Ray Bradbury
”
Marionettes, Inc.
They walked slowly down the street at about ten in the evening,
talking calmly. They were both about thirty-five, both eminently sober.
“But why so early?” said Smith.
“Because,” said Braling.
“Your first night out in years and you go home at ten o’clock.”
“Nerves, I suppose.”
“What I wonder is how you ever managed it. I’ve been trying to get
you out for ten years for a quiet drink. And now, on the one night, you insist
on turning in early.”
“Mustn’t crowd my luck,” said Braling.
“What did you do, put sleeping powder in your wife’s coffee?”
“No, that would be unethical. You’ll see soon enough.”
They turned a corner. “Honestly, Braling, I hate to say this, but you
have been patient with her. You may not admit it to me, but marriage has
been awful for you, hasn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“It’s got around, anyway, here and there, how she got you to marry
her. That time back in 1979 when you were going to Rio --
“Dear Rio. I never did see it after all my plans.”
“And how she tore her clothes and rumpled her hair and threatened to
call the police unless you married her.”
“She always was nervous, Smith, understand.”
“It was more than unfair. You didn’t love her. You told her as much,
didn’t you?”
“I recall that I was quite firm on the subject.”
“But you married her anyhow.”
“I had my business to think of, as well as my mother and father. A
thing like that would have killed them.”
“And it’s been ten years.”
“Yes,” said Braling, his gray eyes steady. “But I think perhaps it might
change now. I think what I’ve waited for has come about. Look here.” He
drew forth a long blue ticket.
“Why, it’s a ticket for Rio on the Thursday rocket!”
“Yes, I’m finally going to make it.”
“But how wonderful! You do deserve it! But won’t she object? Cause
trouble?” Braling smiled nervously. “She won’t know I’m gone. I’ll be back
in a month and no one the wiser, except you.
Smith sighed. “I wish I were going with you.”
“Poor Smith, your marriage hasn’t exactly been roses, has it?
“Not exactly, married to a woman who overdoes it. I mean, after all,
when you’ve been married ten years, you don’t expect a woman to sit on
your lap for two hours every evening, call you at work twelve times a day
and talk baby talk. And it seems to me that in the last month she’s gotten
worse. I wonder if perhaps she isn’t just a little simple-minded?”
“Ah, Smith, always the conservative. Well, here’s my house. Now,
would you like to know my secret? How I made it out this evening?”
“Will you really tell?”
“Look up, there!” said Braling.
They both stared up through the dark air.
In the window above them, on the second floor, a shade was raised. A
man about thirty-five years old, with a touch of gray at either temple, sad
gray eyes, and a small thin mustache looked down at them.
“Why, that’s you!” cried Smith.
“Sh-h-h, not so loud!” Braling waved upward. The man in the window
gestured significantly and vanished.
“I must be insane,” said Smith.
“Hold on a moment.” They waited.
The street door of the apartment opened and the tall spare gentleman
with the mustache and the grieved eyes came out to meet them.
“Hello, Braling,” he said.
“Hello, Braling,” said Braling.
They were identical.
Smith stared. “Is this your twin brother? I never knew –”
“No, no,” said Braling quietly. “Bend close. Put your ear to Braling
Two’s chest.”
Smith hesitated and then leaned forward to place his head against the
uncomplaining ribs. Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
“Oh no! It can’t be!”
“It is.”
“Let me listen again.”
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
Smith staggered back and fluttered his eyelids, appalled. He reached
out and touched the warm hands and the cheeks of the thing.
“Where’d you get him?”
“Isn’t he excellently fashioned?”
“Incredible. Where?”
“Give the man your card, Braling Two.”
Braling Two did a magic trick and produced a white card:
MARIONETTES, INC. Duplicate self or friends; new humanoid plastic 1990
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models, guaranteed against all physical wear. From $7,600 to our $15,000
de luxe model.
“No,” said Smith.
“Yes,” said Braling.
“Naturally,” said Braling Two.
“How long has this gone on?”
“I’ve had him for a month. I keep him in the cellar in a toolbox. My
wife never goes downstairs, and I have the only lock and key to that box.
Tonight I said I wished to take a walk to buy a cigar. I went down cellar and
took Braling Two out of his box and sent him back up to sit with my wife
while I came on out to see you, Smith.”
“Wonderful! He even smells like you: Bond Street and Melachrinos!”
“It may be splitting hairs, but I think it highly ethical. After all, what
my wife wants most of all is me. This marionette is me to the hairiest
detail. I’ve been home all evening. I shall be home with her for the next
month. In the meantime another gentleman will be in Rio after ten years of
waiting. When I return from Rio, Braling Two here will go back in his box.”
Smith thought that over a minute or two. “Will he walk around
without sustenance for a month?” he finally asked.
“For six months if necessary. And he’s built to do everything—eat,
sleep, perspire—everything, natural as natural is. You’ll take good care of
my wife, won’t you, Braling Two?”
“Your wife is rather nice,” said Braling Two. “I’ve grown rather fond
of her.”
Smith was beginning to tremble. “How long has Marionettes, Inc.,
been in business?”
“Secretly, for two years.”
“Could I—I mean, is there a possibility——” Smith took his friend’s
elbow earnestly. “Can you tell me where I can get one, a robot, a
marionette, for myself? You will give me the address, won’t you?”
“Here you are.”
Smith took the card and turned it round and round. “Thank you,” he
said. “You don’t know what this means. Just a little respite. A night or so,
once a month even. My wife loves me so much she can’t bear to have me
gone an hour. I love her dearly, you know, but remember the old poem:
‘Love will fly if held too lightly, love will die if held too tightly.’ I just want
her to relax her grip a little bit.”
“You’re lucky, at least, that your wife loves you. Hate’s my problem.
Not so easy.”
“Oh, Nettie loves me madly. It will be my task to make her love me
comfortably.”
“Good luck to you, Smith. Do drop around while I’m in Rio. It will
seem strange, if you suddenly stop calling by, to my wife. You’re to treat
Braling Two, here, just like me.”
“Right! Good-by. And thank you.”
Smith went smiling down the street. Braling and Braling Two turned
and walked into the apartment hall.
On the crosstown bus Smith whistled softly, turning the white card in
his fingers: Clients must be pledged to secrecy, for while an act is pending
in Congress to legalize Marionettes, Inc., it is still a felony, if caught, to use
one.
“Well,” said Smith.
Clients must have a mold made of their body and a color index check
of their eyes, lips, hair, skin, etc. Clients must expect to wait for two
months until their model is finished.
Not so long, thought Smith. Two months from now my ribs will have a
chance to mend from the crushing they’ve taken. Two months from now my
hand will heal from being so constantly held. Two months from now my
bruised underlip will begin to reshape itself. I don’t mean to sound
ungrateful...
He flipped the card over.
Marionettes, Inc., is two years old and has a fine record of satisfied
customers behind it. Our motto is “No Strings Attached.” Address: 43 South
Wesley Drive.
The bus pulled to his stop; he alighted, and while humming up the
stairs he thought, Nettie and I have fifteen thousand in our joint bank
account. I’ll just slip eight thousand out as a business venture, you might
say. The marionette will probably pay back my money, with interest, in
many ways. Nettie needn’t know. He unlocked the door and in a minute was
in the bedroom. There lay Nettie, pale, huge, and piously asleep.
“Dear Nettie.” He was almost overwhelmed with remorse at her
innocent face there in the semidarkness. “If you were awake you would
smother me with kisses and coo in my ear. Really, you make me feel like a
criminal. You have been such a good, loving wife. Sometimes it is impossible
for me to believe you married me instead of that Bud Chapman you once
liked. It seems that in the last month you have loved me more wildly than
ever before.”
Tears came to his eyes. Suddenly he wished to kiss her, confess his
love, tear up the card, forget the whole business. But as he moved to do
this, his hand ached and his ribs cracked and groaned. He stopped, with a
pained look in his eyes, and turned away. He moved out into the hall and
through the dark rooms.
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 Humming, he opened the kidney desk in the library and filched the
bankbook. “Just take eight thousand dollars is all,” he said. “No more than
that.” He stopped. “Wait a minute.”
He rechecked the bankbook frantically. “Hold on here!” he cried.
“Ten thousand dollars is missing!” He leaped up. “There’s only five thousand
left! What’s she done? What’s Nettie done with it? More hats, more clothes,
more perfume! Or, wait – I know! She bought that little house on the Hudson
she’s been talking about for months, without so much as a by your leave!”
He stormed into the bedroom, righteous and indignant. What did she
mean, taking their money like this? He bent over her. “Nettie!” he shouted.
“Nettie, wake up!”
She did not stir. “What’ve you done with my money!” he bellowed.
She stirred fitfully. The light from the street flushed over her
beautiful
cheeks.
There was something about her. His heart throbbed violently. His
tongue dried.
He shivered. His knees suddenly turned to water. He collapsed.
“Nettie, Nettie!” he cried. “What’ve you done with my money!”
And then, the horrid thought. And then the terror and the loneliness
engulfed him. And then the fever and disillusionment. For, without desiring
to do so, he bent forward and yet forward again until his fevered ear was
resting firmly and irrevocably upon her round pink bosom. “Nettie!” he
cried.
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
As Smith walked away down the avenue in the night, Braling and
Braling Two turned in at the door to the apartment. “I’m glad he’ll be happy
too,” said Braling.
“Yes,” said Braling Two abstractedly.
“Well, it’s the cellar box for you, B-Two.” Braling guided the other
creature’s elbow down the stairs to the cellar.
“That’s what I want to talk to you about,” said Braling Two, as they
reached the concrete floor and walked across it. “The cellar. I don’t like it.
I don’t like that toolbox.”
“I’ll try and fix up something more comfortable.”
“Marionettes are made to move, not lie still. How would you like to lie
in a box most of the time?”
“Well –
“You wouldn’t like it at all. I keep running. There’s no way to shut me
off. I’m perfectly alive and I have feelings.”
“It’ll only be a few days now. I’ll be off to Rio and you won’t have to
stay in the box. You can live upstairs.”
Braling Two gestured irritably. “And when you come back from having
a good time, back in the box I go.”
Braling said, “They didn’t tell me at the marionette shop that I’d get
a difficult specimen.”
“There’s a lot they don’t know about us,” said Braling Two. “We’re
pretty new. And we’re sensitive. I hate the idea of you going off and
laughing and lying in the sun in Rio while we’re stuck here in the cold.”
“But I’ve wanted that trip all my life,” said Braling quietly. He
squinted his eyes and could see the sea and the mountains and the yellow
sand. The sound of the waves was good to his inward mind. The sun was fine
on his bared shoulders. The wine was most excellent.
“I’ll never get to go to Rio,” said the other man. “Have you thought of
that?”
“No, I –
“And another thing. Your wife.”
“What about her?” asked Braling, beginning to edge toward the door.
“I’ve grown quite fond of her.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying your employment.” Braling licked his lips
nervously.
“I’m afraid you don’t understand. I think—I’m in love with her.”
Braling took another step and froze. “You’re what?”
“And I’ve been thinking,” said Braling Two, “how nice it is in Rio and
how I’ll never get there, and I’ve thought about your wife and—I think we
could be very happy.”
“T-that’s nice.” Braling strolled as casually as he could to the cellar
door.
“You won’t mind waiting a moment, will you? I have to make a phone
call.”
“To whom?” Braling Two frowned.
“No one important.”
“To Marionettes, Incorporated? To tell them to come get me?”
“No, no—nothing like that!” He tried to rush out the door. A metal-
firm grip seized his wrists. “Don’t run!”
“Take your hands off!”
“No.”
“Did my wife put you up to this?”
“No.”
“Did she guess? Did she talk to you? Does she know? Is that it?” He
screamed. A hand clapped over his mouth.
3
 “You’ll never know, will you?” Braling Two smiled delicately. “You’ll
never know.”
Braling struggled. “She must have guessed; she must have affected
you!”
Braling Two said, “I’m going to put you in the box, lock it, and lose
the key. Then I’ll buy another Rio ticket for your wife.”
“Now, now, wait a minute. Hold on. Don’t be rash. Let’s talk this
over!”
“Good-by, Braling.”
Braling stiffened. “What do you mean, ‘good-by’?”
Ten minutes later Mrs. Braling awoke. She put her hand to her cheek.
Someone had just kissed it. She shivered and looked up. “Why – you haven’t
done that in years,” she murmured.
“We’ll see what we can do about that,” someone said.

4
 Exercises
I. State the meaning of the verb ‘’turn’’ in the following sentences:
1. He turned his face towards the speaker.
2. He kept turning his head this way and that way.
3. It seems to me the world has turned topsy-turvy.
4. His moustaches were turned and curled.
5. They stopped, not knowing which way to turn.
6. It’s time to turn now if we wish to get home in time for dinner.
7. He turned on his heels and went away in a rage.
8. Manners turn with time.
9. I must have my suit turned.
10. The boy turned the knob and the door opened.
11. They turned him from their door.
12. Next year my sister will turn eighteen.
13. His thoughts have often turned to the subject.
14. When she entered the room, the parents turned to another subject.
15. How would you turn this passage into English ?
16. Her hair began to turn grey.
II. Choose from Ex. 1 eight word combinations with ‘’turn‘’ which you
find most useful, and write down your own examples with them.
III. Read and translate the sentences, paying special attention to the verb
‘’turn’’:
1. Martha had turned the place into a boarding house in order to raise
money to meet the taxes.
2. I was a record always turned on for the benefit of newcomers.
3. ‘’Why not ?’’ Erik turned to him, ‘’I’d like to know : Why not ?’’
4. He turned it over in his mind and considered.
5. She turned on Arthur, ‘’You bastard. You dirty bastard.’’
6. As for Thomas the longer he lived, the less he cared for the world. He
turned his face away from it.
7. I’ll just put things straight in the dining-room, and then I’ll turn in.
8. The corners of the small mouth turned down and it gave him an
expression of agonized bewilderment.
9. When the Chief Librarian retired, his deputy expected to get the post,
but he was turned down in favour of someone from outside.
10. She was a singularly muddle-headed woman and how she managed to
turn out coherent stories was beyond him.
11. What man would have turned his own child out, like a dog, on such a
night ?
IV. Replace the underlined parts by the phrasal verb ‘’turn’’:
1. Nothing delighted the small child more than to clear her mother’s
handbag of its contents.
2. This institute has prepared a number of well-known scholars.
3. Despite the unpromising start the day proved to be fine.
4. All night long he thought what he was to do first.
5. He assured me that I could always apply to him for financial help.
6. You must go to sleep early tonight.
7. She would change from smiles to anger before you can say Jack
Robinson.
8. To become a career woman is the last thing I could have expected of
her.
9. Have you plugged the CD-player in? Now switch it on.
10. The inspector threatened to cut off gas if they were behind in paying
the bills.
11. It is unfair to come down on him with rebukes.
12. A: Mary refused to dance with me when I asked her for another dance.
B: Well, she knows her corns.
13. The doorkeepers refused admittance to anybody who hadn’t got a
ticket.
14. The soup is boiling over. Will you reduce the gas, please?
15. He lay awake thinking about the plan they were going to come out with.
16. “Do not forget to fold upwards your cuffs,” the mother said to her son.
V. Insert the missing post-positions:
1. We had so much to talk over that it was midnight before we turned ____.
2. Her mood turns ____ grave ____ gay in an instant.
3. I wonder what sort of a man that boy will turn ____.
4. I did not expect to be turned ____ by a person whom I had considered a
friend.
5. You’d better turn the gas ____.
6. He turns ____ anybody who is small fry for him.
7. They are not on speaking terms now. He made a pass at her and she
turned him ____.
8. I don’t think their marriage has turned ____ well.
9. Don’t bother to look for my umbrella, it’ll turn ____ some day.
10. She is most likely to turn ____ you for help.
11. Turn ____ the TV-set or at least turn it ____, please.
5
12. The whole night I lay awake turning ____ what I had read in the letter. “Well”, said the pilot , take a good look, the propeller’s come off.”

VI.Paraphrase the questions: XI. Write an essay on the proverb: “To Turn Over a New Leaf”.
1. Are you in the habit of turning down pages when you read a book?
2. Is it wise to make snap decisions? What may turn out afterwards? XII Read and translate the sentences, paying attention to the verb
3. Why do you have to turn food over while frying it? “look”:
4. Would you turn to the person who has let you down once? 1. She looked us over in silence and ticked off our names in a book.
5. Do you dismiss the thing once you’ve decided on or do you keep turning 2. “That’s nice”, Grant said mildly. “I was looking forward to that
it over in you mind? dedication.”
6. In what season of the year does the weather often turn from fine to 3. There is a mystery about his death and the police are looking into it.
cold? 4. You’ll get into trouble if you don’t look out.
7. Are hats with turned-up brims in fashion now? 5. I’ll look in this evening to see how she is.
6. Perhaps one day it will be pleasant to look back on these things.
VII. Choose any three word combinations with “turn” from Ex. 5 and 6 7. Look up all the difficult words and phrases in the index.
and make up a situation with them. 8. He looked through several books in the library, but he could not find the
information he wanted.
VIII. Make up a short story using the following: to lose (a key), to get in, 9. I got up and looked for the ugliest girl in the row and sat down next to
to turn out one’s handbag, to stay out, to turn up (a brother, mother, her.
etc), to get into. 10. The inexplicable thing was that she looked up to him. She evidently
admired him.
IX Explain the following phraseological units. 11. You should see the contempt with which they look down on poor me.
to turn a new leaf 12. Tony looked right through Savina, but broke into a quick smile when he
a turn-coat saw Erik next to her.
to turn a (the) corner
to turn one's back on sb XIII. Replace the underlined parts by the phrasal verb “look”:
to turn one's mind (thoughts, attention) to 1. Please read the agreement before you sign it.
to turn a deaf ear to 2. Take care! There’s a car coming.
to turn sb's head 3. It’s like searching for a needle in a hay-stack.
to turn up one's nose (at…) 4. You should not despise people less fortunate than you.
to turn sth upside down 5. The teacher considered the student’s absence to be a serious matter.
6. They are taking care of our house while we are away.
X. Read and relate the stories paying attention to the verb “turn”. 7. I have read over these homework exercises and they seem satisfactory.
1. 8. It’s wise of a person to consider his past from time to time.
Mother: Why are you so early, Johny? 9. Please call on me, if you ever come to London.
Johny: Well, the teacher told us to write an essay on “The Result of the 10. I searched for his number in a telephone-directory.
Laziness” and after I handed in a blank sheet of paper he turned me out.
XIV. Insert the necessary post-position:
2.Last Chance 1. He’s been looking ____ a cup to match the one his daughter broke.
Flying over the Bay of Naples, an air pilot turned to his passengers and said, 2. Look ____ the baby while I’m out.
“Have you ever heard the phrase “See Naples and Die?” 3. He had an unhappy childhood and never looks ___ ____ it with any
“Yes”, said the passengers,. pleasure.

6
4. Look ____! You’ve nearly knocked my plate out of my hand. 3. You may keep your remarks to yourself, I don’t want to hear them.
5. My children are looking ____ ____our trip to Sigulda. 4. I’m afraid I won’t manage to keep the appointment.
6. Look ____ ____them and tell me what happened. 5. You may keep this – I don’t want it back.
7. They have always looked _____ her as one of the family. 6. Does he earn enough to keep himself and his family?
8. The director asked me to look ____ the document and then sign it. 7. If you’ve got the flu, you’d better go to bed and keep warm.
9. Could I first look ____ the book to see if I had read it before? 8. Keep the change.
10. Children have an inclination to look ____ their parents. 9. Keep straight on until you get to the church.
11. The crowd looked ____ while the fire-brigade fought with fire. 10. Why does she keep on giggling?
12. Since our quarrel she looks ____ me whenever we meet. 11. Will this meat keep till tomorrow?
13. She kept asking me all the difficult words instead of looking them ____ 12. Is it easy for you to keep early hours?
in the dictionary. 13. Extra work kept me at the office.
14. Don’t look ____ trouble! 14. Will 50$ keep you going until pay-day?
15. Their house looks ____ _____ a street.
XIX. Find the meanings in the dictionary that correspond with the
XV. Make up bits of conversation around the following statements: following equivalents:
1.Let’s just look in at the exhibition, we shan’t stay long. to fulfil
2.All people with a sense of decency will look down on such conduct. to maintain
3.When you’re eating fish, look out for bones. to manage
to preserve
XVI. Look up the meaning of the following proverbs and write down a to store
situation to illustrate the usage of one of them: to hold on to the promise
To look on the bright (sunny) side of things. to stock
Look before you leap.
Look for a needle in a haystack. XX. Translate the following sentences. Look up the combinations with
Look a gift horse in the mouth. the verb ‘’keep’’.
Suggest their equivalents in your mother tongue. John Fowles:
1.What I write isn’t natural. It’s like two people trying to keep up a
XV. Read and tell the following jokes: conversation.
1. 2.No one would believe this situation. He keeps me absolutely prisoner.
A: So you use three pairs of glasses, professor? 3…… It’s a means of keeping me from being as discontented as I should be.
B: Yes, one pair for long sight, one pair for short sight and the third to look 4.I tell myself it’s a chance in a hundred that he’ll keep his word. But he
for the other two. must keep his word.
2. 5.She seemed to have kept the knowledge to herself. Why?
Madge: Of course, you speak to Helen when you pass her on the street. 6.Sarah kept her side of the bargain, or at least that part of it that
Mabel: Indeed, I do not. I look through her. I don’t even notice what she has concerned the itinerary of her walks.
on. D.H. Lawrence:
7.There was nothing to keep them up – and no hope.
XVIII. State the contextual meaning of the verb “to keep” in the 8.The captain had now an income sufficient to give him his independence,
following sentences: but not sufficient to keep up his wife’s house.
1. The cold weather kept us indoors.
2. She can keep nothing back from her friends.

7
Agatha Christie: 4. drebēt no dusmām
9.You go to Basrah, keep your eyes and ears open and look about you. 5. dreboši pirksti
10.The Claytons keep open house – everyone who passes through stays with 6. trīcošas lūpas
them. 7. dreboša balss
11.You keep your ears strained for any mention of a young woman called 8. trīsošas stīgas
Anna Scheele. 9. drebošas/trīcošas kājas
12.No, tell him to keep right away from me. 10. trīsošie uguņu atspīdumi ūdenī
13.She kept shaking her head. 11. satrūkties aiz šausmām
12. notrīsēt riebumā
SYNONYMY: TREMBLE, SHAKE, SHIVER, QUIVER, SHUDDER 13. izpurināt paklāju
XXI. Explain the use of the synonyms in the following sentences. 14. paraustīt aiz rokas
1. She stood with her bare feet upon the floor and shivered. 15. papurināt aiz pleca
2. He looked up at the ceiling, which was shaking with the stamping and 16. papurināt galvu
shuffling of feet on the floor above.
3. He lay for a moment, then quickly, reaching with trembling fingers for a
sheet of paper on the table, he took a pencil and scribbled several lines. SEIZE, TAKE, SNATCH, GRASP, GRIP, GRAB, CLUTCH
4. She shuddered, knowing what long nights meant.
5. To watch a leaf quivering in the rush of air was an exquisite joy. XXIV Translate the following sentences, paying attention to the
6. At the thought of those desolate weeks he shivered, as though recalling underlined verbs.
a nightmare. 1. John seized her hand in gratitude, and they sat silent.
7. I just shrugged and lit a cigarette. I was trembling. 2. Collins stood grasping the back of the chair in front of him tightly.
3. Karen made a move toward the chateau, Yates dashed after her and
XXII. What words of the synonymic group should be used in the sentences grabbed her arms. “Stand still,” he hissed.
below? 4. He took the ship he was told to take, and he did not know the name of
1. He ______ his head disapprovingly. it.
2. Heavy convulsions ______ the body of the officer, frightening and 5. Snatching his hat, he hurried from the room.
horrifying the young soldier. 6. “He’s dead in there,” Wilson said… and he turned to grip Macomber’s
3. Carson, still not really awake, stood with his hands in his pockets, hand.
______, not because t was cold but because he was sleepy. 7. Blindly Mary clutched at her mother’s dress.
4. Her fingers _______ so that she can’t undo the knot in the music satchel. 8. She rushes to the table, snatches up the paper, and tears it into
5. ______ all over, Dinny didn’t answer. fragments.
6. I ______ with fear when I think of the danger I have escaped. 9. The brothers shook hands, and=, grasping each a candle sought their
7. Her hand was still over her mouth, for her lips were ______. room.
8. I stood there _______ a moment in my thin dress. 10. He stood still, mad with suffering, his hands crisping and clutching.
9. A heavy lorry ______ the building. 11. Wolfe gripped the gun harder.

XXIII. Translate into English. Mind that in some instances more than one XXV. Discriminate between the literal and figurative meaning of the
synonym is applicable. synonyms in the following sentences:
1. trīcēt no aukstuma 1. A vague terror seized Gabriel at this answer.
2. drebēt no bailēm 2. Johny seized one of Harris’s arms and Davy Walters took the other.
3. trīsēt priekā 3. I seized advantage of his smile, I smiled, too.

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4. Their trading vessels were seized, and they lost all their money.
5. He read until three in the morning… but not one essential thought in the
text had he grasped.
6. They were seated on the horses, grasping the reins.
7. Micheal, will anyone grasp the situation Wilfrid was in?
8. He snatched hours when he could – he never said “I can’t find time.”
9. He rises, snatches his hat from the table, and makes for the door.
10. His quick eyes seemed to snatch the soul out of everyone he passed.
11. They were like hawks watching for an opportunity to snatch their prey
from under the claws of their opponents.
12. Then he stood still clutching at her throat.
13. The coolness gave her back some of her vitality… she clutched at the
cold months as if they wore a shield to protect her.
14. At last she got herself settled, clutching her suitcases as if it were a
passport.
XXVI. Write down your own examples with the figurative meanings of
each synonym.
XXVII. Consult the dictionary of English idioms and write out the
meanings for the proverbs below. Suggest, where possible, the
corresponding proverbs in your mother tongue. Choose one of them and
write down a short story around it.
1. He who grasps much holds little.
2. Grasp all, lose all.
3. To grasp the shadow and let go the substance
4. A drowning man grasps (clutches) at a straw.
RAISE, LIFT, HEAVE, HOIST, PICK UP
XXVIII. Comment on the choice of the synonyms in the following
sentences.
1. In the morning, as he was about to leave his room, something white on
the floor caught his eyes. He picked it up.
2. She clears her throat delicately, raises the book again.
3. Slowly and carefully she lifted out one after the other a row of wrapped
objects and placed them on the green cloth.
4. She had raised her voice and he went to one of the windows that was
opened and closed it.
5. Mrs. Hepburn lifted her heavily-jewelled little hand in a motion of
protest.
6. And seeing the naked translucent ice heaving downwards in a vicious
curve, … he was afraid.
7. Simon seized Johny’s hand and hoisted it like the mitten of a victorious
prizefighter.
8. He picked the girl up and carried her to the jeep.
9. Having duly admired … the manner in which he raised his top hat to
Aunt Franter’s maid…, Ernestina turned back into her room.
10. Then she spoke fluently to the other women in Creole, and they hoisted
the third basket between them and put it in the back of the jeep.
11. He felt ready to leap upon him and fling him to the ground if he dared
to lift the gorgeous hanging that concealed the secret of his life.
12. The resolution heaved a load from my heart.
13. Mrs. Malins was helped down the front steps by her son and, after many
manoeuvres, hoisted into the cab.
14. Not a voice was raised in opposition.
15. Strong political excitement heaves a whole nation on to a higher
platform of intellect and morality.
16. She refuses to pick up after children who are old enough to keep their
own things in order.
17. I dislike people who raise a storm in a tea-pot.
XXIX. Write down your own examples to illustrate the difference in the
use of synonyms of this group.
XXX. Make up a situation round the word-combination “to raise a storm
in a tea-cup”. Try to include into it as many entries from the exercises
above as you can.