Jack London     Martin Eden

Listen to the text and choose the right answers to the questions

   Martin spent long hours in the Oakland and Berkeley Libraries, and made out application blanks for membership for himself, his sisters Gertrude and Marian, and Jim, his sister’s boarder, the latter’s consent being obtained at the expense of several glasses of beer. With four cards permitting him to draw books, he burned the gas late in the servant’s room   He bought a dictionary and many different books.

   In one way he had undergone a moral revolution. He must be clean if he wished to be worthy of breathing the same air with Ruth. He washed his teeth, and scrubbed his hands with a kitchen scrub- brush, till he saw a nail- brush in a drugstore window. He swiftly noted the difference between the baggy knees of the trousers worn by the working-class and straight line from knee to foot of those worn by the men above the working-class.  Also, he learned the reason why, and invaded his sister’s kitchen in search of irons and ironing- board.

   But the reform went deeper than mere outward appearance. He still smoked, but he drank no more. Up to that time, drinking had seemed to him proper thing for men to do, and he had prided himself on his strong head. But now the need for strong drink had vanished. He was drunken in new and more profound ways- with Ruth, who had fired him with love, with books and with the sense of personal cleanliness.

  A week of heavy reading had passed since the evening he first met Ruth Morse. It seemed to him, by the end of the week, that he had lived centuries, so far behind were the old life and outlook. He attempted to read books that required years of preliminary specialization. One day he would read a book of antiquated philosophy, and the next day one that was ultra-modern. He would sit up in bed, and the dictionary was in front of him more often than the book. And still he couldn’t  always understand what  he read. He read much poetry. He loved beauty, and there he found beauty.

   One day he dared to call Ruth up on the telephone and she invited him to come to her place. Ruth advised Martin to study grammar, gave him a grammar book and explained several rules giving simple illustrations.

   Several weeks went by, during which Martin Eden studied the grammar book Ruth had given him, reviewed the books on etiquette, and read  voraciously the books that caught his fancy.

1. Why did Martin need more membership cards at the libraries?

a) He could buy a dictionary.           

b) His sisters wanted to draw books.

c) He could obtain free glasses of beer.      

d) He could take out more books.

2. What moral revolution had Martin undergone?

a) He stopped smoking and taking strong drinks. 

b) He learned to keep him clean and press his clothes.

c) he fell in love with Ruth.   

d) He prided himself on scrubbing his hands with a nail- brush.

3. What was the result of a week of heavy reading?

a)  He began to find beauty in poetry.  

b) He learned to distinguish between ultra-modern and antiquated books on philosophy.

c) He left behind the old life and outlook.

d) he spent much time with the dictionary.

4. Which is not true?

a) Martin didn’t manage to understand grammar himself.  

b) Martin learned much from books but his grammar was poor.

c) Ruth helped him to improve his grammar.

d) Martin gulped the books  which developed his imagination.