ACTIVITIES
1. Find some biographical information about the author.
(Minimum 120 words).
John Cheever:American short-story writer and novelist whose work describes, often through fantasy and ironic comedy, the life, manners, and morals of middle-class suburban America. Cheever has been called “the Chekhov of the suburbs” for his ability to capture the drama and sadness of the lives of his characters by revealing the undercurrents of apparently insignificant events. Known as a moralist, he judges his characters from the standpoint of traditional morality. A master of the short story, Cheever worked from “the interrupted event,” which he considered the prime source of short stories. He was famous for his clear and elegant prose and his careful fashioning of incidents and anecdotes. He is perhaps best-known for the two stories The Enormous Radio (1947) and The Swimmer (1964; film 1968).
2. Find a summary of the story in English. Read it and write a version in Spanish.
(Minimum 120 words).
La historia comienza con la descripción de una vida de una familia de la clase media los protagonistas son Jim e Irene Westcott.Jim e Irene llevan felizmente casados desde hace 9 años y son los padres de dos jóvenes . Ellos viven en un apartamento en Sutton , y son amantes de la música clásica, a veces acuden a conciertos y lo más importante, escuchan la radio.Un día, su vieja radio dejó de funcionar y Jim prometió comprar una nueva. Al día siguiente la nueva radio llegó . La aparición de una nueva radio no iba a ser la única molestia. Cuando Irene se sentó a escuchar el concierto de la aquella noche, ella se percató de que recibía varias interferencias y no podía escuchar la música.Ella comenzó a arreglar el problema manipulando los diales pero, en vez de poder escuchar la música, ella se encontró escuchando las conversaciones de sus vecinos.
3. Read the story. You can access it by clicking in the link.
Draw a table with 3 columns:
WORDS I DON'T I THINK IT DICTIONARY
UNDERSTAND. MEANS: MEANING:
Fitch/ /Commonly called a "polecat", but, the fitch is not a cat, aThe fitch is the wild ancestor of the (domesticated) ferret.
Fitch/ /Commonly called a "polecat", but, the fitch is not a cat, aThe fitch is the wild ancestor of the (domesticated) ferret.
Plaintive/ /expressing sorrow or melanholy.
Garters/ /a similar band worn to hold up a shirt sleeve.
Fill in the three columns as you read the story.
4. What information can you give about the main characters :
The enormous radio: Jim and Irene Wescott
Jim: Jim Westcott is husband of Irene Westcott. In order to make his wife happy he buys her a new radio, so she can listen to classical music. However, instead of playing music, the new radio seems to be catching other people's homes.
Irene: Wife of Jim , In this way Irene becomes privy to her neighbors' private life which has a negative effect on her behavior. This does not escape her husband Jim, who picks up a fight with her as a result.
5. Write your own summary of the story in your own words in English. (Minimum 160 words).
The story opens with the description of the perfectly average middle class life of Jim and Irene Westcott. Jim and Irene have been happily married for nine years and are parents to two young children. They live in an apartment building at Sutton place, and are lovers of classical music, often attending concerts and more importantly, listening to the radio. One day, their old radio stops working and Jim promises to buy a new one. The next day the new radio arrives.The appearance of the new radio turns out not to be the only annoyance. As Irene sits down to listen to a concert one night, she notices that there are various sounds interfering with the music. She attempts to fix the problem by manipulating the dials but instead of improving the sound of music, Irene finds herself listening to conversations going on in her neighbors' apartments.
6. Write 10 questions about the content of the story. Imagine you want to make sure that the people to answer them would really prove they understood 100 percent of it by doing so.
7. How much did you like the story. Explain, please. Be honest. (Minimum 100 words).
I like this story because the story tell us a good story with characters that we perfectly can saw in ours lifes in my case the lecture becomes very easy because I maybe can be listening a conversation of a neightbour because he or she its shouting her or him daughters this lecture reminds me that we can becomes very paranoic with the words that someones talled us or somenthing and in the limits of this paraonics we maybe suffer a deppression or somenthing worse.
8. Find sentences expressed in every tense of Present, Past, Future and Conditional. Write them down.
e.g Present Continuous : Della IS SAVING to buy Jim a watch
Etc.
Same about Conditional sentences with IF.
Same about Relative sentences with WHO, WHICH , WHOSE, WHERE, WHEN.
Same about Reported Speech: e.g. He said he would be coming.
Same about the passive voice: He was given some money.
They were the parents of two young children
they had been married nine years
they lived on
they went to the theatre
they hoped some day to live in Westchester
Irene
Westcott was a pleasant,
she wore a coat
he seemed to feel younger
He wore his graying hair cut very short,
he dressed in the kind of clothes
his class had worn
his manner was earnest, vehement, and intentionally naive.
The Westcotts differed from their friends
they shared in serious music
They went to a great many concerts
he seemed to feel younger
He wore his graying hair cut very short,
he dressed in the kind of clothes
his class had worn
his manner was earnest, vehement, and intentionally naive.
The Westcotts differed from their friends
they shared in serious music
They went to a great many concerts
