11
Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение – средняя
общеобразовательная школа №23 с углубленным изучением английского языка
г. Орла
Реферат
По английскому языку на тему:
“Teenagers problems”
Орел 2007
Contents
Introduction
Children and toxicomania
Drugs
AIDS
Emotional problems
Conclusion
Literature
Introduction
He is lifeless who is faultless.
The more man knows the greater power he has.
The modern world is full of problems — war, hunger, poverty, disease,
unemployment… It’s a long list. Do teenagers and young people have the
some problems of the whole world or are they involved in something else?
The world is facing a drugs crisis. There are more young addicts today
than ever before. Drugs have played a continually significant role in
youth sub-cultures from the late 50-s onwards.
While some young people spent their money on records and clothes, others
established an ‘intellectual’ youth culture influenced by hedonism.
These young people were known as ‘beatnits’ and later as ‘hippies’.
Teenagers felt freer to have sexual experiences and to experiment with
drugs, smoking and spend they free time in bed way.
Many teenagers are trying to be independent, and free in the way of
living, making friends, spending free time, clothing, and style. But
instead they are under constant pressure from their parents, which leads
to misunderstanding, leaving homes by children, solving the problems
with parents in the wrong way. Many teenagers can’t listen to their
parent’s advice or just have a quiet talk; they choose to ignore all
rules and regulations. Part of the problem is sometimes neither of the
sides is willing to see the other side’s point of view, so things are
getting out of control.
Everybody says your youth is probably the best time of young life that
being young means romance, love, new discoveries and so on. But it is
also the most difficult time because you have to make some very
important decisions, which will influence all your future life.
Things are not easy nowadays even for adults, but for teenagers, who
have to find their own place in society, it’s very difficult. It’s
necessary not only to adapt to your society, but also to be confident
about your position in 5, 10 or 20 years time.
For your future it is essential to have a good job. Every girl or boy
leaving secondary school should choose an institution of higher
education, or if he or she doesn’t want to study any more, choose a job
straight way.
Put even if you are studying, you need money of your own t pay for extra
clothes, tapes, books. It something the problem.
And now I wonted to tell you about some of the problems in detail.
Children and toxicomania
Such products as glue, butane gas, solvents are made on solvent base.
That is why they can be used for sniffing and then receiving post
effects of visual hallucinations.
Solvents are usually commercial products, like glue, nail polish
remover, aerosols, gas lighter fuel and petrol, which give off a vapour.
When the vapour is inhaled, it can make you feel light-headed, happy,
dizzy. The effects can last up to an hour, depending on what, and how
much was inhaled. Solvents are depressant drugs.
It is estimated that one of five young people in Britain have used
solvents. It is the second most commonly used drug for this age group.
Talking about our country, there is no exact statistics concerning this
fact, but it is not a secret that the number of «sniffers» is growing
and yet has reached a tremendous index. It happens, because such
substances are the most available and cheap.
Because solvents are often sniffed from a plastic bag, sometimes
covering the head, there is a risk of suffocation, if the user becomes
unconscious.
Solvent use is extremely dangerous. Nobody knows exactly how many
children die in our country, because of solven addiction. For example,
in Great Britain in 1999 thirty nine young people died as a direct
result of inhaling butane lighter fluid. This is ten times more than die
from Ecstasy.
In Great Britain it is prohibited to sell solvent-based products to
children under 18s. It is illegal there. Here, in our country, there is
no such legislation concerning this problem, which is becoming worse day
after day.
Drugs
More people are abusing drugs today than in any other time in history of
mankind, and many of those people are youth.
Understanding what drugs are is fundamental for understanding their
potential abuse. Drugs are a psychoactive substance. A psychoactive
substance is something that people take to change the way they feel,
think or behave. Some of these substances are called drugs and others,
like alcohol and tobacco, are considered dangerous, but are not called
drugs. The term drug also covers a number of substances that must be
used under medical supervision to treat illnesses.
I am going to talk about drugs as those man-made or naturally occurring
substances used without medical supervision, basically to change the way
a person feels, thinks or behaves. In the past, most drugs were made
from plants. That is, plants were grown and then converted into drugs
such as coca paste, opium and marijuana. Over the years, these crude
products were further processed to drugs like cocaine and heroin and
finally, in the 20th century, people found out how to make drugs from
chemicals. These are called man-made or synthetic drugs and include
ecstasy, LSD, etc. These were initially manufactured for largely
experimental reasons and only later were used for recreational purposes.
Now, however, with the increased size and scope of the drug trade,
people set out to invent drugs especially for human consumption.
For the first time in human history, a whole industrial complex creates
and produces drugs that are meant to be used for the sole purpose of
«having f un.» People use drugs just to escape the reality, to have fun.
The majority of them are young, even very young, who do not understand
what might happen to them because of drugs.
The problem of drug addiction and alcoholism is the greatest tragedy of
every country in the world. The lives of millions of families are
destroyed because of it every year. Drugs do not discriminate based on
social or financial status of an individual, nor because of certain
ambitions or views. Today, drugs have penetrated the circles of
scientists, politicians, artists and entertainers. Medical professionals
are unable to provide a solution for this problem, and the only help the
doctors can offer a drug addict is to ease the pain of withdrawals, but
the addiction remains, and the drug finds its way back over and over
again… Every drug addict is a potential criminal, who is ready and
willing to commit a crime any day for a dose of the drug, and becomes a
useless member of the society…..“Exodus” ministry has an enormous
experience in reaching out and providing help to those individuals who
have found themselves in this problem. Over 2000 people have become free
from drug addiction in the 6 years of the ministry’s existence. More
than 100 families were formed and more than 50 babies were born. Every
minister on our team is him herself an addict in the past. We are able
to help not because we know the problem theoretically, but because we
have personally experienced the problem. You will be able to find
information, news, video and much more about our ministry in different
cities of Russia, Ukraine, England and USA, as well as chat with our
ministers and individuals that received freedom from addiction in
“Exodus”. We would be more than happy for you to join the Exodus
International Ministry movement through our forum. “Our mission is to
help one more addict turn a hopeless existence into a new and better
life and become a stable member of the society.”
The number of drug-addicts has grown in Russia over the last 10 years by
nearly 15-fold to an average of 241 out of 100,000 people, according to
the statistics which are to be submitted to the parliamentary hearings
on the problem. The situation with drug addicts is the worst in the
Siberian Federal District where an average of 415 people out of 100,000
are officially registered as addicts. Over 500,000 people are registered
throughout the country as addicts. Some experts believe that the actual
number of drug addicts is close to 4 million.
There are three main kinds of drug — hard, soft and legal. They can all
cause addiction, serious illness and even death.
Hard drugs include heroin, cocaine, LSD and crack. Soft drugs are —
marijuana, amphetamines (speed), solvents (glue) and ecstasy. Legal
drags include tobacco, alcohol and certain tranquillisers. How do
addicts live? They steal money, lose their friends, hurt their families,
are cheated by dealers, destroy their health. The government in all
countries tries to help the young addicts save their lives, stop their
sufferings and the sufferings of people. Special hospitals have been
opened; big antidrugs campaigns have been organized in schools. Many
schools have a drag-education programme for children as young as 8 or 9.
Programmes like these include books, videos and cassettes. Some schools
even arrange visits from ex-addicts. One of these is Phil Cooper (in
Great Britain); he travels around the country giving teenagers two-hour
drag-education lessons.
Advertising campaigns also play an important part in the war against
drugs. If the crisis is serious and international, so is the war against
drugs. Each of the campaign has a message — for example, ‘Just Say No’,
‘Stop the madness’, or ‘Don’t Do Drugs’ Each one has also featured a lot
of famous TV, movie and pop stars. Some anti-drugs campaigns have tried
to schock young people. They showed how heroin could completely destroy
addicts’ lives, how dirty needles spread AIDS.
AIDS
AIDS is an insidious and up to the present moment incurable but less
contagious disease than measles or hepatitis B. AIDS is thought to be
caused primarily by a virus that invades white blood cells (lymphocytes)
and certain other body cells including the brain. In 1983 and 1984,
French and U.S. researchers independently identified the virus believed
to cause AIDS as an unusual type of slow-acting retrovirus now called
«human immunodeficiency virus» or HIV. Like other viruses HIV is
basically a tiny package of genes. But being a retrovirus, it has the
rare capacity to copy and insert its genes right into a human DNA. Once
inside a human host cell, the retrovirus using its own capacities begins
to copy its genetic code into a DNA molecule which is then incorporated
into the host’s DNA. The virus becomes an integral part of the person’s
body. But the viral DNA may sit hidden and inactive within human cells
for years, until some trigger stimulates it to replicate. Thus HIV may
not produce illness until its genes are «turned on» five, ten, fifteen
or perhaps more years after the initial infection.
During the latent period, HIV carriers who harbour the virus without any
sign of illness can unknowingly infect others. On average, the dormant
virus seems to be triggered into action three to six years after first
invading human cells. When switched on, viral replication may speed
along, producing new viruses that destroy fresh lymphocytes. As viral
replication spreads, the lymphocyte destruction virtually sabotages the
entire immune system. In essence, HIV viruses do not kill people, they
merely render the immune system defenceless against other infections,
e.g. yeast invasions, toxoplasmosis, cytome-galovirus, massive herpes
infections, special forms of pneumonia that kill in half of all AIDS
patients.
That is AIDS. There are several types of AIDS. No one has been cured up
to the present moment.
Smoking
Other problem with many young people is smoking. It doesn’t only damage
their own health but the health of those around them. It kills 2,5 mln
people a year. Each cigarette knocks five minutes off life. It’s just
kissing an ashtray. In recent years, smokers have suffered more than any
other group in society. In many countries, the price of cigarettes has
gone up because of heavy government taxes. Some people even have lost
their jobs because they smoke. Millions of teenagers know it’s bad for
them, but they still do it. Why? Here are some of the most common
reasons. It relaxes the person when he’s nervous; he likes the taste;
his friends smoke; it has become a habit impossible to resist.
Besides — the advertisements — there are 2 types of cigarette
advertisement — ‘for’ and ‘against’. Tobacco companies want more and
more people to smoke. Cigarettes mean profit for them. About 100 mln
people around the world work in the tobacco industry, $ 100 billion of
cigarettes are sold every year. The first smokers were American Indians.
Tobacco was brought to Europe by an Englishman, Sir Walter Raleigh, in
the 16th century.
From other side, doctors and health organizations want to cut the number
of smokers. For them cigarettes mean disease. The two sides are fighting
a battle. It’s a very expensive battle, too. Ads like these cost mlns of
pounds every year. So, it’s just to the young what to decide.
Emotional problems
Emotional problems for young people can be far more difficult than
financial ones. The typical teenager problem is drug-habit. Some young
man use drugs, because they think that will be cool guys. But they don’t
understand that it’s wrong. Some of them can’t stop that, and they
become dependent on drugs. And they commit different serious crimes,
because they need some money to buy drugs.
Youth is also the time to meet your first love. It is, of course,
wonderful, but, as it is widely known that first love often has an
unhappy end, this also increases young people’s problems.
We also face the problem how to spend our free time. We can do it in
different ways. Some of teen-ages spend their free time in different
night clubs. Other young people spend their free time in the streets.
Another typical problem for most of the teenagers is problem with their
parents. Leo Tolstoy said: “All families are happy in the similar way
and unhappy in its own way”. And happiness or unhappiness of any family
mostly depends on relations in it.
Each family establishes its own relations in its own way. It has its own
traditions and customs and its own unwritten constitution including
rights and duties of every member of the family. The level of democracy
is also different in different families, which mostly depends on the
viewpoints of adults usually not coinciding with a child’s point of
view. So the problem of misunderstanding becomes urgent. Some people can
it generation gap. It as a rule sharpens as soon as a child approaches
his or her difficult teens. And both sides (parents and children) should
be patient and tactful and it’s the only way to settle down all the
problems and stay friends.
Parents say that its difficult to discipline children. But experts state
that parents will get the best results if they try to prevent or stop
misbehavior in natural, logical and when possible fun ways. Here are
some pieces of advice to help them keep their kids in line.
Conclusion
So if you are a teenager and you are having problems with your parents
try talking things over with them. Tell them what you think but be
prepared to listen to them as well. Remember that your parents love you
and in the end, no matter a hat they only want. What’s best for you?
Discussing your problems calmly will help you and your parents to
understand each other better, and the more mature you with them, the
more likely they are to treat you as an adult.
Social problems, family relationships and misunderstanding, school
problems, lack of money on spending free time … lead to increasing
crime among young people. We are facing lots of problems but older
people first of all should think about younger generations find the way
out in solving the problems of the young and save them for the society,
as youth is an integral part of it, it’s our future.
So, as you see, it is very difficult to be young nowadays, as, need, it
always was. But you only can be young once, and some wonderful things
can happen only when you’re young. So, it is be to enjoy youth while it
lasts.
If you wont to help teenagers with they problems you’ll better to talk
with them. To my mind, teenagers would have a hobby. People take up
different hobbies: collecting stamps, old coins, stones, records,
photography… we must spend our time on useful things: extra classes,
sports, music, collecting things. Hobby helps people to learn many
interesting things. Teenagers wont to go somewhere, see new places and
things. I think that if people have hobby they interesting in something
and all they free time they spend to his interests, know new things and
spend they time with use.
Literature
1. Drozdova T.U., Brestova A.I.. The Whole World in Our Hands, Himera,
S.-Petrburg, 1999
2. Drozdova T.U,. Brestova A.I. Everyday English, Antologia,
S.-Peterburg, 2004
3. Kubarcov G.L., Timohic B.А.. Topics, BAO-PRESS, Moscow, 2004
4. Mixailiva E. D., Romanovich A.U. Brush up your English, UNBES,
Moscow, 2001
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