LISTENING FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION

As a student, you will often be asked to answer questions about specific information that you have heard. Preview the questions before you listen so that you know what information to listen for.

1 Read the questions about "group pressure” situations below.

1 You have been invited to the wedding of a family member you don’t like. Everyone else in your family is going. Would you go to the wedding?

2 Your friends are planning to see a popular movie this weekend and have asked you to go with them. You have read reviews that say it is a really bad movie.

Would you go with your friends anyway?

3 All your friends have started to wear a new style of shoes. When you first see the shoes, you think they look uglv. Would you consider buying them anyway?

4 Your parents have been invited to their friend’s house in the country for the weekend. They want you to go with them. You are in college and need to study. Would you go away with your parents for the weekend?

Listen Lo two college students – Rebecca and Jim. What do they say they would do in these situations? Take notes about their answers.

► PLAY

Situation

Rebecca’s response

Jim’s response

1 Going to a relatives wedding

2 Going to a movie

3 Buying new shoes

4 Going away for the weekend

3

Compare your answers in a small group. Discuss whether anv of Rebeccas or Jim’s reasons for their answers surprise you. What would you do in these situations?

О AMERICAN VOICES: Henry, Victor, and Samira

In this section you will hear three Americans discuss one type of group pressure – peer pressure – among young people. You will hear Henry’s perspective as the father of two xns. Then you will hear two young people, Victor and Samira, talk about the influence ‘ their peers.

BEFORE THE INTERVIEWS

SHARING YOUR OPINION

1 Henry is an American father of two teenage boys. Read the behaviors in the chart. Decide which ones you think he would let his sons do.

Would let

Would not let

them do it

them do it

1 Wear baggy pants

2 Dve their hair

3 Talk on the phone for a long time

4 Smoke cigarettes

5 Take dings

6 Drink alcohol

7 Play video games

2

Victor is a young boy and Samira is a teenage girl. The interviewer asks them both this question:

Do you think your friends have a lot of influence on you?

Which of the following answers do you think is Victor’s (write V) and which do you think is Samira’s (write S)? Why?

1 “Well. . . sometimes.”

2 ___ "Totally. I mean, we talk about everything, and, like, I have my own

opinions about stuff and all that, but we always talk everything over.”

3 Compare your answers to steps 1 and 2 with a partner.

PERSONALIZING THE TOPIC

Work in a small group. Make a chart like the one below1. Fill in the chart with activities that your own parents or caregivers allowed or did not allow you to do. Discuss the reasons you were or were not allowed to do them.

Name of group member

Activities that were allowed

Activities that were not allowed

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