Further Links Contact Us Search Help

Syllabus | Exams | Resources | What's on? | What Next? | Dictionary

Spanish

Home > Spanish > Continuers Course > The Changing World > Youth issues > Tasks and sample questions

Text 1
Text 2

Text 1

1. What are young people pursuing when undertaking drastic diets?
   Young people want to be happy and successful; they want to have “ideal” bodies.
   
   
2. Who suffers from anorexia?
   It used to be mainly girls who suffered from anorexia but there are more and more boys who are being affected by this disease.
   
   
3. Name some of the health problems associated with anorexia.
   Anorexia can cause permanent and irreversible damage to people’s health. Some of the problems associated with Anorexia are: bone decalcification, irreversible damage to reproductive organs, liver and pancreas damage, high cholesterol, lost of vision and in many cases lost of hair.
   
   
4. What has changed in recent years?
   In recent years the age of anorexia’s sufferers has decreased, that is the sufferers are younger.
   
   
5. Discuss the reasons why anorexia has become more common amongst young people.
   Young people are undertaking these diets in order to achieve what they perceive as “ideal” bodies. This message is being endorsed by the media and the entertainment industry in general. The main characters of films and television series are often very thin, as are most of the famous people who appear in the gossip magazines.
   
   Also advertising and magazines offer “miracle” diets which promote weight loss and their message is reinforced with pictures of young thin women who have achieved their goal. This message is also maintained and supported by peer pressure as young people admire their very thin friends and comment upon their “achievement”.

Back

 

Text 2

1. How does the writer feel?
   The writer is feeling lonely, confused, lost and misunderstood.
   
   
2. Does Carla communicate well with her family? Explain.
   No, she doesn’t communicate with her family. She feels that they treat her as if she were a spoilt child, they do not understand why she is not happy, nor do they understand her as a person, “viven en un mundo aparte”. She feels isolated from them, “me siento aislada” and uncomfortable in their presence and she does not want to spend time with them.
   
   
3. Describe her relationship with friends.
   Juana feels uncomfortable with her school friends. She finds them shallow and only interested in things which mean nothing to her, like physical appearance and boys. She doesn’t have anything in common with them and she avoids their company.
   
   She doesn’t even relate well to Maria, her oldest best friend. She now finds her superficial and insincere. She feels as if she doesn’t know her anymore, even though they were so close and loved each other.
   
   
4. How does the author use language and tone to convey her feelings? Justify your answer by providing examples from the text.
   The writer conveys her feelings by using different language techniques, such as choice of text type, punctuation, listing, choice of language and rhetorical questions.
   
   To begin with, the choice of text type, which is a diary entry, allows the writer to disclose emotions “mi querido diario” to express her innermost feelings. The use of the indirect object “me” indicates that it is the writer who is involved in the text. These create a tone of intimacy which the reader is allowed to share with the writer. The use of emotive language “nadie me quiere” ‘extraño, incomprensible’ inaceptable” shows how isolated she feels and descriptive language such as “angustia”  “tristeza” convey her sadness. Together they contribute to the depressed and, poignant tone of the passage.
   
   Listing is also used in the passage to indicate the groups that do not accept her, allowing the reader to understand how inadequate she feels with her family, with her friends and at school. ”En casa me siento aislada” “ni con mi mejor…”
   
   Exclamation marks are used in this passage to engage the reader and to emphasise what the writer is feeling. “¡No me entienden! ¡Piensan que soy una niña mimada!” “¡Cómo me gustaría…..!
   
   Finally the use of rhetorical questions engages the reader and makes him/her aware of the writer’s dilemma. ¿Puedes creerlo? ¿Por qué me siento así querido amigo? ¿Quién puede ayudarme? ¿Qué voy a hacer con mi vida? It leaves the reader feeling the anguish of the writer and pondering what to answer.
   
   All of the above contributes to the sombre, depressed and poignant tone of the passage; it makes the reader aware of the writer’s feelings of loneliness, uncertainty and being lost.

Back