Having read this panel talk, I can draw the conclusion that our task as parents is to do our best to bring up our children kindhearted, sensitive, confident, self-possessed and able to cope with difficulties and problems.

According to this panel talk, the best way to avoid problems in upbringing is good communication between parents and children. But from my point of view it is not so simple as it is presented in the panel talk.

Having read this panel talk, I arrive at the conclusion that good communication between parents and children can be achieved if parents try to give their children good feelings about themselves. Parents must try to avoid turning children’s leisure time into duties and drudgery.

According to this panel talk, a child’s home should be friendly and the home atmosphere should be relaxed. Love and care are all important.

1. What about children and teenagers? Do they spend too much time glued to their seats in front of the TV?

I think they really spend too much time watching TV, but I consider they can profit by this kind of spending time because there are a lot of programs and TV-projects that were developed specially for children and teenagers and can acquaint them with many interesting things. This kind of educational TV-projects can help to broaden children’s range of interests.

2. How does it tell on their attainment at school, on their health, on their eyesight?

As stated above, children spend too much time watching TV. That time may be used for their homework and reading books. And as a result of watching TV children’s homework remains unexecuted. On the other hand, television is not always a negative influence. There is strong evidence that children’s shows that were developed to teach academic and social skills and can help children to learn effectively. But I believe that reading a book, walking in nature or having a conversation with another human being, where one takes the time to ponder and think, are far more educational than watching TV.

As to children’s health, I consider that a not-mobile way of life at an early age is very harmful. Television keeps children sitting for many minutes or hours, and it has a negative influence on their physical and intellectual (because of bad blood supply of children’s brain) development. And what is more, children’s visual system is impaired by watching TV because of weakening of eye muscles caused by lack of eye movements.

3. What about communicating with each other? Doesn’t TV prevent us from it?

Children watching TV have problems in communicating with each other. Their conversations lacks their own input. Instead of creating their own talk topics they often simply re-enacting TV-personages’ conversations in a very repetitive and uncreative way. The ability to communicate with another human being needs to be developed. But TV replaces the invaluable experiences of human conversation and storytelling. To have the communicative ability children must have the solid foundation of language skills and a high level of thinking. TV leaves little room for meaningful conversations and seriously impairs children’s ability to think.

4. What’s your attitude to commercial films (commercials), scenes of violence and sadism?

My attitude to scenes of violence and sadism is definitely negative. As to children, I consider that this kind of scenes traumatize childish mentality, damage child’s mind and cause fears and mental disorders. A great many of TV-programmes may be right above their heads, and after watching TV children may have nightmares and fears about fires, explosions, bloody hands and etc. Children do not process information in the same way as adults. Nor do they have the experience or judgment to evaluate what they see. Children may believe that most of what they see on TV is true to life. And it may lead children to accept more aggressive behaviour in others, it may make children more fearful as they come to believe that violence is as common in the real world as it is on television.

I think that any way to spend leisure time cannot make anyone lazy. We get lazy if we want to be lazy. Watching TV as a way to spend time may be harmful only if we spend too much time glued to the television set or choose some kind of shows with negative influence. TV may be a friend or an enemy, but it depends on us what it may be.

The main character of the story is a boy, Nicholas by name, an inventive and inquisitive boy. We meet him in the story at the unpleasant moment when he is punished for his prank with a frog in his bread-and-milk. That very day the children except Nicholas were to be driven to the sands. That trip did not appeal to Nicholas, although there were some decent tears on his cheeks at the moment of the departure. He dreamed to realize his plan of getting into the mysterious lumber-room, which had long germinated in his mind. When his aunt was in the gooseberry garden, he slipped into the house, found a key and opened the door into the lumber-room. It came up to his expectations: a great many of things claimed his attention. There was a peace of framed tapestry with a hunting scene on it. That tapestry attracted Nicholas’ attention and he sat for many minutes revolving the possibilities of the scene. There were other objects of delight and Nicholas wanted to pay attention to all of them. But his aunt’s voice made him leave the room, to his great sorrow.

Meanwhile, looking for Nicholas, the aunt slipped into the rain-water tank and asked him to fetch the ladder so that she could get out of it. But it was necessary to enter the gooseberry garden to help the aunt whereas before Nicholas had been told not to enter. So, he decided to be “obedient”, especially because it gave him a wonderful opportunity to mock at his aunt. The boy pretended that he didn’t recognize his aunt’s voice. It was an unusual sense for Nicholas to talk to his aunt in such a ridiculous way. And only thirty five minutes later a kitchen-maid rescued the aunt from the rain-water tank.

There was a frozen muteness at the evening tea table. Every member of the family had his own reason for keeping silence. Nicholas was silent, too, as he recollected the tapestry picture from the lumber-room that impressed him much. He still looked for the way of the huntsman’s evading the wolves.

2.13. Consult an English-English Dictionary for the definition of the following words. Tell the class these definitions. Besides, provide their derivatives, synonyms, antonyms, word-collocations:

1. Frivolous

adjective

1. not serious or sensible, especially in a way that is not suitable for a particular occasion;

2. a frivolous person likes having fun rather than doing serious or sensible things

[15th century. Formed from Latin frivolus, “silly, unimportant,” of uncertain origin.]

—frivolously, adverb

—frivolousness, noun

Synonyms

playful

silly

light-hearted

Antonyms

serious

Word-collocations

a frivolous suit;

a frivolous man

2. Asperity

(plural ‘asperities’); noun

1. harshness or severity: harshness or severity of manner or tone or a way of speaking or behaving (formal)

2. roughness: the roughness of a surface (literary)

3. hardship: something that is hard to bear because of its harshness or severity

4. PHYSICS area where two load-bearing surfaces touch: a region of contact between two load-bearing flat surfaces

[13th century. Via French asperité, from, ultimately, Latin asper, “rough,” of unknown origin.]

Synonyms

severity, brusqueness, gruffness, harshness, sharpness

Antonyms

softness

affability

Word-collocations

to speak with asperity;

the asperity of her manner;

3. Deprave

(past ‘depraved’, past participle ‘depraved’, present participle ‘depraving’, 3rd person present singular depraves); transitive verb

1. to have a morally bad influence on somebody, especially someone who is young or not very experienced (often passive)

[14th century. Directly or via French, from Latin depravare, “to corrupt,” literally “to distort completely”, from pravus, “crooked”, of unknown origin.]

—depraver, depravity, depravation noun

—depraved, adj

Synonyms

deteriorate, corrupt, degrade, lead astray, ruin

Antonyms

honest

Word-collocations

a depraved man

4. Absorption

noun

1. preoccupation: a state in which the whole attention is occupied

2. soaking up: the uptake of liquid into the fibers of a substance

3. nonreflection: the ability of a substance to absorb light, noise, or energy, or the fact that it does so

4. incorporation: the incorporation of something into a larger group or entity

5. PHYSIOLOGY assimilation by the body: the passage of material through the lining of the intestine into the blood or through a cell membrane into a cell

6. PHYSICS reduction in radiated energy: the reduction in the intensity of radiated energy within a medium caused by converting some or all of the energy into another form

7. IMMUNOLOGY removal of antibodies: the elimination of antibodies or antigens by the use of a chemical reagent

[Late 16th century. From the Latin, stem absorption, from absorptus, the past participle of absorbere, “to swallow”]

—absorptive, adj

Synonyms

preoccupation, fascination, interest, captivation, engagement, raptness, concentration,

Antonyms

rejection, elimination

Word-collocations

Vitamin C increases the absorption of iron from food.

The absorption of dialects by the Latin gave a great impulse to civilisation.

5. Conduct

verb

1. intransitive and transitive verb lead instrumental or vocal group: to lead a group of musicians or a musical performance by signaling the beat with a baton or hand gestures, giving cues, and offering suggestions for interpretation or expression

2. PHYSICS, ELECTRICITY transmit energy: to transmit energy, for example, heat, light, sound, or electricity

3. transitive verb guide somebody along: to lead a person or group of people by going along with them

4. transitive verb do or run something: to carry out, manage, or control something

5. reflexive verb behave: to behave in a specified way
• He conducted himself with great dignity.

noun (plural con·ducts)

1. behavior: the way a person behaves, especially in public

2. how somebody does or handles something: the management or execution of matters such as work or official affairs

3. leader or guide: somebody who leads, guides, or escorts another or others (archaic)

[15th century. Directly and via conduit, from Latin conduct-, the past participle stem of conducere, (see CONDUCE).]

—conductibility noun

—conductible adj

—conduction noun

Synonyms

Behaviour, way, lead, perform, manage

Antonyms

non-conductor

Word-collocations

to conduct a survey; the orchestra is conducted by J. Williams; copper conducts electricity; an unprofessional conduct

6. Elation

noun

great happiness: a feeling of extraordinary happiness and excitement

—elated adj

Synonyms

ecstasy, joy, delight, euphoria, jubilation, excitement, exultation, rapture, glee

Antonyms

despair

Word-collocations

to be elated by victory

7. Obstinacy

noun (plural obstinacies)

1. stubbornness: the quality of being obstinate

2. obstinate act: an example of obstinate behaviour

—obstinate adj

—obstinately adv

Synonyms

stubbornness, wrong-headedness, inflexibility, unreasonableness, persistence, tenacity, intransigence, mulishness

Antonyms

compliance

Word-collocations

She didn’t like his obstinacy

8. Stealth

noun

1. action to avoid detection: the action of doing something slowly, quietly, and covertly, in order to avoid detection

2. furtiveness: secretive, dishonest, or cunning behavior or actions

adjective

MILITARY virtually undetectable by radar: designed or constructed in such a way and using requisite technology and materials so as to be invisible to enemy radar
• stealth bombers

[13th century. from assumed Old English, from a prehistoric Germanic base that is also the ancestor of English STEAL.]

—stealthful, adj

—stealthy, adj

Synonyms

furtiveness, surreptitiousness, sneakiness, slyness, craftiness, secrecy, covertness

Antonyms

openness

Word-collocations

Cats rely on stealth to catch their prey

9. Evade

verb

1. transitive verb cleverly escape: to escape or avoid somebody or something, usually by ingenuity or guile

2. transitive verb avoid something unpleasant: to avoid doing something unpleasant, especially something that is a moral or legal obligation

3. intransitive and transitive verb give indirect response to: to avoid dealing with or responding directly to something

4. transitive verb be unattainable: to be difficult or impossible for somebody to find, obtain, or achieve (formal)

[Early 16th century. Via French йvader, from Latin evadere, “to escape,” literally “to go away,” from vadere, “to go, walk” (source of English INVADE).]

—evadable, adj

—evader, noun

Synonyms

equivocate, prevaricate, hedge,

avoid, escape, elude, shirk, skirt, sidestep, duck, dodge

Antonyms

There is no direct antonyms in the dictionary

Word-collocations

Stop trying to evade the issue;

to try to evade paying taxes

10. Intrude

verb

1. intransitive verb invade somebody’s privacy: to disturb somebody’s peace or privacy by going where you have not been invited or are not welcome

2. intransitive verb have unpleasant effect: to have an unpleasant or undesired effect on something

3. transitive verb add something unpleasant: to add or mention something inappropriate or unwanted (formal)

4. intransitive and transitive verb GEOLOGY move into rock formation: to move in a molten state into a preexisting rock formation, or force molten rock into a preexisting rock formation

[15th century. Partly from Latin intrudere, “to thrust in,” from trudere, “to thrust”; partly a back-formation from INTRUSION.]

—intrusive, adj

—intrusion, noun

—intruder, noun

Synonyms

encroach, break in, interrupt, interfere, impose, butt in, intervene, interlope,

Antonyms

There is no direct antonyms in the dictionary

Word-collocations

an unwelcome intruder;

It would be very insensitive to intrude on their private grief?

11. Dim

adjective (comparative dimmer, superlative dimmest)

1. not well lit: not easy to see in or into because of inadequate light

2. producing little light: not producing very much light, or less bright than is usual

3. dull in color: dull or subdued in color or brightness

4. not clearly visible: not clearly visible or distinct

5. not easy to perceive: difficult to understand or perceive with the senses

6. not clear to the mind: not clearly recalled or perceived

7. not seeing clearly: not able to see clearly

8. improbable: unlikely to be successful or fulfilled

9. unintelligent: lacking in intelligence or mental sharpness (informal insult)

verb

1. intransitive and transitive verb make or become dim: to make or become less bright, clear, or keen

2. transitive verb switch to low beams: to switch the headlights of a motor vehicle from high beams to low beams.

plural noun dims

low beams: the low beams of a motor vehicle’s headlights

[Old English, from a prehistoric Germanic word that is also the ancestor of English DAMP]

—dimly, adv

—dimmable, adj

—dimness, noun

Synonyms

badly lit, murky, gloomy, shadowy, dusky, dark soft, faint, muted, weak, diffuse, dull indistinct, vague, blurred, hazy, faint, unclear, shadowy, subdued

Antonyms

bright, strong, clear

Word-collocations

In the dim light of the early dawn;

The dim eyes of the old woman were attractive;

His words dimmed our hopes.

12. Assert

verb

1. transitive verb claim: to state something as being true

2. transitive verb insist on rights: to insist on or exercise your rights

3. reflexive verb behave forcefully: to exercise and emphatically reveal your power, influence, and prerogatives•

4. reflexive verb become known or effective: to start to have an effect or become noticeable

[Early 17th century. From Latin assert-, the past participle stem of asserere, literally “to join to,” from serere]

—asserter, noun

—assertion, noun

—assertive, adj

—assertable, adj

—assertively, adv

Synonyms

declare, insist on, proclaim, state, avow (formal), emphasize, stress, affirm, aver (formal), claim, allege, contend

Antonyms

deny

Word-collocations

She asserted that she had never seen the man before.

New management quickly began to assert itself two days after the takeover.

13. Claim

verb

1. maintain something is true: to say, without proof or evidence, that something is true

2. demand something as entitlement: to demand something officially that somebody has a right to or owns

3. end somebody’s life: to cause the loss of somebody’s life

4. win title: to take a title, prize, or record

5. demand attention: to force somebody to give attention

noun

1. something that may be true: an assertion that something is true, unsupported by evidence or proof

2. basis for getting something: the basis for demanding or getting something

3. demand: a demand for something somebody has a right to or owns

4. INSURANCE, SOCIAL WELFARE official request for money: an official request for money or other benefits from the state or an organization

5. money requested: the amount of money requested in a claim

6. LAW legal right to land: the legal right to own a piece of land and to mine it for minerals

7. LAW piece of land: the piece of land to which somebody claims a legal right

[14th century. From Old French clamer, “to call,” from Latin clamare, (source of English CLAMOR). Ultimately from an Indo-European word that is also the ancestor of English ECLAIR.]

—claimable, adj

—claimer, noun

—claimant, noun

Synonyms

maintain, assert, say, state, declare, argue, allege, aver (formal), profess

ask for, call for, demand, apply for, request, appeal, sue
antonym:

receive, obtain, take, pick up, retrieve, collect

Antonyms

deny

Word-collocations

He claims we’ve already met

I make no claim to understand the situation.

14. Indulge

verb

1. intransitive and transitive verb have or permit a treat: to allow somebody or yourself to have or do something enjoyable

2. intransitive verb drink alcohol: to permit yourself to drink alcohol, especially to excess (dated informal)

3. transitive verb BUSINESS give debtor time to pay: to allow a debtor time to pay a bill

[Early 17th century. From Latin indulgere, “to allow space or time for, give rein to,” of unknown origin.]

—indulger, noun

—indulgence, noun

—indulgent, adj

—indulgently, adv

Synonyms

spoil, pamper, pander, cosset, make a fuss of, coddle, humour, treat

Antonyms

deny

Word-collocations

His mother pampered and spoiled him, indulging his every whim.

15. Disastrous

adjective

1. having seriously damaging results, performed in an incompetent or awkward way, very bad, or ending in failure

[Late 16th century. Via French desastreux, from, ultimately, Italian disastro.]

—disastrously, adverb

—disastrousness, noun

Synonyms

unsuccessful, unfortunate, grievous, luckless, doomed, ill-starred (formal), unlucky

Antonyms

successful

Word-collocations

to have a disastrous effect;

16. Unmerited

adjective

not deserved: not earned or deserved

Synonyms

undeserved, unfair, unjustified, unwarranted, unearned, unjust

Antonyms

fair

Word-collocations

unmerited good fortune

2.19. Read the story one more time for the minutest details and implications. Test out your new skills, answering the questions on the story:

1. Does the author present the personages directly or indirectly? Prove your statements by concrete examples from the text.

The author seems to draw the characters of the story with great insight avoiding the usage of straight descriptions. For example, instead of saying “narrow-minded” or “dull” about Nicholas’ aunt he uses the phrase “the woman of few ideas”. We learn about the personages’ character-sketches from their behaviour, their remarks, their feelings. We look at the lumber-room through the eyes of Nicholas and understand that he is a boy with an active, lively imagination. So, the author doesn’t present the characters directly, he allows us to understand the personages through their actions and their attitude to the story’s events.

2. Draw the character-sketches of Nicholas and the aunt. For this purpose: a) find in the text and read out the words and sentences that characterize them; b) make up a list of adjectives that may be used to characterize them (both positive and negative qualities).

a) I believe Nicholas to be a resourceful and curious boy. He was playful and inventive but honest; there really was a frog in his bread-and-milk, and it was quite another matter, who put it there. Nicholas was willful because he achieved his goals by all available means. Nicholas was a resilient boy who could find pleasure even being punished. Being in disgrace, he was not driven to the sands at Jagborough like other children, but he got into the lumber-room, the summit of his desires. Nicholas had an active and vivid imagination, the passages about Nicholas in the lumber--room prove it. To him the piece of framed tapestry was a living-breathing story, exiting his imagination. Nicholas was very attentive and intelligent; he noticed that Bobby’s boots were hurting him (though his aunt didn’t notice that important fact). He had a sense of humour; we can get actual proofs of it in the passage about his aunt when she was a prisoner in the rainwater tank. And again, Nicholas wasn’t disobedient. He was told not to enter the gooseberry garden and he didn’t enter. I suppose that it was a great pleasure for Nicholas to mock at the aunt and not to be mischievous.

b) Nicholas’ aunt seems to be a woman of imperious temper, intolerant of childish pranks, cruel and unforgiving. She tried to extract children’s obedience through pressure and fear. This “woman of few ideas”, as the author called her, seems to be eager to make the children suffer instead of moulding their characters, activating their best features. Whenever one of the children fell from grace, she tried to improvise something of festival nature from which the offender would be debarred. The aunt was indifferent to the children’s needs; she never listened when they told her important things (for example, Bobby’s boots, which were too tight). She didn’t consider the children’s personalities and never explained her decision to them. So, in the accident with the rain-water tank it was a pleasure for Nicholas to mock at the aunt. After that event, she couldn’t punish Nicholas, but, of course, she didn’t forgive him her sufferings.