Mini Lessons: The Fountain of Youth

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the ARTICLE
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Baby boomers desire youth, even as they age and retire. They seek to live a healthy,
enjoyable, and active retirement. In fact, the need to outdo past generations in terms of
health has become a common sentiment, with people striving to appear and act decades
younger.

Botox treatments, hormone injections, and cosmetic surgery have all become flourishing
industries. The effects are immediate, although no one yet knows the cost to long-term
health. People may be jeopardizing their chances for longer and healthier lives in favor of
focusing on short-term gains, as the side effects of treatments remain completely unknown
when used over decades. What's more, in the quest to stay young, many have become
victims of scams, as treatments are hawked with all sorts of unproven promises. And now
there is having a trickledown effect on teens and twenty-somethings who similarly view as
acceptable cosmetic surgery and other beauty treatments.

WARM UP
Discuss the question with your partner for five minutes.

1: Do you think people are healthier these days? Why/not?

VOCABULARY
Check the new vocabulary in a dictionary. Then match the words.

1: outdo • noun • sell

2: sentiment • noun • something searched for

3: quest • verb • beat or win

4: hawk • verb • opinion

DISCUSS
Discuss these questions with a partner. Remember to support your answers.

1: What do you think about hormone injections and cosmetic surgery to stay young?

2: Would you want to receive hormone injections and cosmetic surgery to stay young?

3: Would you want to live for a few hundred years if you could be healthy and active?

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