Prime Time 8. Coursebook plus Semester Self-checks, Schulbuch

6 Spot on language Expressing yourself in the right register a) With a partner, decide what communicative function is expressed by each group of phrases and discuss when it would be appropriate to use the different expressions. Think of possible contexts and who might be speaking. (There is no one correct answer.) 1. A Have a nice day. 3. A It’s really pissing me off! B I do hope we meet again. B I feel very annoyed about it. C See you later. C I’m afraid it simply isn’t acceptable. 2. A Excuse me. Do you think you could possibly 4. A That is so not a good idea! help me? B In my opinion, it would be in your interests to B Hey, I need you! Now! reconsider your decision. C Can you give me a hand, please? C I’m worried you might regret it later. b) Read a police officer’s report of an incident and imagine how this teenager would describe the same incident. Write his report. The offence took place at 9:40 p.m. outside the Jumbo fast food restaurant in King Street. Having observed a young man throwing an empty burger carton on the street I requested that he retrieve it and place it in the bin provided for the purpose by the restaurant. His refusal to do so in less than polite terms led to my repeating my request and informing him that the consequences of not complying would be a fine. Despite this warning, the young man still persisted in his verbal aggression and lack of cooperation. I was therefore left with no alternative but to issue a fixed penalty notice for £80 for failure to dispose of litter in the proper manner. What’s wrong with today’s youth? a) Identify what kind of text this is and who it is aimed at. b) The text uses some expressions that are very formal and some that are quite informal. Compare for example “trashed a 380-acre farm” with “causing mayhem on a farmer’s property”. Find more examples of this in the text and explain their effect on the reader. c) Paraphrase these idioms to explain their meaning: “to be at a loose end”, “to come face to face with”, “give and take”, “to take one’s cue from sb.”, “to take sth. up”. 1 2 In Boston, Lincolnshire, 70 teenagers trashed a 380-acre farm. They crashed 10-ton lorries through a gate to deliver alcohol, sound equipment and generators for an all-night rave. Halfway round the world in Australia, firemen in Sydney blamed bored children for the bushfires threatening the city. Fourteen of the 21 arrested were juveniles. Hearing these news stories you can’t help but echo the age-old refrain: what’s wrong with today’s youth? To explain their thrill at causing mayhem on a farmer’s property or at setting fire to Sydney’s national parks, we need to look […] at the social network they inhabit. Once upon a time, teenagers at a loose end after school could join the Scouts or go to the youth club down the road, where they came face to face with peers and authority figures, and were expected to get on with them all. Here they sampled the give and take of compromise, politeness and demands that colours every encounter within a community. It’s an emotional bartering that comes naturally to only a few, and must be learned by the rest of us. But where can today’s youngsters learn to say “please” and wait patiently in the queue rather than growl and elbow their way to the front? Taking their cues from their disaffected parents, who opt out of politics, clubs and churches, teenagers of all classes have turned away from organised and collective leisure that would have once taught them social skills, and taken up the solo pleasures of the internet. In virtual chatrooms and through video games, today’s generation engages in a new kind of interaction. Yes, you make connections with others – but wholly on your own terms. Should the invisible interlocutor fail to amuse you or to confirm your prejudices or heap sufficient praise upon you, you can simply click your mouse and they’re off your screen, to be replaced with someone more amiable or more malleable. Free of parental interference, and unrestrained by traditional social relationships, young people are turning into socially autistic beings who can only log on and tune out. (From: Cristina Odone, The Observer ; adapted) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 76 The individual and society Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv