Номер 4, страница 42 - гдз по английскому языку 11 класс учебник Вербицкая, Каминс Карр

4. Secret worlds. Reading and Vocabulary - номер 4, страница 42.

Условие.

4 T029 Before you read Part 2 of the story, discuss the questions. Then listen and read Part 2 and check your predictions.

1 What does Daniel's father do for a living?

2 Why is this place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books?

3 What happens to a person who visits this place for the first time?

4 What's going to happen next? Will positive or negative?

Part 2

Among the library's corridors and platforms, I could make out about a dozen human figures. Some of them turned to greet me from a distance, and I recognised the faces of various booksellers, colleagues of my father's. To my ten-year-old eyes, they looked like a brotherhood of alchemists in secret study. My father knelt next to me, with his eyes fixed on mine, and spoke in the hushed voice he reserved for promises and secrets.

'This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book you see here has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens. This place was already ancient when my father brought me here for the first time many years ago. Perhaps as old as the city itself. How long has it existed? Who created it? Nobody knows that for certain. I will tell you what my father told me, though. When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book has been completely forgotten, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader's hands. In the shop, we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been somebody's best friend. Now they only have us, Daniel. Do you think you'll be able to keep this a secret?'

My gaze was lost in the immensity and magic of the light. I nodded, and my father smiled.

'And you know the best thing about it?' he asked.

I shook my head.

'According to tradition, the first time someone visits this place, he must choose a book, any book, and adopt it. That's a big responsibility. He has to make sure that it will never disappear, that it will always stay alive. It's a very important promise. For life,' explained my father. 'Today it's your turn.'

For almost half an hour, I wandered within the labyrinth, breathing in the smell of old paper and dust. Among the titles, I could make out words in familiar languages and others I couldn't identify. I walked through galleries filled with hundreds, thousands of volumes. After a while it occurred to me that between the covers of each of those books was a boundless universe waiting to be discovered, while beyond those walls, in the outside world, people allowed life to pass by in afternoons of football and radio soaps. At that precise moment, I knew that I had already chosen the book I was going to adopt or that was going to adopt me. It stood out timidly on one corner of the shelf, bound in wine-coloured leather. The gold letters of its title gleamed in the light from the dome above. I caressed them with the tips of my fingers, reading to myself.

The Shadow of the Wind

JULIÁN CARAX

I had never heard of the title or the author, but I didn't care. I took the book down with great care and leafed through the pages. Once liberated from its prison on the shelf, it released a cloud of gold and dust. Pleased with my choice, I put it under my arm and walked back through the labyrinth, a smile on my lips. I felt sure that The Shadow of the Wind had been waiting there for me for years, probably since before I was born.

Решение.