Оригинал на английском:
14. A. Read the text and say:
• where and when the scene is laid;
• what members of Renisenb’s household are mentioned in it;
• what she feels about her home after staying away.
Homecoming
(after A. Christie
Renisenb stood looking over the Nile. In the distance she could hear faintly the upraised voices of her brothers, Yahmose and Sobek. Sobek’s voice was high and confident as always. Yahmose’s voice was low and grumbling in tone. It expressed doubt and anxiety.
Yahmose was always in a state of anxiety over something or other. He was the eldest son, and during his father’s absence the management of the family’s farmlands was more or less in his hands. Yahmose was slow, prudent and prone to look for difficulties where none existed. He was a heavily built, slow moving man with none of Sobek’s gaiety and confidence.
Renisenb looked once more across the pale, shining river. Her rebellion and pain mounted on her again. Khay, her young husband, was dead. Khay was with Osiris in the Kingdom of the dead. Eight years they had had together — and now she had returned widowed, to her father’s house. It seemed to her at this moment as though she had never been away... She welcomed that thought... She would forget those eight years — so full of unthinking happiness, so torn and destroyed by loss and pain.
Renisenb turned away and slowly walked up the path where she thought her brothers were. Soon she saw Sobek coming back to the house. When Renisenb, walking slowly up the steep path, arrived, Yahmose was in consultation with Hori, her father’s man of business and affairs, in a little rock chamber. Hori had a sheet of papyrus spread out on his knees and Yahmose and he were bending over it. Both the men smiled at Renisenb when she arrived and sat down near them in a patch of shade. She had always been very fond of her brother Yahmose. He was gentle and affectionate to her and had a mild and kindly disposition. Hori, too, had always been gravely kind to the small Renisenb and had sometimes mended her toys for her. Renisenb thought that though he looked older he had changed hardly at all. The grave smile he gave her was just the same as she remembered.
Their talk went on. Renisenb sat drowsily content with the men’s murmuring voices as a background. Presently Yahmose got up and went away, handing back the roll of papyrus to Hori.
Renisenb sat on in a companionable silence.
Then she touched the roll of papyrus and asked: “Is that from my father?”
Hori nodded.
“What does he say?” she asked curiously. She unrolled it and stared at those marks that were meaningless to her untutored eyes. Smiling a little,
Hori leaned over her shoulder and began reading.
Renisenb laughed.
“My father is just the same,” she said happily. “Always thinking that nothing can be done right if he is not here.”
Hori took up a sheet of papyrus and began to write. Renisenb watched him lazily for some time. She felt too contented to speak. By and by she said dreamily: “It would be interesting to know how to write on papyrus. It’s a constant wonder to me that people can do it. Why doesn’t everyone learn?”
“It is not necessary.”
“Not necessary, perhaps, but it would be pleasant.”
“You think so, Renisenb? What difference would it make to you?”
Renisenb slowly considered for a moment or two. Then she said slowly:
“When you ask me like that, truly I do not know, Hori.”
Hori said, “At present a few scribes are all that are needed on a large estate, but the day will come, I fancy, when there will be armies of scribes all over Egypt.”
“That will be a good thing,” said Renisenb.
Hori said slowly: “I am not so sure.”
“Why are you not sure?”
“Because, Renisenb, it is so easy and it costs so little labour to write down ten bushels of barley, or a hundred head of cattle, — and the thing that is written will come to seem like the real thing, and so the writer and the scribe will come to despise the man who ploughs the fields and reaps the barley and raises the cattle — but all the same the fields and the cattle are real — they are not just marks of ink on papyrus. And when all the records and all the papyrus rolls are destroyed and the scribes are scattered, the men who toil and reap will go on, and Egypt will still live.”
Renisenb looked at him attentively. She said slowly: “Yes, I see what you mean. Only the things that you can see and touch and eat are real... To write down “I have two hundred and forty bushels of barley” means nothing unless you have the barley. One could write down lies.”
Hori smiled at her serious face. She paused and then said simply: “When Khay went to Osiris I was very sad. But now I have come home and I shall be happy again and forget — for everything here is the same. Nothing is changed at all.”
“You really think that?”
Renisenb looked at him sharply.
“What do you mean, Hori?”
“I mean there is always change. Eight years is eight years. You yourself are not the same Renisenb who went away with Khay.” “Yes, I am! Or if not, then I soon shall be again. I am just Renisenb.”
“But Renisenb has something added to her all the time, so she becomes all the time a different Renisenb!”
“No, no. Nothing will be different at all!” She paused, breathless. Hori sighed. Then he said gently: “You do not understand, Renisenb. There is an evil that comes from outside, that attacks so that all the world can see, but there is another kind of rottenness that breeds from within — that shows no outward sign. It grows slowly, day by day, till at last the whole fruit is rotten — eaten away by disease.”
Renisenb stared at him. He had spoken almost absently, not as though he were speaking to her, but more like a man who muses to himself.
B. Answer the questions.
1. Why do you think Renisenb returned home? 2. What are her brothers’ names? Are they alike or different? What information is given in the text about their disposition? 3. Why do you think Yahmose “was always in a state of anxiety”? 4. What was Hori’s occupation? Was he a member of Renisenb’s family? What did Renisenb think of this man? 5. Why were the marks in Renisenb’s father’s papyrus meaningless to her? Why, in your opinion, does the author mention Renisenb’s “untutored eyes”? 6. Renisenb regarded writing and reading as a wonder. Can you explain why? Are these skills wonderous to you? Do you think the idea of “a wonder” changes with time? Do timeless wonders exist? 7. Why, in your opinion, did the ability to write or to read make no difference to Renisenb? Are these skills of importance nowadays? Do you think reading as a process of gaining knowledge and information is beginning to lack significance now? How can you account for it? 8. What do you think Hori meant when he mentioned evil that “breeds from within”? Do you think this evil will reveal itself in the course of the story? In what way, do you think, the plot will develop remembering that the story was written by Agatha Christie?
• where and when the scene is laid;
• what members of Renisenb’s household are mentioned in it;
• what she feels about her home after staying away.
Homecoming
(after A. Christie
Renisenb stood looking over the Nile. In the distance she could hear faintly the upraised voices of her brothers, Yahmose and Sobek. Sobek’s voice was high and confident as always. Yahmose’s voice was low and grumbling in tone. It expressed doubt and anxiety.
Yahmose was always in a state of anxiety over something or other. He was the eldest son, and during his father’s absence the management of the family’s farmlands was more or less in his hands. Yahmose was slow, prudent and prone to look for difficulties where none existed. He was a heavily built, slow moving man with none of Sobek’s gaiety and confidence.
Renisenb looked once more across the pale, shining river. Her rebellion and pain mounted on her again. Khay, her young husband, was dead. Khay was with Osiris in the Kingdom of the dead. Eight years they had had together — and now she had returned widowed, to her father’s house. It seemed to her at this moment as though she had never been away... She welcomed that thought... She would forget those eight years — so full of unthinking happiness, so torn and destroyed by loss and pain.
Renisenb turned away and slowly walked up the path where she thought her brothers were. Soon she saw Sobek coming back to the house. When Renisenb, walking slowly up the steep path, arrived, Yahmose was in consultation with Hori, her father’s man of business and affairs, in a little rock chamber. Hori had a sheet of papyrus spread out on his knees and Yahmose and he were bending over it. Both the men smiled at Renisenb when she arrived and sat down near them in a patch of shade. She had always been very fond of her brother Yahmose. He was gentle and affectionate to her and had a mild and kindly disposition. Hori, too, had always been gravely kind to the small Renisenb and had sometimes mended her toys for her. Renisenb thought that though he looked older he had changed hardly at all. The grave smile he gave her was just the same as she remembered.
Their talk went on. Renisenb sat drowsily content with the men’s murmuring voices as a background. Presently Yahmose got up and went away, handing back the roll of papyrus to Hori.
Renisenb sat on in a companionable silence.
Then she touched the roll of papyrus and asked: “Is that from my father?”
Hori nodded.
“What does he say?” she asked curiously. She unrolled it and stared at those marks that were meaningless to her untutored eyes. Smiling a little,
Hori leaned over her shoulder and began reading.
Renisenb laughed.
“My father is just the same,” she said happily. “Always thinking that nothing can be done right if he is not here.”
Hori took up a sheet of papyrus and began to write. Renisenb watched him lazily for some time. She felt too contented to speak. By and by she said dreamily: “It would be interesting to know how to write on papyrus. It’s a constant wonder to me that people can do it. Why doesn’t everyone learn?”
“It is not necessary.”
“Not necessary, perhaps, but it would be pleasant.”
“You think so, Renisenb? What difference would it make to you?”
Renisenb slowly considered for a moment or two. Then she said slowly:
“When you ask me like that, truly I do not know, Hori.”
Hori said, “At present a few scribes are all that are needed on a large estate, but the day will come, I fancy, when there will be armies of scribes all over Egypt.”
“That will be a good thing,” said Renisenb.
Hori said slowly: “I am not so sure.”
“Why are you not sure?”
“Because, Renisenb, it is so easy and it costs so little labour to write down ten bushels of barley, or a hundred head of cattle, — and the thing that is written will come to seem like the real thing, and so the writer and the scribe will come to despise the man who ploughs the fields and reaps the barley and raises the cattle — but all the same the fields and the cattle are real — they are not just marks of ink on papyrus. And when all the records and all the papyrus rolls are destroyed and the scribes are scattered, the men who toil and reap will go on, and Egypt will still live.”
Renisenb looked at him attentively. She said slowly: “Yes, I see what you mean. Only the things that you can see and touch and eat are real... To write down “I have two hundred and forty bushels of barley” means nothing unless you have the barley. One could write down lies.”
Hori smiled at her serious face. She paused and then said simply: “When Khay went to Osiris I was very sad. But now I have come home and I shall be happy again and forget — for everything here is the same. Nothing is changed at all.”
“You really think that?”
Renisenb looked at him sharply.
“What do you mean, Hori?”
“I mean there is always change. Eight years is eight years. You yourself are not the same Renisenb who went away with Khay.” “Yes, I am! Or if not, then I soon shall be again. I am just Renisenb.”
“But Renisenb has something added to her all the time, so she becomes all the time a different Renisenb!”
“No, no. Nothing will be different at all!” She paused, breathless. Hori sighed. Then he said gently: “You do not understand, Renisenb. There is an evil that comes from outside, that attacks so that all the world can see, but there is another kind of rottenness that breeds from within — that shows no outward sign. It grows slowly, day by day, till at last the whole fruit is rotten — eaten away by disease.”
Renisenb stared at him. He had spoken almost absently, not as though he were speaking to her, but more like a man who muses to himself.
B. Answer the questions.
1. Why do you think Renisenb returned home? 2. What are her brothers’ names? Are they alike or different? What information is given in the text about their disposition? 3. Why do you think Yahmose “was always in a state of anxiety”? 4. What was Hori’s occupation? Was he a member of Renisenb’s family? What did Renisenb think of this man? 5. Why were the marks in Renisenb’s father’s papyrus meaningless to her? Why, in your opinion, does the author mention Renisenb’s “untutored eyes”? 6. Renisenb regarded writing and reading as a wonder. Can you explain why? Are these skills wonderous to you? Do you think the idea of “a wonder” changes with time? Do timeless wonders exist? 7. Why, in your opinion, did the ability to write or to read make no difference to Renisenb? Are these skills of importance nowadays? Do you think reading as a process of gaining knowledge and information is beginning to lack significance now? How can you account for it? 8. What do you think Hori meant when he mentioned evil that “breeds from within”? Do you think this evil will reveal itself in the course of the story? In what way, do you think, the plot will develop remembering that the story was written by Agatha Christie?