B. Keywords
vandalism, mugging, Second World War, young people, full employment, modern progressive society, revolt, idleness, despair, no outlet.
Vocabulary
vandalism, black out, bash, for the hell of it, desecrate, ever-present, answer for.
B1. Listen to the first part of a passage about some social problems in modern society.Answer the following two questions.
Vandalism, that is the senseless destruction of other people's property, seems to have become part of modern life.
And at the same time, we have come to accept mugging, in other words, robbery with violence in our streets, as a common danger.
B2. Now listen to the whole passage, decide whether the statements are true or false according to the speaker's opinion, put T or F in the brackets.
Vandalism, that is the senseless destruction of other people's property, seems to have become part of modern life.
And at the same time, we have come to accept mugging, in other words, robbery with violence in our streets, as a common danger.
It is interesting to note that, during the Second World War when London was blacked out every night, vandalism and mugging were virtually unknown.
People walked the streets in complete darkness without fear of being attacked or robbed on their way home.
There were, of course, other and more terrible dangers, are obviously petty thieves and criminals were still around.
But young people did not bash up a telephone box just for the hell of it, terrorize old ladies or deliberately desecrate public buildings or grounds.
Destruction as the result of the air raids stared everyone in the face and the danger of renewed bombing was ever-present.
Nevertheless, there was in a sense full employment.
Most people with the exception of the very young, the old and the sick, were either serving in one of the armed forces, working in factories, or otherwise engaged in helping the war effort.
No one needed to be idle and there wasn't much sympathy for those who were.
Perhaps it is true to say that in our modern progressive society, vandalism and mugging express revolt against idleness,
the despair of young people who have no purpose in life and who face unemployment from the moment they leave the school.
Statistics show that acts of this kind are mostly committed by young people, often teenagers, who seems to have come to the conclusion that society does not want them
because they are poorly educated or a different race or color or, at the very simplest, there is no outlet for their energy and high spirits.
Before condemning their behavior, we must realize that as the so-called responsible citizens, we have a lot to answer for.
Our society is geared to a living standard which these young people have little hope for achieving unless they are helped to do so.
It is our job to make sure that they feel wanted, useful and necessary to the society they live in.