1. Write down the words according to the definition.
1) obliterate: to remove all signs of something; to erase
2) silhouette: a dark image, shadow, or shape, seen against a light background
3) remit: to free someone from a debt or punishment
4) divulge: to make known, to disclose
5) virulent: full of hatred
6) obesity: being very fat, in a way that is not healthy
7) macabre: disturbing and horrifying because of involvement with or depiction of death and injury
8) inextricable: impossible to get free from, disentangle or undo
9) niche: a recess in a wall, often made to hold a statue
10) tarnish: to dull the luster of something as by exposure to air
2. Fill in the blanks in the following sentences.
1. On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice .
2. They wrote her a formal letter, asking her to call at the office at her convenience .
3. It smelled of dust and disuse —a close, dank smell.
4. They could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end of the gold chain.
5. It was another link between the gross, teeming world and the high and mighty Griersons.
6. Give her a certain time to do it.
7. They crept quietly across the lawn and into the shadow of the locusts that lined the street.
8. The newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town.
9. They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it.
10. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace.
3.Answer the following questions in short..
1.This paragraph provides details about the setting of the story—the place being the Southern town of Jefferson and the time being after the south lost in the American Civil War. From the descriptions of the appearance of Miss Emily’s house we learn something about her family and her character, and from the visible changes on the streets over the years we get to know something about the historical and social changes that were taking place then.
2.She told the ladies who came to see her that her father was not dead. She refused to let anybody in her house. She behaved in this way for three days. Then she broke down. They buried her father quickly, because otherwise the body would begin to smell. This detail sets up up for what is going to happen later to Homer Barron.
3.Miss Emily isn’t just shaped by the culture of the past.... She is a living example of the past. Emily never moves forward. First, she conceded to her father’s plan to keep her home, chasing away the suitors, sabotaging plans for marriage. She dutifully remained at home, and after her father died she got a bit wild, which made her the talk of the town. Then came Homer. He courted her, used her, and prepared to dump her, but Emily wasn’t going to get dumped. So she killed him and kept it a secret, all while silently continuing to be a part of the town in the only way she knew how. Emily never prepared for the future. She learned the ways of a gentle woman, which didn’t even include keeping her own house. Her father was a big man in town, but even after his peers were no longer around, Emily couldn’t see the changes. For her, all would remain the same. The world changed, the town changed, and Miss Emily, she got older but stayed the same.
1. Fill in the blanks
1) They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall.
2) A faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray.
3) On a tarnished gilt easel before the fireplace stood a crayon portrait of Miss Emily’s father.
4) She just stood in the door and listened quietly until the spokesman came to a stumbling halt.
5) A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received.
6) Will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?.
7) Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face.
8) So she had blood-kin under her roof again.
9) Meanwhile her taxes had been remitted .
10) Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head.
2.Answer the following questions in short.
1.This paragraph describes vividly the details of the mysterious room upstairs. Earlier in the text we have already seen some elements of Gothic fiction. From paragraph 57 to the end of the story we see how perfectly Faulkner is able to create an atmosphere often found in a Gothic novel. Gothic novel is a type of novel characterized by horror, violence, supernatural effects, and a taste for the medieval, usually set against a background of Gothic architecture, especially a gloomy and isolated castle. “A Rose for Emily” contains some characteristics of Gothic fiction. The author’s purpose is to create an atmosphere best suited for portraying the perverse character of Miss Emily and telling an appalling story about her.
2.We can imagine that after giving a detailed description of the mysterious bridal room, the story-teller makes a pause here, takes a breath and then comes to the final secret, saying, “The man himself lay in the bed.” This one-sentence paragraph is a very effective way of holding the reader in suspense for the climax of a murder story.
3.Death hangs over A Rose for Emily, from the narrator’s mention of Emily’s death at the beginning of the story through the description of Emily’s death-haunted life to the foundering of tradition in the face of modern changes. The narrator compares her to a drowned woman, a bloated and pale figure left too long in the water. In the same description, he refers to her small, spare skeleton—she is practically dead on her feet. Emily stands as an emblem of the Old South. The death of the old social order will prevail, despite many townspeople’s attempts to stay true to the old ways.