Прочитайте тексты и ответьте на вопросы. Parent-child interaction. Sociologists believe parent-child conflicts cannot be avoided in a society that is undergoing rapid change. In our society youngsters are at odds with their parents on a wide range of issues, from how late can stay up to whom they should marry. This “generation gap” was especially wide during the 1960s, when college students lashed out, sometimes violently, at the values of career success and suburban ease of the over- 30 generation. Despite the expectation of conflict between generations, the most striking feature of several recent studies is the high level of agreement between children and their parents. One study showed, for example, that college-age children largely agree with their fathers on such issues as sexual norms, environmental protection, campus unrest, war and segregation. Young men tend to disagree with their fathers. Disagreement also is more likely between working-class fathers and their college-age off-spring. Fathers with advanced degrees or conservative views tend to disagree with their children on political and moral issues. Overall, however, agreement is much more common than disagreement. Questions: What are the reasons of conflicts between parents and their children? When was the peak of “generation gap”? Do children and parents disagree more nowadays than before? Who understand better their fathers, young men or young women? Can the difference of education between the generations cause the disagreement? Work and careers. Sometimes we say that someone we know is “a square peg in a round hole”. This simply means the person we are talking about is not suited for the job is doing. He may be a book-keeper who really wants to be an actor, or a mechanic who likes cooking. Unfortunately many people in the world are “”square pegs; they are not doing the kind of work they are should be doing, for one reason or another. As a result they are probably not doing a very good job and certainly they are not happy. Choosing the right career is very important. Most of us spend a great part of our lives at our jobs. For that reason we should try to find out what our talents are and how we can use them. We can do this through aptitude tests, interviews with specialists and consulting reference books on the subject that interest us. There are many careers open to each of us. Perhaps we like science. Then we might prepare ourselves to be chemists, physicists or biologists. Perhaps of our interests take us into the business world and such work as accounting, personnel management or public relations. Many people find their place in government service. Many other fields – teaching, newspaper work, medicine, engineering –offer fascinating areas to those with talent and training. Выборова Г.Е., Махмурян К.С., Мельчина О.П. «Advanced English». Questions: Whom do we call “ a square peg in a round hole”? Why do people do their work not well? How can person find out his talents? Is it essential to get the job you want? What working area is fascinating for you?