GIRLYOOD OF ANNA BRANGWEN

Anna became a tall, awkward girl... She was sent to a young la­dies school in Nottingham.

And at this period she was absorbed in becoming a young lady. She was intelligent enough, but not interested in learning. At first, she thought all the girls at school were ladylike and wonderful, and she wanted to be like them. She came to a speedy disillusion: they failed and maddened her, they were petty and mean. After the loose, generous atmosphere of her home, where little things did not count, she was always uneasy in the world, that would snap and bite at every trifle.

A quick change came over her. She mistrusted herself, she mis­trusted the outer world. She did not want to go on, she did not want to go out into it, she wanted to go no further.

"What do I care about that lot of girls? " she would say to her fa­ther, contemptuously, "they are nobody."

The trouble was that the girls would not accept Anna at her measure. They would have her according to themselves or not at all.

So Anna was only easy at home, where the common sense and ³ supreme relation between her parents produced a freer stan­dard of being than she could find outside.

At school, or in the world, she was usually at fault, she felt usually that she ought to be slinking in disgrace. She never felt quite sure in herself, whether she were wrong or whether the others were wrong. She had not done her lessons: well, she did not see reason why she shoulddo her lessons, if she did not want to.

Was there some occult reason why she should? Were these people, schoolmistresses, representatives of some mystic Right, some Higher Good? They seemed to think so themselves. But she could not for her life see why a woman should bully and insult her because she did not know thirty lines of "As You Like It". After all,what did it matter if she knew them or not. Nothing could persuade her that it was of the slightest importance. Because she despised inwardly the coarsely working nature of the mistress. The fore she was always at outs with authority. From constant she came almost to believe in her own badness, her own intrinsic inferiority. She felt that she ought always to be in a state of slinky disgrace, if she fulfilled what was expected of her. But she rebelled She never really believed in her own badness. At the bottom of her heart she despised the other people, who carped and were lоud over trifles. She despised them, and wanted revenge on them. She hated them whilst they had power over her.

Still she kept an ideal: a free, proud lady absolved from the petty ties, existing beyond petty considerations. She would see such ladies in pictures: Alexandra, Princess of Wales, was one of her models. This lady was proud and royal, and stepped indifferently over small, mean desires: so thought Anna, in her heart. And the girl did up her hair high under a little slanting hat, her skirts were fashionably bunched up, she wore an elegant, skin-fitting coat.

She was seventeen, touchy, full of spirits, and very moody: quick to flush, and always uneasy, uncertain. For some reason or other, she turned to her father, she felt almost flashes of hatred for her mother. Her mother's dark muzzle and curiously insidious ways, her mother's utter surety and confidence, her strange satis­faction, even triumph, her mother's way of laughing at things and her mother's silent overriding of vexatious propositions, most of all her mother's triumphant power maddened the girl.

She became sudden and incalculable ... the whole house contin­ued to be disturbed. She had a pathetic, baffled appeal. She was hostile to her parents, even whilst she lived entirely with them within their spell.

(From "The Rainbow" by D.H. Lawrence)

1. Answer the following questions:

1. What do we learn about Anna's relationship to the girls at school in Nottingham?

2. In what kind of environment did girl grow up? How did it contribute to her personal development?

3. Was Anna a disciplined and hard-working pupil at school? How can you account for her lack of interest in learning?

4. What do think is an essential conflict in the girl's character? What made her mistrust the outside world?

5. Was the girl entirely or partially right when despising her schoolmistresses, "who carped were loud over trifles"?

6. Why did she turn to a royal ideal to satisfy her ego?

7. How did Anna's attitude to her parents change at the age of seventeen? What do you think are the reasons it?

8. What were the most remarkable traits of Anna's character at made her unlike the girls of her age?

9. How can you apply the formation you obtained from the story to the problems which you are facing or will have to face as a future parent (a teacher)?

2. Find in the text the arguments to illustrate the following:

Anna Brangwen was not what we call a "problem" child, but a child who was just having problems like most young people of her age. Try and preserve the wording of the original. Add your arguments as well.

3. Summarize the text in four paragraphs specifying the role of the family background and school experience in the moulding of a person's character.

LIVING BY SWORD

When Cristina Sanchez told her parents that she wanted to become a bullfighter instead of a hairdresser, they weren't too pleased. But when she was eighteen her parents realized that she was serious and sent her to a bullfighting school in Madrid, where she trained with professionals.

Since last July, Sanchez has been the most successful novice in Spain and is very popular with the crowds. After bril­liant performancesin Latin America and Spain earlier this year, Sanchez has decided that she is ready to take the test to become a matador de toros. Out of the ring, Sanchez does not look like a matador. She is casually elegant, very feminineand wears her long blond hair loose. She seems to move much more like a dancer than an athlete, but in the ring she is all power.

When she was fourteen, Sanchez's father warned her that the world of bullfighting was hard enough for a man and even harder for a woman. It seems he is right. "It really is a tough world for a woman," says Sanchez. "You start with the door shut in your face. A man has to prove himself only once, whereas I have had to do it ten times just to get my foot in the door."

In perhaps the world's most masculine profession, it would seem strange if Sanchez had not met problems. But even though Spanish women won the legal right to fightbulls on equal terms with men in 1974, there are still matadors like Jesulin de Ubrique who refuse to fight in the same ring as her, Sanchez lives with her family in Parla, south of Madrid. Her family is everything to her and is the main support in her life. "My sisters don't like bullfighting, they don't even watch it on TV, and my mother would be the happiest person in the world if I gave it up. But we get on well. Mum's like my best friend." When Sanchez is not fighting she has a tough fitness routine – running, working out in the gym and practicing with her father in the afternoon. By nine she is home for supper, and by eleven she is in bed. She doesn't drink, smoke or socialize. "You have to give up a lot," says Sanchez. "It's difficult to meet people, but it doesn't worry me – love does not arrive because 37 you look for it."

Sanchez spends most of the year travelling: in summer to Spanish and French bullfights and in winter to Latin America. Her mother dislikes watching Sanchez fight, but goes to the ring when she can. If not, she waits at home next to the tele­phone. Her husband has had to ring three times to say that their daughter had been injured, twice lightly in the leg and once seriously in the stomach. After she has been wounded, the only thing Sanchez thinks about is how quickly she can get back to the ring. "It damages your confidence," she says "but it also makes you mature. It's just unprofessional to be injured. You cannot let it happen." Sanchez is managedby Simon Casas, who says, "At the moment there is no limit to where she can go. She has a champion's mentality, as well as courage and technique."

1. Complete the sentences:

1) When Sanchez told her parents that she wanted to be a bullfighter they …

a) felt a little pleased.

b) thought she was too young.

c) thought she had a good sense of humour.

d) were initially opposed to the idea.

2) Sanchez thinks that …

a) living in today's world is difficult for a woman.

b) bullfighting is a difficult career for women.

c) it is almost impossible to succeed as a female bullfighter.

d) women have to demonstrate their skills as much as male bullfighters do.

3) Sanchez's mother …

a) is everything to the family.

b) prefers to watch her daughter on TV.

c) supports her more than the rest of her family.

d) would prefer Cristina to leave the ring.

4) What does "it" refer to?

a) the fitness routine

b) not socializing

c) giving up

d) smoking

5) Sanchez doesn't socialize often because …

a) she doesn't like cigarettes and alcohol.

b) her work takes up most of her time.

c) she is worried about meeting people.

d) it's too difficult to look for friends.

6) What does Sanchez think about after being injured?

a) her next chance to fight bulls

b) her abilities

c) her development

d) her skills

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 4005