Mark the sentences true (T) or false (F)

1. The excellent exterior acoustics recorded Finny's rushing steps.

2. Finny fell down and broke his bone when he was coming up the marble staircase.

3. Phineas rushed for Dr. Stanpole, realizing that only a night nurse would be at the Infirmary.

4. When I came into the hospital there was a pleasant smell.

5. After lunch I went to the Commencement Arrangements Committee.

6. Dr. Stanpole was not patrolling the corridor as he habitually did when he was not busy.

7. 1 felt extremely cold chill along my back and neck when was told that my friend was dead.

8. Finny died and Dr. Stanpole did not know why.

9. Finny's heart stopped because marrow escaped into the blood steam and got directly into his heart.

10. 1 was crying bitterly during the funeral.

III Answer the questions:

1. What has happen to Finny?

2. Why was not he taken to the Infirmary at once?

3. What did the main hero want to do?

4. What did he do the day after?

5. How was Dr. Stanpole behaving himself when the hero arrived?

6. What was the hero reaction to the doctor's news?

7. How was the hero filling himself during the funeral?

3. Complete the sentences:

1. Everybody... with complete presence of mind.

2. Brinker shouted that Phineas must not....

3. I tried to... myself as I walked with Finny’s suitcase towards the Infirmary.

4 After about 10 minutes he came walking rapidly out of his office, his head down and his hands sunk in... of his white smock.

5.... is a place where the risks are just more formal than in other places.

Althea Gibson
by George Vass

All the Strength That's Needed

The open convertible crawled through the canyons of New York City as Althea Gibson, sitting in the back seat, waved happily at thousands of office workers showering her with ticker tape.

From the Battery up Broadway to City Hall, where Mayor Robert Wagner awaited her, the cheers rang out for the tall, slender Negro girl. She was getting the sort of welcome reserved for the nation's greatest heroes.

When the convertible reached City Hall, Althea stepped out to shake hands with the mayor. Mayor Wagner presented her with the medallion of the city.

" On behalf of the City of New York, I want to tell you how proud we are of you and of your accomplishment, " said Mayor Wagner. " You are a credit to our city, to our nation and to your people."

After the ceremony, Althea was taken to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for a civic luncheon in her honor. As she sat among the dignitaries, lunching on roast meadow lamb and pineapple, a meal she would not have dreamed of as a child, she marveled at what had happened to her.

'It was 1957, and Althea was the queen of tennis. She just had returned from winning the women's tennis championship of the world at Wimbledon in England. It was an unbelievable accomplishment for a girl who only twenty years before had been a hungry, ragged street urchin in the slums of New York... Althea thought about all this when her turn came to speak. But she could hardly speak of such things to so grand an assembly.

" I just can't describe the joy in my heart, " she said. " God grant that I wear this crown with dignity and humility."

" Dignity" and " humility" meant much to Althea, considering her unhappy and poverty-stricken childhood.

Althea was born August 25, 1927, in the tiny town of Silver, in South Carolina. Her father, Daniel, and mother, Annie, lived in a cabin on a cotton farm. Her father had no land of his own but helped a brother sharecrop cotton and corn on a tiny, five-acre plot.

When harsh weather came one year, the crops failed, and Daniel Gibson had only seventy-five dollars' to show for a year's work. He moved his family of five children to Harlem, the Negro section of New York City, hoping to find a better life. Althea was eleven years old when the Gibsons moved to a home on West 143rd Street.

She was a bright but wild child, who would not stay in school. She was truant no matter how often the teachers or her father punished her. Althea did not want anyone to tell her what to do; consequently, she often got into trouble. Sometimes the police would have to take her home because she was afraid of being punished by her father.

Fortunately, the block on which the Gibsons lived was officially designated as a play street. This meant that it took the place of a regular playground for the children of the neighborhood. Traffic was not permitted on the block, and the street was marked with fines for paddle tennis and shuffleboard courts.

From the start Althea excelled at both these sports as well as at stickball and basketball. If it had been up to her, she would have spent every moment of the day playing games.

She also fought with her fists. One day, as she walked down the street throwing pebbles, a bigger girl came up to her.

" What are you trying to do? " the bigger girl asked Althea, Show how tough you are or something? You trying to show how bad you are? ''

Then she hit Althea in the stomach with her fists, knocking the wind out of her. Althea ran home crying but got no sympathy from her father.

" If you don't go back out there and find her and whip her, " said her dad, " I'll whip you when you come home."

Althea found the girl and fought like a savage. She showed no mercy, and it was the other girl who ran away crying this time.

It was a tough neighborhood, and there was little mercy for anyone. There were many other fights for Althea, not only with girls. One time she found one of her uncles drunk, spread out on the steps while some boys were going through his pockets.

Althea yelled at the boys and started to help her uncle up the steps. But one of the boys took a screwdriver out, of his pocket and threw it at her. She put up her hands to protect herself, and the screwdriver gashed her thumb.

" I'll get even with you for that." screamed Althea. " I'll beat the living daylights out of you."

She rushed at the boy with her fists flailing. He knocked her clown, but she got up and knocked him down. Both youngsters were bloody when some adults stepped m to stop the fight.

Her father was so proud of her fighting ability that he thought of training her to become a woman boxer.

In those days there were professional women prize- fighters, although later they were outlawed. Althea was big for her age. When full grown, she was 5' 10%" tall.

Althea was afraid of her father. The crowded conditions in their home bothered her, and she hated to stay there. She took to wandering in the streets, eating whatever she could find and sneaking into movies. By the time she was thirteen she was a vagrant. Occasionally she was taken to homes for children, where she was kept until her parents claimed her.

Somehow, being bright, she managed to graduate from junior high school and entered Yorkville Trade School. She was enthusiastic at first about learning to sew but soon took to truancy again. Finally, the school officials made a deal with her: if she attended school just a few hours a week, they would give her working papers so she could get a job.

She soon quit school completely and went from job to job. For a while she was a counter girl at a restaurant, then a messenger in a factory. After that, she cleaned chickens in a butcher shop. She went on to seven or eight more jobs within three years.

It is hard to say what sort of life Althea would have had except for her skill at sports on the play street. She was so good at paddle tennis that in 1939, when she was twelve, she was the New York City women's champion-

Her ability impressed Buddy Walker, an unemployed musician, who was working as a Police Athletic League play-street supervisor. Walker, who later became a well-known orchestra leader, decided to teach the girl real tennis and bought her two rackets.

" You know, Althea, I think you have natural talent for tennis, " said Walker. " But you have a lot to learn and will have to work hard at it. It's not just the game that's important. I think it would be a good thing for you because it would give you a chance to better yourself and meet nicer people."

Glossary:

Luncheon – ypoчиста вечеря

Shuffleboard - rpa, яка полягае у тому, щоб вибити своїм шаром шари інших суперників

Stickball – вулична форма бейсболу

Knock the wind out of somebody – вибити з когось дух