Срсп 7 problems of youth Young people's problems

Everybody says your youth is probably the best time of your life, that being young means romance, love, new discov­eries and so on. But it is also the most difficult time because you have to make some very important decisions which will influence all your future life. Things are not easy nowadays even for adults, but for teenagers who have to find their own place in society, it's very difficult. It is necessary not only to adapt to your society, but also to be confident about your position in five, ten or twenty years' time. Every girl or boy leaving secondary school should choose an institution of higher education or, if he or she doesn't want to study any more, choose a job straight way. In planning your future you have to think about the possibility of finding a job after finishing your education.

But even if you are studying, you need some money of your own. Your parents probably will provide you with home, food and necessary clothes, but you will have your own tastes, and your parents won't pay for them. To pay for extra clothes, tapes, books, things necessary for your hobbies, you have to work, and in our country it is very difficult for a teenager to find a job without any qualification. You're lucky if you can do something that others can't; for exam­ple, if you're good at Maths or English, you can give lessons. Emotional problems for young people can be far more difficult than financial ones. The typical teenager problem is that «nobody understands me». The parents often continue to treat their teenage children as if they were infant, when they probably consider themselves to be grown up. Youth is also the time to meet your first love. It is, of course, wonderful, but, as it is widely known that first love often has an unhappy end, this also increases young people's problems.

Even friends cannot always stay friends. When young peo­ple begin to understand themselves a little bit better, old friends sometimes just grow apart.

Ex.1. Read the text and react to the following statements by adding something of your own. Add one of the phrases below.

1. This problem is very …..

2. If my memory doesn’t fail me the youth are independent in ….

3. If I’m not mistaken, many mistakes are happened because of ….

4. According to the sources it was happened in …

5. It should be noted …

Ex.2. Compose a story, using the following words and expressions.

the best time of life, first love, new discov­eries, to make decisions, adults, teenagers, own place in society, the possibility, unhappy end , to grow up, to treat, infant, grow apart.

Ex.3. Work in pairs.

Which of the following do you think is the riskiest?

1. playing Russian roulette

2. taking cocaine

3. riding a motorbike at 200 kph

4. crossing the road with your eyes closed

5. hang-gliding

6. smoking tobacco

Ex.4. Read the quotations about smoking. What view of smoking does each quotation express?

1. ‘Out of thousand smokers of 20 cigarettes a day, one will be murdered, six be killed on the roads, and about three hundred and thirty will die prematurely because of their smoking’.

2. ‘If you decide to give up smoking and drinking, you don’t actually live longer; it just seems longer’.

3. Teenagers begin to smoke because they think it’s cool and because they think they look grown-up. The cigarette is a symbol of defiance and an attack on authority’.

4. I have every sympathy with the American who was so horrified by what he had read about the effects of smoking that he gave up reading’.

5. The world spends $150 billion a year on smoking-related illness’.

Ex.5. Discuss the following in small groups.

1. How much is a packet of cigarettes in your country?

2. What sort of health warnings are there?

3. Do tobacco companies sponsor any sports events?

4. Why is it that drugs such as nicotine and alcohol are legal in many countries, while other drugs are illegal?

5. Do you think smoking should be banned in all public places? Or, should smokers be allowed to smoke when and where they want?

6. Have attitudes to smoking changed in your country over the past few years? How? Do as many people smoke?

Ex.6. Give a short summary of the text .