1. Herman Melville.
In this section you are going to read parts of the classic novel Moby Dick, written by the American author Herman Melville. But first, here are some facts about Melville. Put them in the correct order.
2. Moby Dick.
You are going to read a description of the novel Moby Dick. For the questions below, choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.
The novel Moby Dick
This is the story of the adventures of Ishmael, a wandering young sailor, and his voyage on the whaling ship Pequod. In the opening paragraph of Moby Dick, the observant Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of alienation from human society. In fact, the name itself, Ishmael, symbolises exiles and social outcasts. We learn that Ishmael has a rich literary background and has previously worked as a schoolteacher. He is a messenger, the lone survivor who lives to tell this incredible tale.
The story begins as Ishmael signs up on the Pequod, which is about to leave port. The Pequod is commanded by the tyrannical Captain Ahab, nowhere to be seen at first. However, Ishmael is soon to discover that Ahab is no ordinary captain and that this will prove to be an extraordinary whaling voyage. Ahab is obsessively driven by a desire for revenge and has but one purpose: to track down and annihilate the giant albino sperm whale, Moby Dick. This singular whale, we learn, destroyed Ahab's previous boat and, in the process, bit off Ahab's leg, which has been replaced by the jawbone of a whale.
Curiously, the whale, Moby Dick, does not appear until quite late in the story. Nevertheless, its ominous presence is felt from the very beginning. Critics consider that this whale symbolises a number of things – all colossal in their own way: nature, fate, God, the ocean, and even the very universe itself. This whale is, in fact, inspired by a real event that occurred in the 1830s when an old bull albino sperm whale called Mocha Dick was killed near the Chilean islands of Mocha. It was rumoured that this whale had 20 or more harpoons in his back from previous skirmishes with whaling ships, and before its capture, had apparently attacked ships with uncommon premeditation and ferocity.
Throughout the novel Melville employs stylised language, symbolism and metaphors to introduce and explore a number of complex themes, such as class, social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. Ishmael, the narrator, speculates on his own personal beliefs and his place in the universal scheme. These reflections are woven into the story with descriptions and insights into life aboard a whaling ship, along with Shakespearean literary devices, such as giving stage directions, soliloquies and asides. All of this combines to make this story a fascinating study of human instincts, of destructive obsession and of monomania.
3. Meaning from context.
Now read the description again. Choose the best meaning for the underlined words and phrases.
This is the story of the adventures of Ishmael, a wandering young sailor, and his voyage on the whaling ship Pequod. In the opening paragraph of Moby Dick, the observant Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of alienation from human society. In fact, the name itself, Ishmael, symbolises exiles and social outcasts. We learn that Ishmael has a rich literary background and has previously worked as a schoolteacher. He is a messenger, the lone survivor who lives to tell this incredible tale.
The story begins as Ishmael signs up to sail on the Pequod, which is about to leave port. The Pequod is commanded by the tyrannical Captain Ahab, nowhere to be seen at first. However, Ishmael is soon to discover that Ahab is no ordinary captain and that this will prove to be an extraordinary whaling voyage. Ahab is obsessively driven by a desire for revenge and has but one purpose: to track down and annihilate the giant albino sperm whale, Moby Dick. This singular whale, we learn, destroyed Ahab's previous boat and, in the process, bit off Ahab's leg, which has been replaced by the jawbone of a whale.
Curiously, the whale, Moby Dick, does not appear until quite late in the story. Nevertheless, its ominous presence is felt from the very beginning. Critics consider that this whale symbolises a number of things – all colossal in their own way: nature, fate, God, the ocean, and even the very universe itself. This whale is, in fact, inspired by a real event that occurred in the 1830s when an old bull albino sperm whale called Mocha Dick was killed near the Chilean islands of Mocha. It was rumoured that this whale had 20 or more harpoons in his back from previous skirmishes with whaling ships, and before its capture, had apparently attacked ships with uncommon premeditation and ferocity.
Throughout the novel Melville employs stylised language, symbolism and metaphors to introduce and explore a number of complex themes, such as class, social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. Ishmael, the narrator, speculates on his own personal beliefs and his place in the universal scheme. These reflections are woven into the story with descriptions and insights into life aboard a whaling ship, along with Shakespearean literary devices, such as giving stage directions, soliloquies and asides. All of this combines to make this story a fascinating study of human instincts, of destructive obsession and of monomania.
5. Captain Ahab.
Read the descriptive passages from chapter 28 of Moby Dick and choose the best illustration of Captain Ahab.
Extract from Moby Dick, chapter 28
He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness .... Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing, you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish. It resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded.
...
So powerfully did the whole grim aspect of Ahab affect me, and the livid brand which streaked it, that for the first few moments I hardly noted that not a little of this overbearing grimness was owing to the barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood. It had previously come to me that this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished bone of the sperm whale's jaw. "Aye, he was dismasted off Japan" said the old Gay-Head Indian once, "but like his dismasted craft, he shipped another mast without coming home for it. He has a quiver of 'em."
I was struck with the singular posture he maintained. Upon each side of the Pequod's quarter-deck, and pretty close to the mizzen shrouds, there was an auger hole, bored about half an inch or so, into the plank. His bone leg steadied in that hole; one arm elevated, and holding by a shroud; Captain Ahab stood erect, looking straight out beyond the ship's ever-pitching prow. There was an infinity of firmest fortitude, a determinate, unsurrenderable wilfulness, in the fixed and fearless, forward dedication of that glance.
6. The first chapter.
Read the opening chapter of Moby Dick and mark the five statements true or false.
Chapter 1: Loomings
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs – commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.
7. Meaning from context.
Now read the paragraph again. Choose the best meaning of the underlined words and phrases in the context of the paragraph.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs – commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.
8. Read and summarise.
The following extracts are from chapter 133, "The Chase – First Day". Read the introduction below, and then read each extract and choose the best summary for each one.
9. Meaning in context.
Read the last extract and choose the best meaning of the underlined words and phrases in the context of the paragraph.
Extract 3
And thus, through the serene tranquillities of the tropical sea, among waves whose hand-clappings were suspended by exceeding rapture, Moby Dick moved on, still withholding from sight the full terrors of his submerged trunk, entirely hiding the wrenched hideousness of his jaw. But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the water; for an instant his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia's Natural Bridge, and warningly waving his bannered flukes in the air, the grand god revealed himself, sounded, and went out of sight. Hoveringly halting, and dipping on the wing, the white sea-fowls longingly lingered over the agitated pool that he left.
With oars apeak, and paddles down, the sheets of their sails adrift, the three boats now stilly floated, awaiting Moby Dick's reappearance.
"An hour," said Ahab, standing rooted in his boat's stern; and he gazed beyond the whale's place, towards the dim blue spaces and wide wooing vacancies to leeward. It was only an instant; for again his eyes seemed whirling round in his head as he swept the watery circle. The breeze now freshened; the sea began to swell.
"The birds! The birds!" cried Tashtego.
In long Indian file, as when herons take wing, the white birds were now all flying towards Ahab's boat; and when within a few yards began fluttering over the water there, wheeling round and round, with joyous, expectant cries.
The last sentence in this extract describes the birds flying towards Ahab's boat and circling just above the water there. Why do you think they were doing this? Choose the best option.
10. The last extract.
Read the last extract to check if you guessed correctly in the previous exercise, and then choose the best summary of this extract.
Extract 4
Their vision was keener than man's; Ahab could discover no sign in the sea. But suddenly as he peered down and down into its depths, he profoundly saw a white living spot no bigger than a white weasel, with wonderful celerity uprising, and magnifying as it rose, till it turned, and then there were plainly revealed two long crooked rows of white, glistening teeth, floating up from the undiscoverable bottom. It was Moby Dick's open mouth and scrolled jaw; his vast, shadowed bulk still half blending with the blue of the sea. The glittering mouth yawned beneath the boat like an open-doored marble tomb; and giving one side-long sweep with his steering oar, Ahab whirled the craft aside from this tremendous apparition. Then, calling upon Fedallah to change places with him, went forward to the bows, and seizing Perth's harpoon, commanded his crew to grasp their oars and stand by to stern.
11. The last extract.
Read the last extract again and choose the best definition for the underlined words.
Extract 4
Their vision was keener than man's; Ahab could discover no sign in the sea. But suddenly as he peered down and down into its depths, he profoundly saw a white living spot no bigger than a white weasel, with wonderful celerity uprising, and magnifying as it rose, till it turned, and then there were plainly revealed two long crooked rows of white, glistening teeth, floating up from the undiscoverable bottom. It was Moby Dick's open mouth and scrolled jaw; his vast, shadowed bulk still half blending with the blue of the sea. The glittering mouth yawned beneath the boat like an open-doored marble tomb; and giving one side-long sweep with his steering oar, Ahab whirled the craft aside from this tremendous apparition. Then, calling upon Fedallah to change places with him, went forward to the bows, and seizing Perth's harpoon, commanded his crew to grasp their oars and stand by to stern.