Variant 1 Living with the enemy
People often say that living with teenagers is worse than living with any other age group. But is this true? We talked to two parents with teenage children to find out.
Marilyn Scott
Yes, sometimes it is really difficult living with teenagers. But it isn’t only their age, it’s also the type of people they are. My two sons are completely different. Tom’s easier to live with than Harry. Harry’s a typical moody fifteen-year-old. He’s a lot noisier and more aggressive than Tom, and he isn’t as considerate. So he’s much harder to live with. But Harry’s got his good side too. He is very bright and his exam results are always better than Tom’s.
Tom’s two years older than Harry, so he’s more mature and less stubborn than his brother. He is also a bit more patient and can be very helpful when he wants to be. But he’s got bigger problems at school. He is as intelligent as Harry, but he is much lazier and his exam results are always worse than his brother’s. Harry wants to be a pilot when he leaves school, but Tom doesn’t know what he wants to do.
In some ways I’m a bit more worried about Harry because he is not as happy as Tom. But I also worry about Tom because he has not got any plans for his future. Yes, life is hard living with teenagers, but I’ll miss them when they leave home.
Task 1. Read the article .Write True or False
1. Marilyn’s two sons are quite similar.
2. Harry is doing badly at school.
3. Harry knows which job he wants to do.
4. Tom doesn’t study very hard.
5. Tom isn’t very ambitious.
II.Writing
1 Imagine you saw lots of rubbish in your local park. Write an email to a newspaper editor, telling him or her about the problem. Use the questions to help you. (5 marks)
1 Why are you writing?
2 Why do you think this happened?
(two possible ideas: people are lazy, not enough bins)
3 What are the solutions?
(two possible ideas: more bins, adverts that tell people about the problem)
