Exercises. Exercise 1. Translate the following phrases into Russian; use them in sentences or situations.

Exercise 1. Translate the following phrases into Russian; use them in sentences or situations.

1. A comic song. 2. A comical face. 3. A comic paper. 4. A comical incident. 5. A comical appearance. 6. A comic actor. 7. A comic strip. 8. A comical tale. 9. A comic writer. 10. A comic opera. 11. A comical quality. 12. A comical dress. 13. To play comic parts. 14. A comic film. 15. The comic treatment of a subject.

 

Exercise 2. Answer the following questions.

1. What famous comic actors in our country and abroad do you know? Which of them do you like best and why? 2. Are you fond of comic magazines? Which of them do you read regularly? 3. What can you say about the genre of comic opera? Can you give any examples? 4. Do you remember any comic strips in the Morning Star? Can you describe one of them? 5. What kind of face can be called! a comical one? 6. Do you remember any literary personages with a comical appearance? Give examples. 7. Can a beautiful dress ever look comical? 8. Will you speak on some comical incident in your life? 9. What is a comedian? 10. How can you characterize Charlie Chaplin?

Exercise 3. Paraphrase the following phrases using one of ihe words under discussion.

1. An amusing song. 2. A humorous incident. 3. A well-known comedian. 4. A funny face. 5. A series of cartoons. 6. To look odd. 7. To be dressed in an amusing manner.

 

Exercise 4. * Fill in the blanks using one of the words under discussion.

1. His face — the face of a... actor with its great slit of mouth and stiff, red ears — went abruptly pink. 2. Most songs were rendered in orthodox Southern English with Cockney or North-country thrown in for... relief. 3. Gibberish — the inventing of nonsense — is an irrepressible tendency of mine, and to me it is never..., or facetious or amusing. 4. «What kind of a lady was Miss Sprowls — in looks, I mean?» «Why, black-haired, sir, short, and stout, with a... face.» 5. What a... little man he was, with his bald head and his little shrewd eyes and his jokes. 6. He treated her not as Kitty had seen most men treat their wives, but as though she were a fellow-guest in a country house. It was pleasing and yet a trifle.... 7. American cartoonist Jules Feiffer has compiled a selection of U. S....-strip supermen. 8. Again I was aware of the three names, interchangeable «like.... masks in a farce. 9. Japp was regarding Poirot with... perplexity. 10. People spoke highly of her as a... actress. 11. I saw that he had decorated some of the sheaths with... faces in coloured ink. 12. The idea of Mother with a bottle of beer was so... I gave a shout of laughter which made them both look up. 13. Suddenly Osterman leaped to his feet, his... actor’s face flaming. 14. There were... community dances; Dickie was doing «Knees up, Mother Brown» with an energetic matron whose dress was going under the arms. 15. Winnie arrived in a long brown coat, a green dog hairslide, and orange lipstick overrunning the edges of her mouth like the colour in a badly printed... paper. 16. When he said it was Horatio Fizkin, Esquire, of Fizkin Lodge, near Eatanswill, the Fizkinites applauded, and the Slumkeyites groaned so long, and so loudly, that both he and the seconder might have sung... songs in lieu of speaking, without anybody’s being a bit the wiser. 17. Waddington gave her a little look, hesitated an instant, and then with a faint smile on his... face answered. 18. So was shattered another dream for Lucia Santa, and foolish and... though it was, it planted the first seed of hatred in her breast. 19. That... little gnarled body in long winter underwear still held a treasure to yield up, and with a woman’s practical sense Mrs Bianco was worried more about her husband than about the money they had lost. 20. «... in my condition.» This last phrase had become a... byword in the household.

Exercise 5. Complete and expand on the following sentences using one of the words under discussion.

1. I am very fond of... 2. He was in low spirits and nothing could make him laugh, not even... 3. She opened an evening paper and... 4. Don’t wear this coat:... 5. A. Raikin was a well-known... 6. When she looked at his... 7. The old hat looked... 8. Now, listen, I’m going to tell you... 9. You can’t help laughing when... 10. The man’s appearance was so...

Exercise 6. Use the following sentences in situations.

1. He looked at her through the smoke with a comic expression. 2. Jim was comical, and Hod was pretty near a match for him. 3. It was a cheerful film, which may have had some educative influence on those who tend to find something comic in very small people. 4. The crock-comb pushed lop-sidedly through her soft fair hair gave her little face a comic look of wonder. 5. Now his comic actor’s face was overcast with gravity. 6. He did not have to be especially comic or athletic.7.Everyone laughed, even those who could not hear, for Barney was comic. 8. It was almost comic, the plump little termagant so suddenly and unexpectedly subdued. But Andrew found it singularly humourless.

 

Exercise 7. Make up a list of nouns that go with the adjectives comic and comical; use several of the resulting phrases in short dialogues or situations based on the subject matter of English or American novels.

Exercise 8. Translate the following sentences into English.

1. Он такой комик! 2. Вы любите комические оперы? 3. Широкополая шляпа никак не сочеталась с огромными сапогами — человек выглядел очень комично. 4. Каких вы знаете известных комических актеров? 5. Расскажите мне, пожалуйста, какой-нибудь смешной случай из вашей практики. 6. Все это имеет свою комическую сторону. 7. У Остермана было лицо комического актера. 8. Под конец он спел несколько шуточных песенок, которые развеселили всех присутствующих. 9. Это была комическая ситуация. 10. Пространный ответ на краткий вопрос показался ей смешным. 11. Что-то несерьезное, почти комическое, проступало, просачивалось сквозь все его размышления.