1. Reading Comprehension

1. Skim the text (read quickly without attention to detail). Select what you think are the main points in paragraphs 1-8.

2. Read paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 more carefully and decide which of the following statements are true and which are false.

1. He urge to write can be injected into the human nervous system.

2. If a person has no impulse to tell the world anything try to force him to do so.

3. Many text-books tell you that it takes years and years to become a good writer.

4. Useful writing is not at all different from creative writing.

5. Every creative writer becomes successful no matter weather he is talented or not.

6. O’Henry cared for the public and wrote only for his reader.

7. The author believes that if a useful writer is uninterested in most of the topics he shouldn’t write at all.

8. The author recommends making no changes in what has been written even in the light of maturing judgment.

9. The best writers produce the same amount of works as the average writers do.

10. The best writers are never absorbed in the expression of ideas and they can neither see nor manage the whole picture of their writing.

3. Make a list of key words and phrases for every paragraph.

4. Make a list of phrases used to express the author’s opinion.

5. Read the text and find answers to the following questions:

1. What does the author think about the urge to write?

2. What categories does the author divide people into?

3. Why is the author skeptical when he speaks about people without the inner impulse to tell the world anything?

4. What should you do according to peddlers of correspondence courses and textbooks to become a good writer?

5. What categories of writers does the author single out?

6. What do useful writers write about?

7. Do many creative writers succeed?

8. Who generally helps writers to succeed?

9. Why did O. Henry become a nightmare of editors?

10. Why did O. Henry ignore the public?

11. Why didn’t O. Henry’s manuscripts fit to print?

12. Why does the author think that writing helps thinking?

13. How according to the author can you reach fresh and better conclusions?

14. What is the difference between the best and the poor writers in so far as thinking a problem over is concerned?

15. What is the difference between the best and the poor writers in so far as their attitude to their first ideas are concerned?

16. The best writers hold their ideas cheap. What about the poor writers?

17. What is the attitude of the best and the poor writers to criticism?

18. What style of writing is typical of poor and average writers? The best writers versus the poor writers.

6. Read the text again and translate all the italicized words and word-combinations into Russian.

7. Work at the list of topical vocabulary. Divide all the entries into categories in accordance with the suggested headings and give their Russian equivalents:

1) The urge to write cannot be injected into the human nervous system.

2) Useful writers take the world as they find it.

3) O’Henry clung to the worst possible rule: in writing forget the public.

Think things through; reach conclusions; reflect steadfastly; it is no accident; keen voluminous conversationalists; deal with facts; to lay bare one’s pain over; be deceived by; thoroughly unnatural; the ability to write may be acquired; useful writing; be curious and inquisitive; lively imagination; sympathize with; see smb’s point of view; bear in mind; creative writing; verify and interpret facts; by and large; self-centered; lose relish; cling to; take smb seriously; become nightmare of; be fit to do; be the laughing-stock; rare gift; care nothing for; toil over.