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seriously, they feel that their point of view is significant; that the
world of today is something which only they can comprehend; and
that the future of mankind must hinge on what they say or do. This
sense of mission has led some politicians to believe that young people
have a new maturity. The fact is that to have matured at even the
normal speed they would have needed, from the beginning, to have
talked a great deal less and learnt a great deal more.

Assignments

1.Find statements in the text you possibly agree or disagree with and give
your reasons.

2.Write a summary of the text.

***

Text 3

POOR FISH

1
By Alberto Moravia

People never know very much about who they are, nor about
who is inferior to them and who superior. As for me, I went too far in
the direction of thinking myself inferior to everybody. I used often to
say to myself: now let’s run over our own qualities. Physical strength,
then – nil: I am small, crooked, rickety, my arms and legs are like
sticks, I’m like a spider. Intelligence - very little above nil,
considering that I’ve never managed, out of all the jobs there are, to
rise above that of dish-washer in a hotel. Looks – less than nil: I have
a narrow, yellow face, eyes of an indefinite, dirty colour, and a nose
that seems to have been made for a face twice as broad as mine; it is
big and long, and looks as if it was going straight down, and then, at
the tip, it turns up like a lizard raising its snout. Other qualities, such

1
Текст друкується за виданням Читай и говори по-английски. Вып. 16/
Авт. вып. С.Д. Лыско. – М: Воениздат, 1980.

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