Do the tasks alongside the text. a What is going awry? b Why are British skiers mentioned here? c Why is the Wall Street

a) The haircut.

b) The British skiers are mentioned as they have never had achievements in this kind of sport and to emphasise the scale of Barney’s ineptness.

c) The haircut is being compared with a great historical event (catastrophe) to exaggerate the damage.

d) No, he hasn’t. Barney tried to follow the client’s instructions but the haircut has got out of control.

e) The client is called a victim because he is still unaware of that fact that his haircut is going wrong.

f) Prisoners of a maximum security prison have very\' story haircuts and are considered the toughest and the most dangerous criminals. Barney is worried that his client is a tough, strong and aggressive man.

g) The barber wants either to do a very short but even haircut, or to leave the customer’s hair wet and hide the results of his work for a bit longer.

h) The client is wide, but not seven or eight feet wide; he is described like that to stress Blarney’s horror of tire consequences of his work. It is hyperbole: a way of describing something by saying it is much bigger, smaller, worse, etc., than it is. There arc other examples in the text: victim, calamity, horror story, butchered, etc.

i) Possible translation: Борец сумо раздавил в лепешку парикмахера. Суд оправдал Голиафа, отомстившего бездарному парикмахеру.

j) The option of making a client look like a prisoner at maximum security prison may lead to a client being aggressive and taking revenge on the barber who has spoiled his hair.

k) It is not very man-like to have the hair dried with a hairdryer.

l) He makes a decision to pretend that nothing is going wrong and chooses the second option: to pour water on the client’s head and to hide the results. He identifies himself with the famous actor who always acts decisively in risky and dangerous situations and deals with them brilliantly.

m) Quarter of an hour later the client leaves, but the barber feels quite happy and satisfied at having got rid of the client.

n) Barney makes himself a mental note to try not to meet this person in the street in the nearer future.о) Picture 1.