Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Seminar Practical Course
Seminar Practical Course
Seminar Practical Course
A. READING COMPREHENSION
1. What does the beginning line of this text remind you of?
2. The excerpt above is taken from an adaptation of a well-known
European literary fairy tale: Puss-in-Boots. There are however other
literary and cultural references in this story. Can you identify them?
3. Comment upon the style of the text. What sort of narrative is it? What
is the value of the present tense simple forms appearing in the text?
4. What does the word tom in the first line of the second paragraph stand
for?
5. How did the cat get his “fine, high, shining leather boots”?
6. Comment on the notion of “adaptation”. How faithful should an
“adaptation “ be to the text is based on?
7. Can you think of other fairy tales that have been reworked into literary
or cinematic adaptations?
B.VOCABULARY
1.The tabby cat can easily… into her mistress’ chamber. 2. Her eyes
incontinently ….at the slightest whiff of fur. 3. He is proud … of his fine,
musical voice. 4. Puss despises the sullen … of ragged trash that haunts the
provinces. 5. A young cavalry officer made him … of the first boot. 6. Their
high heels will… like castanets when Puss prances upon the tiles. 7. He drew his
new boots over the … white stockings. 8. He can perform amazing acrobatics
without a … net. 9. Puss can do a back….. whilst holding aloft a glass of vino in
his right paw and never spill a drop. 10. He has dashingly …. the double tour.
III. SYNONYMY: SPRING. Fill in the blanks using the appropriate verbs from
the list below: jump, leap, bound, bounce, vault, hop dash, dart, prance,
pronk. Make the necessary changes.
1.William … down the stairs grinning. 2. I … out into the street, still in my
pyjamas. 3. Once unleashed, the dog … toward the backyard fence. 4. The pony
…. around the paddock. 5. She… for the door, but he snatched her arm. 6.
Herds of antelope … across the open savannah. 7. The little girl… over the
puddle. 8. She… to her feet as the teacher walked into the room. 9. He… over
the fence and continued running. 10. People were forced to … to safety from the
burning building.
IV. PHRASAL VERB: BRING Fill in the blanks with the suitable
preposition/particle: about, back, down, forward, forth, in, on, off, out,
round, up.
C. GRAMMAR
Consider the following examples from the text: Fine, white shirtfront/ Fine,
musical voice/ Fine, high, shining leather boots
There are rules constraining the order in which adjectives can be placed in front
of a nominal. 1. Subjective opinions are farthest from the noun. 2. General
description comes next (size, shape, age, colour), followed by origin, material
and purpose (made of/used for).
For long strings of adjectives we can use the mnemonic below:
VERY SOON A TRAIN SHOULD COME
VALUE SIZE AGE TEMPERATURE SHAPE COLOUR ORIGIN
MATERIAL NOUN
LOVELY BIG OLD WARM ROUND RED INDIAN
COTTON CUSHION
Some of the adjectives in the following letter are in the wrong order; make the
necessary corrections.
Dear Suzie,
It’s a shame you couldn’t make it to the wedding, but thank you for the lovely
dessert crystal bowls which you sent to us. The wedding was unforgettable and
everyone looked beautiful, especially the bridesmaids in their silk long cream
dresses. At the reception we had a three-course home-made delicious meal and
the best man gave an amusing nice short speech. A talented jazz black musician
played the piano in the hall, next to an old-fashioned lovely marble French
mantel. In the evening most guests arrived and the hotel provided Irish live
excellent music. Before we left, we cut the wedding white iced cake. Hope to see
you soon. Love, Amanda & Tim