3.1. Reading Comprehension

1. Skim the text (read quickly without attention to detail). In the first 3 paragraphs the main points are underlined. Select what you think are the main points in paragraphs 4-8.

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

1. H.L.Mencken presents a generally accepted view on the meaning of life in his essay.

2. Inaction is a recuperative measure between bursts of activity.

3. What a person does and enjoys doing all his life is the result of hard work and discipline.

4. The author of the essay had a talent for putting ideas into words.

5. The author does choose what to do.

6. He was determined to become a writer since his boyhood.

7. He has always been interested in possible effects of his works on other people.

8. Most of all he enjoys his work.

9. He was sent to Sunday-school to get acquaintance with Christian hymnology.

10. His parents wanted him to become a clergyman.

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

4. A) Make a list of linking words and phrases connecting the ideas of the text.

b) 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 is H.L.Mencken’s purpose in writing the essay?

2. According to the author is there in every living creature an obscure but powerful impulse to active functioning?

3. Does the author believe that a person chooses what to do in life or is it ordained by the inscrutable fate?

4. Has the author ever been interested in the effects of his activity upon other people’s lives?

5. Can you call a person lucky if he makes a good living doing precisely what he has wanted to do?

6. Has the author ever in his life experienced anything that could be plausibly called a religious impulse? What was his attitude to religion?

7. What firm conviction did the author have?

8. Many people incline to suspect that human life has no meaning, don’t they?

9. How does the author perceive immortality?

6. Mind-map the text.

7. Read the text again and translate all the italicized word-combinations and phrases into Russian.

8. 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. Satisfaction people get out of life.

2. Religion and the meaning of life.

3. Active functioning versus idleness.

Go on doing; obscure impulse; active functioning; a measure of recuperation; living creature; bursts of activity; healthy organism; be idle; determined by the equipment/heredity; to lie easiest to one’s hands; an insatiable interest; to play with something; the average facility; a dealer in something; conscious volition; to be ordained; the inscrutable fates; to yield to; to urge someone to do something; to make a good living; to do for nothing; no reward for; to be fortunate; make one’s living at tasks; to interest someone; to have share of woes; enjoy satisfaction; effects on someone; to please someone; to profit someone; to satisfy oneself; to care; to take something or to leave something; to have fun; agreeable work; to attain happiness; domestic affections; a day-to-day intercourse with; to have disputes; to associate with; friends of old standing; to delight someone; the same general tastes; to see the world alike; to give someone pleasure; to be devoid of; a religious impulse; agnostic; to be exposed to; to accept something; palpable absurdities; the act of worship; debase rather than ennoble; to grovel before; a clear conscience; to treat someone; with politeness; one’s barbaric torture of; to revere the God; to believe in immortality; to issue the puerile ego; an inferior man to get revenge upon someone; to foster human qualities; to triumph over someone; to be content; to vanish into.