News-based English language activities from the global newspaper

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August 2008
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Welcome to the Guardian Weekly’s special news-based materials to support learners and teachers of
­English. Each month, the Guardian Weekly newspaper selects topical news articles that can be used to
practise English language skills. The materials are graded for two levels: Advanced and Lower Intermediate.
These worksheets can be downloaded free from guardianweekly.co.uk/learningenglish/. You can also
find more advice for teachers and learners on the site
Materials prepared by Janet Hardy-Gould

Young author gives a voice to China’s rebel generation

Z gang . . . teenagers outside the D-22 club in Beijing  Matthew Niederhauser

Before reading as the rebel (e) .

1 Look at the headline, photo and caption of the arti-
2 Work with a partner and discuss the questions
cle. Complete the paragraph below with words from
below.
the headline and caption.

a Describe the stereotypical image of teenagers in your
The article is about (a) in the country country in terms of their:
• interests
of (b) who have been given a • appearance
• behaviour
(c) by a new
b Do you think such stereotypes are fair or realistic?
(d)  . These young people are known ≥2
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper Page 2
Article
Young author gives voice to
China’s rebel generation
1 He is sullen, brooding, 15 years old and now
among China’s bestselling authors. Tang Chao’s
paperback, Give Me Back The Dream, a dark tale
of teenage love, conflict with parents and ado-
lescent suicide, reached the top of the bestseller
lists last month, a success confirming the com-
ing of age of what has been dubbed the country’s
“Generation Z”.
2 “I just tell the story of people I know,” Tang said.
“We are the post-1990s generation and society
doesn’t understand us.”
3 Such sentiments might be the staple of sulky
adolescents in the west, but they are new in
China. If the country’s Generation X grew up in
the aftermath of the devastating Cultural Revo-
lution of 1966-76, and Generation Y enjoyed the
extraordinary economic growth of the 1980s and
1990s, “Generation Z” has a different teen spirit.
4 Books such as Give Me Back The Dream and
the “adolescent anguish” series of Rao Xuenan
sell millions of copies. So do the novels of Guo
Jingming, 24, which feature melancholy young
heroes, violence, alcohol and karaoke. Alterna-
tive music with a nihilistic style is also beginning
to make inroads. More than anything, the real
novelty is simply the idea that teenagers can be
grumpy, hostile and apathetic.
5 “Our parents think we are like them, but we are
not,” said Ye Jiadi, 18, smoking a cigarette out-
side the D-22 club in the university area of Bei-
jing. “We just want to hang out. We don’t want
to live like our fathers lived. We have our own
way.”
6 In a country where hundreds of millions still live
below the poverty line, the “Z” phenomenon
August 2008
remains restricted to the comfortable and edu-
cated middle class of urban ­centres.
7 A further problem is China’s 30-year-old policy
limiting parents to one child. “This has created
a generation of over-indulged children who
have little ability to confront disappointment or
hardship,” said Deng Jun, a child psychologist in
Beijing. “There is also an enormous pressure on
only children to succeed. They feel depressed,
anguished and can easily become suicidal. They
often have problems making friends.”
8 “Our generation lack confidence, and as we are
often only children we are terrified of being
alone or losing friends,” said Wei Peng Fei, 17, a
schoolgirl queueing to buy Tang’s book at a cen-
tral Beijing bookshop.
Jason Burke Observer
Glossary
staple (noun) a large part of something
aftermath (noun) the situation that exists after an
event (usually negative) such as a war, accident etc.
anguish (noun) severe unhappiness or mental
suffering
nihilistic (adjective) believing that religious and moral
principles have no value
hang out (phrasal verb) to spend time in with friends
doing not very much
≥3
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper Page 3

August 2008

While reading After reading

1 Read the first four paragraphs of the article and an-
swer the questions. 1 Adjectives crossword
a Who is Tang Chao? Why is he famous? Go through the article and underline the adjectives.
Use some of them to complete the crossword below.
Across
b What are the main themes of Give Me Back The 1 Extremely worried (9)
Dream? 3 Very frightened (9)
4 Huge; very big (8)
7 Angry and silent (6)
c When did Generation X and Generation Y grow up? 8 Bad tempered (informal) (6)
Down
1 Showing no interest or enthusiasm (9)
2 Looking sad; thinking about things that upset you (8)
d How is Generation Z different from the previous gen-
5 Refusing to be friendly; silently ­annoyed (5)
erations?
6 An ___ child has no brothers or sisters (4)

e How many copies do these new ­adolescent books

sell?

f What are the main features of Guo ­Jingming’s novels?

g What is the real novelty of ­Generation Z?

2 Read the rest of the article from ­paragraph five on-

wards. Write the ­paragraph numbers next to the
­paragraph titles below. Two of the ­titles are not
needed.
a The fear of a life alone
b The home of Generation Z — ­affluent, urban China.
c The new generation — a ­phenomenon of rural pov-
erty
d The aftermath of the single child policy
e Generation Z — how they benefited from the single Choose five of the adjectives and use them to write
child policy your own sentences.

f A generation different to their ­parents 1
3 Work with a partner. Discuss the ­question below.
Are the teenagers of Generation Z similar to the young
people in your country? Why?/Why not?

≥4
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper Page 4

August 2008

2 Activity
Read the quotations below about the subject of
youth. Use a dictionary to check any unknown vo-
cabulary.
Work in small groups. Discuss the meaning of the
quotations. Do you agree with them?
Share your ideas as a class. Do you know any ­famous
3 proverbs or quotations about youth from your
­country?
a “Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in
life.” Herbert Asquith 1923, British prime minister.

b “Youth is a blunder; manhood a ­struggle; old age a

­regret.” Benjamin ­Disraeli 1844, British prime minister.

c “Young folks think old folks to be fools, but old folks

know young folks to be fools.” Late 16th-century
4
­English ­proverb.

d “At 18 our convictions are hills from which we look; at

45 they are the caves in which we hide.” F Scott Fitzger-
ald, 1920, American writer. From Bernice Bobs her Hair.

e “It’s all that the young can do for the old, to shock
them and keep them up to date.” George Bernard Shaw,
5
1914. From Fanny’s First Play.