HOW WE REALLY SPEND OUR TIME

Although people all over the world are working longer and longer hours, we also have more
leisure time than ever before.
After sleeping and working, watching TV is by far the most popular leisure activity the world
over. The British watch more TV than any other nation in Europe, but they also read more. The
vast majority, eighty-five percent regularly read newspaper, and fifty-four percent regularly read
books.
Although up to two thirds of modern European women work full-time, they still do the main
share of the housework, too. Husbands help in the house more than they did in the past, but in the
UK for example, men do an average of just six hours a week compared to their wives, who do
over eighteen hours. No wonder that the vast majority of working women in the UK say they are
stressed and exhausted.
According to the latest research by supermarkets, the average British family spend just eleven
minutes preparing the main evening meal, and prefers ready meals and takeaway to home-
cooked food. Almost half of all families in the UK eat together only once a month or less.
More than half of young people in the UK have a full-time job by the age of nineteen, but the
majority of young Spanish and Italian people do not start full-time work until they are twenty-
four.
The average American fourteen-year-old spends only half an hour a day doing homework, and
less than a fifth of young people participate in sports, clubs, music or other traditional hobbies.
Instead, sixty-five percent say they spend time chatting on their mobiles and hanging out with
their friends in the shopping malls.
In the UK, pensioners are almost twice as active as teenagers, according to recent research.
People over sixty five spend nearly two hours a day doing physical activities such as walking,
cycling, gardening, or sport while teenagers spend only seventy-five minutes. However,
surprisingly, people who use the Internet regularly do more sport than people who never use it.
The Swedes and Finns are the sportiest nationalities in Europe. Seventy-three percent do some
kind of sport at least once or twice a week.
People may spend more time at work these days, but are they always working? The latest
research reveals that each day the average British employee spend fifty-five minutes chatting,
sixteen minutes flirting, fourteen minutes surfing the Internet and nine minutes sending emails to
friends.
Handouts
Ex.1 Read the text quickly. Fill in the gaps with the countries.
1) People in _____________ prefer watching TV to any other activity.
2) ____________ women do the main share of the housework.
3) People in ____________ and _________ dont work full-time before they are 24 years old.
4) Teenagers in ___________ do their homework for 30 minutes only.
5) Pensioners in ____________ more active then teenagers.
6) People in __________ and _________ like doing sport.
Ex. 2 Read the text carefully. Are the following statements true or false?
1) Watching TV is the most popular leisure time activity T F
2) Most people in the UK read books T F
3) The vast majority of European women dont work full-time T F
4) Men do sixteen hours housework a week in the UK T F
5) British people dont like takeaways and ready meals T F
6) The majority of young people in UK start working by the age of eighteen T F
7) American teenagers spend more time chatting than doing homework T F
8) People who use Internet are NOT keen on sport regularly T F
9) The majority of people in Sweden dont take part in any kind of sport T F
10) People waste a lot of time at work chatting with friends T F
Words for pre-teaching.
Pre-teaching 1 (before ex.1):

Majority the most (the biggest part) of the people or thing in a group
o Are 20% of students in the classroom a majority? N!
Share synonym of part (a part of something that has been divided between several people)
o ???
Housework a work you do to keep the house clean + ironing, cooking, etc
o When you wash dishes, is it a housework? Y!
o When you your English exercises at home, is it a housework? N!
Full-time when you work for the whole of a working week (for example 40 hours)
o When you work only 2-3 days a week, is it a full-time work? N!

Pre-teaching 2 (before detailed reading):

Vast very (extremely) big

o ???
Chatting friendly talk, usually using messages
o Is chatting a formal or informal talk? Informal!
Hang out spend a lot of time with friends or in some place
o ???