1. Two magazine articles.
Read two magazine articles written in the early 1990s about different social groups and trends, and then answer the questions below.
Article A
Trendy and thirtysomething? Welcome to the middle youth club.
1 You've heard of old age. You've heard of middle age.
But have you heard of middle youth? It refers to the state
of mind of a growing number of 30- to 40-year-olds who are,
quite simply, refusing to grow old. Or even up.
2 Conventional
wisdom says that if you were wearing platform shoes
the first time round you should now be enjoying a blameless
thirtysomething lifestyle. That means babies, mortgages
and Radio 2. What you definitely
shouldn't be doing is going to nightclubs, keeping up with
street style, listening to 1FM,
playing Tomb Raider and queuing
to buy the new Oasis album.
But that's what a sizeable
number of thirtysomethings are doing, it seems, and the
trend has led the marketing world to dub them middle youth.
3 So how do you spot a middle youther? Well, for a start they have expensive, trendy haircuts (but lie about what they cost), they go to clubs (but like to get a seat) and if they're up and about the next day they'll probably end up in Habitat looking at futons.
4 Ex–Deacon Blue drummer and now television presenter Dougie Vipond, 31, is a middle youther. He's married and he has a career, but he won't let go of the clothes and the music and slide gracefully into cardigan and slippers. Having observed the way he and his friends act, he points to demographics as one reason for the rise of the phenomenon. "There are a lot more career-orientated people nowadays who have their families in their mid- and late-30s and therefore there are a lot of people who are still living the lives of young people."
Barry Didcock, The Scotsman
Article B
Meet Bristol's yubbies
1 A decade ago Britain was overrun with yuppies, young urban professionals who were dedicated to making money and spending it on themselves.
2 Today, priorities are different. Mrs Thatcher and her right-winged, self-centred policies are out. Instead, we have caring, sharing New Labour and an alternative set of values. It's no longer fashionable to show off about the size of one's pay packet, big flashy cars are considered tasteless, and climbing all over your colleagues to reach the top of the corporate ladder just isn't done. Recycling is the in thing these days, and people tend to be judged on their benevolence rather than their bank balances.
3 In fact, yuppies are a dying breed, and they've been replaced by the yubbies – young, urban bourgeois Bohemians. These people are the backbone of society. They are successful and they are professional, but they're more likely to talk about what's going on in Somalia or Bosnia than to talk about themselves.
4 Yubbies may live and work in the city, but they're probably doing up a Victorian terrace rather than investing in a new place on the dockside. They believe in fair trade and the environment. They are strong supporters of public education, equal opportunities and green issues. They probably aren't married, but they believe in monogamy and share the parenting of any children, choosing to work from home, where possible, in a creative field. They are, most often, self-employed.
5 Yubbies are, in short, hippies made good. They are gentle, sociable people who surround themselves with natural things and believe in the Good Life, but with a conscience and a soul.
From the Bristol Evening Post
2. Meaning in context.
Click on the underlined words and expressions and choose the correct meaning.
A decade ago Britain was overrun with Yuppies, young urban professionals who were dedicated to making money and spending it on themselves.
Today, priorities are different. Mrs Thatcher and her right-winged, self-centred policies are out. Instead, we have caring, sharing New Labour and an alternative set of values. It's no longer fashionable to show off about the size of one's pay packet, and climbing all over your colleagues to reach the top of the corporate ladder just isn't done. Recycling is the in thing these days, and people tend to be judged on their benevolence rather than their bank balances.
In fact, Yuppies are a dying breed, and they've been replaced by the Yubbies - young, urban bourgeois Bohemians. They are successful and they are professional, but they're more likely to talk about what's going on in Somalia or Bosnia than to talk about themselves.
Yubbies may live and work in the city, but they're probably doing up a Victorian terrace rather than investing in a new place on the dockside. They believe in fair trade and the environment. They are strong supporters of public education, equal opportunities and green issues. They probably aren't married, but they believe in monogamy and share the parenting of any children, choosing to work from home, where possible, in a creative field. They are, most often, self-employed.
Yubbies are, in short, hippies made good. They are gentle, sociable people, who surround themselves with natural things and believe in the Good Life, but with a conscience and a soul.
4. Write.
Write ONE of these compositions.
a) Imagine it is the year 2020. Write an article like the one in exercise 1 describing how one of the social groups in your country (at the real present time) has been replaced by a new social group in the year 2020.
You will need to invent a name and a profile for this social group of the future. Use the article as a model for your composition, and try to include all eight of these expressions:
a decade
ago
today
instead
it's
no longer fashionable to
these
days
in
fact
they've
been replaced by
in
short
b) Imagine you read an article in a magazine which includes the following two statements:
The article provokes an exchange of letters in the magazine from readers who agree or disagree with these statements. Chose ONE of the statements and write a letter explaining why you agree or disagree with it.
Your composition should be between 150 and 250 words long.
Check grammar, spelling and the organisation of your writing carefully.