1.3. Explain the meaning of the words in italics. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1. Several charities sent aid to the flood victims.

2. Her pride wouldn't allow her to accept charity.

3. Newspaper reports showed him little charity.

4. In Victorian times, factory owners were often also philanthropists.

5. The concert organizers say they will donate all profits to charity.

6. A benevolent uncle paid for her to have music lessons.

7. The competition was sponsored by British Airways.

8. Most charities rely on voluntary contributions from the public.

9. The volunteers contribute their own time to the project.

10. Among her many virtues are loyalty, courage, and truthfulness.

11. While charity and altruism are great, they do not show up often enough to sustain a society.

12. Environmentalists argue that the organization fails to address the needs of third world farmers.

13. The charity exists to meet the needs of elderly people.

14. They'll either die from the cold or starve to death.

15. Tackling poverty will be the top priority of our aid programme.

16. The girl's family have made a public appeal for help to try and catch her killer.

17. The hospital has launched an appeal to raise money for new equipment.

1.4. Read about the original religious meaning of the word “charity” as it appears in the definition taken from Encyclopedia Britannica:

Charity — in Christian thought, the highest form of love, signify the reciprocal love between God and man that is made manifest in unselfish love of one's fellow men. St. Paul's classical description of charity is found in the New Testament. In Christian theology and ethics, charity (a translation of the Greek word agape, also meaning ‘love” most eloquently shown in the life, teachings, and death of Jesus Christ. St. Augustine summarized much of Christian thought about charity when he wrote: “Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are perfectly ordered, unites us to God, for by it we love him”. Using this definition and others from the Christian tradition, the medieval theologians, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, placed charity in the context of the other Christian virtues and specified its role as “the foundation or root” of them all.

Although the controversies of the Reformation dealt more with the definition of faith than with either hope or charity, the Reformers identified the uniqueness of God’s agape for man as unmerited love; therefore, they required that charity, as man's love for man, be based not upon the desirability of its object but upon the transformation of its subject through the power of divine agape.

The Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines charity as a system of giving money, food or help free to those who are in need because they are ill, poor or homeless, or any organisation which is established to provide money or help in this way.