Never Let Me Go

Chapter 7

1) Read the chapter and make notes under the following headings:
1. language Kathy uses to describe two periods in her life at Hailsham
2. Miss Lucy's lesson about prison camps
3. her subsequent truth-telliing about the children's futures
4. Miss Emily's sex lectures
5. Tommy's elbow and the concept of 'unzipping'
6. how the perception of donations changes as the students grow older

2) Transcribe the following words. Explain the meaning of the underlined words.

downpour blurred electrocuted

rowdy exaggerate era
rove (over) taunted allusion
awkward nonchalant acknowledge

3) Complete the phrasal verbs (1-4) with the correct particle(s) so that they match
their meanings (a-d).
1 to back ............ …............
2 to spell sth …...............
3 to put sb ....................
4 to look …....... ..... sb
a. to make you dislike something or not want to do something
b. to explain something clearly and in detail
c. to admire or respect somebody
d. to stop supporting a plan or idea, or stop being involved in something
4) What prepositions are used in the following phrases?
1. to be typical ........ sb
2. to prepare sb …... sth
3. to watch …... astonishment
4. to throw sb …........ balance
5. to keep hold …... that temper

5) Find idioms in the text that have the following meaning.

1. the practical details of a subject or job ..........................................
2. to start behaving in a crazy way, go mad .....................................
3. to force yourself to stop behaving in a nervous, frightened, or uncontrolled way

6) Listen to this paragraph carefully. Practise reading it imitating the intonation.

But Miss Lucy was now moving her gaze over the lot of us. “I know you don’t mean
any harm. But there’s just too much talk like this. I hear it all the time, it’s been
allowed to go on, and it’s not right.” I could see more drops coming off the gutter and
landing on her shoulder, but she didn’t seem to notice. “If no one else will talk to
you,” she continued, “then I will. The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told
and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say,
some people are quite happy to leave it that way. But I’m not. If you’re going to have
decent lives, then you’ve got to know and know properly. None of you will go to
America, none of you will be film stars. And none of you will be working in
supermarkets as I heard some of you planning the other day. Your lives are set out for
you. You’ll become adults, then before you’re old, before you’re even middle-aged,
you’ll start to donate your vital organs. That’s what each of you was created to do.
You’re not like the actors you watch on your videos, you’re not even like me. You
were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures, all of them, have been
decided. So you’re not to talk that way any more. You’ll be leaving Hailsham before
long, and it’s not so far off, the day you’ll be preparing for your first donations. You
need to remember that. If you’re to have decent lives, you have to know who you are
and what lies ahead of you, every one of you.”
7) Write a short commentary on the message of this quote as you see it.
If you’re to have decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies
ahead of you, every one of you.