Номер 2, страница 255 - гдз по английскому языку 11 класс учебник Юхнель, Демченко

2. a) 🎧🎧 Listen to the beginning of the sci-fi short story Ask a foolish question by Robert Sheckley. Answer the questions.

1. What is Answerer? 2. How did he appear? 3. What did he wait for?

less-sophisticated races – менее искушенные цивилизации

depart – уходить, отбывать

legitimate question – правильно поставленный вопрос

b) Work in three groups. Read your part of the story. Answer the questions. Share your answers with the other groups.

1. What were the creatures described like? 2. What important questions did they want to get answers to? 3. Did they see the questions of other races as important?

Part A

“We’re going to find the Answerer!”

Lingman nodded at his young partner. Originally it had been Lingman’s project. Then Morran had joined him. Together they had traced the rumors across the solar system. The legends of an ancient humanoid race who had known the answer to all things, and who had built Answerer and departed.

“Think of it,” Morran said. “The answer to everything!” A physicist, Morran had many questions to ask Answerer. The expanding universe; planetary formation; red shift, relativity, and a thousand others.

“Yes,” Lingman said. He was a biologist and an old man. He had two questions.

What is life?

What is death?

* * *

“We made it,” Morran said.

“Let’s get on,” Lingman said. He didn’t want to waste any time. He didn’t have any time to waste.

“Right,” Morran said. They walked together, along the dark path of the planet that was different from all other planets, soaring alone around a sun different from all other suns.

Part B

After a particularly-long period of hunting purple, Lek and his friends gathered to talk.

“Do you know,” Lek said, “I think I’ll hunt up this Answerer.”

“Why?” Ilm asked him, pushing a star out of his way and lying down. “Isn’t the job of gathering purple enough for you?”

“No,” Lek said, “It is not. We must know the true nature of purple, and its meaning in the scheme of things. We must know why it governs our lives.”

Ilm and the others didn’t argue. They knew that the knowledge was important. The great job of Lek and his kind was the gathering of purple. They found purple in many parts of space. Slowly, they were building a huge mound (курган) of it. Now it was time to know what purple was, and what the mound was for.

And of course, there was the Answerer to tell them. Everyone had heard of the Answerer, built by a race not unlike themselves, now long departed.

“Will you ask him anything else?” Ilm asked Lek.

“I don’t know,” Lek said. “Perhaps I’ll ask about the stars. There’s really nothing else important.” Since Lek and his brothers had lived since the dawn of time, they never thought over death. And they didn’t consider the question of life.

“I go!” Lek shouted and went off, leaping from star to star.

Part C

There were eighteen of them, gathered in one place.

“I call on the rule of eighteen”, cried one. And another appeared, who had never before been, born by the rule of eighteen.

“We must go to Answerer,” one cried. “Our lives are governed by the rule of eighteen. Where there are eighteen, there will be nineteen. Why is this so?”

No one could answer.

“And we must find out,” cried another, “why all places are different, although there is no distance.” That was the problem. One is here. Then one is there. Just like that, no movement, no reason. And yet, without moving, one is in another place.

“We must go to the Answerer.”

“The stars are cold,” one cried. “Why?”

“We must go to the Answerer.”

For they had heard the legends, knew the tales. “Once there was a race, a good deal like us, and they knew – and they told Answerer. Then they departed to where there is no place, but much distance.”

“How do we get there?” the newborn nineteenth cried, filled now with knowledge.

“We go.”

And eighteen of them vanished. One was left. He stared at the icy star, then he vanished, too.

c) What do you expect to happen? Read the next part and check your guesses. Answer the questions.

Lek came to Answerer, walking fast from star to star. He lifted Answerer in his hand and looked at him.

“So you are Answerer,” he said.

“Yes.”

“Then tell me,” Lek said, settling himself comfortably in a gap between the stars, “Tell me what I am.”

“An indication (показание),” Answerer said.

“Come now,” Lek said his pride hurt, “Now then. The purpose of my kind is to gather purple, and to build a mound of it. Can you tell me the real meaning of this?”

“Your question is without meaning,” Answerer said. He knew what purple actually was, and what the mound was for. But the explanation was hidden in a greater explanation.

Without this, Lek’s question was inexplicable (необъяснимый), and Lek had failed to ask the real question.

Lek asked other questions, and Answerer was unable to answer them. Lek viewed things through his specialised eyes, extracted a part of the truth and refused to see more. How to tell a blind man the sensation of green?

Answerer didn’t try. He wasn’t supposed to.

Finally, Lek departed, walking fast across the stars.

* * *

Answerer knew. But he had to be asked the proper questions first.

The proper questions. The race which built Answerer should have taken that into account, Answerer thought. They should have made some allowance for nonsense.

* * *

Eighteen creatures came to Answerer, neither walking nor flying, but simply appearing. They looked up at the massiveness of Answerer.

“If there is no distance,” one asked, “then how can things be in other places?”

Answerer knew what distance was, and what places were. But he couldn’t answer the question. There was distance, but not as these creatures saw it. And there were places, but in a different fashion from that which the creatures expected.

“Rephrase the question,” Answerer said hopefully.

“Why,” another asked, “is there a rule of eighteen? Why, when eighteen gather, is another produced?”

But of course the answer was part of another, greater question, which hadn’t been asked.

* * *

“Up here,” Morran said. The legends were right. A path, leading to stone steps. Stone steps to a courtyard. And then – the Answerer!

To them, Answerer looked like a white screen set in a wall.

To their eyes, Answerer was very simple.

“Remember,” Lingman said to Morran, “We will be shocked. The truth will be like nothing we have imagined.”

“I’m ready,” Morran said.

“Very well. Answerer,” Lingman said, “what is life?”

A voice spoke in their heads. “The question has no meaning. By ‘life,’ the Questioner is referring to a partial phenomenon, inexplicable except in terms of its whole.”

Silence.

“Is the universe expanding?” Morran asked confidently.

“Expansion’ is a term unsuitable for the situation. Universe, as the Questioner views it, is an illusory thing.”

“Can you tell us anything?” Morran asked.

“I can answer any valid (правомерный) question concerning the nature of things.”

1. Through whose eyes is Answerer shown in the picture? How did the other races see Answerer? 2. Did the creatures get answers to their questions? 3. What did Answerer tell them? 4. How did the creatures react to that?

d) 🎧🎧 Listen to the ending of the story. Why couldn’t Answerer help the questioners?

bushman – бушмен

savages – дикари

2. a) Прослушайте начало научно-фантастического рассказа Роберта Шекли «Задай глупый вопрос». Ответьте на вопросы.

1. Что такое Отвечающий? 2. Как он появился? 3. Чего он ждал?

Ответ:

1. Answerer is a being or device built by an ancient humanoid race that knew the answer to all things. Its appearance varies depending on the observer: to humans, it looked like a white screen set in a wall; to the giant creature Lek, it was small enough to be held in his hand; to the race of eighteen, it was massive.

2. It was built by an ancient humanoid race who then departed.

3. It was waiting to be asked the proper, valid questions about the nature of things.

Перевод:

1. Отвечающий — это существо или устройство, созданное древней гуманоидной расой, которая знала ответы на все вопросы. Его внешний вид меняется в зависимости от наблюдателя: для людей он выглядел как белый экран, вмонтированный в стену; для гигантского существа Лека он был достаточно маленьким, чтобы его можно было держать в руке; для расы восемнадцати он был огромен.

2. Он был создан древней гуманоидной расой, которая затем покинула это место.

3. Он ждал, когда ему зададут правильные, правомерные вопросы о природе вещей.

2. b) Работайте в трех группах. Прочитайте свою часть рассказа. Ответьте на вопросы. Поделитесь своими ответами с другими группами.

1. Какими были описанные существа? 2. На какие важные вопросы они хотели получить ответы? 3. Считали ли они вопросы других рас важными?

Ответ:

Перевод:

2. c) Что, по-вашему, произойдет дальше? Прочитайте следующую часть и проверьте свои догадки. Ответьте на вопросы.

1. Чьими глазами показан Отвечающий на картинке? Как другие расы видели Отвечающего? 2. Получили ли существа ответы на свои вопросы? 3. Что сказал им Отвечающий? 4. Как существа на это отреагировали?

Ответ:

1. The picture shows Answerer through the eyes of the humans, Lingman and Morran. To them, it was "a white screen set in a wall." Other races saw it differently: Lek held it in his hand, while the race of eighteen saw it as massive.

2. No, none of the creatures received a direct answer to their questions.

3. Answerer told them their questions were meaningless or poorly phrased because they were based on a partial, limited understanding of reality. For example, it told Lek, "Your question is without meaning," and told Lingman, "The question has no meaning." It asked the race of eighteen to "Rephrase the question."

4. Lek departed after failing to get an answer. The race of eighteen asked another unanswerable question. Lingman and Morran fell silent, then tried asking other questions.

Перевод:

1. На картинке Отвечающий показан глазами людей, Лингмана и Моррана. Для них это был «белый экран, вмонтированный в стену». Другие расы видели его по-другому: Лек держал его в руке, в то время как раса восемнадцати видела его как нечто огромное.

2. Нет, ни одно из существ не получило прямого ответа на свои вопросы.

3. Отвечающий сказал им, что их вопросы бессмысленны или неправильно сформулированы, потому что они основаны на частичном, ограниченном понимании реальности. Например, Леку он сказал: «Твой вопрос не имеет смысла», а Лингману: «Этот вопрос не имеет смысла». Расу восемнадцати он попросил: «Перефразируйте вопрос».

4. Лек ушел, не получив ответа. Раса восемнадцати задала другой вопрос, на который также не было ответа. Лингман и Морран замолчали, а затем попытались задать другие вопросы.

2. d) Прослушайте концовку рассказа. Почему Отвечающий не смог помочь вопрошающим?

Ответ:

Based on the provided text, Answerer couldn't help the questioners because they were unable to ask a "proper" or "valid" question. Each race viewed reality through its own "specialised eyes," perceiving only a part of the truth and refusing to see the whole. Their questions were based on this limited, partial perspective, and were therefore "inexplicable" and "without meaning" from the universal perspective of Answerer. To get an answer, they first needed to understand the "greater explanation" in which their questions were rooted, but they were unable to do so.

Перевод:

Основываясь на предоставленном тексте, Отвечающий не смог помочь вопрошающим, потому что они не могли задать «правильный» или «правомерный» вопрос. Каждая раса смотрела на реальность через свои «специализированные глаза», воспринимая лишь часть истины и отказываясь видеть целое. Их вопросы основывались на этом ограниченном, частичном восприятии и поэтому были «необъяснимыми» и «бессмысленными» с универсальной точки зрения Отвечающего. Чтобы получить ответ, им сначала нужно было понять то «большее объяснение», в котором коренились их вопросы, но они были не в состоянии этого сделать.