Worksheet A A
The ill wind that blows nobody any good swept away the vicarage family on the blast. Then lo and behold! The vicar, who was somewhat distinguished as an essayist and a controversialist, and whose case had aroused sympathy among the bookish man, received the living of Papplewick. The Lord had tempered the wind of misfortune with a rectorate in the north country.
B (1)
When the vicar’s wife went off with a young and penniless man the scandal knew no bounds.
Her two little girls were only seven and nine years old respectively. And the vicar was such a good husband. True, his hair was grey. But his mustache was dark, he was handsome, and still full of furtive passion for his unrestrained and beautiful wife.
C
The two girls never knew. Wounded, they decided it was because their mother found them negligible.
D
Why did she go? Why did she burst away with such an éclat of revulsion, like a touch of madness?
Nobody gave any answer. Only the pious said she was a bad woman. While some of the good women kept silent. They knew.
E
The vicarage family received decided modification, upon its transference in the rectory. The vicar, now the rector, fetched up his mother and his sister, and a brother from the city. The two little girls had a very different milieu from the old home.
F
The rectory was a rather ugly stone house down by the river Papple, before you come into the village. Further on, beyond where the road crosses the stream, were the big old stone cotton- mills, once driven by water. The road curved up-hill, into the bleak stone streets of the village.
D.H. Lawrence, The Virgin and The Gipsy, Penguin Popular Classic 1997.
1B 2…. 3 ….. 4 … 5….. 6…..
Worksheet B
I. Which of the following adjectives describe the vicar’s wife and which refer to the vicar? Which word doesn’t refer to neither of them?
penniless good bad handsome beautiful
young negligible unrestrained bleak
Adjectives describing the vicar:
Adjectives describing the vicar’s wife:
II. Answer the questions.
1. Why did vicar’s daughters have to move to the rectory?
………
2. Where was the rectory situated?
………
3. What did the little girls think was the reason for abandoning the family by their mother?
………
4. Did anyone know why the vicar’s wife had left her husband?
………
5. Who did vicar’s wife run away with?
………
6. Who is ‘the Lord’?
………
7. How did people treat the vicar, when they knew he had been abandoned.
………
8. What do you think, why did the vicar’s wife go off?
………
III. Find the words in the text that mean the same as the following.
bad luck poor be quiet craziness get hurt
Worksheet C
A misfortune 1 legal or social limits
B penniless 2 the house in which a rector lives
C abandon 3 having no money
D wounded 4 bad luck, or an unlucky event:
E receive 5 offended or upset by what someone has said or done
F rectory 6 to get or be given something
G Lo and behold
7 something that you say when you tell someone about something surprising that happened
H negligible 8 to leave a place, thing or person forever I
rector 9 a priest in charge of a parish (= area) in the Church of England J
bounds 10 too slight or small in amount to be of importance
