Reading - Agony
Fill in the blanks
THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY
1. Summer, traditional time of moonlight and romance, is in the air and bookshops are busting out all over with advice for those whose path is strewn with briars. Agony aunts, marriage counsellors and psychologists have rushed into paroxysm of print: how to have a good relationship, stay together, solve your problems, how to understand the opposite sex. They are the relationship experts, dispensing understanding and advice to anyone who has hit a bad patch.
2. To write about the pursuit of happiness is brave; to offer guidance is braver still. It betokens a confidence in their own opinion that some might call foolhardy. One cannot but ask who are these self-styled authorities? Do agony aunts manage their lives and loves with equal perception and professionalism, or is a fair share of strife essential to sympathy?
3. Irma Kurtz makes no bones about calling herself an agony aunt. Hers is the common-sense counsel of an outspoken friend, freely dished-out to thousands of readers in one of Britain's top women's magazines. She claims no formal training, no favourite philosophy, no know-it-all dogma. As Irma says, "Endless curiosity and an irrepressible compulsion to communicate what I'm thinking are probably the two highest qualifications for this job. Nosy and bossy in other words."
4. That and empathy. Irma - wise, warm, funny, tolerant - is the first to admit how many of the problems which arrive in her post bag strike a chord, the last to take the moral high ground. "I too, have been there in my time, and, more than once, believe me, made a mess of things," she writes in her book, Ten-point Plan for an Untroubled Life. "I've sent letters I wished I hadn't in my time," she confides, "I have been out with men I did not really love and loved men I did not really like much."
5. She is 59, and now relishes the richness of life in a tiny flat in London's West End; theatres and restaurants only a heartbeat away. The ten-point plan is a self-help book, she says, "It's very important to have the confidence to solve your own problems and not immediately cry "Help", because no one is more expert in your own experience than you, and I really think we are forgetting that."
6. "I didn't expect to be on my own at 60. I never cared about marriage, but I always believed I'd find this great love." Twice she was deeply in love; "The first time and the last time, like bookends. With the last one, ten years ago, I remember thinking, "Dear God, just get me out of this in one piece and I'll never do it again, never."
7. But this, as she is keen to point out, is only her experience, "You can't assume that it will be everyone's; all it teaches you is the variety and possibility of life." If there is one vital lesson to pass on, she says, it would be the importance of the essential. "Keep in view what matters to you - be it friendship, love or whatever - and don't let silly things get in the way. Listen to the music and ignore the static."
Comprehension: WRITE THE LETTER OF YOUR CHOICE
1. In the introduction, what point is the writer making about the type of book she mentions?
A. Sales are booming at the moment.
B. They are attracting a lot of publicity.
C. Some new titles have just appeared.
D. Some surprising people are writing them.
2. The writer expresses a doubt about whether the people who write these books:
A. have sufficient experience.
B. Are suitable qualified.
C. Lead happy lives themselves.
D. Really understand the problems of others.
3. Irma Kurts's approach can be described as based on:
A. certain guiding principles.
B. Interest in other people.
C. Research into human behaviour.
D. A keen sense of humour.
4. Irma Kurtz admits that:
A. she has made mistakes in her life.
B. She often turns to others for help.
C. She is dissatisfied with her present life.
D. She regrets not getting married.
5. What is Irma's principal piece of advice to people?
A. Be open to life's possibilities.
B. Don't look to others for help.
C. Don't let love pass you by.
D. Know your own priorities.
FIND WORDS in the text meaning:
1. too curious about other people's lives:
2. unwise:
3. deeply enjoy something:
4. give for granted:
5. anything: