 7. Crerar, too, really wanted to believe in what Bing had said, but his experience denied it and depressed him. (Heym) 8. But would a man publish such a thing about his own experience? (Galsworthy) 9. "The Leopard" was indeed founded on his personal experience. (Galsworthy) 10. There's special mass - you'll find it quite an experience. (Greene) II. State whether experiment or experience should be used in the blanks. 1. I'm a great traveller. I'd rather travel than anything. You get -that way. (Steinbeck) 2. She never really learned a great deal about him; he would talk about old __ he had had by the hour, but he remained mysterious. (Priestley) 3. You have such an awful lot of __ , Thomas. (Greene) 4. . .. it's the most absorbing __ I ever tackled. (B. Shaw) 5. The following narrative is drawn from my own __ . (C. Doyle) 6. E the 1: Even a marriage that isn't quite satisfactory is better than not being married at all. L 0 i s: Is that your __ ? (Mallgham) 7. On the day of Professor Fox's party, Erik awoke with a feeling of sharp anticipation, as though the afternoon promised a crucial __ . (M. Wilson) 8. And the equipment required for his __ was simple. (Cronin) 9. She was a housewife of __ . (Priestley) 10. He had to be as unlike Goath as possible in character, but not unlike him in __ . (Priest-

ley)
III. Translate into English. 1. A. C. Ilorron .ueMoHcTpHpOBaJI nepaua OnbIT 6eCnpOBOJIOQHoti nepenasa Cl1fHaJIOB aa paCCT05IHI1I1 B 1895 r-ony. 2. OnbITbI c JKllBOTHbIMI1ualOT spauax B03MOJKHOCTb 13YQaTbMHOfl1e 60JIe3HI1. . 1 40

zryto )I{I13Hbrpocrsrx nIOJleti B AMepHKe. 4. Maxapemco JlOCTHr ran npexpacnux pesyasraroa B BocnHTaHHHJleTeti 6naroJlap5I CBOHM 3HaHH5IM, onsrry H HacTotfllHBOCTH. (9) FAULT, guilt deed', 'an offence'. These words differ in the shades of meaning. Fault implies 'a slight offence', 'negligence', 'a neglect of duty or propriety resulting from inattention or lack of prudence rather than from intention to offend'·
1. It's all my fault, I ought to have seen. I ought to have known. (Du Maurier) 2. "If she thinks I'm going in after her without being asked, she's a bit wrong," sai d Frederick firmly to himself. "It isn't my fault her mother's ill." (Bennett)

3. n)KeK J10HJlOHsnan no csoexy co6cTBeHHoMYOnbITYT5I)Ke-

Fault, guilt come into comparison

as meaning

'a mis-

senses retains its original of a crime or sin; hence it refers to misdeeds of c~aracter than fault from the ethical and social View. Guilt usually deserves severe punishment, such imprisonment or death.

Guilt in its current

meaning a graver points of as a fine,

1. ... they believe in the conscience, the sense of guilt; a criminal should be confronted with his crime, for he may break down and betray himself. (Greene) 2. She nodded, feeling guilty. Then she smothered her guilt, thinking, "It's his fault. .. " (D. Les-

sing)

In contrast to the word guilt, fault has some other meanings which imply something that is bad or imperfect. Thus fault means: 1. 'Defect' .
... the generation which is have had its faults ... (Joyce) now on the wane among us may

2. 'Mistake'.
"It's largely the fault of history," Day said. (Aldridge)

The word fault is a component of various collocations: to find fault with somebody (== to find cause for complaining about, grumbling at or criticizing); the fault lies with
41

me (= it's me who have done the wrong thing); everything is a fault with you (= you are hard to please).
Everything was a fault with him. If a man were a bit late in the morning, after an evening at the club, or if there happened to be a day taken off work ... he was simply unbearable. (Cronin) Not e. Besides fault and guilt, the noun blame may be regarded as another English equivalent of the Russian word BHHa. Thus, such collocations as, HeCTH BHHy, npHHHMaTb BHHy na ceris, nepeaoiKHTb BHHy aa KOrO-JI., BHHa nanaer na xoro-a., 06BHHHTb KOrO-JI., KIO BHHoBar?, OH BHHOBar are rendered in English respectively as follows: to bear the blame, to take the blame on oneself, to shift the blame on smb, the blame falls on smb, to lay the blame on smb, who is to blamer, he is to blame. 1. ... the entire blame for it all would fall on her and Constantia. (Mansfield) 2. If anything had gone wrong, I would have had to take the blame. (Heym) 3. "If I make mistakes in spelling, Molly dear," says he, "remember that the pen is bad, don't lay the blame on me!" ('Fipperary', an English song) EX ERCISES

I. Account for the use of the explanations given above. Translate

synonyms referring to the the sentences into Russian.

1. Roger always found a fault that made the house unsuitable. (Maugham) 2. We are fighting all of your wars, but you leave us the guilt. (Greene) 3. This wretched girl's smashed everything and ruined the dinner and now she's going off into a fit... And it's all her own fault. (Priestley) 4. My fault, I expect, I oughtn't to have told her to come. (Priestley) II. State whether fault or guilt should be used in the blanks. 1. This false start has been all my own __ . (Forster) 2. They would not throw stones and stick at a dog without a sense of __ . (D. Lessing) 3.... the way they were together now was no one person's __ . (Hemingway) 4. I had been unjust to him in that, and so I had added a sense of __ to my other more formal obligation. And then I suppose there was also the __ of my letter. (Greene) 5. But he was still speechless, struck dumb by the realisation of fearful __ . (H. Bates) 6. «No! No!" she cried, "it's all my __ , Denis. I should never have come. I disobeyed my father." (Cronin) 7. Undressing himself beyond the curtain he felt again a bitter pang of . (D. Les-

sing)
42

III. State in which sentences the word fault implies 'negligence' or 'offence', and in which it implies 'defect'. is my fault ... my fault entirely. I ought to have told you. (Priestley) 2. It's all the fault, ... of these absurd class distinctions. (Mansfield) 3. And it wasn't my fault that half her beastly dinner had been dropped outside the door ... (Priestley) 4. "I shall always blame myself for the accident," she said, "it was my fault for being out that evening." (Du Maurier) 5. I could not forget the white, lost look in Maxim's eyes... It was all my fault ... (Du Maurier) 6. "You don't look welL .. What's wrong with you P" "Nothing," I said humbly, knowing the fault of my face too well. (Du Maurier)
1. Now this

IV. Paraphrase the italicized Make necessary changes.

1. "I'm

words using the word blame.

sorry I was such a time, it was Jasper's fault," I said, "he kept barking at the man." (Du Maurier) 2. "It was all Emmy's fault," he protested with a quaver which reminded Baines that after all he was only a child. (Greene) 3. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Baines." "It's not your fault, Phil. Why, I could believe it wasn't you at all, but her." (Greene) 4. And he was capable of coming home of an evening and omitting to ask after her [his child]. Was it his fault? He could not pretend. (Bennett) V. Fill in the blanks with appropriate
1. The door was left open and the dog

synonyms.

ran away. Whose __ is it? 2. The government of West Germany bears __ for the provocations on the border. 3. Don't lay __ on me, the wrong is not of my doing. 4.. The young man was conscious of his __ and lost his peace of mind. 5. It is not my __ that the letter has not yet been typed. VI. Translate into Russian.

1. He M051 BI1Ha, sro 51 on03)I.aJIa. 2. OH B351JIBCIO BI1Hy aa ce651, llT06hI asrpyuars cnoero roaapatua. 3. Ero )I.OJIro Mylll1JIO C03HaHI1e caoen BI1HbI, 11 B KOHue KOHUOB OH cax 3a5lBI1JI, xro coaepumn npecrynaeaae. 4. BI1Ha sa OTCTaJIOCTb acpPI1KaHCKI1X crpan ueJII1KOM rranaer aa KOJIOHI13aTopoB. 5. BI1Ha sa OTT5I)I{KY pa30pY)l{eHI151 JIe)l{l1T ua rrpaBI1TeJIbCTBaX HMnepl1aJII1CTHlleCKHX ziepacaa. 43

(10) LOOK, glance, view, sight, glimpse Look, glance, view, sight, glimpse may be arranged in a synonymic group as words which imply seeing or being seen. All these words, however, have their own shades of meaning, a different sphere of application and some pec.uliari ties in usage. Look and glance are closer in meaning to each other than to the other members of the group. Both words denote an act of seeing.
1. ... never once, with a phrase or look, had he encroached on my private life. (Greene) 2. Mary sat motionless, her glance fixed upon her plate, a curious pallor around her lips ... (Cronin)

Look can imply an act of seeing which may be both lasting or not lasting. Thus, it is possible to say a quick (sudden, short, long) look.
1. She gave me a quick look over the needle and registered her mistake. (Greene) 2. The fuzzy-haired girl gave them a long look. (Lindsay)

Glance also denotes a quick and sudden act of seeing, but in contrast to look, it cannot be lasting.
Miss Verever and Major Trape exchanged glances ... (Priestley)

These words occur in a number of phraseological expressions, as, to have (cast, take, steal, throw, shoot) a look (glance) at somebody or something; to give a look (glance); at (in) a glance.
1. Stealing a look round, she saw him stroll, immaculate and heavy - back towards his club. (Galsworthy) 2. Essex sat with his back to the warm tiles of the stove and he took a good look at Mac Gregor. (Aldridge) 3.... stealing a glance at him I was reminded more than ever of my Gentleman Unknown... (Du Maurier) 4. He took a glance at the speaker. He was broad and about five feet six... (Galsworthy) 5. He gave Roland and Francis a frosty look... (Lindsay) 6. I saw at a glance that the last two months had been very trying ones for him. (C. Doyle)

Look, apart from glance, is used in the sense of appearance .

... he liked this early morning smell of the dew, the crushed bracken and the look of the tree trunks showing black through the early morning mist. .. (Hemingway)
44

V iew and sight come into comparison when they mean something seen, a spectacle, a scene; as, the view (sight) of a city. In this sense view suggests an idea of an unlim-

ited range of vision, implying a series of scenes and pictures, a panorama; as, the view of the coast line (a river, a mountain range, etc.). Sight in the same meaning refers to objects observed within a certain limit, as, the sight of a person (a monument, a ship, etc.).
1. The little side porch which ornamented its south wall commanded a charming view 01 the river... (Dreiser) 2. How did it alter anything - this sight of her? (Galsworthy)

Both view and sight in the above sense are not necessarily followed by an of-phrase.
1. ... the tide was coming in. I came up beside the big boulder that had hidden the view, and looked beyond it. (Dti Maurier) 2. Ashurst could see her face, angry, disturbed ... And painfully affected by that sight, he jumped up. (Oa[sworthy)

expressions. View is used in the expression in (jull] view (of); into ole», as, the old man came in (full) view of us (= he came where he could see us or we could see him); it came into view (= it appeared).
The Vichy fire searched for the small in their full view. (Aldridge) Frenchman who was now

V iew and sight are used in a number of phraseological

Sight is used in the expressions} such as: in (into) sight (of) (= able to see or to be seen); out of sight (= not to be seen); at the sight of (= on seeing); at first sight (= when first seen) to catch (get) sight of (=to succeed in seeing); to lose sight of (== to see no longer).
1. At the sight of him Laura remembered the accident again. (Mansfield) 2. But unfortunately she died a couple of years later, and then I lost sight of Joe altogether. (Jerome K. Jerome)
3. When he looked outside into the road, there was not a Negro in sight. (Caldwell) 4. "No, no lilac, [hate lilac. Yes. It's got no shape." The attendant bowed and put the lilac out of sight, as though this was only too true, lilac was dreadfully shapeless! (Mansfield) 5. Ashurst gave him the arm, and as he did so caught sight of Stella's face, wet and flushed and tearful, all broken up out of its calm... (Qalsworthy) 45

seeing' .

Sight, apart from view, means 'the power or faculty of

Loss of sight is probably the greatest obstacle to a normal existence. One device described in these pages was designed to enable a blind person to read ordinary printed material. (Elec-

tronics)

opinion' .

View,

apart

from sight,

implies 'mental

vision',

'an

In your view a mistake

has been made in this case? {Galsmorthy}

Glimpse implies 'a momentary view of a person or thing'.

There was a glimpse of Edna, all dressed up, very the nose, very red about the lips. (Priestley) white about

Glimpse occurs in the following phraseological expressions: to have (get, catch, give) a glimpse of somebodu or something; at a glimpse.
figure ... the pitiable fatuous fellow he had caught a glimpse oj in the mirror. (Joyce) 2. These letters had given him another glimpse of the dark gulf. (Priest1. He saw himself as a ludicrous

ley)

with two members of this synonymic group only in some phraseological expressions: at a glimpse is synonymous with at (in) a glance; to catch (get) a glimpse of (=to succeed in seeing for a moment) is to a certain extent close in meaning to the expression to catch (get) sight of.
EXERCISES

Glimpse comes into comparison

I. Account for the use of the synonyms referring to the explanations given above. 1. Lena herself shot a furious glance at both her father and Mr. Pearson, but did not cast a single look in Mrs. Dersingham's direction... (Priestley) 2. A glance sufficed to show him the position of the secret door. (Huxley) 3. Once or twice he felt Christine's eye upon him, half-pleading for a sign, a look of understanding. (Cronin) 4 there was something of scorn in the glance she gave him (Du Maurter) 5. She shoved him away from her, but not before he caught a glimpse of her moist eyes. (London) 6. Just for a moment she had another glimpse of that poor woman and these little children. .. (Malls46

field) 7. Is it important? I'd like to go and have a look. (Greene) 8. He ... threw a keen and energetic glance at Mr. Golspie. .. (Priestley) 9. Out of the blackness sight slowly
emerged again. (Latorence} 10. And fatigued by the merciless and enormous day, he lost his usual sane view of human intercourse. .. (Forster) 11. We were sitting out upon the lawn on garden chairs, the three of us, basking in the sun and admiring the view across the Broads ... (C. Doyle) 12. The sight of her pale still face sent a great shiver through him. (Cronin) 13. At this very spot, where he had laid out the lunch, Megan must have stood outlined against the sky when he had first caught sight of her. (Galsworthy) 14. The Squire gave a sidelong distasteful look at Roland. (Lindsay) 15. Wolfe pointed to a peak that came into view as the road passed into a cleared space. (Aldridge) II. Compare the use of look and glance in the following sentences and state whether the epithets long and sWift might be applicable to both. 1. But Bertha knew suddenly, as if the longest, most intimate look had passed between them ... that Pearl Fulton ... was feeling just what she was feeling. (Mansfield) 2. I would ... set off towards the house, despising myself even as I walked for my hurrying feet, my one sioift glance behind. (Du Maurier] III. State what synonyms should be inserted in the blanks (glance, view, sight, glimpse). Point out those sentences where more than one synonym is possible. 1. He gave her a sidelong __ with his pale, blue eyes, but did not reply. (Maugham) 2. They were out of __ around the house in another minute. (Caldwell) 3. Before anyone was able to begin straightening it out, the woman lashed into Poulet who, at the __ of her, tried to throw himself once more at Karen's feet. (Heym) 4. Up on the top of the hill, beyond where he had spread the lunch, over, out of __ , he lay down on his face. (Oalsmorthy] 5. Henry Cowperwood was planning to move with his family rather far out on North Front Street, which commanded at that time a beautiful __ of the river ... (Dreiser] 6. As it was, there was a great gap in the grey masonry that looked at first as black as a cavern, and only showed at a second __ the twilight of the twinkling trees. (Chesterton) 7. Ardsley at the __ of him assumed his professional air. (Maughaln) 8. For a __ of how she did it imagine an Embassy in London one summer evening after dark. (B. Shaw) 47

9. At the moment, however, he was blinking about at the groups in the gallery without catching __ of the familiar brown hair and bright face of his niece. (Chesterton) 10. But March never seemed to get a __ of that domestic interior to which men of the middle classes are accustomed in their friendships. .. (Chesterton) 11. Freddy goes out on the balcony to catch another __ of Eliza. (B. Shaw) 12. It was nearly bed-time and when they awoke next morning land would be in __ . (Mallgham) 13. Mr. Calvin here launched out into a political speech in exposition of his __ s. (London) 14. Sinister that she had not appeared, not given him even a __ of her! (Oalsmorihy] 15. She felt a little out of place, but the great room soothed her and the __ of the well-dressed throng outside seemed a splendid thing. (Dreiser] 16. They waved away whatever was offered them with an expression of delicate disgust ... as though the lemon sole, the duck, the loin of veal, the trifle, were objects revolting to the __ and smell. (Huxley) 17. I could tell in a __ it was the sort of house that was aggressively well kept by a big staff. (Du Maurier} 18. He gives me a sharp __ , but I was busy with the crusts, and he had to make what he chose out of it. (Jerome K. Jerome) 19. The porter will bring down his trunks, I shall catch a __ of them in the luggage lift. (Du Maurier) IV. Translate
1. It had

into Russian.

been exactly like looking at a flower, or some other pretty sight in Nature - till, with a funny little shiver, she had lowered her glance and gone out, quiet as a mouse. (Gaisteorthy} 2. At a bend of the line the red glare of a foundry flashed into sight... (Cronin) 3. All was feeling now, nothing was sight. (Greene) 4. This sight of private life affected Soames, unaccustomed to give or receive undefended glimpses of self, and he stood, uncertain. (Galsteorthy} 5.... if your attention had been called to him, you could have given him one glance and then decided that that was enough. (Priestley) 6. We were so cowed by the sight that I think we should have given the job up if it had not been for Prendergest. (C. Doyle) 7.... I, sitting on the little seat with my back to the driver, must crane my neck to see the view. (Du Maurier) 8. We have secured the room with the best uiet» in the hotel, Harry, thanks to my tact. (B. Shaw) 9. I wanted to keep the sight of those silk-trousered figures moving with grace through the humid noon. (Greene) 10. Surely there was something familiar about
48

this view, this bit of common, that ribbon of road, the old wall behind him. (Qalswo rthy} 11. They wandered over the old fort, now deserted, and admired the various views. (Forster) 12. This familiarity was excessive, even for her, and I caught a glimpse of his [Mr. de Winter's] expression. (Du Maurier) 13. He was keenly sensitive and the amused glance that the other stole privily at him burned into him like a dagger-thrust. (London)

glance, glimpse).

v. Insert

the suitable words in the blanks (look, sight, 'View,

1. From the dome of St. Isaac Cathedral we admired the __ of Leningrad. 2. The __ of a cat made the dog prick his ears. 3. Though the young men had not met since their schooldays, they recognized each other at a __ . 4. At the __ of the teacher the boys grew silent. 5. A long __ passed between the young people as if they had known each other for years. 6. The people on the side-walks had a ~ of the delegates through the windows of the bus. 7. Olga cast a __ on Lensky as she whirled past him in a dance. 8. The car passed through a narrow gorge, and a beautiful __ of the mountain ridge opened before the passengers. 9. On the day of departure the friends went to the Hermitage again to get another __ at their favourite picture. 10. As the train dashed past the platform, the man caught __ of a girl whom he had known in his childhood but whose name had slipped out of his memory. 11. The rider galloped on, now and then turning his head to cast a swift __ at his pursuers.

(11)

OCCURRENCE,

event, incident, episode, accident

Occurrence, event, incident, episode, accident agree in meaning 'something that happens or takes place'. Occurrence, event and incident may be applicable to any happening, both important and unimportant.
1. She sighed as she thought of that small, and apparently trivial beginning, for since that occurrence they had met on several, no, on many occasions ... (Cronin) 2.... he [the dog] must be outraged at this occurrence, and eager to reflect a rescue. (Kantor) 3. But after such an event, he returned to duty with his brow

49

still more tense, his rence) 4. The incident 5. On the very day, which proved in the

eyes still more hostile and irritable. (Lawmade a great impression on him. (Dreiser) however, before I left, an incident occurred sequel to be of importance. (C. Doyle)
J

and incident besides, have certain peculiarities as regards their shades of meaning. Event is very frequently applied to happenings of great importance, both in history and in personal life.
Event
1. ... the rise of the craftsmen within our towns, and the struggle by which they won power and privilege from the older burghers, is the most remarkable event in the period of our national historv we have arrived. (Green) 2. I remember that he was present, in Cambridge, at the Congregation at which I received a doctor's degree, and I remember his pleasure in the event. (T. S. Eliot)

is often applied to a happening that provokes a break in diplomatic relations between countries and may be the cause of war, as, border incidents. Episode means 'an important happening in a series of events' .
Incident
1. The freedom of Scotland was, in fact, secured. From a war of conquest and patriotic resistance the struggle died into a petty strife between two angry neighbours, which became a mere episode in the larger contest between England and France. (Green) 2. You must put the whole thing behind you as a very unpleasant and unfortunate episode. (Du Maurier)

ant happening.
1.

Accident generally denotes some unfortunate or unpleasWolfe repeated ... He pointed at the American stretcher-bearers who were lifting their own dead from the grey earth. (Aldridge) 2.... he knocked his leg against the pedal of a leaning bicycle, and began to swear with a violence out of proportion to the small accident. (D. Lessing)

"It was an accident,"

'a chance' .

Accident also means 'that which happens unexpectedly',

... he wanted to believe that his own existence was more than a mere accident. (Heym)

Accident forms the collocation by accident (cf. by chance).

I found the place with difficulty and almost by accident ... (Greene) 50

EXERCISES

ing sentences,

I. Comment on the use of the italicized words in the follow-

referring

to the explanations

given above.

(Chesterton)

1. Willoughby, who had been quipping to Karen, finally noticed that she did not relish the incident. (Heym) 2. The episode was finished, with the snapping of the lock. (Dii Maurier) 3. Dazed Johnny, after an interval for recovery, and after imprinting upon his mind the exact spot of the occurrence and the situation of that darksome alley, walked on grinding his teeth and registering a vow. (Coppard) 4. Now that the actual event was so close at hand, a queer calmness had settled upon him. (Cronin) 5. Last time I ran across her by accident, a year or two ago... (Priestley) 6. I began to dread any mention of the sea, for the sea might lead to boats, to accidents, to drowning. (Du Maurier) 7. And then, at the lowest ebb of all, came an incident which sent the mercury of his belief soaring once again towards the skies. (Cronin) 8. I've thought several times that it's not an accident they both like Dick. .. (Lindsay) 9. But in any case the whole of the story Horne Fisher had to tell arose out of the accident which had made young Harry Fisher private secretary of Lord Saltoun. II. State in which of these sentences the blanks should be filled in with (a) accident or incident, (b) accident or event.

(A) 1.... Gabriel tried to banish from his mind all memory of the unpleasant __ with Miss Ivors, (Joyce) 2. At tea that night he related the __ sardonically to Christine. (Cronin) 3. "Dear me, Holmes!" I cried, "that [the finding of the pistol in the wardrobe] seemed to me to be the most damning __ at all." (C. Doyle) 4.... the ___, had somehow separated Willoughby from Karen, and the night was only half gone. (Heym) 5. Adela was always trying to "think the __ out", always reminding herself that no harm had been done. (Forster) 6. And some men were killed by storms and __ s. (Dreiser] 7. There's been a horrible __ A man was killed. (Mansfield) 8. __ happen so easily even to the most experienced people. (Du Maurier) 9. They've just telephoned to me from the police station. There's been an __ . Collie's been shot. (Maugham) (B) 1. I'm afraid there's been some sort of __ outside. (Priestley) 2. He saw the secretary's visit as the most ominous
51

at all, the climax of these struggling unsuccessful months. (Cronin) 3 .... his voice was low, as it might be after an __ , when people are waiting for the doctor. (Du Maurier) 4. There's a Corps order that every battalion must have one additional subaltern trained in signalling, to take over in case of __ . (A lding ton) 5. This was just one of the early love affairs, or puppy loves, that held his mind from time to time in the mixture of after __ . (Dreiser] 6. In cases of illness or __ he never hesitated. (Mallgham) 7. But nothing happened. Once again I had over-prepared the __ . (Greene)

III. Translate

into English.

1. 3nH3011, 0 KOTOPOM BbI paccicaasmaere, He npellCTaBJI51eT c060f.1 HI14erO aaxeuareasnoro - 9TO 06bI4Hblfi cJIY4atL 2. MHUI1,u.eHT Me)KllY llByM5I nOrpaHI14HbIMI1 cTpaHaMI1 6bIJI nOllp06HO onacaa B raaere. 3. IIYTernecTBeHHI1KI1 paCCKa3aJII1 HaM 0 MHOrI1X anrepecnsrx npOI1CrneCTBI15Ix. 4. BbIXOJI. 4eJIOBeKa B KOCMOCBeJII14afirnee C06bITI1e. 5. LIBalluaTblf.1 BeK - BeK BeJII1KI1X co6 bITI1 fi. 6. Hecuacrnsrn CJIY4afi BO BpeM5I MOTorOHOK OMpa4I1JI nacrpoenae Y4aCTHI1KOB COpeBI-IOBaHI1fi.7. Crapsre llPY3b5I CJIysanno BCTpeTI1JIl1Cbna KOHcpepeHUHI1. 8. PbI6aK paCCKa3aJI HaM 06 Y)KaCHOM CJIY4ae, KOTOPblfi np0I130rueJI na osepe.

•••

ADJECTIVES

(12)

ALONE, lonely, lone, solitary,

forlorn

Alone, lonelu, lone, solitary, forlorn come into comparison in the meaning of 'being apart from others'. These words differ in some nuances. Alone, lonely, lone, solitary may be grouped together in the sense of being quite by oneself, without anyone else, as, he is quite alone in the house; a lonely traveller (figure); a lone creature; a solitary traveller (figure).
1. I think, if you don't mind, I'd rather be alone. (Greene) 2. That left him with an apathetic wife who didn't want him, and a tenyear-old boy who had come too late, a very lonely boy lost between them. (Aldridge) 3. A lone gull flew across the sky. (Dti j'\1aurier) 4.... solitary and exultant, he [the pilot] moves miles above earth in a blaze of sunshine ... (Sommerfield)

Lone is chiefly

used in poetry and in elevated

prose.

1. What misery most drowningly doth sing I In lone Endymion's ear. .. ? (Keats) 2.... and sometimes I would hear her singing - a cool lone voice, uncertainly rising, addressed to her own reflection. (Laurie Lee)

Lonely, lone, solitary, when applied to objects, imply the idea of remoteness, as, a lonely (lone, solitary) star, a lonely (solitary) mountain (house, etc.).
1. His modest farm was set in a lonely spot two miles from the village, seven from the town and fifteen from market. (H. Bates) 2. There is no mid-forest laugh, I Where lone Echo gives the half I To some wight. .. (Keats) 3. Like a watcher forgotten upon some solitary isle, who ... has long abandoned hope, the sudden sight

53

of the means of her rescue filled her with an unbelievable, unbelieving ecstasy. (Cronin)

almost

Alone,

lonely, lone may be united

because of the lack of friends, standing.

as implying company, sympathy,

sadness under-

1. But she might be very miserable; she was so young, so friendless, so utterly alone among all those wooden people. (Voynich) 2. He's lonely, he can't bear that great empty house ... (Du Maurier) 3.... he sickly guess'd I How lone he was once more, and sadly pr ess'd I His empty arms together, hung his head ... (Keats)

Forlorn
also,

implies the idea of being deserted, forsaken, neglected.

wretched,

miserable;

1. Rather forlorn, more than a little dissatisfied, I leant back in my chair and took up the book of poems. (Du Maurier) 2. And they were kind with each other. For they all seemed lost, like lost, forlorn aborigines ... (Lawrence)

differ in syntactic relations. Alone is used only predicatively, solitary-attributively, whereas the other members of the group occur both in predicative and attributive use. When implying sadness, unhappiness, lonely and lone are used predicatively.
EXERCISES I. Comment on the use of the synonyms referring explanations given above.

All these words

to the

1. I feel very lonely myself sometimes. (Oreene) 2. She asks if she can see me alone. for a few minutes. (Mallgham) 3. It was not the sort of happiness I had imagined in the lonely hours. (Du Maurier) 4. He was kept in solitary confinement. (Voynich) 5. You're alone and I'm alone. There's no one in the world that cares twopence for either of us. (Maugham) 6. The nursemaid waking in the night beheld a solitary figure darkening a lamp above her little sleeping charge. (Meredith) 7 .... the sight of Repton staring out of the window, forlorn as a drowsy horse, overcame her and she rushed to embrace him, crying "Darling!" ... "I'm so fond of you, Phil dear." (Coppard) 8. The dog came slowly, ... he had every sign of breeding, making his forlorn position more mysterious than ever. (Oalsworthy) 9. The poor, poor soulalone by herself all day... The poor, lone creature. (Laurie Lee) 10. It 54

was a wild morning in October, and I observed as I was dressing how the last remaining leaves were being whirled from the solitary plane tree... (C. Doyle) 11. The young men were bathing in the pool below; their cries and laughter floated up to him, making the quiet house seem lonelier and more silent. (Huxley) 12. Mr. Smeeth was left to smoke his pipe, alone, a solitary little figure in a huge, dark, mysterious world. .. (Priestley) 13. But poor Mr. May spoke and looked pathetically, He seemed to feel forlorn. (Lawrence) II. State where alone implies a melancholy feeling, sadness, and where it merely denotes the fact of being by oneself. 1. The Adjutant was sitting alone in the dug-out when Davison got there, about half-past two. (Aldington) 2. One morning, having broken away from them on some vague pretext, he returned to the house alone. (Huxley) 3. He had no idea I or anybody was near; he was sitting quite alone, and he laughed. (Chesterton) 4. She stood alone. The faces around her were alien faces, everybody an enemy. (Hey m) 5. He was alone except for an old grey-and-blue sheep-dog curled up at his side.. . (H. Bates) 6. But he realised suddenly and too late that it wasn't fear of being caught that worried Davy, but fear of being left alone. (Aldridge) 7.... I always wanted to get home quick to mother. You see, she was quite alone among them all in that dungeon of a house ... (Voynich) III. Paraphrase the italicized words using an appropriate word of the synonymic group, making changes in the construction of the sentences, when necessary. 1. Mr. Smeeth was out when he arrived home, and he had a solitary dinner.i . (Priestley). 2. The dog looked up, wagging his tail, but he did not obey me. He went on baiting the solitary figure on the beach. (Du Maurier} IV. State where lonely means 'quite where it also suggests the idea of sadness.
1. It's

by

oneself'

and

easy to feel cut off down here, lonely. (Cronin) 2. She was a lonely young woman, mysteriously detached, graceful in face and figure. Most of the village boys were afraid of her, of her stormy temper. (Laurie Lee) 3. And this indifference ... only made him feel that he had to think for two, and in the end left him lonely with his fear. (Priestley) 4. Dessie felt so tired and lonely that she wanted to cry. (Caldwell) 5. The water was roaring, the sky was gray, growing black, 55

the air was cold and unfriendly, lonely and desolate. (Saroyan)

and the

landscape

seemed

V. State in which sentences the word alone is used in the sense different from that referred to in the explanation given above. Translate all the sentences into Russian. 1. She seemed to him so frail that he longed to defend her

against something and then to be alone with her. (Joyce) 2. She was really quite alone in the world except for an invalid aunt in Bridlington. (Cronin) 3. Was Farrish sincere now? Yates, had it depended on him alone, was inclined to believe him and support him. (Heym} 4. "I say," said Philip, when they were alone, "Explain. Who is she?" (Mans/ield) 5. Her misery was not the mere disappointment of love, not that kind of misery alone; it was the crushing of an ideal in which love had had its home, a treachery, cruel and mean. (Coppard) 6. On Monday Doctor Noel Lowry called twice, alone in the morning and escorted by the agent in the afternoon. (Cronin) 7. One thing only was startling about them and that was William's ambition... The four children and mother alone were aware of its existence. (H. Bates)
VI. Insert the proper synonyms in the gaps. Mind that in some instances different synonyms might be applicable in one sentence. 1. The young people stayed in the house __ . 2. When she was __ a letter arrived addressed to herself. 3. Her friends were gone and she felt __ and miserable. 4. A __ pine-tree grew on a bare hill. 5. We were __ thousands of miles from any of our own people. 6. The tourists pitched up a tent in a __ spot on the shore of a little lake. 7. She was so terribly __ in that big, gloomy house. 8. The sick man wanted to be left __ . 9. The melancholy __ look about the deserted house depressed them. 10. The child looked __

in that new home of his among strange

faces.

VII. Translate into English. 1. B COCe)lHeM.l(OMe nOCeJIHJIC51 .ll.HHOKHti O crapax, 2. Balli perieaox yzce .l(OCTaTOQHO B3POCJIblti, tIT06bI OCTaTbC5IO)lHOMY llOMa. 3. COBeTcKHeKOCMOHaBTbI 6bIJIH He OllHHOKHB CBoeM IIOJIeTe: C HHMH 6bIJI sees COBeTcKHti aapon, 4. Ilepaon, xorna

nYllIKHH )l{HJIOllHH B EOJI.ll.HHO, 6bIJI caMbIMIIJIOllOTBOPHbIM ero B TBOpQeCTBe. 5. Ha rope, Hall 6YPHOti pexon, BbICHJIaCb onanoxaa 6allIH5I. 6. B KOHue IIbeCbI X0351eBayesxator H aa cuene OCTaeTC5I TOJIbKO crapun cnyra, O.l(HHOKHti nOKHHYTblti. H
56

(13)

AWARE, conscious,

sensible

in the meaning of 'having knowledge of something that is not obvious but is somehow realized by a person, through senses and feelings', as, aware (conscious, sensible) of change (danger, pain, kindness, cruelty, etc.). In such cases they are interchangeable.
1. I was aware of sadness, of a sense of loss. (Du Maurier) 2. Michael bit his forefinger, conscious of a twinge of sympathy with Elderson... (Gals worthy) 3. I am deeply sensible of your kindness and shall ever consider myself largely your debtor. (Forster)

Aware, conscious, sensible come into comparison

through careful observing one sees, hears or feels'.

1. He became

Aware and conscious, besides, imply 'realizing something

or drawing conclusions from what

aware, more vividly than ever, that he was no laboratory worker. .. (Cronin) 2.... and ever since his late leader had launched that attack on his conduct he had changed, conscious of having acted rightly ... (Galsworthy) 3. Andrew bit his lip, his eye lowered, aware for the first time of this generous thing that Denny had done for him. (Cronin) 4. To have brought Fleur he became suddenly conscious that he was doing an indelicate thing. (Galsworthy)

in that it suggests 'knowing through wise', as, aware of some fact (event).
1. No one not aware

Aware differs from the other two members of the group

information or otherof the fact would have taken her for a mother. (Bennett) 2. Perhaps Mrs. de Winter was not aware of the value of the ornament? (Du Maurier)

of followed by accompanying
lowed by an object of-phrase only.
I. She could

Aware and conscious may be used with the preposition

clause. words, or they may Sensible is followed

be folby an

tell that he was aware of her curiosity, and he seemed amused. (M. Wilson) 2. Mr. Purfleet became aware that a dark figure was toiling up the long hill on a bicycle. (Aldington) 3. He was a powerful man - more, he was conscious of it. (Heym) 4. Dinny was conscious that Hubert was regarding her as if thinking: "What is come to Dinny?" (Galsworthy) 5. Dusk 57

had come on with clouds, and drops of rain began to patter through the trees. I hoped he would feel this, but he seemed too much absorbed to be sensible of the change. (Bronte)

Conscious and sensible, in the above meaning, are also used only predicatively. In the attributive function, conscious and sensible have
different meanings. Conscious, in reference to feelings and actions, means 'known or realized by a person', as, to speak with con-

Aware is used only predicatively.

scious superiority; to make a conscious movement; with a conscious air (dignity~ etc.).

1. "00 ahead, Matt," he jeered Significantly at his son, as NaIlCY handed the latter wine, with a pertly conscious air. (Cronin) 2. Every conscious moment he worried about the things that would be going wrong without his supervision. (D. Lessing)

Sensible has the meaning of 'reasonable' a sensible idea, a sensible person.

or 'practical',

as,

1. "Why can't you be like the Happy Prince?" asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon. (0. Wilde) 2. The only sensible thing is to file your petition. {Maughani) EXERCISES I. State in which sentences the words aware and conscions could be replaced by sensible. Point out where sensible does not suit.

to feel relieved ... she was surprised by the forebodlng which oppressed her. (Galsworthy) 2. The wives of the higher officials of the Company were too conscious of their own importance to call upon the wives of medical aid assistants. (Cronin) 3. After the tenth dive I was aware only of irritation - the affair had gone on too long, it was time to go home. (Greene) 4. He felt very old, independent and judicial; he was aware that Baines was talking to him as man to man. (Greene) 5. He studied in a more scientific spirit the details of the door, with its rusty bolts and hinges, when he became conscious of something very near him; indeed, nearly above his head. (Chesterton) 6. Gradually the officer had become aware of his servant's young vigorous presence about him. (Lawrence) 7. Vaguely, he was conscious that the
58

1. Conscious that she ought

evening had not been the success he had anticipated ... (Cronin) 8. She became conscious that the long grass was drenched and her shoes and stockings wet through. (Oalswortlzy) 9. He went into his study, conscious that his wife was following. (Galstoorthy) 10.... then I suppose I fainted and was aware of nothing. (Oreene) 11. Never very conscious of his surroundings, it was some time before he was aware that the youth ... was standing outside the stable door ... (Oalstoorthy) II. State in which sentences aware is not interchangeable with conscious. 1. "I am aware we are political opponents," replied Verner, raising his eyebrows. (Chesterton) 2. And the officer was always aware of the tramp of the company behind, the march of his orderly among the men. (Lawrence) 3. I forced a smile, and did not answer him, aware now of a stab of panic. (Du Maurier) 4. But I am well aware that people of your sort take me for a thief, and I suppose you will try to land me in jail. (Chesterton) 5. I wasn't aioare of the moment when the bombs were released. (Oreene) 6. Farrish's casualty lists were longer than anybody else's. Yates was only too well aware of that. (Heym) 7.... he became aware of his cramped position, of a desire to smoke. (Cronin) 8.... as I reached the bar I was aware of the distant drumming of the guns out towards Hoa Binh. (Oreene) III. Account for the use of the word sensible in the sentences below. Translate the sentences into Russian. 1. He's a thoroughly sensible fellow and quite sees my point. (Chesterton) 2. It was she who had chosen the names of her sons, for she was very sensible of the dignity of family life. (Joyce) 3. You thought it was quite a sensible scientific idea, didn't you, Alan? (Carter) IV. Translate into Russian. 1. He was aware of people at the adjoining tables viewing them with interest, of masculine admiration to which she was calmly oblivious. (Cronin) 2. She became conscious of the discrepancy between her new furs and her inexpensive dress. (Cronin) 3. Was he conscious of his responsibility? Yes. And he was frightened, too. (Hey m) 4. He was overwhelmingly conscious of her gracefulness, her perfect finish. (Cronin) 5. In the course of time Joe woke up ... and gradually became aware of the fact that something fundamental had gone wrong in her world. (H. Bates) 6. One vision, specially clear and
59

unreasonable, for he had not even been conscious of noting it, was the face of the youth cleaning the gun ... (Oalsworthy) 7. In the dim light of the long, narrow room Dave became aware of a customer beside the cash register turning to stare fixedly at him. (Carter) 8. Iran along it, fully aware of my stupidity, despising myself for this sudden attack of nerves ... (Du Maurier) 9. As he approached his house he was conscious of the rapid beating of his heart. (Cronin) 10. Meanwhile he had been conscious of Aneurin Rees hovering in the background watching him. (Cronin) 11. Without raising his eyes, he was conscious that Wilfrid was sitting upright. (Oalsworthy) 12. Even in the bewilderment of the battle he was conscious that the door was standing open. (Chesterton) 13. He kept his eyes lowered, overpoweringly conscious of her sitting at the far end of the table... (Cronin) 14. She goes out radiant, conscious of being thoroughly up to date... (B. Shaw) 15. At an unknown time later the sticky lids of his eyes jerked open, and he was aware that the afternoon was nearly over. (Sommerfield) 16. But now Fox was suddenly aware that another person was in the room with him. (M. Wilson) 1 7 .... his present mission filling him once more with a conscious dignity, he walked gravely through the streets ... (Cronin)
V. Translate into Russian. 1. Vnecenusre B Mope pbI6aKI1 c03HaBaJII1 onacnocrs csoero nOJIO)KeHI15I. EOJIbHOfi qYBcTBOBaJITenJIOe, cepnesaoe OTHOllIe2. HI1e K ce6e co CTOPOHbIoKpY)KaIOIUI1x.3. MaJIbqHK qYBcTBOBaJI, qTO yqI1TeJIb Ha6JIIOllaeT 3a HI1M. 4. OH nOqYBcTBOBaJI BCIO He-

iIOBKOCTbcsoero nOJIO)KeHI15I. . Ilopa 6bI eft OC03HaTb CBOI1 5 065I3aHHOCTI1 no OTHOllIeHI1IO K BocnHTaBllIHM ee JIlOll51M. 6. B TeMHOTe OXOTHI1K nOqYBcTBOBaJI,KaK KTO-TOnpI16JII1)KaeTC5I K neay. 7. 3HaeTe JII1 BbI, qTO coripanne Ha3HaqeHO Ha BTOpHI1K 25 Ma51? (14) BAD,

ill, wicked, evil evil are compared as meaning 'not

'not good'. Bad and ill occur in such similar collocations as bad (ill) news (luck, temper, reputation), but: bad character in the sense of 'reputation'.

right',

Bad, ill,

wicked,

*
60

Bad enters into another synonymic group (15).

1. Working on a newspaper one does not learn the way to break bad news ... (Greene) 2. We last night received a piece of ill news at our club which very sensibly afflicted everyone of us. (Eliot) 3. He was pursued by bad luck. (D. Lessing)

Bad} wicked occur in such collocations as a bad (wicked) person (character, deed); bad (wicked) thoughts (life).
you're my bad little boy. (T. Williams) 2. They were awful, both of them. The man was nearly as bad as his terrible daughter. (Priestley) 3. Give me back that letter. Give it back to me at once, you bad, wicked woman... (Mansfield) 4.... Nessie fiddled with her teaspoon, dropped it, then blushed shamefully as though discovered in a wicked act. (Cronin)

1. Oh, you bad boy,

Evil may be used in the same collocations as bad and wicked, but it is a stronger term meaning 'something sinful, vicious'.
Now that I knew her to have been evil and vicious and rotten I did not hate her any more. (Du Maurier)

Evil, apart from bad and wicked, is used in reference to spirits (supernatural beings), as) an evil spirit, an evil genie.
One day some Derbet Mongol, the son of an evil genie and a broken-winded camel, began to sing in the camp the tale of Bum-Erdeni. (R. Fox)

Each of these words has some peculiarities. Bad is the general term in this group. It has a wide sphere of application and may be used in reference to people, animals, abstract notions.
Don't pay any attention to what Lord Henry bad influence over all his friends with the myself. (0. Wilde) says. He has a very single exception of

use occurs in a few set expressions such as those given above (ill news, luck, temper, reputation); also, in the collocations ill will, ill fame} ill management, and in the proverbs: III news travels fast. It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. III in the predicative use means 'sick', 'in bad health', as, she is ill with the grippe. However, there is probably a tendency in modern English towards the attributive use of ill in the sense of 'sick'.
I always knew something of this would turn up ~ some problem, 61

III in modern attributive

like an ill wife hot-house feelings

and it would be too much of yours. (1. Osborne)

for

those

delicate

Wicked and evil, besides the meaning which unites them with bad, are used in the sense of 'spiteful. mischievous, harmful', as, a wicked (evil) look (eye, passion, design, etc.), but: a wicked blow.
1. Up you go, Mary! Yours [your horse] will jump the side of a house by the wicked look in his eye. (Cronin) 2. It was quite
useless for Arthur to pray in his cell evil passions ... (VoynichJ for grace to conquer his

EXERCISES

I. Account for the use of the synonyms explanations given above.

referring

to the

1. It may have been a healthy wind, but its effect on the nerves was evil. (Bennett) 2. He always had a book with him, and he generally read during his meal; which is not a bad plan ... (Jerome K. Jerome) 3. If that's a joke, Sydney, I must say I think it in very bad taste. (Maugham) 4. You move warily, as if your very passing disturbs something old and evil, something dark and big and angry that might suddenly rear and strike from behind. (D. Lessing) 5. It was his ill luck to have strong appetites and a weak stomach. (Meredith) 6. Macomber ... shot again with the buffalo's huge bulk almost on him and his rifle almost level with the on-coming head, nose out, and he could see the little wicked eyes. (Hemingway) 7. It's all a mistake. I know it is just a bad dream. (T. Williams) 8.... a pretty face may cover a wicked heart. (Cronin) 9. You think I'm the big, bad wolf ... but I'm not, you know. I'm a perfectly ordinary, harmless bloke. (Du Maurier) 10. He makes up all sorts of chemicals and then experiments with the fumes and kills dozens of poor little monkeys with them. Isn't it wicked? (Aldington) 11. Is that you, George? Yes, Isabel speaking. I have just had rather bad news. (Aldington) II. By what word of the synonymic group might bad be replaced? State in which sentence some other word combination might be applicable. 1. That wing [of the house] had aforetime a bad character. (Meredith) 2. I know how cruel and bad my temper can be. (Greene) 3. I thought it was bad news you were going to tell me. (Cronin) 62

III. Translate

into English.

BJII151HI1e;rraoxon TOBapI1lU; nJIOXa51penyTaUI15I; nJIOXHe HOBOCTI1; .nYPHOtt xapaicrep; .nYPHOtt r .naa; .nYPHOtiqeJIOBeK; 3JIOtt r enaa; 3JIaSI BOJISI; OpOqHaSI)KI13Hb; n 3JIaSI )KeHIUI1Ha; saue SI3bIKI1; nopoxmre MbICJII1;aecuacrse
Flzroxoa nocrynox; nnoxoe (aeynasa). (15) Bad, BAD,

poor

'something that strict standard'. Bad and poor may be used in such collocations

poor come

into comparison when is of low quality, imperfect,

they mean not up to a as bad

(poor) English (food); a bad (poor) composition (dancer, teacher, etc.) , bad (poor) health. (In the latter case it is also possible to say ill health.) But we generally say: a bad day, bad weather.
1. Pyle was apologising to Phuong in bad French for having kept her waiting. (Greene) 2.... one of themselves speaking bad

English and sticking his finger down his throat was as good a thing to laugh at as any other. (D. Lessing) 3. He might be a poor lover... (Greene) 4. George filled his pipe and complained that the weather was bad. (Slllitoe}

meanmg. Bad is used in reference

However,

bad and

poor have

their

own

shades

of

to things which are in a bad state (or out of repair), not working properly, damaged, injured, as, a bad chair (watch, lathe; arm, leg); bad shoes.
1. Evans ... proved arm. (Cronin) 2....
to be clumsy at the table because of his bad Charlie Turner went to the Turners' place, speed over the bad farm roads in his fat

driving at a great American car. (D. Lessing)

heal th or welfare'.

Bad also implies

'not useful',

'harmful

for a person's
is bad for if we did

The pipec1ay gives somebody a lot his lungs; but he would not respect not insist on it. (B. Shaw)

of trouble, and us as gentlemen

Bad enters into another

synonymic

group

(14). 63

Poor means:

1. 'Not rich',

as, a poor man (family),

poor people.

I have to come up here, you understand, all those poor people. (Greene)

for a bit of quiet from

2. 'Miserable',
1. ... 1 prophet 2. "The around

'wretched'.

yelled at your Auntie Esther that I was a prophet. A 1 Poor woman, I don't think she understood. (Wesker) poor, poor birds," Mother said again. They were hopping the windmill, calling for bread and fats... (Laurie Lee)

3. 'Not much in quantity',

'scanty'.

Representing states and talking of national and even international affairs, as familiarly as neighbours at home talk of poor crops and the extravagance of their ministers, was likely at first to impose upon Philip as to the importance of the people gathered here. (M. Twain) EXERCISES

I. Account for the use of bad and poor referring to the explanations given above. 1. The soup was bad, and Miss Verever left most of hers ... (Priestley) 2. You have saved my life but it is a poor thing you have saved. (Lindsay) 3. They say there's all sorts o'things wrong with me. Heart bad. Kidneys bad. (Priestley) 4. They were either bad players, or drunk, for darts were hitting the wall and board-wires, falling over the floor like wounded birds. (Sillitoe) 5.... but this fact did not prevent ... the appearance of casual paragraphs here and there which were likely to beget popular sympathy for the poor girl. (M. Twain) 6. It was the period when Pennsylvania's credit ... was very bad in spite of its great wealth. (Dreiser] 7. Bed was a poor refuge from her thoughts but she accepted it. (Coppard)

II. State in which sentences

bad might be replaced

by poor.

1. He was a very bad dancer ... (Greene) 2. The car swung out of the doctor's road and right into a bad road which led away into bleak places. (w. Macken) 3. I don't think you have found me a bad correspondent, and this is the first favour I have ever asked of you. (Greene) 4. If you jumped in feet first it wasn't exactly a disgrace, it was just bad style. (Sa roy an) 5. York says it's often the good administration who make it
64

hard bad this was

to change a bad system. (Greene) 6. The food, also, was and insufficient. .. (Voynich) 7. My consumption's so bad morning, it's murdering me. (Coppard) 8.... her English very bad. (Greene) III. Translate Ilaoxon into English.

MaTeMaTI1K; nJIOXl1e pe3YJIbTaTbI; ITJIoxa51 nama; ITJIOxas oueaxa; nnoxoe npoM3HOlIIeHI1e; ITJIOXI1e MaHepbI; nJIOXaH nor ona; IlJIOXa51 paoora; )KaJIKOe y6e)Kl1III.e; naoxon oTBeT; HeC4aCTHaH )KeHIUI1Ha; IlJIOXl1e YCJIOBHH.

(16)

BARE, naked, nude

Bare} naked} nude come into comparison when they mean 'having no clothes on', 'not covered'. These words differ in some shades of meaning and in usage. Bare and naked denote complete or partial absence of clothes. In this sense they are used both predicatively or as post-positional attributes. Thus we say: the child lay bare (naked); we saw many children quite bare (naked) playing on the beach. Naked} apart from bare, also occurs in the function of a pre-positional attribute, as, a naked baby.
1. Small naked boys sat on the buffaloes which waded ... among the irrigated fields... (Greene) 2. He was afraid of his father,
or he had been. But now he couldn't look at his father because he was asleep with his mouth open, and was horribly covered with blood and half-naked and bound up. (Aldridge) 3. Judge, these boys dived naked into the black water of winter and came up glowing with the warmth of summer. (Saroyan}

If applied to parts of the body, bare and naked denote the absence of covering, as, bare (naked) feet (hands, shoulders). However, in certain collocations bare is preferable, as, a bare neck} hand} face (= a face without any growth of hair).
his brow with his bare forearm, and took the cup of tea that his wife Phyl was offering him. (Lindsay) 2.... she sat down beside Macomber again and looked away across the stream to where the lion lay, with uplifted, white-muscled, tendon-marked naked forearms ... (Hemingway) 3. Heavy scarlet lips ga ve him the pout of a sardonic man, but his face was a kind

1. Jeff ... wiped

65

face, very pale and very bare. (Coppard) 4. She remained there the whole morning ... the sun glaring down through the old canvas hood on to her bare head. (D. Lessing) 5. Showing more interest, Arthur noted that his head was bare, that his clothes were old and worn at the elbows. (Sillitoe}

Bare may be applied to objects, as, a bare floor (= without a carpet or other covering); a bare table, desk, wall (= with nothing on them); a bare hillside (= without trees, bushes, etc.); bare ground (==without vegetation); bare trees (== without leaves). In the latter case naked is also
applicable.
1. His desk was quite bare. (Greene) 2. How does a man become

a singer, you ask? Not through straining his voice on the bare hill tops, nor yet through making presents to many teachers. (R. Fox) 3. It was a bright, cold day, the ground covered with a sleet that had frozen so that it seemed as if all the bare trees ... and the bare ground had been varnished with ice. (Hemingway)

Nude is applied only to persons and is preferable in art (painting or sculpture), as, to sit to a painter nude; a nude statue.
It was ... a high room with rafters and a toplight and lots of pictures and drawings on the walls... "I think you said, you'd sit for the - er - altogether?" "Altogether what, sir?" Nude." (Galsworthy)
II.

furniture

Bare and naked have some other shades of meaning. Bare is used in the sense of empty or empty of something, as, a bare room, a room bare of furniture (= with no
or little furniture in it).
1. The kitchen was very bare, almost empty, and in the grate there burned only a spark of fire. (Cronin) 2. There were four pews, and the rest of the church was bare. (Aldridge) 3. I thought of him standing before the looking glass in his bare bachelor bedroom ... (Du Maurier)

as, a naked eye (== unprovided with glasses, a telescope or a microscope); naked fists (== having no boxing gloves on).
I remember the first days here, when we had to hop out of the cars and make for the ditches. And then they [the bombs] came down and - you feel so God-damned naked when the dirt flies up around you. Naked and scared ... (Heym)

Naked has the meaning of unprotected,

66

bare (naked)
... every

Both bare and naked

word

may be used figuratively, facts (truth) (= plain, not disguised) .

which I tell you is the naked

as,

truth ... (C. Doyle)

EXERCISES I. Account for the use of the synonyms in the following sentences referring to the explanations given above.

1. The rooms he showed them were almost bare of furniture. (Maugham) 2. The orderly stood on the edge of the bright clearing, where great trunks of trees, stripped and glistening lay stretched like naked brown-skinned bodies. (Lawrence) 3. The room was a big room, with a bare unpainted floor ... (Faulkner) 4.... Clyde found himself in a bright and rather gaudy general parlour or reception room, the walls of which were ornamented with gilt framed pictures of nude or seminude girls... (Dreiser) 5. The Italian hil1 had a bare patch which the sun filled. (Aldridge) 6. I went upstairs to my bare room and the dripping cold-water tap ... and sat on the edge of my bed with the bundle of the mosquito-net like a swollen cloud overhead. (Greene) 7. I am a poor father to a man who has an empty belly and a naked back. (Aldridge) 8. He was naked from the waist up. (Aldridge) 9. When at last he turned, looking down the long, bare grove whose flat bed was already filling dark, he saw the mountains in a wonder light, not far away, and radiant. (Lawrence) 10. Despite Andrew's premonitions Mrs. Vaughan did call upon Christine and remained, apparently, much longer than the bare period demanded by convention. (Cronin) 11. Mr. Pritchard saw her face differently now. He saw hardness in it and defiance ... , and he felt naked before this girl. (Steinbeck) II. State in which sentences bare and naked are interchangeable and where only one of these words suits. 1. I called a small black boy, who was sitting on a log playing a stringed gourd, quite naked except for the strings of b1ue beads round his neck (D. Lessing) 2. He showed me into a little bare room with a desk in it. (Du Maurier) 3. My bare foot came down on broken glass, and that halted me for a moment. (Kantor) 4. It was a bare straight-sided mountain that spread itself into the clouds. (Aldridge) 5.... this tiny stuffy room, the bare brick floor, the greasy lamp, were not what she had imagined. (D. Lessing) 6. The Captain watched
67

the glistening, sun-inflamed, naked hands. (Lawrence) 7. Behind the bare plain, which for years had been a battle-ground, rose a long wooded ridge... (Aldridge) 8. We stood together naked on the bank of the ditch looking at the unfriendly water. (Saroyan) 9. There was an extraordinary tall ash-tray in the living-room made like a naked woman with a bowl in her hair. .. (Greene) 10. The first water from the hills was cold, swift, and frightening. It was too cold and busy to invite the naked body of a boy. (Sa roy an) 11. ... the lifeless desert had become fertile with flies; from bare stones and barren shrubs, from the dead and sterile sand itself, they seemed to issue. (Sommerfield) 12. Maxim's bed was still bare and empty. (Du Maurier) 13. Upstairs, the waiting-room was small, bare, and sour-smelling situated at the end of a short passage leading to the committee room. (Cronin) 14. The dressing-table was bare, except for a large bottle of hair-wash and a pair of ivory hairbrushes. (Du Maurier) 15. They went to the next coach. It was the same with bare seats and candles. (Aldridge)
III. Translate into English.

HOrl1; rOJIbIe rpaxrsr; rrycraa KOMHaTa; neaoopyarennun r JIa3; 06Ha)l{eHHOe TeJIO; r onsre ztepeasa; 06Ha)l{eHHble rrJIe411; rOJIaH ures; aenoxpsrraa rOJIOBa; ronsre KOJIeHH; nenpaxpsrras HCTI1Ha; rOJIaH 3eMJI5I; r oaae crensr; aenoxpurun nOJI; 06Ha)l{eHHaH cpl1rypa (8

Bocue

ctcynsnmype}:

(17)

DARK, dim, obscure, gloomy

as meaning

Dark, dim, obscure, gloomy are compared absence of light (partly or wholly). Dark implies: 1. A lack of the illumination a person to see things around. which

is necessary

for

1. The trees were dark here and close together. .. (Du Maurier) 2. Well, and how do you like the dark cell? (Voynich)

2. Not light in colour, as, dark hair (eyes, skin, etc.).

at Yates. She saw his inviting smile; the spark of humour in his dark eyes. (Heym) 2. There was dark blood on the short grass ... (Hemingway)

1. Karen looked

68

3. The quality

in colour, as, dark blue, dark green.

1. ... you could not perceive it unless her bright red skirt and dark blue blouse gave you a symbolic hint of the vagarious bird. (0. Henry) 2. The stars had gone out of the sky. It was dark blue now instead of black. (Aldridge)

Dim and obscure are closer to each other than to the other members of the group. They suggest: 1. So little light that the things before a person cannot be seen clearly, as, a dim (obscure) room (passage, hall, street).
and a dim panelled hallway ... conveyed a kind of invitation. (Gals worthy) 2. But then one of the boys ... , having been left for half an hour in the obscure room with Mrs. Houghton, gave away the secret ... (Lawrence)

1. The door stood open,

2. Indistinct, (stars, outlines);

1. Bing could

hardly visible, as, dim (obscure) lights a dim (obscure) form (figure, etc.).

hear Yates, but all he could see was the brawny back of the other man outlined against the dim light of a suspended bulb. (Heym) 2. Neither of them having glasses, all was obscure to them when the race began. (Galsworthy) 3. Wolfe watched the obscure image grow into two definite shapes. (Ald-

ridge)

Dim, as applied 'not seeing clearly';

(Du Maurier)

to the eyes and the eyesight, means as, eyes dim with tears; dim eyesight.

"Yes, I like roses," she said vaguely, and then peering closer at me with her dim blue eyes. "Are you staying at Manderley too?"

Gloomy implies imperfect illumination and the notion of cheerlessness, as, a gloomy day (weather, forest, room).
Often that penny became such a mighty necessity to him that as he knelt alone among the rags in the gloomy room, the pose, the quiet, and the need induced a mood in which he mumbled dozens of prayers. (Coppard)

All these words can be used figuratively. Dark means: 1. 'Mysterious', 'evil', 'not clear to the mind', secret, a dark deed; the meaning is dark.
1. She has a perfect

as, a dark

devil of a brother, with whom she was brought up, who knows her deep dark secret. (Gals worthy) 2. There was nothing savage in his attitude, no rage against fate, no dark fear of failure. (Dreiser)

69

2. 'Sad', 'cheerless', as, a dark look (face, mood).

He kept the young man engaged all the evenings long, and took pleasure in the dark look that came on his face. (Lawrence)

Dim in the figurative sense means 'vague', meaning ( recollection); dim understanding ness) .

as, a dim (conscious-

1. The dim, persistent sense of dissatisfaction, of spiritual emptiness ... had vanished into nothing at the touch of Young Italy. (Voynich) 2. He felt only as after a bout of intoxication, weak, but the affair itself all dim and not to be recovered. (Lawrence)

Obscure, when used figuratively, has different shades of meaning: 'not clear to the mind', 'vague', as obscure meaning (ci. dark meaning); 'hidden', as, an obscure past; 'unknown to fame', as, Jude the Obscure.
is very obscure, is it not? (C. Doyle) 2. The old mine manager ... knew music, had last winter helped his men to produce one of Verdi's more obscure operas, and now, dormant behind his pipe, was enjoying himself enigmatically. (Cronin)

1. The point of the letter

Gloomy in the figurative sense means 'melancholy', 'grim,' 'sad', as, a gloomy person (face, look, eyes, etc.).
Higgins, gloomy and contemptuous of the whole business, into the group where they are chatting. (B. Shaw) comes

EXERCISES

I. Point out the synonyms; comment on the difference in the shades of meaning referring to the explanations given above. 1. In James's younger days, Jordan was an obscure and illiterate nobody. (Lawrence) 2. The colonel sat watching him keenly, noting with experienced eyes ... the dim gaze that told of physical prostration and disordered nerves. (Voynich) 3. Slowly, economicaIly, he got dressed and forced himself to walk. Everything was obscure, except just what he had his hands on. (Lawrence) 4. ... as we entered the Chalet he said with obscure distress, "I'd forgotten how many men there are... " (Greene) 5. He caught hold of her hands, but she shrank back, till her passionate little face and loose dark hair were caught among the pink clusters of the apple blossom. (Galsmorthy) 6. The Kid looked keenly into the shadow up and down the arroyo 70

[a dry gully] and toward the dim lights of the Mexican village. (0. Henry) 7.... she went so pale, closing her eyes, so that the long, dark lashes lay on her pale cheeks... (aalsworthy) 8. After tea Philip Repton and Eulalia Burnes discussed their gloomy circumstances... "I can't understand! Irs sickening, monstrous!" Lally was fumbling with a match before the penny gas fire, for when it was evening, in September, it always got chilly on a floor so high up. (Coppard) 9. He hardly knew why it was so ugly an idea, but it affected his imagination in a dark and disproportionate fashion. (Chesterton) 10. The library windows were open wide, and when we did not talk or touch one another we looked out at the dark dull sky. (Du Maurier) 11. Her attitude was so overwrought, the atmosphere of the room so dim and tense, that Andrew had a momentary thrill of coldness, almost of fear. (Cronin) 12. He ... began folding the paper up again, with a dim consciousness of having done something very ridiculous. (Voynich) 13. His love did not stimulate her or excite her. It extinguished her. She had to be the quiescent, obscure woman: she felt as if she were veiled. (Lawrence) 14. Only when the waitress had come up and he had ordered the tea did he look clearly at her - at her flushed and eager face, her dark blue suit and white blouse. (Lindsay) 15. A footnote says the meaning is obscure. What it is all about I defy any human being to explain. It might mean anything; it might mean nothing. (Jerome K. Jerome) II. Comment on the difference in the shades of meaning of the synonyms used in the same or similar collocations. Give the Russian equivalent in each case. (A) 1. Georgiana ... gazed at him with dark, enormous eyes. (Huxley) 2. My eyes are dim with always gazing into that devil's pin-cushion through which you come. (0. Henry) 3. He turned his gloomy eyes on her and his voice trembled with horror. (Maugham) (B) 1. Francis Macomber was very tall, very well built . dark, his hair cropped like an oarsman... (He mingtoay ) 2 . she stepped forward and said to that dim person beside her: "Come home to tea with me." (Mansfield) (C) 1. Then I, too, went down the steep twisting path through the dark woods to the beach below. (Du Maurier) 2. He made his way through the dim wood for some distance and with some difficulty, until there began to shine through the trees a level light. .. (Chesterton)
71

(D) 1. Then he saw her quite close - her dark form part of a little tree, her white' face part of its blossom... (Galsworthy) 2. A padding of unshod hoofs came up the lane, and three dim dark shapes passed - ponies on an evening march. (Galsworthy) 3. Mary ... saw the dim shapes of low trees, like grey soft birds ... (D. Lessing) (E) 1. The little woman in the gloomy passage seemed not to have heard her. (Mans/ield) 2. The boy slunk out into the dark passage. (Coppard) III. State in which sentences dark and dim might be applicable. 1. ... and her face looking up, her lost face with beseeching eyes, and __ wet hair - possessed, haunted, tortured him. (Galsworthy) 2. It was Saturday, so they were early home from school; quick, the __ little rascals of seven and six, soon talkative, for Ashurst had a way with children. (Oalst» 0 rthy) 3. A __ white mist was hovering among the pine trees ... (Voynich) 4. And before his eyes, __ with tears, came Megan's face with the sprig of apple blossom in her __ wet hair. (Galsworthy) 5. The twilight was so __ that his figure had a shadowy look, like a __ ghost among the darker boughs. (Voynich) 6. He would lie for hours motionless in the __ secret, echoing pine forests ... (Voynich) IV. In the first of the following sentences replace dark by the word -obscure, and in the second - by the word gloomy; account for the change of meaning in both sentences. 1. The erstwhile Major had been found dead on a dark street. .. (0. Henry) 2. The night was cloudy and still very dark as he went up the too familiar trench. (Aldington) V. State to which of the other synonyms of the group the word dim in the fo IIowing sentences is close in meaning. 1. The drizzle continued, spangled with dim lights ... (0. Henry) 2. All I could see through the streaming windows were two rows of dim houses. (0. Henry) 3. The black ground was hazy, a sea of dim faces none of whom I knew. (Du Maurier)

(18)

EMPTY, vacant,

blank

-to contain nothing'. of meaning.

72

Empty,

vacant, blank come into comparison

meaning Each of these words has its own shade

and vacant are apt to be confused by students of English because they are used in similar collocations, such as, an empty room (house, place); a vacant room However these words suggest different notions. An empty room (house) is the room (house) having no furniture or people in it. A vacant room (house) is the one that is not inhabited, not let to anyone. It may be furnished (as a room in a hotel), but it is called vacant so long as it has no occupant or occupants in it. An empty chair is the chair that has nothing on it. A vacant chair is the chair left unoccupied by people around, or the chair that has lost its usual occupant and has not obtained a new one as yet, as, in the corner stood my [ather's arm-chair lett vacant

Empty

(house, place); an empty chair, a vacant chair.

after his death.

1. How vast the great hall looked now that it was empty. {Du Maurier) 2. I hope they've given you a good room, the place is half empty ... (Du Maurier) 3. She sits down on the ottoman gracetully in the place just lett vacant by Higgins. (B. Shaw) 4.... in a vacant chair beside him he placed a little black leather bag. (Mansfield)

The above difference in the shade of meaning between empty and vacant has as its result the difference in usage of those two words; thus we say, an empty bucket, bottle, purse, pocket, stomach, glass (= not filled up with anything). But, a vacant professorship, office, post (= not occupied by any person); a vacant territory (= uninhabited).
1. Waldo reached into his coat pocket, drawing out a mostly empty bottle and handing it to her. (Caldwell) 2. I Ielt as it I'd drunk a glass ol port on an empty stomach. (Maugham) 3. The [ailyar d, the street, and the vacant lot on the other side were tilled with men and boys. (Caldwell) 4. Ayl they've made a clever move too, in offering the vacant post ... to a Levenior d man. (Cronin)

Empty occurs in the collocation to feel empty (= hungry).

The ner; stupid men had had to wait tor the substantial part of dinthey had felt empty, then they had felt cross ... (Priestley)

When empty is followed by an object, introduced by the preposition of.

\Ve found his car in the garage. It's empty

the object is
(Greene) 73

of petrol.

Blank means 'having nothing printed (written or drawn) on paper', as, blank paper; a blank sheet of paper; a blank page (in a book); 'having spaces left for signature or details', as, a blank form; 'having a space not filled', as, a blank spot (space); a blank wall (==one with no doors,

windows or openings; a wall without any ornaments on it).

1. Then
a square

of light appeared on the blank wall of the house ... (D. Lessing) 2. At one blank spot in the air their glances met and crossed, as though fixed on something there and yet not there. {Gulstsiorthy}

oacani, blank, in the figurative use, also have different shades of meaning. Empty means 'lacking worthwhile thoughts, ideas or knowledge', as, the empty head (mind); 'not giving any satisfaction', as, an empty word (promise, pleasure, priviEmpty, lege) .
His head was empty but unbowed; almost angrily. (Coppard) he spoke quickly and finished

Vacant means 'unthinking', 'unable to concentrate one's thoughts'; as, a vacant mind; 'stupid', 'listless', 'dull'.
He felt vacant, and wasted.

(Lawrence)

Blank means 'having no ideas or notions', as, a blank memory; 'empty of thought', as, a blank mind.
Arthur preferred to stay, standing with a blank mind, as if he were at the theatre watching a play, fascinated but unable to participate. (Sillitoe)

Blank often implies the idea of emptiness a person feels after a great loss or some other misfortune, as, her life seemed to go blank after the death of her child.
She did not know were feeling. All of what ... she thought, not even whether she seemed to go blank within her. {Galsmorthy)

Both vacant and blank mean 'void of expression or interest', as, a vacant (blank) face (expression, look).
1. The faces of the three men ... seemed for a moment or two to be vacant, staring into nothing. (Priestley) 2. He broke off, observing their blank faces. (Cronin) 3. I thought of his car, with half a
length between it and that drop of two thousand feet, and the blank expression on his face. (Du Maurier) 4. As yet, however, he was only a shabby, hollow-eyed youth with a vacant look."

(Priestley) 74

EXERCISES

for the use of the members of the synonymic group in the following sentences referring to the explanations given above.
1. The boy turned away with his face blank. (Hemingway)

I. Account

2. There was a tr ay of empt~ glasses on one of the tables. (Du Maurier) 3. The world was flat and empty in the evening. (Greene) 4. It was a shock for the young soldier. He felt something sink deeper, deeper into his soul, where nothing had ever gone before. It left him rather blank and wondering. (Lawrence) 5. I came here quite early, and saw him sitting quite alone in the middle of that gallery with the new pictures, that was quite empty then. (Chesterton) 6. He takes the place left vacant by the daughter. (B. Shaw) 7. I can see her now ... and her smile, vacant, happy, enjoying her evening. (Du Maurier) 8. He ... leaned on the window frame, staring yet again down into the blank paved space between the two blocks of flats. (Lindsay) 9.... before he could collect himself, she moved quietly away and went out of the shop, leaving him gazing blankly at the tumbler, the vacant chair, the empty air. (Cronin) 10. I was to be a reporter no longer; I was to have opinions, and in return for that empty privilege I was deprived of my last hope in the contest with Pyle. (Greene) 11.... and the deserted town, empty of life and movement, stood like a beleaguered city fearfully awaiting the onset of an attack. (Cronin) 12. And walking up and down the empty room, he stopped here and there to touch or look. (Galsteorthy) II. State what words (empty, blank) should be used in the blanks. 1. Jim walked around the __ cellroom while he was buttoning his shirt... (Caldwell) 2. I could swear that the house was not an __ shell but lived and breathed as it had lived before. (Du lV1aurier) 3. Buddha sat, as Buddha always sits with his lap __ . (Greene) 4. He took the seat offered him with a __ expression. (Cronin) 5. The cheap wine had turned sour in his __ stomach. (Hardy) 6. If only they would not stare at me like that with dull __ faces. (Du Maurier) 7. It was well dug into the earth, and the walls were hung with maps and __ flour bags. (Heym) 8. He stood there for an hour motionless, a chaos of sensations, but rigid with a will to keep __ his consciousness, to prevent his mind grasping. (Lawrence) 9. And, ramming contract and cheque into his __
75

hand, stared

1 bolted closely followed by the cat. (Oalsworthy) after her in __ surprise. (Cronin)

10. He

III. Point out in which sentences the word eml!ty is used metaphorically. Translate all the sentences into Russian, fact is that empty house got on his nerves ... He admitted as much before you came into the room. (Du Maurier) 2. It was not that he was afraid, or cowed. It was as if he was disembowelled, made empty, like an empty shell. (Lawrence) 3. He found an empty coffee can and left. .. (Caldwell) 4. 1 walked the long empty nave - this was not the Indo-China I loved. (Oreene) 5. The Captain was firmer and prouder with life, he himself was empty as a shadow. (La·wrence) IV. Translate into English. DycTa5I lJalIIKa; nycras cxaxenxa; cBo60.QHoe MecTo; BaKaHTHa5I .QOJDKHOCTb;lJHCTblfi JIHCT 6yMarH; OTCYTCTBYIOIUHfiB3r JI5I.Q; 6eCCMbICJIeHHOe asrpaxeaae JIHua; nycron pasroaop; nycron »ceJIY.lI.OK; lJYBcTBoBaTb roaon; nycrue CJIOBa; nOJIHOe MOJIlJaHHe; npOBaJIbI B naM5ITH.
1. The

(19)

FALSE,

wrong

come into comparison when they mean 'not true or right', 'erroneous'. However, they are different in the shades of meaning. False implies 'being not real or genuine', thus retaining here its etymological meaning of decelpt, as, a false coin,

False, wrong

( note); false teeth (pearls).

1. The meeting had left him pleased and yet irritated. All this bonhomie, it had a false note. (Lindsay) 2.... she possessed two false teeth and a sympathetic heart. (0. Henry) 3. The daylight had gone. The room looked unreal again in the false yellow light.

(Du Maurier)

Wrong means 'not correct',

Anything he could impression. (Cronin) write would

'mistaken'.
undoubtedly convey a wrong

a false
76

The difference between false and wrong may be seen in comparing the use of these words in the same collocations:

policy,

a wrong

policy;

a false advice,

a wrong

advice}' false principles, wrong principles; a false answer} a wrong answer. In all these cases false means both 'erroneous' and 'deceiving', whereas wrong means merely 'erroneous', 'mistaken'. example:
Could

This can be illustrated

by the following
name?

she have

come to see you and given

a false

(Du

Maurier)

If we replaced false by wrong, the above example would convey a different idea: a false name means 'not real', 'chosen to deceive or mislead people', while a wrong name means 'not right because of a mistake'. Both false and wrong occur in the collocation: false position (= one that causes misunderstanding or one that makes it necessary for a man to act against his principles); wrong position (= not the right place occupied by a person, troops of soldiers).
She coloured up, and nodded, reeling guilty; but she did not consciously reflect she was putting him in a false position.

(D. Lessing)

Wrong is used in the sense of something that is unsuitable for one, not wanted by one, as, to get into the wrong bus (tram); to get the wrong number (address); to enter the wrong house.
1. Robert Wilson ... suddenly felt as though he had opened the wrong door in a hotel and seen something shameful. (Hemingway) 2. "You've got the wrong number," cried Mr. Srneeth (Priestley)

Both wrong and false can be used predicatively.

1. The long shaft of daylight made the electric light look false and yellow. (Du Maurier) 2. "What's he doing?" and when she said, "He's seeing if everything's all right," his brain immediately filled with images of all that might be wrong. (Greene)

in the predicative use makes a component of such set expressions as I am wrong (he) she is wrong); what's wrong; what's wrong with you (him, her, etc.); it's wrong of you (me, him, etc.); there is something wrong with

Wrong

me (him) her} etc.).

1. I must have

Am I right? Am J wrong? (Heym) 2. "Is there something wrong, Mrs. Murdock?" he asked anxiously. (Caldwell) 3. What's wrong with your friend? (Heym) an answer.

77

EX ERCISES I. Account for the use of the synonyms referring to the explanations given above. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1. I wrote to the Managing Editor that this was the wrong moment to change their correspondent. (Greene) 2.... I had noticed him because he appeared incongruously in love with his wife, who ignored him, a flashy and false blonde. (Greene) 3. I took her out for a bit of a promenade, because I thought that was the best thing to do. Sorry if I was wrong. (H. Bates) 4. Oh, we took the infant's temperature, and it was normal ... I was so afraid there might be something really wrong with the dear kiddy. (Priestley) 5. I had built up false pictures in my mind and sat before them. (Du Maurier) 6. "You chose the wrong man, then?" "I surely did." "Bad judgment?" Hallarsen laughed. "That's very acute, Mr. Curator." (Galsworthy) 7. Furious, he did not answer, feeling himself in an utterly false position. (Cronin) 8. The whole system is wrong, and so is the code of "duty" taught. All this must be changed. (Aldington] 9. "Wrong number again," said the voice, disgusted. "Ring off-for God's sake." (Priestley) 10. He had taken up a wrong tone. (Joyce) 11. Laura had to say "yes" to that, but she felt it was all wrong. (Mansfield) 12.... Fact is, some of these mornings my inside's all wrong, dead rotten. Doctor says it's liver... (Priestley) 13. But Bert ... had not tried to escape from the Army. In fact he joined too young by giving a false age. (Sillitoe)

wrong.

II. State in which sentences you would use false and in which

1. "... let me show you everything," she said, her voice ingratiating and sweet as honey, horribly __ . (Du Maurter) 2. Perhaps he had been __ . (Hemingway) 3. I don't want you to waste time barking up the __ tree. (Chesterton) 4. The smile on her face was a __ unnatural thing. (Du Maurier) 5.... do you think there is anything __ in what I said? (Voynich) 6. "Good work!" said Mr. Dersingham, who obviously felt that something was still __ somewhere ... (Priestley) 7. You are quite __ about her. She's wonderful, wonderful. (Mansfield) 8.... I don't think I'm __ in saying that no one has danced in our district for eight years. (Maugham) 9. Here she was, ... four miles away, giving a __ name, and waiting in the house of a strange doctor ... (Cronin) 10. Mon78

sieur l My husband, he is innocent! He has never done anything __ ... Oh! I wish you were home, you!... (Heym) 11. "Well, poor fellow, he's a decent sort of chap, after all," continued Gabriel in a __ voice. (Joyce) 12. I don't exactly say you have a right to poach, but, I never could see that it was as __ as being a thief. (Chesterton) 13. The sign of her brooding was the clicking of her __ teeth as she sucked her cheeks in and out. (Cronin) 14. I suppose the woman wants to live her own life; and the man wants to live his; and each tries to drag the other on to the __ track. (B. Shaw)
III. Translate into English.

He TOT HOMep; 0lllH604Hoe MHeHHe; aaaenoxo JIO)KHOe MHeHHe; HenpaBHJIbHa5I ouemca; nocTY4aTbC5I He B Ty naeps; HenpaBI1JIbHOe YTBep)K.ueHI1e;JI)KHBOeYTBep)K}leHHe;B35ITb He TOT HOMep acypaana; ITOHTI1He ITO ron YJmue; JIO)KHOenOJIo)KeHI1e; cpaJIblllI1Ba5IMOHeTa. (B) 1. Ha see nonpocu OH, K CO)KaJIeHI1IO,uaJI HenpaBI1JIb. nue OTBe1bI. 2. OH COJIraJI (nan JIO)KHblti oTBeT), )KeJIa5IITO.Il:lllYTI1Tb. 3. Y .upeBHI1X r pexoa 6b1JIO HenpaBI1JIbI-IOe npencranaeaae o COJIHe4Hoti CI1CTeMe.4. TIpaBHI_li.I1e pyrI1 B KanI1TaJII1CTI14eCKI1X K crpanax HaCaJI(.uaIOT 3aBe.uOMO aenpaaansuue npe.ucTaBJIeHI15I o cosercxon crpane, 5. JI)KI1BaH nOJII1TI1Ka6YP)Kya3HbIx npasaTeJIbCTB B sonpoce pa30pY)KeHI15IBbI3bIBaeT B03MymeHI1e rrporpecCI1BHOrO4eJIOBe4eCTBa.
(A) Haopars

(20)

FAMOUS, notorious, distinguished, eminent

Famous, notorious, distinguished, eminent come into comparison as meaning 'well-known among men'. Famous and notorious mean 'widely or commonly known', but while the former is applied to men, things, events and places having good reputation. the latter is more commonly used in reference to men, things, events and places known for some bad qualities or ill reputation, as, a famous writer (poet, scientist; discovery; resort), but: a notorious criminal (gangster; gambling house; incident).
to otter ... 10 a famous operator named Genderman with whom his firm did no business. (Dreiser) 2.... I was here, at Manderley, the house of the picture post-card, the Manderley that was famous... (Du Maurier) 3. He went on to tell

1. ... he decided

79

long stories of the various occasions on which he had played cards with notorious sharpers. (Maugham) 4. "It is a strange way to go against Fascism," Shaw laughed at it. "To arrest the notorious anti-Fascists first." It was comment without any bitterness.

(Aldridge)

and eminent are closer to each other than to any other member of the group: besides, meaning 'wellknown', they both imply the idea of distinction, of being superior to similar persons, as, a distinguished writer, an

Distinguished

eminent writer; a distinguished scientist, an eminent scientist; a distinguished actor, an eminent actor; distinguished (eminent) people.
1. By way of complimenting

his distinguished colleague he asked him in consultation to a case of pneumonia he was then attending... (Cronin) 2. It was a testimony to their own probity that this captain of industry and eminent statesman should find time to perform a humble office to persons in their modest sphere ...

(l!1augham)

apart from the other members of the group, means 'fine' and 'superior', in reference to persons, qualities and actions, as, distinguished appearance (manners,

Distinguished,

style, career).

But, afraid of losing the expansion of his chest, he leaned back again into a state of immobility, for he prized nothing --so highly as a distinguished appearance. (Oalsworthy)

post); a man of eminent kindness

He lived in eminent self-content, in sunshine. (Meredith)

may be used as an attribute to abstract notions in the meaning of 'remarkable', 'outstanding' , 'of the highest degree possible', as, eminent career (position, place,

Eminent

(generosity).

as one lying

on soft cloud, lapt

for talent (for skill in painting, singing, dancing); a place famous for its springs (resources); a city famous for its museums, etc.: (b) notorious for behaviour (cruelty, inhumanity, etc.); (c) distinguished for talent (fine taste, beauty, etc.); (d) eminent for talent (kindness, position, etc.).
80

All the members of the group, when they require an object, are followed by the preposition for, as: (a) famous

EXERCISES I. Account for the use of the explanations given above.

synonyms

referring

to the

1. She was painted on horseback, you know a famous artist did it. (Du Maurier) 2. I ponder now the various wicked-

nesses Duboko [the dog] committed throughout his notorious career. (Kantor) 3. Save for Lord Saltoun it was a family party of Fishers, for the only other distinguished stranger had just departed after the dinner, leaving the rest to their coffee and cigars. (Chesterton) 4. Godber's were famous for their cream puffs. (Mansfield) 5. She's the literary genius of this dis tingzlished family. (Priestley) 6.... and then he paused, grinned his famous grin. (Mansfield) 7. Big Mama is notorious throughout the Delta for this sort of inelegant horseplay. (T. Williams) 8. Colonel Selby was carried at once to his room, and Dr. Puffer, the eminent surgeon, was sent for. (M. Twain) 9. Grandfather Pinner shot his eyes at Cyril in the way he was famous for. (Mansfield) II. What words (famous, distinguished or notorious) should be used in the blanks? 1. Yet in his fur coat, with frogs across the breast, his top hat aslant, driving this beautiful woman, he had never felt more __ . (Galstoorthy) 2. The Union, to which every reputable medical man ought to belong, was __ for its Annual Conferences. (Cronin) 3. She was a tall, thin, elegant girl, very delicate in her appearance, not in the least pretty but with wide intelligent eyes and a manner of __ ease. (Cronin) 4. The food is very good, the cellar is __ , and its situation makes it on a fine evening of early summer an enchanting place to eat at. (Maugham) 5.... her one pastime, which was __ by now in Monte Carlo, was to claim visitors of distinction as her friends had she but seen them once ... (Dti Maurier) III. Replace the italicized words by the other members of the synonymic group if possible. Account for the change of meaning involved by the substitutions. 1. I love you because you are so distinguished and your conversation is instructive and interesting. (Maugham) 2.... I'm like the famous Mrs Cassidy... (Joyce) 3. It was not a very distinguished company... (Dreiser) 4. Sharp at the hour we heard a heavy step upon the stairs and the famous millionaire was shown into the room. (C. Doyle) 5. I remembered the old Saigon story of the distinguished visitor who had lost
81

his post.

trousers

fighting

his have

way made

back your

to

the name

safety

of

the

police

(Greene) 6. I Europe. (B. Shaw)

famous

throughout

IV. Has the author used here eminent in its usual sense or ironically? Which of the above synonyms might be used in this case?
The cessful Cisco Kid was are ••• a vain person, as all assassins

(0. Henry)

eminent

and suc-

V. Translate into English. (A) Hsaecrnun 110:n; 113BeCTI-Ihlfi WaXMaT11CT; ropon, M3BeCTHhlti csoen xpacoron; 3HaMeH11Thlti MY3hIKaHT; BhIJlalOIIJ,a5IC5I
JI11lJHOCTh;3HaMeH11Thlti

axrep;

3HaMeH11Thlti 110JIKOBo.u.eu;lJeJIOBeK, pa36ofiH11K; 113Be-

113BeCTHhlti CB011M11 TaJIaHTaM11; 3HaMeH11Thlti

crnan

BOp. COBeTCK11e JIlOll11 Cl1paBe.u.JI11BO rOpll5ITC5I CBOMM113Ha-

(B) 1.

MeH11ThIM11JIeTlJ11KaM11-KOCMOHaBTaM11. 2. JIIOU110HepOM naurea MeH11ThIX 9110XM. BO scex

B. H.

JIeHHH 6hIJI caMhIM COlO3e MHoro 3Ha-

BhIllalOIIJ,HMC5I rrOJIMT11lJeCK11MJle5ITeJIeM M I1pOCJIaBJIeHHhIM peao-

yseaux

3. B

COBeTcKoM

OTpaCJI5IX

HaYKH.

4.

K11CJIOBOllCK C116HPh 11

113BeCTeH CB011M11ueJIe6HhIMl1

11CT04H11KaMH.

Ilonoacc
B TaK MI1pe?

5.

YpaJI,

M3BeCTr-IhI CB0l1M11 I1PI1pOJlHhIMl1 6oraTcTBaMH. HBJIHeTC5I caMhIM BhIllalOmI1MC5I

6.

KTO

B HaCTOHIIJ,ee BpeM5I

I111CaTeJIeM

7.

J1eH11HrpaJl 60HHcKoe

113BeCTeH CB011MH MHOr0411CJIeHHhIM11

rraMHTH11KaM1111CKyccTBa. 3a60THTcH

8. Boenasie

rrpecTyI1H11K11, 0 KOTOPbIX H3BeC!HW BceMY M11py 6eClJeJIOBelJHhIM11

rrpaBHTeJIbCTBO,

CB011M11 BapBapCK11M11 y611ticTBaM11 110cTYI1KaMM.

11 llpyrMM11

(21) Firm,

FIRM, hard, hard,

solid

sense of 'resisting pressure or weight'. These words differ in the shades of meaning. Firm, as opposed to flabby, means 'compact'; it also suggests compactness of structure having the power of taking its original shape when pressed, as firm muscles (flesh); a firm chin (figure); a firm bed, etc.
1. What they saw was a girl of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, or even twenty-nine, with ... a firm round chin that was ready to double itself at any moment. (Priestley) 2. He tested the bed and found it firm ... (Lindsay)

solid are compared as words having the

82

Firm also implies 'not easily shaken or removed', 'well fixed in its place', 'stable'.
1. '" he tried to free himself from the tight bonds that held him down. But they were firm and would not give. (Siltitoe) 2. She had visioned their cottage so continuously that it stood always firm, white and steadfast in her mind ... (Cronin)

Hard, as opposed to soft, means 'not easily yielding to the touch', 'having no elasticity'; as, hard steel (wood, bread, ground); a hard stone (bed).
1. I thought with nostalgia of my couch on the hard dry ground. (Greene) 2. His bed, too, was hard and this preserved him from fever. (Galsworthy)

Solid, as a term in physics, is opposed to fluid or gaseous, as, solid fuel, a solid substance; when wafer freezes and becomes solid it is called ice.
The milk in his pail was frozen

solid. (Laurie Lee)

Solid is also opposed to flimsy, and it means 'massive', 'large', 'very strong'; as, a solid house (wall, chair, carpet); solid furniture, etc.
a deep, comfortable room ... the sort of room a man would move from never, did he live alone: solid chairs beside a great open fire-place. (Du Maurier) 2. I was glad to come out on to the lawn and see the house there in the hollow, solid and secure. (Du Maurier)

1. It was

Firm, hard, solid are often used figuratively, each having its own applications. Firm implies steadiness, resoluteness, strength of character or purpose, as, a firm voice (look, manner, face); firm steps (beliefs); to be firm (with people).
1. For a moment she wavered ... but I was very firm. (Du Maurier) 2. Arthur's face was fixed into firm lines to stop himself laughing. (Sillitoe) 3. Drawing back into the shadow of the wall she observed the pleasant bustle at the door, heard the pawing of the horse, the gingle of its harness, then Renvick's firm voice ...

(Cronin)

Firm also means 'having a stable position in life' (social, financial, etc.).
Every hour brought the first performance of his Pleasure Palace nearer ... The Palace stood firm at last - oh it was so rickety when it arrived. (Lawrence)

83

Hard means: 1. 'Req uiring great energy and effort', (blow, task); hard work (running, etc.).
The youth had evidently come from

as, a hard fight

work in the fields.

hard

(Galsworthy)

'showing lack of feeling', 'unpleasant to eye or ear', 'harsh', as, a hard father (master); hard words; a hard voice (heart); to be hard on somebody.
1. A hard man, Mr. Holmes, Izard to all about him. (C. Doyle) 2. "Well," she sai d, her voice dry and hard, not the voice she would have used to him. (Du Maurier)

2. 'Severe',

as a hard problem (subject); a hard book; a hard language, etc.; or 'difficult to bear', as, a hard life (time, etc.).
1. Of course, it's hard life. (Maugham) 2. Because of the unsettled condition of the country ... there were prospects of hard times. (Dreiser) 3. All one could do was try to make the future less hard ... (Greene)

3. 'Difficult',

In the sense of 'difficult' hard may be also followed by an infinitive or the for-to-infinitive construction, as, it is hard to do something or it is hard for somebody to do something.
It was hard to operate and be comfortable, bad deal, when you had to watch yourself to feel good about a all the time. (Heym)

Solid, when used figuratively, means: 1. 'Strong', 'of great quantity', 'substantial', mental', as, solid work (meal).
"It's heavybit of work." remarkably heavy," said he.

'funda-

"Yes, it is a solid

(C. Doyle)

2. 'Sound', 'well-grounded', reasons, grounds) .

... Mrs. Smeeth ... only grievance ... (Priestley) took

as, solid facts

offence when she

(arguments,
had a solid

3. When applied to the word business, solid 'profitable', 'flourishing', as, it was solid business.

means

The minute these orders that are coming now are turned into solid business ... you're going to get a rise, a good rise, a hun .. dred or two a year. .. (Priestley)

84

4. When applied to a person, solid means 'a person of sound financial position', 'prosperous', as, a solid man or a solid business man; 'strong,' 'firmly built'.
1. ... he felt triumphant, proud, a solid and successful man among a lot of failures. (Priestley) 2. Consequently the pub is much used by solid business men and Town Hall officials ... (J. Braine) 3.... Mr. Golspie marched up, very solid and dominating, and said: "Well, what about a dance with me?" (Priestley) EXERCISES I. Account for the use of firm, hard, solid referring explanations given above.

to the

1. His sister, who was a hard, rather practical person, used to complain that there were too many scents at Manderley ... (Du Maurter) 2.... Andrew, sick from a sleepless night, his flabby muscles failing on the first hill made to turn back when they had gone only a short way. Denny was firm. (Cronin) 3. The farmyard muck was brown and hard dusted with frost like a baked bread-pudding. (Laurie Lee) 4. The stones were hard and solid under my feet. (Du Maurier] 5. Her figure was thin and agile ... which spoke to him of much hard running and dauntless skipping in her childhood. (Cronin) 6. She looked very hard and grim. (Du Maurier) 7. These firm, delicate hands had probed the mysteries of her inanimate body, had saved her life, such as it was... (Cronin) 8. He produced long thin rolls in paper envelopes. They were very hard, very crisp. (t» Maurier} 9. It was a fine, solid dug-out. (Heym] 10. The bluebells have not faded yet, they made a solid carpet in the woods ... (Du Maurier) 11. He yielded before the solid, stumbling figure with bent head. (Lawrence) 12. She told him of the sobbing, and he in turn stood listening; but nothing penetrated the room's solid roofing. (Qalsworthy) 13. "I think it suits you very well," he said dutifully, hardly looking at the dress of luminous grey which clung to her slight, firm and yet soft figure. (Lindsay) 14. I sat quite still, the floor, the walls, the figures of Frank and the policeman taking solid shape before me. (Du Maurier) 15. It was hard to give in while I still had some fight in me. (Mallgham). 16. If Stella knew, she would give him her blessing for resisting that devil she believed in, and he uttered a hard laugh. (Galsmorthy} 17. Her talk quick, rather hard and shy, yet friendly - seemed to flourish 85

On his silences... (Qalsworthy) 18. It seemed so natural that she should look after you. Ethel's got her husband and children. Lois is so much younger. She doesn't understand. She's hard. (Maugham) 19. His face was pale, but his chin had a firm line. (Cronin) II. State which of the words should be inserted in the blanks (firm, hard, SOlid). two men in blue helmets, large and __ men, took their stand in the very middle of the scene... (Priestley) 2. His mouth was very dry and it was __ for him to talk. (Hemingway) 3. Jule's hounds were __ to fool. (Caldwell) 4. They stood together; two __ middle-aged men, and together they watched the long line of masts and funnels. . (Priestley) 5. The work of the practice was desperately __ not ... because he had many patients, but because of ... the long distances between his calls. (Cronin) 6. Bundle's is the place if you're really hungry and you want a good __ feed. (Priestley) 7.... she lay on the __ ground, bruised, aching, thrown down by Bing. (Heym) 8. He was the sort of boy as would talk poetry to you if you weren't __ with him. (Jerome K. Jerome) 9.... you are everything to me, that's why it angers me so, this treatment of you, all __ blows and no comfort. (Coppard). 10. He's __ and cruel and selfish. (Maugham) 11. Verner was not only a __ landlord but a mean landlord, a robber as well as a rack-renter... (Chesterton) 12. But ... in the centre of his chest was himself, himself, __ , and not to be plucked to pieces. (Lawrence) 13. Each time the truck hit a hole, a tent pole or some other __ object poked his ribs. (Heym)
1. ...

III. Substitute firm for the word hard in the following sentences. State what change of meaning this substitution will incur. 1. I heard myself speaking in a liard cool voice. (Du Maurier) 2. The pretty face wore a rather hard, but, she decided, very capable expression. (Qalsworthy) 3. Rivers was an exceedingly forceful man of thirty-five, well-dressed, well-formed, with a hard smooth, evenly-chiselled face ... (Dreiser) IV. Translate into English.

)l{ecTKa51nOCTeJIb;)J{eCTKl-Ie CJIOBa;T5I>KeJIa51 pariora; T5I)J{eJIa51 )Kl-I3Hb;nepnun, KaK CTaJIb;raepnue y6e:tK.lleHl-I5I; r rsepnun xapaxrep; raepnas nocryns; raepnoe TeJIO (eetuecmeot; xpenxae 86

MyCKy JIbl; COJIH.llHblti

rcperncne
qeJIOBeK;

CTeHbI;

MaCCI1BHa5I Me6eJIb;

MaCCHBHOe

COJIl1.llHOe

npennpasrae;

snanae;

OCHOBaTeJIbHblti

apryxetrr;

OCHOBaTeJIbHble

npasaau.

(22) HIGH,

tall, lofty

High, tall, lofty come into comparison as meaning 'above the average in height'. High and tall are closer to each other than to lofty. They both apply to plants, as, a high (tall) tree; high (tall) grass.
1. He raised it to drink and looked ahead at the high grass with

the flat-topped trees behind. (Hemingway) 2.... the lion went into a gallop and was in the tall grass before he had the bolt pushed forward. (Hemingway)

However, each of these words has its own peculiarities. High, as opposed to low, is chiefly applied to things which are far above the ground and generally it is not used of men and animals, as a high building (mast, hill); high heels; a high hat, etc.
the car where the common rose steeply to the left, and a narrow STrip of larch and beech ... stretched out towards the valley between the road and the first long high hill of the full moor. (Oalsworthy)

It was she who had stopped

Tall, as opposed to short, can be applied to people and animals; as, a tall man (ostrich, etc.).
"Women upset," said Wilson to the tall man. (Hemingway)

Tall is also used in reference to things, especially when their breadth or diameter is small in proportion to their height, as, a tall mast (spire, column, etc.).
High above the city on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. (0. Wilde)

Lofty is said of something that is very high and imposing, as, a lofty tower (mountain, cliff. etc.). It often has a poetical colouring.
E'en now, I am piIlow'd on a bed of flowers I That crowns a lofty cliff, which proudly towers I Above the ocean waves. (Keats)

87

wind, fever, temperature,

Of these words only high and lofty can be used figuratively. In the figurative sense high is used to express: 1. 'Degree' or 'intensity', as, high speed (pressure, colour,
prices, opinion, spirits, quality).
Bertha couldn't help smiling; she knew how he loved at high pressure. (Mansfield) doing things

official; high society; high life.

2. 'Distinction',

'importance', sometimes 'pride'; as, a high

One's mode of life might be high and scrupulous, but there was always an undercurrent of greediness, a hankering, and sense of waste. (Qalswortlzy)

Lofty in the figurative sense means: 1. 'Distinguished', 'elevated', as, lofty aims (sentiments, style, quality); a lofty calling (bearing).
A languishing inexperienced woman, whose husband's mental and moral stature is more than the ordinary height above her, and who, now that her first romantic admiration of his lOfty bearing has worn off ... is thrown into no wholesome household collision with a fluent man, fluent in prose and rhyme. (Mere-

dith)

lofty person.

2. 'Haughty',

'proud',

as, in a lofty manner (way); a

She kept her attitude of quiet amusement, and little by little he sank. From being a lofty creature soaring over her head, he was now like a big fish poking its nose above water and making eyes at her. (Lawrence)

EXERCISES I. Account for the use of the members of the synonymic group referring to the explanations given above. 1. We flushed a covey of quail under a high clay bank with overhanging brush... (Hemingway) 2. The Captain was a tall man of about forty, grey at the temples. (Lawrence) 3. Her drawing room, in a flat on Chelsea Embankment, has three windows looking on the river, and the ceiling is not so lofty, as it would be in an older house of the same pretension. (B. Shaw) 4.... her luminous eyes fixed absorbedly upon the painting out of which breathed a cool grey mist that lay upon still grey water, shrouding softly the tall, quiet trees-

88

as silvery as her own trees... (Cronin) 5.... he saw with clearness the sort of woman he had to deal with and he was aware that, if he asked her to release him, she would ... assess her wounded feelings at an immoderately high figure. (Maugham) 6. He opened the rear door and took out a crowbar that was as long as he was tall. (Caldwell) 7. Perhaps, it's simply that I'm five years older at that end of life when five years becomes a high proportion of what's left. (Oreene) 8. The remote quality which hung about her in the midst of her intimacies and her frequencies, nothing high or lofty but something given to the struggle and yet invincible in the struggle, made them seek her out. (Lawrence) 9. She waved to them as the car went off through the swale of high grass ... (Hemingway) 10. Nature had destined him to be about five feet ten inches tall. (Dreiser) 11. Mr. Davidson stood still. With his tall spare form, and his great eyes flashing out of his pale face, he was an impressive figure. (Mallgham) 12. "Oh, my goodness!" she exclaimed as she stood in Alvina's bedroom and looked at the enormous furniture, the lofty tableland of the bed. (Lawrence) 13.... he put the rifle in the tall grass in front of W olfe, (Aldridge) II. What words of the synonymic group should be inserted in the blanks? 1. The __ policeman changed his feet. (Oalsworhy) 2. She said in a very __ imposing way, "Do you mind following me into the drawing room, Constantia? I've something of great importance to discuss with you." (Mansfield) 3. She was dressed as on the day before, in a white frock, and her shiny white boots with their __ heels, ... were strange things on that exotic scene. (Maugham) 4. He was very __ and thin with 1imbs loosely jointed... (Mallgham) 5. "What is his name, Madame?" "Marasca-Francisco ... It has a bad sound ... " "And what about other names?" interrupted Miss Pinnegar, a little __ . (Lawrence) 6. He wore a frock-coat always, it was quite the thing in financial circles in those days, and a __ hat. (Dreiserj III. State in which of the following sentences it is possible to use other members of the synonymic group and in which only one suits. 1. Then he pulled himself together, conscious suddenly of the calm scrutiny of this other young girl, so tall and fair and Diana like, at the edge of the pooL .. (Gaismorthy) 2. The 89

grass, this good lush grass. You could lie in it, and if you stretched out flat, the grass about you would be as high as your body. (Heynz) 3. He was running towards the tall and well-dressed young man with the short hair and the foreignlooking beard. (Chesterton) 4. The high polish of his boots shone even in the dimness of the tent. (Heym)

IV. Translate
Bsrcoxas

into English.

crena; BbICOKI1e s.u;aHI151; bICOKI1e ueJII1; BbICOKa51 B Ma4Ta; BbICOKI1e xauecrna; BbICOKoe rrpI13BaHI1e; BbICOKa51 reaneparypa; BbICOKa516allIH5I; BbICOKa51 crenens: BbICOKI1e 06JIaKa; BbICOKI1ti nocr; BbICOKa51ropa; usrcoxoe nepeso; BbICOKI1e ueau; BbICOKoe MHeHI1e; asrcuree orimecrao; 60JIbllIa51 CKOPOCTb; 60JIburas I1HTeHCI1BHOCTb; CI1JIbHoe .l1.aBJIeHl1e; I1JIbHblti serep. C

(23)

LIABLE,

subject, susceptible, sensitive, exposed, open

Liable, subject, susceptible, sensitive, exposed, open are synonymous when they denote that persons or things are in a certain condition where they can be affected by something. Liable and subject are close to each other in the meaning of 'being likely to experience something that depends on a person's state of health, doings, temperament or state of mind', as, liable (subject) to diseases (colds); liable (sub ject) to doubts (suspicions); liable (sub ject) to change; liable (subject) to criticism may be used not only in reference to people but is also said about work and something published, as, the article is liable (subject) to criticism.
a deeper interest in the view that the anthracite workers were more liable to lung troubles than other underground workers. (Cronin) 2. She was always subject to bronchitis. In November she had a bad bronchitis cold. (Lawrence)

1. He showed

However liable and sub ject have their own shades of meaning. Liable is used in the sense of 'apt to experience something unpleasant or undesirable', as, liable (not subject) to a fine; liable to duties.
If you drive a motor-car to the danger of the public, yourself liable to a heavy fine. (Hornby)
you make

Liable, in colloquial
90

language,

is equivalent

to likely.

· .. he is liable at any moment

to come to Elizabeth.

(M. Twain)

Liable, besides, means 'legally

bound'

or 'responsible'.

The question for me to decide is whether or no the defendant is liable to refund to the plaintiff this sum. In my judgement he is so liable. (Galsworthy)

Subject is used in the sense of: 1. 'Likely to have', as, subject to dreams (fancies, etc.).
"My psychology may be a little abnormal, n replied Horne Fisher in a rather hazy manner. "I am subject to dreams, especially day dreams. n (Chesterton)

2. 'Dependent on', as, subject subject to certain rules, etc.

You think you courthouse and you to get me the rules of the

to approval

(sanction);

can waste our time. I've got to get in to the I've got to get in this afternoon. And it's up to through. You are a common carrier, subject to railroad commission. (Steinbeck)

Liable and subject have different syntactical relations. Both can be followed by an object expressed by a noun, whereas only liable can be succeeded by an object expressed by an infinitive or an infinitive phrase. Compare: liable (subject) to colds; but: liable to catch colds; liable (subject) to change; but: liable to undergo a change.
She had to be very careful, because he was liable to be touchy and irritable in his present state of weakness. (D. Lessing)

Susceptible and sensitive may be grouped together as meaning 'responsive', 'readily reacting', 'affected', 'moved' ~ as, susceptible (sensitive) to beauty (kindness, music, surroundings) .
was not at all susceptible to atmosphere, or the things people imply, was brought face to face with it suddenly, and most unpleasantly. (D. Lessing) 2. Sensitive to atmosphere, Jolyon soon felt the latent antagonism between the boys. (Gals-

1. Mary, who

worthy)

Sensitive in reference to or 'hurt physically by some the thermometer is sensitive cold; the eye is sensitive to to the sunrays.

things means 'easily affected' external force or factors'; as, (not susceptible) to heat and the light; the skin is sensitive
91

Susceptible may occur in the same collocations as liable and subject: susceptible (liable, subject) to diseases (infection); susceptible (liable, sub ject) to criticism. In the latter case susceptible carries an additional meaning of 'being impressionable' and is applied to people. When we say that the book is liable (subject) to criticism, we mean that the book has certain defects which give people the right to criticize it; but when we say: "this rnan is susceptible to criticism," we mean that the man has that in his nature or temperament which makes him feel criticism very keenly. Exposed and open may be also grouped together as meaning 'unprotected', as, exposed (open) to the weather (wind, sunlight, chemical or radiological agents). Exposed and open, though used in similar collocations, have different nuances. Compare:
1. The mechanical parts of the plane were exposed 2. The house on the hill was open to the winds. to the winds.

The first sentence implies that the mechanical parts of the plane were placed in the above position intentionally, with the purpose of subjecting them to test. The second sentence suggests that the house was in the above position occasionally, due to the fact of its standing on the hill.
1. Next he constructed ... a dust chamber in which for certain hours of the day the animals were exposed to concentrations of the dust. (Cronin) 2. It was the hour of rest in the immense courtyard which lay open to the sky. (Greene)

Exposed, in the meaning of 'subjected to', is used in such collocations as, exposed to danger (to a risk, to enemy's fire); exposed to sneers.
It would have been equally ineffective to convince him [her husband] that she spent not one farthing upon her personal expenses, that she had not bought herself a new garment for three years ... exposing herself, by the very unselfishness of this economy, to his gibes and sneers. (Cronin)

Exposed, besides, means 'uncovered', 'bare'. (In this meaning it is not followed by the object preceded by the preposition to.)
... on the more exposed sections of the road Foreign threw out cover across the ricefields. (Greene) Legionaries

92

like liable, subject and susceptible, may occur in the collocation: exposed to infection. However the word exposed has a different nuance. Compare:
1. The child is liable (subject, susceptible) 2. The child is exposed to infection.

Exposed,

to infection.

The first sentence in all its variations suggests that the child is not very strong physically, in consequence of which he easily becomes a prey to different kinds of infection. The second sentence means that the child is intentionally or occasionally placed in a certain condition in which he may easily catch the infection. Open, like liable and subject, may occur in the collocations open to criticism (doubts, suspicions).
This story exhibits many kinds of excellences, to which Lawrence's critics have not been blind, but it is also open to a number of seriously damaging criticisms, not all of which have been noted.

EXERCISES I. Account for the use of the synonyms referring to the explanations given above. 1. The telegram, however, was for Mr. Murdock... "Thanks all the same," he said, and gave her a sixpence, feeling a fool. Now more than ever she was liable to bring him other people's wires. (Lindsay) 2. Charlie, Dick and the young man, Tony Marston, stood in the middle of a field; ... Marston sensitive to the situation and trying to efface himself. (D. Lessing) 3. They undid the diamond hitch holding the boxes and released the thick rope from the belly of the wounded mule. The boxes fell off, leaving the Greeks exposed. (Aldridge) 4. Equally sensitive to admiration of himself, he considered Laetitia Dale a paragon of cleverness. (Meredith) 5. Susceptible to beauty, he had never seen so beautiful a girl as Constantia Durham. (Meredith) 6. ... we make a cage for air with holes, I thought, and man makes a cage for his religion in much the same way - with doubts left open to the weather. ..

(Greene)
subject.

II. State in which sentence

liable

is interchangeable

with

1. Michael must look out - in a collection's house there's always a lumber room for old junk, and husbands are liable
93

to get into it. (Galsworthy) 2. "I'm likely to a temperature _" "Liable to a temperature," murmured Louis pathetically. (Lawrence) 3. He said Dick was worn out, a shell of a man; liable to get any disease going. (D. Lessing)
III. State in which sentence with susceptible.

sensittoe

is not interchangeable

to Mr. Pritchard's unrest. (Steinbeck) 2.... where other men carry their pride like a skin-disease on the surface, sensitive to the least touch, his pride was deeply hidden and reduced to the smallest proportion possible. (Greene) 3. I had not seen Pyle while I was in the Legion Hospital, and his absence and silence, easily accountable (for l.e was more sensitive to embarrassment than I), sometimes worried me unreasonably. (Greene)
IV. State in what sense exposed is used in the following sentences. 1. It was the best place to swim from; all the other stretches

1. She was sensitive

of beach nearby were shingly and exposed. (1. Braine) 2. And she tilted her head, with lips a little parted and throat exposed, watching the struggle on his face. (Oalsmorthy] 3. Many investigators since that time have studied charged surfaces . by these protographic plates exposed to the discharge . (Electr. Engineering)
V. Translate into English.

Ilonsepacenuua 3a6oJIeBaHIUIM; nonnepacenaun .n.eiicTBHIO pa)lI10aKTI1BHbIX BeIII,eCTB; 06JIaraIOIII,I1iicH nOIlIJII1HOfi;CKJIOHHbIii K MellTaTeJIbHOCTI1; BOCnpI1I1MllHBblii KO BceMY npexpacnoay; He3aIII,I1III,eHHblfiOT serpa; I1o)lJIe)l{allJ,I1ficrpor on KpHTHKe; OCTpO BOCI1pHHHMaIOIII,Hii KPHTI1Ky; ooypeaaeaun COMHeHI1HMH; llYBCTBHTeJIbHblii K I13MeHeHI1HM rexneparypu (0 mep.uo.uempej; llYBCTBI1TeJIbHblii K cBeTY (0 enasax); CKJIOHHblfiK nO)103peHI1HM;nonJIe)l{allJ,I1ii urrparpy; nonaepacennun I13MeHeHI151M; nonsepr-arsca OI1aCHOCTH;CJIY)l{I1Tb npenaerox 3KCnepI1MeHTa. (24) ROUGH,

harsh,

uneven,

rugged

when they mean 'having not a smooth surface'. These words differ in the shades of meaning and in usage.

Rough,

harsh, uneven, rugged come into comparison

*
94

Rough enters into another synonymic group (25).

Rough and harsh mean 'coarse to the touch', as, rough (harsh) fabric (texture, skin); but: rough paper (hair, grass, clothes).
blouse was worn and old, her shoes were split, her little hands rough and red, her neck browned. (Gals worthy) 2. Dick lay still, half delirious with fever... The sweat poured off him; and then his skin became dry and harsh and burning hot. (D. Lessing) 3. He wore rough clothes that smacked of the sea ... (London)

1. ... her greyish

Rough applies to surfaces having ridges and projections, as, rough surface (road, stone, etc.).
and rattled over the rough country roads all night long. (Caldwell) 2. A rough surface of sand was blowing and settling on the maps though there was no wind. (Aldridge) 3. At cross-roads - a suicide's gravel... Whoever lay there, though, had the best of it, no clammy sepulchre among other hideous graves carved with futilities - just a rough stone, the wide sky, and wayside blessings. (Galsworthy) roared

1. Automobiles

Rugged, as applied ged coast (cliff, etc.).

The coast is pretty eh? (Du Maurier)

to edges, means 'jagged',

though, isn't it?... Not

as, a rug-

so rugged as this,

Uneven means 'not ground (floor, country).

level',

'not

flat',

as

an uneven

1. ... they were in the car again, Macomber and Wilson hanging on the sides and rocketing swayingly over the uneven ground ... (Hemingway) 2. The cold spell had frozed them [pot-holes] again, making the path uneven. (Aldridge)

The words of this synonymic group are widely used in the Iigura t ive sense. Rough and harsh mean 'disagreeable' and apply to things which impress one's feelings as being devoid of graciousness, as, a rough (harsh) voice (tone, sound, etc.).
1. His face was dark and queer, and his voice was rough, not his voice at all. (Du Maurter) 2.... her voice, which had hitherto, as I said, been dull and toneless, was harsh now. (Du Maurier)

Rough, besides, is used in the sense of 'difficult as, a rough time; rough passage (= situation).

to bear',

It's kind of you to bother, Evie. I've had a rather rough passage, but at all events 1 know where I am now. (Maugham)

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apart from rough, is applied to a person that is unfeeling, cruel, indifferent to the pain he inflicts, as, a harsh critic (man). It also means 'severe', 'hard to bear', as, a harsh judgment (rebuke, sentence; climate; struggle);

Harsh,

harsh punishment

(words).

1. And he became harsh and cruelly bullying, using contempt and satire. (Lawrence) 2. For a fault in early youth, redeemed by him nobly ... he was condemned to undergo the world's harsh judgement. (Meredith)

Rough and

rugged in reference

featured', 'irregular'. irregularity than rough,

to faces mean 'heavyOf these two rugged implies a greater

His face had already lost its youthful chubbiness, and was becoming somewhat William's rough-featured, almost rugged. (Law-

rence)

Uneven means 'not uniform', (playing, acting).

EXERCISES

as, an uneven performance

I. Account for the use of the synonyms explanations given above.

referring

to the

1. He put his hands on the dry, almost warm tree trunk, whose rough mossy surface gave forth a peaty scent at his touch. (Galsworthy) 2. His subconsciousness remembered those steely blue eyes and the harsh brows, and did not intend to meet them again. (Lawrence) 3. But he was so scared by the war, so unable to adjust himself to a harsh, intruding reality ... (Aldington) 4. She took the car along the rough and rutted road as near as she could get to the compound ... (D. Lessing) 5. "Let's go next door," she said abruptly, her voice harsh. (D. Lessing) 6. He trimmed the end of his cigar, that had somehow become slightly rugged, and went to the study to meet his visitors. (Carter) 7. He could see the rough edge of sandbags that marked the Vichy position. (Aldridge) 8. The paved stones were smooth and grey. They were not jagged and uneven. (Du Maurier) 9.... he invariably wore black serge clothes, a rough linen shirt, black sandals, and the largest black-rimmed spectacles that I had ever seen. (Mansfield) 10. It was the sound of a gramophone, harsh and 1oud, wheezing out a syncopated tune. (Maugham) 96

II. State in which sentences the words rough and harsh have the same shades of meaning and where they differ. Translate aII the sentences into Russian.

(Cronin) 2... .in his ears hammered still the harsh notes of the mechanical piano. (Maugham) 3. The girl gave a little gasp, and held out her hands. Ashurst took them, small, rough, brown ... (Oalstnorthy] 4. No doubt she blamed this innocent lady for all those harsh dealings and unkind words... (C. Doyle) 5. She had been in
this scullery only a few minutes ... , when to her straining ears came the harsh, different sound of his voice ... (Cronin) 6. If I have been harsh to her, even brutal as some have said, it has been because I knew that if I could kill her love, or if it turned to hate, it would be easier for both of us. (C. Doyle) 7. In among the apple trees it was still dark, and he stood making sure of his direction, feeling the rough grass with his feet. (Galsworthy)
uneven,rugged).

1. It was a long, harsh struggle.

III. Insert the proper

words

in the

blanks (rough, harsh,

1. The travellers walked wearily up the __ mountainous road; it was covered with heaps of stones and crossed by deep clefts. 2. The child made a few steps. The __ grass hurt his bare feet. 3. It was difficult to adjust the tripod straight on the __ surface of the rock. 4. The passengers aboard the plane watched the __ coastline. 5. In many of his novels Dickens described __ treatment of children in English private schools. 6. The __ sounds of the jazz grated on the musician's ear. 7. It had rained, and the __ stones were slippery, so that the mountaineers had to tie themselves to one another.

(25)

RO UGH, * rude, crude, raw

when they mean 'unmanufactured', 'uncultivated'. 'unfinished', 'incomplete', 'not perfect'. In their literal meaning these words differ in usage, as it is shown in the following collocations: (a) rough steel; a rough diamond; a rough copy

Rough, rude, crude, raw come into comparison

(sketch); rough chairs (tables), etc.: (b) rude ore; rude im::: Rough enters

into another

synonymic

group

(24). 97

plements; (c) crude oil (petroleum, rubber, sugar); (d) raw cotton (silk, hides, material); (e) raw fish (meat, vegetables, eggs, etc.) (= uncooked).
These words are widely used figuratively. In their figurative sense they are applicable to men, their minds and their manners. Rough, rude, crude are close in meaning suggesting low state of culture, ignorance, impoliteness. However these words differ in nuances. Rough, in reference to people, their conduct and speech means 'not refined or polished', 'uncivil', as, a rough man; rough language; a rough reply,' a rough way (meaning' a course of actions').

1. He looked much the same as before but a little rougher if possible, a little more untidy. (Du Maurier) 2. "Come on, Joe!" "Hurry, Edl" These commands were issued in no rough but always a sure way, and Joe and Ed came. (Dreiser)

Rough, besides, means 'uncultured as, a plain, rough, honest man.

He spoke

but good-natured',
(D. Lessing)

with his usual rough good-humour.

Rude may mean 'barbarous', 'insolent', 'uncivil', a rude man (reply, question); rude language.

as,

1. "It was not a particularly attractive thing to say, was it?" he said, "No," I said. "No, it was rude, hateful." (Du Maurter) 2. Oh, have I been rude? I didn't mean to be. (B. Shaw) 3. "Goodbye," she said, "Forgive me if I've asked you a lot of rude questions ... " (Du Maurier)

Crude suggests lacking grace or taste.

1. I think you're making a ghastly mistake. Sorry, darling, if I'm crude and all that... (Mansfield) 2. ... he began to cheer her up with crude jokes and slap-stick actions, so that when he called her Gyp she was so happy that there was no objection to it. (Sillitoe)

ods, acts).

is used in the sense of 'not properly worked out'; 'badly formed or done', as, crude ideas (meth... I could not picture you [a criminal act]. (C. Doyle) 9S doing anything so

Crude, besides,

crude as that

Raw, when applied to man and man's activities, means 'inexperienced', 'untrained', 'unskilled', as, a raw recruit (lad, youth, judgment).
Over twist and over him, turn again he had seen her take some raw youth, him, wake him up; set him going. (V. Woolf)

EXERCISES

I. Account for the use of the synonyms in the following sentences referring to the explanations given above. 1. "Mr. Favell," I said, "I don't want to be rude, but as a matter of fact I'm very tired ... it's not much good your sitting here." (DIl Maurier) 2. "The incident ... answered in a rough way that riddle which had been annoying him so much in the past: "How is life organized?" (Dreiser) 3. "Rough soldierly manners," I said. (areene) 4. How young and inexperienced I must have seemed, and how I felt it, too. One was too sensitive, too raw... (Du Maurier) 5. I did not mind if they thought me rude and ungracious. (Du Maurier) 6. He was a crude, brutal, ruthless, yet kind-hearted man, in his own way, and according to his own impulses... (D. Lessing) 7. They both promised fair to grow up as rude as savages, the young master being entirely negligent how they behaved, and what they did. (E. Bronte) 8. He sat down on one of the rough wood chairs in the front room. (D. Lessing) 9. And when he laughed with them, cracking some joke to keep them goodhumoured, he seemed to have gone beyond her reach into a crude horse-humour that shocked her. (D. Lessing) II. State to which of the synonymic groups 24 or 25 the word rough belongs. 1. Her shoes were split, her hands rough ... (aalsworthy) 2. Another glance or two, however, would reveal the fact that he was only a rough, weakly unfinished sketch of the type. (Priestley) 3. There were things about Golspie that did not please Mr. Dersingham, for he was dogmatic, rough, domineering ... (Priestley) 4.... suddenly it seemed to him incredible that Megan - his Megan - could ever be dressed save in the rougb tweed skirt, coarse blouse ... (Oalsmorthy) 5. It wouldn't have been very nice for the Davidsons to have to mix with all that rough lot in the smoking-room. (Maugham) 6. And it was pleasant too, to have that chin, that hard jaw already slightly rough with beard, in his hands. (Lawrence) 7. Soon the walls
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