1. Look through the key words and expressions and guess what this text runs about:

teenagers to come into contact

to grow up drugs

to allow freedom alcohol

to make life harder permissive

to lack experience to contend with

to tolerate to put on pressures

supportive aids

to receive less care threat

2. Look through the text to see if your guess about its contents was correct. If it wasn’t, give the information that you have missed. Teenagers Now

“They seem to grow up so quickly these days” is commonly on adult lips followed by "When I was young" and a tirade of which the main line of argument seems to be that not only was life much harder, but that everyone did a better job of living it. It seems to me however, that there can be no objective discussion as no one is a teenager twice.

The young of today do have problems. They are considered adults long before their parents were. This removes the frustration of not being taken seriously or respected, and allows much more freedom. Unfortunately, it often makes life harder because teenagers are not adults. Although they look and act like adults, they lack experience and so often make mistakes which people don’t understand or tolerate. Unfortunately, the family is not such a strong and supportive unit as it was. One-parent families are common and mothers often work, either because they have to or because they wish to have a “career”. This means that children and teenagers receive less care and time, and this lack of parental input leads to many teenagers dropping out and not working. “Mothering” is no longer recognized as the most important and difficult job and this in turn devalues children and teenagers.

Young people start to dress and look like adults at an early age and so come into contact with drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and sex earlier. The permissive society that we live in now is very contradictory and difficult to contend with. It has also so changed that parents have no idea of the pressures put on the young by their peers and so cannot help them. AIDS is a new threat, but perhaps will help teenagers as it will prevent them from “sleeping around” and so losing much self-respect. It might also give them an unquestionable reason for saying “no’.

If you conclude, as I have, that adolescence is harder now than it was for our parents, it might also be recognized that being a parent is also now more difficult.

Post-reading tasks

Read the text again to fulfill the tasks to follow.

1. The text is headlined “Teenagers now”. Do you agree with this heading? Express your viewpoint. Below you’ll find some more headings to this text. Choose the one that suits best and motivate your choice.

a) Is it difficult to be a teenager?

b) Teenagers’ problems.

c) Nowadays being a teenager is as difficult as being a parent.

2. Determine the meaning of the words given in italics in the text.

to tolerate a) to permit b) to allow c) to stand d) to authorize

permissive a) giving permission b) optional c) tolerant d) giving more

opportunities

peer a) equal b) noble c) lord d) rival

lack a) want b) need c) abundance d) absence

frustration a) defeat b) disappointment c) discouragement d) failure