Additional reading

Exercise 1. Keiko and Akira have been friends for a long time. But something has happened, and they might not be friends anу longer. Read the story and find out: what has happened to hurt, and maybe even end, their friendship?

Friends or Lovers?

Akira and Keiko leave the university library after several hours of studying together, something they do often. Suddenly, Akira tries to kiss Keiko. Keiko is shocked.

"What are you doing, Akira?" Keiko asks, hardly able to speak. "You're my best friend. We've been friends for five years. You're closer to me than my brother. And now you want to kiss me?"

Akira explains, "I want our friendship to be even closer."

"No, no, no! I don't think of you in that way. You're my friend. Best friends don't act that way."

Akira looks confused. "I don't understand. Don't you see me as a man?"

"Of course I do," replies Keiko. "You're a handsome man. But you're a special man...my best friend. So we can't do this. Now do you understand?"

"No, not at all. Here is how I see it. You're a woman and I'm a man. We like each other very much. We're very close. So let's do what is natural in any male-female relationship."

"Natural? I think our friendship is natural. I thought I understood you. Maybe I was wrong," cries Keiko.

Akira's face is red. "So you really don't like me at all. You just want someone to talk to." He turns and walks quickly away.

Keiko's anger turns to sadness. In her heart, she thinks Akira is wrong—men and women can be friends without being lovers. But now she's not sure. What if all men think like Akira?

Exercise 1. Answer the questions:

1. For how long had Keiko and Akira been friends?

2. In what way did Akira confuse Keiko? What did He want to show?

3. How did Keiko explain her reaction?

4. What was Akira`s argument for his action?

5. What thoughts was Keiko full of after that event?

Exercise 2. What do you think? Can a man and a woman be close friends without being lovers? Check the opinions you agree with.

• Sometimes they can be friends, but usually friendship between a man and a woman is difficult.

• Maybe not. If a man and a woman are close friends, they will naturally become lovers.

• Yes, they can. I know a lot of cases like that among my friends.

• It's impossible, because men always want to have sex with women they like.

• Of course they can. I have some good men friends and we're just friends.

Exercise 3. What is your best friend like? Use three adjectives.

For example, tall, kind, talkative.

She (He) is _______, _______and____

Why is that person your best friend?

For example, She helps me when I'm in trouble.

We have a great time talking together.

1.

2.

3.

Is your best friend a man or a woman?

Let’s think

Everybody knows that health is the most valuable thing of all. You can have everything: a brilliant career, a lot of money, a loving family, but if you haven’t got health – you have nothing. Only one moment may change the whole life. Today you are a healthy man, tomorrow – a deadly ill person. You realise that every month, week, day, even a second makes you incapable to move your legs or arms, just breathe. Your friends and relatives will take care of you but it is so difficult to see their sufferings... And you’ve decided. What if I help myself and my close people? Just take some more drugs? Man should be strong enough to make such a decision. Or is it man’s weakness? Can man decide himself whether to live or to die? Perhaps, illness is a sore trial sent by God for sins?

What is your opinion?

1. Study the words.

to make a decision	di ̀siʒ(ə)n	принять решение
a deadly mixture of smth	̀dedli ̀mikst∫ə	смертельная смесь чего-либо
drug (n)	̀drg	лекарство; наркотик
to enjoy smth (v)	̀indʒi	наслаждаться ч.-л.
disease (n)	di ̀zi:z	болезнь
cell (n)	̀sel	(биол.) клетка
brain (n)	̀brein	мозг
cord (n) spinal cord	̀spainl k:d	(анат.) связка спинной мозг
to paralyse (v)	̀pærəlaiz	парализовать
to swallow (v)	̀swləu	глотать
to breathe (v)	bri:ð	дышать
to cure for disease (v)	̀kjuə	вылечить болезнь
to kill oneself (v), to end one’s life, to commit suicide	kə`mit `sjuisaid	покончить с собой
coffin (n)	̀kfin	гроб
to bury (v)	̀beri	хоронит
to keep on (v)		продолжать
a life-support machine (n)	`laif sə`pt mə̀∫i:n	аппарат для поддержания жизнедеятельности
to become a vegetable	bi ̀km ̀vedʒitəbl	стать «овощем»
regardless of	rìga:dləs v	независимо от, не считаясь
to punish for smth	̀pni∫	наказывать за что-либо
to inject (v)	in`dʒekt	делать инъекцию
to suffer from (v)	̀̀sfə	страдать от
to put in prison	`priz(ə)n	посадить в тюрьму
euthanasia (n)	,ju:θə`neiziə	эвтаназия

Euthanasia – practice of mercifully ending a person’s life in order to release the person from an incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or undignified death. The word euthanasia derives from the Greek for “good death” and originally referred to intentional mercy killing. When medical advances made prolonging the lives of dying or comatose patients possible, the term euthanasia was also applied to a lack of action to prevent death.

2. Guess the meaning of the words and explain their meaning.

Nerve cells, vocal cord, to paralyze, to become a vegetable.

3. Make up derivatives.

Noun				paralyses (pl. -ysis)
Adjective		successful
Verb	to breathe		to inject

4. Find the synonyms.

A. to make a decision, drugs, disease, to kill oneself, to keep on.

B. to go on, illness, to solve, to commit suicide, medicine.

5. Match the words with their definitions.

to enjoy	a piece of equipment which keeps a person alive when they are seriously ill
brain	the box in which a dead person is buried or burnt
coffin	the organ of the body in the upper part of the head
to bury	to cause someone who has broken the law to suffer
regardless of	to get pleasure from, like
to inject	to put a dead body into a grave
a life-support machine	to put (liquid) into someone with a special needle
to punish (for smth)	without worrying about or taking account of