assertive - уверенный в себе; не страдающий застенчивостью battles - битвы, сражения, баталии dared - сметь, иметь смелость embarrassing - нелепая employ - взять на работу established - учрежденная fairly - довольно, порядком firm - фирма, компания giggled - хихикали gradually - постепенно

head - глава, директор impossible - несносный lawyers - юристы, адвокаты policy - политика, стратегия respected - уважаемый retire - уходить в отставку, увольняться run - управлять, руководить service - служба, работа weekly - еженедельный woman - женщина

Matthews and Sons were a of lawyers in London. They were a very old and much company. They had been by Benjamin Matthews in 1770. They were also a large company. Sixty worked there. However, all of these lawyers were men. No had ever worked for the company. In today's world this situation was .
At a meeting one day, Sir Reginald Matthews, the of the firm, said that they would have to a female lawyer. The lawyers agreed and after a long series of interviews Jenny Thatcher was chosen. Jenny was a hard-working, woman who got things done efficiently and quickly. She soon established a reputation for good . This pleased Sir Reginald.
As long as anybody could remember, the meetings of the lawyers had been quiet and peaceful. At these meetings important decisions were made. However, none of the lawyers had ever to question or argue with the decisions taken by Sir Reginald Matthews.
A few months after her arrival, at the company Jenny Thatcher began to disagree with some of Sir Reginald's decisions. The situation got worse. After a few months they argued at every meeting. After six months they had stopped talking politely to each other. They simply shouted at each other. Meetings were now . At one meeting Sir Reginald got very angry with Jenny when she said that he was not able to the company. She said that he should and hand it over to somebody younger. Sir Reginald looked Jenny in the eye and said,
"Miss Thatcher. You are . If you were my wife I would put poison in your tea."
The men in the room . Jenny looked at Sir Reginald and said,
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