Vocabulary

pay off debts – отдавать долги

hearth - очаг

yearlong – круглогодичный

clam – моллюск

couplet - двустишие

Answer the questions:

1. How long does the Chinese New Year celebration last?

2. What does the date of the New Year celebration depend on?

3. What Chinese custom in called "surrounding the hearth"? Why?

4. What other traditional activities do the Chinese have during the New Year celebration?

5. What are the symbolic representations of the Chinese New Year aimed at?

Hooked on the net

The latest addiction to trap thousands of people is the Internet, which has been blamed for broken relationships, job losses, financial ruin and even suicides. Psychologists now recognize Internet Addiction Syndrome (IAS) as a new illness that could cause serious problems and ruin many lives. Special help groups have been set up to offer sufferers help and support.

Psychologists have described many disappointing examples, including one man who took his own life after borrowing more than £ 14, 000 to feed his addiction, and a teenager who had to receive psychiatric treatment for his 12-hour-a-day habit. ‘This illness is not fake and it must be taken seriously,’ said an expert in behavioural addiction at Nottingham Trent University. 'These are not sad people with serious personality defects; they are people who were fine before they found the Internet.'

IAS is similar to other problems like gambling, smoking and drinking: addicts have dreams about the Internet; they need to use it first in the morning; they lie to their partners about how much time they spend online; they wish they could cut down but are unable to do so. A recent study found that many users spend up to 40 hours a week on the Internet. Although they felt guilty they became depressed if they were made to stop using it.

Almost anyone can be at risk. Some of the addicts are teenagers who are already hooked on computer games and who find it very difficult to resist the games on the Internet. Surprisingly, however, psychologists say that most victims are middle aged housewives who have never used a computer before.

Answer the questions:

1. What has the Internet been blamed for?

2. Who are those people who are addicted to the Internet?

3. What is IAS similar to?

4. How do these people usually act?

5. Who are the people hooking on the Net?

No place like home

All over the country young people are entering a world of homelessness and poverty, according to a recent report by the housing group, Shelter.

Nearly 150,000 young people aged between sixteen and twenty-five will become homeless this year, says Shelter. Some of the young homeless may sleep out in the open in such places as 'cardboard city' in London, where people of all ages sleep in the open air in their only homes-cardboards boxes. Others may find accommodation in shelters run by voluntary organizations or get a place in a hostel, which gives them board for up to ten weeks.

But who are these people? Those seeking a roof over their heads are mostly not runaways but 'throwaways' or forced to leave because of parental divorce, an unsympathetic step-parent or one of many other reasons.

Take the case of one sixteen-year-old schoolgirl we shall call Alice. She did not come from a poor home and had just passed her exams with good results. The Shelter team met her in an overnight hostel where she was sitting down doing her Physics homework. It turned out that her parents had thrown her out of her Home for no other reason that she wanted to do Science Advanced Level exams which her parents refused her permission to do, saying that sciences were unladylike!

Shelter says that the Government's laws do nothing to help these youngsters. Rising rents, a shortage of cheap housing and a cut in benefits for young people under the age of twenty- five are causing a national problem, according to Shelter. The recent changes in the benefit laws mean that someone aged between sixteen and twenty-five gets less that older people and they can only claim state help if they prove that they left home for a good reason.

Shelter believes that because of the severe cuts in benefits to young people, more and more are being forced to sleep on the streets. Shelter also points out that if you are homeless, you can't get a job because employers will not take on someone without a permanent address; and if you can't get a job, you're homeless because you don't have any money to pay for accommodation. It's an impossible situation.