NEWS LESSONS / Life through a lens / Elementary

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Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.

percentage

research

sedentary

survey multitask

soap

average

childhood

decrease

own

1. A ____________ is a set of questions that you ask a large number of people.

2. ____________ is the time of a person’s life when they are a child.

3. ____________ is when you study something in detail to discover new facts.

4. If you ____________, you do more than one thing at the same time.

5. ____________ is the opposite of increase.

6. If you do a ____________ activity, you sit down a lot and don’t do much exercise.

7. If you ____________ something, it is yours, usually because you have bought it.

8. A ____________is a television series about the lives of a group of people.

9. A ____________ is an amount that is equal to part of a total you have divided by 100.

10. An ____________ is a usual level or standard.

Life through a lens

Level 1

Elementary

Key words

1

Find the information

2

Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible.

1. How many children have a TV set in their bedroom?

2. What percentage of British children watch TV in bed at night?

3. How many children read books in their own time each day?

4. How many children did the survey interview?

5. What percentage of children watch TV during their evening meal?

6. What percentage of children use the Internet?

NEWS LESSONS / Life through a lens / Elementary

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Life through a lens: How Britain’s

children eat, sleep and breathe TV

Lucy Ward, social affairs correspondent
January 16, 2008

A survey has shown that in modern-day Britain

many children spend a lot of their daily lives

watching television. They watch TV before they

go to school, when they return home, as they

eat their evening meal and then (63% of them

– a much higher percentage than read a book

each day) in bed at night. The survey of five to

16-year-olds shows that four out of every five

children now have a TV set in their bedroom.

Many children now do other things while they

watch television, including social networking

on the Internet, looking from their laptop to the

TV screen and back again. Even if they are

concentrating on the television, young people

often do not watch just one programme. Boys

in particular often switch from one channel

to another and back again to watch two

programmes at the same time. The survey, from

the market research agency Childwise, will make

many people worried that childhood is now more

about private space and sedentary activities than

about play, social interaction or the child’s

own imagination.

The survey also shows that children are watching

more television than before. The amount of

television-watching decreased over the last three

years but is now increasing again. This is mainly

the result of more girls watching soaps.

Children’s use of the Internet is also increasing

rapidly. This means British children spend an

average of five hours and 20 minutes in front of a

screen every day, compared with four hours and

40 minutes five years ago. But children do not

read for pleasure as much as they did in the past.

Four out of five children read books in their own

time but only one out of four read books every

day and only 53% at least once a week.

The survey interviewed 1,147 children in 60

schools around England, Scotland and Wales. It

found that children aged 5 to 16 watch television

for an average 2.6 hours a day, and one in 10

say they watch more than four hours a day. The

survey also asked if children watched television

while eating dinner or in bed before going to

sleep. It found that 58% watch during their

evening meal, while 63% lie in bed watching

TV (rising to almost 75% of 13 to 16-year-olds).

66% – particularly the youngest children – watch

before school, and 83% turn on the television

after returning home.

Rosemary Duff, the research director of

Childwise, said television was now “a part of

children’s lives”. She said that children watch

it in a different way now. “In the past they paid

a lot of attention when they watched television

but now it is everywhere, at home and

everywhere you go.”

“Children now multitask. They have one eye

on the television while they read magazines or

use the computer,” Duff said. When Childwise

asked boys to choose between programmes

on different channels they often didn’t want to

choose and said they wanted to ‘watch both’.

“They switch from one programme to another

and cannot imagine that they need to make a

decision. They are surprised when you ask them

to make a choice.”

Computers are also now a key part of children’s

private worlds. “The Internet is now an important

part of most young people’s lives,” says the

study. 85% of five to 16-year-olds use the

Internet, and over a third (including a quarter of

five to six-year-olds) own a computer or laptop.

On average, they go online just over four times a

week and spend two hours online each time.

The survey shows that children are using the

Internet more and more, especially younger

children. This is mainly because of social

networking sites like Bebo. The main reason

children use the Internet is communication

(social networking), then fun (online games) and

finally studying. Almost three quarters (72%) of

children have visited a social networking site,

and over half have their own profile. Sometimes

Life through a lens

Level 1

Elementary

1

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they lie about their age if there are minimum age

requirements to join a social networking site.

Children as young as eight are now joining sites

like these.

Kathy Evans, policy director of the Children’s

Society, which is studying modern childhood,

said that people are worried about the possible

results of children’s TV and Internet viewing

habits. The Children’s Society will publish a

report next month on children and technology.

© Guardian News & Media 2008
First published in The Guardian, 16/01/08

Life through a lens

Level 1

Elementary

Comprehension Check

3

Match the beginnings and the endings to make sentences about the text.

1. The survey shows that…

2. The amount of television watching is increasing again…

3. The main reason children use the Internet...

4. Two thirds of children…

5. Over a third of children…

6. 83% of children…

a. … because more girls are watching soaps.

b. … turn on the television when they get home from school.

c. … own a laptop.

d. … children are spending more and more time watching TV and using the Internet.

e. … watch TV before they go to school.

f. … is social networking.

10

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Life through a lens

Level 1

Elementary

Percentages

4

Chunks

5

Rearrange the words to make phrases from the text.

1. school they before to go

2. least week at once a

3. going sleep to before

4. hours more a than day four

5. returning after home

6. channel switch to one from another

Match the phrases from the text with the percentages.

1. Four out of five children

a. 25%

2. One out of four children

b. 63%

3. One in ten children

c. 25%

4. Three quarters of children

d. 10%

5. A quarter of five to six-year olds

e. 75%

6. Nearly two thirds of children

f. 80%

Word stress

6

Put these words from the text into group A or group B according to their stress.

average

amount

private

children

return

result

survey (n)

between

programme

childhood

because

report

A 0 o

B o 0

1 Key words

1. survey

2. childhood

3. research

4. multitask

5. decrease

6. sedentary

7. own

8. soap

9. percentage

10. average

2 Find the information

1. Four out of every five (80%)

2. 63%

3. One out of four (25%)

4. 1,147

5. 58%

6. 85%

3 Comprehension check

1. d

2. a

3. f

4. e

5. c

6. b

4 Percentages

1. f

2. a/c

3. d

4. e

5. a/c

6. b

5 Chunks

1. before they go to school

2. at least once a week

3. before going to sleep

4. more than four hours a day

5. after returning home

6. switch from one channel to another

4 Word stress

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Life through a lens

Level 1

Elementary

KEY

A 0 o

B o 0

average

private

children

survey

programme

childhood

amount

return

result

between

because

report