Imagine that you are writing a piece for a magazine whose audience is teenagers and young people. Read an extract from a psychological article and listen to an extract from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. Then write your article about the concept of being real.

In your article:

• explain how the notion of being “real” can be interpreted;
• include a summary of both given texts;
• express your own understanding of the theme.

Use your own words, don't quote the given texts.

Write about 250–350 words.

Are you living authentically? Here are five things to try on the road to being real:

Find out who you are: What do you like about yourself and what do you enjoy doing? Who do you like spending time with and what really lights up your world? Once you've captured all of this, ideally in words or pictures, spend some time being with that and see what it feels like to become that person.

Align heart and actions: Which direction is life taking you, is it aligned with your dreams and aspirations, which come from the heart or are you following a completely different path? It's not always easy to achieve congruence and sometimes you need to take small steps in that direction. But it can be amazing how things tend to fall into place once you make a start. 

Let go of the past: The past is just that, learn from it, move forward and practice being mindful - it's a great place to be with a host of benefits that can enhance your well-being and improve your future. 

Think for yourself and believe in yourself: Often, when you start to make positive changes, for yourself, it doesn't necessarily work for everyone else, sometimes jealousy and envy come in to play or perhaps people disagree because of practical reasons. Stand firm and remain true to yourself, after all this is your life, not somebody else's. 

Be you: Once you've really discovered who you are, accept yourself. Let go of comparing yourself to others and learn to love the real you.

Source

Imagine that you are writing a piece for a linguistic magazine. Read an extract from Paul Shoebottom's article on euphemisms and listen to an extract from George Carlin's talk on the same topic.

Then write your own article.

In your article:

• explain what euphemisms are and how they are used;
• include a summary of both given texts;
• express your attitude to euphemisms.

Use your own words, don't quote the given texts.

Write about 250–350 words.

Paul Shoebottom:

A euphemism is a word or expression that is used when people want to find a polite or less direct way of talking about difficult or embarrassing topics. Most people, for example, would find it very difficult to say in plain language that they have arranged for their sick old dog to be killed. They would soften the pain by saying: We had Fido put down or We had Fido put to sleep. Many people prefer to call someone plain than ugly, or cuddly rather than fat. As such, euphemisms are an important part of every language.

Schools are full of euphemisms. Teachers rightly do not want to offend students or parents by being too blunt or direct, and usually choose a softer word or expression to convey the same message. For this reason, school reports often contain euphemisms such as: He is not working to his full potential or He has a rather relaxed attitude to his work (= he is lazy).

Typical of many recently-coined euphemisms are the words and expressions that try to avoid giving offence to various minority groups or unfortunate individuals. People who have severe learning difficulties are sometimes called intellectually-challenged, and those with a physical handicap are referred to as differently-abled. Poor people are called needy, underprivileged; disadvantaged or economically deprived. Poor countries have in turn been called underdeveloped, developing, emergent, Third World — all in an effort to retain the meaning without causing offence or being patronising.

Source of the text: Euphemisms by Paul Shoebottom