The younger generation knows better

The younger generation thinks that they know what to do and why to do better than their parents. But children can’t be ‘independent’: first, they are dependent on their parents for food, clothes, place to live in, education, entertainments. Second, they are spiritually dependent on their parents because their own spiritual values are yet unformed. Adults have to choose everything for their children who don’t know anything about the surrounding world and so cannot choose for themselves. Of course, a grown-up woman knows more about good taste in clothes than her adolescent daughter and can advise her better than her teenage friends. As to choosing friends, it is still parents’ duty to protect their children from bad influence.

Old people are always saying that the young are not what they were. The same comment is made from generation and it is always true. It has never been truer than it is today. The young are better educated. They grow up more quickly and are not so dependent on their parents. They think more for themselves and do not blindly accept the ideals of their elders. Events which the older generation remembers vividly are nothing more than past history. This is as it should be. Every new generation is different from the one that preceded it.

The old always assume that they know best for the simple reason that they have been around a bit longer. They don’t like to feel that their values are being questioned or threatened. And this is precisely what the young are doing. They are questioning, they take leave to doubt that the older generation has created the best of all possible worlds. What they reject more than anything is conformity. Office hours, for instance, are nothing more than enforced slavery. Wouldn’t people work best if they were given complete freedom and responsibility? And what about clothing? Who said that all the man in the world should wear drab grey suits and convict haircuts? Why have the older generation so often used the violence to solve their problems? Why are they so unhappy and guilt-ridden in their professional lives, so obsessed with mean ambitions and the desire to amass more and more material possessions? Can anything be right with the retrace? Haven’t the old lost touch with all that is important in life?

These are not questions the older generation can shrug off easily. Their record over the pat forty years or so hasn’t been exactly spotless. Traditionally, the young have turned to their elders for guidance. Today, the situation might be reversed. The old – if they are ready to admit it – could learn a thing or two from their children. One of the biggest lessons they could learn is that enjoyment is not “sinful”. Enjoyment is a principle one could apply to all aspects of life. It is surely not wrong to enjoy your leisure; to shed restricting inhibitions. It is surely not wrong to live in the present rather than in the past or future. This emphasis on the present is only to be expected because the young have grown up under the shadow of the bomb; the constant threat of complete annihilation. This is their glorious heritage. Can we be surprised that they should so often question the sanity of the generation that bequeathed it?

 

1) Who enjoys more freedom nowadays: the younger generation or the older one?

2) What is the older generation afraid of?

3) Could elders learn anything from their children?

4) What can be applied to all aspects of life?

5) Is it worth to live in the present rather than in the past or future?

6) Have you ever faced a generation gap?

 

Task 43. Decide if the flowing statements are true or false.

1) Old people say the young are what they were.

2) The older generation assumes that they are more confident because of their experience.

3) The young traditionally turn to their contemporaries for guidance.

4) One of the greatest lessons the children can learn is that the enjoyment is not ‘sinful’.

5) It is surely right to enjoy your work and leisure.

 

Task 44. Read the text and answer the questions after it.

Human relationship is one of the most complicated puzzles in life. It is because it contains a huge amount of various aspects in the first place. Relationship between generations is not an exception. The main difficulty which generations face is their completely different backgrounds. It is different environment they were brought up in which creates a huge gap between them. That’s why the attitudes to the simplest things in life are different. For example, most of our grandparents tend to store various useless (from our point of view) things because at their time those things were hard to buy. And we, their grandchildren on the contrary throw much away because we are brought up in the ‘era of consumers’.

Rapid development of technology makes the gap even wider. New technical devices appear so quickly that it is difficult for granddads and grandmas to adapt to them. Some grandparents are more flexible and they start using those devices with pleasure. But for the great many of them such concepts as the Internet, mobile phone or MP3 player are abstract.

These are factors we can hardly influence. But there is a cause for the gap between generations that is in our power but we do nothing to solve it – it’s our willingness to understand each other or to communicate with each other. We say we have no time, our time is stretched to its limits, we are busy as beavers – these are only excuses! We have to earn money – it’s really so, but the one who loves and cares will find time, whatever it costs him. Family is for some reason not in the priority this day. Business, success and money are number one goals.

To cut a long story short, we have to pay attention to the things in life, which really matter. They are our nearest and dearest. The rest will wait.

1) What is the generation gap?

2) What’s the reason of the generation gap?

3) Why do grandparents usually tend to store a lot of old and useless things?

4) How does rapid development of technology influence the generation gap?

5) What are number one goals nowadays?

6) How can we overcome the generation gap?

 

Task 45. Read the text and choose from (A-H) the one which best fits each space (1-8).