Page 10 - İngilizce 11 | 3.Ünite

B. Ups and Downs HARD TIMES
THEME 3

Reading & Writing

1 a. Think about the teenagers’ problems below and tick the boxes.

Teenagers suffer from ...
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
cyber addiction
exam stress
depression
bullying
negative body image
eating disorder
sibling rivalry
acne
parents’ pressure

b. Work in pairs. Tell and discuss about your own experiences. Have you ever suffered from a
teenage problem? How did you deal with it? How did you use to feel?

2 Guess the meanings of the underlined idioms and choose the correct options.

1. It’s quite usual to have ups and downs in our lives. We can’t always be happy.
a. We can have good and bad times. b. We need to stay positive.
2. My boss used to be a real pain in the neck. He usually made us work at the weekend.
a. He created a happy atmosphere at work. b. He caused annoyance and unhappiness.
3. Horrible events happened in a chain reaction after the war. Each disaster caused another one.
a. The events made people unhappy. b. Each event affected the next one.
4. Don’t laugh at or make fun of my hair! I know it looks terrible today.
a. Don’t make a joke of my hair. b. Don’t tell me to do my hair.

PASSING THROUGH TEENAGE PROBLEMS

It’s very normal for teenagers to go through physically and socially hard times.
However, you should keep in mind that these challenging times will soon be
over. Let’s take a look at the stories of two bright young people.

Noah’s Story
1 Noah is a talented basketball player but he had a pretty tough time when he was a
teenager. His parents used to compare him with his elder brother who was a brilliant
student and a good football player. He felt like they were criticising him whenever
possible. Things weren’t easy in his social life, either. It was like a chain reaction, one
5 problem caused another. He was much shorter and less sociable compared to his
friends. Some of his friends used to bully him physically and verbally when he was
training in the school gym. They used to humiliate him in front of everybody, so he didn’t
want to go out at all. He used to spend long hours in front of the computer because
in the cyber world no one judges a person for his or her appearance or personality.
10 However, wasting too much time on the Internet caused another big problem.
Everybody in his family used to ask him questions about his future plans and career.
That made the situation even worse for him because he used to feel a lot of pressure
and stress. He wanted to end that depression, so he decided to talk to his parents and
get help from his teachers. He fnally learned that experiencing ups and downs is quite
15 normal for a teenager. Everything has changed for better now.

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