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it matter if she knew them or not. Nothing could persuade her that it was of the slightest importance. Because she despised inwardly

the coarsely working nature of the mistress. Therefore she was always at outs with authority. From constant telling, she came almost

to believe in her own badness, her own intrinsic inferiority. She felt that she ought always to be in a state of slinking disgrace, if she

fulfilled what was expected of her. But she rebelled. She never really believed in her own badness. At the bottom of her heart she

despised the other people, who carped and were loud over trifles. She despised them, and wanted revenge on them. She hated them

whilst they had power over her.

Still she kept an ideal: a free, proud lady absolved from the petty ties, existing beyond petty considerations. She would see such

ladies in pictures: Alexandra, Princess of Wales, was one of her models. This lady was proud and royal, and stepped indifferently over

small, mean desires: so thought Anna, in her heart. And the girl did up her hair high under a little slanting hat, her skirts were

fashionably bunched up, she wore an elegant, skin-fitting coat.

She was seventeen, touchy, full of spirits, and very moody: quick to flush, and always uneasy, uncertain. For some reason or other,

she turned to her father, she felt almost flashes of hatred for her mother. Her mother's dark muzzle and curiously insidious ways, her

mother's utter surety and confidence, her strange satisfaction, even triumph, her mother's way of laughing at things and her mother's

silent overriding of vexatious propositions, most of all her mother's triumphant power maddened the girl.

She became sudden and incalculable ... the whole house continued to be disturbed. She had a pathetic, baffled appeal. She was

hostile to her parents, even whilst she lived entirely with them, within their spell.

(From "The Rainbow" by D. H. Lawrence)

2. Answer the following questions:

1. What do we learn about Anna's relationship to the girls at school in Nottingham? 2. In what kind of environment did the girl

grow up? How did it contribute to her personal development? 3. Was Anna a disciplined and hard-working pupil at school? How can

you account for her lack of interest in learning? 4. What do you think is an essential conflict in the girl's character? What made her

mistrust the outside world? 5. Was the girl entirely or partially right when despising her schoolmistresses, "who carped and were loud

over trifles"? 6. Why did she turn to a royal ideal to satisfy her ego? 7. How did Anna's attitude to her parents change at the age of

seventeen? What do you think are the reasons for it? 8. What were the most remarkable traits of Anna's character that made her unlike

the girls of her age? 9. How can you apply the information you obtained from the story to the problems which you are facing or will

have to face as a future parent (a teacher) ?

3. Find in the text the arguments to illustrate the following: