|
Control work IV-VII
Part 1 Work through the panel talk (pp. 217-219). Point out the key problems of the talk and express your attitude to them (200-250 words) The panel talk touches upon the key problems of the present the problem of teenagers suicide, the problem if drug-users and alcoholics, the problems of crime and AIDS-spreading. All of these problems are very acute, especially if we speak about teenagers and kids. Drug and alcohol abuse is tragically destructive, the more so if the addict is a teenager. It ruins youngsters health, produces insensibility, frustration, it may lead to crime and suicide. All human values lose their significance. What is the reason for choosing this way? Why would they ever want to use drugs at all? They tend to explain it from a more personal choice, something inside them urging them on; wanting to fit in, to feel part of the group, a curiosity; or a need for excitement. They may use drugs to show their rebelling against adult authority, to hide their feelings of inadequacy and low self esteem. The pressures facing teenagers are too much for many of them to bear, the problems of teenagers life may be unbearable for some of them, so teenagers try to find their own way out in taking drugs (or other intoxicants) to get some kind of euphoria as a kind of shelter from the harsh reality. Teenagers and kids are nothing more than victims of circumstances. Lack of supervision from school officials, drug pushers, lack of parents authority, kids' role models, parental indulgence, lack of parental involvement all of them may lead to the tragedy. Using drugs and alcohol, as a rule, leads to crime. Teenagers need money to buy drugs, so they may steal or rob to get money for drug dealers. And it may lead them to a prison. Moreover, drug-users belong to the so-called high risk-group for catching AIDS, the plague of twentieth century. They help spread AIDS through dirty syringes. Where is a way out? When we place our children in the juvenile justice system, they come out learning more tricks than they knew before they went in. When we place our children in Alternative Special Schools, they are with kids whose behaviour was not acceptable in the Public School and they, again, learn tricks not schoolwork. So, it is no solution of the problem. We ought to cultivate a sense of responsibility for our actions, health and life in children. We ought to help children to understand all values of human life. Our children are our future and we have to do whatever we can to help them.
Part 2 Read the text Mr. Smeeth Is Worried (pp. 225-230) 2.1. Ex. 2.1. Choose the right answer and prove your point of view:
I am inclined to think that the right answer is a. When Mr. Smeeth learned about his sons problems, he was worried about Georges future and reputation, he cared a great deal abuut his son. He forbade him to work in the suspected garage because he didnt want his son to be mixed up in anything dishonest. Easy to get yourself a bad name, yknow, boy, even if you dont do anything wrong yourself. (But, his pride was wounded too. He was amazed that his family, especially his son, didnt say a word about that incident to him.)
(b) I think that he didnt consider himself guilty or in the wrong we can see that from the lines: The boy talked about buying stolen cars as if it was simply a little weakness on Barrettt part, a silly hobby. He didnt seem to be in the least shocked or frightened. But he wasnt involved in the car-stealing business, he was only a witness.
I am inclined to the answer (b), it may be proved by the lines: his (Georges) point of view appeared to be whole worlds away from anything his father could understand. The father and the son belonged to different generations, to different worlds, and they couldnt understand each other because of difference of social values.
2.2. Ex. 2.8. . Consult an English-English Dictionary for the definition of the following words. Use them in sentences of your own based on your set book:
2.3. Ex. 2.18. . Interpret the text: The piece of fiction is called Mr. Smeeth Is Worried; it belongs to J.B. Priestleys novel Angel Pavement. That novel depicts the people of London and what happens to them when an adventure comes to them in the person of the mysterious Mr. Goldspie. The novel tackles many problems, such as the problem of social protest, youth problems and the eternal problem of the generation gap. This extract touches upon the problem of the relationships between generations of sons and fathers, the problem of delinquency and possibility for young people to be involved in crime. The title of the extract is symbolic: the main character of the extract, Mr. Smeeth was actually worried that his son George could be mixed up in anything dishonest, in a dirty business. One day Mr. Smeeth met Sergeant Gaily and learnt that his son George had been brought before the court a day or two before. He was only a witness because of working in the suspected garage, but Mr. Smeeth was worried by that fact. When he arrived home, he found out that his wife was absent and his daughter Edna was with her friend and didnt know anything about Georges police court business. But she gave Mr. Smeeth precise directions to find the garage and Mr. Smeeth hurried there. Mr. Smeeth found his son working and forced him to stop his work. After a long talk about the problem Mr. Smeeth found out that his son wasnt worried about buying stolen cars, he believed that all was all right and his father shouldnt worry either. When they arrived home, Mr. Smeeth had a conversation with his wife, but she was confident that her son couldnt be involved in anything dangerous. We can see that Mr. Smeeth was a conscientious man, who wanted his son to be a right man too, who wanted to prevent his sons mixing up in bad company. But in the conversation with Sergeant Gaily he confessed: I dont see as much of him as I ought these days, and he just goes his own way. Mr. Smeeth realized that his son was in trouble and tried to help him. I especially want to point out Mr. Smeeths patience towards George. When Mr. Smeeth asked George to stop his work, he was tolerant but firm, we can see it from the lines he said curtly: Just clean yourself up and get your hat and coat on, George. Oh, come outside if youre going to argue about it. We can see no making a scene with George, no bad language, no abuse, just composed order: So you can just tell them youre finishing now, this minute. And Mr. Smeeth was patiently waiting for about twenty minutes until his son finished his work. Mr. Smeeth couldnt believe that his son was an adult man. He often thought that George had been a child only yesterday and was astonished at Georges maturity (I think it can be called so) and his opinion about what had happened. Here was a boy of his, who had been playing with clockwork trains on the floor only the day before yesterday, so to speak, and now he could talk in this strain, as cool as you please, as if he were Sergeant Gailey or somebody. Mr. Smeeth didnt notice that his son was no more a child; he was an adult with his own views on life, values and convictions. But he was an obedient son. He left his work without any word. And at the same time he was independent. Dont you worry. I can look after myself. I suppose that such a discrepancy was natural. There was the eternal generation gap. George seemed to live in the world his father didnt know, and his father felt as if he had brought up a boy who had suddenly turned into an Indian. I suppose that such a discrepancy was natural. George didnt consider himself guilty or in the wrong; we can see that from the lines: The boy talked about buying stolen cars as if it was simply a little weakness on Barrettt part, a silly hobby. He didnt seem to be in the least shocked or frightened.; but for his father that police court business was an outstanding event. George didnt want to tell his father about that event, he didnt think that it was serious; it was a common incident of the youths life. He had his own measurement of values. And we can see his fathers bitter reaction: Why didnt you tell me? Have to have a police sergeant telling me whats happening to my own son?. It is a bright example of lack of mutual understanding, lack of confidence between Mrs. Smeeth and George, Mrs. Smeeth was the exact antithesis to her husband. Her reaction to the incident was shallow. Her words You did right, Dad showed her attitude very clearly: You were right to do what you did, but leave him alone now and dont worry. She considered that her son didnt heed help, that he had his own way and could make his own choice. She behaved as if all things were all right. I think that she was an improvident woman, because her son was in trouble, even he didnt realize it for that moment. She seemed to be preoccupied by the quarrel between her and her husband (but she forgot about it for a moment or two, when she was told about her sons problem). She turned herself again into a woman who had quarrelled with him, merely listened to a few words with a distant politeness, excused herself and then gathered up the tea things in a very grand, dignified manner rather like a duchess visiting a poor cottager. The author puts great expression in to the relationships between Mrs. and Mr. Smeeth with these words. He shows us the detachment, lack of interest in the family problems and involvement Mrs. Smeeth with her husbands concerns, her indifference to the events of the day. The family relationships told on the childrens upbringing. There wasnt a united point of view on it. We may suppose that Mrs. Smeeth considered that her husband was too strict, so she often told her children: Now dont you say a word to your father about this. You know what he is. And Mr. Smeeth thought that his wife could deliberately hidden all bad events out of his sight. Mr. Smeeth and Mrs. Smeeth often had quarrels, I can assume that he wasnt nappy at home; he was rather alone in his family circle. We can see that from the lines of the last passage: Mr. Smeeth was left to smoke his pipe, alone, a solitary little figure in a huge, dark, mysterious world of cracking walls and slithering foundations, with echoes and rumours of catastrophe in every wind. The author lets us feel his state of loneliness and lack of understanding in full measure, this passage makes a reader sympathise with Mr. Smeeth. After the culmination of the extract, after Mr. Smeeths realization how significant the gap between him and the young generation his son belonged to was, we see only a tired, disappointed, anxious man instead of a man in the very beginning who was anxious too but who was angry, full of energy to remedy the situation. Somebody can consider Mr. Smeeth to be an overanxious man, a strict father, a problem husband, but he was just a conscientious man, who went home to a cheerful, improvident wife and full-grown children, and they didnt confide their problems to him; he was an unhappy senescent man, and his children (and his wife too) didnt share his senses of value. He was a winner and a loser at the same time. He forced his son to give up his dangerous job, and it is wishful thinking to believe that George wouldnt be a criminal, and at the same time Mr. Smeeth lost the battle for his ideals, for his senses of value with his family. He was left alone with his feelings and anxiety. The author wanted to show us that it might happen to any human being. The problem of sons and fathers is eternal.
|
|
|