The man who could work miracles егэ

I don’t know whether the gift was inborn.		Я не знаю, был ли его дар врожденным.
I think it came to him suddenly.		Я думаю, что он снизошел на него внезапно.
In fact, until he was 30 he was a sceptic, and did not believe in miracles.		В действительности до тридцати лет он был скептиком и не верил в чудеса.
And here I must mention that he was a little man with dark brown eyes, straight red hair and a moustache with ends that twisted up.		И здесь я должен упомянуть, что он был маленьким мужчиной с темными карими глазами, прямыми рыжими волосами и с закрученными на концах усами.
His name was George Fotheringay – not the name that leads to an expectation of miracles – and he was a shop assistant.		Его звали Джордж Фотерингэй – не особо подходящее для чудесника имя, и он был продавцом.
He was very fond of arguing.		Он очень любил спорить.
It was while he was arguing about the impossibility of miracles that he became first aware of his extraordinary powers.		Именно в тот момент, когда он спорил о невозможности чудес, он впервые осознал свою сверхъестественную силу.
This argument was held in the bar of the Long Dragon, and Toddy Beamish was conducting opposition by repeating, “So you say.”		Этот спор велся в баре Лонг Драгон, и Тодди Бимиш составлял противоборствующую сторону, повторяя: “Ну-ну! Уж скажите тоже!”
That drove Mr. Fotheringay to the very limit of his patience.		Это привело мистера Фотерингэя в крайнее состояние нетерпения.
He decided to use a new trick.		Он решил использовать новый прием.
“Look here, Mr. Beamish,” he said.		“Послушайте, мистер Бимиш,” – произнес он.
“Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It’s something that contradicts the course of Nature, something which is done by the power of will.”		“Давайте четко представим себе, что такое чудо. Это нечто противоречащее естественному ходу природы; нечто производимое усилием воли.”
“So you say,” said Mr.Beamish again.		“Ну-ну! Уж скажите тоже!” – снова сказал мистер Бимиш.
“For instance,” said Mr. Fotheringay, “here would be a miracle. That lamp in the natural course of Nature can’t burn upside down, can it, Beamish?”		“Например, – сказал мистер Фотерингэй, – здесь произошло бы чудо. Эта лампа естественным образом не может гореть в перевернутом состоянии, не так ли, Бимиш?”
“You say it can’t,” said Beamish.		“Вы говорите, что нет,” – сказал Бимиш.
“And you?” said Fotheringay. “You don’t mean to say- yes?”		“Ну а вы? – спросил Фотерингэй. – Вы же не хотите сказать, что да?”
“No,” said Mr. Beamish.		“Нет,” – сказал Бимиш.
“Then,” Mr. Fotheringay continued, “here comes someone, it may be me, and stands here as I can do and says to that lamp collecting all his will: ‘Trun upside-down without breaking and go on burning….. and… Oh!’		“Тогда, – продолжил Фотерингэй, – например, сюда пришел бы кто-то и стал бы, как это делаю я, и приказал бы этой лампе, собрав всю силу воли – перевернись вверх ногами, не сломавшись, и продолжи гореть… и … о!”
The impossible, the incredible thing happened.		Произошла невозможная и невероятная вещь.
The lamp turned upside-down in the air, burning quietly with its flame pointing down.		Лампа перевернулась вверх ногами, спокойно продолжая горесть пламенем вниз.
Everybody jumped.		Все подпрыгнули.
For nearly three seconds the lamp remained still.		Почти три секунды лампа оставалась неподвижной.
Then Mr. Fothernigay cried out, “I can’t keep it any longer.”		Потом мистер Фотерингэй воскликнул: “Я не могу ее больше держать!”
He stepped back and the lamp suddenly fell on the floor and went out.		Он сделал шаг назад, и лампа внезапно упала на пол и погасла.

Описание заданий 32—38

Задания 32—38 — это задания повышенного уровня сложности, наиболее трудные в данном разделе. Они проверяют, умеете ли вы использовать слова в связном тексте с учётом их смысла, сочетаемости, грамматического оформления. Это тест множественного выбора. Вам даётся связный текст с семью пропусками. Для каждого пропуска предлагается четыре варианта ответа, из которых надо выбрать один правильный. За каждый правильный ответ вы получаете 1 балл. За успешное выполнение ВСЕХ заданий 32—38 можно получить максимум 7 баллов.

Стратегии выполнения заданий 32—38

1. Просмотрите сначала весь текст, уловите его общее содержание, сюжет, логику, последовательность событий и т. п.

2. Далее, не читая лексических единиц, предложенных для заполнения пропусков (закройте их ладошкой), внимательно прочитайте первый фрагмент текста с первым тестовым вопросом (32). Сами продумайте варианты заполнения пропуска — какое слово должно стоять на месте пропуска? После этого откройте первую строчку предложенных вам вариантов ответа — есть ли среди них то слово, о котором вы подумали? Правильный ответ будет легче найти путём отбрасывания неверных ответов.

3. Вдумайтесь в смысл предложения, прежде чем выбрать соответствующую лексическую единицу.

4. Повторите процедуру для второго фрагмента с тестовым вопросом 33 и т. д.

5. При заполнении пропуска нужно вписывать только недостающую лексическую единицу, а не повторять слова, данные в предложении.

6. Помните, что если слово, которым вам хочется заполнить пропуск, НЕ ДАНО в строчке предложенных вариантов ответов, использовать его НЕЛЬЗЯ. Ваша задача — выбрать подходящее по контексту слово ИЗ ПРЕДЛОЖЕННЫХ.

7. При определении неверных вариантов ответа помните, что неверный вариант может сделать предложение нелогичным с точки зрения смысла, либо нарушить лексическую или грамматическую сочетаемость.

8. Обращайте особое внимание на сочетаемость лексических единиц: на устойчивые словосочетания, фразовые глаголы, идиоматические выражения.

9. Важно не забывать, что грамматическая конструкция влияет на выбор лексической единицы. Обращайте внимание на грамматическое оформление искомого слова, например на прямое или предложное управление.

10. Помните о различиях в значении и употреблении синонимов.

11. Обращайте внимание на два или три похожих ответа (с точки зрения правописания, произношения, грамматической формы) — один из них скорее всего является правильным.

12. Не забудьте в конце выполнения задания возвратиться к пропущенным вопросам.

13. В случае неуверенности в ответе впишите тот, который кажется наиболее вероятным.

14. После заполнения пропусков снова прочитайте текст.

15. При проверке данного задания убедитесь:

• все пропуски заполнены;

• лексические единицы выбраны правильно.

16. Не забудьте перенести ваши ответы в бланк ответов № 1.

Золотые правила

1. Помните, что для успешного выполнения этих заданий надо иметь хороший лексический запас. Чтобы его создать и не испытывать затруднений с выполнением лексических заданий на экзамене, регулярно выполняйте домашние задания, учите слова и словосочетания, запоминайте контексты их употребления, больше читайте на английском языке.

2. Обращайте особое внимание на использование синонимов: у каждой группы синонимов есть какое-то общее значение, но при этом есть и различия в значении, которые важны для их правильного употребления. Например, глаголы с общим значением “смотреть” to look, to peep, to glare, to stare различаются оттенками значения: to peep означает “смотреть быстро и украдкой”, to glare — “смотреть со злостью, в гневе”, to stare — “смотреть долго и пристально”.

3. При выборе слова обращайте внимание на его лексическую сочетаемость, которая уникальна для каждого языка. Например, в русском языке прилагательное “молодой” образует словосочетания: “молодой человек”, “молодое поколение”, “молодой картофель”. В английском языке есть соответствующее ему прилагательное young, но оно может использоваться только в одном из приведённых словосочетаний — young man. “Молодое поколение” по-английски будет younger generation, “молодой картофель” — new potatoes. Именно поэтому надо заучивать не отдельные слова, а словосочетания.

4. При выборе слова обращайте внимание на его грамматическое окружение: некоторые слова требуют после себя предлог или определённую грамматическую конструкцию (например, инфинитив или герундий). Сравните: to manage to do something — to succeed in doing something. Именно поэтому надо заучивать слова в составе грамматических конструкций.

5. Фразовые глаголы (т. е. комплексы “глагол + так называемый послелог, похожий на предлог”) являются особенностью английского языка, в русском языке подобных глаголов нет. Смысл фразового глагола значительно отличается от основного значения глагола, например: to look — “смотреть”, to look for — “искать”, to look after — “ухаживать”. Наиболее часто в экзаменационных заданиях встречаются фразовые глаголы на основе глаголов to look, to put, to get, to turn, to keep, to hold.

Учимся выполнять задания 32—38

Прочитайте текст с пропусками, обозначенными номерами 32—38. Эти номера соответствуют заданиям 32—38, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов. Запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному вами варианту ответа.

The dream bridge

This is a real life story of engineer John Roebling building the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, USA back in 1870. The bridge was completed in 1883, after 13 years.

In 1869, a creative engineer named John Roebling was 32 _________ by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. 33 _________ bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible task. They 34 _________ Roebling to forget the idea, as it just could not be done and it was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew 35 _________ in his heart that it could be done. He just had to 36 _________ the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he 37 _________ to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be constructed.

Roebling had never had any projects with his son before. Working together 38 _________ the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and enthusiasm, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

32. 1) inclined

2) involved

3) included

4) inspired

Ответ: [ ]

33. 1) However

2) Although

3) Moreover

4) Therefore

Ответ: [ ]

34. 1) talked

2) told

3) said

4) spoke

Ответ: [ ]

35. 1) deep

2) far

3) full

4) long

Ответ: [ ]

36. 1) join

2) unite

3) share

4) divide

Ответ: [ ]

37. 1) succeeded

2) handled

3) maintained

4) managed

Ответ: [ ]

38. 1) in

2) on

3) at

4) for

Ответ: [ ]

Разбор заданий 32—38

ШАГ 1. Знакомимся с заданиями 32—38. Внимательно изучаем инструкцию. Стараемся понять, что необходимо сделать в этих заданиях.

Прочитайте текст с пропусками, обозначенными номерами 32—38. Эти номера соответствуют заданиям 32—38, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов. Обведите номер выбранного Вами варианта ответа.

В заданиях 32—38 предлагается небольшой текст, в котором имеются пропуски. Ваша задача состоит в том, чтобы правильно их заполнить, используя при этом слова, данные в тесте множественного выбора. Необходимо выбрать из четырёх предложенных вариантов нужное слово, приняв во внимание его значение, контекст, лексическое и грамматическое окружение, и вставить его в пропуск. За каждый правильный ответ можно получить 1 балл, за успешное выполнение всех заданий 32—38 можно получить 7 баллов.

ШАГ 2. Читаем текст, стараемся понять его смысл, логику. Несмотря на пропуски слов, основное содержание текста вполне понятно.

The text is based on real facts. John Roebling, a creative engineer, had a dream to build a bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. The experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible task but Roebling did not give up. He convinced his son Washington to join him and they started the project together.

(Текст построен на реальных фактах, это история создания знаменитого Бруклинского моста в Нью-Йорке. Коллеги инженера Рёблинга не верили, что такой мост можно построить, но тот убедил своего сына, молодого инженера, в осуществимости этого проекта, и они вместе начали строительство.)

ШАГ 3. Выполняем задание 32. Внимательно читаем первый фрагмент текста, содержащий пропуск. Игнорируем пропуск. Стараемся понять общий смысл абзаца.

In 1869, a creative engineer named John Roebling was 32 _____________ by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island.

32. 1) inclined

2) involved

3) included

4) inspired

Ответ: [ ]

Четыре предложенных слова похожи по форме, но имеют совершенно разные значения: inclined — “склонен”, involved — “вовлечён”, included — “включён”, inspired — “вдохновлён”. По значению только слово inspired подходит к общему контексту: инженер был увлечён идеей построить мост, соединяющий Нью-Йорк и Лонг-Айленд. Все остальные варианты делают предложение бессмысленным. Правильный ответ — 4 (inspired). Впишем его в поле для ответа. Переносить ответы в бланк ответов № 1 мы будем после выполнения всех заданий раздела.

ШАГ 4. Выполняем задание 33. В данном случае нам надо рассмотреть больший фрагмент текста, поскольку пропущенное слово выполняет роль связки, а нам нужно уловить логику построения всего абзаца. Игнорируя пропуск, стараемся понять смысл предложения.

33 ______________, bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible task.

Прочитав внимательно абзац, мы понимаем, что слово-связка имеет значение противопоставления и что это не союз, а вводное слово, поскольку после него стоит запятая. На ум сразу приходит слово however, и мы его находим среди предложенных для вставки слов.

33. 1) However

2) Although

3) Moreover

4) Therefore

Ответ: [ ]

Давайте убедимся, что другие слова из списка не подходят для данного пропуска. Although является союзом, после него должно следовать придаточное предложение и после него не ставится запятая — это слово не подходит для заполнения пропуска 33. Предложенные нам moreover и therefore являются вводными словами, но не имеют значения противопоставления. Вводное слово moreover вводит дополнительный аргумент, усиливающий главную мысль, и имеет значение “более того”. Вводное слово therefore используется для объяснения вывода или последствий и имеет значение “следовательно, поэтому”. Правильный ответ — 1 (However).

ШАГ 5. Выполняем задание 34. Внимательно читаем следующий фрагмент текста, содержащий пропуск. Игнорируя пропуск, стараемся понять общий смысл предложения.

They 34 _____________ Roebling to forget the idea, as it just could not be done and it was not practical. It had never been done before.

Прочитав предложение, понимаем, что для заполнения пропуска нужен глагол говорения. Нам известны глаголы to speak, to talk, to tell, to say. Грамматическая конструкция — прямое дополнение сразу после пропуска — подсказывает нам, что здесь возможен только глагол to tell, так как все остальные перечисленные глаголы требуют предложного дополнения — обозначения собеседника: to speak to/with somebody, to talk to/with somebody, to say something to somebody.

Смотрим на предложенные нам слова и находим там глагол to tell в прошедшем времени — told, заносим номер ответа 2 в поле для ответа.

34. 1) talked

2) told

3) said

4) spoke

Ответ: [ ]

ШАГ 6. Выполняем задание 35. Внимательно читаем следующий фрагмент текста, содержащий пропуск. Игнорируя пропуск, стараемся понять общий смысл начала третьего абзаца, где встречается следующее предложение с пропуском.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew 35 ___________ in his heart that it could be done.

Исходя из сочетаемости глагола to know, не посмотрев на предложенные слова, можно было бы предположить, что за глаголом knew следует существительное или местоимение (to knowsomething/somebody) или наречие (например, to know well). Но после пропуска мы видим фразеологическое сочетание in his heart и понимаем, что пропущено именно первое слово в этом фразеологизме — deep: deep in his heart. Смотрим на предложенные нам слова и находим там слово deep.

35. 1) deep

2) far

3) full

4) long

Ответ: [ ]

Правильный ответ — 1 (deep), заносим его в поле для ответа.

ШАГ 7. Выполняем задание 36. Внимательно читаем следующее предложение, содержащее пропуск. Игнорируя пропуск, стараемся понять общий смысл данного предложения.

Не just had to 36 ____________ the dream with someone else.

В этом случае достаточно трудно сделать предположение о пропущенном слове, хотя смысл предложения ясен: ему надо было поделиться с кем-то своей мечтой. Обратимся к предложенным словам.

36. 1) join

2) unite

3) share

4) divide

Ответ: [ ]

Первые два глагола (join, unite) имеют общее значение “присоединить, присоединиться”, “объединить, объединиться” и уже в силу этого не подходят для заполнения пропуска — они делают предложение бессмысленным. Теперь надо сделать выбор между глаголами share и divide. Сложность здесь заключается в том, что эти глаголы близки по значению и могут передаваться на русский язык как “делить, разделить”, но в английском языке они употребляются по-разному. Глагол to divide имеет значение to separate something into parts and to give a part to each person in a group. Глагол to share имеет близкое значение to divide something between two or more people. Но в переносном смысле в значении to tell someone your problems, thoughts, ideas может использоваться только глагол to share. В рассматриваемом предложении вслед за пропуском идёт слово dream, значит, нужен глагол to share. Вписываем в поле ответа правильный ответ — 3 (share).

ШАГ 8. Выполняем задание 37. Внимательно читаем следующее предложение, содержащее пропуск. Игнорируем пропуск, стараемся понять смысл этого предложения.

After much discussion and persuasion he 37 ______________ to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be constructed.

Если бы предложение начиналось со слова he, были бы возможны различные глаголы. Однако его начало After much discussion and persuasion, показывающее, какие большие усилия надо было приложить Рёблингу, сужает этот выбор до двух глаголов с общим значением “удалось” — manage и succeed. Оба эти глагола есть в списке предложенных слов.

37. 1) succeeded

2) handled

3) maintained

4) managed

Ответ: [ ]

Как же выбрать правильный ответ? Нам поможет знание грамматических конструкций, в которых используются эти глаголы. Дело в том, что глагол to manage требует после себя инфинитив счастицей to (to manage to do something), а глагол to succeed — герундий с предлогом in (to succeed in doing something). В нашем предложении после пропуска идёт инфинитив to convince, следовательно, правильный ответ — 4 (managed).

ШАГ 9. Выполняем задание 38. Внимательно читаем следующий абзац. Игнорируя пропуск, стараемся понять смысл предложения.

Roebling had never had any projects with his son before. Working together 38 _____________ the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome.

Наша задача — вставить в пропуск предлог. Мы знакомы с устойчивым словосочетанием for the first time. Предлог for есть в списке предложенных слов.

38. 1) in

2) on

3) at

4) for

Ответ: [ ]

Вписываем в поле для ответа вариант 4 (for).

ШАГ 10. Прочитаем весь текст с заполненными пропусками и проверим наши ответы.

The dream bridge

This is a real life story of engineer John Roebling building the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, USA back in 1870. The bridge was completed in 1883, after 13 years.

In 1869, a creative engineer named John Roebling was 32 inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. 33 However, bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible task. They 34 told Roebling to forget the idea, as it just could not be done and it was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew 35 deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to 36 share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he 37 managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be constructed.

Roebling had never had any projects with his son before. Working together 38 for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and enthusiasm, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

ШАГ 11. Мы завершили выполнение всех заданий раздела, и теперь надо перенести все ответы на задания раздела “Грамматика и лексика” в бланк ответов № 1. Будьте внимательны, убедитесь, что вы вписываете ответ справа от номера соответствующего задания. Следуйте образцу написания букв английского алфавита, данному на бланке ответов № 1. Каждую букву или цифру пишите в отдельной клеточке. При переносе ответов в заданиях 19—31 буквы записываются без пробелов, запятых и других дополнительных символов!

Типичные ошибки при выполнении заданий 32—38

Экзаменуемые:

• не знают значений слов и неправильно употребляют их в контексте;

• не умеют выбрать нужный по контексту синоним из ряда предложенных;

• делают ошибки в лексической сочетаемости;

• ошибочно выбирают слово, которое невозможно в данной грамматической конструкции;

• делают ошибки во фразовых глаголах.

Подготовительные упражнения к заданиям 32—38

1. Что проверяется в заданиях 32—38? Что надо знать и что надо уметь, чтобы их успешно выполнить?

2. Разделите приведённые ниже глаголы на четыре группы в зависимости от их общего значения. Для каждой группы дан один пример. При необходимости используйте словарь. Выучите словосочетания с этими словами, приводимые в качестве примеров в словаре.

To start, to tell, to speak, to end, to talk, to stare, to stop, to chat, to initiate, to close, to launch, to look, to glance, to glare, to open, to commence, to peep, to conclude.

Глаголы “говорения”	Глаголы “видения”	Глаголы “начала действия”	Глаголы “окончания действия”
to say	to see	to begin	to finish

3. Прочитайте данные ниже предложения. Какой глагол “говорения” необходим во всех трёх предложениях? Почему другие глаголы не могут быть в них использованы?

1. Annie _______________ that she didn’t like the concert.

2. “I was bored,” she _______________.

3. She _______________ that to all her friends.

4. Прочитайте данные ниже предложения. Какой глагол “говорения” необходим во всех трёх предложениях? Почему другие глаголы не могут быть в них использованы?

1. The mother _______________ her children that they would go to bed in five minutes.

2. “Please _______________ us a story,” Peter asked.

3. Later in life, Peter _______________ his mother’s stories to his own children.

5. Найдите лишнее слово в каждой цепочке слов. При необходимости используйте словарь. Выучите словосочетания с этими словами, приводимые в качестве примеров в словаре.

1. То look, to glance, to glare, to see, to stare, to peep

2. To begin, to start, to cease, to commence, to launch

3. To expect, to wait, to hope, to believe, to think, to suppose

4. Surprised, astonished, amazed, depressed, puzzled

5. To reach, to achieve, to gain, to lead, to attain, to get

6. To chase, to trace, to follow, to seek, to pursue, to hunt

6. Выберите правильный ответ. При необходимости используйте словарь. Выучите словосочетания с этими словами, приводимые в качестве примеров в словаре.

1. Barbara had so many admirers that she didn’t know whom to choose/to select.

2. Each semester students are required to choose/to select five or six courses.

3. President of the USA is selected/elected every four years.

4. A year has passed since Richard proposed/offered to Kate and she still hasn’t given him any answer.

5. I offer/suggest we put off considering this question until Mr Brown arrives.

6. He proposed/offered to give her a lift.

7. It was the worst thing that had ever occurred/happened to him.

8. This conversation was reported to have occurred/happened yesterday at 5 p.m.

9. Why is it important to find the right occupation/job?

10. She tried many occupations/jobs but finally chose work/career of an accountant.

11. We bought a small house with the sight/view of the mountains.

12. The mere sight/view of the cobra made her sick.

13. Do you believe in love at first look/glance?

14. He could recognize her in the photo at a look/glance.

7. Выберите правильный ответ. При необходимости используйте словарь. Выучите словосочетания с этими словами, приводимые в качестве примеров в словаре.

1. This ball was generally an annual ________.

a) affair

b) business

c) matter

d) concern

2. He was very tired and wished the day’s ________ was over so he could go home.

a) affair

b) business

c) matter

d) concern

3. “Mind your own ________,” she said loudly.

a) affair

b) business

c) matter

d) concern

4. It’s the ________ of the police to find the criminal.

a) affair

b) business

c) matter

d) concern

5. That, of course, is a ________ of opinion.

a) affair

b) business

c) matter

d) concern

6. You want John to take the ________.

a) guilt

b) blame

c) fault

d) reason

7. They say it was the boy’s ________.

a) guilt

b) blame

c) fault

d) reason

8. He could not prove my ________ for the accident.

a) guilt

b) blame

c) fault

d) reason

9. He ________ to his feet and followed me.

a) rose

b) arose

c) raised

d) aroused

10. He ________ her to her feet and made her sit down.

a) rose

b) arose

c) raised

d) aroused

11. Arguments ________.

a) rose

b) arose

c) raised

d) aroused

12. My sister’s scream ________ me this morning.

a) rose

b) arose

c) raised

d) aroused

8. Используя следующие слова, заполните таблицу так, чтобы получились следующие словосочетания.

Part, mistakes, dishes, a cold, a profit, suggestion, wonders, a cake, a meal, a favour, place, an excuse, a rest, your best, a career, a party, a promise, well, care, a sleep, notes, friends, the shopping, notice, bus, the trouble, the bed, the laundry, one’s hair, a call, harm, a look.

Make	Do	Have	Take

9. Соотнесите фразовые глаголы с их значениями. Одно значение лишнее.

Фразовые глаголы	Их значения
1) get along with	а) вставать, подниматься
2) get through	b) садиться на поезд (в трамвай, автобус)
3) get over	с) уживаться, ладить
4) get on	d) справиться, преодолеть
5) get on with	е) оставить, бросить
6) get up	f) 1) проходить, проникать через; 2) выдержать, справиться g) продолжать делать что-либо

Ответ:

1	2	3	4	5	6

10. Вставьте фразовые глаголы из упражнения 9 в нужной грамматической форме в следующие предложения.

1. There is only one scent that will ______________ a brick wall, and that is the scent of an onion.

2. He ______________ the bus in a small out-of-the-way village.

3. She has to ______________ early.

4. I can’t ______________ how rude she was.

5. Do you ______________ your boss?

6. I think the problem can be ______________ without too much difficulty.

7. We ______________ a fortune while we were on holiday!

11. Вставьте глаголы to keep, to hold, to get, to take, to turn в нужной грамматической форме в следующие предложения.

1. We ______________ off immediately after breakfast.

2. Police warned bystanders to ______________ away from the blazing building.

3. I don’t ______________ with his views on education.

4. He was homeless, so we ______________ him in.

5. She ______________ on working although she was tired.

6. The plane ______________ off despite the fog.

7. She ______________ away in horror at the sight of so much blood.

8. The rain ______________ off just long enough for us to have our picnic.

9. They have ______________ off the water while they mend a burst pipe.

10. She is always ______________ up her children as models of behavior.

11. A vast crowd ______________ out to watch the match.

12. Workers’ incomes are not ______________ up with inflation.

12. Вставьте послелог (второй элемент) фразового глагола.

1. Our neighbours are looking ______________ the garden while we are away.

2. We shall be looking ______________ an improvement in your work this term.

3. The doctor will look ______________ again this evening.

4. Passers-by were just looking ______________ as the man was viciously attacked.

5. She looked ______________ when she heard the noise behind her.

6. Do look me ______________ the next time you are in Moscow?

7. What dress shall I put ______________ for the party?

8. The government is putting ______________ some radical social reforms.

9. He entered the room and turned the light ______________.

10. He has a fair amount of money put ______________.

13. Выберите правильный ответ.

1. What time are you planning to ______________ tomorrow?

a) set up

b) set off

c) set about

d) set on

2. Her clear and elegant prose ______________ her ______________ from most other journalists.

a) set down

b) set back

c) set apart

d) set aside

3. The rain stopped and the sun came ______________.

a) on

b) in

c) out

d) up

4. He is very ill but doctors expect him to ______________.

a) come through

b) come upon

c) come over

d) come down

5. What country do you come ______________?

a) into

b) for

c) from

d) after

6. The reporters ______________ the speech.

a) took back

b) took aback

c) took aside

d) took down

7. My father is very tall and I take ______________ him.

a) after

b) from

c) on

d) to

8. He finds it hard to ______________ what he feels.

a) tell

b) speak

c) talk

d) say

9. How many countries will be taking ______________ in the World Cup?

a) place

b) part

c) charge

d) credit

10. I was tired last night so I spent the evening ______________ television.

a) looking

b) watching

c) seeing

d) viewing

14. Прочитайте текст с пропусками и кратко изложите его содержание.

Molly the Cactus

Lady Anna had a lovely garden with lots of flowers. All the flowers would talk, sing and play all day. Only Molly the Cactus could not join them. The mean flowers would only 32 ___________ fun of her. “People stop to smell and touch me, but you neither smell nor look good!” the Rose flower would say and all the flowers would start laughing. Poor Molly was very sad and lonely.

Once, Lady Anna went to the neighboring town and stayed there for a 33 ____________ time. The flowers began to worry. “It is so sunny! We need to be watered quickly; 34 ____________ we will ail dry up!” said the Lily flower in dismay. The Rose flower was crying. “What is the matter, Rose? We are all waiting 35 ____________ water,” said the Tulip flower. “Oh, I’m worried about my new flower. It may dry out even before blooming!” sobbed Rose. The flowers started discussing what could be done to save little Rose, but no one could think 36 ____________ a solution. Then Molly the Cactus said, “I can give water to little Rose. I have water stored in me, which is more important for Rose now.” “Little Rose bud will survive!” cheered everybody. Then the Rose flower turned to Molly and said, “Molly, we must 37 ____________ Even though we were mean, you helped us. You have taught us an important lesson. It is not how one 38 ____________, but how one behaves that makes one a good or a bad person.”

15. Заполните пропуск под номером 32 и напишите по 5 устойчивых словосочетаний с каждым из предложенных глаголов.

32. 1) do

2) make

3) have

4) take

Ответ: [ ]

to do	to make	to have	to take

16. Заполните пропуск под номером 33 и напишите английские соответствия приведённым русским выражениям.

33. 1) big

2) high

3) huge

4) long

Ответ: [ ]

В прошлом году — ______________________

Три года тому назад — __________________

Рано утром — __________________________

Поздно вечером — ______________________

В прошлом веке — ______________________

Позавчера — ___________________________

Послезавтра — _________________________

Давно — ______________­_________________

17. Заполните пропуск под номером 34 и используйте предложенные союзы и вводные слова в предложениях ниже. После каких слов из списка должна стоять запятая? Поставьте её в предложениях.

34. 1) although

2) moreover

3) however

4) otherwise

Ответ: [ ]

1. Johnny was not ready for the lesson. ___________________ he didn’t know what the task was.

2. We have to finish the work by 5 o’clock, ___________________ we’ll be late for the train.

3. ___________________ it was late at night, there were a lot of people in the streets.

4. It was late at night, ___________________, there were a lot of people in the streets.

18. Заполните пропуски, обозначенные номерами 35—38. Какие из пропусков 32—38 показались вам особенно сложными для заполнения. Почему?

19. Прочитайте текст с пропусками, обозначенными номерами 32—33. Эти номера соответствуют заданиям 32—33, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов. Запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному вами варианту ответа. Объясните выбранный вами ответ.

A trip to Thailand

I have always been interested in various cultures especially those completely alien to us. Thus, imagine my delight when my father 32 ___________________ that lives about 200 kilometers north of the capital city. As my father explained, the tribe lives an isolated life and the members are cut 33 ___________________ from the rest of the world in terms of their unique and even weird cultural practices.

32. 1) spoke

2) said

3) talked

4) told

Ответ: [ ]

33. 1) out

2) back

3) off

4) down

Ответ: [ ]

20. Прочитайте текст с пропусками, обозначенными номерами 34—38. Эти номера соответствуют заданиям 34—38, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов. Запишите в поле ответа цифру 1,2,3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному вами варианту ответа.

During our trip to Thailand I have noticed that the Thai people are very friendly and their greetings are very 34 ___________________ to the Indians’. For example, when they meet you they bring their palms together in a prayer-like position and bend their bodies a little as a way of welcoming and acknowledging you. It would definitely 35 ___________________ you feel as an honored guest. At first, I was rather 36 ___________________ by these greeting traditions which seemed so unusual and respectful to me. Surprisingly, soon I got used to doing that myself and 37 ___________________ this procedure during my entire trip to Thailand. We spent only two fantastic days in Bangkok before heading 38 ___________________ the remote village which was going to be the most exciting time of our lives, dad promised. We were excited and could not wait seeing everything with our own eyes!

34. 1) equal

2) near

3) similar

4) alike

Ответ: [ ]

35. 1) hold

2) take

3) keep

4) make

Ответ: [ ]

36. 1) attached

2) influenced

3) related

4) impressed

Ответ: [ ]

37. 1) enjoyed

2) preferred

3) amused

4) pleased

Ответ: [ ]

38. 1) against

2) towards

3) besides

4) within

Ответ: [ ]

21. Прочитайте текст с пропусками, обозначенными номерами 32—38. Эти номера соответствуют заданиям 32—38, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов. Запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному вами варианту ответа.

It was snowing hard in New York. I longed for the sun. I hadn’t been to Paradise City for two years and now I wanted to relax in the 32 ___________ and luxury of the Spanish Bay hotel — the best hotel on the Florida Coast.

I had sold a couple of short stories to the New Yorker and my last novel had been third on the best-seller list for the past six months. So I didn’t have to 33 ___________ about money. Looking out of my window at the grey sky and the snow, I decided to 34 ___________ a call. In a few minutes I was speaking to Jean Dulac who 35 ___________ the Spanish Bay hotel at Paradise City. In another few minutes, a room with a balcony that caught ten hours of sunshine per day and overlooked the sea was reserved for me.

Thirty-six hours later I 36 ___________ at Paradise City airport to be met by a white Cadillac that took me to the hotel. I spent my first week relaxing in the sun, chatting with young girls and eating too much. Then I 37 ___________ Al Barney. Al described himself as a man with his ear to the ground. Two years ago I had met this fat man and Al had given me an idea for a book. I asked Jean Dulac if he knew Al Barney.

“Of course,” Jean smiled. “Paradise City without Al Barney would be like Paris without the Eiffel Tower. I saw Al Barney leave the hotel ten minutes ago and drive 38 ___________ in his Jaguar.”

32. 1) comfort

2) convenience

3) accommodation

4) availability

Ответ: [ ]

33. 1) deal

2) concern

3) trouble

4) worry

Ответ: [ ]

34. 1) execute

2) make

3) do

4) fulfil

Ответ: [ ]

35. 1) led

2) directed

3) jogged

4) ran

Ответ: [ ]

36. 1) came

2) arrived

3) flew

4) descended

Ответ: [ ]

37. 1) reviewed

2) reminded

3) remembered

4) revised

Ответ: [ ]

38. 1) from

2) of

3) off

4) out

Ответ: [ ]

Полезные советы

• Помните, что в данном задании очень важен контекст, так как есть ряд синонимов, которые имеют некий общий смысл, но различаются оттенками значения, например глаголы to look, to peep, to glare имеют общее денотативное значение “смотреть”, но to peep означает “смотреть быстро и украдкой”, a to glare — “смотреть долго”, “смотреть со злостью, с гневом”.

• При выборе слова обращайте внимание на его грамматическое окружение: некоторые слова требуют после себя предлог или другую грамматическую конструкцию (например, инфинитив илигерундий: to manage to do something — to succeed in doing something).

• Будьте осторожны: фразовые глаголы имеют общий глагол, но различное значение в зависимости от своего второго элемента (послелога), например: to look (“смотреть”), to look for(“искать”), to look after (“ухаживать”).

• Наиболее часто на экзамене встречаются такие фразовые глаголы, как to look, to put, to get, to turn, to keep, to hold.

• Будьте внимательны: в некоторых словосочетаниях перед существительным артикль не ставится, например: to до to school, to take part, to take place.

Тренируемся в выполнении заданий 32—38

Вариант 1

Прочитайте текст с пропусками, обозначенными номерами 32—38. Эти номера соответствуют заданиям 32—38, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов. Запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному вами варианту ответа.

The man who could work miracles

(after H. G. Wells)

Everyone likes miracles. 32 ___________ he was thirty years old, Fotheringay didn’t believe in miracles. Harry was a thin, fair-haired man with grey eyes. In fact, he was a very ordinary man. One day he 33 ___________ his extraordinary powers when he was saying that miracles were quite impossible. He was having a drink at an inn called the Long Dragon.

Toddy Beamish disagreed with everything that Fotheringay said, and drove him to the 34 ___________ of his patience. “So you say,” answered Beamish whenever Fotheringay spoke.

There were present, besides these two, a very dusty cyclist; the landlord, Cox; and fat Miss Maybridge, who served the drinks. She was standing with her back to Fotheringay, washing glasses; the others were 35 ___________ him.

Angry with Mr Beamish, Fotheringay decided to 36 ___________ a special effort. “Listen, Mr Beamish,” said Fotheringay. “Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It’s something against the laws of nature done by the power of Will, something that couldn’t happen without being specially willed.”

“So you say,” said Mr Beamish. The cyclist agreed, but the innkeeper would give no 37 ___________.

“For example,” said Fotheringay, “here would be a miracle. That lamp, in the natural 38 ___________ of nature, couldn’t burn like that upside down, could it, Mr Beamish?”

“No, it couldn’t.”

32. 1) Under

2) Until

3) Unto

4) Unless

Ответ: [ ]

33. 1) invented

2) opened

3) discovered

4) found

Ответ: [ ]

34. 1) limit

2) finish

3) border

4) division

Ответ: [ ]

35. 1) peeping

2) watching

3) looking

4) gazing

Ответ: [ ]

36. 1) give

2) fulfil

3) do

4) make

Ответ: [ ]

37. 1) verdict

2) account

3) opinion

4) mind

Ответ: [ ]

38. 1) course

2) motion

3) pace

4) passage

Ответ: [ ]

Вариант 2

Прочитайте текст с пропусками, обозначенными номерами 32—38. Эти номера соответствуют заданиям 32—38, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов. Обведите номер выбранного вами варианта ответа.

Lord Mondrago

(After W. Somerset Maugham)

It was a quarter to six. Dr Auldin could remember no 32 ___________ which was stranger than that of Lord Pine. For one thing it was strange because Lord Mondrago was a clever and famous man. He was 33 ___________ Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when still under forty years of age; now after three years in office, he had seen success. It was generally agreed that he was the cleverest man in his party. There was nothing to 34 ___________ Lord Mondrago from continuing as Secretary for Foreign Affairs in many later governments.

Lord Mondrago had many good qualities. He was clever and worked hard. He had travelled widely and could 35 ___________ several languages well. He knew a great deal about other countries. He had courage and determination. He was a good speaker. He was a tall, good-looking man, but perhaps rather too fat. At the age of twenty-four he had married a girl of eighteen, whose father was a duke and whose American mother was very rich, 36 ___________ he had a good position and wealth. He had two sons. He had, indeed, a great deal to make him a popular and successful man. He had, unfortunately, great 37 ___________. He was very proud and liked boasting. For three centuries the Lords Mondrago had 38 ____________ the title and married onto the noblest families of England. He never missed the opportunity of telling others about it.

32. 1) occasion

2) event

3) case

4) accident

Ответ: [ ]

33. 1) resigned

2) appointed

3) settled

4) announced

Ответ: [ ]

34. 1) prevent

2) interfere

3) interrupt

4) obscure

Ответ: [ ]

35. 1) talk

2) speak

3) tell

4) chat

Ответ: [ ]

36. 1) so

2) nevertheless

3) if

4) though

Ответ: [ ]

37. 1) worries

2) cares

3) troubles

4) faults

Ответ: [ ]

38. 1) made

2) acquired

3) purchased

4) held

Ответ: [ ]

Рефлексия

1. Помог ли вам представленный в данной теме материал лучше понять содержание и структуру заданий 32—38 раздела “Грамматика и лексика”?

2. Что было легко/трудно в усвоении темы?

3. Что было полезным?

4. Что вы усвоили, чему научились, что сумеете выполнить самостоятельно?

5. Что осталось неясным?

Научились, умеем, усвоили

1. Усвоили алгоритм выполнения заданий 32—38 раздела “Грамматика и лексика”.

2. Научились выполнять эти задания.

3. Умеем применять следующие стратегии:

• прочитать весь текст, понять его общее содержание, сюжет, логику, последовательность событий и т. п.;

• понять смысл предложения, прежде чем выбрать соответствующую лексическую единицу;

• выбрать подходящее по контексту слово из предложенных;

• при выборе слова учитывать лексическую сочетаемость лексических единиц, обращая особое внимание на устойчивые словосочетания, фразовые глаголы, идиоматические выражения;

• при выборе слова помнить о различиях в значении и употреблении синонимов;

• при выборе слова обратить внимание на грамматическое оформление искомого слова;

• проверить, является ли выбранный вариант логичным и не нарушает ли он лексическую или грамматическую сочетаемость.

by

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A PANTOUM IN PROSE.

It is doubtful whether the gift was innate. For my own part, I think it came to him suddenly. Indeed, until he was thirty he was a sceptic, and did not believe in miraculous powers. And here, since it is the most convenient place, I must mention that he was a little man, and had eyes of a hot brown, very erect red hair, a moustache with ends that he twisted up, and freckles. His name was George McWhirter Fotheringay—not the sort of name by any means to lead to any expectation of miracles—and he was clerk at Gomshott’s. He was greatly addicted to assertive argument. It was while he was asserting the impossibility of miracles that he had his first intimation of his extraordinary powers. This particular argument was being held in the bar of the Long Dragon, and Toddy Beamish was conducting the opposition by a monotonous but effective «So _you_ say,» that drove Mr. Fotheringay to the very limit of his patience.

There were present, besides these two, a very dusty cyclist, landlord Cox, and Miss Maybridge, the perfectly respectable and rather portly barmaid of the Dragon. Miss Maybridge was standing with her back to Mr. Fotheringay, washing glasses; the others were watching him, more or less amused by the present ineffectiveness of the assertive method. Goaded by the Torres Vedras tactics of Mr. Beamish, Mr. Fotheringay determined to make an unusual rhetorical effort. «Looky here, Mr. Beamish,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It’s something contrariwise to the course of nature, done by power of will, something what couldn’t happen without being specially willed.»

«So _you_ say,» said Mr. Beamish, repulsing him.

Mr. Fotheringay appealed to the cyclist, who had hitherto been a silent auditor, and received his assent—given with a hesitating cough and a glance at Mr. Beamish. The landlord would express no opinion, and Mr. Fotheringay, returning to Mr. Beamish, received the unexpected concession of a qualified assent to his definition of a miracle.

«For instance,» said Mr. Fotheringay, greatly encouraged. «Here would be a miracle. That lamp, in the natural course of nature, couldn’t burn like that upsy-down, could it, Beamish?»

«_You_ say it couldn’t,» said Beamish.

«And you?» said Fotheringay. «You don’t mean to say—eh?»

«No,» said Beamish reluctantly. «No, it couldn’t.»

«Very well,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «Then here comes someone, as it might be me, along here, and stands as it might be here, and says to that lamp, as I might do, collecting all my will—Turn upsy-down without breaking, and go on burning steady, and—Hullo!»

It was enough to make anyone say «Hullo!» The impossible, the incredible, was visible to them all. The lamp hung inverted in the air, burning quietly with its flame pointing down. It was as solid, as indisputable as ever a lamp was, the prosaic common lamp of the Long Dragon bar.

Mr. Fotheringay stood with an extended forefinger and the knitted brows of one anticipating a catastrophic smash. The cyclist, who was sitting next the lamp, ducked and jumped across the bar. Everybody jumped, more or less. Miss Maybridge turned and screamed. For nearly three seconds the lamp remained still. A faint cry of mental distress came from Mr. Fotheringay. «I can’t keep it up,» he said, «any longer.» He staggered back, and the inverted lamp suddenly flared, fell against the corner of the bar, bounced aside, smashed upon the floor, and went out.

It was lucky it had a metal receiver, or the whole place would have been in a blaze. Mr. Cox was the first to speak, and his remark, shorn of needless excrescences, was to the effect that Fotheringay was a fool. Fotheringay was beyond disputing even so fundamental a proposition as that! He was astonished beyond measure at the thing that had occurred. The subsequent conversation threw absolutely no light on the matter so far as Fotheringay was concerned; the general opinion not only followed Mr. Cox very closely but very vehemently. Everyone accused Fotheringay of a silly trick, and presented him to himself as a foolish destroyer of comfort and security. His mind was in a tornado of perplexity, he was himself inclined to agree with them, and he made a remarkably ineffectual opposition to the proposal of his departure.

He went home flushed and heated, coat-collar crumpled, eyes smarting, and ears red. He watched each of the ten street lamps nervously as he passed it. It was only when he found himself alone in his little bedroom in Church Row that he was able to grapple seriously with his memories of the occurrence, and ask, «What on earth happened?»

He had removed his coat and boots, and was sitting on the bed with his hands in his pockets repeating the text of his defence for the seventeenth time, «I didn’t want the confounded thing to upset,» when it occurred to him that at the precise moment he had said the commanding words he had inadvertently willed the thing he said, and that when he had seen the lamp in the air he had felt that it depended on him to maintain it there without being clear how this was to be done. He had not a particularly complex mind, or he might have stuck for a time at that «inadvertently willed,» embracing, as it does, the abstrusest problems of voluntary action; but as it was, the idea came to him with a quite acceptable haziness. And from that, following, as I must admit, no clear logical path, he came to the test of experiment.

He pointed resolutely to his candle and collected his mind, though he felt he did a foolish thing. «Be raised up,» he said. But in a second that feeling vanished. The candle was raised, hung in the air one giddy moment, and as Mr. Fotheringay gasped, fell with a smash on his toilet-table, leaving him in darkness save for the expiring glow of its wick.

For a time Mr. Fotheringay sat in the darkness, perfectly still. «It did happen, after all,» he said. «And ‘ow _I’m_ to explain it I _don’t_ know.» He sighed heavily, and began feeling in his pockets for a match. He could find none, and he rose and groped about the toilet-table. «I wish I had a match,» he said. He resorted to his coat, and there was none there, and then it dawned upon him that miracles were possible even with matches. He extended a hand and scowled at it in the dark. «Let there be a match in that hand,» he said. He felt some light object fall across his palm and his fingers closed upon a match.

After several ineffectual attempts to light this, he discovered it was a safety match. He threw it down, and then it occurred to him that he might have willed it lit. He did, and perceived it burning in the midst of his toilet-table mat. He caught it up hastily, and it went out. His perception of possibilities enlarged, and he felt for and replaced the candle in its candlestick. «Here! _you_ be lit,» said Mr. Fotheringay, and forthwith the candle was flaring, and he saw a little black hole in the toilet-cover, with a wisp of smoke rising from it. For a time he stared from this to the little flame and back, and then looked up and met his own gaze in the looking-glass. By this help he communed with himself in silence for a time.

«How about miracles now?» said Mr. Fotheringay at last, addressing his reflection.

The subsequent meditations of Mr. Fotheringay were of a severe but confused description. So far, he could see it was a case of pure willing with him. The nature of his experiences so far disinclined him for any further experiments, at least until he had reconsidered them. But he lifted a sheet of paper, and turned a glass of water pink and then green, and he created a snail, which he miraculously annihilated, and got himself a miraculous new tooth-brush. Somewhere in the small hours he had reached the fact that his will-power must be of a particularly rare and pungent quality, a fact of which he had indeed had inklings before, but no certain assurance. The scare and perplexity of his first discovery was now qualified by pride in this evidence of singularity and by vague intimations of advantage. He became aware that the church clock was striking one, and as it did not occur to him that his daily duties at Gomshott’s might be miraculously dispensed with, he resumed undressing, in order to get to bed without further delay. As he struggled to get his shirt over his head, he was struck with a brilliant idea. «Let me be in bed,» he said, and found himself so. «Undressed,» he stipulated; and, finding the sheets cold, added hastily, «and in my nightshirt—ho, in a nice soft woollen nightshirt. Ah!» he said with immense enjoyment. «And now let me be comfortably asleep…»

He awoke at his usual hour and was pensive all through breakfast-time, wondering whether his over-night experience might not be a particularly vivid dream. At length his mind turned again to cautious experiments. For instance, he had three eggs for breakfast; two his landlady had supplied, good, but shoppy, and one was a delicious fresh goose-egg, laid, cooked, and served by his extraordinary will. He hurried off to Gomshott’s in a state of profound but carefully concealed excitement, and only remembered the shell of the third egg when his landlady spoke of it that night. All day he could do no work because of this astonishing new self-knowledge, but this caused him no inconvenience, because he made up for it miraculously in his last ten minutes.

As the day wore on his state of mind passed from wonder to elation, albeit the circumstances of his dismissal from the Long Dragon were still disagreeable to recall, and a garbled account of the matter that had reached his colleagues led to some badinage. It was evident he must be careful how he lifted frangible articles, but in other ways his gift promised more and more as he turned it over in his mind. He intended among other things to increase his personal property by unostentatious acts of creation. He called into existence a pair of very splendid diamond studs, and hastily annihilated them again as young Gomshott came across the counting-house to his desk. He was afraid young Gomshott might wonder how he had come by them. He saw quite clearly the gift required caution and watchfulness in its exercise, but so far as he could judge the difficulties attending its mastery would be no greater than those he had already faced in the study of cycling. It was that analogy, perhaps, quite as much as the feeling that he would be unwelcome in the Long Dragon, that drove him out after supper into the lane beyond the gasworks, to rehearse a few miracles in private.

There was possibly a certain want of originality in his attempts, for, apart from his will-power, Mr. Fotheringay was not a very exceptional man. The miracle of Moses’ rod came to his mind, but the night was dark and unfavourable to the proper control of large miraculous snakes. Then he recollected the story of «Tannhuser» that he had read on the back of the Philharmonic programme. That seemed to him singularly attractive and harmless. He stuck his walking-stick—a very nice Poona-Penang lawyer— into the turf that edged the footpath, and commanded the dry wood to blossom. The air was immediately full of the scent of roses, and by means of a match he saw for himself that this beautiful miracle was indeed accomplished. His satisfaction was ended by advancing footsteps. Afraid of a premature discovery of his powers, he addressed the blossoming stick hastily: «Go back.» What he meant was «Change back;» but of course he was confused. The stick receded at a considerable velocity, and incontinently came a cry of anger and a bad word from the approaching person. «Who are you throwing brambles at, you fool?» cried a voice. «That got me on the shin.»

«I’m sorry, old chap,» said Mr. Fotheringay, and then, realising the awkward nature of the explanation, caught nervously at his moustache. He saw Winch, one of the three Immering constables, advancing.

«What d’yer mean by it?» asked the constable. «Hullo! it’s you, is it? The gent that broke the lamp at the Long Dragon!»

«I don’t mean anything by it,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «Nothing at all.»

«What d’yer do it for then?»

«Oh, bother!» said Mr. Fotheringay.

«Bother indeed! D’yer know that stick hurt? What d’yer do it for, eh?»

For the moment Mr. Fotheringay could not think what he had done it for. His silence seemed to irritate Mr. Winch. «You’ve been assaulting the police, young man, this time. That’s what _you_ done.»

«Look here, Mr. Winch,» said Mr. Fotheringay, annoyed and confused, «I’m sorry, very. The fact is—-«

«Well?»

He could think of no way but the truth. «I was working a miracle.» He tried to speak in an off-hand way, but try as he would he couldn’t.

«Working a—! ‘Ere, don’t you talk rot. Working a miracle, indeed! Miracle! Well, that’s downright funny! Why, you’s the chap that don’t believe in miracles… Fact is, this is another of your silly conjuring tricks—that’s what this is. Now, I tell you—«

But Mr. Fotheringay never heard what Mr. Winch was going to tell him. He realised he had given himself away, flung his valuable secret to all the winds of heaven. A violent gust of irritation swept him to action. He turned on the constable swiftly and fiercely. «Here,» he said, «I’ve had enough of this, I have! I’ll show you a silly conjuring trick, I will! Go to Hades! Go, now!»

He was alone!

Mr. Fotheringay performed no more miracles that night, nor did he trouble to see what had become of his flowering stick. He returned to the town, scared and very quiet, and went to his bedroom. «Lord!» he said, «it’s a powerful gift—an extremely powerful gift. I didn’t hardly mean as much as that. Not really… I wonder what Hades is like!»

He sat on the bed taking off his boots. Struck by a happy thought he transferred the constable to San Francisco, and without any more interference with normal causation went soberly to bed. In the night he dreamt of the anger of Winch.

The next day Mr. Fotheringay heard two interesting items of news. Someone had planted a most beautiful climbing rose against the elder Mr. Gomshott’s private house in the Lullaborough Road, and the river as far as Rawling’s Mill was to be dragged for Constable Winch.

Mr. Fotheringay was abstracted and thoughtful all that day, and performed no miracles except certain provisions for Winch, and the miracle of completing his day’s work with punctual perfection in spite of all the bee-swarm of thoughts that hummed through his mind. And the extraordinary abstraction and meekness of his manner was remarked by several people, and made a matter for jesting. For the most part he was thinking of Winch.

On Sunday evening he went to chapel, and oddly enough, Mr. Maydig, who took a certain interest in occult matters, preached about «things that are not lawful.» Mr. Fotheringay was not a regular chapelgoer, but the system of assertive scepticism, to which I have already alluded, was now very much shaken. The tenor of the sermon threw an entirely new light on these novel gifts, and he suddenly decided to consult Mr. Maydig immediately after the service. So soon as that was determined, he found himself wondering why he had not done so before.

Mr. Maydig, a lean, excitable man with quite remarkably long wrists and neck, was gratified at a request for a private conversation from a young man whose carelessness in religious matters was a subject for general remark in the town. After a few necessary delays, he conducted him to the study of the manse, which was contiguous to the chapel, seated him comfortably, and, standing in front of a cheerful fire—his legs threw a Rhodian arch of shadow on the opposite wall—requested Mr. Fotheringay to state his business.

At first Mr. Fotheringay was a little abashed, and found some difficulty in opening the matter. «You will scarcely believe me, Mr. Maydig, I am afraid»—and so forth for some time. He tried a question at last, and asked Mr. Maydig his opinion of miracles.

Mr. Maydig was still saying «Well» in an extremely judicial tone, when Mr. Fotheringay interrupted again: «You don’t believe, I suppose, that some common sort of person—like myself, for instance—as it might be sitting here now, might have some sort of twist inside him that made him able to do things by his will.»

«It’s possible,» said Mr. Maydig. «Something of the sort, perhaps, is possible.»

«If I might make free with something here, I think I might show you by a sort of experiment,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «Now, take that tobacco-jar on the table, for instance. What I want to know is whether what I am going to do with it is a miracle or not. Just half a minute, Mr. Maydig, please.»

He knitted his brows, pointed to the tobacco-jar and said: «Be a bowl of vi’lets.»

The tobacco-jar did as it was ordered.

Mr. Maydig started violently at the change, and stood looking from the thaumaturgist to the bowl of flowers. He said nothing. Presently he ventured to lean over the table and smell the violets; they were fresh-picked and very fine ones. Then he stared at Mr. Fotheringay again.

«How did you do that?» he asked.

Mr. Fotheringay pulled his moustache. «Just told it—and there you are. Is that a miracle, or is it black art, or what is it? And what do you think’s the matter with me? That’s what I want to ask.»

«It’s a most extraordinary occurrence.»

«And this day last week I knew no more that I could do things like that than you did. It came quite sudden. It’s something odd about my will, I suppose, and that’s as far as I can see.»

«Is that—the only thing. Could you do other things besides that?»

«Lord, yes!» said Mr. Fotheringay. «Just anything.» He thought, and suddenly recalled a conjuring entertainment he had seen. «Here!» he pointed, «change into a bowl of fish—no, not that—change into a glass bowl full of water with goldfish swimming in it. That’s better! You see that, Mr. Maydig?»

«It’s astonishing. It’s incredible. You are either a most extraordinary… But no—-«

«I could change it into anything,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «Just anything. Here! be a pigeon, will you?»

In another moment a blue pigeon was fluttering round the room and making Mr. Maydig duck every time it came near him. «Stop there, will you?» said Mr. Fotheringay; and the pigeon hung motionless in the air. «I could change it back to a bowl of flowers,» he said, and after replacing the pigeon on the table worked that miracle. «I expect you will want your pipe in a bit,» he said, and restored the tobacco-jar.

Mr. Maydig had followed all these later changes in a sort of ejaculatory silence. He stared at Mr. Fotheringay and in a very gingerly manner picked up the tobacco-jar, examined it, replaced it on the table. «_Well_!» was the only expression of his feelings.

«Now, after that it’s easier to explain what I came about,» said Mr. Fotheringay; and proceeded to a lengthy and involved narrative of his strange experiences, beginning with the affair of the lamp in the Long Dragon and complicated by persistent allusions to Winch. As he went on, the transient pride Mr. Maydig’s consternation had caused passed away; he became the very ordinary Mr. Fotheringay of everyday intercourse again. Mr. Maydig listened intently, the tobacco-jar in his hand, and his bearing changed also with the course of the narrative. Presently, while Mr. Fotheringay was dealing with the miracle of the third egg, the minister interrupted with a fluttering, extended hand.

«It is possible,» he said. «It is credible. It is amazing, of course, but it reconciles a number of amazing difficulties. The power to work miracles is a gift—a peculiar quality like genius or second sight; hitherto it has come very rarely and to exceptional people. But in this case…I have always wondered at the miracles of Mahomet, and at Yogi’s miracles, and the miracles of Madame Blavatsky. But, of course—Yes, it is simply a gift! It carries out so beautifully the arguments of that great thinker»— Mr. Maydig’s voice sank—«his Grace the Duke of Argyll. Here we plumb some profounder law—deeper than the ordinary laws of nature. Yes—yes. Go on. Go on!»

Mr. Fotheringay proceeded to tell of his misadventure with Winch, and Mr. Maydig, no longer overawed or scared, began to jerk his limbs about and interject astonishment. «It’s this what troubled me most,» proceeded Mr. Fotheringay; «it’s this I’m most mijitly in want of advice for; of course he’s at San Francisco—wherever San Francisco may be—but of course it’s awkward for both of us, as you’ll see, Mr. Maydig. I don’t see how he can understand what has happened, and I daresay he’s scared and exasperated something tremendous, and trying to get at me. I daresay he keeps on starting off to come here. I send him back, by a miracle, every few hours, when I think of it. And, of course, that’s a thing he won’t be able to understand, and it’s bound to annoy him; and, of course, if he takes a ticket every time it will cost him a lot of money. I done the best I could for him, but, of course, it’s difficult for him to put himself in my place. I thought afterwards that his clothes might have got scorched, you know—if Hades is all it’s supposed to be—before I shifted him. In that case I suppose they’d have locked him up in San Francisco. Of course I willed him a new suit of clothes on him directly I thought of it. But, you see, I’m already in a deuce of a tangle—-«

Mr. Maydig looked serious. «I see you are in a tangle. Yes, it’s a difficult position. How you are to end it…» He became diffuse and inconclusive.

«However, we’ll leave Winch for a little and discuss the larger question. I don’t think this is a case of the black art or anything of the sort. I don’t think there is any taint of criminality about it at all, Mr. Fotheringay—none whatever, unless you are suppressing material facts. No, it’s miracles—pure miracles—miracles, if I may say so, of the very highest class.»

He began to pace the hearthrug and gesticulate, while Mr. Fotheringay sat with his arm on the table and his head on his arm, looking worried. «I don’t see how I’m to manage about Winch,» he said.

«A gift of working miracles—apparently a very powerful gift,» said Mr. Maydig, «will find a way about Winch—never fear. My dear sir, you are a most important man—a man of the most astonishing possibilities. As evidence, for example! And in other ways, the things you may do…»

«Yes, _I’ve_ thought of a thing or two,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «But— some of the things came a bit twisty. You saw that fish at first? Wrong sort of bowl and wrong sort of fish. And I thought I’d ask someone.»

«A proper course,» said Mr. Maydig, «a very proper course—altogether the proper course.» He stopped and looked at Mr. Fotheringay. «It’s practically an unlimited gift. Let us test your powers, for instance. If they really _are_ … If they really are all they seem to be.»

And so, incredible as it may seem, in the study of the little house behind the Congregational Chapel, on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 10, 1896, Mr. Fotheringay, egged on and inspired by Mr. Maydig, began to work miracles. The reader’s attention is specially and definitely called to the date. He will object, probably has already objected, that certain points in this story are improbable, that if any things of the sort already described had indeed occurred, they would have been in all the papers at that time. The details immediately following he will find particularly hard to accept, because among other things they involve the conclusion that he or she, the reader in question, must have been killed in a violent and unprecedented manner more than a year ago. Now a miracle is nothing if not improbable, and as a matter of fact the reader _was_ killed in a violent and unprecedented manner in 1896. In the subsequent course of this story that will become perfectly clear and credible, as every right-minded and reasonable reader will admit. But this is not the place for the end of the story, being but little beyond the hither side of the middle. And at first the miracles worked by Mr. Fotheringay were timid little miracles—little things with the cups and parlour fitments, as feeble as the miracles of Theosophists, and, feeble as they were, they were received with awe by his collaborator. He would have preferred to settle the Winch business out of hand, but Mr. Maydig would not let him. But after they had worked a dozen of these domestic trivialities, their sense of power grew, their imagination began to show signs of stimulation, and their ambition enlarged. Their first larger enterprise was due to hunger and the negligence of Mrs. Minchin, Mr. Maydig’s housekeeper. The meal to which the minister conducted Mr. Fotheringay was certainly ill-laid and uninviting as refreshment for two industrious miracle-workers; but they were seated, and Mr. Maydig was descanting in sorrow rather than in anger upon his housekeeper’s shortcomings, before it occurred to Mr. Fotheringay that an opportunity lay before him. «Don’t you think, Mr. Maydig,» he said, «if it isn’t a liberty, _I_—-«

«My dear Mr. Fotheringay! Of course! No—I didn’t think.»

Mr. Fotheringay waved his hand. «What shall we have?» he said, in a large, inclusive spirit, and, at Mr. Maydig’s order, revised the supper very thoroughly. «As for me,» he said, eyeing Mr. Maydig’s selection, «I am always particularly fond of a tankard of stout and a nice Welsh rarebit, and I’ll order that. I ain’t much given to Burgundy,» and forthwith stout and Welsh rarebit promptly appeared at his command. They sat long at their supper, talking like equals, as Mr. Fotheringay presently perceived, with a glow of surprise and gratification, of all the miracles they would presently do. «And, by-the-by, Mr. Maydig,» said Mr. Fotheringay, «I might perhaps be able to help you—in a domestic way.»

«Don’t quite follow,» said Mr. Maydig, pouring out a glass of miraculous old Burgundy.

Mr. Fotheringay helped himself to a second Welsh rarebit out of vacancy, and took a mouthful. «I was thinking,» he said, «I might be able (_chum, chum_) to work (_chum, chum_) a miracle with Mrs. Minchin (_chum, chum_)—make her a better woman.»

Mr. Maydig put down the glass and looked doubtful.

«She’s—-She strongly objects to interference, you know, Mr. Fotheringay. And—as a matter of fact—it’s well past eleven and she’s probably in bed and asleep. Do you think, on the whole—-«

Mr. Fotheringay considered these objections. «I don’t see that it shouldn’t be done in her sleep.»

For a time Mr. Maydig opposed the idea, and then he yielded. Mr. Fotheringay issued his orders, and a little less at their ease, perhaps, the two gentlemen proceeded with their repast. Mr. Maydig was enlarging on the changes he might expect in his housekeeper next day, with an optimism, that seemed even to Mr. Fotheringay’s supper senses a little forced and hectic, when a series of confused noises from upstairs began. Their eyes exchanged interrogations, and Mr. Maydig left the room hastily. Mr. Fotheringay heard him calling up to his housekeeper and then his footsteps going softly up to her.

In a minute or so the minister returned, his step light, his face radiant. «Wonderful!» he said, «and touching! Most touching!»

He began pacing the hearthrug. «A repentance—a most touching repentance— through the crack of the door. Poor woman! A most wonderful change! She had got up. She must have got up at once. She had got up out of her sleep to smash a private bottle of brandy in her box. And to confess it too!… But this gives us—it opens—a most amazing vista of possibilities. If we can work this miraculous change in _her_…»

«The thing’s unlimited seemingly,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «And about Mr. Winch—-«

«Altogether unlimited.» And from the hearthrug Mr. Maydig, waving the Winch difficulty aside, unfolded a series of wonderful proposals— proposals he invented as he went along.

Now what those proposals were does not concern the essentials of this story. Suffice it that they were designed in a spirit of infinite benevolence, the sort of benevolence that used to be called post-prandial. Suffice it, too, that the problem of Winch remained unsolved. Nor is it necessary to describe how far that series got to its fulfilment. There were astonishing changes. The small hours found Mr. Maydig and Mr. Fotheringay careering across the chilly market square under the still moon, in a sort of ecstasy of thaumaturgy, Mr. Maydig all flap and gesture, Mr. Fotheringay short and bristling, and no longer abashed at his greatness. They had reformed every drunkard in the Parliamentary division, changed all the beer and alcohol to water (Mr. Maydig had overruled Mr. Fotheringay on this point); they had, further, greatly improved the railway communication of the place, drained Flinder’s swamp, improved the soil of One Tree Hill, and cured the vicar’s wart. And they were going to see what could be done with the injured pier at South Bridge. «The place,» gasped Mr. Maydig, «won’t be the same place to-morrow. How surprised and thankful everyone will be!» And just at that moment the church clock struck three.

«I say,» said Mr. Fotheringay, «that’s three o’clock! I must be getting back. I’ve got to be at business by eight. And besides, Mrs. Wimms—-«

«We’re only beginning,» said Mr. Maydig, full of the sweetness of unlimited power. «We’re only beginning. Think of all the good we’re doing. When people wake—-«

«But—-,» said Mr. Fotheringay.

Mr. Maydig gripped his arm suddenly. His eyes were bright and wild. «My dear chap,» he said, «there’s no hurry. Look»—he pointed to the moon at the zenith—«Joshua!»

«Joshua?» said Mr. Fotheringay.

«Joshua,» said Mr. Maydig. «Why not? Stop it.»

Mr. Fotheringay looked at the moon.

«That’s a bit tall,» he said, after a pause.

«Why not?» said Mr. Maydig. «Of course it doesn’t stop. You stop the rotation of the earth, you know. Time stops. It isn’t as if we were doing harm.»

«H’m!» said Mr. Fotheringay. «Well,» he sighed, «I’ll try. Here!»

He buttoned up his jacket and addressed himself to the habitable globe, with as good an assumption of confidence as lay in his power. «Jest stop rotating, will you?» said Mr. Fotheringay.

Incontinently he was flying head over heels through the air at the rate of dozens of miles a minute. In spite of the innumerable circles he was describing per second, he thought; for thought is wonderful—sometimes as sluggish as flowing pitch, sometimes as instantaneous as light. He thought in a second, and willed. «Let me come down safe and sound. Whatever else happens, let me down safe and sound.»

He willed it only just in time, for his clothes, heated by his rapid flight through the air, were already beginning to singe. He came down with a forcible, but by no means injurious, bump in what appeared to be a mound of fresh-turned earth. A large mass of metal and masonry, extraordinarily like the clock-tower in the middle of the market square, hit the earth near him, ricochetted over him, and flew into stonework, bricks, and cement, like a bursting bomb. A hurtling cow hit one of the larger blocks and smashed like an egg. There was a crash that made all the most violent crashes of his past life seem like the sound of falling dust, and this was followed by a descending series of lesser crashes. A vast wind roared throughout earth and heaven, so that he could scarcely lift his head to look. For a while he was too breathless and astonished even to see where he was or what had happened. And his first movement was to feel his head and reassure himself that his streaming hair was still his own.

«Lord!» gasped Mr. Fotheringay, scarce able to speak for the gale, «I’ve had a squeak! What’s gone wrong? Storms and thunder. And only a minute ago a fine night. It’s Maydig set me on to this sort of thing. _What_ a wind! If I go on fooling in this way I’m bound to have a thundering accident!…

«Where’s Maydig?

«What a confounded mess everything’s in!»

He looked about him so far as his flapping jacket would permit. The appearance of things was really extremely strange. «The sky’s all right anyhow,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «And that’s about all that is all right. And even there it looks like a terrific gale coming up. But there’s the moon overhead. Just as it was just now. Bright as midday. But as for the rest—-Where’s the village? Where’s—where’s anything? And what on earth set this wind a-blowing? I didn’t order no wind.»

Mr. Fotheringay struggled to get to his feet in vain, and after one failure, remained on all fours, holding on. He surveyed the moonlit world to leeward, with the tails of his jacket streaming over his head. «There’s something seriously wrong,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «And what it is— goodness knows.»

Far and wide nothing was visible in the white glare through the haze of dust that drove before a screaming gale but tumbled masses of earth and heaps of inchoate ruins, no trees, no houses, no familiar shapes, only a wilderness of disorder, vanishing at last into the darkness beneath the whirling columns and streamers, the lightnings and thunderings of a swiftly rising storm. Near him in the livid glare was something that might once have been an elm-tree, a smashed mass of splinters, shivered from boughs to base, and further a twisted mass of iron girders—only too evidently the viaduct—rose out of the piled confusion.

You see, when Mr. Fotheringay had arrested the rotation of the solid globe, he had made no stipulation concerning the trifling movables upon its surface. And the earth spins so fast that the surface at its equator is travelling at rather more than a thousand miles an hour, and in these latitudes at more than half that pace. So that the village, and Mr. Maydig, and Mr. Fotheringay, and everybody and everything had been jerked violently forward at about nine miles per second—that is to say, much more violently than if they had been fired out of a cannon. And every human being, every living creature, every house, and every tree—all the world as we know it—had been so jerked and smashed and utterly destroyed. That was all.

These things Mr. Fotheringay did not, of course, fully appreciate. But he perceived that his miracle had miscarried, and with that a great disgust of miracles came upon him. He was in darkness now, for the clouds had swept together and blotted out his momentary glimpse of the moon, and the air was full of fitful struggling tortured wraiths of hail. A great roaring of wind and waters filled earth and sky, and peering under his hand through the dust and sleet to windward, he saw by the play of the lightnings a vast wall of water pouring towards him.

«Maydig!» screamed Mr. Fotheringay’s feeble voice amid the elemental uproar. «Here!—Maydig!

«Stop!» cried Mr. Fotheringay to the advancing water. «Oh, for goodness’ sake, stop!

«Just a moment,» said Mr. Fotheringay to the lightnings and thunder. «Stop jest a moment while I collect my thoughts… And now what shall I do?» he said. «What _shall_ I do? Lord! I wish Maydig was about.»

«I know,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «And for goodness’ sake let’s have it right _this_ time.»

He remained on all fours, leaning against the wind, very intent to have everything right.

«Ah!» he said. «Let nothing what I’m going to order happen until I say ‘Off!’…Lord! I wish I’d thought of that before!»

He lifted his little voice against the whirlwind, shouting louder and louder in the vain desire to hear himself speak. «Now then!—here goes! Mind about that what I said just now. In the first place, when all I’ve got to say is done, let me lose my miraculous power, let my will become just like anybody else’s will, and all these dangerous miracles be stopped. I don’t like them. I’d rather I didn’t work ’em. Ever so much. That’s the first thing. And the second is—let me be back just before the miracles begin; let everything be just as it was before that blessed lamp turned up. It’s a big job, but it’s the last. Have you got it? No more miracles, everything as it was—me back in the Long Dragon just before I drank my half-pint. That’s it! Yes.»

He dug his fingers into the mould, closed his eyes, and said «Off!»

Everything became perfectly still. He perceived that he was standing erect.

«So _you_ say,» said a voice.

He opened his eyes. He was in the bar of the Long Dragon, arguing about miracles with Toddy Beamish. He had a vague sense of some great thing forgotten that instantaneously passed. You see that, except for the loss of his miraculous powers, everything was back as it had been, his mind and memory therefore were now just as they had been at the time when this story began. So that he knew absolutely nothing of all that is told here— knows nothing of all that is told here to this day. And among other things, of course, he still did not believe in miracles.

«I tell you that miracles, properly speaking, can’t possibly happen,» he said, «whatever you like to hold. And I’m prepared to prove it up to the hilt.»

«That’s what _you_ think,» said Toddy Beamish, and «Prove it if you can.»

«Looky here, Mr. Beamish,» said Mr. Fotheringay. «Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It’s something contrariwise to the course of nature done by power of Will…»

---

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История является ранним примером современного фэнтези (в то время еще не признанного как особый поджанр). Как и более поздние работы, подпадающие под это определение, история помещает главную предпосылку фэнтези (волшебник с огромной, практически неограниченной магической силой) не в экзотической полусредневековой обстановке, а в серой рутине повседневной жизни пригородного Лондона, очень знакомой Сам Уэллс.

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

Краткое содержание сюжета

В английском трактире , Джордж Мак-Уайртер Fotheringay энергично утверждает невозможность чудес во время ссоры. В качестве демонстрации Фотерингей приказывает масляной лампе загореться вверх дном, и тот делает это, к своему собственному удивлению. Его знакомые думают, что это уловка, и быстро отмахиваются.

Фотерингей исследует свою новую силу. Волшебным образом выполнив свои повседневные обязанности офисного клерка, Фотерингей рано уходит в парк, чтобы попрактиковаться дальше. Он встречает местного констебля , который случайно ранен. В последовавшей ссоре Фотерингей непреднамеренно отправляет полицейского в Аид ; Через несколько часов Фотерингей благополучно перевезет его в Сан-Франциско .

Обеспокоенный этими чудесами, Фотерингей посещает воскресные церковные службы в местной церкви. Священник, мистер Мейдиг, проповедует неестественные явления. Фотерингей глубоко тронут и встречает Мейдига в его особняке за советом. После нескольких мелких демонстраций министр воодушевляется и предлагает Фотерингею использовать эти способности на благо других. В ту ночь они ходят по улицам города, исцеляя болезни и пороки и улучшая общественные работы.

Мейдиг планирует реформировать весь мир. Он предполагает, что они могли бы не выполнять свои обязательства на следующий день, если бы Фотерингей мог вообще прекратить ночь. Фотерингей соглашается и останавливает движение Земли. Его неуклюжая формулировка желания заставляет все объекты на Земле с большой силой отбрасываться с поверхности. Наступает пандемониум, но Фотерингей чудесным образом обеспечивает свою безопасность на земле. Фактически (хотя он не осознает масштабов того, что он сделал) все человечество, кроме него самого, погибло в одно мгновение.

Фотерингей не может вернуть Землю в ее прежнее состояние. Он раскаивается и желает, чтобы у него отняли силу и чтобы мир вернулся в то время, когда у него была сила. Фотерингей сразу же снова оказывается в трактире, как и прежде, обсуждая чудеса со своими друзьями, не вспоминая о предыдущих событиях.

Адаптации

В 1936 году история была адаптирована к фильму с Роландом Янгом в роли Фотерингея. Уэллс написал сценарий в соавторстве с Лайошем Биро .

Впервые он был адаптирован для BBC Radio в 1934 году Лоуренсом Гиллиамом и транслировался 4 июня того же года. Он продолжал адаптироваться несколько раз для BBC Radio , в том числе в 1956 году Деннисом Мэйном Уилсоном и транслировался в Новый год. В роли Фотерингея снялся Тони Хэнкок .

Рекомендации

Внешние ссылки

«Человек, который умел творить чудеса»британец фантазия-комедия короткий рассказ к Х. Г. Уэллс впервые опубликовано в 1898 г. в The Illustrated London News. Он имел подзаголовок «Пантум в прозе». [1]

История является ранним примером современная фантазия (в то время еще не признанный как особый поджанр). Как и более поздние работы, подпадающие под это определение, история помещает главную предпосылку фэнтези (волшебник с огромной, практически неограниченной магической силой) не в экзотической полусредневековой обстановке, а в серой рутине повседневной жизни пригородного Лондона, очень знакомой Сам Уэллс.

Содержание

Краткое содержание сюжета

На английском трактирДжордж МакВиртер Фотерингей решительно утверждает невозможность чудеса во время ссоры. В качестве демонстрации Фотерингей командует масляная лампа пламя вверх ногами, и это происходит, к его собственному удивлению. Его знакомые считают это уловкой и быстро отвергают.

Фотерингей исследует свою новую силу. Волшебным образом выполнив свои повседневные обязанности офисного клерка, Фотерингей рано уходит в парк, чтобы продолжить практику. Он встречает местного констебль, который случайно получил травму. В ходе завязавшейся ссоры Фотерингей непреднамеренно отправляет полицейского в Аид; часов спустя Фотерингей благополучно перевезет его в Сан-Франциско.

Обеспокоенный этими чудесами, Фотерингей посещает местные воскресные церковные службы. Священник, мистер Мейдиг, проповедует неестественные явления. Фотерингей глубоко тронут и встречает Мейдига в его особняке за советом. После нескольких мелких демонстраций министр воодушевляется и предлагает Фотерингею использовать эти способности на благо других. В ту ночь они ходят по улицам города, исцеляя болезни и пороки и улучшая общественные работы.

Мейдиг планирует реформировать весь мир. Он предполагает, что они могли бы не выполнять свои обязательства на следующий день, если бы Фотерингей мог вообще прекратить ночь. Фотерингей соглашается и останавливает движение Земли. Его неуклюжая формулировка желания заставляет все объекты на Земле с большой силой отбрасываться с поверхности. Наступает пандемониум, но Фотерингей чудесным образом обеспечивает свою безопасность на земле. Фактически (хотя он не осознает масштабов того, что он сделал) все человечество, кроме него самого, погибло в одно мгновение.

Фотерингей не может вернуть Землю в ее прежнее состояние. Он раскаивается и желает, чтобы у него отняли силу и чтобы мир вернулся к тому времени, когда у него была сила. Фотерингей сразу же снова оказывается в трактире, по-прежнему обсуждая чудеса со своими друзьями, не вспоминая о предыдущих событиях.

Адаптации

В 1936, рассказ был адаптирован к фильм в главных ролях Роланд Янг как Фотерингей. Уэллс написал сценарий в соавторстве с Лайош Биро. [2]

Впервые он был адаптирован для BBC Radio в 1934 г. Лоуренс Гиллиам и вышла в эфир 4 июня того же года. [3] Его продолжали несколько раз адаптировать для BBC Radio, в том числе 1956 г. Деннис Мэйн Уилсон и транслируются в Новый год. Он снялся Тони Хэнкок как Фотерингей. [4]

Сюжетная идея легла в основу режиссера. Терри Джонсфильм 2015 года Абсолютно все. [5]

Со своей стороны, португальцы Хосе Сарамаго очевидно относится к истории Уэллса в его романе Каин, непочтительный пересказ Библия, пересказывая эпизод, когда Бог «останавливает солнце» в Книга Иисуса Навина (на что также ссылается пастор в истории Уэллса). Очень ошибочный Бог, изображенный Сарамаго, не смог остановить катастрофические последствия остановки движения Земли — поэтому он не сделал этого, совершив просто гораздо более простое и ограниченное чудо, которое все же сделало свою работу.

Рекомендации

внешняя ссылка

История является ранним примером современного фэнтези (в то время еще не признанного как особый поджанр). Как и более поздние работы, подпадающие под это определение, история помещает главную предпосылку фэнтези (волшебник с огромной, практически неограниченной магической силой) не в экзотической полусредневековой обстановке, а в серой рутине повседневной жизни пригородного Лондона, очень знакомой Сам Уэллс.

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

Краткое содержание сюжета

В английском трактире , Джордж Мак-Уайртер Fotheringay энергично утверждает невозможность чудес во время ссоры. В качестве демонстрации Фотерингей приказывает масляной лампе загореться вверх дном, и тот делает это, к своему собственному удивлению. Его знакомые думают, что это уловка, и быстро отмахиваются.

Фотерингей исследует свою новую силу. Волшебным образом выполнив свои повседневные обязанности офисного клерка, Фотерингей рано уходит в парк, чтобы попрактиковаться дальше. Он встречает местного констебля , который случайно ранен. В последовавшей ссоре Фотерингей непреднамеренно отправляет полицейского в Аид ; Через несколько часов Фотерингей благополучно перевезет его в Сан-Франциско .

Обеспокоенный этими чудесами, Фотерингей посещает воскресные церковные службы в местной церкви. Священник, мистер Мейдиг, проповедует неестественные явления. Фотерингей глубоко тронут и встречает Мейдига в его особняке за советом. После нескольких мелких демонстраций министр воодушевляется и предлагает Фотерингею использовать эти способности на благо других. В ту ночь они ходят по улицам города, исцеляя болезни и пороки и улучшая общественные работы.

Мейдиг планирует реформировать весь мир. Он предполагает, что они могли бы не выполнять свои обязательства на следующий день, если бы Фотерингей мог вообще прекратить ночь. Фотерингей соглашается и останавливает движение Земли. Его неуклюжая формулировка желания заставляет все объекты на Земле с большой силой отбрасываться с поверхности. Наступает пандемониум, но Фотерингей чудесным образом обеспечивает свою безопасность на земле. Фактически (хотя он не осознает масштабов того, что он сделал) все человечество, кроме него самого, погибло в одно мгновение.

Фотерингей не может вернуть Землю в ее прежнее состояние. Он раскаивается и желает, чтобы у него отняли силу и чтобы мир вернулся в то время, когда у него была сила. Фотерингей сразу же снова оказывается в трактире, как и прежде, обсуждая чудеса со своими друзьями, не вспоминая о предыдущих событиях.

Адаптации

В 1936 году история была адаптирована к фильму с Роландом Янгом в роли Фотерингея. Уэллс написал сценарий в соавторстве с Лайошем Биро .

Впервые он был адаптирован для BBC Radio в 1934 году Лоуренсом Гиллиамом и транслировался 4 июня того же года. Он продолжал адаптироваться несколько раз для BBC Radio , в том числе в 1956 году Деннисом Мэйном Уилсоном и транслировался в Новый год. В роли Фотерингея снялся Тони Хэнкок .

Рекомендации

Внешние ссылки

Другие названия: Волшебник XIX века; Горе от всемогущества; Человек, который мог бы творить чудеса; Человек, который мог творить чудеса; Человек, который может творить чудеса; Человек, который умел творить чудеса; Человек, умевший творить чудеса; Человек, способный творит

Рассказ, 1898 год

Язык написания: английский

Перевод на русский: — А. Анненская (Человек, который мог творить чудеса , Человѣк, который могъ творить чудеса) ; 1909 г. — 4 изд. — Э. Бер (Человек, который мог творить чудеса) ; 1945 г. — 2 изд. — Э. Березина (Человек, который мог творить чудеса) ; 1956 г. — 2 изд. — И. Григорьев (Человек, который мог творить чудеса, Чудотворец) ; 1959 г. — 25 изд. — Н. Григорьев (Человек, который мог творить чудеса) ; 1979 г. — 1 изд. — Е. Пучкова (Человек, способный творить чудеса) ; 2014 г. — 2 изд. Перевод на немецкий: — Л. Нойман (Der Mann, der Wunder tun konnte) ; 1972 г. — 2 изд. Перевод на украинский: — О. Логвиненко (Чудотворець) ; 1988 г. — 1 изд. Перевод на белорусский: — П. Донов (Чалавек, які ўмеў рабіць цуды) ; 2013 г. — 1 изд.

• Жанры/поджанры: Сказка/Притча
• Общие характеристики: Ироническое | Психологическое
• Место действия: Наш мир (Земля)( Европа( Западная ) )
• Время действия: Новое время (17-19 века)
• Сюжетные ходы: Сверхъестественные способности, супергерои | Стихийные бедствия, природные катаклизмы
• Линейность сюжета: Линейный
• Возраст читателя: Любой

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Издания на иностранных языках:

zotovvg75, 31 марта 2021 г.

Мы часто в детстве мечтали о способности творить чудеса и воображение рисовало реализацию самых грандиозных замыслов. На самом деле существует проблема четкой постановки цели и продуманного прогноза к чему все это может привести. В мировой истории было много примеров, когда стремление принести кому-то благо оборачивалось в свою противоположность. Так, например, ради истинной веры пылали костры инквизиции и массово истреблялись иноверцы. Благими намерениями вымощена дорога в ад и забавно что в рассказе ее главному герою указал священник. Мистер Фотерингей распорядился своим даром совершенно нелепо. Уэллс показывает как опасны неограниченные возможности в руках недотепы. Все началось с поднятия в воздух предметов, а закончилось действиями космического масштаба. А что бы пожелали вы получив в свое распоряжение волшебный дар?

Тимолеонт, 16 марта 2021 г.

Да и завершение достаточно

открытое и допускающее некоторую зацикленность и временную петлю — такой ход здесь не может не порадовать, безответственность героя окончательно завели его в логическую ловушку, из которой нет выхода.

Алексей121, 19 октября 2014 г.

Все ж таки я считаю, что Герберт Уэллс намного опередил свое время. И этот рассказ вполне уместно бы смотрелся и 40-50-60 годах двадцатого века. Вот только вышел он из-под пера автора намного раньше. Красивая история, в которой нет ничего лишнего. Немного сказки, психологии (как распорядится своей силой человек, получивший неограниченное могущество) и науки (экскурс в значение сил инерции) — три компонента, крепко и органично спаянные в одно целое.

Достойный образчик прозы достойного автора, который и через сотню лет не потерял своей актуальности.

vezaliy, 7 ноября 2017 г.

Подумайте сами, до какой черты способен дойти человек, силой мысли, достигающий всего что возможно!?

А что если, желания такого вот, кустарного Чудотворца вторгнутся в сферы, где и наука-то толком бессильна, например в космическое устройство Солнечной системы?

Уэллс, со свойственным для своего времени, лаконичностью, развивает и, в какой-то мере, доказывает мысль, что физические законы и человеческие возможности вовсе не зря такие ограниченные, какими по сути являются.

Rovdyr, 25 октября 2016 г.

URRRiy, 1 июля 2017 г.

Юмористический рассказ про человека, который в чудеса не верил, но мог их творить. При этом без всякого рычага и точки опоры мог повлиять на вращение Земли. Отмечается неоднократно проявленный в произведениях автора антиклерикализм — причем все беды от попов, склонных к новациям.

Рекомендую — рассказ небольшой, поучительный и с хорошим качественным юмором.

martinthegod9, 10 ноября 2015 г.

А если серьезно, рассказ довольно качественный. Ироничное и последовательное повествование. Прекрасная, весьма оригинальная идея, особенно для своего бородатого времени написания. Не понравилась мне развязка, прям вот совсем не понравилась, потому что

Ключевым образом в этом рассказе поднимается тема Чуда. Что является чудом? Что будет, если кто-нибудь сможет творить чудеса? Что он начнёт делать? Имеет ли чудо какой-нибудь предел?

Мне вот больше всего интересно, какую же преисподнюю увидел тот полицейский? Лучше бы Герберт Уэллс развил эту линию сюжета до конца.

Действительно, рассказ-притча. Можно верить, а можно — нет. Ибо проверить это никакой возможности мы не имеем: Уэллс логически замёл все следы:) Советую данный рассказ всем любителям классической научной фантастики и людям, которым интересны рассуждения на тему чудес.

lumara, 16 апреля 2012 г.

Особенно радует обращение автора к читателю, как будто оба сидят перед камином и пьют чай. А автор при этом рассказывает забавную историю, с альтернативным концом. Мол, на самом деле мы все умерли, быстрой насильственной смертью. Но вы, мой друг, не обрщайте на это внимания. Давайте лучше вместе помучаемся совестью по поводу судьбы несчастно о о полисмена.

Блофельд, 14 августа 2013 г.

Мне кажется довольно странным, что мистер Фодерингей всю жизнь был простым смертным и вдруг обнаружил у себя способность творить чудеса. Если он изначально имел эту способность, почему она не проявилась раньше? А если эта способность не была заложена в нём изначально, откуда она у него взялась?

Anonim.one, 17 февраля 2012 г.

elfy, 9 декабря 2007 г.

Чудо, по определению Уэллса, это нечто не совместимое с законами природы и произведенное усилием воли. Имея такой дар, любой человек — посредственность или гений — нарушает логику мироздания, что весьма наглядно показал автор.

ozor, 2 марта 2009 г.

Богу — богово, человеку — человеково! Мудрое произведение, предостерегающее от необдуманных действий с непредсказуемыми последствиями.

belial, 20 февраля 2009 г.

мог бы умно и во благо распорядиться своим даром,если бы слушал поменьше советов. ярко показан священник-духовное лицо,но все желания о власти!

Nonconformist, 17 июля 2007 г.

Почему-то, обладая таким даром никогда нельзя обратить его только лишь во благо. Дело должно обязательно закончиться Апокалипсисом.

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George
Wells is a famous English writer.
His work “war of the worlds” is the best known of his books. He
was well versed in history and philosophy. Wrote about restructuring
in society, making social and political predictions.Wales was a
fantasy writer and in his works he first described such phenomena as
parallel worlds, invisibility.But the author rather wants to draw the
reader’s attention to important social and social issues.

Fotheringay
is an ordinary man. One evening do you doing a discussion at an inn
about the feasibility of miracles he finds that he can perform them
himself. Later while exercising his new powers he accidentally it has
a policemen to sent to San Francisco and feeling contrite decides to
speak with the local minister Maydig who is amazed and wants
Fotheringay to uses powers to improve the world. But a problem with
the wording Fotheringay uses to order the earth to stop turning
produced a chain of natural catastrophes which only Fotheringay
survives. In his simplicity and shook his last miracle is to have his
powers withdrawn from him and everything forgotten and the story
closes with the same scene with which it opened. Wells constructs a
fantasy in which miracles really happen. It is also a clever example
of a ‘never-ending’ story in which the end leads back to the
beginning and the story could start all over again.

Lord Emsworth and the girl friend.

Sir
Pelham Wodehouse was an English
author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century.
Wodehouse believed that one of the factors that made his stories
humorous was his view of life. Many critics scolded woodhouse for
fabulous storie he has very verified and correct texts because he
could write one book for several years. at first he did a bunch of
drafts and then only wrote the first version of the story. He loved
theater and wrote a lot for musicals and plays.

Is very

funny
but its humour disguises its deeper themes.

This
is a very funny account of a mutually advantages meeting between an
elderly upper class gentleman and sharp-witted young girl.

The
gentleman Lord Emsworth is the weak unhappy man unable to oppose both
his sister Constance who presses him into the formalities of the
blendings Annual school treat and his head gardener Mc Allister who
rules over Lords gardens.

Do
you drink the fair Lawrence meets Gladys the sharp-witted girl who
rescues him from her dog and innocently tells him how she while
stealing flowers from his garden has faced up to McAllister. Later
when escaping from their tea tent Lord meets Gladys again in a hut.
She has been punished by Constance for taking food for her brother.
Amazed at the sight of a girl who can do what he can’t Lord invites
her for tea and let’s pick flowers from his Gardens.

When
an infuriated McAllister approaches to defend his flowers Lord
encouraged by Gladys’s hand taking his stands up to both the
gardener and his sister.

The dolls house

Katherine
Mansfield — New Zealand writer
novelist. master of the short story,
who evolved a distinctive prose style with many overtones of poetry.
Her delicate stories, focused upon psychological conflicts. Perhaps
her work was strongly influenced by the death of her brother during
the war, but she was very talented because she started publishing at
nine years old. She was one of the representatives of modernism in
English literature.

The
Burnell girls received a wonderful doll’s house as a present. They
are fascinated and can’t wait to show it off at school. Kezia the
youngest particularly likes the lamp. The dolls house and it’s lamp
comes the topic of conversation at school. All the girls are invited
to see it except Kelveys daughters of a washer woman and an absent
father who is said to be in prison. They Kelveys are not only
isolated but also bullied and silently endure their circumstances.
Despite her parents explicit banning of the Kelveys Kezia invites
them to see the dolls house. They are soon told to leave by the aunt
but they have finally seen the house and the lamp.

Katherine
Mansfield explores the relationships between adults and children, and
between children themselves when adult ideas about social class are
imposed on them. Mansfield’s writing is typically poetic and
delicate with strong visual images, while at the same time showing a
profound understanding of human relationships and emotions. At the
end of ‘The Doll’s House’, we are left with a sense of
disappointment at the way in which people behave towards each other.

The Man Who Could Work Miracles by British author H. G. Wells ’ is a short story that engages with the themes of identity, agency, free will, power and the supernatural. Published in 1898, it is one the first works to emerge within the subgenre now known as contemporary fantasy, 

George McWhirter Fotheringay is a thoroughly ordinary man and he does not believe in miracles. He fiercely asserts the impossibility of miracles in the bar of the Long Dragon where others are ready to debate his point. In a bid to spiritedly demonstrate the validity of his arguments, he orders a nearby lamp to burn ‘upsy-down’. To his and everyone else’s utter surprise, the lamp does burn upside down following Fotheringay’s command. The others in the pub soon recover from the shock and accuse Fotheringay of playing a ‘silly trick’, dismissing him. However, once alone in his bedroom, Fotheringay tries his hand at more miracles and they actually happen. All of this, naturally, is too overwhelming a change for Fotheringay. After performing some petty miracles out of the sheer excitement of it, he wishes that he be able to sleep comfortably that night. 

The next morning, he conjures up a nice breakfast. While he is out at work, he is both cautious and excited about his new gift; he wishes to increase his property manifold but he is also wise enough not to rush things straight away. He goes to a nearby lane in order to practise some miracles. He does perform some harmless miracles here but a constable named Winch runs into him. Fotheringay unwittingly gives his secret away and when Winch makes a fuss, Fotheringay commands that Winch be gone to Hades. Fotheringay realises the immensity of his power:

 “Lord … it’s a powerful gift–an extremely powerful gift. I didn’t hardly mean as much as that. Not really. . . . I wonder what Hades is like!”

Fotheringay repents his action towards Winch and decides to consult clergyman Mr Maydig. He convinces the clergyman of his spectacular power by performing several minor miracles in the room. When Mr Maydig is convinced of the miraculous gift of Fotheringay, the latter asks him:

 “Is that a miracle, or is it black art, or what is it? And what do you think’s the matter with me? That’s what I want to ask.”

Mr Maydig is supportive of Fotheringay, assuring him that the ability to cause miracles, though extremely rare, is possible and it is indeed a gift, a ‘peculiar quality like genius or second sight’. Fotheringay starts to vent out his guilt regarding Winch whom, by the way, he has transferred to San Francisco from Hades. However, Mr Maydig is too excited to think about Winch at this point, and in order to test Fotheringay’s powers more, sets him up to perform several more petty domestic miracles. They both enjoy a meal conjured up by Fotheringay. Interestingly, Fotheringay even offers to reform the shortcomings of Maydig’s housekeeper. This of course is a leap from the petty miracles Fotheringay has been performing so far but even this miracle works. 

Fotheringay and Mr Maydig spend the night roaming the streets, reforming the drunkards, changing all beer and alcohol to water, and greatly improving the railway, among other things. In order to carry on these nocturnal acts of virtue, Mr Maydig asks Fotheringay to order the Earth itself to stop rotating altogether, since doing that would prevent the next day from coming until they want it to.

Fotheringay, with ‘as good an assumption of confidence as lay in his power’ orders the Earth, “Just stop rotating, will you.” This command begets utter chaos, and Fotheringay is flung across a considerable distance until he wishes that he be landed safely somewhere. He sees ruins all around him. The fact of the matter is that his command stopped Earth’s rotation completely, and since Earth spins very fast, the resultant inertia has hurled everything on Earth from here to there at a tremendous speed, wiping out all existence and letting loose cataclysmic commotion in nature. Fotheringay realises how his and Mr Maydig’s actions have brought forth this. He eventually decides that the sooner he abandons his gift, the better since he is no man to wield such tremendous power. So he makes one last wish: that everything that has happened since that night at the pub be undone, and that the power of causing miracles to leave him with immediate effect. And this also happens. Fotheringay’s last miracle restores cosmic balance once again and teleports everything back to normalcy, and Fotheringay is once again found in the pub arguing how miracles are absolutely impossible. However, he can sense he is not able to remember something but he has no idea what that could be. In an earlier passage, the omniscient narrator already revealed how everyone on earth actually died one year ago but thanks to Fotheringay’s last command, nobody remembers or even knows anything about it.                 

The Man Who Could Work Miracles | Analysis

THEMES

The sudden acquisition of a superpower and what one does with it are issues addressed in this story. The superpower acquired by Fotheringay is not of a specific nature. Rather it is a general power to cause a variety of miracles, and hence, all the more powerful. Fotheringay, however, deals with his new power in a most commendable way; he does use it to cause petty miracles out of sheer excitement but never tries to do anyone any harm with it. He is very cautious as to how his power affects himself and the others and indeed, he feels very guilty when he ends up sending Winch to Hades. In fact, this very guilt makes him decide to go visit the clergyman Mr Maydig. Moreover, Fotheringay does not start misusing his power right as he gets it. Rather, he wants to understand if the power he has newly got is evil. If concerns for Winch show that he is a good man, his calm and rational attitude towards his miraculous power shows that he is also a wise man, devoid of the lust for unlimited and unchecked power. All of these traits make Fotheringay the exact opposite of a Faustus figure: Fotheringay is ordinary, not ambitious and most importantly, not too taken up with the greed for great power and authority. Like any other human being, he is excited about the miracles he can cause but he has a sufficient sense of self-control as well since the miracles he does perform are mostly discreet and harmless.

‘The Man Who Could Work Miracles’ is the story of an ordinary man under extraordinary circumstances. Fotheringay is no hero figure, the narrator tells us: ‘His name was George McWhirter Fotheringay–not the sort of name by any means to lead to any expectation of miracles–and he was a clerk at Gomshott’s’. And yet by the end of the story, he inadvertently ends up becoming the hero thanks to his very penchant for ordinariness. Fotheringay’s fateful climatic decision acts as an interesting commentary on power in general:

Fotheringay wisely sacrifices his miraculous power because he realises it is too much for him to deal with. Indeed, the narrator tells us how after he brings Earth’s rotation to a halt and unwittingly unleashes cosmic chaos, ‘he perceives [s] that his miracle ha[s] miscarried, and with that a great disgust of miracles [comes] upon him’.

Fotheringay is wise enough to know that his miraculous power is bound to interfere with the laws of nature, and this fair assessment on his part, coupled with his level-headed, introspective, and unselfish handling of his power make him the hero of the story. 

‘The Man Who Could Work Miracles’ is also a commentary on the supreme authority of nature. Many of H. G. Wells’s stories deal with the significant difference between good science and bad science. 

Characters in his stories often try to interfere with the laws of nature only to unleash unpleasant consequences. In this story, man does not use science as a tool against nature. Rather it is the mysterious weapon of miracles that comes into conflict with nature. And Wells again asserts the supremacy of nature by showing how Fotheringay’s poorly thought-out decision brings about a chain reaction of events that he is not able to either control or understand. Nature’s sheer vastness and power is pitted against the limited understanding of man. Even Fotheringay, with all his power, is unable to fathom the complexities of nature. This is best brought out when he says, upon witnessing the consequences of stopping Earth’s spin, “There’s something seriously wrong … And what it is–goodness knows.”

Fotheringay’s nobility lies in giving back the power that he knows has no place in the order of the cosmos. Human beings are limited in a myriad ways, faced with the awesome strength of nature but the nobility of the human species also lies in its acceptance of the same and deciding to not overreach. 

Religion plays a significant role in the story and ties up with the overall theme of scepticism versus faith observed from the beginning of the story itself. Fotheringay wants to know the religious connotations of his newly found power, and in fact, turns to a religious figure like Mr Maydig in order to deal with the guilt he feels pertaining to the matter of Winch. Fotheringay has never been a believer but if his power to cause miracles is possible, what is the harm in checking for oneself the power of religion? Mr Maydig walks the streets of the city at night along with Fotheringay and encourages the latter to cause several miracles, many of which could be of a religious nature. However, when the same Mr Maydig talks Fotheringay into stopping the motion of the Earth, we get a picture of what happens when religion clashes with nature. 

There are indications in the story that miracles have a deep connection with free will. At the beginning of the story, Fotheringay defines miracles thus:

 “Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It’s something contrariwise to the course of nature done by power of Will, something what couldn’t happen without being specially willed.” 

Later also, we see, ‘it was a case of pure willing with him [Fotheringay]’. This could be one way to suggest that perhaps everyone has the ability to create miracles in their own ways if they desperately want something. But this covert life lesson also includes the warning that one must be as cautious about one’s will as Fotheringay is about his power; free will exercised to the extreme, after all, spells doom for one and the others around. Also, it is mandatory that one’s will not come into conflict with the laws of nature, and of morality.

NARRATIVE STYLE AND TECHNIQUES

‘The Man Who Could Work Miracles’ is narrated by a highly interactive omniscient narrator who often breaks the fourth wall to address the readers using the first person and comment on the happenings and characters of the story. Let us examine but one of the several instances of meta-narration in the story:

‘The reader’s attention is specially and definitely called to the date. He will object, probably has already objected, that certain points in this story are improbable, that if any things of the sort already described had indeed occurred, they would have been in all the papers a year ago. The details immediately following he will find particularly hard to accept, because among other things they involve the conclusion that he or she, the reader in question, must have been killed in a violent and unprecedented manner more than a year ago. Now a miracle is nothing if not improbable, and as a matter of fact the reader was killed in a violent and unprecedented manner a year ago. In the subsequent course of this story that will become perfectly clear and credible, as every right−minded and reasonable reader will admit. But this is not the place for the end of the story, being but little beyond the hither side of the middle. And at first the miracles worked by Mr. Fotheringay were timid little miracles … ‘

The story is highly humorous. The tone is often playful and comic. The comic effect is achieved by the enumeration of the petty miracles that Fotheringay indulges in. Also, there are several inversions seen in the text. To take one example, Fotheringay’s command of “Let there be a match in that hand” is an inversion of the Biblical command of “Let there be light” and the contrast between the overall weight of the two commands gives the first command a parodic touch.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

H. G. Wells was a British author. Wells was born in 1866 and died in 1946. He is most famous for his work in the genre of science fiction. Wells has been called the ‘father of science fiction’. Besides being a prolific writer of fiction, he was also a socialist and a social commentator.