Alumno: SANTIAGO CARBONELL MATARREDONA

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2.

Chapter ONE (second part)

i) Reading comprehension
1. Read the text and answer the following questions. Give short
answers. You can use exactly the same words that appear in the
text or you can even use quotations.
1. What role does the mind play in his pain?
His mind, especially his memory, adds a continual suffering and the persistent
recall of that very suffering to his daily grief: I not only live each endless day
in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.
2. How does he see himself?
He simply considers himself to be an embarrassment to everyone I meet.
And even more: to some Im worse than an embarrassment.
3. What does it mean that her absence is not local at all? What metaphor
does he use to understand it better?
Simply that her absence is no more emphatic in those places [where they
used often to meet and be happy] than anywhere else, for her absence is like
the sky, spread over everything.
He employs the metaphor of forbidding salt to someone, because that very
person would notice salts absence in any meal.
4. How does he see his body?
Like an empty house.
5.what does this sentence mean? One never gets the total impact of what we
call the thing itself?
There is a limitation, a threshold, in our perception ability; even more, our
perception receives such an amount of stimulus / inputs that we cannot classify
them all under determined logical categories. Thats why we perceive many
personal experiences, but cannot reach the idea of them, for its simply a
name (here the author seems to follow the philosophical current of
nominalism).
6. What does the one flesh refer to? What does he think about it?
The bondage received in their marriage. He thinks that theres a limit to the
one flesh, not only by the eventual death of any of the two spouses, but even
during their cohabitation, for one cant really share someone elses weakness,
or fear or pain.
7. How did they communicate when she was still alive?
Time and space and body were the very things that brought us together;
the telephone wires by which we communicated.

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8. How can they communicate now, in case such communication is possible?

They cannot communicate now, unless you assume that some other means of
communication [] would be immediately substituted. But the author doesnt
seem very confident about the possibility of a post-mortem communication.
9. What is death like?
Death is real, irrevocable, irreversible, and has inherent consequences. And it
matters.
10. Why cant he remember her face?
Paradoxically, because he has contemplated it very often: we have seen the
faces of those we know best so variously, from so many angles, in so many
lights, with so many expressions [] that all the impressions crowd into our
memory together and cancel out into a mere blur.

2. Say if these statements are True (T) or False (F) according

to the text.
1. Writing all these thoughts in this notebook is a great relief for him.

T/F

2. Going to place where they had been together makes him feel anxious.T/F
(no more than in any other place)

3. Her absence is not local at all.

4. She was afraid of Cancer.

T/F
(its not geographically local, but existentially)

T/F

5. After becoming ill, they were still happy together.

T/F

6. He thinks lovers can sympathize and know and feel exactly what the
other is feeling. T/F
7. He thinks remembering her face (=having a physical image of her) is not
a way to communicate with her any more.
T/F
8. He thinks death is a significant event in life and ignoring it is absurd. T/F
9. He can perfectly remember Hs face.
10.

T/F

He can perfectly remember Hs voice.

T/F

ii) Grammar
1. Find examples in text of the following verbal structures:
Conditional I suppose that if one were forbidden all salt one
wouldnt notice
it much more in any one food than in another.

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Present perfect All their love passages have trained them to have,
not identical, but complementary, correlative, even opposite, feelings
about one another.
Present perfect continuous I have been thinking of H. and myself as
peculiarly unfortunate in being torn apart.
Past perfect I was very afraid of going to places where H. and I had
been happy.
2. Look at these contractions. What do they stand for?
Thats true to life: That is true to life (verb to be; 3rd simple present singular
person).
The miserys shadow: The shadow of misery (saxon genitive).
Id defend it to be: I would defend it to be (modal conditional verb).
Im aware of being an embarrassment: I am aware (verb to be; 1st simple
present singular person)

Hes had a crash: He has had a crash (verb to have; 3rd simple present
singular person).
Its like an empty house: It is like an empty house (verb to be; 3rd simple
present singular person).
3. Find 5 examples in the text of this structure: verb+ preposition+ -ing
Copy the examples you find and translate them.
-

the fact that you dont merely suffer but have to keep on
thinking about the fact that you suffer no slo el hecho de que
sufres (el hecho de que no slo / meramente sufras), sino que
continuamente tienes que seguir pensando en el hecho de que
sufres (sino que tienes que persistir pensando en el hecho).

I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day
thinking about living each day in grief Noslo vivo cada
interminable da con dolor, sino que vivo cada da pensando en que
vivo cada da con dolor.

I sometimes think that shame, mere awkward, senseless shame,

does as much towards preventing good acts and
straightforward happiness as any of our vices can do a veces
pienso que la vergenza, la mera incomodidad embarazosa, el
temor sinsentido, hace tanto para evitar / prevenir las buenas
acciones y una felicidad honrada cuanto pueda hacer cualquiera de
nuestros vicios.

I was very afraid of going to places where H. and I had been

happy Tena mucho miedo de ir a lugares donde H. y yo
habamos sido felices.

But then, what conceivable point could there be in severing the

old ones? Pero entonces, qu razn concebible podra haber en
cortar los antiguos?

4. Yet at the beginning of a sentence. What does it mean?

Alumno: SANTIAGO CARBONELL MATARREDONA

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Yet H herself An as / incluso / con todo

And yet, not quite together Y con todo / sin embargo
Yet the odd face of some stranger aunque / sin embargo / no
obstante

5. Find 3 examples in the text of comparative structures. Copy the

examples and translate them.
- To some Im worse than an embarrassment para algunos soy
peor que un incordio / una molestia.
- Her absence is no more emphatic in those places than anywhere
else su ausencia no es ms patente en esos lugares que en
cualquier parte.
- one wouldnt notice it [salts absence] much more in any one food
than in another uno no percibira la falta de sal ms en alguna
comida que en otra.

iii) Vocabulary
Look up the following words in a dictionary. Write down a definition
in English and then give an equivalent in Spanish.
1. Shame: a painful emotion resulting from an awareness of having
done something dishonourable, unworthy, degrading, etc.
//
sentimiento / emocin dolorosa que resultante tras la toma de
conciencia de haber realizado algo deshonroso, indigno, degradante,
et. // vergenza.
2. Mind: the human faculty to which are ascribed thought, feeling, etc;
often regarded as an immaterial part of a person. // facultad
humana a la cual se refiere el pensamiento, el sentimiento, etc; a
menudo es considerada como una parte inmaterial de la persona. //
mente.
3. Emphatic: expressed, spoken, or done with emphasis. Forceful and
positive; definite; direct. // expresado, dicho o realizado con nfasis.
Vigoroso y positivo; decisivo / definitorio; directo. // enftico.
4. Notice: the act of perceiving; observation; attention. // El acto de
percibir; observacin, atencin. // percibir.
5. Deceive: to mislead by deliberate misrepresentation or lies. //
defraudar, tanto por una deliberada falsificacin / impostura, o por
mentiras. // engaar. Jovialidad
6. Gaiety: the state or condition of being merry, bright, or lively.
condicin o estado de alegra, regocijo o vivacidad. // alegra.

//

7. Flesh: the soft part of the body of an animal or human, esp muscular
tissue, as distinct from bone and viscera. // parte blanda del cuerpo
animal o humano, especialmente el tejido muscular, en cuanto que
distinto del seo y visceral. // carne.
8. Matter (verb): to be of consequence or importance.
significativo o relevante, tener importancia. // importar.

// ser

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9. Sympathize: to feel or express compassion or sympathy (for);

commiserate. to share or understand the sentiments or ideas (of). //
sentir o expresar compasin o empata (por alguien); conmiseracin;
compartir o hacerse cargo de los sentimientos o ideas (de alguien). //
compadecerse.
10. Blur: to make or become vague or less distinct. // emborronar o
tornarse borroso, vago, desdibujado, menos distinguible.
//
emborronar.

iv) Thesis
What do you think is the most important idea (or ideas) of this
excerpt. Specify in which sentence(or sentences) you think that
idea (or those ideas) are expressed.
The author is analyzing his grief existentially, but almost psychologically,
observing how it manifests itself, and how does it evolve. Its a brilliant idea
to consider not only the grief itself, but how the mind plays the wicked trick
of mentally evoking and recalling the thought of living in grief:
- Part of every misery is, so to speak, the miserys shadow or
reflection: the fact that you dont merely suffer but have to keep on
thinking about the fact that you suffer.
As a consequence of the previous statement, the author is self-convinced of
being a problem wherever he goes, for he cannot avoid the continual recall
of his pain, not only to him but to others: An odd byproduct of my loss is
that Im aware of being an embarrassment to everyone I meet.
And this embarrassment is, for the moment, incurable, for you cant really
share someone elses weakness, or fear or pain.
But I feel that the most splendid idea in this chapter is this solemn
statement: there is death. And whatever is matters. Therefore, whatever
we say for evading this taboo-reality will be similar to the ostrichs
nonsensical behavior: to hide the head under the soil when she perceives a
danger.