PREPARING FOR EXAMS

'In the pantheon of great writers, of profound voices, Milton stands second only to Shakespeare,' Miss Wilcox said, her boot heels making pokpok noises on the bare wood floor as she crossed and recrossed the room. 'Now, of course one may argue that Donne deserves...'

'Psst, Mattie! Mattie, look!'

I slid my eyes off the book I was sharing with Weaver, toward the desk on my left. Jim and Will Loumis had a spider on a piece of thread. They were letting it crawl back and forth on its leash, giggling like idiots. Bug taming was a Loumis specialty. First, Jim would pull a piece of thread from his shirt hem and painstakingly fashion it into a tiny noose. Then Will would snatch up a spider or a fly when Miss Wilcox's back was turned. He would hold his victim in cupped hands and shake it until it was stunned. Then, as Will held the bug, Jim would slip the noose over its head. When the bug regained its senses, it became the star attraction in the Loumis Brothers Circus, which, depending on the time of year, might also feature a three-legged bullfrog, a crayfish, a blue jay or a squirrel.

I rolled my eyes. At sixteen I was too old to be attending the Inlet Common School. The leaving age was fourteen, and most didn't make it that far. But our old teacher, Miss Parrish, told Miss Wilcox about Weaver and myself before she left. She said that we were smart enough to earn high school diplomas and that it was a shame that we couldn't. The only high school in the area, though, was in Old Forge, a proper town ten miles south of Eagle Bay. It was too far to travel every day, especially in winter. We would have had to board with a family there during the week, and neither of us could afford to. Miss Wilcox said she would teach us the course work herself if we wanted to learn it, and she did. She had taught in a fancy girls' academy in New York City, and she knew plenty.

She had come to my house last November to talk with my parents about my getting a diploma. Mamma made us all wash before she came - even Pa - and had Abby make a gingerbread and me do the girls' hair. Mamma couldn't get downstairs that day, and Miss Wilcox had to go see her in her bedroom. I don't know what Miss Wilcox said to her, but after she left, Mamma told me I was to get my diploma even though Pa wanted me to leave school.

Weaver and I spent most of the year preparing for our exit examinations. We were going to take the hardest ones - the Board of Regents - in English composition, literature, history, science and mathematics. I was particularly worried about mathematics. Miss Wilcox did her best with algebra, but her heart wasn't in it. Weaver was good at it, though. Sometimes Miss Wilcox would just give him the teacher's guide. He would puzzle through a problem, then explain it to me and Miss Wilcox.

The Columbia University was a serious and fearsome place, and a condition of Weaver's acceptance there was that he earn B-pluses or better on all of his exams. He'd been studying hard, and so had I, but that day in the schoolhouse, struggling with Milton, I wasn't sure why I'd bothered. Weaver had received his letter from the university back in January, and though it was now the beginning of the second week of April, no letter had come for me.

A l At the beginning of the text, Miss Wilcox was

1) talking about who she regarded as being the greatest writers.

2) asking the class for their opinions of writers.

3) trying to get the whole class to pay attention to her.

4) addressing her comments particularly to Mattie.

What do we learn about what the Loumis brothers did with the spider?

1) They did it to annoy Miss Wilcox.

2) It followed their usual routine with bugs.

3) It involved a lot of noise.

4) Miss Wilcox pretended not to notice it.

What was Mattie's opinion of the Loumis brothers?

1) She was glad that they provided some amusement.

2) She felt they were a bad influence on other children.

3) She admired them for their skills.

4) She thought they were too childish for her.

Why was Mattie still at the Inlet Common School?

1) She and Weaver were having special lessons with Miss Wilcox.

2) The cleverest pupils usually stayed there after the age of fourteen.

3) She had been unable to get a place at the high school in Old Forge.

4) Her previous teacher had persuaded her to stay there.

What do we learn about Miss Wilcox's visit to Mattie's house?

1) It resulted in an argument between Mattie's parents.

2) Mattie had been worried about what the result of it would be.

3) It caused Mattie's mother to make a decision about her future.

4) The whole family had been looking forward to it.

What does Mattie say about algebra?

1) Miss Wilcox wasn't an expert on it.

2) Weaver asked for extra work on it.

3) She made little progress with it.

4) Miss Wilcox didn't think it was an important subject.

What does Mattie say about Columbia University?

1) She was surprised that it had made an offer to Weaver.

2) She didn't think she or Weaver would get the grades required by it.

3) She didn't know if it was worth studying for a place at it.

4) She felt that it would suit Weaver more than her.

4 Переведите текст с русского на английский язык.

И. Ильф, Е. Петров. Одноэтажная Америка