Bad boys

РЕЦЕНЗИЯ

Данное учебно-методическое пособие предназначено для студентов старших курсов языковых вузов. Авторы рассматривают проблему подростковой жестокости, которая является весьма актуальной для современного общества.

Пособие содержит аутентичные английские статьи.

Каждая английская и русская статья снабжена рядом упражнений, направленных на развитие коммуникативной компетенции у студентов старших курсов.

Разнообразие учебного материала облегчает работу преподавателя и делает ее более гибкой.

Рецензент: доц., к.ф.н. английского языка КОИО

В.П.Бойко

Государственное общеобразовательное учреждение

высшего профессионального образования

“Липецкий государственный педагогический университет”

Л.М.Кузнецова, Ж.Л. Ширяева

WHY DO CHILDREN TURN VIOLENT?

Липецк 2007

ББК 81.432.1 – 923

УДК – 43 (071.1)

Л.М.Кузнецова, Ж.Л. Ширяева. Why do children turn violent?

Учебное пособие для студентов старших курсов английского отделения факультета иностранных языков. - Липецк: ЛГПУ, 2007.- с. 131.

Печатается по решению кафедры английского языка ЛГПУ.

Рецензент: доц., к.ф.н. английского языка КОИО В.П. Бойко

©ЛИПЕЦКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ, 2007

CONTENTS

Bad Boys (text for listening).Roger Graef.

Monster Children. L.G. Pamuchina, T.G. Shelkova.

Мальчик в овраге нашел пулемет. В. Давыдов.

The Savagery of Children. D. Pedersen, W. Underhill.

Не бойся, Маша, я Шварцнеггер. П. Бердыкин.

LittleAngels, Little Devils. M. Warner.

Свидетели убийства: дети. Т. Иларионова.

Video Games. John Kerry.

Что ты смотришь, милый мальчик? Д. Пивоваров.

I Can’t Stop Playing Any Time I Play. S. Johnson.

No Child Should Have to Suffer Like Us. Brian Sandue.

Кто спрятался – я не виноват. О. Мачнева.

Classroom Bullies Escape Blame. Headmaster Stuart.

Школьные «деды». Д. Марков.

Forgotten Victims. J. Plummer.

В Великобритании родители предъявляют иски школам в случае травли и

Издевательств над детьми. Д. Морозов.

Young, Tough and in Trouble. R. Dogar.

Дети играют в убийц. А. Слыткин.

Violence in School. A Major Crackdown. L.G. Pamuchina, T.G. Shelkova.

Не убивай, тебе уже четырнадцать. Е. Семенова.

British Schools “Need Weapon Searches”. M. Dale.

Дети пьют, сходят с ума и предаются странным забавам. А. Шаулов.

Трехлетний гангстер зарабатывает за день больше, чем его мать за месяц.

Л. Корнилов.

Дети подземелья, или генералы подземных каньонов. С. Иванов.

Why Children Turn Violent. G. Cowley.

Садисты в коротких штанишках. С. Климова.

What Makes Children Violent (a list of words)

Revision (translation)

BAD BOYS

(teхt for listening)

If you want a meal of French bread and fresh salmon, take it off the doorstep of a restaurant in Pimlico at 6.30 in the morning. If you would rather cheat a fruit machine, steal some lagging from a building site and mould it into the shape of a 50p piece. It pays out handsomely. Need to dis­able a car alarm? Crawl under the car and pull the earth wire off the gear box. If you want the car itself, steal the petrol cap and get a duplicate key made. Easy as spit.

The nine young British criminals inter­viewed by Roger Graef take pride in their work. It is skilled, opportunistic, quick, and thrives on the carelessness of others. These young men have their eyes open: they notice every open lock, every bag put down for a moment. Remorse never occurs to them. Their victims, they assume, are rich. Most probably want to be burgled simply to -claim the insurance. And the job pays well. Selling stolen goods can bring in hundreds of pounds a week; whereas the Department of Social Security pays them £62 (about $90) a fortnight. With fancy jackets, trainers and drug habits to support, and jobs scarce, none of these young men can afford to turn his back on the street.

Mr. Graef observed the offenders as they went through a rehabilitation course at Sherborne House in London's East End, and talked to them again a year after the course ended. Sherborne House, which is viewed as a helpful alternative to prison, gives young offenders a ten-week course in self-analysis, craft-training and adventure, in the hope of setting them straight. The young men largely mock it.

Some of them became friends, of a sort. Mr. Graef is keen to show what winning characters they are: shy Thatcherite Johnnie who plays the machines; red-headed Joel with his bragging talk of "smack" and "Charlie" (heroin); Stan, who wants to get his own greengrocer's stall; swaggering Winston, whose girlfriend is pregnant with the "youth" he is so proud of. All too soon, however, these pathetic young men blur into one story. Chaotic home lives; absent or good-for-nothing fathers; school aban­doned; peer pressure in everything, from the right kind of jeans to stealing cars.

What can be done? Prison is clearly not the answer for most young offenders; they learn more crime there than they forget, and it costs the taxpayer £400 a week for each of them. The Sherborne House courses (and many others like them) are much cheaper, and could be extended to last a lot longer than ten weeks, giving youngsters a better chance to adopt new ways; but the staff need to be tougher, and more of them need to be male, rather than the easily offended and soft-hearted women who try to bring the lads out of themselves. The whole idea of self-awareness therapy seems sadly miscon­ceived; what might work better, as Mr. Grael recognizes, is some programme which brings the offenders face to face with their victims and obliges them to make repara­tion directly.

Money, in many ways, is the root of the problem. Mr. Graef thinks young offenders should get more unemployment pay; but it would have to be an awful lot more to compete with the street. Besides, once they have money in their hands, they spend it quickly Most frustrating of all, the mind-set that police and probation officers must struggle against is, in a certain sense, commendable: these young men love their work, take pride in being good at it, and know that the harder they work at it, the more they will earn. To redirect all that proud energy, without destroying it, is a job that needs more effort than Britain is prepared to spend on the likes of Johnnie and Joel and Stan.

Roger Graef

/The Economist, Jan. 23, 1993/