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READING
The following sentences in the box have been removed from the text. Put them in the numbered gaps in the text.
A.
The recurrent themes were loneliness, unhappiness in marriages and problems of adolescence.
B.
Others are terrified of meeting people because they suffer from shyness, or are convinced that they are unattractive.
C.
However, at the same time, she is as homely and approachable as your favourite aunt.
D.
As the agony columns have become more professional and more frank, a lot of the fun has gone out of them.
E.
Without doubt, they are in their way, performing a valuable social service.
There is one part of women’s part that every man reads. It is the section popularly known as the ‘agony column’, where women, and increasingly men, write for advice on what are sometimes referred to as ‘affairs of the heart’. The person who answers these letters usually has a very reassuring sort of name, which suggests a gentle middle-aged lady of great wisdom and experience.
(1)__________. At one time, it used to be widely believed that the letters were, in fact, all made up by someone on the editorial staff, and that the ‘Aunt
Mary’ who provided the answers was, in fact, a fat man with a beard, who drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney and was unfaithful to his wife.
Although this may be true in some cases, the majority of advice columns today are completely genuine, and the advisory staff are highly-qualified people with a deep understanding of human problems. At one time the letters, which were published and answered in full, dealt with problems of a very general emotional nature. (2)__________. Occasionally, only the answers were published, not the letters themselves. Much of the fun in reading them lay in trying to work out the problem that led to such peculiar answers.
Agony columns have undergone great change. Nowadays, everything is much more explicit, and questions of the most intimate kind are fully dealt with.
(3)__________. This is undoubtedly a good thing because there is something sad about our tendency to laugh at the misfortunes of our fellow men. In addition, agony columns are no longer restricted to emotional problems.
Problems of various natures are now dealt with. For example, the advice columns get a lot of letters from people who are distressed about what they believe to be terrible physical deformities. (4)__________. It is not really funny to be so self-conscious about your appearance, or so lacking in selfconfidence, that you stay in your room instead of going out and meeting

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0312 425 85 28 by Fuat TURGUT people. If they do nothing else, the agony columns let you know that you are not the only one who is suffering from that particular problem.
The advisers seem to be on much more dangerous ground when they start to give advice on the most delicate and intimate aspects of human relationships.
We cannot doubt either their good intentions or their understanding of human nature. But it is risky business to advise a married couple on how to save their marriage when what you know about them is only what they reveal to you in a short letter. Not only that, but the chances are that you only get one side of the story because only one of the partners will write to tell you about the shortcomings of the other. It is difficult to know how you can usefully answer such letters.
To their credit, the best advisers always make the point that without knowing more, they must limit themselves to general advice, and in some cases will even offer to enter into private correspondence in order to get more information and consequently to give more useful advice. (5)__________. If they were not, the agony columns would soon dry up for lack of interest, and more importantly for lack of confidence.
Exercise 1:
Find words in the text which mean the same as the following:
1.
love matters ( par. 1): ____________________________ (a noun phrase)
2.
real (par. 1): __________________________________________ (adj)
3.
strange (par. 1): ________________________________________ (adj)
4.
clearly expressed (par. 2): ________________________________ (adj)
5.
something that happens to you as a result of bad luck (par. 2):
__________________ (n)
6.
the process of sending and receiving letters (par. 4): ______________ (n)
Exercise 2
1.
It used to be thought that readers’ problems were dealt with by a
____________: a.
kind middle-aged lady b.
man lacking good character
c. team of qualified advisers
d. woman from the editorial staff

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2.
The ‘fun’ has gone out of reading agony columns because a.
people now take emotional problems much more seriously. b.
the details of every problem are given, leaving nothing to the imagination. c.
more and more men are writing to them for advice about emotional problems. d.
it is no longer socially acceptable to laugh at other people’s misfortunes.

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3.
The big change that has taken place in agony columns is that a.
a greater variety of problems is now being dealt with. b.
the advisers tend to make fun of the problems of the others. c.
most letters deal with problems related to physical deformities. d.
fewer people write letters about their emotional problems.
4.
There is a danger that agony columns will give poor advice in some cases because advisers ____________: a.
know only one partner well. b.
seldom have good intentions. c.
do not understand human nature. d.
do not have enough information about the problem.
Exercise 3:
Answer these questions.
1.
Why does the writer believe that agony columns are useful?
_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________.
2.
Why does the writer feel that the agony columns must be doing a good job?
_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________.

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ANSWER KEY:
SENTENCE CLOZE:
1.
C
2.
A
3.
D
4.
B
5.
E
Exercise 1:
1.
affairs of the heart
2.
genuine
3.
peculiar
4.
explicit
5.
misfortune
6.
correspondence
Exercise 2:
1.
b
2.
b
3.
a
4.
d
Exercise 3:
1.
Because an individual can see that his problem is not unique.
2.
Because people continue to have interest and confidence in them.