DO THEY HAVE ANY PROBLEMS?

Learn these words:

Text A:

Pre-text activity 1:

1. What makes a person beautiful? A perfect face? A good body? A healthy attitude

to life? A good character?

2. There is a famous children’s story called The Ugly Duckling. Do you know what happens? The article below has the same title. Can you guess what it is going to be about?

1. Read and translate the text:

I realized how cruel life can be for an unattractive child when everybody in my class was invited to a tenth birthday barbecue on the beach. Everybody, that is, except for me. At first I thought there had been a mistake and that my invitation had been lost. But when I made inquiries to the hostess, she didn’t beat about the bush: “Sorry, Susie. You are too fat to wear a swimsuit on the beach and you can’t see without those horrible glasses anyway”.

I went home and cried for hours. My mother was ready with comforting cuddles, yet even she couldn’t bring herself to reassure me I was lovely. I used to spend a long time staring at my brothers and twin sisters and feeling extremely hard done by.

The chip that was developing on my shoulder became obvious in my aggressive manner. This, of course, only made things worse. Tea invitations stopped, I walked home from school alone and often found drawings that looked like me in the classroom wastepaper bin. I hated everyone because everyone seemed to hate me.

When I was 14, my mother decided that I should go to the church youth club. I stood alone watching the dancing, feeling embarrassed, ugly and awkward. Then a miracle happened.

A skinny boy called Peter, with glasses and spots, asked me to dance. He also had a brace on his teeth. We didn’t talk much but he asked if I would be there the following week. I have to credit Peter with changing my life. He stopped me feeling hideous.

Encouraged, I put myself on a diet, begged my mother for contact lenses and grew my hair. Then another miracle occurred I grew taller and, as that happened, I started looking slimmer. The brace was finally removed and my teeth were even. I was never going to be a beautiful swan, but I was going to try.

2. Answer the following questions:

1. Why wasn’t the writer invited to the party?

2. Why do you think Susie felt “hard done by” when she looked at her brothers and sisters?

3. How did other children react when Susie became aggressive?

4. What was the first “miracle” which increased Susie’s self-confidence?

5. What were the three ways in which Susie tried to improve her appearance?

6. Do you think the girl was right to exclude Susie from her birthday party? Why/why not?

Text: B

Pre-text activity 2:

1. What do people do to improve their appearances?

2. When do you think plastic surgery is a good idea?

1. Read and translate the text:

Sammy is 11 years old. She is young, healthy and attractive. But for some reason, she is not happy with her looks. “When I grow up, I’m going to be singer or a dancer. It’s hard to get into show business. Looks are important and I’m going to do everything I can to become famous. I’m saving all my pocket money so I can have a nose gob for my 16^th birthday.”

Sammy’s mum, who is an actress, agrees. “Sammy’s nose is OK now, but by the time she’s teenager, it’ll be enormous – like mine was at her age. If Sammy has a big nose, she won’t make it in show business. If she wants cosmetic surgery, then she can have it.”

Dr Steve Harding, a child psychologist, says: “Sammy is a good –looking kid, but she thinks she is going to need a nose job to succeed. I say, look at those stars who have made it in spite of their noses – Barbara Straisand, Gerard Depardieu. The problem with cosmetic surgery is that patients are never satisfied. First it’s their nose, then it’s eyes or something else. People can easily attach their life problems to their so-called physical defects. But surgery can’t change the person you are inside.”

2. Discuss the following questions:

1. Do you think teenagers should be allowed to have cosmetic surgery?

2. Do you think people should have to pay for cosmetic surgery?

3. If you could change one part of your face, what would it be? Why?

3. Do you agree that:

1. Looks are important.

2. Teenagers must learn to feel good about themselves.

3. Personality is more important than looks.

4. Good-looking people choose good-looking partners.

Text C:

Pre-text activity 3:

1. Do different countries and cultures have different ideas of beauty, or is there a common ideal of world beauty? What is beautiful person in your opinion?

2. Do you agree with the opinion that beautiful people are more happy and successful?

3. Attractive women have problems reaching managerial positions. Do you agree? Why?

1. Read and translate the text:

Body Image

More than 62,000 “Psychology Today” readers answered a questionnaire about their attitudes towards their bodies. Overall, most of us like what we see in the mirror quite a bit. “No one is free who is a slave to the body”, wrote Seneca some 1.900 years ago. Judging from the advertisements, products, and best sellers that deluge us daily, we are a nation of slaves. We are obsessed with being thin, beautiful, young, and sexy, and we will go to extraordinary lengths to approach those ideals.

In а recent issue of Psychology Today, we offered readers the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings about the body. The topic was timely, and the response overwhelming: more than 62.000 readers returned the 109-item “Body image” questionnaire. But they were divided and ambivalent on the matter of how important attractiveness and physical looks are — or should be.

A good number of people wrote letters to protest a “whole survey” on the body Some said that appearance is a superficial matter, not worthy of undue discussion: “Perhaps if I thought I were ugly or beautiful I would pay more attention to my appearance”, wrote one woman. “But as it is, this is a topic of little concern formyself.There are just many more important matters in my life.” Nevertheless, she filled out the whole questionnaire.

Another woman summarized the views of many: “There's a lot more to me than my looks. I know I'm attractive, but I don't want to be attractive to someone only because of physical appearance. That would be ghastly.” By contrast, other respondents acknowledged, some reluctantly the importance of one's appearance. “Your questionnaire made me feel as though I havefloatedthrough life ignoring my body. You have made medissect myself and realize that I do think it's important. Now I must learn to connect my body with the rest of myself. “The questionnaire was extremely thought-provoking,” seconded an older woman. “My long-held belief that our bodies are unimportant was shattered.” One honest soul confessed, with some shame, that “I discriminate against beautiful people, probably out of jealousy, and tend to label them shallow and egotistical.”

Good Looks and Self-Esteem In their studies of body image done in the 1950s, Paul Secord and Sidney Jourard found that college students who had negative body images also tended to have low self-esteem. Our survey gave us the opportunity to test this relationship on a more diverse group of people.

We used 10 questions such as. How often do you dislike yourself?. How sure of yourself do you fee! among strangers?. How often do you feel se/f-conscious?, and Overall, how confident do you feel about your abilities?

We found that for both sexes, body image is strongly related to self-esteem. Only 11 percent of those with a below-average body image (compared to 50 percent of those with an above-average body image) had an above-average level of self-esteem. We also looked at thelinks between satisfaction with various parts of the body and self-esteem, and found that, for both sexes, the face makes the difference. People who are satisfied with their faces are more self-confident.

Most psychologists haveoverlooked the connection between body image and self-esteem. Obviously, body image is only one component of self-esteem; a person'sassessment of his or her abilities and other attributes is equally important. Some respondents felt that other sources of self-esteem cansupersede the relevance of body image: looks don't matter, runs this view, since I'm bright /talented/charming or whatever.

“I was quite self-conscious when I was younger, even though I was probably average in looks, now I am less worried and embarrassed about my looks - I think because I feel more intelligent and intellectually interesting.”

But others clearly distinguished their body image from their personaltraits.

“No problems with self –confidence,fellers. There's never been any doubt that my intellectual (and lately,sensitivity-type) abilities have always been at the top of theladder. But that doesn't mean I have a good, or even accurate body-image picture”. Of course, one trouble with survey findings is that we cannot determine cause and effect. A positive body image may increase person's self-esteem, or basic esteem may lead a person to good about his or her body.

Self-esteem - the general to that one is competent and confident -spills over into other area personality. Respondents who have above average positive body images also consider themselves to be morelikeable, assertive, conscientious and even more intelligent than “average person”. For example those who rate their body images as above average. 69 percent; indicate that they're more likeable than the average person, comps to 40 percent of those who: their body images below average.

People who are happy with their bodies may actually be more assertive and likeable than those who have negative body images. Or they think they are. One young man explained that in the last year his body image has changed very much for the better, as a result of his personal development: “I've gone from considering myself some sort of asshole to believing that I'm charismatic individual nearly impossible to dislike...I have more friends than I know what to do with.”

3. Discuss the following questions:

1. Do you agree with the survey respondents who said that beauty is a superficial matter, not worthy discussion? How far is this disproved by the article?

2. In your experience, have you noticed that physically attractive people have an advantage professionally or socially? Give some examples.

3. What criteria do you think we use to measure our own “body image”? are they the same criteria which we use to judge other people? Are these criteria valid?

4. Is it harder for people who are beautiful when they are young to come to terms with growing older and aging physically?

5. In the survey referred to, women were more likely than men to agree that physical appearance is very important. Would you have expected this result, and if so, why?

6. “People who are satisfied with their faces are more self-confident”. But is it true that those who are not satisfied can compensate by feeling themselves to be intelligent, talented, or charming? Don’t they really always care about how their faces look?

4. Give English equivalents for:

раб тела; быть озабоченным; приблизиться к идеалу; писать письма протеста; мало интересовать; признаваться; разбиться вдребезги; разные части тела; стесняться своей внешности; определить причину и следствие; развитие.

5. Arrange in pairs of synonyms:

deluge well-balanced judgement

ghastly positive, in the habit of insisting on one’s rights

reluctantly overwhelm

link having charm

bright very unpleasant

assertive connection

charismatic unwilling

self-esteem cheerful and happy/ clever

6. Develop the following situations making up dialogues:

1. You friend is unhappy about his/ her appearance. That tells much on his char

acter and behaviour. He/she is sometimes very aggressive and hates everybody who is good-looking. What would you recommend him /her to do?

2. Your friend is going to change his/her appearance, though from your point of

you he/she is rather attractive. Convince him/her not to do this.

3. You are offered to take part in a beauty competition. Your mother is not

pleased. Why? What effect do you think beauty competitions have on the contestants?

4. Your friend is very beautiful. She thinks that she can easily achieve every

thing in life: will get excellent marks at a college, find a good job, make a career, be happy in marriage… Do you think it is as easy as she thinks?

6. Translate into English:

Самооценка.

Низкая самооценка может быть обусловлена многими причинами. Иногда человек перенимает ее в детстве у своих родителей, так и не разобравшимися со своими личностными проблемами. В других случаях она развивается у ребенка из-за плохой успеваемости в школе, что, в свою очередь, является результатом неблагоприятных условий для занятия дома или недостаточного внимания родителей. На самооценке ребенка могут пагубно отразиться как насмешки сверстников, так и чрезмерный критицизм со стороны взрослых. Личностные проблемы, неумение вести себя в определенных ситуациях, равно как и недостаток житейских навыков также формирует у человека нелестное мнение о себе.

Никогда не думайте и не говорите о себе плохо. От людей, лишенных самоуважения, часто можно услышать негативные высказывания о самих себе. Избавьтесь от этой привычки. Неужели в вас нет ничего хорошего? Подумайте, что вам нравится в себе и ежедневно в течение 10-15 минут произносите только позитивные утверждения в свой адрес. Продолжайте такую практику до тех пор, пока вы не приобретете способность легко и без смущения говорить о себе в позитивном ключе с посторонними людьми.

7. Speak on the following topics:

Beautiful people versus ordinary ones and their problems.

UNIT 4

Не нашли, что искали? Воспользуйтесь поиском: