THE WILL TO LIVE
A very old lady who had devoted her life to pioneer work in education once told
about a dangerous illness she had suffered in her middle years. She lay hovering
between life and death, in the twilight of half-surrender, when she overheard two of
her co-workers talking just outside her hospital room. "If we could only reach her!"
one of them said passionately. "If we could only make her understand how much we
need her!" The words did reach her, and with the forces of life and death hanging in
the balance, they resurrected her will to live. In that moment of discouragement and
wavering faith, the intensity of her colleague's plea reassured her and gave her
courage to take up the struggle again. If we truly wish to live, if we have something
to live for, then the will to live becomes a powerful force in combatting illness. Within
each of us there are two strong instinctual drives, the will to live and the desire to
destroy ourselves. The powerful instinct to remain alive is bolstered by our desire to
create, to discover and to accomplish. Doctors make obeisance to it when, in
a crisis
of illness, they say, "We have done all we can - now it is up to the patient."
E X E R C I S E 1: Find words or phrases in the passage which mean the same as:
COLUMN A COLUMN B
a) give time, effort or energy for a particular
purpose
b) first in a new branch of study or particular
activity
c) be in an uncertain or unsettled situation
d) final stages; state between two other states,
with little awareness
e) make contact with
f) be between two possibilities
{phrase)
g) cause to exist again or be used again
h) determination; strong desire
i) not firm or confident
j) intense, emotional request
k) calm; remove worries
I) fight to stop something happening
m) natural; not based on thought or teaching
n) encourage; support
o) respect
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