Volver a Lengua Inglesa I A
THE TRUTH ABOUT PYECRAFT
WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES
CHARACTERS
A. Who are the characters in the story? Complete the charts with their physical
description.
Physical description
Character: Pycraft
● The fattest clubman in London.
● Excessively obese.
Physical description
Character: Formalyn
● He is slender, healthy, tall, rather dark, weak.
B. Find out more about the characters in the story and fill in the empty spaces.
PYECRAFT
He had an obsession with his own fatness.
➔ He annoys Formallyn with his boring stories and particularly about his obesity
troubles.
➔ Mr. Pyecraft is a patron of a London club. Owner of a club.
➔ Formalyn tells him about an occult weight-loss recipe from his great-
grandmother who was Hindu. However, the recipe literally reduced his weight,
not his fatness.
➔ After the secret recipe, Pycraft is found as fat as ever, floating helplessly in the
air against the ceiling at his house in Bloomsbury where he has been cloistered
in his own living room for the last twenty-four hours. But when he returns to
the club with Formalyn’s assistance, he continues to overeat.
➔ Pyecraft gets down from the bookcase by taking out a couple of heavy tomes of
the Encyclopædia Britannica.
FORMALYN
He disliked Pyecraft.
➔ He helped Pyecraft, he shielded him.
➔ He is a good cricketer.
➔ He has an Hindu great-grandmother
➔ He gave Pyecraft a recipe for loss of weight.
C. There are many references to fatness in the story. What do characters
think about it?
1. Write down all the remarks Formalyn makes about Pyecraft‟s fatness.
1) As if anything so gross and fat as he could feel at ease!
2) Uneasy jelly of substance! The fattest clubman in London.
3) It made me feel swelled to hear him.
4) his vast cheeks and pant.
5) I was always a little afraid if I
6) tried his patience too much he would fall on me suddenly and smother me.
7) his disgusting fatness.
8) “A man who eats like a pig ought to look like a pig.”
2. Write down what Pyecraft says about his own fatness.
1) He talked about his fatness, all he did and all he was going to do for his fatness.
And what people had advised him to do for it.
2) He would give anything to get it down.
Who said WHAT, to WHOM and WHAT about?
A- Fill in the table below
WHAT
WHO
TO WHOM
WHAT ABOUT
"You ought to be a good
cricketer"
Pyecraft
Pyecraft referred to the figure
and complexion of Formalyn
"I expect you take no more
excersise than I do, and eat
no less"
Pyecraft
Pyecraft compared Formalyn´s
and his body.
"Who told you about my
great-grandmother recipes?"
Formalyn
Formalyn asked Pyecraft who
told him about the recipes of his
Hindu grandmother.
"Now the cat's out the bag"
Pycraft
Pycraft got close to Formalyn to
access his grandmother´s
recipes.
"So far as I can make it out,
this is a recipe for Loss of
Weight"
Formalyn
Formalyn gave Pyecraft for a Loss
of Weight
"To the best of my ability I
will do you a translation"
Formalyn
The recipe wasn't in English but
Hindu.
"For heaven sake come. -
Pycraft"
Pyecraft
Pyecraft sent Formalyn a
telegram asking him to go to his
place because he needed help.
"Tell the house keeper to go
away"
Pyecraft
They needed some privacy
"That prescription"
Pyecraft
What reads in the Hindu recipe
for Loss of Weight
"What the goodness am I to
do?"
Pyecraft
Pyecraft needed to solve his
situation of being weightless.
"I don't think you can count
on that"
Formalyn
Pyecraft wished that the effect
would gradually disappear.
"You committed the sin of
euphemism. You called it, not
fat, which is just and simple,
fat weight"
Formalyn
Pyecraft avoided the word “fat”
maybe because he was ashamed
of it and use the word “weight”
instead.
"Instead of being a prisoner
up here you may go abroad
again, Pyecraft! You may
travel"
Formalyn
Formalyn tried to give Pyecraft a
solution to his weightless
condition. He encouraged him to
"live" a normal life wearing lead
underwear.
"The secret's keeping, eh? If
anyone knew of it, I should
be so ashamed"
Pyecraft
Pyecraft referred to his lack of
weight, which was known only by
his house keeper and Formalyn
WHAT is he like?
A. Tick the characteristics that describe Pyecraft and Formalyn in the short story. Justify
your choice.
CHARACTERISTICS
PYECRAFT
FORMALYN
OBSESSIVE
✔
(Addicted to food and
obsessive about his weight)
NAIVE
✔
(He never understood that
there´s no such thing as a
short cut in life, no magic
diets)
IMPATIENT
✔
(He takes the recipe of
Formalyn all at once, wich
shows his lack of patience)
INSENSITIVE-
INCONSIDERATE
✔
(He only showed interest
because he wanted
Formalyn to lend him the
recipe)
ANXIOUS
✔
(He didn´t wanted to follow
a healthy diet, he wanted to
lose weight all of a sudden)
COLD
✔
(He disliked Pyecraft so he
showed himself rather cold
with him)
OVERWHELMED
✔
(He was feeling
overwhelmed because of
the constant talking of
Pyecraft about his fatness)
DETERMINED
✔
(He was determined to help
Pyecraft when he was
floating in the ceiling and
came up with lots of ideas)
PERSISTENT
✔
(When Pyecraft was in the
ceiling, Formlayn didn´t give
up on him and helped in the
way he could)
SENSITIVE
✔
(We can say Formalyn was a
bit sensitive because he
never showed interest
about anything and looked
like a good person, the
opposite as Pyecraft)
ANNOYED
✔
(Formalyn couldn´t stand
the talks about Pyecraft´s
fatness)
EMBARASSED
✔
(He commited the sin of
euphemism, because he
didn´t call “weight” as “fat”
as he should have done)
SETTING
A. The characters in the story meet at London club. What do you know about London
clubs in the late nineteenth century? Find information and be ready to share it with
your classmates.
LONDON CLUB: The club is a nineteenth century development of English social life. It was
first planted and raised on English Soil. Its origin might be traced to the London coffee-
houses which flourished in the reigns of William & Marry, and Queen Anne. London itself is
the club-capital, possessed of more stately edifices of this kind, affording at a moderate
expense to individual members, more commodious, varied, and liberal domestic
conveniences tan any other city in the world.
B. Write down all you can learn about a London Club in the story.
The club has luxurious accommodation.
Ample and splendid.
Really high subscription.
General excellence and variety of food.
Civility and attention shown to members by the attendants.
PLOT
What is the story about? What are the main events in the story? Write a summary.
Pyecraft is the owner of a club in London. He was a man obsessed with his own fatness.
Formalyn was a member of the club, who was bothered all the time by Pyecraft, talking to him
about his fatness al the time. But Formalyn tells him about a weight-loss recipe from his Hindu
great-grandmother and Pyecraft decides to try it. He began to float in the air near the ceiling.
They found out that the recipe reduces weight not mass, and although Pyecraft is continually
bemoaning his weight, he is in reality complaining about his mass. Formalyn assists with
various ingenious devices and techniques to allow Pyecraft to traverse his room while floating.
Pyecraft returns to the club with Formalyn’s assistance, but continues to overeat. They agree
to keep the secret of Pyecraft’s weightlessness to themselves.
THEME
What is the theme of the story?
The story concerns “the fattest clubman in London”, Pyecraft, and his efforts to lose weight. It
demonstrates the distinction between mass, an absolute measure of the amount of matter,
and weight, the relative attraction between two masses.
NARRATOR
Who tells the story?
The story is narrated by Formalyn, a Slim and active man.
FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
A:
Part 1
1. Meet by chance: casual strangers
2. Occasionally: often
3. A very unlikely possibility: remote, exceptional chance
4. The highest achievement: the last word Our Western drugs are anything but the
last word of medical science.
5. A place where fish are kept: Aquarium
6. Instructions for making food or drink: recipe
7. Cover (somebody) so that (he) can’t breathe: fall on me and smother me
8. Dangerous chance: (?)
9. Accept a sensible argument: “held his peace”
10. As well as I can: To the best of my ability
Part 2
1. Struck him fast: abruptly I realized
2. Waved his arms about: move one’s arms/ greet moving your arms
3. The wrong way up: Bump he went against the ceiling
4. A taste of liquid: little sip
5. Fit of rage: burst of passion
6. Very rudely: he spoke of me and my great-grandmother in the most insulting way
7. I explained : pointed out
8. To tell his secret to: confide
9. Was too strong for me: “the prescription” he said “Too successful”
10. Hardly anything: he weighs practically nothing
B.
1. not
2. not
3. not
4. no/no
5. nothing
6. never
7. no
8. not
9. not
10. no
11. not
C.
“The cat´s out of the bag” Some secret or surprise has been revealed or exposed.
Example:
Well, we were going to keep this project a secret until we were a little further along in develop
ment, but I guess the cat is out of the bag now.We've had hidden cameras and microphones in
stalled in his apartment to gather incriminating evidence, but I think the cat's out of the bag.
“He blackened his blood in Pyecraft´s interest” Formalyn says that he spoke badly of his
ancestors that had written the book because of Pyecraft . Formalyn “blackened his blood”
KEY to activities from The Truth about Pyecraft.pdf
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