专题24 Koreans Get Younger in Age System Change-高中英语【外刊·新闻·热点】素养提升拓展阅读课

Koreans Get Younger in Age System Change 外刊新闻精品阅读和练习 Sources:  reuters.com, theguardian.com Frida (Two young Koreans who just got younger. (source)) 1. Are you interested in Korea? What do you know about it? 2. Read the headline above. Have you heard this news story? If so, say what you know. If not, can you guess what it is about? WARM-UP QUESTIONS: Discuss the following questions with your partner(s). In conversation with non-Koreans, Korean people have often had to explain two different ages. One was their “Korean age” - the age used normally within Korea. The other, their “international age,” was the same as is used in most countries around the world. According to international age, as most people know, a baby is zero at birth and becomes one year old after exactly one year has passed. However, under the Korean age system, babies are one at birth and turn one year older at the new year. At its extreme, a baby born in late December could soon be two under the Korean age system, while their international age would be counted in days. However, for Koreans, explaining the two ages will gradually become a thing of the past as their government recently passed laws to fully adopt the international age system. The government expects the change to reduce confusion and stop creating the impression that Korea is out-of-step with the world. For individual Koreans, the most immediate effect is getting younger. Thirty-year-olds, for example, suddenly find themselves twenty-eight or twenty-nine again. Despite the legal change, Korea will retain one age-related practice. Koreans will become eligible for school, the military, and buying alcohol or cigarettes together with the rest of their age group on January 1st of the appropriate year. Extreme (adj) - very large in degree A thing of the past (idiom) - something that doesn’t happen anymore out-of-step (adj) - different from the way others do things Despite (prep) - used to indicate that something might have p