Лекция: The more the storm the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thicket lies the forest growth

We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.

Vocabulary:

scrubby – miserable, unimportant

toil – to work hard and untiringly

patch – small piece of ground

timber – wood or growing trees to be used for building

strife – struggle, conflict

Questions:

1. What is the key issue of this verse?

2. What symbolic value does timber possess?

3. What factor according to the author might influence who a person may become?

4. Do you really believe that hardships strengthen the spirit?

5. They say all our lives we have to win or lose little battles.

What feelings overwhelm you when you fail?

Does failure knock the bottom from under your feet or does it keep up a win-win spirit in you?

What would happen if success cushioned all your life?

6. How would you explain the meaning of these words:

“If everything does your way you are going the wrong way.”?

7. What definition could you give to “maturity”? Is it always relative to age?

8. Can an adult possess an undeveloped sense of responsibility and duty?

Where does it come from? What circumstance could set him strait?