Here is some of my vocabulary:

1)an enclosure - an area surrounded by a wall or fence; the act of making an area separate by putting a wall or fence around it; something that is put inside an envelope with a letter
Example: The enclosure of the court seems very old.
2)to reinforces - to give support to an opinion, idea, or feeling, and make it stronger; to make part of a building, structure.
Example:The army was reinforced with a fresh group of soldiers.
3)inferior - someone who has a lower position or rank than you in an organization
Example: He felt inferior to them.
4)fretwork - patterns cut into thin wood, metal etc or the activity of making these patterns
Example:We saw the fretwork of trees, which were wanderful.
5)to crackle - to make repeated short sounds like something burning in a fire
Example: We likes the sound of the fireplace, the sound of cracled sticks makes me calm.
6)to splurge - to spend more money than you can usually afford
Example:I decided to give myself a present, and really splurge on some new clothes.
7)a mosque - a building in which Muslims worship
Example: There are many beautifull mosques in Kazan.
8)ineluctable -impossible to avoid
Example:His destiny is ineluctable.
9)a riot - a situation in which a large crowd of people are behaving in a violent and uncontrolled way, especially when they are protesting about something
Example:A riot breaks out .
10)a flunky - someone who does small jobs for an important person, especially someone who does this because they are trying to please the person - used to show disapproval
Example:The king had a lot of flunkies.
11)a herbivore -an animal that only eats plants
Example: A hare is a herbivore animal.
12)a rhinoceros - a large heavy African or Asian animal with thick skin and either one or two horns on its nose, hippopotamus
Example:You are so clumsy like a rhinoceros.
13)a clincher - a fact, action, or remark that finally persuades someone to do something, or that ends an argument, discussion, or competition
Example:The expense was the clincher that persuaded us to give up the enterprise
14)a shrew - a very small animal like a mouse with a long pointed nose
Example:I was scared when I saw a shrew in our garden.
15)to swirl - to move around quickly in a twisting circular movement, or to make something do this
Example;Where the water is swirling around, there are dangerous currents.
16)a glimmer - a small sign of something such as hope or understanding
Example:No glimmer of hope.
17)dizzy - feeling unable to stand steadily, for example because you are looking down from a high place or because you are ill
Example:My head is quite dizzy, I need to sit right now.
18)a tarpaulin - a large heavy cloth or piece of thick plastic that water will not pass through, used to keep rain off things
Example:The roof is covered by tarpaulin now.
19)a bench - a long seat for two or more people, especially outdoors
Example:In childhood we loved to spend time sitting on the bench.
20)buoyancy - the ability of an object to float; the power of a liquid to make an object float; a feeling 
of happiness and a belief that you can deal with problems easily.
Example:A wooden things are rather buoyancy 
21)infirm - weak or ill for a long time, especially because you are old
Example:His grandfather was infirm after the war.
22)a lair - the place where a wild animal hides and sleeps (den); a place where you go to hide or to be alone
Example:Mice like to hide in small lairs.
23)gastric - relating to your stomach
Example:Don't eat fastfood, otherwise you have gastric problemes.
24)a gunnel -are a family of marine fishes in the order Perciformes 
Example:We was warching gunnes all the evening.
25)incongruous- strange, unexpected, or unsuitable in a particular situation
Example:We've never had such an incongruous situation before.
26)a depth - he distance from the top surface of something such as a river or hole to the bottom of it ( deep)
Example:He is not able to overcome this depth.
27)an oar - a long pole with a wide flat blade at one end, used for rowing a boat
Example:unship oars!
28)a canine - one of the four sharp pointed teeth in the front of your mouth; formal -a dog
Example:Royal Canine is one of the most popular firm of food for pets.
29)a predator - an animal that kills and eats other animals; someone who tries to use another person's weakness to get advantages
Example:A wolf is a predator.
30)a vintner - formal -someone who buys and sells wines.
Example:My father used to be a vintner.

Aspects of the culture reflected in the story. 

    I'll begin with the fact, that Pi is a multireligious person, he sees no difference between the love of God among Muslims or Hare Krishna, between the faith in Muhammad and the faith in Jesus. But they are three world religions, each of them has its own history, which in turn shows the difference in cultural aspects. There are some national-psychological features of representatives of different religions. The world perception,  attitude, mental aspirations, the mode of action and the spirit depend on religious priorities.
    Though Pi had his own national identity, it is difficult to talk about his mentality. That is why there could be some misunderstanding among readers of different nationalities, as everyone perceives a book in the own way, from the own vision of the problem.
But inspite of that, this book still will attract public's attention, because Pi is an Indian, we don't know much about this culture. And uniqueness and mystery of India is one of the reasons for reading this book, because it is one of the possibilities to learn more about the culture through a representative.
So, if compare Pi's culture to my own one, there are some differences.  Indians have their own ideal of feminine beauty. They considere that it's beautiful when all the parts of the body are proportional. Also ideal is a small face, so women use many complex decorations and natural flowers that helps to create the illusion of a small face.
    Another fact is that a Bengal tiger - the national animal of India. Probably that's why the tiger took so much place in this book for Pi. If you delve into the history, we can see that in ancient times in India lived  4 species of big cats: leopards, tigers, lions and cheetahs. A tiger captures best of all the essence of India. Freedom-loving, strong and wise, it is perfectly symbolizes the Indian people, who for centuries have often had to fight for their independence.
    To sum up, I can say, that there would not much serious difficulties to read this book, and you even can learn more about the culture of India.

My opinion about the book.

“What I liked about the story.”

Frankly speaking, I should begin with the fact, that the story is absolutly brilliant.  And there are many aspects which I liked:

• Interesting description of the psychology of animals, their habits and behavior in different conditions, there are bright images which appears during the reading.
• It is a multi-layered novel, in which you will be able to find all the secrets only closer to the finale. 
• Unexpectable  ending which turns your world upside down at the last moment.
• Uexplainable pleasures of exposition of the charm of the protagonist, the serious things which are worthy of reflection, narrated using accessible language.

“What I did not like about the story”

• The story, though it is quite fantastic, but pretty tough, violent, espesiallly the episode when the hyena was eating zebra.
• There were a lot of not exactly pleasant details of daily way of Pi's life.
• It is difficult to understand how one person can be a Christian and a Muslim, and Buddhist at the same time.
• The book in some places seemed delayed, some long retreats with the transition to philosophy seemed a little boring.

Filming the story.

    This novel is very complicated, so it seems like it's impossible to make a screen version. But  a brilliant director Ang Lee managed to do it! The film was shot in 2012. The actor who played a role of Pi was Suraj Sharma. Initially he even wasn't supposed to be an actor, he just came on the casting together with his brother. But the team of Ang Lee chose him from more than 3,000 applicants for the lead role! 

                                                               (Suraj Sharma)

Suraj Sharma, in fact, has never been in a boat with a live tiger. In most scenes the tiger was made with the help of computer graphics technology, and only some of the scenes, such as those where the tiger was swimming in the water, were taken for real.

Along with new unnowen actors, the famous talented actor Gérard Depardieu took part in the film. He had a role of the cook on the ship, accourding to the book he was the hyena in eye's of Pi. It was genius to take Gérard to this role, because in the book the sea cook was a French man. Here he had a negative role, but I think he did his best.

                                                                

Tabu or Tabassum Hashmi is an Indian actress. Tabu twice, as best actress, won the prize National Film Award. 4 times she was awarded the Filmfare's Critics Award for the Best Female Performer. Here she plays Gita Patel - the mother of Pi (the orangutan).

About the ending.

ATTENTION!!!  This article contains spoilers! If you don't want to know how the story ends before the reading, you should skip it!

    Now I've read all the novel up to the end. And I'm surprised, because nobody could guess that there are two completely different stories in this novel.
    After the great journey on the boat with all this problemes with the tiger, the boat finally reaches a coast of Mexica. The tiger went far inland, but Pi was saved by locals. Representatives of the shipping company came to the hospital to Pi, but they didn't belive in the story, which he told them, how he spent so much time with wild animals,  and after some time, only together with the tiger. That's why he told them a different story. The story without animals at all, which was more realistic. And which was a real truth. There was no tiger, the guy created him in his mind not to go mad! And the second story he told after the rescue is more plausible.
    The main idea is that people always want to believe in something because the belief is necessary to survive. If Pi belived in a real story with a cannibalism and murders which he told at the end, he would forever remain the intimidated, morally destroyed person, with the nightmares and bad memories. But he made up all these animals to make it easier to survive the event. The tiger is his fear, his pain. The tiger is himself. He tamed the fear, learned to live with it. All this story was his own invention. He made up and belived in it himself to remain the normal person. All his family was with him on the boat, but it was difficult for him to watch how the cook killed all his family and he was imagining that the hyena is the cook, who was offending  their family even on the board. The monkey is the boy's mother,whom he was unable to save from the cruelty in the boat, the zebra is one of the sailors.
    It's impossible to provide my own ending here, the story is too complicated and I need some time just to comprehend the reading. And in such stories there is no other way - he would always be resqued, but how he spent all the time in the ocean, whether there were animals or humans on the boat - that is the question.

The letter.

Dear Pi,

    It is a great honour for me to write you a letter. When I met you for the first time I would never predict what you managed to do. Of course, my first impression of you was that you are a brave and manful person. But when I knew you closer, I realized that you are not only brave, I began to study your character, your mind, and realized that the way you think is unusual for your age. maybe you grew up much earlier.
    I notice that people who love animals since childhood, grow more broad-minded, gifted, and the most important, humane. If you respect  animals and put them on the same position as yourself, then you'll never be cruel with people too. Although I think in your case, your character could not be spoiled, even in the absence of animals.
    It goes without saying that, I would like to be your friend. I have a lot to learn from you. Your temper inspires me, because I'm constantly fighting with myself, but you showed how to do it right: you have to be honest with yourself, then you should understand, that the fear is the only real enemy of life. Every time we are afraid of something - the opinions of others, we have the fear that something will not work, the fear of making a mistake. But in a situation of complete isolation it doesn't make sense to fear. If you are alone with the fear, that means you are weak. To achieve the desired, you must throw it away and move toward your goal.
    Of course,the despair sometimes  covered you, but you was trying to get up the courage, and whatever happened you've never forgotten of God.
You experience showed me, that  kindness, courage, adventurousness, hope exist, and you are one of the brightest examples.
    But the most important that you let people understand is what you believe is true. Sometimes we create something in our mind to make the life easier, not to go crazy. Our imagination helps us to survive, and it helped you. All the life and every situation in it depends on our attitude to it.
In conclusion, the only, that I can say is that you were right to use your imagination, otherwise you won't be morally health after all this, if you took it seriously. You would have nightmares all your further life. So, it was a good decision to look at everything through the reflection of your perception.

Sincerely yours,

Lisa.

Reading a review

Reading a review

Hello! Today I'm going to look through some reviews of this book to know what other people think of this book, whether they like it or not. And I saw the review appeared in the journal  "Canadian Literature" #177 (Summer 2003).
Yann Martel (Author)
Life of Pi.
Reviewed by Linda M. Morra

"The tripartite structure of Life of Pi, Yann Martel’s second novel and winner of the 2002 Booker Prize, corresponds to three major periods of the protagonist’s life: his adult life in Canada where he meets the narrator and divulges his life-story; his childhood in India followed by a traumatic experience at sea; and his rescue and recovery in Mexico. Initially, some cursory narrative details of the second and third of these parts suggest parallels with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Pi—whose equally resonant birth name, Piscine Molitor, is derived from the "crowning aquatic glory of Paris"—is lost at sea after a shipwreck. Like Crusoe, he survives the cruelties of starvation, isolation, loneliness (if one disqualifies the presence of Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger), and the elements, as he also becomes preoccupied with making a raft and the tools and means upon which his survival depends.
Martel’s novel, however, is no simple variant of the Crusoe adventure story. In fact, Life of Pi seems designed to impugn the bourgeois Puritan ideology that underlies Robinson Crusoe. An examination of the protagonists and their respective circumstances demonstrates this significant difference. Crusoe, the son of a wealthy merchant, initiates a sea voyage of his own volition rather than entering into business, as his father desires. No such option is given to Pi, whose sea voyage is born of necessity, not whimsical inclination. Notwithstanding the series of misfortunes he encounters, Crusoe is adept at duplicating his father’s business practices: he not only survives the shipwreck, but also applies the work ethic he has inherited from his father and amasses a small fortune. In contrast, Pi is obliged to relocate to Canada from Pondicherry, India, with his family and their menagerie of animals (which were part of a zoo, the family business) because of the country’s economic instability and political turmoil. No amount of hard labour would have transformed the zoo into a lucrative business since, as the narrator observes, "the Greater Good and the Greater Profit are not compatible aims."
The shipwreck is purportedly caused by a combination of bad weather and a mechanical failure; however, the shipping company demonstrates an utter lack of concern for its missing passengers, including Pi’s family, "a lowly Indian family with a bothersome cargo," and for its ship, a "third-rate rustbucket," because both were deemed economically insignificant. Within the ship itself, a hierarchy exists: there are the offi cers, who had "little to do with us," and the passengers, whose physical containment at the bottom of the ship’s hold indicates their social position. If social rank, as Martel observes about the animal kingdom, "determines whom [one] associates with and how," then it also determines one’s significance and worth: not only are Pi’s parents obliged to relocate from India as the result of their dire financial situation, their disappearance is virtually overlooked because of their low social status.
Martel’s novel is a kind of fictional biography, and, as such, displays certain hagio-graphical tendencies: presumably, Pi’s life is meant to be regarded as an exemplar. In this respect, the book also seems to critique the confessional, instructional facet of Defoe’s book, which derives its moral orientation from its resemblance to Puritan moral tracts. The autonomy and economic rewards that Crusoe and an upwardly mobile middle class enjoyed may have been the result of a solid work ethic, but they were also the product of imperial exploitation. Martel’s choice of an impoverished Indian for his protagonist seems implicitly to make this point about Crusoe’s position in the world. Moreover, if Crusoe himself discovers religious belief and experiences a conversion because of his hardships, Pi demonstrates a kind of spiritual precocity since he has explored—even celebrated—three major religious belief systems in advance of his ordeal at sea. A religious conversion is not engendered by his sufferings; instead, religious beliefs and rituals sustain him throughout his perils. Narrative itself becomes a means of sheltering from the cruelties of survival. The two versions of Pi’s life conveyed to the Japanese investigators at the end indicate that narrative, like religion, renders the cruelties of survival more tolerable.
Still, the narrator’s claim at the opening of the book is somewhat overwrought: that this is a "a story that will make you believe in God" seems to suggest a level of profundity and sophistication that the novel does not quite attain. The expectation built into Martel’s fiction is that it will transform reality in order to effect a transformation in its readers, but that expectation overestimates the power of the story. While Life of Pi is, at turns, interesting, clever, and layered, it is also inconsistently compelling and occasionally contrived."


So, I've read the article by Linda M. Morra. She is an associate professor at Bishop’s University, specializes in Canadian studies and literature, with a particular focus on twentieth-century Canadian writers.
The author expressed her impressions of the book and she thinks that it is very attractive and interesting book. In her opinion it's not a simple variant of Crusoe adventure novel or something similar to it. It's more more thought-out story, full of deeper meaning than just survival in the ocean, in the absence of conditions for life. This novel is more psychologically filled with thoughts about the meaning of existence, the struggle against their own will. In spite of Crusoe, who discovered religious belief and experiences a conversion because of his hardships, Pi demonstrates a kind of spiritual precocity since he has explored—even celebrated—three major religious belief systems in advance of his ordeal at sea. So, these book are radically different and can not be compared.
Also the author shows her idea, that nowadays people became more selfish, nobody will care if you are lost, that proves the situation in the novel, as the shipping company demonstrates an utter lack of concern for its missing passengers, including Pi’s family, because they were deemed economically insignificant.
In the author's opinion the choice of an impoverished Indian for his protagonist seems not accidental. He shows the status of poor people in the world. I can prove the words of the other with thee frases from the book: "a lowly Indian family with a bothersome cargo,", a "third-rate rustbucket,", etc.
I agree with Linda, I think that the book is with a deep sense. Each reader could spend quite a bit of time pondering the spiritual implications of the deep relationship that develops between Pi and Richard Parker over the course of their confinement together. And each can find their own understanting of some thoughts of the author of the book. This novel can show how close can be animals and humans.
In conclusion, I can say that many people like this book, mostly everybody call it the best book ever, all the readers, who wrote their comments said that they could not give up reading and be away of this book.