What Is the Cost of Genius?

Some children are endowed with such 1)……………..… talent that there seems to be no accounting for it. And, while heredity factors apparently have little to do with genius, there is a clear 2)………….… between the parents’ involvement and the child’s 3)……………… .

Parents can help (or hinder) the development of a child prodigy in a(n) 4)……………… number of ways, ranging from the attentive but not too 5)……………… to the downright 6)……………… . The story of pianist Ruth Slezhynska, who made her debut in 1929 at the age of 4, is quite frightening. In her autobiography she tells how her father made her practise 9 hours every day. He tolerated no mistakes and hit her at the least wrong note. At the age of 15 she suffered a mental 7)………………… that put an end to her career.

1) except 3) accomplish 5) push 7) break

2) connect 4) finite 6) obsess

4. CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONS

Doing some activity in the classroom a teacher should be sure that his instructions are clear to his pupils. Study the classroom instructions given below and complete them.

1. ‘Right, I'd like to give you some homework. We've done a lot of listening and speaking today but we haven't done much reading, so 1)……... like you to do some reading. It's the texts and tasks 2)…………. pages 48 and 49 of your books. Can you look at them now? Just read the exercises through to 3)……….. sure you know what you have to do. OK? Now 4)………..Activity 1 just write a very short answer; for Activity 2 just write the word for the filling 5)…….. the number of the text and for Activity 3 write me a paragraph 6)……..… each situation. OK? Is this clear? Manuel, could you explain the homework to 7)………...?

Thank you. Now, could you do the homework on a 8)……..of paper and get it in to me 9)……….. Friday. OK?’

2. ‘So, now you're going to listen to the excerpt again but this time for another reason. You'll need to listen much more carefully this time because you'll be listening 1)……….. detail. When you listen I want you to decide 2)…….…. some statements are true or false. The statements are 3)……… Section 7, Activity 3 on page 61. Can you find them, please? 4)…….... them?

All right, now before you listen I'd just like you to read the statements through. If there's anything you don't understand 5)…….… ask me. Was there 6)………... you didn't understand? Everything clear? OK, then I'm going to 7)………… you the cassette. As you listen, decide if each statement is true or 8)…………… . Put a T 9)……………… the true ones and an 10)……….. against the false 11)……... . OK?’

3. 'OK, now I'm going to give out a passage, but it's a passage 1)……a difference. It's not complete: it's got 2)..........in it. Now, each blank 3)…………. to one missing word and what I want you to do is 4)…………. in the missing words. Do you understand what you've got to do? Cristina, can you 5)….... to the others? ... Yes, that's right. Now, to be able to fill in the blanks, don't just 6)….…Read the words before and after the blank and decide what meaning the word must 7)…...and also what part of speech it must be, 8)……..example, a noun or a preposition or an adjective, etc., etc,

'OK, you can work in 9)……so you can talk 10)…………..your answers as you go along. Is that all clear? OK, I'll just 11)………out the passage. Cristina, could you help me, please? Thanks.'

4. 'Right, in Section 7, Activity 1 on page 122 you'll 1)….…five statements. All of them express an opinion. Maybe you'll agree with this opinion or maybe you won't, or maybe you'll think it 2)………..depends. So the first 3)……………is to find out what you think of these opinions. I want you to read 4)…the statements and write a 2 after them if you agree with them, a 0 if you disagree and a 1 if you think it depends.

OK, now have you done 5)………? Has everyone finished? All right, now the next thing is to see if you agree with one 6)….…. . Could you get into and 7)……….what you've put? If you don't agree with one another, give reasons for your opinions and discuss what you think. Maybe you can make partners 8)…………….their minds.'

5. READING

Read the article and do the assignments that follow. You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 1-13 based on the text given below.