This play has been translated into English from the Russian original. Are there any expressions or ways of speaking that strike you as more Russian than English? For example, would an adult man be addressed by an older man as my darling or my treasure in an English play?

Read through the play carefully, and find expressions that you think are not used in contemporary English, and contrast these with idiomatic modern English expressions that also occur in the play.

What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?

Chubukov says of Natalya: “... as if she won’t consent! She’s in love; egad, she’s like a lovesick cat...” Would you agree? Find reasons for your answer.

Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the box to answer the question.

   greedy            naive                   stupid                ungrateful 
   selfish            comical               unquestioning

Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly woman?

Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?

What ideals does Nelson Mandela set for the future of South Africa?

Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How?

How does Mandela describe the systems of government in his country

(i) in the first decade, and
(ii) in the final decade of the twentieth century?

Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?

Do you think Mr Keesing was a strict teacher?

Would you agree that the “depths of oppression” create “heights of character”? How does Mandela illustrate this? Can you add your own examples to this argument ?

Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?

What does Chubukov at first suspect that Lomov has come for? Is he sincere when he later says “And I’ve always loved you, my angel, as if you were my own son”? Find reasons for your answer from the play.

Why is Mij’s species now known to the world as Maxwell’s otter?

How did Mandela’s ‘hunger for freedom’ change his life?

Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How?

(i) Find all the words and expressions in the play that the characters use to speak about each other, and the accusations and insults they hurl at each other. (For example, Lomov in the end calls Chubukov an intriguer; but earlier, Chubukov has himself called Lomov a “malicious, doublefaced intriguer.” Again, Lomov begins by describing Natalya as “an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking, well-educated.”)
(ii) Then think of five adjectives or adjectival expressions of your own to describe each character in the play.
(iii) Can you now imagine what these characters will quarrel about next?

Was Anne right when she said that the world would not be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl?

What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?

You must have noticed that when we report someone’s exact words, we have to make some changes in the sentence structure. In the following sentences fill in the blanks to list the changes that have occurred in the above pairs of sentences. One has been done for you. Questions.

1.To report a question, we use the reporting verb asked (as in sentence set 1).

2.To report a declaration, we use the reporting verb 

3.The adverb of place here changes to _____

4.When the verb in the direct speech is in the present tense, the verb in reported speech is in the tense (as in sentence set 3).

5.If the Verb in direct speech is in the present continuous tense, the verb in reported speech changes to ____ tense. For example, ____ changes to was getting.

6.When the sentence in direct speech contains a word denoting respect, we add the adverb ____ in the reporting clause (as in sentence set 1)

7.The pronouns I, me, our and mine, which are used in the first person in direct speech, change to third person pronouns to such as _____ or ____ in reported speech.