Clean Up Your Room

(by Art Buchwald)

You don't really feel the generation gap in this country until a son or daughter comes home from college for Christmas. Then it strikes you how out of it you really are.***

This dialogue is probably taking place all over America this week.

"Nancy, you've been home from school for three days now. Why don't you clean up your room?"

"We don't have to clean up our room at college, mother."

"That's very nice, and I'm happy you're going to such a freewheeling institution.**** But while you are in the house, your father and I would like you to clean up your room."

"What difference does it make? It's my room."

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* it is only by a certain effort of will – это вошло в привычку

** I had to find my way among a set of foolish prohibitions – мне пришлось искать выход из глупых запретов

*** Then it strikes you how out of it you really are. – Вы внезапно понимаете, насколько мало вы знаете свою собственную дочь.

**** a free-wheeling institution – заведение без всяких правил, где вы можете делать все, что хотите

"I know, dear, and it really doesn't mean that much to me. But your father has a great fear of the plague.* He said this morning if it's going to start anywhere in this country, it's going to start in your room."

"Mother, you people aren't interested in anything that's relevant. Do you realize how the major corporations are polluting our environment?"

"Your father and I are very worried about it. But right now we're more concerned with the pollution in your bedroom. You haven't made your bed since you came home."

"I never make it up at the dorm**

"Of course you don't, and I'm sure the time you save goes toward your education. But we still have these old fashioned ideas about making beds in the morning and we can't shake them. Since you're home for such a short time, why can't you do it to humour us?"

"For heaven's sake, mother, I'm grown-up now. Why do you have to treat me like a child?"

"We're not treating you like a child. But it's very hard for us to realize you're an adult when you throw all your clothes on the floor."

"I haven't thrown all my clotheson the floor. Thoseare just the clothes I wore yesterday."

"Forgive me. I exaggerated. Well,how about the dirty dishes and empty soft-drink cans*** on your desk? Are you collecting them for a science protect?"****

"Mother, you don't understand us. You people were brought up to have clean rooms. But our generation doesn't care about things like that. It's what you have in your head that counts."*****

"No one respects education more than your father and I do, particularly at the prices they're charging.****** But we can't see how living in squalor can improve your mind."

"That's because of your priorities. You should rather have me make up my bed and pick up my clothes than become a free spirit who thinks for myself."

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* your father has a great fear of the plague – папа страшно боится чумы

** dorm = dormitory– здание, где живут учащиеся колледжа

*** soft-drink cans – банки от безалкогольных напитков

**** for a science protect = for scientific research

***** It's what you have in your head that counts. – Принимаетсявовнимание то, что в вашей голове.

****** particularly at the prices they're charging – особенно если учесть плату, которую они берут

"We are not trying to stifle your free spirit. It's just that Our Blue Cross has run out, and we have no protection* in case anybody catches typhoid."

"All right I'll clean up my room if it means that much to you. But I want you to know you've ruined my vacation."

"It was a calculated risk I had to take. Oh, by the way – I know this is a terrible thing to ask of you, but would you mind help me wash the dinner dishes?"

"Wash dishes? Nobody washes dishes at school."

"Your father and I were afraid of that."

Assignments:

1. Speak of the generation gap.

2. What do you think is the ideal approach to the younger generation? (Discuss this problem in class.)

From "The Sandcastle"**

(by Iris Murdoch)

I. It was fine clear evening. Мог closed the door of the Sixth Form room and escaped down the corridor with long strides. He had just been giving a lesson to the history specialists of the Classical Sixth.*** Donald, who was in the Science Sixth,**** had of course not been present. It was now two years since, to Mor's relief, his son had ceased to be his pupil. Мог taught history, and occasionally Latin, at St Bride's*****. He enjoyed teaching, and knew that he did it well. His authority and prestige in the school stood high, higher, since Demoyte's departure, than that of any other matter. Мог was well aware of this too, and it consoled him more than a little for failures in other departments of his life.

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* Говоря это, мама имеет в виду, что они больше не могут платить за услуги Голубого креста, а значит, не смогут получить бесплатного лечения в больнице.

** «Замок на песке» – роман Айрис Мердок

*** The Sixth Class is a period of preparation for A Level exams taken at the age of 18 either in humanities or in science (the choice of subjects is optional).

**** The Classical Sixth is a class with a bias in humanities, the Science Sixth– in science.

***** St Bride's – название школы

Now, as he emerged through the glass doors of Main School* into warm sunshine, a sense of satisfaction filled him, which was partly a feeling of work well done and partly the anticipation of a pleasant evening. This evening there would be the strong spicy talk of Demoyte. If he hurried, Мог thought, he would be able to have one or two glasses of sherry with Demoyte.

Demoyte lived at a distance of three miles from the school. Demoyte was a scholar. For his scholarship Мог, whose talents wore speculative rather than scholarly, admired him without envy; and for his tough honest obstinate personality and his savage tongue Мог rather loved him. His long period as Headmaster of St Bride's had been punctuated by violent quarrels** with members of the staff, and was still referred to as "the reign of terror."

Demoyte had not been easy to live with and he had not been easy to get rid of. Ever since Мог had come to the school, some ten years ago, he bad been Demoyte's lieutenant*** and right-hand man.

What Demoyte cared about was proficiency in work. As for morality, and such things, Demoyte took the view that if a boy could look after his Latin prose his character would look after itself.****

Very different was the view taken by the Demoyte's successor, the Reverend Giles Everard. The training of character was what nearest to Everard's heart and performance in Latin prose he regarded a secondary matter.

II. The chief buildings of St Bride's were grouped unevenly around large square of asphalt which was called the playground. Although the one thing that was strictly forbidden therein was playing. The building consisted of four tall red-brick blocks: Main School, which contained the hall, and most of the senior classrooms, and which was surrounded by the neo-Gothic tower; Library which continued the library and more classrooms, and which was built close against Main School, jutting at right angles from it; School House, opposite to Library, where the scholars ate and slept; and "Phys and Gym"* opposite the Main School, which contained the gymnasium, some laboratories, the administrative offices, and two flats for resident masters.** The St Bride's estate was extensive, it lay along the slops of a hill. There was a thick wood of oak and birch, cut by many winding paths, deep and soft with old leaves, the paradise of the younger boys. On the fringe of this wood, within sight of the library, stood the Chapel. Beyond this, hidden among the trees, were the three houses to which the boys other than the scholars*** belonged, where they lived and took their meals and, if they were senior boys, had their studies. Beyond the wood lay the squash**** courts and the swimming pool – and upon the other side, were the music rooms and the studio.

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* Main School – (зд.) the building which contained the gymnasium, some laboratories, the administrative offices, and two flats of resident masters.

** had been punctuated by violent quarrels – был отмечен бурными ссорами

*** lieutenant– (зд.) заместитель

Обыгрывается английская пословица: "Take care of the репсе and the pounds will take care of themselves".

III. What Мог did see, at the corner of the playground near the far end of the Library, was his son Donald.

"Hello, Don," says Мог, "how goes it?"

Donald looked at him, and looked away at once. He was tall enough now to look Мог in the eyes. His resemblance of his father was considerable. He had Mor's crisp dark hair, his crooked nose and lop-sided smile. His eyes were darker though, and more suspicious. His face was soft, however, still with the indeterminacy of boyhood. His mouth was shapeless and pouting, not firmly set.

Donald was long in growing up – too long, Мог felt with some sadness. He could not but grieve over his son's strange lack of maturity. At an age when he himself had been devouring books of every kind in an insatiable hunger for knowledge, Donald appeared to have no intellectual interests at all. He worked at his chemistry in a desultory fashion,*****sufficiently to keep himself out of positive disgrace; but apart from this Donald seemed to do, as far as Мог could see, nothing whatever. He spent a lot of time hanging about, talking to Carde and others, or even, what seemed to Мог odder still, alone. This mode of existence was to Мог extremely mysterious. Donald's reading, such as it was, seemed to consist mainly of "Three Men in a Boat," which he read over and over again, always laughing immoderately, and various books on climbing which he kept carefully concealed from his mother. During the holidays he was a tireless cinemagoer. As Мог looked at him now, he felt a deep sadness that he was not able to express his love for his son, and that it could even be that Donald did not know at all that it existed.

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* Phys – a physics room, a room used for lessons in natural science, Gym– gymnasium, a hall used for gymnastics.

** a resident master– преподаватель, живущий при школе

*** a scholar– a holder of a scholarship

**** the squash – игра, включающая в себя элементы тенниса и гандбола

***** in a desultory fashion – бессистемно, урывками

Assignments:

1. Read passage I and

a) say what you have learnt about the teachers of St Bride's Mr Мог, Mr Demoyte and Mr Everard;

b) describe St Bride's School;

c) give a character sketch of Donald and say why his father was displeased with him.

2. Discuss in class the new facts you learnt about the educational system in England.

From "Oxford Life"

(by Dacre Balsden)