Predict how the story will develop.

Roald Dahl.

Matilda.

Reading Guide 1

The Reader of Books 1

Introduction

1. What do you know about Roald Dahl? What is he famous for?

2. Look at the pictures on the first pages of the book. What can you say about the main characters of the book? Some of them have ‘speaking’ names. Can you predict their qualities by their names and pictures? Write down at least 3 attributes to describe each of them.

Reading

1. Read the story up to the words “By the time …”

2. Summarize the author’s opinion on how parents treat their children in no more than 3 sentences.

3. Answer the following questions. Use the vocabulary from the text:

a. What is a funny thing about parents?

b. What makes the author sick?

c. What kind of parents do teachers suffer from? Explain why.

d. What similes and metaphors does the author use in the imagined teachers’ letters? Does he resort to black humor here?

e. What kind of parents can you come across? Are they better or worse than the doting ones? Why?

f. How did Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood look upon Matilda.

g. What does ‘extra-ordinary’ mean?

h. Why did Matilda’s parents fail to notice anything unusual about her?

i. How did they call her and why?

j. Matilda didn’t really belong with this family, did she?

4. Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:

a. “It’s the way of the world” (p.3)

b. “… parents who take the opposite line” (p.6)

c. “… the child in question” (p.6)

d. “… to be wrapped up in one’s life” (p.6)

e. “Small girls should be seen and not heard” (p.7)

Predict how the story will develop.

Grammar

Can you interpret the following sentences from the text into Russian? What grammar do you see here?

a. “If I were a teacher, I would cook up some real scorchers …”

b. “If I were lyrical that day, I might write …”

c. “She was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious”

d. “I doubt they would have noticed had she crawled into the house with a broken leg”

Vocabulary

1. Complete the table below with the nouns that have the same root as the given verbs and adjectives:

What suffixes do the nouns have?

2. Explain the difference between:

off-spring / sibling

sensitive / sensible

to cook / to cook up

3. Match the following words to make phrases from the story. Reproduce the situations where they were used:

4. In the text find the English equivalents to the following words and expressions. Which of them are phrasal verbs?

1. судя по

2. как будто

3. прежде всего

4. несомненно

5. страдать от ч-л

6. сообразительный

7. глупый, недалёкий

8. ядовитый

9. продолжать, идти дальше

10. черта (характера)

11. появляться, возникать

12. замечать

13. мириться с ч-л

14. смотреть на к-л сверху вниз и наоборот

15. случайно встретить, наткнуться

16. отвратительный, противный (2)

Speaking

1. Discuss with a partner: What “types” of parents described are more “dangerous” to their children?

2. Comment on the following saying: “A person all wrapped up in themselves makes for a mighty small package.”