I. Екзамен
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4 short stories by Hrinchenko for B2
The Exam and Other Stories Екзамен та інші оповідання
Borys Hrinchenko, 1928
The complete original in Ukrainian, not an adaptation: four stories by Borys Hrinchenko, a village schoolteacher who later compiled the great Ukrainian dictionary of 1907-1909, written between 1884 and 1891 and gathered here by MovaReader. Three are about village school and childhood, one about a girl left alone in a big city. It is for upper-intermediate learners who want a short first classic: about 8,400 words in 4 stories, from about 600 to 4,500 words each.
- B2
- 8 392 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 the dialogue of Украла is within reach, but the 1928 spelling, the examiner’s Russian-Ukrainian mix and the long descriptions of Сама, зовсім сама make most pages slow going.
B1B2
This text
At B2 you can read it in two or three sittings: start with Украла or Екзамен, where short dialogue carries you, and the old spellings soon stop surprising you.
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the stories read freely; only the examiner’s mangled Russian and the two Russian quotations will make you pause.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words, and 9.1% of the words have 9 letters or more, under the line of about one word in ten where this catalogue puts a complete original at C1. That is close to Vynnychenko’s Момент та інші оповідання (8.7 words, 9.8%, B2) and well below Khvylovy’s Сентиментальна історія (11.1 words, 11.0%, C1). Dialogue keeps the pages moving: 167 of the 391 paragraphs are spoken lines. What keeps it at B2 is the 1928 spelling and the Russian inside the Ukrainian: particles joined with a hyphen (що-ж, як-би, може-б, 65 times), хиба for хіба (14 times), инший and инколи for інший and інколи (8). In Екзамен the examiner speaks a Russian-Ukrainian mix (харашо сдєлал, and обикно́венно, his favourite word, 7 times), and a Krylov fable and the Lermontov epigraph of Сама, зовсім сама are in Russian. Екзамен is the hardest story, with 12.2% long words. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 8 392
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
- 1928
- Рух
Рух, 1928. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
In Екзамен (The Exam), the one-room school of Topolivka is patched up with clay for the great day: a member of the school board is coming to examine the boys. The children wait from morning until three o’clock, and the smallest one plans to run away. The examiner, Kutsenko, a former village clerk turned bank director, tests Ukrainian village boys in Scripture, arithmetic and Russian, the only language of school in the Russian Empire and one he mangles himself. In Сама, зовсім сама (Alone, All Alone), sixteen-year-old Maryna, called Marysia, has buried her mother in a strange city and goes from door to door looking for work while the landlord demands the rent. In Украла (She Stole), the class accuses little Oleksandra of stealing a classmate’s bread and wants her thrown out of school, but the teacher, Vasyl Mytrovych, wants to hear her first. Чудова дівчина (The Wonderful Girl) is a short parable: a boy playing in a meadow meets a beautiful girl in chains who sings him her sorrow. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Екзамен та інші оповідання
II. Сама, зовсім сама
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Choose an underlined word.
The examiner’s Surzhyk
Kutsenko mixes Russian into his Ukrainian and Hrinchenko spells it with Ukrainian letters: харашо сдєлал is Russian хорошо сделал (did well), in Ukrainian добре зробив; отца is Russian for батька; слушаєшся is слухаєшся; обикно́венно (usually), his verbal tic, is Russian обыкновенно. The frightened boy answers in plain Ukrainian, Слухаюсь, and that contrast is the point of the scene.
The 1928 spelling
This edition joins the particles б and ж to the word before with a hyphen: хотіла-б and може-б are хотіла б and може б today, що-ж is що ж. Ледви is an older form of ледве (barely), до їх is до них (to them), and дак is a colloquial так. Доложу, the lackey’s word, is a Russianism for доповім (I’ll report).
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
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When the examiner asks a frightened boy “А ти уважаєш отца? Слушаєшся?” (And do you respect your father? Do you obey him?), whole-sentence translation in Reader helps: уважаєш and слушаєшся are Russian verbs with Ukrainian endings, standard поважаєш and слухаєшся.
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Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
Yes, every story is complete and unabridged. The selection and the title are MovaReader’s: four stories taken from volume I of Hrinchenko’s Works (Твори, Kyiv: Rukh, 1928) via Wikisource. The spelling is that edition’s, so forms like що-ж, хиба or инший stay as printed, and so do two short Russian passages, the Lermontov epigraph and a Krylov fable read at the exam. Екзамен and Чудова дівчина first appeared in 1884, Сама, зовсім сама in 1885 and Украла in 1891. Hrinchenko, who taught in village schools himself, wrote Екзамен at a time when Ukrainian was kept out of schools in the Russian Empire.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook on MovaReader: the stories are read on screen, and tapping a word shows its translation. You will want it for words such as завдачник (a book of arithmetic problems) in Екзамен and пропасниця (a fever with chills) in Сама, зовсім сама.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps most with colloquial and old forms, for example “Не треба нам наймичок, а хоч і треба, дак і без тебе обійдеться” (we don’t need maids, and even if we did, we’d manage without you) in Сама, зовсім сама, where дак is a colloquial так. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole collection takes about 1-2 hours at the pace of someone reading with translation of new words. I. Екзамен has about 2,200 words, II. Сама, зовсім сама about 4,500 in five numbered parts, III. Украла about 1,100 and IV. Чудова дівчина about 600, so each story fits into one sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
It gets easier after the first story. I. Екзамен has 10.5 words per sentence and 12.2% long words, plus the examiner’s Russian-Ukrainian mix. II. Сама, зовсім сама drops to 9.1 words and 8.2%, III. Украла has 9.3 words and 8.8% and is almost half dialogue, and IV. Чудова дівчина has longer sentences (11.7 words) but the fewest long words (5.8%). If the exam scene is too dense, start with Украла.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. Once you sign in, the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened, so you can come back story by story. Each of the four stories also opens from the contents on this page, for example III. Украла, where a class wants to throw a hungry girl out of school.