1. Find English equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Однояйцевые близнецы; страдать от головных болей; лучше всего выражать свои мысли устно; справляться со стрессом; в ранней юности; не проявлять никакого интереса к политике.

2. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions.

To be proficient in writing; to avoid conflict; to have nightmares; fraternal twins; vocational orientation; research on genetic and environmental factors.

3. Rearrange the statements as they occur in the text. (Give numbers.)

1. One wore his hair over his forehead, the other slicked it back and had sidebums.

2. Both sisters handled stress by ignoring it, avoided conflict and controversy whenever possible.

3. Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were separated at 4 weeks of age and did not see each other again until they were 39 years old.

4. Two other female identical twin sisters were separated at 6 weeks and reunited in their fifties.

5. The twins are interviewed and asked more than 15,000 questions about their family and childhood environment, personal interests, vocational orientation, values, and aesthetic judgments.

6. Both liked math but not spelling, enjoyed carpentry and mechanical drawing, chewed their fingernails down to the nubs.

7. The Minnesota study of identical twins indicated how scientists have recently shown an increased interest in the genetic basis of human development.

8. Daphne and Barbara were called the “giggle sisters” because they were always making each other laugh.

Text 9 on eccentrics and eccentricity

Have you ever ridden a pig or a bear? Do you walk backward? Do you keep a leopard for a pet? If not, you are like millions and millions of other people on our planet. If so, you are an eccentric. Eccentrics don’t live like other people. They may seem mad, but they aren’t: they are just different.

Twelve years ago, an American psychologist Dr. David Weeks got interested in eccentrics. He started his study in the UK — “the country of eccentrics”. It turned out, however, that eccentrics lived in the US, Australia and other countries, too. Dr. Weeks has interviewed 1,100 eccentrics and come to some interesting conclusions.

He says that eccentricity is not mental illness. What is more, eccentrics are healthier, happier and live longer than the rest of us!

According to Dr. Weeks, “classic eccentrics” number only about one in 10,000 people. Most of them are men. They are often eldest or only children raised in strict families. They often have strange eating and sleeping habits and are poor conversationalists. But they are more intelligent and read far more than ordinary people.

Eccentrics are curious, creative and inventive. They have at least one hobby (usually five or six) and prefer to five alone. They tend to be cheerful and idealistic, full of projects to improve the world and make it a better place to live.

“They don’t try to keep up with the Joneses and they usually have a firm belief that they are right and the rest of the world is wrong,” Dr. Weeks says.

According to popular belief, eccentrics are wealthy people who can afford to be eccentrics.

But nowadays eccentrics are just as likely to work at ordinary jobs. Dr. Weeks has met a University professor who fives in a cave, a critic who spends all his time in bed, a social worker who lives only on potatoes and nothing but potatoes, an engineer who walks everywhere backwards because it makes him feel younger.

Patch Adams, a doctor from Virginia, often dresses as a clown when he visits his patients. He believes that “money has ruined medicine” and does not take money for his services. Dr. Adams’ philosophy is that “if everyone’s fife was bathed in friendship, humour, love, creativity, hope, curiosity and wonder, we would need a lot less medicine.” Probably he is right.