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EXERCISE 19

I think a sixty-years-old person would say that today’s young people are media addicted. They waste their time watching TV and surfing the net reading stupid things, watching violent videos and playing computer games. And they can’t communicate with their peers without  an electronic medium like a mobile phone or a computer with a social network.

EXERCISE 20

In the letter the writer mentioned some of the (things) points I discussed in the previous exercise

EXERCISE 21

1 The purpose of the letter is to make Julie Boyle know that the writer agrees with her article and to give his personal opinion about the topic.

2 In the writer’s opinion they don’t do sport because they are lazy. They also find an excuse: they say they have too much to study, but then they don’t study at all.

3 The writer says they never say ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ and they don’t help anyone (and although they try to help they do this carelessly).

4 He says television shows  violent programs and although they aren’t violent they are full of bad language.

5 He thinks young people should go out and visit interesting places like parks, libraries or museums.

6 I agree with the writer when he says that today’s young people are lazy and they spend too much time watching television.

EXERCISE 22

1 The letter is formal.

2 In paragraph A the writer gives a reason for writing and gives his general opinion.

3 In paragraph B, C and D the writer uses Passive forms and mentions opinions from the original article.

4 I totally disagree. In my opinion, this is not a good point. This is absolutely false.

EXERCISE 23

1 Some people say TV is too violent. However, it can also help us to relax.

2 TV is fun. What’s more, programmes like soap operas can teach us to be tolerant.

3 Although it is true that some TV programmes are trivial, documentaries can teach us a lot about the world.

4 Newspapers offer us old news. TV, on the other hand, tells us what is happening right now.

EXERCISE 24

Dear Editor,

I am writing in connection with Julie Boyle’s article ‘What is wrong with today’s young people?’ which appeared in your newspaper last Sunday. I have to say I disagree with many things that Ms Boyle wrote about.

First of all, Ms Boyle believes that all teenagers get up late and they are lazy. However, in my opinion, this is only a small part of today’s teenagers. Many teenagers respect the hours and aren’t lazy! There are a lot of young people who practice one or more sports or physical activities, and a lot of teenagers who are very responsible.

Next, the article suggests that teenagers are unpleasant and never smile. In my opinion this is very unfair. Teenagers are in a very difficult part of their life and it is possible that sometimes they are in a bad mood. But they are very happy when they are with their friends. They’re only going through a bad time, we shouldn’t be so unfair with them and we should try to understand their reasons.

Finally, Ms Boyle suggests that teenagers spend all their time watching  TV or playing computer games. I can state that they also spend a lot of time going out with their friends and they don’t use the computer only to play games and watch violent videos. They also use it to talk with their friends when they haven’t got enough time to go out. And they can also learn a lot of thing from TV, watching interesting documentaries or programs like soap operas, which help them to form opinions about the world.

Yours faithfully,

Surinder Sodhi