 Hello and welcome to a summary of all you need to know about significant cigarettes which is an extract taken from the novel called The Road Home. Now I'll explain the meaning related to this text as it appears in the Pearson International GCSE anthology and I'll highlight literary and language devices as well as contextual factors that you should be aware of when studying this text. So let's get started. Now before we begin reading the passage it's important to examine some context. The passage is taken from a longer novel called The Road Home by Rose Tremaine. Bear in mind that Rose Tremaine herself is an English writer who was born in London, however she was educated at the Sorbonne which is a very prestigious French university and she also went to East Anglia University in the UK. Now this novel and of course this extract captures the journey of Lev, an immigrant travelling from Eastern Europe to London. He's unemployed and he needs to support his family however he does struggle with anxiety and the loneliness that's part of the difficult immigrant experience. So let's begin. Read him through this passage and I'll stop every so often to point out important language techniques that Tremaine uses in her writing. So let's begin. On the coach Lev chose a seat near the back and he sat huddled against a window staring out to the land he was leaving at the filth of sunflowers scorched by the dry wind at the pig farms at the quarries and rivers and at the wild garlic growing green at the edge of the road. Lev wore a leather jacket and jeans and a leather cap pulled low over his eyes and his handsome face was grey toned from his smoking and in his hands he clutched an old red cotton handkerchief in a dented pack of Russian cigarettes. He would soon be 43. After some miles as the sun came up Lev took out a cigarette and stuck in between his lips and the woman sitting next to him a plump contained person with moles like splashes of mud on her face said quickly, I'm sorry but there's no smoking allowed on this bus. Now the opening of this passage essentially focuses on Lev and there's a lot of anaphoric references to Lev's character and of course we realise that he's on a journey and also he sat next to another lady who we're going to learn about more later on as the passage progresses. Now do you remember when it comes to the title as I've mentioned this is an extract taken from the start of a longer novel and of course it captures the journey of Lev and the constant repetition of his name this is anaphor and this anaphoric references establishes him as the main character of this passage and of course it makes us really focus on him. Furthermore the verb huddled creates a sense of entrapment so it tells us as readers just how uncomfortable this journey must be. Also the literation the land he was leaving emphasises that Lev is emigrating which is different to emigrating so when you emigrate you are leaving somewhere and of course you then become an immigrant to a new place of course he's leaving Eastern Europe we don't know this specific country however he then emigrates to London. Now the use of sibilants which describes the sunflowers scorched what the sibilants does is it emphasises the beauty of the environment that he's leaving behind for London of course it makes us realise that he's quite wistful and probably is feeling a little bit homesick already. Furthermore the mention of wind farms rivers this belongs to semantic field of nature and so an idyllic landscape is really portrayed by tremaine hair in terms of where he's leaving and we realise just how sad he's going to feel not to be able to see this of course London as a city is very much a concrete jungle and of course this is going to be a real transition for him. Moreover the mention of garlic growing green now the literation hair shows the beauty of his country. Furthermore the sentence Lev wore a leather jacket and jeans and a leather cap now this is polysynderton do remember polysynderton is when there's an use an overuse of conjunctions and this and that and what this does the polysynderton used here emphasises leaves simple attire. Moreover the adjective grey-toned gives us hints of his working class background so whilst he's handsome his skin shade has become a little bit grey from smoking so heavily. Also the literation his hands he this maintains our focus on Lev and it shows us how nervous he is he's holding onto this cotton handkerchief also these cigarettes almost for comfort because he's feeling so afraid of leaving all he knows behind. Furthermore the reference to cotton handkerchief and a dented pack of Russian cigarettes highlights Lev's few worldly possessions so we're really starting to get hints of both his working class background but also we realise that perhaps it's coming from poverty. Moreover we learn after some miles as the sun came up and the synderton here which is the opposite of polysynderton so synderton is when there's commas used minus the conjunctions what this does is it starts showing us and lengthening the feel of this journey. Lev then takes out a cigarette and the phrase here took out a cigarette shows that he's doing this for comfort he's really really anxious about this trip. Now the lady he sits next to is described as a plump contained person and these pre-modifiers these adjectives show how much her parents really contrast Lev and of course we then learn about the contrast in backgrounds in class and so on as the passage progresses. The simile molds like splashes of mud show this lady is actually not conventionally beautiful so whilst previously Lev is described as having a very handsome face actually this lady is not portrayed as being conventionally beautiful. She's then really really assertive and she tells him no smoking allowed on the bus and this declarative sentence shows us that she's probably quite a forceful enforcer and of course later on we learn that she is a teacher so of course this probably fits in with her personality so let's continue. Lev knew this had known it in advance had tried to prepare himself mentally for the long agony of it but even an unlit cigarette was companion something to hold on to something that had promise in it and all he could be bothered to do now was to nod just to show the women that he'd heard what she'd said reassure her that he wasn't going to cause trouble because there they would have to sit for 50 hours or more side by side with a separate aches and dreams like a married couple. They would hate each other snores and sighs smell the food and drink each had brought with them note the degree to which each was fearful or unafraid make short forays into conversation and then later when they arrived in London they would probably separate with barely a word or a look walk out into a rainy morning each alone and beginning a new life and Lev thought how all of this was odd but necessary and already told him things about the world he was travelling to a world in which he would break his back working if only that work could be found. He would hold himself apart from other people find corners and shadows in which to sit and smoke demonstrate that he didn't need to belong that his heart remain in his own country. There were two coach drivers these men would take turns to drive into sleep there was an on-board lavatory so the only stops the bus would make would be for gas at gas stations the passengers would be able to clamber off walk a few paces sea wildflowers in a verge soiled paper among bushes sun or rain on the road. They might stretch up their arms put on dark glasses against the onrush of nature's light look for a clover leaf smoke and stare at the cars rushing by then they would be herded back onto the coach resume the old attitudes armed themselves for the next 100 miles. So we'll pause there for now and essentially what this passage is now developing is a really vivid description of this really really long journey by coach through likely Eastern Europe so from the interior of Eastern Europe straight into London non-stop only to stop for fuel and we really get a very vivid description of just the journey the difficulty that immigrants put themselves through just for opportunity and of course we learned that Lev himself is really hopeful for work he's unemployed. Now we this part of the passage begins by telling us Lev knew this had known in advance and of course this is in reference to the lady he's sitting next to who tells him off for holding the cigarette because she assumes that he's going to smoke it. Now the ascendant here shows he feels really trapped and he dreads his journey and hence why he even just holds on to his cigarette for comfort. Also the mention of the cigarette being a companion now this personification shows us cigarettes are really important to Lev because they help alleviate his loneliness so the only thing that he has any form of attachment to because they're the most familiar in such an unfamiliar setting. Furthermore the repetition of something emphasises his feeling of overwhelming uncertainty and Lev then just nods. Now this verb essentially shows that he really seems defeated so he's really got this crushing uncertainty this crushing sense of anxiety and so he's just defeated and he simply just nods to show that he's listened to this lady. Moreover the alliteration here for 50 hours emphasises and really drives home the point that he's making this significant journey and it's going to be a tiresome and quite gruelling journey again really underscoring the lengths that immigrants go to to really try to get opportunity in cities like London. Furthermore the repetition of side by side what this does is it emphasises the uncomfortable proximity that both this lady and Lev are in because of course they have to sit next to each other for 50 hours inside this bus and it just is a very very long and gruelling process and do bear in mind that of course a coach is just a form of a bus. Now the abstract nouns are used aches and dreams to emphasise the pain of immigration so of course immigrants really travel to new countries including UK and including cities like London because they are dreaming of better lives. However they of course have to live with the aches of being so far from home the aches of doing usually very difficult and menial jobs so this is really encapsulated and captured by your main and main nouns and the simile like a married couple to describe this lady and Lev sitting together for this long period of time with their separate dreams and hopes. The simile is somewhat humorous so she also injects a dark sense of humour in this. Now the sibilants here they have to listen to each other's snores and sighs and smell again what this does is it emphasises just how uncomfortable and how somewhat oppressive this environment inside the coach really is. Furthermore the reference to them being either fearful or unafraid so this is the degree to which both Lev and this lady will essentially start learning about each other and engaging each other's emotions. Now this is a really interesting oxymoron because essentially this is going to show how they start perhaps making tentative conversation because they have nothing but time during this journey and then they will make short forays into discussions and now it's interesting this verb to talk about their conversation. The verb actually has very warlike connotations showing just how uncertain they all feel. Moreover the adverb finally which describes them finally arriving in London emphasises just how long the journey is and the proper noun London which refers to the city shows that the destination is almost like the promised land after such a long journey. Furthermore when Tremaine uses the language separate with barely a word or a look walk out into a rainy morning each alone in beginning a new life. Now there's syndetine that's used here to show how after such a long journey in a very intimate type of space so of course the coach there's not really anywhere to go and you have to sit next to somebody for so long you almost spend such an intense amount of period of time with them before suddenly their journey ends and you go out and you leave each other as if you're strangers. This emphasises and again encapsulates the typical immigrant experience it can be so isolating so alienating but equally to even go through this experience sometimes you're also very uncomfortably close to other immigrants but you're still all very isolated and alienated from each other. Moreover the idea that this is all just very odd but necessary this captures life as a migrant and it's really defined by just necessity so migrants just have to accept the odd elements of being a migrant and being around each other and it's really really necessary. The repetition of world so talking about this already that people already told Lev things about the world that he was travelling to a world which he would break his back working. Now the reference to the world shows that he's venturing into an alien culture that he's very unfamiliar with. Also the hyperbole to describe that he's going to break his back working shows that as a migrant he will likely engage in very menial labour maybe working on construction sites maybe even being undocumented not even being paid enough and he's going to do very difficult labour. Now we find that Lev wants to hold himself apart so he almost wants to isolate himself and not get too comfortable in this new environment he's decided that he's just going there for work he's not looking for friends he won't even look for any workmates he's going to hold himself apart and the mention of Lev finding corners and shadows this is a really powerful symbol of how migrants live on the margins of society and even today in places like London, New York migrants find corners and shadows they merge from there and they really live on the margins of society again many of them are also undocumented and so this is a really really powerful symbol that captures this. Now the sibilants sit and smoke to describe what Lev would do perhaps when he's on a rest break and the corners and the shadows show the very few and very mega luxuries that he can really enjoy. Furthermore we find that he feels that he didn't need to belong so this is interesting that he has decided he won't necessarily wish to try to fit in too much when he gets to London and this is perhaps an indirect reference to xenophobia xenophobia is the dislike for other people outside of your culture so there's a reference which underlies a lot of this passage that Lev will also have to probably come up against people who don't like him simply because he's an immigrant however here we can see that he's trying to steal himself against that he almost is trying to build up a wall and tell himself that it doesn't really need to be long even if he has to work in London. Furthermore the literation his heart which emphasizes his heart remaining in his own country again this shows us that he's going to be very very homesick and of course the reference to country shows that he really misses his home. Now the simple sentence of two coach drivers tells us more about the journey we learn of course that the journey is so long that the coach drivers two coach drivers are needed again this emphasizes the arduousness of the journey and there's the onboard lavatory which is basically the onboard toilet and this is notable because what this is just doing is drawing attention to just how few luxuries there are on this coach on this bus. Furthermore once they go and make every stop the people on the bus clamber off and what this verb emphasizes is the pained actions of people who are sitting still for 50 plus hours and how the joints become quite stiff. Now every time the maker stop they will see wildflowers on a verge soil paper among bushes sun or rain on the road and the syndetine here shows that man and industry has really destroyed nature so it's a really powerful imagery showing how industry the man-made world can really have a massive impact on nature. Furthermore the sibilants people will smoke and stare shows the robotic and lifeless actions of people who've sat for a long journey on the coach every time they emerge for each rest break they just smoke and stare they're quite robotic quite lifeless and then they're herded back now this shows them and describes them almost like a cattle again showing just how sometimes the immigrant experience can be quite dehumanizing. Furthermore they will arm themselves for the next 100 miles again the verb here is quite war like to show this journey to get to London is almost like a fight. So let's carry on. For the stink of another industrial zone or the sudden gleam of a lake for rain and sunset and the approach of darkness on silent marshes there would be times on the journey would seem to have no end. Sleeping upright was not something love was practiced in the old seemed to be able to do it but 42 was not yet old Lev's father Stefan sometimes used to sleep upright in summer on a hard wooden chair in his lunch break at the barren swall mill with the hot sun falling onto the slices of sausage wrapped in paper on his knee and onto his flask of tea. Both Stefan and Lev could sleep lying down on a mound of hay or on the mossy carpet of a forest. Often Lev had slept on a rag rug beside his daughter's bed when she was ill or afraid and when his wife Marina was dying he'd lain for five nights on an area of linoleum flooring no wider than his outstretched arms between Marina's hospital bed and a curtain patterned with pink and purple daisies and sleep had come and gone in a mystifying kind of way painting strange pictures in Lev's brain that had never completely vanished. Towards evening after two stops for gas the mole-flecked woman unwrapped a hard boiled egg she peeled it silently the smell of the egg reminded Lev of the sulphur springs a jaw where he'd taken Marina just in case nature could cure what man had and I'm going to stop there. So essentially this part of the passage describes again what the migrants will do once they stop so of course they then inhale the stink of another industrial zone and again this vivid description of yet another polluted city that they will pass through and the coach and another polluted yet developed city shows that there's a huge cost of course to economic development. Now this part of the passage is really powerful because we now start to see glimpses of Lev's life now as he's traveling again on this coach journey Tremaine uses the semantic field of nature to show this juxtaposition of industry man-made buildings being at war with nature so she references lake, rain and sunset and then there's this mention of the approach of darkness on silent marshes. Now the personification here depicts a dark and dull scene that Lev and the people on this coach are passing through. Now of course the hyperbole journey would seem to have no end again this is showing just the tedium of long travel. Now as I mentioned we now start to get more glimpses onto Lev's own background so we learn through this present continuous verb sleeping so sleeping upright was not something Lev was practiced in this shows how uncomfortable this is there's a constant anaphoric reference back to Lev and of course we learn his age once more so he's 42. Now we start learning about his father Stefan so the proper nouns Lev and Stefan give us more glimpses into Lev's own background and we learn that sometimes his own dad this is tied to the sleeping aspect he used to sleep and who'd fall asleep on a hard wooden chair and these adjectives emphasize his father's difficult austere lifestyle which of course Lev himself probably experienced. Furthermore we learn of exactly where his dad used to work which is a barren sawmill so the proper noun now starts giving us more information about Lev's own rural origins and we learned that there was you know they used to work under the hot sun and so there's this element of his life at home even if his hometown is maybe beautiful it actually wasn't a very idyllic lifestyle it was one characterised by poverty. Furthermore his father would have a lunch of slices of sausage and the simpleness here shows just how simplistic his life was and both him and Lev would sleep on a mound of hay so again there's this remote and rural life depicted almost an older world very far away from modernity but also it's not necessarily an ideal older world or an ideal rural life it seems characterised by a lot of hardship. Furthermore the metaphor mossy carpet of forest this is a beautiful metaphor to describe where they would lie on the ground but of course the fact that they're lying on the ground shows that they don't necessarily have very much money. Also we learned that Lev is really self-sacrificing and he comes from a very poor family including his own daughter so he sometimes would sleep on a rag rug beside his daughter's bed showing that perhaps the home that he lived with with his family there wasn't very much. We also learn about his wife who as the passage progresses has actually died so this also shows that his journey to London is characterised by tragedy. His wife has died so he's really the only person that can provide a better life for his daughter by going to London and earning money. Also we get a more vivid description of Lev's difficult experience of his wife dying when he would go to hospital and he would lie on a curtain patterned with pink and purple daisies and these garish colours what they actually do is add to the overall misery that Lev had to suffer through when he went to witness his wife in hospital dying from her disease. Now his dreams are described as painting strained pictures and the personification here of dreams shows his poor lucid sleep. Now the adverbial phrase of time towards evening brings us now back to the present so we shift from learning about Lev's past getting glimpses into his own home life to now the present when they're sitting on the coach. Again we are then focused on the mole-flect woman and again this adjective shows her distinctive mark. We then get a reminder that she's not necessarily conventionally beautiful and she unwraps a hard boiled egg so what we now stop discovering is essentially on this coach from Eastern Europe it's filled with migrants who don't necessarily have the best lifestyles because it seems that the lady who's sitting next to him also lives a simple austere lifestyle as you can see from what she's eating in spite of being better educated which we'll learn later on and the simple sentence here she peeled it silently shows actually she has also some genteel manners. Now this mark of the egg triggers Lev to remember the sulfur springs at jaw and there's sensory language used here so the sensory smell of the eggs which perhaps is quite strong quite putrid actually fondly enough triggers a very nostalgic memory for Lev and he remembers taking his wife Marina somewhere where nature perhaps could kill what man couldn't and again there's this constant juxtaposition between nature which is meant to be repairing and nurturing whilst man as well as industry can be destructive so let's carry on. The smell of the egg reminded Lev of the sulfur springs at jaw where he taken Marina just in case nature could kill what man had given up for lost. Marina had immersed her body very obediently in the scummy water laying there looking at a female stork returning to its high nest and said to Lev, if only we were storks why did you say that Lev had asked because you never see a stork dying it says though they didn't die if only they were storks on the woman's knee a clean cotton napkin was spread and her white hand smoothed it and she unwrapped rye bread and a twist of salt my name's Lev said Lev my name's Lydia said the woman and they shook hands Lev's hand holding the scrunched up handkerchief and Lydia's hand rough with salt and smelling of egg and then Lev asked what are you planning to do in England and Lydia said I have some interviews in London for jobs as a translator that sounds promising now in this part of the passage we learn of course of Marina's wishes or perhaps what she was essentially saying she wishes she was a stork because she maybe wouldn't die and then of course we then are brought to Lev and this woman who learned she's called Lydia they opened to start having a conversation now we learn a little bit more about Lev's wife hair so Marina she obediently immerses herself in the scummy water that Lev was hoping might cure her and of course that adverb obediently shows her submissive nature and then Marina's expresses some wishful thinking she said if only we were storks and this wishful innocent thinking is really sad it's really poignant now Lev thinks of this of her dying words if only we were storks and the repetition here of what Marina has said shows this is a metaphor for Lev himself who migrates on a huge journey in order to have more economic opportunities because do you remember that swans themselves migrate away from wintry places they cross vast places to warmer climates for opportunities maybe Lev might be thinking about this memory from Marina because he maybe sees himself as a stork and maybe Tremaine is trying to use the stork as a metaphor for him furthermore we then get more glimpses of Lydia herself so Lady that's sitting next to Lev so she has a clean cotton and the alliteration hair shows that actually she has quite middle-class manners now Lev introduces himself he speaks quite simply so the simple sentence my name is Lev shows he's quite curt and possibly somewhat distrusting Lydia responds with a similar simple sentence my name is Lydia and of course this shows that this is the start of a fairly tentative conversation now Lydia tells him that she has interviews in London for jobs as a translator and what this shows of course is she's migrating for economic reasons but also she's probably more highly skilled than Lev so she doesn't necessarily have to go and do backbreaking work she can get perhaps a more respectable office job now Lev says that sounds promising and his language is wrapped in the promise and hope of migration and a better life abroad so this is really language that migrants tend to use promising hopeful dreams again this is really steeped in the hope of migration so let's carry on i hope so i was a teacher of English at school 237 in Yarble so my language is very colloquial Lev looked at Lydia it wasn't difficult to imagine her standing in front of a class on writing words on a blackboard he said i wonder why you're leaving our country when you had a good job at school 237 in Yarble well said Lydia i became very tired of the view from our window every day someone winter i looked out of the schoolyard and the high fence and the apartment block beyond and i began to imagine i would die seeing these things and i didn't want this i expect you understand what i mean Lev took off his lever cap and wrote in his fingers through his thick gray hair he saw Lydia turn to him for a moment and look very seriously into his eyes he said yes i understand now of course the conversation develops and we learned that Lydia also had a fairly good job back in the country that both she and Lev are from now the reference to the common noun teacher shows that Lydia is somewhat establishing a distance and showing her social superiority she's better educated than Lev furthermore she mentions that her language so her English is quite colloquial in other words it's informal and again she uses quite formal register to show how proud she is of her education again she's establishing some kind of distance showing Lev that she's probably way better educated than him and the simple sentence Lev looked at Lydia shows he really scrutinizes her maybe he's still quite distrusting now Lev asks why she left if she had what he calls a good job and the adjective here shows his awareness that she's probably more economically prosperous than he is now Lydia tells him that she got tired of the view from our window so what this is showing is she felt really trapped in yobble where they're from and she then further clarifies by saying every day someone went to i looked at the schoolyard and what this shows is that her life was quite dull repetitive and predictable then she mentions in the high fence in the apartment block beyond and i began to imagine i would die seeing these things now the polysinderton hair shows that she felt her life was too repetitive and probably she still wasn't getting paid enough of what she felt she was entitled to and hence why she migrated now she then asked you understand what i mean again this common shared knowledge of migrants and lev responds simply by saying yes i understand again this is showing the common shared migrant experiences they don't necessarily have to talk about all their dreams they both understand why they're migrating so let's carry on then there was a silence while Lydia ate her hard boiled egg she chewed very quietly when she'd finished the egg lev said my english isn't too bad i took some classes in baron but my teacher told me my pronunciation was in very good may i see some words and you can tell me if i'm pronouncing them correctly yes of course said lydia lev said lovely sorry i am legal how much please thank you may you help me may i help you corrected lydia may i help you repeated lev go on said lydia stalk said lev stalk's nest rain i am lost i wish for an interpreter b and b b and b said lydia no no you mean to be or not to be no said lev b and b family hotel quite cheap oh yes i know b and b lev could now see that darkness was falling outside the window and he thought how in his village darkness had always arrived in precisely the same way from the same direction above the same trees whether early or late whether in summer winter or spring for the whole of his life this darkness particularly to that place or raw was now in lev's heart how darkness would always fall now the dialogue starts developing and progressing so firstly lydia eats or carries on eating a hard boiled egg for an initial moment of silence and we learn and we can see from this that although lydia is better educated she still somewhat lives a modest life suggesting some kind of poverty so i suppose you could see this as varying levels of poverty lydia is perhaps less poor than lev the adverb quietly to describe how she eats shows that lydia has very middle-class manners so she maintains her social graces and her manners in spite of being on a coach and in spite of being sat next to somebody who probably wouldn't really care about how she ate now lev then says his English isn't too bad now the intensifier two shows he maybe feels a little bit insecure and self-conscious that he's not in as great a place as she is so lydia at least is going to london on the promise of a potential interview which might lead to a job lev doesn't have any of that so maybe he's feeling a little bit insecure and he's trying to show lydia that he knows something now lev asks may i say some words and the modal verb here shows that he's maybe trying to imitate her social graces and he's trying to also adopt some of her manners and lydia of course agrees and lev says lovely sorry now these basic polysyllabic terms and of course this minor sentences show that he has a very very basic and somewhat functional understanding of english moreover the simple sentence i am legal shows he's aware of the xenophobia he will face in london he's aware that he's constantly going to come across people who say that he doesn't belong in london he has to go back to where he came from and so he's ready with a phrase by saying look i'm legal i'm i also have the right to be here he then mentions how much please now what this hints at is the economic worries he will face in london he is worried that he's going to be running out of money so he's going to constantly have to ask when he's purchasing things how much please so a lot of his english is very basic but also very functional he then utters thank you and as we can see here again he uses very functional lexus and do you remember lexus just means language now there's an exchange a dialogue that occurs between both lydia and lev and what this dialogue shows is that they're building some kind of report but do you remember earlier in this passage they'll build up all this report over the 50 hours that they travel together but then once they arrive they'll literally walk off as if they were strangers so again this is part of the odd experience of migration now lydia does correct him when he says may you help me she says may i help you and this feedback shows that she's trying to teach him now of course lev repeats this back and this repetition makes us feel pathos for him we feel that he's quite limited in his communication skills he wants to improve what we feel and we wonder whether he's going to be able to survive in london with such basic communication skills now lydia encourages him she says go on and this imperative sentence shows that she's trying to help him somewhat now lev repeats stalk now the repetition of stalk going back to the symbolism related to stalk shows he still thinks of his wife's musings now the simple sentence i am lost this is a very functional declarative sentence again he only knows the english that will get him from a to b that will just clearly show people who are strangers what he needs now lev otters b and b to which lydia responded to be or not to be now this is quite a humorous interjection because she assumes he's referring to hamlet by shakespeare when in the scene he contemplates his own suicide he says to be or not to be in other words should i stay alive or should i kill myself and this is humorous because this is really high-level literature that she's assuming lev is referring to which of course is not the case because lev corrects her and he says b and b family hotel quite cheap and of course is referring to accommodation which is this primary concern not literature and of course she then corrects and by saying i know b and b now lev sees that darkness was falling outside and of course this this pathetic fallacy to show just how dark it's getting how sad he's getting the further and further way he's getting away from his home moreover there's a repetition of darkness which had always arrived in precisely the same way where he came from now what this shows us is lev comes from a world that's measured in lightness and darkness not time again this is showing just how remote the place that lev comes from really is moreover the repetition of same shows that while slidia really hated the predictability of their lives back in their home country lev really cherished that predictability the fact that darkness would come in the same way the fact that he would do the same job every day he loved this and he misses this whilst slidia actually really disliked the fact that her life is so predictable also the reference to spring and the semantic field of seasons shows just how lev really cherished that everything with the same year in day in day out year in year out summer winter or spring everything with the same and he really misses home and hence why his anxiety is particularly acute because all of this has been completely changed furthermore the repetition of darkness shows that actually interestingly lev found darkness and predictability quite comforting furthermore the reference to the whole of his life what this shows is that lev had a fairly sheltered simple life that was in many ways untouchable modernity and he's going to really miss this so let's carry on and so he told lydia that he'd come from a raw had worked at the bar in sawmill until it closed two years ago and since then he'd found no work at all and his family his mother his five-year-old daughter and he had lift off the money his mother made selling jewelry manufactured from tin oh said lydia i think that's very resourceful to make jewelry from tin sure said lev but it isn't enough talked into his boot was a small flask of vodka he extracted the flask and took a long swig lydia kept eating her rye bread lev wiped his mouth with the red handkerchief and saw his face reflected in the coach window he looked away since the death of marina he didn't like to catch the sight of his own reflection because what he always saw in it was his own guilt it's still being alive why did the sawmill barren close asked lydia they ran out of trees said lev very bad said lydia what other work can you do now here of course we find that lev is really really homesick we find also he actually ended up working at the same sawmill as his father and then he became out of work because of course the only sawmill in the place that he lived and closed down and he had to live off a very very modest income that his mother made and we learn as it's developing that lydia of course is quite kind in her responses to him she's quite nice however we learn also that the reason the primary reason why lev didn't have any job is because of deforestation in other words man and of course industry so the barren sawmill in this instance still encroached on the land that lev was living on and they ended up cutting all the trees and that's why the sawmill went out of business now here the there's a reference to lev's own home city or raw and of course we learn he worked the same job as his father until it closed two years ago so he was content in his home city but had to leave because of economic opportunities now the repetition of his the repetition of this possessive pronoun refers to lev's own family and the structure that he was accustomed to which he's really sad to no longer have now lydia is very politically correct when she speaks to him and she's quite kind in her response saying his mother making jewelry from tin that's very resourceful and this is almost a euphemism moreover lev then is quite direct so in contrast to lydia he uses euphemisms to try and be polite lev essentially is quite open and honest in this simple sentence utterance he's showing that he's aware his family-faced harsh economic realities it's very difficult to probably live of jewelry manufactured from tin that's sold in a very remote rural part of eastern europe now we learned that he has a small flask of vodka in his boot so he uses cigarettes and alcohol to escape again this is showing us his acute sense of anxiety and he then takes a long swig now the word swig is a colloquialism it's an informative word or rather informal word and this shows us lev just taking a furtive drink to cope this is in contrast so whilst lev is drinking vodka lydia is eating really healthy rye bread so this is really a massive contrast between the two because she's eating so healthily whilst he's eating really or drinking as a way to escape now lev then sees his glimpse in the mirror and he looks away now this simple sentence shows he's actually quite embarrassed of his appearance furthermore we learned that he has survivor's guilt because his wife died but he still stayed alive through the phrase his own guilt at still being alive moreover we learn of the deforestation in the place that lev is from because he says they run out of trees so the deforestation the recruitment of humans still caused him to suffer this economic challenges now let's carry on lev drank again someone had told him that in england vodka was too expensive to drink immigrants made their own alcohol from potatoes and tap water and when lev thought about these industrious immigrants he imagined them sitting by a coal fire in a tall house talking and laughing with rain falling outside the window and red buses going past and a television flickering in the corner of the room he sighed and said i'll do any work at all my daughter maya needs clothes shoes books toys everything england is my hope towards 10 o'clock red blankets were being given out to the coach passengers some of whom were already sleeping lydia put away the remnants of her meal covered her body with the blanket and switched on a fierce little light above her under the baggage rack and began reading a faded old paperback printed in english lev saw that the title of her book was the power and the glory his longing for a cigarette had grown steadily since he drunk the vodka and now it was acute he could feel the yearning in his lungs and in his blood and his hands grew fidgety and he felt a tremor in his legs how long before the next gas stop it could be four or five hours everyone in the bus would be asleep by then except him and one of the two drivers only they would keep a lonely exhausting vigil the driver's body tends to the moods and alarms of the dark and ravelling road his own aching for the comfort of nicotine or oblivion and getting neither so of course we find that lev really really craves drinking and even smoking he feels really trapped and now this part of the passage starting from when lev drank again now this simple sentence emphasizes he's finding it so hard to cope with this journey and even the anxiety of living in a new city like london that he turns to alcohol now there's this reference to someone telling him that vodka was too expensive and this intensifier shows that perhaps lev's anxiety is further amplified by this idea that something that he turns to for comfort will even be out of his reach when he gets to london so he won't necessarily have any way of finding some respite now the reference to immigrants making their own alcohol from to potasas and tap water what this is showing and highlighting is the immigrant poverty in the uk furthermore there's the use of assonance here so the eye in industrious immigrants and again what this is showing is just how in spite of the difficulties the immigrants face and in spite of their poverty they still try to find a way to cope and they find a way to creatively go around some of these issues especially when it comes to expense now lev has this image of people in london sitting by a coal fire in a tall house and this is a really interesting and somewhat humorous victorian imagery of these perfect english people sitting by a coal fire and laughing he further adds to this imagery in his mind of red buses passing these large tall houses and this is a reference an illusion to stereotypes of england and of course these are common stereotypes that outsiders tend to have which obviously emphasizes just how unfamiliar lev is with england now he talks about all the things that his daughter needs so that syndetine clothes shoes books toys everything shows lev's focus is on providing for his daughter but also of course it's emphasising just how little he has back at home furthermore the simple sentence england is my hope makes us feel a strong sense of pathos for lev now the alliteration towards 10 o'clock and this adverbial phrase of time brings us back to the present back to this really long journey and of course we learn that lev feels really alone he really really needs some alcohol a cigarette a smoke but he really can't get it and this is just a very agonising journey for him now lidia puts on what is described as a first little light and the alliteration and the personification here of this light shows her world lidia's world keeps on encroaching into lev's own world he can't avoid this light furthermore she is reading a faded old paperback and this shows a vast difference between the two lidia turns to intellectual distraction so she turns to reading as a way to get through this journey whilst lev really really simply craves for just a cigarette and a drink now the description of the yearning in his lungs and in his blood what this present continuous verb shows the present continuous verb yearning shows is he's almost like an addict for this cigarette and his hands grew fidgety and he felt a tremor again this repetition of or rather this focus on his and he and the fact that his hands are growing fidgety and he feels almost shakes shows that he's experiencing some withdrawal symptoms now there's the rhetorical question asked and the answer how long before the next gas stop it could be over five hours now this is hyperfora hyperfora is when a question is asked and then there's immediately an answer afterwards and what this is showing is his desperation we learned that both lev and the one driver keep a lonely existing exhausting vigil and this shows that lev is unable to find sleep and peace throughout this journey even in the darkness and he longs for the comfort of nicotine or oblivion so of course this is talking about the comfort of a cigarette or oblivion oblivion referring to being completely drunk which she can't do and what this is obviously emphasizing is lev turns to alcohol and cigarettes as a way to cope with anxiety so let's carry on he envied lydia immersed in her english book lev knew he had to distract himself with something desperation he took from his wallet a brand new british 20 pound note and reached up and switched on his own little reading light and began to examine the note on one side the frumpy queen e i are with her diadem her face gray on a purple ground and on the other a man some personage from the past with a dark droopy moustache and an angel blowing a trumpet above him and all the angels radiance falling on him in vertical lines the british venerate the history lev had been told in his english class chiefly because of never being subjected to apocupation only intermittently do they see that some of the past deeds were not good the indicated lifespan of the man on the note was 1857 to 1934 he looked like a banker but what had he done to be on a 20 pound note in the 21st century lev stared at his determined jaw squinted at his name written out in a scroll beneath the wing collar but couldn't read it he thought that this was a person who would never have known any other system of being alive but capitalism he would have heard the names hitler and starlin but not been afraid would have had no need to be afraid of anything except a little loss of capital in what americans called the crash when men in new york had jumped out of windows and off roofs he would have died safely in his bed before london was bombed to ruins before europe was torn apart so i'll stop there for a second now of course lev really really envies lidia because she's able to get herself distracted and of course the sentence he envied lidia immersed in an english book shows that he really really feels jealous that she's able to retreat into her own in a world of imagination through reading but he can't do so moreover the fact that in desperation he takes out this brand new british 20 pound note now the adjectives focus on currency and again all he carried with him were functional things lev notices what he describes or rather what to remain describes as the frumpy queen and of course the description of the queen being frumpy this is a colloquialism also there's more description of how the queen looks with her diadem which is basically a crown her face gray on a purple ground and this listing gives us more detail of how the 20 pound note looks like to lev as he's examining it as a way of just distracting himself he then sees a man and this shows that he's clueless and unaware of the other person who's printed on this note now we get more description of what lev is seeing and this of course mystifies him so the personage from the past with the dark drooping moustache and the alliteration dark drooping refers to this historical figure printed on this note now lev remembers what he'd been taught in class and especially the fact that the UK has not been subjected to occupation this abstract now refers to the UK's own colonial past as an empire it subjected other countries to occupation furthermore he then focuses in on this man on this 20 pound note and his lifespans of course statistics are used here to show that he lived from 1857 to 1934 and he looked like a banker to lev and the simile of course shows he's really clueless about this man and he then asks himself this rhetorical question what had he been what had he done to be on a 20 pound note now this rhetorical question shows that lev really does not recognise this man this is man is Edgar who's the composer of the land of hope and glory which is the nationalist song so the man that's printed on this bank note is a really really famous British composer but ironically the music that he composed is really nationalist it's usually what a lot of people who are very pro-british but also fairly xenophobic really really take a lot of pride in now we get descriptions of this composer his determined jaw and of course this is describing a very austere and proud appearance and then the abstract noun capitalism foreshadows lev's own entry into the English capitalist system which is all about making money then the reference to Hitler and Stalin now these two proper nouns refer to leaders who many see as dictators now of course Hitler was the man that caused the Second World War to begin do you remember the Second World War occurred between 1939 to 1945 and Stalin he's one of the main causes of the Cold War that happened after 1945 and effectively the Cold War ended in 1990 with the fall of the Berlin Wall so this is really interesting in terms of how lev is remembering all these elements of capitalism of course socialism and communism in the USSR's part and he's really reflecting on these things that he's learned but doesn't really necessarily make a connection doesn't quite understand why it's important how this is all linked moreover the reference to a little loss of capital now lev is imagining this man that he sees on the 20 pound note is so capitalist and he's really really brutally capitalistic he's only focused on preserving capital furthermore other historic events such as what the americans have called the crash this is a reference to the 1929 Wall Street crash in america again lev has a very basic understanding of these different historical events but not entirely why they were caused or how they're all connected so let's carry on right to the end of his days the angels radiance had probably shone on this man's bra and on his fusty clothes because it was known across the world the english were lucky well thought lev i'm going to the country and i'm going to make them share it with me they're infernal luck i've left all raw and that leaving on my home was hard and bitter but my time is coming so this is a really really interesting ending because lev decides that he's going to take whatever opportunity he can much like in some ways the british when they were expanding the empire they were going to other countries in a way to conquer them lev almost feels like he really wants to conquer england and to conquer it through getting economically more stable and benefiting himself economically now there's this still description of this angels radiance shining on the composer on this note who he thinks is a banker and of course the celestial language reflects the look that lev himself believes the english have the idea that the english are blessed almost by divine intervention moreover he thinks that the english were lucky and of course do you remember that the uk is an island which had very few invasions so therefore it didn't have any occupation and it had an empire which is of course in contrast to eastern europe which has suffered vast parts of it occupation and so on so in lev's mind he's thinking that the english were lucky historically however this declarative sentence i'm going to the country now and i'm going to make them share it with me this shows lev's assertiveness as an immigrant as he believes he also deserves prosperity and the irony is that this is also as i've mentioned before what the british explorer has said on the outward colonial conquests and expansions as they were creating the british empire moreover the passage ends with lev telling himself my time is coming and so he seems quite hopeful in the immigrant dream and in achieving the immigrant dream of prosperity so that's all if you found this video useful we do have a course covering the i gcs anthology texts as well as model answers for pass papers so make sure you head over to our course and sign up for it but also check out our website www.firstreadtutors.com for english worksheets course materials to help you in this and other areas of english thank you so much for listening