EXERCISES
1
|
5ead the excerpt Irom +aniI .ureishiłs short story Ń0y Son the Fanaticń
2
|
1ow read the task below
TASK:
Based on the information in the
excerpt write a characterisation oI $li
3
|
+ighlight all the inIormation you can find about $li
My Son the Fanatic: The First Lines
Surreptitiously
*
the father began going into his son’s bedroom. He would
sit there for hours, rousing himself only to seek clues. What bewildered him
was that Ali was getting tidier. Instead of the usual tangle
*
of clothes, books,
cricket bats, video games, the room was becoming neat and ordered; spaces
began appearing where before there had been only mess.
Initially Parvez had been pleased: his son was outgrowing his teenage
attitudes. But one day, beside the dustbin, Parvez found a torn bag which
contained not only old toys, but computer discs, video tapes, new books
and fashionable clothes the boy had bought just a few months before. Also
without explanation, Ali had parted from the English girlfriend who used to
come often to the house. His old friends had stopped ringing.
For reasons he didn’t himself understand, Parvez wasn’t able to bring up
the subject of Ali’s unusual behaviour. He was aware that he had become
slightly afraid of his son, who, alongside his silences, was developing a sharp
tongue. One remark Parvez did make, ‘You don’t play your guitar any more,’
elicited
*
the mysterious but conclusive reply, ‘There are more important things
to be done.’
Yet Parvez felt his son’s eccentricity as an injustice. He had always been
aware of the pitfalls
*
which other men’s sons had fallen into in England. And
so, for Ali, he had worked long hours and spent a lot of money paying for his
education as an accountant
*
. He had bought him good suits, all the books he
required and a computer. And now the boy was throwing his possessions out!
The TV, video and sound system followed the guitar. Soon the room was
practically bare. Even the unhappy walls bore marks where Ali’s pictures
had been removed.
5
10
15
20
25
Annotations
surreptitiously
ŋ in a secret way so
that others will not notice
tangle
ŋ the untidy shape that
things make when they are
twisted round each other or
something else
elicited
– called forth
pitfall
ŋ an unIoreseen unexpected
or surprising diIficulty
accountant
– someone
who maintains and audits bu-
siness accounts
(xcerpt Irom +aniI .ureishi 0y Son the Fanatic In /ove in a Blue Time
/ondon
p
ŋ
The Iollowing text is an excerpt Irom +aniI .ureishiłs short story Ń0y Son the
Fanaticń It tells the story oI Parve] and $li who are Iather and son Parve]
was born in Pakistan and came to (ngland as an immigrant +e works as a taxi
driver and is neither very religious nor a traditionalist Instead he tries to adapt
to (nglish culture ŋ as did his son until recently In the first lines oI the short
story the reader gets to know $li Irom his Iatherłs point oI view
$1F25'(581*SB(5(I&+ II Ŏ
GIVE / WRITE A CHARACTERISATION OF
49
