4. Fill the gaps with a suitable word.

1. At work, James … across as serious and a bit boring, but outside of work he’s completely different; he’s really good … .

2. It’s important to … a good impression on your first day in a new job.

3. I’m sure he can find the place; he just needs to use his common … .

4. Meeting new people doesn’t worry her; she’s a very self- … young woman.

5. It’s hard to know what Sam thinks – he doesn’t really … his feelings.

6. Do you think … impressions are very important? I do.

7. I always have a laugh with my cousin – he’s got a great sense of … .

8. She is so … -minded: she cannot accept any ideas different from her own.

5. Which prefix forms the opposite of these words? You need three different prefixes.

unhappy, flexible, friendly, honest, reliable, sensitive, kind, pleasant.

6. What nouns can be formed from these adjectives? Use a dictionary to help you.

Kind, optimistic, punctual, lazy, confident, ambitious.

Reading

1. Read the following text paying attention to the words and word-combinations in italics. Write down all international words from the text. Text a Psychology and Character

In general we may say that character is the expression of the personality of a human being, and that it reveals itself in his conduct. In this sense every man has a character. At the same time only human beings, not animals have character: it implies rationality. But in addition to this usage, the term is also employed in a narrower sense, as when we speak of a man “of character”. In this connotation character implies a certain unity of qualities with a recognizable degree of constancy or fixity in mode of action.

The behaviour of each human being at any stage of his existence is the outcome of a complex collection of elements. A man’s character is the results of two distinct classes of factors: the original or inherited elements of his being, and those which he has himself acquired. On the one hand, every human being starts with a certain nature or disposition – a native endowment of capacities for knowledge, and feelings, and tendencies towards volitions and action – which varies with each individual. This disposition is dependent in part on the structure of the bodily organism and especially of the nervous system which he has inherited; in part, perhaps, also on his soul which has been created. It forms his individuality at the beginning of life and includes susceptibilities for responding to external influences, and potentialities for developing in various ways which differ with each human being.

Although our original temperament is thus given to us independently of our will, we ourselves play an important part in the moulding of our character, and we thus become responsible for certain ethical qualities in it. Character has been defined as “a completely fashioned will”. It would be more accurate to say that character is “Natural temperament completely fashioned by the will”. It is, in fact, a resultant of the combination of our acquired habits with our original disposition. As the quality, shape, and structure of the organism and of its different parts may be variously modified in the process of growth – especially during the plasticity of early life – by variations in nutrition, exercise, and environment, so may the faculties of the soul be variously developed by the manner in which it is exercised, and by the nature of the objects on which its faculties are employed.

The regular use of the intellect, the controlled activity of the imagination, the practice of judgment and reflection, contribute to the formation of habits of mind more or less thoughtful and refined. Finally the exercise of the will plays the predominant part in moulding the type of character which is being formed. The manner and degree in which currents of thought and waves of emotion are initiated, guided, and controlled by the will, or allowed to follow the course of spontaneous, has not less effect in determining the resultant type of character than the quality of the thoughts or emotions themselves. Character is in fact the outcome of a series of volitions, and it is for this reason we are responsible for our characters, as we are for the individual habits which go to constitute them.

Whilst psychology investigates the growth of different types of character, ethics considers the relative value of such types and the virtues which constitute them. The problem of the true moral ideal is, in some ethical systems mainly, and in all systems partially, a question of the relative value of different types of character. The effect on the agent’s character of a particular form of conduct is a universally accepted test of its moral quality. Different systems of ethics emphasize the importance of different virtues in the constitution of the ideal moral character.

In all conceptions of ideal character strength forms an essential feature. Firmness of will, fortitude, constancy in adhering to principle or in pursuit of a noble aim hold so important a place that in common language to be a man of character is frequently equivalent to being capable of adhering to a fixed purpose. Finally, the richer the culture of the mind, the larger the intellectual horizon, the broader the sympathies, and the more balanced the springs of action in the soul, the more will the character approximate to the ideal of human perfection.

The true aim of education is not merely the cultivation of the intellect but also the formation of moral character. Increased intelligence or physical skill may as easily be employed to the detriment as to the benefit of the community, if not accompanied by improved will. Both do not necessarily go together. As it is the function of ethics to determine the ideal of human character, so it is the business of the theory or science of education to study the processes by which that end may be attained and to estimate the relative efficiency of different educational systems and methods in the prosecution of that end. Finally, it is the duty of the art of education to apply the conclusions thus reached to practice and to adapt the available machinery to the realization of the true purpose of education in the formation of the highest type of ideal human character.