Reading

You are going to read two letters from teenagers in a problem page for young people.

Choose the right word from the ones in italics.

Dear agony aunt,

I am 18 years old girl at a secondary school in Chibabava. I am like all other girls in my class except/ exceptional for the fact that all my friends have boyfriends and I never had one. Sometimes my classmates make tease/ fun of me because they think that I've never kissed anybody before. They tease/ fun me and call me ' matreca', which means 'dull person'. It hurts me because at school we learn that we shouldn't have sex at an early age. I don't understand/ perceive why people are so reluctant/ rude to change their mind. For example, last week on our way home two boys from our village stopped me, started making/doing fun of me and one of them tried to force me to kiss him. I was really upset/ confused and when I got home I told  my mum what had happened and she told/ said me to be calm and concentrated to my studies/ jobs,  and that one day I would find a handsome husband/ beautiful man to marry me. What hurts is I don’t understand why people are doing it to me now. What shall I do?

Sandra

Dear agony aunt,

I am very depressed/ depressing about what has happened to me recently. I am a 17 year-old young boy and people from my school/ job make fun of me because I am short. They tease me because my height/high and they call me silly names. It really hurts me. I tried to talk to my parents/fathers about this, but they don’t understand. They say it’s part of manhood/man and that I must stand up for myself/me and fight back to whatever my schoolmates may say to me, but I don’t think this is the right way to put end/ finish to this problem. Even my teachers are aware of this and I don't do anything/nothing to stop people from making fun of me. I used to love school and always did well but now I seem to hate it. Sometimes when I take my snack/ dinner to school they take it from me and say that if I don't give it to them they will beat me up. It really hurts me. What must/ have I do?

Worried boy Tony

 

Important Vocabulary

dull- estupido

tease- provocar

 

1.2.2. Vocabulary

Read the texts and match the words on the left to their synonyms on the right.

1. classmate                                   a) premature

2. hurts                                           b) lately

3. earlier                                           c) mother

4. mum                                            d) colleague

5. recently                                        e) undersized

6. short                                             f) upsets