[00:01.080]--- lesson 46 Do it yourself
[00:05.080]--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
[00:10.720]--- Did the writer repair his lawn mower in the end? why/why not?
[00:18.360]So great is our passion for doing things for ourselves, that we are becoming increasingly less dependent on specialized labour.
[00:27.000]No one can plead ignorance of a subject any longer, for there are countless do-it-yourself publications.
[00:34.440]Armed with the right tools and materials, newlyweds gaily embark on the task of decorating their own homes.
[00:42.520]Men, particularly, spend hours of their leisure time installing their own fireplaces, laying out their own gardens;
[00:51.800]building garages and making furniture. Some really keen enthusiasts go so far as to build their own computers.
[01:01.480]Shops cater for the do-it-yourself craze not only by running special advisory services for novices,
[01:08.840]but by offering consumers bits and pieces which they can assemble at home.
[01:14.440]Such things provide an excellent outlet for pent up creative energy, but unfortunately not all of us are born handymen.
[01:25.000]Some wives tend to believe that their husbands are infinitely resourceful and can fix anything.
[01:32.560]Even men who can hardly drive a nail in straight are supposed to be born electricians, carpenters, plumbers and mechanics.
[01:42.920]When lights fuse, furniture gets rickety, pipes get clogged, or vacuum cleaners fail to operate,
[01:51.480]some woman assume that their husbands will somehow put things right.
[01:56.800]The worst thing about the do-it-yourself game is that sometimes even men live under the delusion that they can do anything, even when they have repeatedly been proved wrong.
[02:09.720]It is a question of pride as much as anything else.
[02:14.600]Last spring my wife suggested that I call in a man to look at our lawn mower.
[02:21.240]It had broken down the previous summer, and though I promised to repair it, I had never got round to it.
[02:28.960]I would not hear of the suggestion and said that I would fix it myself.
[02:34.560]One Saturday afternoon, I hauled the machine into the garden and had a close look at it.
[02:41.000]As far as I could see, it needed only a minor adjustment:
[02:45.880]a turn of a screw here, a little tightening up there, a drop of oil and it would be as good as new.
[02:54.960]Inevitably the repair job was not quite so simple.
[02:59.760]The mower firmly refused to mow, so I decided to dismantle it.
[03:06.200]The garden was soon littered with chunks of metal which had once made up a lawn mower.
[03:12.600]But I was extremely pleased with myself.
[03:16.120]I had traced the cause of the trouble.
[03:19.080]One of the links in the chain that drives the wheels had snapped.
[03:23.800]After buying a new chain I was faced with the insurmountable task of putting the confusing jigsaw puzzle together again.
[03:32.600]I was not surprised to find that the machine still refused to work after I had reassembled it,
[03:39.080]for the simple reason that I was left with several curiously shaped bits of metal which did not seem to fit anywhere.
[03:47.120]I gave up in despair.
[03:49.360]The weeks passed and the grass grew.
[03:52.680]When my wife nagged me to do something about it, I told her that either I would have to buy a new mower or let the grass grow.
[04:01.280]Needless to say our house is now surrounded by a jungle.
[04:05.240]Buried somewhere in deep grass there is a rusting lawn mower which I have promised to repair one day.