CURSO PROPEDEUTICO AÑO 2016-

LENGUA INGLESA I- GRAMATICA INGLESA I

PROFESOR : ROSSA SUSANA.

MR. JONES by Truman Capote


During the winter of 1945 I lived for several months in a rooming house in Brooklyn. It was not a shabby place, but a pleasantly furnished, elderly brownstone kept hospital-neat by its owners, two maiden sisters.
Mr. Jones lived in the room next to mine. My room was the smallest in the house, his, the largest. A nice big sunshiny room, which was just as well, for Mr. Jones never left it: all his needs, meals, shopping, laundry, were attended to by the middle-aged landladies. Also, he was not without visitors; on the average, a half-dozen various persons, man and women, young, old, in-between, visited his room each day, from early morning until late in the evening. He was not a drug dealer or a fortuneteller; no, they came just to talk to him and apparently they made him small gifts of money for his conversation and advice. If not, he had no obvious means of support.
I never had a conversation with Mr. Jones himself, a circumstance I've often since regretted. He was a handsome man, about forty. Slender, black-haired, and with a distinctive face: a pale, oval face, high cheekbones, and with a birthmark on his left cheek, a small scarlet defect shaped like a star. He wore gold-rimmed glasses with pitch-black lenses: he was blind, and crippled, too - according to the sisters, the use of his legs had been denied to him by a childhood accident, and he could not move without crutches. He was always dressed in a crisply pressed dark grey or blue three-piece suit and a subdued tie - as though about to set off for a Wall Street office. However, as I've said, he never left the premises. Simply sat in his cheerful room in a comfortable chair and received visitors. I had no option of why they came to see him, these rather ordinary-looking folk, or what they talked about, and I was far too concerned with my own affairs to much wonder over it. When I did, I imagined that his friends had found in him an intelligent, kindly man, a good listener in whom to confide and consult with over their troubles: a cross between a priest and a therapist.
Mr. Jones had a telephone. He was the only tenant with a private line. It rang constantly, often after midnight and as early as six in the morning.
I moved to Manhattan. Several months later I returned to the house to collect a box of books I had stored there. While the landladies offered me tea and cakes in their lace-curtained "parlor", I inquired of Mr. Jones.
The women lowered their eyes. Clearing her throat, one said: "It's in the hand of the police."
The other offered: "We've reported him as missing person."
The first added: "Last month, twenty-six days ago, my sister carried up Mr. Jones's breakfast, as usual. He wasn't there. All his belongings were there. But he was gone.
""It's odd-"
"-how a man totally blind, a helpless crippled-"
Ten years passed.

How do you think the story ends? Think about these questions to help you guess

1-Was Mr. Jones really blind and crippled?

2- Why did he disappear?

3- Where did he go?

Now read the end of the story…


Now it is a zero-cold December afternoon, and I am in Moscow. I am riding in a subway car. There are only a few other passengers. One of them is a man sitting opposite me, a man wearing boots, a thick long coat and a Russian-style fur cap. He has bright eyes, as blue as a peacock's. After a doubtful instant, I simply stared, for even without the black glasses, there was no mistaking that lean distinctive face, those high cheekbones with the single scarlet star-shaped birthmark.
I was just about to cross the aisle and speak to him when the train pulled into a station, and Mr. Jones, on a pair of fine sturdy legs, stood up and strode out of the car. Swiftly, the train door closed behind him.

Make the right choice:

It was a cold ……………….afternoon. The narrator was in ……………………. .

a- summer b-autumn c-winter d- spring a- Russia b- France c- England

He was travelling by ...... when he saw a man ……………………………………….

a- underground b- bicycle c-car a- who was wearing black glasses

b- who was carrying crutches

c- who a birthmark on his face.

He was sure that the man who stood up and strode out of the car was Mr Jones.

Find in the text words that name:

·  a house where people can rent a room to live in

·  a room in a house which has comfortable chairs and is used for meeting guests

·  a woman who rents a room, building, or piece of land to someone

·  a railway system that runs under the ground below a big city

All these are examples of American English. Which are the British English equivalents? Which of these words are examples of vocabulary variation, spelling variation, phonetic variation?

1-

2-

3-

4-

Compare what you know about Mr Jones at the beginning of the story with what you get to know about him at the end of the story. What do you think his job was?

I think that he was a/an………………………………………………………………….

Now read the short story again and

a- List the adjectives and noun phrases used to describe Mr Jones´ physical appearance.

b- Look at the mind map and list the articles of clothing he usually wore.

c- Complete this description:

Mr. Jones was a ……….man. He was forty …………………old. He had fair …………., ………………..hair and a ……………..face .He had high……………………..and a …………………….on his left ……………. The strange man always wore …………………clothes . He always carried a pair of ………….He was ……………………and ……………….

d-From these jumbled words, find combinations for describing people.

looking middle stocky long round over haired well faced good mixed complexion red aged build dressed race weight legged

- What do these adjectives have in common?

comfortable, readable, incredible, invisible
comical, normal, musical, industrial, presidential
beautiful, harmful, peaceful, wonderful
classic, economic, heroic, romantic
aeronautical, alphabetical, political
British, childish, Irish, foolish
active, alternative, creative, talkative
endless, motionless, priceless, timeless
spontaneous, hideous, ambitious, anxious, dangerous, famous
angry, busy, wealthy, windy

Warning:

Adjectives ending in-icand-icaloften have different meanings:

Theeconomicpolicy of this government has failed.

A diesel car is usually moreeconomicalthan a petrol one.

So is it……

§  Classicorclassical?

§  Historicorhistorical?

Forming adjectives from other words

Suffixes

Some adjectives are made from nouns and verbs by adding suffixes.

noun / adjective /
hero / heroic
wind / windy
child / childish
beauty / Beautiful
verb / adjective
read / readable
talk / talkative
use / useful
like / likeable

REMEMBER!!!!

Some words ending in-lycan be both adjectives and adverbs. These includedaily,early,monthly,weekly,nightly,yearly:

Adjective: She gets aweeklypayment from her parents.(She gets money every week.)

Adverb: I pay my rentweekly.(I pay my rent every week.)

Some words ending in -lyare only adjectives and not adverbs. These include:costly,cowardly,deadly,friendly,likely,lonely,lovely,oily,orderly,scholarly,silly,smelly,timely,ugly,woolly.

We enjoyed the trip to America but it was acostlyholiday.

Oilyfish is very healthy because it contains omega 3.

Prefixes

Prefixes such asun-, in-, im-,il-andir-change the meaning of adjectives.

Adding these prefixes makes the meaning negative:

un- / in- / ir- /
fair – unfair / active – inactive / responsible – irresponsible
happy – unhappy / appropriate – inappropriate / regular – irregular
sure – unsure / complete – incomplete / reducible – irreducible
im- / il-
balance – imbalance / legal – illegal
polite – impolite / legible – illegible
possible – impossible / logical – illogical

Now re-write the description …

Mr. Jones was a ……………skinned, forty …………………old man. He was black …………. and oval ………….

He had high……………………..and a …………………….on his left ……………. The strange man was always………………… dressed.He wore…………………………and carried a pair of …………because he was ……………………and ……………….

e- What clothes did the landladies wear?