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31.05.2021 09:26 •  Английский язык

Read the text and choose True, False or Doesn’t say: When children had to work

While it is common for teenagers in many countries to have part-time jobs, there are restrictions about the number of hours they can work and the types of jobs they can do. The aim of these rules is to protect young people from exploitation. National and international laws prohibit younger children from working at all. But it hasn’t always been like that.

Life wasn’t easy in 18th-century Britain, especially for children. They often had to work on farms to help their families. Things got even worse at the end of the century when machines were invented and the first factories opened. Operating the machines did not require physical strength, and children could be hired more cheaply than adults. By the mid-1800s, child labour was a major problem.

The factory owners wanted big profits and didn’t care about the health of the workers. The children who worked in the factories were often treated badly. They had to be in the factory for more than 12 hours every day. Sometimes, they had to work at night. They couldn’t go to school, so they never learned new skills and couldn’t find better jobs when they grew up. Many of them couldn’t even read and write.

Many people, like the English writer Charles Dickens, protested against child labour. He worked in one of the factories himself and described his experience in the novel Oliver Twist. Unfortunately, the employment of children in British factories continued until the late 19th century, when child labour was finally banned.

Choose True, False or Doesn’t say:

4. Some children had to work on Saturdays and Sundays.

True

Doesn't say

False​