21.04.2021

Form 11

Hello, boys and girls.

Today’s theme is “Youth”.

Today we’ll continue speaking about youth, and at this lesson we are going to focus on such points as: what does it mean for young people to be good citizens, on discussing some problems which teenagers face nowadays and making some necessary decisions and drawing conclusions.

The motto of our lesson is: “Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind”.

Answer the questions:

-         How does the author define youth?

-         What does the author say about growing old?

-         What “bows the heart and turn the growing spirit back to dust”?

-         What is there in “every being’s heart whether they are sixty or sixteen”?

-         How long does a man stay young according to the author?

Read the poem “YOUTH”
by Samuel Ullman

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

Answer the questions:

-         Are young people generally more selfish than their parents and grandparents?

-         Should adults try to teach young people lessons, such as: the dangers of drinking too much, taking drugs or catching the AIDS virus, or should they leave them alone to find out about these things themselves, surfing the net or learning more from outside?

-         What do you think is the best age to be? Explain your opinion.

-         What things were taught by your older family members? Were they useful to you in your life? How?

-         Some people say that men never grow up, they just get bigger. Do you agree? Explain your opinion.

-         Some people say that young women usually two or three years more mature than young men. Do you agree? Explain your opinion.

-         Should parents continue to finance their children after the children are 18?

-         Some people say that youth is a state of mind, do you agree?

Read and translate short texts

“Being good citizens”

Wendy: “Our school is in a small town on the coast and tourism is very important for our community. One of the problems we’ve been having though is all the litter that gets left on the beaches. It’s not all left by tourists. Unfortunately, most gets dumped by people who live in the area and some is washed up by the sea. Anyway, we decided to do something about it, so once a week during the summer we organized ourselves into work parties and cleaned the beaches. Apart from the image of the town, it gave us the chance to get plenty of fresh air.”

Tony: “In citizenship classes we visit elderly people in the community, who have difficulty in doing things for themselves, and help them. This means doing things like going to the shops and helping out in the house and garden. Sometimes, all we do is just have a chat with them. Sometimes we can find out something about life from them, because they’ve lived through a lot and have plenty of experience. I think it’s important for different generations to look out for each other.”

Alex: “It’s very beautiful here in the mountains and we get a lot of visitors, but beneath all the beauty it is quite a wild and dangerous place. I should know because I’m a volunteer with the local mountain rescue service. Naturally, we receive instruction in first-aid and how to use maps and compasses. I’ve been in a helicopter. Last summer I helped to find a walker who had fallen and broken his leg. If we hadn’t got to him, he would have died.”

Francis: “I had quite a few personal problems and it was a great help when I was able to phone up and talk to someone about them. That was when I decided that I would like to help out. Basically, I’m a volunteer on a help line for young people. Teenagers who have various problems can ring us and just talk about what’s worrying them. If it’s something very serious, we can recommend professional help. Of course, we get training on how to handle calls, and it’s a great feeling to know that you’re there for people if they need you.”

Naz: “I saw this ad in the press calling for volunteers to go and work in the Third World for a year. I decided to take a year out before university and I thought it would be a great opportunity. I ended up helping kide learnEnglish in a village in Africa. It was a real eye-opener for me as the resources were virtually non-existent and the classes were much larger than I thought they would be. However, I learnt a lot about myself being out there and benefited enormously from the experience.”

Gary: “This boy in our town was very ill and needed an operation, but the waiting list was very long. So we decided to help raise money for him so he could have the operation privately, which would be a lot quicker. We decided to have a sponsored six-a-side football tournament in the gym at school. We had several teams and we all played each other round the clock for twenty-four hours. Of course, we rested while the other teams were playing, but it was exhausting. Anyway, we got family, friends and local firms to sponsor us, and we made enough money for Richard to have the operation he needed.”

Refer each person to the appropriate question. Which person:

- learnt about the project in a newspaper? - had previously been helped by the project? - found the project different from what they had expected? - says the project was physically demanding? - went on the project after leaving school? - says you can learn from those you help? - says they have developed as a person?

 Match the words with their definitions:

1 benefit             a is not present one; isn’t being used nowadays

2 non-existing    b making you feel extremely tired

3 to handle         c to put smth., such as a bag, books etc.in a careless, untidy way

4 to dump           d to bring advantages to someone or improve lives in some way

5 exhausting       e to deal with smth. By doing what is necessary

Home task: Do the individual project “Citizenship for Young People” and make a presentation.

Good bye!

Good luck!