Many people live alone. Some by choice, some out of necessity. Of all those who live alone by necessity, the most pathetically lonely are the very old. They may be tied to a room or to a small flat by rheumatism or by arthritis. They may often be deaf, sometimes blind. Their children and their friends may have died long ago. Their greatest fear, not unjustified, is to fall ill and die without anyone noticing it. They also worry about food and bills. Life is very expensive in modern towns. If these people have only the old-age pension, they can barely exist. Some, of course, could ask for special government help but they don’t. They are either too proud to apply for it or perhaps don’t know how to do it.

Most old people who live alone wish that someone -anyone- came to visit them regularly once or twice a week. ‘Just to talk. If you never talk to anyone, it’s as if you were dead’ they say. After a recent debate in the parliament, the government asked local authorities to arrange more visiting, as some voluntary organizations already do.

However, all these schemes need voluntaries and there aren’t many generous people who are ready to help. So, nobody does anything. Every town tries to ignore the problem, to keep these sad cases out of sight. They want to forget the worst cases of lonely old people: those people who, after years without communication with others, have stopped trying. Those people whose silent rooms smell of defeat and death.

In a London block of flats, I saw one of these rooms. It was full of dirty, evil-smelling boxes, bottles and tins which had once, months or years ago, contained food. The walls and ceiling were black with filth. When you walked in the room, fragments of glass and coal crunched under your feet. Outside the door, however, life went on. The rest of the families in the block went about their own businesses and ignored all this. Inside the room it was dark and cold. There are no seasons in these gloomy places. An old man sat quietly by a fire in the gloom. He was waiting for his death. At first, he did not answer our questions. Then, in a very low and monotonous voice, he kept muttering without hope or interest that he was waiting for a hospital bed.

He will not be much brighter when he moves to one.Why? The ancient, deteriorating structures of many of our geriatric hospitals reflect our lack of interest for the old. They are no longer productive individuals and so the interest of our society in them declines. However sad, there is one good thing about being in the hospital. At least he will not be alone. But until then he and those like him live in a sad state which speaks about the inhumanity of our impatient society. They are not people, they are forgotten ‘old age pensioners’ waiting to die.

PART ONE: READING COMPREHENSION

1. Answer the following questions according to the information in the text.

1. What are old people who live alone usually most anxious about?

2. What is needed to improve their situation?

3. Say two of the most usual attitudes towards the very old

4. Which of the following sentences summarises the text best?

a) Old people suffer mainly from loneliness, lack of communication and social indifference. No longer needed, some do not know how to solve their problems. Those in hospitals at least are not alone. The worst cases are those who have already given up and simply wait for death.

b) Physical disorders, economic concerns and poverty are the major problems among old people. Once in a hospital, they do not have to worry about food and bills. Well looked after, they feel much more comfortable and their health and overall physical situation improves dramatically.

c) Indifference towards the situation of very old people living alone is a serious problem. Towns try to keep the worst cases out of sight -those of old men and women living in dirty and gloomy rooms without hope. Governments do not take decisions because these always require volunteers.

  PART TWO: WRITING
Choose ONE. Write about either 1 or 2.

Option A: Write an essay. Imagine a new kind of society in which old people feel really comfortable and are well looked after. Describe it. Say all the good things you would like to see and do in this new structure.

Option B: Write a dialogue between two people. Possibilities: a young person and an old one, a volunteer visitor and somebody old and lonely, any two people you choose. They discuss problems related to the theme of this article.

3. Vocabulary

Explain next words in English, write the phonetics and also an example: deaf, blind, fear, to notice, bill, defeat, lack.