F2F Class Notes (Lily) [S/R]

http://www.english-online.at/society/child-labour/working-children-around-the-world.htm

Child labour occurs when children get paid to do work. Although they have always had to work in some way, child labour started to become a major problem when children started to work in factories and mines in England during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century . Many of them were very young. Factory owners forced them to work long hours and they got very little money for their work. Working conditions were very unhealthy. Factories were dirty and the air was bad. In mines children had to crawl through tunnels that were not wide enough for adults . Most children worked to help their families survive .

During the 19th century the situation of children started to improve . Most of them were able to go to school and lead a better life. In his novel “Oliver Twist” the famous English novelist, Charles Dickens, showed how factory work was ruining the lives of children in England.

Causes of child labour

• One of the major causes of child labour is poverty . Adults often earn so little that children have to work.
• Schools in many countries are far away or expensive.
• More and more employers see that they can make bigger profits when they employ children.
• In Africa, many children have become orphans because their mothers died of AIDS and they have nobody to care for them.

Vocabulary

mines=a deep hole in the ground from which people remove minerals like coal, copper etc..

ex: The mine owners are very rich.

crawl= move along the ground with your hands or knees

ex: Children learn to crawl before they walk.

ruin= destroy

ex: Smoking ruined my life.

prostitution=someone, especially a woman or girl who earns money by having sex with people

ex: Prostitution is a big problem in China.

beggar= someone who lives by asking people for food and money

ex: In the subway, you can see the beggars asking for money.

beg= ask sincerely for something (qiu) by putting yourself at a low position

ex: beg for forgiveness, beg for money, beg for love

orphans= a child whose parents are dead or missing

ex: Some people choose to adopt orphans.

Pronunciation

poverty= PO- ver- ty

adults= a-DULTS (not a-douts)

employ= em- ploy

employer= em-ploy- yer (not emplower)

Africa= A- fri-ka (stress on *A*)

orphans= or- fens  (not often)

nobody= NO-buddy (not noBODY)