Reading
What the Youth Revolution Meant to Me
Before you start reading, study the following vocabulary:
Youth
Performance
Suppose
Affect
If you want to know what life during the youth revolution was like, ask someone who lived through it. The ideas you have about the late Sixties and early Seventies of the last century may be right. But do these ideas tell you how individual people actually thought and felt at the time?
When the Rolling Stones came to Prague, one of my students asked if I was going to the concert. After all, he said, I could remember the great days of the Stones. I had actually lived through the late Sixties and the early Seventies. I had seen the time when the Beatles were still together. Didn't I want to relive all that?
I told him that I had never seen the Stones. Why spoil a perfect record? The only group I had ever really liked was the Grateful Dead, in case anyone still remembers that name. I didn't go to many concerts back then, although I do remember seeing Leonard Cohen. I liked his performance enough to buy an album, but I didn't buy two. I didn't have a large record collection, partly because I had no interest in collecting records. CDs, of course, had not been developed yet.
Please don't even ask me about Elvis. I have never particularly liked his music. The story of his life interests me. He was a talented young man who succeeded wildly, made many people happy and then destroyed himself. It is a very sad and very American story. His story has always had something to do with my life. His music never has.
I suppose that the music of that time was not important to me or to most of my friends. That does not mean that the famous youth revolution did not take place or that it did not affect us. Everything changed between 1966 and 1975. Everyone was affected and everyone felt that things had changed.
What was important to me at that time? Films, not movies, mattered a great deal to me. Movies came from Hollywood. Films were generally from Europe, although my friends and I liked some Hollywood pioneers. During films we never ate popcorn. Popcorn was eaten at movies. We discussed the films over coffee afterward. We joined film societies and went to special "art film" theaters. I have never lost my interest in films.
Back then health food was becoming popular among the people I knew. We ate healthy, largely vegetarian meals with good friends in harmonious surroundings. During these meals we discussed social problems and ways to improve society. I still like discussions and health food.
I am not going to relive any of the things that were important to me at a Stones concert or by listening to Elvis. I can relive it all at any health food restaurant or by seeing a classic film again. Coffee still means interesting conversation to me.
So, if you went to the Rolling Stones concert in Prague, you probably saw some people my age there. They were reliving the youth revolution their own way. I'm going to keep reliving it in mine.
Questions
Choose the correct explanations...
- Why did the student ask if she was going to the Rolling Stones concert?
- Why did the narrator go to European films?
- Why does the narrator talk about health food?
- Why didn't the narrator buy more Leonard Cohen records?
- Why does the narrator connect coffee with conversation?
Are the following statements about the article correct?
1. The narrator did not see the Stones because she hates the past.
2. The narrator says Elvis was not important.
3. She considers personal historical accounts valuable.
4. The narrator and her friends never ate popcorn.
5. She says the late sixties and early seventies changed her life.