My Grandma loves looking at her old photographs. She says memories come flooding back
and relives them. She says they are «good’ and «bad’. The former ones make her happy, taking her back to the times when she was young and beautiful. The latter stir up
sad memories and remind her of the things she would like to change, but can’t. My mum often sympathises with our Grandma and tells me we shouldn’t let bad memories eat away at
us, we should put bad experiences behind
us. We have to always try to live in the present and live for the future. But I think it’s easier said than done.
flood back – нахлынуть
stir up – провоцировать, пробуждать, вызывать плохие чувства
eat away at smth – разъедать, пожирать, изводить, действовать на ч-л.
put smth behind – оставлять в прошлом, забывать, отбрасывать ч-л.
• EXERCISE
1. На неё нахлынули воспоминания.
2. Это вызывает плохие воспоминания?
3. Не давай этому разъедать твою душу, приятель!
4. Ну ладно, дай совет, как забыть всё плохое и оставить его в прошлом?
***
1. Her memories came flooding back.
2. Does it stir up bad memories?
3. Don’t let it eat away at your soul, buddy!
4. Okay, give me advice, how do you forget bad experiences and put them behind you?
J FRAGILE MEMORIES
Our grandparents and parents stored up
so many memories over the years, good ones and bad ones, that it’s worth trying to write them down or record them. My mother keeps an old photo of me and associates it with
my early childhood before she divorced my father. Looking at the photos, she always smiles and sighs. It suddenly dawned on
me how fragile and unstable the happiness might be. So when I saw my Grandma looking through the album, I took my notebook and asked her to tell me something about those photos. Of course, they stirred up
lots of happy memories and some sad ones too. For example, when she and her husband lost their jobs, my mum was very little, and they tried to get along on
just their Social Security checks. She added that happy ones stuck with
her forever, though. People try to block out
their sad memories, but there is no use in doing that because you might forget the good ones. It’s true that you can get an unexpected flashback
to your unpleasant experience, but it can help you learn a lesson or teach others how to avoid it.
store up smth – хранить ч-л.
associate smth with smth – ассоциировать, связывать ч-л. с ч-л.
dawn on smth – доходить до к-л., осенять к-л.
stir smth up – воскрешать в памяти, вызывать ч-л.
get along on smth – протянуть, прожить на ч-л.
stick with smb/smth – оставаться, задерживаться у к-л.
block smth out – не думать о ч-л., забыть ч-л., избавиться от ч-л.
flashback (to) – яркое воспоминание (о)
• EXERCISE
1. У нас у всех накопилось немало интересных воспоминаний.
2. Слабость и немощность ассоциируются у нас со старостью.
3. Она улыбнулась мне, и до меня вдруг дошло, что я всё ещё люблю её.
4. Это действительно вызывает хорошие воспоминания?
5. Ты сможешь прожить там на эти деньги?
6. Что, так сильно прижало? (Что, совсем не отпускает?)
7. Не могу выкинуть из головы эту мысль.
***
8. Это яркое воспоминание о моём детстве.
1. We all have stored up a lot of interesting memories.
2. We associate weakness and feebleness with olderly.
3. She smiled at me, and it suddenly dawned on me I still loved her.