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a conversation with my father grace paley
my father is eighty-six years old and in bed. his heart, that bloody motor, is equally old and will not certain jobs any more. it still floods his head with brainy light. but won’t let his legs carry the weight of his body around the house. despite my metaphors, this muscle failure is not due to his old heart, he says, but to a potassium shortage. sitting on one pillow, leaning on three, he offers last minute advice and makes a request.
“i would like to write a simple story just once more,” he says,” the kind de maupassant wrote, or chekhov, the kind you used to write. just recognizable people and then write down what happened to them next
i say, “yes, why not? that’s possible.” i want to please him, though i don’t remember writing that way. i would like to try to tell such story, if he means the kind that begins: “there was a woman…” followed by plot, absolute line between two points which i’ve always despised. not for literary reasons, but because it takes all hope away. everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.
finally i thought of a story that had been happening for a couple of years right across the street. i wrote it down, then read it aloud. “pa,” i said, “how about this? do you mean something like this? ”
once in my time there was a woman and she had a son. they lived nicely, in a small apartment in manhattan. this boy at about fifteen became a junkie, which is not unusual in our neighborhood.
in order to maintain her close friendship with him, she became a junkie too. she said it was part of the youth culture, with which she felt very much at home. after a while, for a number of reasons, the boy gave it all up and left the city and his mother in disgust. hopeless and alone, she grieved. we all visited her.
reading comprehension test
put “+” next to the true sentences and “-” next to the false ones.
1. my father is an energetic 68-year-old man.
he wants his daughter to write a complex epic novel.
he likes simple stories with recognizable people.
i will write him a simple story.
the woman’s boy was 10 years old.
her son left her wealthy and well cared for.
circle the correct letter
my father spends his time in …
a) bed; b) church; c) the cafes; d) pain and sufferings
his heart is weak but has not reduced the follow of blood …
a) to his legs; b) to his strong arms and shoulders; c) to his head; d) to his liver
he thinks i write simple stories like …
a) shultz and dilbert; b) bulgakov and shevchenko; c) chekhov or de maupassant; d) chekhov and marquis de sade
i was … to write a simple story for my father.
a) unwilling; b) eager; c) saddened; d) unable
the woman and her son lived in …
a) sumy; b) poland; c) manhattan; d) washington d. c.
the boy became a junkie, which was … where we lived.
a) common; b) uncommon; c) looked down upon; d) held in high esteem
iii. fill in the blanks
make up 5 questions of different types.
once in my time there was a woman and she had a son. they lived in a small apartment in manhattan. this boy at about fifteen became a which is not in our neighborhood.
in order to her close friendship with him, she became a junkie too. she said it was part of the , with which she felt very much at home. after a while, for a number of reasons, the boy gave it all up and left the city and his mother in hopeless and alone, she grieved. we all visited her.
1.nicely 2.unusual 3. youth
disgust 5. junkie 6. maintain
I mention in the piece that even though there are both advantages of advanced technology, I wish a more developed world, with great technologies. Today, we can’t imagine ourselves without technological advances such as cars, microwaves, cell phone, computers and televisions. However, technology won’t stop here, but develop further. As technology develops, there are not only advantages, but disadvantages from them. A few advantages of upgraded technology are that one can save time and money and life will be made easier as a result of not having to do all the hard labor. In contrast, the disadvantages of upgraded technology are that people will loose their jobs to machines that will do the work for them. I personality would want a developed world with advanced technologies. My major reason is because when you have advanced technologies, life is much easier as robots and machines would take over your daily life chores. For example, daily life chores might be serving your breakfast, cutting your lawn, or cleaning your room. With robots and machines doing one’s chores one has time to relax.Other reasons why I want advanced technologies are because they save a great deal of time and money. Another example of benefits from advanced technology is that if there are new, developed vehicles that will transport people to anywhere rapidly, so that one would not need to spend all those boring, long hours in an airplane to try to get another country. As there are so many advantages from highly developed technology, there also is a great deal of disadvantages from them. One advantage is that as technology develops, robots and machines will take over many jobs and people will loose their by contrast. As people loose their jobs, they will have hard time getting money which would make it hard for them to continue to meet living expenses. Another disadvantage of highly developed technology is that machines and robots are complex. It is hard to activate all the machines you have unless you can multitask. Even as there are as many advantages and disadvantages of technology, I personally wish a more advances world with great technologies. In the future it would be more about using your brain and being intelligent that doing the hard labor yourself. I hope these days come within my lifetime.
Britain has recent by been described as a “leisure society.” This is because there are a great variety of leisure pursuits. Young people generally go out on Friday or Saturday nights to a disco, to a concert or to a pub. In recent years going out for a meal or getting a take-away meal have become popular too. During the past years there is a great increase in keeping fit and staying healthy. A lot of teens started running, jogging and going to different fitness clubs in their spare time. Aerobics classes and fitness clubs opened in every town, and the number of recreation centres greatly increased. Indoor pools, with their wave-making machines, water slides and tropical vegetation, have became very popular.
The same is true in Russia. A lot of teens go in for different kinds of sport. Sport helps them to feel as fit as a fiddle. In both countries there are special programmes for problem teenagers, such as a high-risk activities, for example they are taught to jump out of aeroplanes. But despite the increase in the number of teens participating in sport, the majority of young people still prefer to be spectators. They prefer to be couch potatoes. Watching sports on TV is a popular leisure activity, as is going to football matches on Saturday. Cinemas have been redesigned with four or more screens, each showing a different film at the same time, and a lot of teens like going to the cinemas too.
The young generation is fond of communication. There are many available methods of communication nowadays, and the most popular one is computers. A lot of teenagers spend plenty of time working on computers. The Internet seems really good fun. You may send e-mails to friends from different countries and get their answers instantly. You even may talk to them. It is easy and quick. A lot of teenagers have mobile telephones, so they can always be contacted, if they keep their telephone switched on, at any time of the day or night, or tend text messages.