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Komalova Lilly 205English/Spanish 2002-2003
Generation gap.
Relations between parents and their children have always remained a very important problem in our society. Parents love their children; they try to do their best to make their children happy. Parents buy all things their children need, but sometimes it is very difficult, because they don't have enough money. So, parents do all their duties to bring up their loved "babies" and to give them a good education. And of course, some misunderstanding appears between parents and children. The problem is as follows:
Parents always try to plan their children's lives. They choose clothes, school and even friends for their children. But children want to be independent; especially when they become older. But their parents still think they are children and continue to treat them as if they were small and slavish (несамостоятельный). It makes "children" cross and there can be quarrels in the family, because of over caring.
On the other-hand there are a lot of families where parents don't attend (уделять внимание) to their children. Children need love and care, and if they are not looked after and have too much freedom they want to do something exciting and sometimes it can end badly.
Old people are always saying that the new generation are not what they were. The same comment is made from generation to generation and it is always true. It has never been truer than it is today. The young are better educated; they have a lot more money to spend and enjoy more freedom. They grow up more quickly and are not so dependent on their parents. They think more about themselves and do not blindly accept the ideals of their elders. Events, which the older generation remembers vividly, are nothing more than the past history. This is as it should be. Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it. Today the difference is very marked indeed. The old always assume that they know more for the simple reason that they have been around a bit longer. They don't like to feel that their values are being questioned or threatened. And this is precisely what the young are doing. They are questioning the assumptions of their elders and disturbing their complacency. They doubt that the older generation has created the best of all possible worlds. And it can be a cause of problems between youth and the older generation.
But parents shouldn't punish their children, because it isn't a way of solving problems. They have to explain what is good and what is bad. Children must have good childhood, and parents should try to make friends with their own children. Parents must understand that their children are not copies of themselves. Their children are new people, different from their parents. Yes, I agree that children try to repeat parents' actions and try to be similar to them, but they have their own opinion, and their characters differ from their parents. Parents have to remember that they were children too and must bear accountability/onus for (нести ответственность за) their children. Everything has to be balanced.
And some date. Today's graduates have different aspirations (стремление, желание) from the Boomers (люди) in their 50s and 60s. According to research conducted (вести, руководить) in North America and Britain by David Cannon of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. The new graduates, labelled (маркированные) Generation X, postpone (откладывают) commitment (вручение, обязательство, передача), wanting to keep their options open as long as possible, Сannon told the at the conference. They have a great fear of boredom and prefer short-term projects. They love facts and processes and feel Powerful from knowing "how". They crave (прост, умоляют, жаждут) continual feedback (радио обратная связь), desire jobs that are 'sexy' in the eyes of their peers (ровня), believe they are inherently (присуще) good, and want marriage, family and material success.
Cannon said Boomers love adventure, independence and risk; can work to general goals (цели); and can tolerate ambiguity (двусмысленность) and multiple (сложные) answers. They want to be "artists" at what they do, value creativity, are self-directed, and want to do things "my" way. They can write, speak and conduct self-directed research well. They can be suspicious of corporate ideology, distrust (отвлекать) authority (начальство); but can be forgiving if it errs (ошибается). They loathe (ненавидят) evaluation.
In contrast, Generation X graduates love information; work best to concrete goals; expect clear standards and procedure; want to be experts at what they do, like guided practice supervised (наблюдаемые) by organized people; and over-estimate (переоценивают) their communication and research skills. They demand (требуют, нуждаются) corporate ideology, trust authority, but find it hard to forgive if it errs. They love evaluation.
Komalova Lilly 205English/Spanish 2002-2003
Transport problems of big cities.
There are a lot of big cities in the world many of which are capitals of the countries. Every city has a lot of advantages. For example, you can amuse yourself in different ways, if you live in a big city and especially in the capital, because usually capitals are not just the political and economic centers of a country, but cultural centers too.
Capital cities can be small or big, industrial and noisy or quiet and clean. Capitals all over the world differ from each other, but they have common problems. The first and the most important and acute problem of nowadays is a problem of traffic system.
London is the capital of Great Britain. It is situated on both sides of the river Thames. It is one of the biggest cities in the world and like many big cities London has problems connected with traffic and pollution. London is overcrowded with people who use different kinds of transport everyday. The number of cars is increasing every year. Cars are a symbol of freedom, wealth, and masculinity. You can easily get from one part of London to another. But at the same time great number of cars in the streets result in traffic jams. When you are in a traffic jam, all cars are just metal boxes to sit in. Traffic jams are becoming one of the most terrible things that can happen on the road. And to avoid traffic jams you can listen to the radio to know if there are any jams on your way.
Being necessary in everyday life cars are very dangerous for people. And the worst side of cars is car crashes, the number of which is increasing every year with the number of cars. Road accidences, especially for children are a major cause of death. To avoid car crashes people must be more attentive on the roads. Pedestrians must know traffic rules and never cross the street when the traffic light turns red, even if there are no cars. I think it is better to wait for a minute but be sure you won't get under the car.
There are too many cars in the streets of London. The air isn't clear but it is clearer than it was 100 years ago. Until the Clean Air Act in 1955, London was famous for its fog or 'smog', which is a mixture of smoke and fog, which had been produced by factories and cars. Winston Churchill described the car as the curse of the twentieth century. Cities and towns all over the world have a huge problem, and no government really knows what to do. But today London is much clearer than it was before. People try to make their city clean. They don't throw away garbage in the street; they plant trees and use ecologically safe products such as ozone friendly sprays, recycled paper. They try to use less petrol, travel more by bicycles. A lot of people use unleaded petrol or just prefer to use the Tube instead of using cars. So English people try to be 'green' that means to be friendly to environment.
The London Underground is used by more than 1,000,000 people a day. You can get to most places in London very quickly if you take an Underground, or 'Tube', as it is called. But don't travel between 7:30 and 9:30 in the morning, or 4:30 and 6:30 in the evening. These are the 'rush hours'. If you do travel then, you will meet quite a lot the 2,300 million people who travel by Tube every year. Sometimes it takes much time to get from one part of London to another, because the underground trains are crowded and overcrowded, people push each other, because all of them want to get home or work. People became nervous, they feel uncomfortable.
There are a lot of ways of solving the problem, for example we can cut down the number of cars we use, use only the cars we have, destroy old cars and travel by the Underground or by bicycles. Of course, it is not so simple to solve all problems of traffic system in one day. But if each member of our society does his best, I think that we will be able to turn the situation for the better.
Komalova Lilly 205English/Spanish 2002-2003
Unemployment.
UNEMPLOYMENT - is the situation in economy, at which the significant (значимая, большая часть) part of the able-bodied population has no job, searches for it and is ready to train for a new profession. The unemployment is an integral (неотъемлемый) element of market economy. For measurement (измерение, размеры) of plotting (измерять) scales (размеры) of unemployment such parameter, as a rate of unemployment is used. It is metered in percentage and settles up under the formula:
Rate of unemployment = employed + unemployed
Unemployment is among the worst of the many problems in every country. It is a problem, which deals with economic situation in a country. There are several reasons for unemployment: absence of free vacancies, unskilled workers, professional injuries and the like. But the main one is inflation. The rule is the following: as prices rise, people need more money to live on, labour-unions call for rising the level of salaries and companies can't do anything but pay people off, because higher level of wages can leave the company without profit. That's why they have to pay the people off.
So, as for situation in Britain, now it has stabilised. Now the Government does its best to improve the situation. A comparative study of the statistics and Labour Research Department studies proves that the Government mislead public by giving it wrong data, when society suffered from economic crises. Calling for urgent action, the department slammed (раскритиковали) the government for trying to minimise its embarrassment (затруднение) over unemployment by introducing a new way of calculating the figures - cutting the official total by over 200 000.
People of almost every age can become unemployed. The problem of unemployment in many Third World countries is depraved (ухудшается) by rapid growth of population and lack of skills. In industrial countries unemployment has been a phenomenon (явление) since the mid-1970s, when the rise in world oil prices caused a downturn (уменьшение) in economic activity, and greater use of high technology has improved output (выработка, производительность, выпуск) without the need for more jobs.
In Britain, for at last 150 years before 1939, the supply of labour always exceeded (превышать) demand except in wartime, and economic crises accompanied (сопровождать, сопутствовать) by mass unemployment were recurrent (повторяющийся) from 1785. Word War II and the rebuilding and expansion that followed meant shortage (нехватка) of labour rather than unemployment in the Western world, and in Britain in the 1950s the unemployment rate fell to 1,5%. Fluctuation (колебание) in employment returned in the 1960s, and in the recession (отступание, уход, углубление) of the mid-1970s to 1980s was a worldwide problem. In Britain deflationary economic measures tended (иметь тенденцию, иметь склонность, присматривать) to deprave (обострять) the trend (направление, тенденция), and in the mid-1980s the rate had risen to 14% (although the basis on which it is calculated has in recent years been changed several times and many commentators argue that the real rate is higher). Since September 1988 it has been measured (соответствовать) as the total or percentage of the working population unemployed and claiming (иск, жалоба) benefits. This only includes people aged 18 or over since the under-18s are assured (уверять, гарантировать, страховать) to be in full-time education or training. As the British economy experienced significant (значимый, важный, многозначительный) economic growth between 1986 and 1989, the rate of unemployment fell to a low of 5,6% in April 1990 but rose again up to 7,6% in April 1991.
Most present-day governments attempt (пытаться) to prevent (предупреждать) some or all of the various forms of unemployment. The ideas of economist John Maynard Keynes influenced British Government unemployment policies during the 1950s and 1960s. The existence (наличие) of a clear link between unemployment and inflation is now disputed (оспаривать, обсуждать).
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