БИЛЕТ №14

3. Mind the text “Pledger’s Way Home” and with the help of the questions describe the events in 10-15 sentences.

1. What city was Pledger going to?

2. Why was he excited?

3. Where did he go from the station?

4. Why did the counter man refuse to take his order?

Pledger bought a ticket to Chicago. Through the long night he lay half asleep, with his head against the arm of his seat, thinking how it would be when he stepped down from the train and Sarah came towards him along the platform. Pledger wrapped himself up in his khaki coat because it was cold. Towards morning the train stopped in an Indiana town. He woke up and got down to the platform. He felt cold. He walked fast across the street from the station for a cup of coffee. Pledger felt the American smell of coffee and toast and bacon. The counterman was standing over him, young, white and self-important. Pledger ordered calmly coffee and fried eggs. The counter man said they didn't serve coloured in there.He was making an effort to control himself. He saw the other people in the restaurant watching him with expressionless faces. The door closed behind him. He was no longer hungry and now he did not even feel angry. He crossed the street and walked down to the end of the train.

He felt empty and bitter and humiliated because of what had been done to him. For a moment he remembered that a Marshal of France had pinned to the flag of his regiment the Croix de Guerre;* he remembered the French girls who had kissed the Negro soldiers and cried over them, and the Mayor of New York standing with his hat in his hands. But now he found himself alone in the winter daylight, staring across the snow-covered fields.

He got on the train and took his seat. He sat through the long hours as the train ran towards Chicago.