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Actividad sobre una short story en inglés. ...

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SHORT STORY II: THE INVISIBLE JAPANESE GENTLEMEN BY GRAHAM GREENE 1.

Summarize the story

The story happens in a restaurant. There are three tables: one with the narrator of the story and another with a couple, between them there are eight Japanese gentlemen. The narrator is eavesdropping on the couple, who is talking about their future. Above all, the woman talks about her future success as a writer, about when they will be married and also about their new life because she plans settle down in St. Tropez for six months when she will be famous. The narrator explains that her fiancé looks a bit insecure and he doesn’t seem determined to marry her. He is not convinced about her future success as a writer, either; he would prefer to work with his uncle. But the girl does not listen to his companion and is talking about herself the whole time. Throughout the conversation, the woman shows off a big capacity of observation several times, because her published has told her that. The narrator says that maybe she is not that good, but her publisher has lied because of her beauty. In addition, the narrator describes the man as a person who doesn’t have a strong personality and the woman as a rude girl and he doubts about her capacities and about her future. The story, also, talks about the writer’s job that the narrator describes as a very hard job and he adds that the writer must to fight for his novel. Finally, when the couple is leaving but the narrator can continue hearing them, the man mentions the group of Japanese gentlemen and the surprise is that the woman has not noticed their presence at any time. 2.

Questions

a)

What does the author mean by ‘He should have been a young officer in Nelson’s navy in the days when certain weakness and sensitivity was no bar to promotion.’?

Nelson was a flag officer in the Navy between the years 1771 and 1805. Here, the author means that his first sight opinion of the man is that he looks weak and wimp, but he would have promoted in the Navy during this period of time. b) What do we know about the narrator? He is also a writer and quite old. By his words, it seems that he probably had to put a lot of effort into achieving some success. c)

What is the writing profession like, according to the narrator?

The narrator describes the profession as a difficult one, full of setbacks and late compensation for effort. He believes one has to be mentally prepared to continue writing even though you might not have the willingness to do so anymore. d) What is the role of the Japanese gentlemen in the story? The Japanese gentlemen are sitting next to the young couple. The girl is all the time boasting that she has incredible powers of observation, but when they leave the restaurant, her boyfriend talks about the Japanese and she has not even noticed them. This fact proves that her powers of observation are not as good as she thought. That is why the title is “The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen”, because the girl makes them invisible.

e) How do you interpret the sentence ‘They have to be born without an anesthetic too.’ What/who does ‘they’ refer to? The narrator refers to the fact that it would require a lot of effort and sacrifice. They refers to the dozen possible future novels which would be written by the young female novelist he is observing. 3. Vocabul ar y .Pr ovi deasynonym orapar aphr asef ort hef ol l owi ngwor ds.Taket he cont extwher et heyappeari nt oaccount : a) gl anc e:t ol ookhast i l yorbr i efly . b) di s t r aught :notf oc usedi ns omet hi ng,t hi nki ngofanyt hi ngel se. c) fiancé:amanwhoi sengagedt obemar r i ed. d) gr udgi ngl y :c ar ef ul l y . e) bl ur b:apr omot i onaldesc r i pt i on,asf oundont hej ack et sofbook s. f ) j ack et :pi eceofcl ot hi ngus edf orcov er i ng. g) bow:al ower i ngori ncl i nat i onoft heheadorbodyasa mar kofr es pec t ,gr eet i ngor as sent . h) quar r el :anangr ydi sagr eement . i ) snat ch:gr abaway . j ) adoz en:i nl ar gequant i t i es....