“I am a disaster prone and chaotic layabout and so should warn you not to listen to my advice” says Tom Hodgkinson at the beginning of his book about parenting.
This is, of course, a book about parenting from the editor of The Idler. It is fairly clear what direction this will be going in – leave the children alone. Teach them self-reliance, give them their independence, and then you’ll have more time for yourself. Lie in bed for long enough, and they will not only learn to get their own breakfast, but maybe even bring you yours. “My idea of childcare is a large field” says Tom. “At one side of the field is a marquee with a bar serving local ales. This is where the parents gather. On the other side of the field, somewhere in the distance, the children play.”
Spurning modern day parenting gurus, The Idle Parent draws from John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the medieval era, punk. It’s funny, personal, full of exasperation at the state of modern childhood, and a little tongue in cheek.
As always with Hodgkinson, there is a subversive and counter-cultural undercurrent to his musing on being idle and having a good time. This is parenting for the consumer age, full of refusals to commodify childhood and buy your children’s love. Don’t reward children with things, he argues. Play outside. Limit screen time and avoid the shops. No plastic toys, and if you must buy toys at all, let them be few and good quality. Raise children together. “We believe in community” he writes, “the more the merrier.”
For the most part, I agree. Not least, I agree because this is how I was brought up. We had few toys, hundreds of books and minimal TV. Mum looked after us and Dad worked from home, both were always around. There were five of us, and we looked out for each other. Our favourite things were our bikes, a barrel, a hammock, and the climbing frame that was made for us by a local carpenter to our own design. Our education was part home-school, part local primary and then boarding school. We all helped wash up, took turns cooking, and I fed the sixteen chickens every morning. Putting aside Hodgkinson’s antipathy towards Lego, the book pretty much describes my upbringing.
There was a good reason for this, and it wasn’t that my parents were idlers – I grew up in Madagascar. There was no choice. Toys were not on sale, and the TV showed one cartoon a week (Lucky Luke on Tuesday nights.) As far as I’m concerned, it was a great childhood, and I’d gladly raise little Zachary and any of his subsequent siblings in a similar fashion. But can it be done here, in the face of a consumer culture? I don’t know. I certainly hope so.
What I do know is that childhood can be rubbish in this country, maybe even the worst in Europe, if surveys are to be believed. (see The Good Childhood report). We burden our kids with targets, subject them to relentless advertising, keep them indoors and over-schedule their little lives with activities. If it can claw back a little of the joy of childhood, and ease the pressure of parenting in a competitive culture, then fetch me a local ale and call me an idle parent.
- Review: Tom Hogkinson’s How to be Free
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On the whole, Cambridge is a much quieter than Oxford, although what really sets it apart from its scholarly rival is ‘the Backs’, providing exquisite views over the backs of the old colleges. At the front, the handsome facades of these same colleges dominate the layout of the town centre, lining up along the main streets. Most of the colleges date back to the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Many of the buildings are extraordinarily beautiful, but the most famous is King’s College, A___________. There are thirtyone university colleges in total. Each one is an independent, self-governing body, proud of its achievements and attracting a close loyalty from its students, B___________.
During the nineteenth century, the university finally lost its ancient privileges over the town, C___________. The university expanded too, with the number of students increasing dramatically. More recently, change has been much slower, D___________. The first two women’s colleges were founded in the 1870s, but it was only in 1947 that women were actually awarded degrees. In the meantime, the city and university had been acquiring a reputation as a high-tech centre of excellence. Cambridge, E___________, has always been in the vanguard of scientific research.
Cambridge is an extremely compact place, and you can walk round the centre, visiting the most interesting colleges, in an afternoon. A more thorough exploration covering more of the colleges and a leisurely afternoon on a punt will, however, take at least a couple of days. If possible you should avoid coming in high summer, F___________. Faced with such crowds, the more popular colleges have restricted their opening times and have introduced admission charges.
1) because of the development of industry
2) whose magnificent chapel is one of the greatest statements of late Gothic architecture
3) whose alumni have received no less than ninety Nobel prizes
4) amongst whom privately educated boys remain over-represented
5) particularly when it comes to equality of sexes
6) which was expanding rapidly thanks to the arrival of the railway
7) when the students are replaced by crowds of sightseers
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Аннотация
The Idle Parent is Tom Hodgkinson’s radical parenting remedy against stifled, mollycoddled children.Modern life is wrecking childhood. Why can’t we just leave our kids alone?If you’ve ever wondered why so many of today’s children are unhappy, spoilt, stressed and selfish, then the answers and the remedy are to be found in The Idle Parent. Tom Hodgkinson wants us to leave our kids be, to give them the space and time to grow into self-reliant, confident, inquisitive, happy and free people. Full of practical tips of what to do and (more importantly) what not to do, Tom will not only help your kids be happier, but also help you, their parents, live happier and more fulfilled lives. ‘Wise, practical, funny, personal, it will make you a much better parent’ Oliver James’An inspiring book, genuinely subversive. Time to put away "e;silly adult things"e; and embrace childhood in all its messy glory’ London Lite’A recipe for bright, happy people with need of neither television nor shrink. Who could ask for more?’ Evening Standard’An original, thought-provoking book’ Toby Young, Mail on SundayTom Hodgkinson is the founder and editor of The Idler and the author of How to be Idle, How to be Free, The Idle Parent and Brave Old World. In spring 2011 he founded The Idler Academy in London, a bookshop, coffeehouse and cultural centre which hosts literary events and offers courses in academic and practical subjects — from Latin to embroidery. Its motto is ‘Liberty through Education’. Find out more at www.idler.co.uk.
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Показать текст. ⇓
According to the author, in her childhood she used to
1) do the shopping with her friends.
2) go to the mall with her family.
3) call her mother every half an hour.
4) watch TV a lot.
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Показать текст. ⇓
Which of the following does Athena do monthly?
1) Invites friends to her place.
2) Uses the Snapchat.
3) Goes to the mall with her family.
4) Changes her iPhone.
3) Прочитайте текст и запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Показать текст. ⇓
For Athena’s peers spending time alone in their rooms seems
1) natural.
2) difficult.
3) awkward.
4) soothing.
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Which of the following is NOT true about iGen teenagers, according to the author?
1) They prefer loneliness to company.
2) It is easy to hurt them psychologically.
3) Most of them feel extremely unhappy.
4) They have more physical health problems.
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Прочитайте текст. Заполните пропуски в предложениях под номерами А22-А28 соответствующими формами слов. |
The SETI Project
Do you believe in aliens from outer space? Well, one organization, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), has been looking for aliens for the past 43 years. The A22 search began in 1960 when astronomer Frank Drake set out to detect radio signals from space. He believed that if intelligent beings were out there, they would be using radio, and these signals might be A23 picked up on Earth. Frank Drake even wrote an equation — now known as the Drake equation — to A24 estimate how many alien races galaxy might be trying to contact us. His guess is that there are around 10,000! In 1977, a powerful signal came from A25 deep space. It was recorded at the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. Jerry Eliman, a volunteer and a professor at a local university who was checking the computer the following morning was so startled by what he saw that he wrote «Wow!» A26 next to the signal printout. This signal is known as «Wow!» signal. Unfortunately, the signal was never repeated and scientists were left wondering. Today, millions of people from all over the world are helping SETI search for alien signals. You, too, can A27 take part in this project — just download a special programme from the http:setiahome.ssl.berkeley.edu/. When your computer is A28 idle, the programme will search for radio signals from space.
|
A22 |
1) race гонка |
2) search поиски |
3) looking Нет такого существительного |
4) watch часы |
|
A23 |
1) taken Take up smth — занимать чем-либо; перемещать, снимать,сворачиать |
2) brought Bring up smb/smth — вскармливать, воспитывать |
3) picked Pick up smth — принимать, ловить сигналы |
4) looked Look up smth — искать что-либо (в справочнике и т.д.) |
|
A24 |
1) convince убеждать |
2) estimate оценивать, производить оценку |
3) give давать |
4) value ценить |
|
A25 |
1) wide |
2) broad |
3) deep Deep space — дальний, глубокий космос (за пределами солнечной системы); устоявшееся выражение |
4) high |
|
A26 |
1) next next to — рядом, около, вблизи; из 4-х слов только next употребляется с to |
2) near |
3) beside |
4) closely |
|
A27 |
1) show |
2) bring |
3) get |
4) take Take part in smth — принимать участие в чем-либо; устоявшееся выражение |
|
A28 |
1) idle Idle computer — компьютер в спящем режиме; устоявшееся выражение |
2) not work |
3) busy |
4) out |