1. Find English equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Включительно; быть неразрывно связанными; возникает вопрос; носить нелепую одежду; пойти в армию; быть ужасно грубыми по отношению к кому-либо.

2. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Certain preoccupations; as far as I’m concerned; to cope with smth.; to be independent from smb. at young age; the vast majority; a period of transformation.

3. Rearrange the statements as they occur in the text. (Give numbers.)

1. According to ‘the older generation’ teenagers are lazy, they wear ridiculous clothes and are appallingly rude to their betters and elders.

2. The vast majority of young people I meet are polite, friendly, open, interested and hard-working.

3. It isn’t easy to grow up and the physical and emotional changes are often confusing and worrying.

4. Officially, of course, a teenager is anyone aged from 13 to 19 inclusive.

5. Actually, it seems to me to be quite the opposite of the truth.

6. It is a difficult time because it’s a period of transformation.

Text 11 why aren’t you at school, sonny?

This is a question that many British schoolchildren may hear at some point in their school careers, when they are “playing truant”, “bunking off”, or absent without permission. Most people bunk off because they face problems at school — either they are not doing well, they are being bullied or their parents are putting too much pressure on them. The government thinks that absenteeism is getting out of control in England, but what can they do to make sure children go to school? Here are some of the reasons they are worried:

One million children a year bunk off school (go absent without a reason). In primary schools (5—11) the average time missed per absent

pupil is over five days in the year. For secondary schools (11—16), it is 10 days.

Why is it such a problem? The evidence shows that truancy is linked to crime and failure at school. When children are out of school they might be committing crime and they certainly aren’t learning.

What is the answer then? Some people think it is electronic registration: this is a chip in a card that the children have to swipe at the beginning of the school day. When the children put the card in a machine the headmaster can see immediately who is in the school and who is absent.

The best way of improving attendance is to make school, and the gaps between the lessons more interesting. Some schools which have had attendance problems in the past have started lunchtime radio stations, sport, music, and a breakfast club with morning TV and aerobics.

Other schools have resorted to more extreme methods when pupils don’t turn up. Last year 9000 children were expelled from schools in England, a big rise in figures. Many children were excluded for violence and criminal behaviour. Of course, throwing children out of school solves one problem but immediately creates many more. Some teachers want corporal punishment brought (beating children with sticks) back into the classroom (it was banned in the 1970s), but the government didn’t agree.

One parent knows very well the cost of truancy, not only to her children’s education, but to her own freedom too. A mother of five, Patricia Amos, was the first person in Britain to be sent to jail for failing to send her children to school. She was sent to prison for 60 days after being found guilty in Oxford. She served 28 days in a very dangerous and violent women’s prison in London. Mrs. Amos said, ’’the whole horrible thing worked. It has brought me to my senses.”