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Автор
Игорь Игоревич Хохлов

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English club #2: Jack London 'Smoke Bellew'


English Club №2: Jack London "Smoke Bellew"

Hi, dear subscribers!

First of all, I am going to perform some error correction, concerning previous issue. Thanks a lot to Irina, who sent me a list of my mistakes. (Maybe I have already made some in the first sentence. :-/)

  1. intresting: right spelling is interesting

  2. concerned to English: right preposition is with. Examples:
    The article was concerned with the relationship between politics and the law.
    You can also use verb concern in such way:
    The article, concerning the relationship between politics and the law, was very popular that weekend.

  3. in such way: right usage includes indefinite article: in such a way

  4. a e-mail: we use an instead of a, because word e-mail begins with a vowel sound

Second part of the issue will consist in a several pages taken from the story by Jack London "Smoke Bellew".

In the beginning he was Christopher Bellew. By the time he was at college he had become Chris Bellew. Later, in the Bohemian crowd of San Francisco, he was called Kit Bellew. And in the end he was known by no other name than Smoke Bellew. And this history of the evolution of his name is the history of his evolution. Nor would it have happened had he not had a fond mother and an iron uncle, and had he not received a letter from Gillet Bellamy.

"I have just seen a copy of the Billow," Gillet wrote from Paris. "Of course O'Hara will succeed with it. But he's missing some plays." (Here followed details in the improvement of the budding society weekly.) "Go down and see him. Let him think they're your own suggestions. Don't let him know they're from me. If he does, he'll make me Paris correspondent, which I can't afford, because I'm getting real money for my stuff from the big magazines. Above all, don't forget to make him fire that dub who's doing the musical and art criticism. Another thing, San Francisco has always had a literature of her own. But she hasn't any now. Tell him to kick around and get some gink to turn out a live serial, and to put into it the real romance and glamour and colour of San Francisco."

And down to the office of the Billow went Kit Bellew faithfully to instruct. O'Hara listened. O'Hara debated. O'Hara agreed. O'Hara fired the dub who wrote criticism. Further, O'Hara had a way with him - the very way that was feared by Gillet in distant Paris. When O'Hara wanted anything, no friend could deny him. He was sweetly and compellingly irresistible. Before Kit Bellew could escape from the office he had become an associate editor, had agreed to write weekly columns of criticism till some decent pen was found, and had pledged himself to write a weekly instalment of ten thousand words on the San Francisco serial - and all this without pay. The Billow wasn't paying yet, O'Hara explained; and just as convincingly had he exposited that there was only one man in San Francisco capable of writing the serial, and that man Kit Bellew.

Let us extract something useful from the text above. It is a good way to learn language to read books. But don't forget about your listening skills! I am intend putting a lot of audio materials to the website, when it would be built up.

by the time - used for saying what has already happened at the time something else happens

Notice a sequence of tenses in that sentence: By the time he was at college he had become Chris Bellew. The event "he become Chris Bellew" had happened before he was at college. So, we use Past Perfect.

... he was called Kit Bellew (passive voice)

"Nor would it have happened if had he not had a fond mother and an iron uncle, and had he not received a letter from Gillet Bellamy." In previous sentence we can see a classical example of unreal condition. Next grammar structure is used: If I had + verb p.p., I would have + verb p.p. Notice, that author skipped conjunction "if" in the text.

billow - (literary) a large wave in the sea

"Of course O'Hara will succeed with it. But he's missing some plays." Gillet wrote from Paris, that he had just seen a copy of newspaper, called "Billow". He had no doubt, that deals of O'Hara would go well, but he noticed that he missing some plays. It means that he wasn't experienced enough.

budding - at the very beginning of a career in writing, acting, politics etc and likely to be successful at it

society - the group of people in a country who are rich and fashionable or from a high social class

weekly - a newspaper or magazine that is published once a week

afford - if you can afford something, you have enough money to be able to pay for it. This word always follows 'can', 'could', or 'be able to'

fire - to make someone leave their job, sometimes as a punishment

dub - (amer., conv.) to give someone or something a particular name or description, often a humorous one

kick around - to discuss an idea or suggestion in an informal way

gink - (amer., slang) a man, especially one regarded as foolish or contemptible

turn out - produce quickly or regularly, usually with machinery

compelling- interesting or exciting enough to keep your attention completely

decent - good enough

pledge - (mainly journalism) to promise seriously and publicly to do something

instalment - one of several parts of a story or article that are published at different times in a magazine or newspaper

capable of - able to do something

Summing up, what we got from the text. Author use simple grammatical structures. We can see usage of Past Simple / Past Simple Continuous tense nearly all the time. If we want to say about action, performed before another action in the past, we use Past Perfect tense. In the begging of the book we can study a lot of journal slang and all over the book we can see a lot of American slang.

P.S. This is my first issue, containing not only some plans. So, it is very important for me to know your opinion. Don't hesitate to write me. I want to know what is bad, what is good, all about mistakes I have made, which words are too simple, which words and phrases I have passed, but they are complex enough and so on. Also, I changed design a little and I am interested in your opinion about it. I hope, this time my mailbox would be overflowed by your mail.

See you later,
Sincerely yours, Denis
Contact: slugclub@mail.ru
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