READING

Read the text and search for the answers to the following questions.

1. What does the sixteenth birthday signify for a teenager?

2. What job limitations do kids under sixteen face?

3. Is it typical for a teenager to have a job?

4. What is a job for a teenager?

From Teen is a Four-Letter Word by Joan Wester Anderson

 

At sixteen the society officially recognizes the youngster's growth and he can move into the first of a series of grown-up privileges.

One of these rites of passage is the official part-time job. The high-school junior is no longer hindered by child labour laws which prohibit many companies from hiring workers under the age of sixteen.

Legally, kids under sixteen can work, but only at certain jobs and usually if permit forms have been filled' out and approved by school and work-site personnel. And in most cases under 16s aren't permitted to work during the hours when classes are in session or past 7 p.m. except during summer.

One-half of all 16-19 year-old students have regular employment and his options now abound – usher or candy clerk at the local movie theatre, bus boy, department store helper, supermarket bagger, evening typist, and that perennial favourite, short-order cook (70% of fast-food employees are younger than 21).

To a teen a job represents more than just spending money. It also signifies responsibility, power and increasing control over one's own life and decisions. It's a significant step in the growth process.

 

Comprehension check

Complete the statements with the best ending.

1. The society thinks of youngsters of 16 as

a. incapable of taking a job. b. nature enough of having a job.

2. Child labour laws prohibit teenagers a. to get a full-time job. b. to be employed at all.

3. It is common for teenagers between 16-19

a. to have regular employment. b. to be engaged as unskilled labourers.

 

Language work

 

1. Find synonyms in the text for the word teenager.

 

2. Find the difference between the verbs: to allow and to permit; to hinder and to prohibit and think up sentences using them.

 

3. The word to study: employment. They say: to be in/out of employment; to give employment; to find employment. Think up sentences of your own with these phrases.

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