1. Answer these questions:

- Are there any typical "male jobs" and "female jobs"?

-What male professions aren't seen as an abnormality within female ones?

- Is it odd to see a woman doing a "man's job"?

- Read the text and check if you were right.

A female bodyguard fights back

Women doing a "man's job" are often viewed with suspicion. Some of them are obsessed by the idea to become bodyguards. Even being young girls they often fight to protect their classmates or wrestle in sport clubs. They feel a strong need to protect people. They are simply born that way though it's atypical for the most of women. One woman — bodyguard recalls getting furious when she saw girls being endlessly tor­mented — pinched, pushed, and kicked by the boys. So she fought back.

But what amazed her even more was seeing the boys immediately back off when they met with a rebuff. She's never looked boyish. She has long, brightly painted nails and long, elegantly done hair. Her clients are gener­ally wealthy women, so when she is accompanying them, she should look like one of their friends or relatives, like a person from the same circle of society. Answering the question about her long nails she says that con­flicts rarely grow into physical fight so she can allow herself to take liber­ties. She learned karate in a private school and she took up classes in wrestling and shooting, she also learned how to dress and apply make-up. She took a special course at the Bodyguard Agency, which subsequently hired her. The Heads of the Bodyguard Agencies say that female body­guards are not seen as an abnormality within the profession, and most of the clients who ask for a female bodyguard are women in business. Fe­male bodyguards are purposeful, self-disciplined, confident and mature. Their lifestyle often makes it difficult to have families, as most husbands would want their spouse to be at home regularly. Men tend to be skeptical about female bodyguards. Most female bodyguards say that there are two typical reactions when men find out what the women are doing for living. "They either retreat almost immediately or treat us as some kind of exotic fruit", the women say. But what both reactions have in common is that men don't really try to find out what sort of people the women are. In private lives of female bodyguards their profession has become something of a litmus test for their admirers. Women arc surprised with their profes­sion as well, but it takes them so much less time to get used to it than it takes men. As usual female bodyguards don't keep their profession until the retirement age. After forty they start looking for something else.

Vocabulary Notes

mature - зрелый

a spouse - супруга

to back off - отступать

to meet a rebuff - получить отпор

atypical - нетипичный

to take liberties - вольности

abnormality - аномалия

a litmus test – лакмусовый тест

to be obsessed by – быть одержимым

to fight to protect - обороняться

to be endlessly tormented – быть бесконечно униженным

to look boyish – выглядеть как пацан

3. What is the main idea of the text and the key points of the passages?

4. Write down all the words referring to such issues as:

a) a need to protect people,

b) a female bodyguard,

c) conflicts grow into physical fight.

Read out the sentences they are used in and translate them into Russian.

5. Look back at the text, find out and write down the answers to the following questions.

- Why are some girls obsessed by the idea to become bodyguards from their early childhood?

- What is the reaction of some boys on girls who fight back?

- How should a female bodyguard look like and why?

- Why are not female bodyguards seen as an abnormality within their profession?

- Why men tend to be skeptical about female bodyguards?

- Why is it difficult for a female bodyguard to start a family?

- What are future prospects of female bodyguards when they are growing older?