Урок домашнього читання.

                                                         Ghost in the house

                                                   ( by George P. McCallum)

New words

Architecture - архітектура

Attic- горище

Candle - свічка

Detest – не подобатися

Disappear - зникнути

Ghost - привид

Growl - гарчати

Incident - випадок

Lightning - блискавка

Mysterious - таємничий

Occur - трапитися

Porch – вхід, ганок

A real find – щаслива знахідка

Run away with – вийти з під контролю

Take shelter – знайти прихисток

“There’s absolutely nothing here”, James said in that maddening confident way of his.

Gwen became angry every time her husband told her that she was imagining things. “It’s no small thing”, he said.

“What? The ghost?”

“No. Your imagination!”
“Oh, James Bede!”

“There isn’t anyone as attractive as you when you’re angry”, her husband of only a few months told her, taking his pretty young wife in his arms and kissing her. She couldn’t stay angry long when he did that.

The Bedes had bought the old house on Mountbatten Road, one mile out from the village of Scully Downs, because it was an excellent example of early nineteenth century architecture and in very good condition. They had searched for a long time but had found nothing they liked as much. James, who was an architect and understood such things, said the house was a real find. Gwen, who shared her husband’s interest in old buildings, agreed. At least, she did until strange things began happening at Hill House.

The first incident occurred the day they moved in. They had to eat by candlelight that evening because the electricity had not yet been turned on.

“Pleasant but mysterious”, Gwen laughed as she lit the two candles in the centre of the table. A few minutes later the candles suddenly went out, first one, then the other, almost as though something had been placed on top of them.

‘James, did you see that?” exclaimed Gwen, dropping her fork.

“How can I see anything with no light? The wind blew out the candles.” He quickly lit them again.

“There isn’t any wind.” Gwen said. “All the doors and windows are shut. Besides, if it was the wind it would have blown them both out together, not one by one.”

“If it wasn’t the wind, what was it?”

“I … I don’t know.”

They finished supper quickly but Gwen could not forget what had happened.

The second incident occurred a week later. The Bedes had been at Hill House eight days when their first post arrived. There was a letter from Gwen’s sister, some business papers for James and one letter addressed to “Miss Alison Ray- Hills”. The envelope was clearly addressed so it was no mistake that it was left at Hill House. But something was wrong and Gwen left the letter on the hall table to be given back to the postman the following morning. The next day, however, when she looked on the table, the letter was gone.

“Did you pick it up, James?”

“Not I. Look on the floor. Perhaps it fell and slipped under the rug. It must be somewhere. It couldn’t just disappear.”

“Well, it’s gone. I can’t see it anywhere.” Gwen suddenly thought of the candle incident but she said nothing.

Later in the morning she carried some empty boxes up to the attic. Getting settled in a new place is not something one can do in a day. She could see it was going to be weeks, perhaps months before she got the furniture arranged exactly as she wanted it. But it was fun too and Gwen enjoyed it.

No one had opened the attic door in some years and it was only with much effort that Gwen was able to push it open far enough to get in. Looking around her she could see one part of the house that could certainly wait. No one but she and James would ever come up here. She put the boxes on the floor and was about to go back downstairs for more when she noticed an envelope on top of and old trunk. Picking it up she read, “Miss Alison Ray- Hills, Hill House…”The date on the envelope was June 28, 1823. It was not the same letter that had arrived the day before; this envelope was blue and the other had been white. There was nothing inside.

Dropping it as though it was burning her fingers, Gwen hurried down the stairs and out of the front door. She sat under the big tree near the gate for a long time before she found courage enough to return to the house. What would James say now?

What James said was that she was once again letting her imagination run away with her. There was no mystery. The explanation was a simple one: a family named Ray- Hills lived here in the late 1820’s and had a daughter named Alison to whom someone wrote a letter – perhaps several letters. Like the old trunk and a few other things it was left in the attic.

“And the one the other day, the letter that disappeared?”

“Another Alison Ray- Hills, very possibly a girl related to the first one.”

“James, the envelope was addressed in the same handwriting!”

He had nothing to say to that but asked,” What was the name of the family we bought the house from?”

‘Smith.”

Another week passed. Nothing happened and Gwen began to think her husband might be right- that was all in her imagination. Then the third incident occurred, if one could call it an incident. (But then could one call any of the things that happened “incidents” really? James would not think so.)

The Bedes had a small dog which had been staying with Gwen’s parents until they were settled. They had not originally planned to fetch Toby quite soon but as Hill House was rather far from any other houses, and as Gwen, with no one to talk to all day, felt the need of company, especially in view of the things that had happened recently. James made a special trip to get Toby and bring him home. The little dog was delighted to be with Gwen and James again, and they were equally pleased to see him.

Toby went over the entire house, up and down, and excitedly ran all around the garden, too. He approved of his new home very much.

It was the next afternoon, while Gwen was resting in a big chair in the sitting room, with Toby at her feet, that “something” entered the open door and went up the stairs. The house was peaceful and quiet. Suddenly Toby stood up, looked towards the door and began to growl. His eyes seemed to be following something across the floor and up the stairs. Gwen saw no one, nothing. Toby didn’t move but kept his eyes on the top of the stairs for a long time. Finally, he seemed to lose interest, lay down and went to sleep. But what had he seen? Why had he growled?

“An insect,” said James. “He’s a city dog? Remember, not a country dog. Everything is new and different to him.”

Two days later the weather became extremely hot, dark clouds formed in the west and began moving across the sky towards Scully Downs. Lightning flashed. Thunder roared. Rain fell. It was the first real storm of summer. The sky became so black that Gwen turned on the lights but immediately turned them off again because electric storms frightened her and she felt sure something terrible would happen if she left them on. In an hour the storm began to fade away. The thunder and lightning stopped but the rain continued, though less violently. Gwen went to the door, opened it and looked out.

“Oh!” she said in surprise. There, on the top step, just inside the porch, was a young woman, trying to keep dry. She looked up and smiled to Gwen. “Good day!”, she said. “I was on the road when the storm began. I came in here to be out of the rain. I hope you do not mind.”

“Of course, not. But you should have rung the bell and not just sat out here on the steps. Please, come in. It’s still raining.”

‘Thank you. It is very kind of you,” the young woman said following Gwen into the house.

” You have just come to live here, have you not?”

“Yes, we have just moved in. It’s a beautiful old house and really in excellent condition. We love it.”

“It hasn’t been lived in very much, you know, but most of the people who were here took good care of it.”

“Oh, then you know it quite well.” She was a very pretty girl, especially when she smiled. Gwen supposed she was about 20 years old.

They went into the sitting room. Gwen asked the girl if she would like some tea but she didn’t want any. They sat down and waited for the storm to pass.

“You made this room delightful,” the girl said, looking around. ”I’m glad. It was so ugly when the last people lived here. They were called Smith. May I ask your name?”

“Mrs. Bede – Gwen.”

‘I am Mrs. Ernest Carlyle.” She did not mention her first name and Gwen did not think it would polite to ask.

They sat quietly for a few minutes. Gwen tried to make conversation but the girl only answered “yes” or “no”and made a few general observations. She seemed content to sit quietly.

Finally the rain stopped. The girl stood up and said, ”I must go now. Thank you so much for letting me take shelter from the rain. I do detest storms so.”

“You must come again, Mrs. Carlyle, and stay longer. I don’t know anyone here and it can be lonely at times.”

“Yes, very lonely. Thank you. Perhaps I shall be able to. Good-bye.”

“Good-bye.”

That evening when James came home his wife told him. “I had my first visitor today.” She described the girl. “Very sweet,” she said, “but just a bit strange. No, I shouldn’t say that, not strange, really but different.”

The following Saturday the Bedes were invited to the home of their nearest neighbors, the Lethbridges. During the evening James mentioned his wife’s visitor. “What was her name, Gwen?”

“Mrs. Carlyle. Mrs. Ernest Carlyle.”

‘Mrs. Carlyle?” It was Maud Tucker, a woman in her eighties who had lived all her life at Scully Downs, who spoke. “Then it must have been Alison”, she said.

Everyone turned toward Miss Tucker. “You have had a visit from Alison Ray-Hills, my dear,” she said to Gwen.” Hill House was built for Alison by her husband Ernest Carlyle in 1822. They were married on the morning of June 28, 1823. That afternoon Alison and Ernest went to see the house before leaving on a month’s tour of France and Italy; after the tour they planned to come back and live at Hill House. While they were in the garden a terrible thunder storm suddenly started and rather than go into the house they ran and stood under the tree. Lightning struck the tree, killing Alison instantly but leaving Ernest unharmed. He sold the house and went away and was never heard from again.

“Anyone who has ever lived at Hill House has had at least one visit from Alison. If she likes you she may call again. If she decides she doesn’t like you she will do anything she can to make you leave. She didn’t like the Smiths and unusual things were always happening to them. You see, my dear, to Alison it is and always will be her house and she refuses to share it with anyone she considers undesirable. Goodness knows she was right about the Smiths!” Miss Tucker smiled at Gwen. “I rather think she’ll want you to stay,” she said.

‘I hope so,” Gwen replied, suddenly feeling pleased about the ghost in her house, now that she knew who it was and why she was there. ‘And I hope she’ll pay me another visit.” She turned and looked at James. For once he had nothing to say.

1. Answer the questions.

1) What was the reason for buying Hill House?

2) What occurred on the first evening in the house?

3) What happened on the second evening?

4)What things did Mrs. Bede find in the attic?

5) What did Toby, the dog, see?

6) Who was the visitor during the thunder storm?

7) What did Maud Tucker tell Gwen about her previous hostess?

2. From column B choose the best definitions of the words in column A.

 A                                                                                   B

Incident                                                       sound made by a dog when angry

Thunder                                                      strange, unknown, hard to explain

Shelter                                                        a wax stick which gives light

Porch                                                           a happening

Growl                                                          lucky discovery

Attic                                                            the part of the building

Mysterious                                                a covered entrance to a building

Candle                                                        a place for protection

A real find                                                  a loud rumbling or crashing noise heard during the storm

3. Choose the correct words to complete these sentences.

1. There isn’t (anyone/no one) as scarier as a ghost in the empty house.

2. He couldn’t see (nothing/anything) without a candle.

3. There is (no/ any) rain this night.

4. Gwen remembered the dog incident but said (nothing/anything).

5. I don’t see Alison (nowhere/ anywhere).

6. (Anyone/ Nobody) had found a letter in the hall.