3. What do you think Betsy will do after the end of the story? In three months’ time a murder investigation will begin and all the evidence will point to her. Will she try to hide or run away, or will she just sit and wait for the police to come?
4. Do you feel sympathy for either of the two main characters in the story?
If so, which one, and why?
5. When Maurice pushes Betsy away in the middle of the night, imagine that she hits her head hard and is killed outright. Maurice is still determined not to let her spoil his future. What do you think he would do with the body? Try to invent a new ending of the story.
Ricochet
Pre-reading task:
Before you read the story “Ricochet” try to think over what it might be about. What associations does the title bring forth?
Reading:
Read the story carefully and try to understand it in detail. Mind the notes to the text.
Vocabulary focus:
1. Look up and learn the following words:
ricochet to persuade sheepfold
fingerprints nightmare pliable
rope foot-and-mouth disease to wither
wire to devastate to nurture
trigger compulsory to blaze
to well deserted ewe
appeal grief musty
courage to convince trap
watertight to falsify whereabouts
sheepdog to reload bewilderment
2. Translate the following expressions and make up your own short stories using at least three of these phrases. Recollect the sentences where they were used.
Delicate work; the gun was cocked; to hold oneself taut; to create an alibi; to take over; to be unblessed by children; to display a tenderness; to cleave to smb.; to pass the death sentence; to pull the trigger; to have a watertight alibi; to falsify the evidence; to be idle; to run out of chatter; to be rigid; to cry oneself to sleep.
3. Match the words from column A with their synonyms from column B.
1) clumsy a) to disturb, to trouble, to worry
2) to snigger b) to kill, to murder, to assassinate
3) to set off c) to laugh, to giggle, to chuckle
4) stunned d) to yell, to cry, to shout, to howl
5) to bother e) awkward, unskilled, ungraceful
6) morose f) surprised
7) to slaughter g) to leave, to start
8) to brood h) gloomy, dreary
9) covetous i) unwillingly, reluctantly
10) to roar j) greedy, avid
11) grudgingly k) to muse, to meditate
4. Find the beginnings of the following sentences:
1. ______ now standing back to back and apart by a carefully measured distance.
2. ______ their whole flock had been slaughtered.
3. ______ leaving Owen to move out to a musty riverside cottage.
4. ______ but her brother in law.
5. ______ that stunned both Owen and Rhiannon.
6. ______ to protect the rest of the flock from the scourge of foot-and-mouth disease.
7. ______ and we’ll set up house here like the family we really are.
8. ______ it’s me he’ll believe.
9. ______ his brown-eyed elf.
10. ______ this Sunday afternoon to talk about the farm.
11. ______ to place the gun in the dead man’s hands.
12. ______ packed tight with seeds of suspicion and sweet nuts of scandal?
13. ______ Huw had failed to come down.
14. ______ and it was rigid.
15. ______ and they’d come bounding down the hillside to tell her Uncle Owen the good news …
16. ______ thanking the Lord for the safety of his beloved daughter.
Reading Comprehension:
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