As One Grows Older

(From “Writer’s Notebook” by W.Somerset Maugham)

As one grows older, one becomes more silent. In one’s youth one feels an intense fellowship ¹ with other people, one wants to throw oneself in their arms and one feels that they will receive one. One wants to open oneself to them: one wants to penetrate ² into them. One’s life seems to overflow into the lives of others and become one with theirs as the waters of rivers become one in the sea.

But gradually the power one felt of doing all this leaves one; a barrier rises up between oneself and one’s fellows, and one realizes that they are strangers to one.

¹ fellowship n. – чувство товарищества

² penetrate v. – зд. понимать

7.27. Complete the following dialogue at a reception in a hotel by putting the verbs in brackets into the correct tense (Present Continuous or Present Simple).

A: How … you … (do). My name … (be) Richard Schatzmann.

B: Pleased to meet you. I … (be) Isabel Miguel.

A: So, where … you … (come) from?

B: From Spain. I … (work) in the Madrid office.

A: So, I … (suppose) that you … (work) on the new IT project.

B: That’s right. But how … you … (know) about the project? We … (try) to keep it confidential.

A: Yes, I … (know). But we … (belong) to the same project. In fact we … (carry out) the same project at the moment.

B: Really. Well, how many people … your project … (involve)?

A: I’m afraid I … (not know). In fact no-one … (know). It’s confidential at the moment!