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others for what they are doing. For married couples the important things seem to be somewhat different.

The wife gets her happiness chiefly from her family life. The husband is more concerned with personal growth and development.

The psychologists also asked a number of questions about people's childhoods to see if there was anything in that which was

associated with being happy.

The major surprise was that few childhood experiences predicted with any certainty whether someone would be happy as an adult.

And many people who came through bad early and teenage years are perfectly happy as adults.

Happiness, conclude the psychologists, is more a matter of how you regard your circumstances than of what the circumstances

are.

15. Discuss the text in pairs. One of the pair insists that happiness is more an attitude to life than the state of things, the other defends the

opposite viewpoint. Be sure to provide sound arguments for whatever you say. Consider the following aspects in relation to your idea of happiness:

friends and social life; job or primary activity; being in love; recognition, success, personal growth; financial situation; house or

apartment; attractiveness; health, physical condition; city you live in; recreation; being a parent; marriage; partner's happiness.

16. The extracts given below present rather complicated subjects. Team up with another student, work out arguments "for" and "against" and

discuss the extracts in pairs. Use conversational formulas of Ex. 12.

A. Does every life have its critical moments and situations that determine the entire future of a person or the future of many

others?

Some men and women risk comfort and security, and even their lives, to venture into the unknown or to follow an unconventional

course of conduct. They may do so for any one of a number of reasons. They may desire to benefit mankind, to gain knowledge, to

increase understanding, to gain wealth or power for themselves or their country, or to prove to themselves that they can do what

seems impossible.

B. How does reading contribute to our understanding and judgement of people?

Reading often increases our understanding of people because the individuals we meet in novels resemble so closely, or differ so

much, from persons with whom we are acquainted in real life. The conduct of a fictitious character, like that of real people, results from

such emotions as greed, ambition, fear, love, self-sacrifice, jealousy, hatred, revenge, patriotism, civic pride and the desire to reform

the society.

C. Do people today measure up in courage and endurance to the people of earlier generations?

Few great people have had to contend with as many obstacles to success in life as Christopher Columbus. He had a lively curiosity

about the heavens and the earth, he read widely about astronomy and navigation. He needed indomitable will and courage to fight for

his ideas against ignorance and prejudices of his time. He convinced the Spanish rulers that an expedition to find a new west ward