Answer the following questions:
What is the author's argument against corporal punishment?
Judging by this letter, what are the arguments of some British ed-ucatiopists in favour of "caning"? 3. What is the approach of Russian educationists to the problem of corporal punishment in general? What are the reasons for it?
D) Write a paragraph to state your point of view on the problem.
II. a) Give a summary of the following article in English:
С самого первого урока
Нина Сергеевна чувствовала, что терпит поражение. Снача-ла она старалась, как умела, ничем не выдавать себя. Первой выходила из класса: быстрой, независимой походкой направля-лась к учительской. А дома долго не могла заснуть, мучительно искала причину...
Она недавно окончила педагогический институт. Предмет свой знала отлично. Всегда считалась первой в группе по мето-дике преподавания. И теперь вот... не справлялась с классом.
Бывали у нее на уроках, конечно, и завуч школы, и директор, но в их присутствии ребята сидели тихо. Внешне все выглядело благополучно.
Молодой учительнице казалось, что она любит детей. А ребя-та ее не приняли.. В первые дни как будто все было хорошо, а потом классы стали похожими на муравейники. На учительни-цу ребята просто не обращали внимания, и она ничего не могла поделать. Попытки овладеть классом приводили лишь к больше-му обострению отношений с учениками. Росло взаимное отчуж-дение, то и дело вспыхивали конфликты. В сердце учительницы поселилось отчаяние. А потом пришел день, когда ей стало как-то все безразлично...
Случай с учительницей К. далеко не единичен. Многие пре-подаватели, хорошо знающие свой предмет, не находят правиль-ного тона в общении с детьми, а потому и не испытывают радо-сти от своей работы. Вина это их или беда?
Иной учитель считает, что самое главное для него — это до-биться в классе дисциплины и порядка. И забывает о том, что методы, с помощью которых они устанавливаются, имеют не
меньшее воспитательное значение, чем сама дисциплина. Мож-но достичь видимости относительного благополучия окриком, угрозой. Некоторые учителя при этом самодовольно приговари-вают; "У меня не пикнут!". Но вряд ли такой педагог пользуется искренним уважением и любовью ребят.
Хочется заранее отвести возможные обвинения в том, что противопоставляется опора на интерес и вдохновение учителя требованию. Ничуть. Нужно и то и другое. Начни Нина Сергеев-на с продуманных, четких инструктивных требований, направ-ленных на создание работоспособного коллектива в классе, — и очень скоро рабочая атмосфера на уроке стала бы привычной. Вот тогда-то она смогла бы развернуть и свое дарование, увлечь ребят творческим порывом и пробудить интерес к знанию...
s
Discuss the text in pairs. (The talking point: "How important is the teach er's understanding of his relationships with the class?")
Answer the following questions:
Do you think Nina Sergeyevna's main fault was her failure to keep order in class? Or was it something else? 2. What do you think about different ways of maintaining discipline in class, such as rap-ping knuckles on the table, shouting, etc.? Do they have any effect?
Was it difficult for you to maintain good discipline at your lessons during your teaching practice? 4. What measures did you take if somebody tried to undermine the discipline?
Make up short monologues dealing with discipline problems in a second ary school. Say how you think the teacher should fight against truancy, tardiness, rowdyism, "I-don't-care attitude", etc.
III. Make a round-table discussion based on the talking points of this section.
KeyWords and Expressions: to have discipline problems; to keeporder (said of teachers); to come to order (said of pupils); to play tru-ant; to mark the register (to take attendance); to cope with difficult students; to maintain discipline in class; to establish communication; to undermine discipline; a feeling for atmosphere; to rap one's knuckles on the desk; to impose silence; to send smb. to the head's office, etc.
UNIT TWO
TEXT TWO
THE ESCAPE
By Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham, a famous English writer, was born in 1874 in Paris. He received his medical degree, but he never practised medicine; the ambition to write dominated his entire life. In 1897 "Liza of Lambeth", Maugham's first novel, ap-peared. It had no success. For the next ten years Maugham wrote and starved. He turned out a steady stream of plays and novels none of which excited much atten-tion. His luck changed in 1907. In that year "Lady Frederic", a comedy of manners, was produced in London. It had a bright, fashionable success. By and by, Maugham became internationally celebrated; his plays were performed all over the world. Now independent and well able to enjoy life Maugham began to travel. He came to know Europe thoroughly and spent long periods in the United States, the South Seas and China. His favourite country was Spain ("The Land of the Blessed Virgin" and "Don Fernando"). In 1915 Maugham published a novel that had been in preparation for many years. Called "Of Human Bondage" it was received by critics with great re-spect. Over the years, it has become a modern classic. Many popular successes fol-lowed its publication: "Ashenden", "Moon and Sixpence", "Cakes and Ale", etc. He died in 1965.
I have always been convinced that if a woman Once made up her mind to marry a man nothing but instant flight could save him. Not always that; for once a friend of mine, seeing the inevitable loom menacingly before him, took ship from a certain port (with a tooth-brush for all his luggage, so conscious was he of his danger and the necessity for immediate action) and spent a year travelling round the world; but when, thinking himself safe (women are fickle, he said, and in twelve months she will have forgotten all about me), he landed at the selfsame port the first person he saw gaily waving to him from the quay was the little lady from whom he had fled. I have only once known a man who in such circumstances managed to extricate him-self. His name was Roger Charing. He was no longer young when he fell in love with Ruth Barlow and he had had sufficient experience to make him careful; but Ruth Barlow had a gift (or should I call it a quality?) that renders most men defenceless, and it was this that dis-possessed Roger of his common sense, his prudence and his worldy wisdom. He went down like a row of ninepins.1 This was the gift of pathos. Mrs. Barlow, for she was twice a widow, had splendid dark eyes and they were the most moving I ever saw; they seemed to be
ever on the point of filling with tears; they suggested that the world was too much for her, and you felt that, poor dear, her sufferings had been more than anyone should be asked to bear. If, like Roger Char-ing, you were a strong, hefty fellow with plenty of money, it was al-most inevitable that you should say to yourself: I must stand between the hazards of life and this helpless little thing, or, how wonderful it would be to take the sadness out of those big and lovely eyes! I gath-ered from Roger that everyone had treated Mrs. Barlow very badly. She was apparently one of those unfortunate persons with whom nothing by any chance goes right. If she married a husband he beat her; if she employed a broker he cheated her; if she engaged a cook she drank. She never had a little lamb but it was sure to die.2
When Roger told me that he had at last persuaded her to marry him, I wished him joy.
"I hope you'll be good friends," he said. "She's a little afraid of you, you know; she thinks you're callous."
"Upon my word I don't know why she should think that." "You do like her, don't you?"
"Very much."
"She's had a rotten time, poor dear. I feel so dreadfully sorry for her."
"Yes, "I said.
I couldn't say less. I knew she was stupid and I thought she was scheming. My own belief was that she was as hard as nails.
The first time I met her we had played bridge together and when she was my partner she twice trumped my best card. I behaved like an angel, but I confess that I thought if the tears were going to well up into anybody's eyes they should have been mine rather than hers. And when, having by the end of the evening lost a good deal of mon-ey to me, she said she would send me a cheque and never did, I could not but think that I and not she should have worn a pathetic expres-sion when next we met.
Roger introduced her to his friends. He gave her lovely jewels. He took her here, there, and everywhere. Their marriage was announced for the immediate future. Roger was very happy. He was committing a good action and at the same time doing something he had very much a mind to. It is an uncommon situation and it is not surprising if he was a trifle more pleased with himself than was altogether becoming.
Then, on a sudden,' he fell out of love. I do not know why. It could hardly have been that he grew tired of her conversation, for she had never had any conversation. Perhaps it was merely that this pathetic
look of hers ceased to wring his heart-strings. His eyes were opened and he was once more the srewd man of the world he had been. He became acutely conscious that Ruth Barlow had made up her mind to marry him and he swore a solemn oath that nothing would induce him to marry Ruth Barlow. But he was in a quandary. Now that he was in possession of his senses he saw with clearness the sort of woman he had to deal with and he was aware that, if he asked her to release him, she would (in her appealing way) assess her wound-ed feelings at an immoderately high figure.3 Besides, it is always awkward for a man to jilt a woman. People are apt to think he has behaved badly.
Roger kept his own counsel. He gave neither by word nor gesture an indication that his feelings towards Ruth Barlow had changed. He remained attentive to all her wishes; he took her to dine at restaurants, they went to the play together, he sent her flowers; he was sympathetic and charming. They had made up their minds that they would be married as soon as they found a house that suited them, for he lived in chambers and she in furnished rooms; and they set. about looking at desirable residences. The agents sent Roger orders to view and he took Ruth to see a number of houses. It was very hard to find anything that was quite satisfactory. Roger applied to more agents. They visited house after house. They went over them thoroughly, examining them from the cellars in the basement to the attics under the roof. Sometimes they were too large and sometimes they were too small, sometimes they were too far from the centre of things and sometimes they were too close; sometimes they were too expensive and sometimes they wanted too many repairs; sometimes they were too stuffy and some-times they were too airy; sometimes they were too dark and sometimes they were too bleak. Roger always found a fault that made the house unsuitable. Of course he was hard to please; he could not bear to ask his dear Ruth to live in any but the perfect house, and the perfect house wanted finding. House-hunting is a tiring and a tiresome business and presently Ruth began to grow peevish. Roger begged her to have pa-tience; somewhere, surely, existed the very house they were looking for, and it only needed a little perseverance and they would find it. They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens. Ruth was exhausted and more than once lost her temper.
"If you don't find a house soon," she said, "I shall have to recon-sider my position. Why, if you go on like this we shan't be married for years."
"Don't say that," he answered. "I beseech you to have patience. I've just received some entirely new lists from agents I've only just heard of. There must be at least sixty houses on them."
They set out on the chase again. They looked at more houses and more houses. For two years they looked at houses. Ruth grew silent and scornful: her pathetic, beautiful eyes acquired an expression that was almost sullen. There are limits to human endurance. Mrs. Bar-low had the patience of an angel, but at last she revolted.
"Do you want to marry me or do you not?" she asked him. There was an unaccustomed hardness in her voice, but it did not
affect the gentleness of his reply.
"Of course I do. We'll be married the very moment we find a house. By the way I've just heard of something that might suit us."
"I don't feel well enough to look at any more houses just yet.". "Poor dear, I was afraid you were looking rather tired."
Ruth Barlow took to her bed. She would not see Roger and he had to content himself with calling at her lodgings to enquire and send-ing her flowers. He was as ever assiduous and gallant. Every day he wrote and told her that he had heard of another house for them to look at. A week passed and then he received the following letter:
Roger,
I do not think you really love me. I have found someone who is anxious to take care of me and I am going to be married to him today.
Ruth.
He sent back his reply by special messenger:
Ruth,
Your news shatters me. I shall never get over the blow, butof course your happiness must be my first consideration. I send you herewith seven orders to view; they arrived by this morning's post and I am quite sure you will find among them a house that will exactly suit you.
Roger.
Commentary
He went down like a row of ninepins, (fig.) here: He was defeated at once and surrendered without resisting.
She never had a little lamb but it was sure to die: There wasnever anything dear to her that she wouldn't lose. "A little lamb" is
somebody that one loves dearly; an allusion to the well-known nurs-ery rhyme:
Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow, And everywhere that Mary went, The lamb was sure to go.
3. she would assess her wounded feelings at an immoderately high figure: she would make him pay much for jilting her.
ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY
Vocabulary Notes
hazard n a chance, risk or danger, as a life full of hazards; thehazards of one's life; at all hazards at all risks; whatever dangers there may be, e.g. You should do it at all hazards, to take hazards to run risks, e.g. He was aware that he was taking hazards but there was no way back.
hazard vt 1) trust to chance; take the risk of, e.g. Rock-climberssometimes hazard their lives. 2) offer or venture, as to hazard a re-mark (guess), battle
hazardous a risky; dependent on chance, as a hazardous climb.
Ant. safe, secure, sheltered.
persuade vt I) convince; lead (a person) by argument to believesomething or to think in a certain way, as to persuade a person of the truth of a report, e.g. I persuaded myself that all was well. 2) cause (a person) by argument to do something, e.g. His friends could nev er persuade him to go to a hockey-match: he said the absurdity of the game made him feel too sorry'for the players.
persuaded p.p. (predic. only) certain; convinced, e.g. I am almostpersuaded of his honesty.
persuasion n, e.g. No persuasion on my part could make him doit. He agreed to stay in bed only after much persuasion.
Word Discrimination: to convince, to persuade.
Both are rendered in Russian as «убеждать». То persuade may be translated into Russian by «склонять, уговаривать»; this shade of meaning does not apply to convince, which will help to distinguish the difference between the two words.
To convince a person means to satisfy his understanding as to the truth of something by proof, evidence or arguments, e.g. Nothing will convince me that lies and falsehoods can be justified. Adjectives: convinced, convincing, as convinced bachelor; convincing proof, evidence, statement, reason.
To persuade a person is to influence him in some way, either by argument, proof or otherwise. Conviction or the process of convinc-ing leads to belief. Persuasion leads to action. A stubborn person may be convinced of the necessity of doing something, but nothing may be able to persuade him to do it, e.g. You have persuaded me that I must apologize.
To convince a person is to prove the truth to him. To persuade a person is more than that: it implies not only convincing, but also influencing a person to act, to do something on the basis of his conviction.
Persuade may refer to the process itself of arguing with a person whereas convince is never used in this sense, but implies rather the final result of argument. E.g. We were persuading him to give up that dangerous plan, but failed to convince him.
scheme vt/i plan or form a plan, esp. a secret or dishonest one, e.g. They schemed to overthrow their rivals.
scheme л 1) a plan, e.g. The designer acquainted us with the scheme. 2) an arrangement in which each part fits the other parts perfectly, as a colour (furnishing) scheme (i.e. an arrangement cho-sen so that the effect is pleasing) 3) a secret, esp. dishonest, plan, e.g. Their scheme was exposed and the criminals were soon put ontrial. 4) a carefully arranged statement of a plan, e.g. In the first les-son the teacher gave the students a scheme of work for the year.
commit vt 1) (usu.) to do a bad or foolish act, as to commit a crime, suicide, an error, e.g. He committed a grave error and he was conscious of it. I wonder what made him commit suicide. 2) hand over or give up for safe keeping; entrust; place, as to commit smth. to paper (to writing); to write it down, e.g. If you are very ill, you have to commit yourself to doctors and nurses. The prisoner was commit ted for trial (i.e. sent before the judges to be tried). The body was committed to the flames, (i.e. burnt). 3) to speak or act in such a way that one will be compelled to do smth., e.g. He has committed him self to support his brother's children (i.e. said or done smth. that makes it necessary for him to support them).
acute a 1) (of the mind and the senses) sharp; quick, e.g. Dogs have an acute sense of smell. A man with an acute mind soon knows
whether a book is valuable or not. 2) severe, sharp and sudden, e.g. A bad tooth may cause acute pain. 3) very strong; deeply felt, e.g. His son's success in the examinations gave him acute pleasure.4) (of an illness) serious and causing great suffering; coming sharp-ly to a crisis. (Cf. chronic), as acute gastritis 5) sharp, pointed, as an acute angle (one that is less than a right angle)
acutely adv, e.g. He was acutely conscious of her presence, andit made him unusually silent.
6. appeal vi 1) ask someone to decide a question; (esp.) ask some-one to say that one is right; ask earnestly for something, e.g. The prisoner appealed to the judge for mercy. She appealed to me to protect her. 2) move the feelings; interest; attract, e.g. Do these paint-ings appeal to you? (Do you like them?) Bright colours appeal to small children. The sea voyage does not appeal to me.
appealing pr. p., a imploring, e.g. The girl said it with such anappealing smile that Mr. Fowler, to his own surprise, granted the request, though but half a minute before he meant to refuse it.
appeal n І) an earnest call for help, as to collect signatures toan appeal, e.g. An appeal is being made for help for those who lost their homes in the earthquake. 2) a call to smth. or smb. to make a decision, e.g. So powerful seemed his appeal that the people were deeply moved. 3) interest or attraction, e.g. That sort of music hasn't much appeal for me. (I'm not much attracted by it.) The novel has general appeal, to make an appeal to smb. to attract smb., e.g. This type of romantic hero is sure to make an appeal to feminine hearts.
Word Discrimination: to address, to apply to, to appeal to, to turn to, to consult, to go to.
The Russian word «обращаться» has a number of equivalents in English:
To address, which is a formal word, means to speak to smb., tomake a speech, as to address a person, audience, meeting. It is not followed by a preposition, but in the expression "to address oneself to smb." the preposition "to" is used. E.g. It is to you, sir, I address myself. Also: That remark was addressed to his neighbour.
To apply (to smb. for smth.) is more limited in use than to address and is even more formal. We say: to apply to an authority, to apply for work, information, permission, a certificate, etc. E.g. Carrie de-cided to apply to the foreman of the shoe factory for work.
To appeal (to smb. for smth.) to ask earnestly for smth. (usu. forhelp or moral support), to appeal to someone's feelings.
To turn (to smb. for smth.) to go to someone for help (less formaland less emotional), e.g. The child turned to its mother for help.
To consult to go for advice or information, as to consult a lawyer,a doctor, a map, a dictionary. E.g. Nobody ever thought of consult-ing him. I must consult the doctor.
To see and to go to may be used in the meaning of "to consult" (coll.), as to see a doctor, a lawyer.
7. endurance n ability to endure, e.g. He showed remarkable powers of endurance. There are limits to human endurance.
endure vt/i 1) bear bravely; remain firm or unmoved; sufferwithout complaining, as to endure suffering (pain, torture, etc.), e.g. If help does not come, they will endure to the end, 2) suffer;bear; put up with (esp. in the negative with 'can, could, be able'), e.g. I can't endure that man. 3) last; continue in existence, as aslong as life endures.
enduring pr. p., a, as an enduring peace (i.e. one that will lasta long time)
8. content vt satisfy, e.g. There were no roses at the florist's, andwe had to content ourselves with big, red carnations. There is no contenting some people (i.e. it's impossible to satisfy them). contented a satisfied, as a contented look (smile, laugh, etc.) content a (predic. only) I) satisfied with what one has or has had;not wishing for any more, e.g. He is content with very little. 2) will-ing, e.g. I am content to remain where I am now.
content n the condition of being satisfied; feeling easy in one'smind, as to live in peace and content (i. e. peacefully and happily, with no worry or anxiety); to one's heart's content as much as one wants, e.g. And now you may enjoy yourself to your heart's content.
