10. Discuss the following questions with your partner and then with the group.

1. Is there any remedy for such kids as Dennis the Menace? What pedagogical solution/s would you suggest in order to put him on the right track?

2. What are common causes of children’s inadequate behavior: the family atmosphere, hereditary factor, external environment, school, other?

3. Would you agree that most problem children come from single-parent or broken families as they are deprived of due supervision by both parents?

4. Is it possible for a problem teenager to turn over a new leaf? How can this be achieved?

5. If you had a problem adolescent in your class who would repeatedly cut or disrupt classes, misbehave or be rude to you, how would you deal with him or her?

11. Today’s teenagers are not only rude and rowdy but also – according to a report published by supermarket chain Asda (Britain) – extremely expensive.

Read the text below and say if the same is true of this culture.

Even for parents on average incomes who are unwilling to pay for luxuries, the cost over five years of keeping a 16- to 21-year-old is likely to reach 25,000 (pounds). For wealthier parents, the cost could be as high as 67,000.

Parents might like to reflect that the same sum would buy them a quiet country cottage, 11 Versace dresses, or 30 round-the-world trips!

The cost of the food that teenagers will eat in those five years comes to 5,463, with more generous parents spending 40% more. Electricity to keep them warm and power the hairdryer and CD player comes to 340.

One of the most frequent causes of rows between parents and children is the telephone bill. If parents are lucky, they can stop children ringing until the cheap rate starts at 6 p.m. But even so, talkative youngsters will cost 374.40. For yuppie children the cost of a mobile phone will be 910.

One in three teenagers now goes on to higher education and parents are expected to help with grants. The average payment by parents is 88o a year, though high-income parents must pay considerably more.

They finally leave. You shed a tear. But there’s one more check to sign. One day your child is probably going to want to get married. The average cost of a wedding is 9,247.

As the report warns young couples, “Having a child could be the most expensive decision of your life!”

 Reading comprehension

1. Read the text and do the exercises that follow.

REUNION

(By John Cheever)

The last time I saw my father was in Grand Central Station. I was going from my grandmother’s in the Adirondacks to a cottage on the Cape that my mother had rented, and I wrote my father that I would be in New York between trains for an hour an a half, and asked if we could have lunch together. His secretary wrote to say that he would meet me at the information booth at noon, and at 12 o’clock sharp I saw him coming through the crowd. He was a stranger to me – my mother divorced him three years ago and I hadn’t been with him since – but as soon as I saw him I felt that he was my father, my flesh and blood, my future and my doom. I knew that when I was grown I would be something like him; I would have to plan my campaigns within his limitations. He was a big, good-looking man, and I was terribly happy to see him again. He struck me on the back and shook my hand. “Hi, Charlie, “ he said, “Hi, boy, I’d like to take you up to my club, but it’s in the Sixties, and if you have to catch an early train I guess we’d better get something to eat around here.” He put his arm around me, and I smelled my father the way my mother sniffs a rose. It was a rich compound of whiskey, after shave lotion, shoe polish, and the rankness of a mature male.

I hoped that someone would see us together. I wished that we could be photographed. I wanted some record of our having been together.

We went out of the station and up a side street to a restaurant. It was still early, and the place was empty. The bartender was quarelling with a delivery boy, and there was one very old waiter in a red coat down by the kitchen door. We sat down, and my father hailed the waiter in a loud voice: “Kellner!” he shouted. “Garcon, Cameriere! You!” His boisterousness in the empty restaurant seemed out of place. “Could we have a little service here!” he shouted. “Chop-chop.” Then he clapped his hands. This caught the waiter’s attention, and he shuffled over our table.

“Were you clapping your hands at me?” he asked.

“Calm down, calm down, sommelier” my father said. “If it isn’t too much to ask of you – if it wouldn’t be too much above and beyond the call of duty, we would like a couple of Beefeater Gibsons.

“I don’t like to be clapped at,” the waiter said.

“I should have brought my whistle,” my father said. ‘I have a whistle that is audible only to the ears of old waiters. Now, take out your little pad and your little pencil and see if you can get this straight: two Beefeater Gibsons. Repeat after me: two Beefeater Gibsons.”

“I think you’d better go somewhere else, “the waiter said quietly.

“That,” said my father, “is one of the most brilliant suggestions I have ever heard. Come on, Charlie, let’s get the hell out of here.”

I followed my father out of that restaurant in to another. He was not so boisterous this time. Our drinks came, and he cross-questioned me about the baseball season. He then struck the edge of his empty glass with his knife and began shouting again. Garcon! Kellner! Cameriere! You! Could we trouble you to bring us two more of the same?”

“How old is the boy?” the waiter asked.

“That,” my father said, “is none of your Goddamned business.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the waiter said, “but I won’t serve the boy another drink.”

“Well, I have some news for you,” my father said. “I have some very interesting news for you. This doesn’t happen to be the only restaurant in New York. They’ve opened another on the corner. Come one, Charlie.”

He paid the bill, and I followed him out of that restaurant into another. Here the waiters wore pink jackets like hunting coats, and there was a lot of horse tack on the walls. We sat down, and my father began to shout again/ “Master of the hounds! Tallyho and all that sort of thing. We’d like a little something in the way of a stirrup cup. Namely, two Bibson Geefeaters.”

“Two Bibsson Geefeaters?” the waiter asked smiling.

“You know damned weel what I want,” my father saidn angrily. ‘I want two beefeater Gibsons, and make it snappy. Things have changed in jolly old England. So my friend the duke tells me. Let’s see what England can produce in the way of a cocktail.”

“This isn’t England,” the waiter said.

“Don’t argue with me,” my father said. “Just do as you’re told.”

“I just thought you might like to know where you are,” the waiter said.

“If there is one thing I cannot tolerate,” my father said, “it is an impudent domestic. Come on, Charlie.”

The fourth place we went to was Italian. “Buon giorno,” my father said. “Per favore, possiamo avere due cocktail americani, forti, forti. Molto gin, poco vermut.”

“I don’t understand Italian, “the waiter said.

“Oh, come off it,” my father said. “You understand Italian, and you know damned well you do. Vogliamo due cocktail americani. Subito.”

The waiter left us and spoke with the captain, who came over to our table and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but this table is reserved.”

“All right,” my father said. “get us another table.”

“All the tables are reserved,” the captain said.

“I get it,” my father said. “You don’t desire our patronage. Is that it? Well, the hell with you. Vada all’inferno. Let’s go, Charlie.”

“I have to get my train,” I said.

“I’m sorry, sonny,” my father said. “I’m terribly sorry.” He put his arm around me and pressed me against him. “I’ll walk you back to the station. If there had only been time to go up to my club.”

“That’s all right, Daddy, “I said.

“I’ll get you a paper,” he said. “I’ll get you a paper to read on the train.”

Then he went to a newsstand and said, “Kind sir, will you be good enough to favour me with one of your God-damnned, no-good, ten-cent afternoon papers?” The clerk turned away from him and stared at a magazine cover. ‘Is it asking too much, kind sir,” my father said, “is it asking too much for you to sell me one of your disgusting specimens of yellow journalism?”

“I have to go, Daddy,” I said. “It’s late.”

“Now, just wait a second, sonny,” he said. “Just wait a second. I want to get a rise out of this chap.”

“Goodbye, Daddy,” I said, and I went down the stairs and got my train, and that was the last time I saw my father.

General comprehension

A. Answer the questions.

1. Why do you think the boy wanted to see his father?

2. How did the boy feel when he was met at the station?

3. Why didn’t his father take the boy to his club for lunch?

4. What was special about the father’s behaviour at the first restaurant?

5. How do you think the man’s request sounded to the waiter?

6. What did he ask his son about when they had come to another restaurant?

7. What was the waiter’s reaction towards the man’s request to bring them more drinks?

8. What made the man use horse-relating and hunting terminology?

9. Why did he mangle with the name of the drink?

10. Was it his usual way of trying to be funny?

11. Who suggested that they leave the third restaurant? Why?

12. What language did the man try in the fourth restaurant and why?

13. Why did the clerk at the news stand refuse to sell him a newspaper?

14. Why didn’t the boy wait for his father to buy him a paper?

Characterization

B. Discuss the following:

1 How is the main character described, directly or indirectly?

2 How does the narrator describe his personality, through his speech or his actions, or both?

3 Why do you think he shouted in different languages to the waiters in the first two restaurants? Did he want to sound important or show off? Or did he want to display his erudition?

4 Compare the language and style used by the man in the first two restaurants? Did he sound witty/smart? Were his remarks cutting, ironic or sarcastic?

5 How do his remarks at the third restaurant

characterize him? What did he mean by mentioning ‘jolly old England’? Does it ring any bell to you?

6 The scene at the Italian restaurant was the last

straw for the boy, wasn’t it? What did the boy learn about his father?

7 What made his request to buy a newspaper sound abusive to the clerk?

3. Making inferences

What inferences can you make from the following:

1 His secretary wrote to say he would meet me at the information booth….

2 I’d like to take you up to my club, but it’s in the Sixties…

3 ...and he cross-questioned me about the baseball season…

4 ...If there had only been time to go up to my club….

5 I’ll get you a paper. I’ll get you a paper to read on the train.

D. Summarizing

Summarize all the facts about the man to characterize him.

• his social status

• his manners

• his character

• his attitude towards people in services sector

• his attitude towards his son

Below are the words that might be of use to you.

- rich, wealthy, well off, relatively/reasonably well off, well-to-do, prosperous, be comfortably off, comfortable.

- nice, pleasant, likeable, lovely, good-natured, sweet, charming, lovable, engaging (attractive), adorable.

- rude, impolite/not polite, tactless, abrasive (несносный), bad-mannered/ill-mannered, discourteous (неучтивый), be unpleasant, loutish, rough, superior.

E. Prepare lexical and stylistic analysis of the story. Pay attention to the opening and closing sentences.

Language focus

1. Find in the story words and phrases which mean the following:

- to regularly pay money to live in a house or room that belongs to someone else;

- a small partly enclosed structure or tent where you can buy things, play games, or get information, usually at a market or a fair;

- mixture;

- barman, barmaid;

- a young man who delivers things;

- someone, especially a child, who makes a lot of noise and has a lot of energy;

- to hit your hands against each other many times to make a sound that shows your approval, agreement, or enjoyment;

- a dog which is fast and has a good sense of smell, used for hunting;

- the one for the road ( a drink!);

- rude and showing no respect to other people

- the support, especially financial support, that is given to an organization or activity by a patron;

- a single example of something, often an animal or plant.

2. The old waiter shuffled over their table. Say or show how he did it. Below are other ways of how people walk. Make sure you understand them.

• stride - to walk quickly, taking big steps, in an angry, determined or confident way;

• march - to walk quickly and with firm steps, especially because you feel angry or determined;

• pace - walk backwards and forwards within a small area, especially because you are nervous, bored, or angry;

• stroll - to walk in a slow and relaxed way, especially for pleasure;

• amble - to walk in a slow and relaxed way, especially when you are going a short distance, or not going anywhere in particular;

• saunter - to walk in a slow and lazy way, often when you should be hurrying to do something;

• trudge/plod - to walk slowly and with heavy steps, especially because you are tired, it is difficult to walk, or you do not want to go somewhere;

• stagger - to walk very unsteadily, with your body moving from side to side and almost falling, especially because you are injured, very tired, or drunk;

• stumble - to walk unsteadily, often hitting things with your feet and almost falling, especially because it is dark, the ground is uneven, or because you are tired or drunk;

• lurch - to walk very unsteadily, moving forward or from side to side with sudden, irregular movements;

• stomp - to walk with heavy steps, making a lot of noise to show that you are angry;

• tiptoe -to walk on your toes because you do not want to make any noise;

• sneak - to walk quietly so that no-one notices you, especially because you are doing something wrong and do not want to be caught;

• parade - to walk proudly around a place, in a way that shows you want people to notice and admire you;

3. Give English equivalents to the following words of ‘walking’.

шагать (большими шагами), расхаживать, прохаживаться; устало тащиться, идти таясь, спотыкаться, оступаться; топать; ходить на цыпочках; идти крадучись; идти строем; разгуливать.

4. Make up your own sentences with the words of walking.

 Reading comprehension