III. a) Write oat from the story the sentences with the following words:
stiff — awkward; obviously — evidently; earnestly — gravely; to recognize — to identify; prosperous — rich; to force — to pump up.
b) Explain the difference between the synonyms within each pair. (See Notes on p. 18.) When in doubt, consult dictionaries.
IV. Answer the questions. Argue your answers:
1. Where is the scene laid in the story? 2. How did the seers-off feel and why? What were they doing to pass the time? 3. What made the narrator of the story think that the man who was seeing off a young lady was not her father? 4. Who was the man? Under what circumstances had the narrator met him before? What made him hard to recognize? 5. What made the narrator ask Le Ros where he acted? 6. Why did the answer make him think that Le Ros recited at concerts? 7. Why was he bewildered when Le Ros said he had first met the young lady he was seeing off less than half an hour before? 8. What can you say about the activities of the Anglo-American Social Bureau? 9. How can you explain Le Ros's success as an employee of the Bureau? 10. How did, in Le Ros's opinion, the seeing-off ceremony help Americans? Do you think it was a good idea? 11. What is the implication of the word afford applied to friends? Can friends really be afforded or not afforded? 12. Did Le Ros take seriously his job and himself in the role of a professional seer-off? How does it characterize him? 13. What is the author's (not the narrator's!) attitude to Le Ros? What is the author's irony directed against?
