A. I. Kuprin: the story «Слон»
Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (1870–1938) was born on 26 August 1870 in Penza province in the family of a minor official. His father died when Alexander was not yet two; the family moved to Moscow, where his childhood and youth passed. At six he was sent to the Razumovsky boarding school and in 1880–1888 studied at the Moscow cadet corps. His first story «Последний дебют» appeared in 1889. In 1890 he finished the Alexandrovsky military school and served four years as an officer; service gave rich material for his later works. He travelled a lot around Russia, tried many trades and reflected life’s impressions in his stories. In «Слон» the sick girl Nadya wants nothing, but she wishes to see a live elephant. Her father asks the menagerie owner to lend the elephant to his home for a time, and the owner agrees thinking of his own daughter. Nadya plays and dines with Tommy and starts to recover.
“Speak as a hero”: in groups pick one character (Nadya, father, owner) and say how they feel in Russian («Мне скучно», «Я рад», «Я боюсь»).