Читать книгу English for Life Reader Grade 8 Home Language - Elaine Ridge - Страница 11

Pre-reading
1.	Why do people talk to animals? What do they usually talk about?
During reading
2.	Why do you think the speaker tells us when and where this conversation takes place?

Conversation with a giraffe at dusk in the zoo

Douglas Livingstone

Hail, lofty,

necking, quizzically

through the topgallant leaves

with your lady.

No good making eyelashes at

the distance from me to you

though I confess I should like

to caress your tender horns

and toboggan down your neck,

perhaps swing on your tail

Your dignity fools no one;

you get engagingly awkward

when you separate and collapse

yourself to drink; and

have you seen yourself cantering?

Alright, alright I know

I’m ugly standing still,

squat-necked, so-high.

Just remember there’s one or two

things about you too, hey,

like, like, birds now;

they fly much higher.

quizzical – not quite understanding something and perhaps finding it amusing

topgallant – the highest point on the main mast of a sailing ship – here the highest leaves

cantering – running quite fast but not as fast as galloping

Post-reading
3.	This is not a conversation in the usual sense of the word. Why not? Explain the title.
4.	What is amusing about the word “necking”, and the phrase “making eyelashes”?
5.	What does the term “engagingly awkward” imply about the speaker’s attitude towards the giraffe and how he moves?
6.	How does the speaker imagine that the giraffe sees him?
7.	In the last stanza, the speaker is suddenly jokingly on the defensive. What makes us aware of this?
8.	How many sentences are there in the poem? Why does the poet break up the sentences in lines in the way that he does? Refer to the first stanza to illustrate your answer.