Put the sentences in the right order.

 

1. The story of the man reminds him one of Andersen’s little stories.

2. A brilliant idea strikes Carl.

3. In two year’s time their happiness comes to an end.

4. Smith wants the author to cast his eye at the man at the door.

5. Four young artists are having noble good time together.

6. He is a very rich manufacturer from Lyons.

7. The four are preparing for the coming event.

8. The artists call a halt.

9. Smith sells the first Millet’s sketch.

10. The four begin business.

11. The author gets acquainted with a French artist who tells him a curious story.

12. First a child starves the bird to death, then buries it with elaborate pomp.

13. The world is being prepared for the event.

14. For once a genius has not been starved to death.

15. Daily bulletins provide information for the waiting world.

16. The pictures sell at an astonishing price.

17. Smith breaks the seal and tells the story.

18. The great funeral stirs the globe.

 

Reading Comprehension and Discussion Tasks

Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

 

1. Millet told the author a curious story.

2. Smith was a silk manufacturer from Lyons.

3. The events of the story took place in Mentone.

4. Three young artists nearly starved to death.

5. Claude had a wonderful idea.

6. The artists wanted to get rid of their sketches and studies.

7. The friends thought that Carl had lost his mind.

8. Carl came to the conclusion that great artists were recognized greatly only after their death.

9. Carl decided to die to save the others.

10. The friends went to different parts of France.

11. They walked for many days, as they could not afford to ride.

12. They sent an article to the newspaper announcing that a new painter had been discovered.

13. Millet got ill, and his condition was reported all over the continent.

14. Millet’s funeral made a stir all over the globe.

 

2. Say what you understand by the following:

 

1. But I am going to break the seal now.
2. He was lost to me and to the rest of the world during some minutes.
3. The merit of many a great artist has never been acknowledged until after he was starved and dead.
4. Of course he didn’t know the cipher; but he was the most grateful man you ever saw, just the same, for being let out of an uncomfortable place on such easy terms.
5. ‘This songbird was not allowed to pipe out its heart unheard and then be paid with the cold pomp of a big funeral. We looked out for that.”
6. They were the sunniest spirits that ever laughed at poverty and had a noble time in all weathers.
7. We had a wind-up champagne supper that night.

8. Let the boy say his say.

 

3. Answer the following questions citing the text:

 

1. What is Menton like?
2. What kind of people do not come there?
3. What kind of man is Monsieur Magnan?
4. What kind of man is Smith?
5. Which of Hans Andersen’s stories did Smith tell the author?
6. What is Smith’s parlor like?
7. Which French artists did Smith tell the story of?
8. What was their life like when they were young?
9. How did they acquaint with François Millet?
10. What made them doting and inseparable friends?
11. Why were their circumstances desperate?
12. Were their pictures of high merit?
13. What law did Carl make bold to found?
14. What project did Carl propose?
15. How did the others accept the project?
16. Who was elected to die?
17. Where did the artists get money for the farewell party and travel?
18. Where did each of them go?
19. How did Smith sell the first sketch of Millet’s?
20. What fact about Millet did he try to spread?
21. How did they work with the press?
22. What were they preparing the public for?
23. What was the funeral like?
24. How long did the campaign last?
25. How much did they earn?

 

4. Imagine that you are:

1. Millet. Tell the story of your life after your funeral.

2. Smith. Say if you had a talk with Millet in Mentone, or did not; what you talked about, or why you didn’t have a talk.

 

1. What do you think? Give your reasons for your answer.

 

1. “The merit of many a great artists has never been acknowledged until after he was starved and dead”.
2. “The merit of every great unknown and neglected artist must and will be recognized, and his pictures climb to high prices after his death”.
3. “Is he living or dead?”
4. Think of another title for this story. Explain your choice.

 

 

INFORMATIOM WANTED

“Could you give me any information about the islands the Government is going to purchase?”

It is an uncle of mine that wants to know. He is an industrious man and well disposed, and wants to make a living in an honest humble way, but more especially he wants to be quiet. He wishes to settle down and be quiet. He has been to the new St. Thomas island, but he says he thinks things are unsettled there. He went there early with an attaché of the State department, who was sent down with money to pay for the island. My uncle had his money in the same box, and so when they went ashore, getting a receipt, the sailors broken open the box and took all the money, not making any distinction between the Government money, which was legitimate money to be stolen, and my uncle’s, which was his own private property, and should have been respected. But he came home and got some more and went back. And then he took the fever. There are seven kinds of fever down there, you know; and, as his blood was out of order by reason of loss of sleep and general wear and tear of mind, he failed to cure the first fever, and then somehow he got the other six. He is not a kind of man that enjoys fevers, though he is well meaning and always does what he thinks is right, and so he was a good deal annoyed when it appeared he was going to die.

But he worried through, and got well and started a farm. He fenced it in, and the next day that great storm came on and washed the most of it over to Gibraltar, or around there somewhere. He only said, in his patient way, that it was gone, and he wouldn’t bother about trying to find out where it went to, though it was his opinion it went to Gibraltar.

Then he invested in a mountain, and started a farm up there, so as to be out of the way when the sea came ashore again. It was a good mountain, and a good farm, but it wasn’t any use; an earthquake came the next night and shook it all down. It was all fragments, you know, and so mixed up with another man’s property that he couldn’t tell which were his fragments without going to law; and he would not do that, because his main object in going to St Thomas was to be quiet. All that he wanted was to settle down and be quiet.

He thought it all over, and finally he concluded to try the low ground again, especially he wanted to start a brickyard this time. He bought a flat, and put out a hundred thousand bricks to dry preparatory to baking them. But luck appeared to be against him. A volcano erupted there that night, and elevated his brickyard about two thousand feet in the air. It irritated him a good deal. He has been up there, and he says the bricks are all baked right enough, but he can’t get them down. At first, he thought maybe the Government would get the bricks down for him, because since the Government bought the island, it ought to protect the property where a man has invested in good faith. But all he wants is quiet, and so he is not going to apply for the subsidy he was thinking about.

He went back there last week in a couple of ships of war, to prospect around the coast for a safe place for a farm where he could be quiet; but a great tidal wave came, and hoisted both of the ships out into one of the interior counties, and he came near losing his life. So he has given up prospecting in a ship, and is discouraged.

Well, now he doesn’t know what to do. He has tried Alaska; but the bears kept after him so much, and kept him so much on the jump, as it were, that he had to leave the country. He could not be quiet there with those bears prancing after him all the time. That is how he came to go to the new island we have bought – St. Thomas. But he is getting to think St. Thomas is not quiet enough for a man of his turn of mind, and that is why he wishes me to find out if the Government is likely to buy some more islands shortly. He has heard that the Government is thinking about buying Porto Rico. If that is true, he wishes to try Porto Rico, if it is a quiet place. How is Porto Rico for his style of man? Do you think the Government will buy it?

 

Phonetic exercises