Instructions

Read the following passage and answer the questions:

To many people growing old seems like the end game in chess : life winding down in a series of small moves with lesser pieces. As I age, I have discovered this is nottrue. I am not an elderly king stripped of my powers, reduced to a ragtail army of pawns. Mylife is not a defensive struggle of restricted options. Growing old is a game of verve and imagination and excitement. The outcome is not now a matter of strength, although that still remains, but of faith and courage, hope and wisdom. The aging game is a sport for which childhood and youth and maturity are no more than a preparation. Its scope comes a surprise. It expands my life at a time when I expected it to diminish. It demands an excellence that no longer seemed necessary. It asks me to surpass what I did at the peak of my powers. Age will not accept second best. In the aging game I must be all ever I was and am yet to be. What has gone before is no more than a learmming period. A breaking in. Age is the combat for which I was trained. Now I must take this person I have become and make each new day special, I must make good on the promise of every dawn I am privileged to see. Life goes from a minor to a major key. The game builds to a climax. Every move assumes importance. One feels like a virtuoso, the gifts we have been given, the powers that empower us, the marvels that make us marvellous, are evident as never before. The truth is that we have lost nothing. The problem is not that I am less than I was when young, it is that J am not more. It is past time to become my own person.

Question 196

What does growing old mean to many people ?


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