Read the text below and answer the questions that
follow:
To exercise or not to exercise...
Are more young people overweight than in the past
and do they exercise enough? We decided to ask four
young people what they thought about this problem.
1- HEATHER OHURUOGU, aged 14 from Leeds, tells
us what she thinks about keeping fit.
“I know there have been a lot of stories in newspapers
about how fat young people are getting, but we're not
all sitting at home at a computer eating crisps and
chocolate. Some of us do actually realise that keeping
fit is quite important. If anybody should be blamed, I
think schools and parents are the problem. At my
school we have fewer hours of PE lessons than we
used to have. The school has decided we need to
spend more time preparing for our exams. My mum
and dad trust me to take a bus home if I stay late at
school for hockey training, but my friend Carly can't
come because her parents work and they are worried
about her travelling alone.”
2- OLIVER MCKENNA, aged 15, Edinburgh, sees
things differently.
“I don't like organised sport or spending my time with
guys skateboarding. I love computers – programming
them, playing games on them, surfing the Internet and
in my free time that's what I do. It's true that I do need
to lose some weight, though. Next week, Mum's
taking me to a doctor so we can ask about going on a
diet. Dad wants me to join the gym he goes to, but I
think it's a bit boring working out all the time. In fact,
there's a computer game now called Wii. I'm thinking
of getting it because you actually do the actions of the
games – you know, things like swinging your arm to hit
the ball in tennis. That'd be a good way to get some
exercise!”
3- REECE WILKINS, aged 13, Swansea, has another
view.
“I'm an active person and so are most of my friends.
We all like to spend some time on our Nintendos,
PlayStations or whatever – all young people enjoy
computer games – but we also belong to football
teams or some kind of sports club. We don't have to
make an effort to be fit – young people like active
games. No, our problem is that we eat too much
rubbish. In fact, we drink a lot of bad things – sweet,
fizzy drinks which are full of sugar and very unhealthy.
Also, we all love fast food and often eat hamburgers
and chips. If we ate better, I think most of us would lose
the extra weight we have.”
4- HANK DARROW, aged 14, London, shares his
opinions with us.
“I've spent the last four years trying to lose weight, and
it hasn't been easy. My problem started when I was a
baby – it wasn't really my fault. You see, I wasn't very
interested in food, and so my mum made all kinds of
delicious things to get me to eat. Of course, all those
tasty foods were very fattening. My mum used to carry
a bowl of food everywhere we went and would follow
me around the house or playground trying to get me to
eat just one more bite. Well, I got used to eating
constantly and, by the time we all realised that I had
gained too much weight, the damage had been done.
Now I follow a special diet – it was hard at first, but
once I got used to it, I actually like it. And I look and feel
so much better – I don't want to go back to the way I
was.”
Taken from: CHAPMAN, Joanne. Laser B1 +. Teacher's book.
Macmillan, 2008.