3. Combine two sentences together omitting less important information and adding connectives.

4. There can’t be any objective discussion connected with problems of two different generations. Nobody can be a teenager twice.

5. Teenagers of today are considered adults long before their parents were. It leads to more freedom and it makes life harder.

6. Teenagers lack experience and often make mistakes. People usually don’t understand and tolerate teenagers’ mistakes.

7. The family is no longer a supportive unit as it was. It results in children receiving less care and time.

8. Modern society has changed a lot and become very contradictory. Parents do not know about pressures put on the young by their peers.

9. Adolescence is harder now. Being a parent is also more difficult nowadays.

4. Put the jumbled sentences in the logical order to sum up the information given in the text.

1. It allows more freedom but it also makes life harder.

2. At present adolescence is harder but being a parent is also more difficult now.

3. The family is not as supportive as it used to be.

4. Teenagers grow up so quickly nowadays.

5. Parents often have no idea of the pressures put on their children by their peers and can’t help them.

6. The young of today are regarded adults long before their parents were.

7. As a result teenagers receive less care and time.

8. Teenagers lack experience and make mistakes that elder people don’t tolerate.

9. The society they live in is very contradictory and difficult to contend with.

5. Use the following words and word combinations to speak about teenagers and their problems. Add connectives and some more words if necessary.

1. These days, teenagers, to grow up, quickly.

2. Objective discussion, none, to be, teenager, twice.

3. The young, to have, problems.

4. To become adult, long before, parents.

5. To allow, more freedom, to make, harder.

6. To lack experience, to make mistakes, elder people, to understand.

7. Supportive, family, to receive, less care and time.

8. To come into contact with, alcohol, drugs, cigarettes.

9. Modern society, contradictory, difficult, to contend with.

10. Society, to change, to put on pressures, peers, to help.

11. Adolescence, hard, to be a parent, difficult.

Unit VIII

Pre-reading tasks

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

modern life restlessness to deal with problems separately

stressful loss of appetite to share one’s responsibility with others

to compete sleeplessness to find the cause of stress

gloominess unsociability to earn as much as possible

to become tense to get rid of to to talk to somebody

signs of stress irritability to change one’s view over the situation

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. How to Reduce Stress and Tension

Modern life is stressful. We compete at work and often in sport and even with our friends. We try to save time and try to earn as much money as possible in order to possess cars, better houses, washing machines or to go on holiday so that we can relax after becoming so tense and tired!

Signs of stress: have you noticed any of these signs in yourself or in another person recently? Are these signs increasing?

Irritability, fussiness, gloominess, suspicion, indecision, excitability, restlessness, lack of concentration, unsociability, loss of appetite, over-eating, sleeplessness, drinking, smoking, worrying, tension.

What is causing the stress?

Many people try to get rid of the signs of stress instead of the cause. They may like sleeping pills or try to control the various signs in other ways. But the only satisfactory way of stopping stress is to find the cause of it. You may not be able to change the cause of the stress but understanding it will probably help.

It may be the death or illness of a friend, the loss of your job or money worries. And you can probably do nothing to change these.

It may be conflict inside yourself. Perhaps you feel you ought to do something but you don’t want to. You may have mixed feelings about someone or something and not know what to do. All you can do is to try to examine yourself and what you feel is right. It may be helpful to talk to someone about it. It may be that you feel hopeless in a situation. Try to be realistic; make a list of all the characteristics of the situation and of yourself and then face the facts.

Perhaps you feel weak, interior, not good enough, ignored or guilty. Once more, try to be realistic. It may be true! If it is true it may not really be so serious. But it may not be true or it may not be as simple as you might think. We sometimes see only our own position in a situation. It may well be that other people also have their own problems or are also guilty, etc. you may be able to change your view of the situation by redefining it, and saying quite simply “Oh, it could be worse” or “Well, there’s another side to it.”

Perhaps you have several different problems. Try to see them separately and deal with them one by one. Perhaps you feel you have too much responsibility. Share some of it. Or just don’t do something. It is amazing how life can continue if we don’t do something, which we thought was very important.

It may be that you are acting in a way, which isn’t natural to you. This may be causing you stress. Is it worth it?

Perhaps you are stressed by fears you can’t identify. Do your best to decide whether they are real or not.

Post-reading tasks

Read the text again to fulfill the tasks to follow.

1. The text is headlined “How to reduce stress and tension”. Do you think the heading suits the information given in the text? Express your opinion. Below you’ll find some more headings. Choose the one that suits best and motivate your choice.

a) Modern life is full of stress.

b) Recipes for happiness.

c) Finding the cause of stress is a way of getting rid of it.