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56 Rights and wrongs
Rights and wrongs
Reading and vocabulary
Teenage gangs
1
SPEAKING
Why do teenagers join gangs? Discuss
the reasons below and add your own ideas. Then
read the text and compare your ideas.
to make money because of peer pressure
for the excitement to have somewhere to hang out
to belong to a group to feel safe
strategy
Using referencing to understand a text
Reference words link different parts of a text together.
They can refer back to a word, a phrase or a whole
sentence or idea.
pronouns, for example:
he, him, it, they, them, that, this,
these, those
possessive adjectives, for example:
his
,
its
,
their
,
her
relative pronouns, for example:
who
,
whose
,
which
2
Read the strategy. Study the underlined words in
the text. Who or what do they refer to?
1
That (line 3)
5
him (line 31)
2
She (line 10)
6
whose (line 35)
3
its (line 17)
7
his (line 59)
4
who (line 26)
8
them (line 61)
3
Study the underlined reference words in A–F. Who
or what do you think they refer to? Complete the
article with sentences A–F. There is one sentence
that you do not need.
A
He was shot in the arm, but luckily he survived.
B
There are 169 gangs there, with more than 5,000
members.
C
They were easy to get and easy to use.
D
His father left home when he was a baby, and Joshua
and his sisters were brought up by their mother.
E
Its members had code names like P-Man or Stepz,
and they looked after each other.
F
That’s when he met Ben.
4
Read the article again and answer the questions.
1
What problems did Joshua’s family have when he was
young?
2
What didn’t he like about the gang?
3
How did Joshua’s gang send warnings to other gangs?
4
Why was Joshua attacked?
5
How did his mum feel when she saw him? Why?
6
In what ways was Ben similar to Joshua?
7
How did the Youth Inclusion Project help Joshua?
v
Crime
5
Study the people below. What are the crimes that
they commit?
mugger shoplifter armed robber vandal thief
offender
10
30
35
The choice
‘They were my family, you know, they were good to
me,’ says Joshua Blake, looking down at the floor,
‘but they weren’t good to other people. That was the
problem … , but I was too scared to leave – once you
were in, you were in. I didn’t think I had a choice.’
14-year-old Joshua was born on a council estate*
in South London. Like many of his peers, Joshua
experienced hard times and misfortune in his early
life.
1
. The family lived in a one-bedroomed
flat and his mother struggled to pay the bills. She
worked long hours as a nurse, so after school
Joshua hung out with other boys on the estate.
‘There was nothing to do,’ he remembers. ‘They
closed down the youth club years ago, so there was
nowhere to go except the streets.’ Joshua became
part of a gang with its own rules, its own codes and
its own hierarchy.
2
. Belonging made him
feel safe and gave him a sense of identity. But the
crime worried him. ‘There was a lot of mugging and
shoplifting, but it was the guns that really scared
me.
3
.’ The older boys in Joshua’s gang
got into armed robbery. Suddenly a lot of money
was involved and the gang became very territorial.
There was a lot of vandalism – graffiti appeared on
buildings and signs were sprayed on shop doors, so
people knew the names of the gangs who controlled
each area. Knives and guns were used to keep out
other gangs. Things were getting out of control.
25
20
15
5