Unit 6 Reading A Name
Kid Nation
1 American TV channel CBS has recently brought out
its latest reality TV programme Kid Nation, in which
we observe the actions and behaviour of a group of
40 children. The children, aged 8–15, have been left
without parental supervision and modern comforts for
40 days in Bonanza City, a ghost town in New Mexico,
which has been deserted for over a century.
2 The children’s goal is to build a society that functions
well. They have to cook their own meals, clean their
own toilets and even run their own business, including
a saloon (non-alcoholic drinks only). They have to
create their own government by choosing four leaders
who will guide the group and make laws, about
bedtimes, for example. They are also given choices
between spending money on things like food and on
toys and games.
1 Read the text and write true or false for sentences 1–5.
Give evidence for your answers from the text. (5 marks)
1 There are no adults in the show.
2 Very few people live in Bonanza city.
3 The children have to choose between the things they
need and the things they want.
4 The children only go home if they want to.
5 A book has been written about the programme.
4 PHOTOCOPIABLE © OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
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3 Unlike other reality shows where participants are
voted out of the programme, there will be no evictions.
Instead, at the end of each episode one of the children
is selected by the other children to receive a prize of
$20,000. The children are also allowed to go home at
any point if they want to.
4 The show is being compared by critics to William
Golding’s best-selling 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies,
which tells the story of a group of boys who have
been stranded on a desert island after a plane crash
and have to look after themselves. Without any adult
influence, the boys’ behaviour soon becomes violent
Reading
and primitive. However, fans of the programme, and
there are many, claim that it is ‘must see’ television,
which deals with very interesting issues. They also
argue that CBS, and their lawyers, would never allow
the programme to turn into chaos.
2 Answer the questions using your own words. (8 marks)
1 What is the children’s aim?
2 Who decides what time the children should go to bed?
3 What are the programme’s critics worried about?
4 How do the programme’s supporters defend the
programme?
3 Find words in the text with similar meanings to 1–5.
(5 marks)
1 watch (paragraph 1)
2 abandoned (paragraph 1)
3 expulsions (paragraph 3)
4 supporters (paragraph 4)
5 topics (paragraph 4)
4 Find the nouns of these verbs in the text. (2 marks)
1 supervise
2 choose
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