Gender Readings. Top Ten. Ренц Т.Г - 74 стр.

      Gibbon: Edward Gibbon (1737—1794) is famous for his De-
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
      Girton College: the first women’s college in Cambridge.
      Madre snaturale: what an extraordinary mother.
      popular science: i. e. books on popular science.
      wholesome: good for the health.
      absorption: deep interest.
      If... true: this is the kind of sentence that Bernard Russell uses
in order to make us think carefully. The thought expressed in it is “If
you think you are losing your mental powers, stop thinking so and
you will not lose them. If you have never thought so, you are in no
danger of losing them.”
      become indifferent to: lose interest in.
      passionately: this is a human emotion applied to the river.
      break: interval, pause.

A. Answer these questions:
     1. “Choose your ancestors carefully.” Why does the writer say this?
     2. What is Russell’s reci pe for remaining young? Do you agree
with him?
     3. What are the two psychological dangers that we must guard
against in old age?
     4. What should one do to achieve a successful old age?
     5. Who may be justifiably afraid of death, and why?
     6. How does the writer himself wish to die?
B. Choose expressions in the story to put in place of those in italics:
      1. My mother’s father died at the age of sixty-seven.
      2. My grandmother spent all her time on women’s education.
      3. There is a good set of instructions for making bread in this
cookery book.
      4. Are you interested in books on science for non-scientific readers?
      5. You need not worry about the actual figure of your age.
      6. Old people sometimes have too deep an interest in the past.
      7. Animals stop taking an interest in their young after a time.
      8. Old people should try to develop interests outside themselves
and their own families.
      9. You can still help your children by giving them things that
they need.

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