Vocabulary:
hospitality: the act of being friendly and welcoming to guests and visitors.
Examples:
The local people showed me great hospitality.
Thank you for your hospitality.
adolescence: the period of time in a person's life when they are developing into an adult.
Examples:
She had a troubled adolescence.
yet another novel about the joys and sorrows of adolescence.
to socialize: to spend time when you are not working with friends or with other people in order to enjoy yourself.
Examples:
I tend not to socialize with my colleagues.
They're content to socialize with a very small circle of people.
homeless: having no home.
Examples:
Accommodation needs to be found for thousands of homeless families.
The family were left homeless.
autonomy: independence.
Examples:
The universities want to preserve their autonomy from central government.
Demonstrators demanded immediate autonomy for their region.
generation gap: a situation in which older and younger people do not understand each other because of their different experiences, opinions, habits, and behaviour.
Examples:
She's a young politician who manages to bridge/cross (= understand both groups in) the generation gap.
Most of the problems between parents and children are due to the generation gap between them.
divorce: an official or legal process to end a marriage.
Examples:
One common cause of homelessness is separation or divorce.
Ellie wants a divorce.
jobless: unemployed.
Examples:
He's been jobless for the past six months.
Welfare reforms are exploring new initiatives for those who have been jobless for a year or more.
joyriding: driving fast and dangerously for pleasure, especially in a stolen vehicle.
Examples:
Joyriding has become more popular, especially among adolescents.
Adolescents who love joyriding are subject to many dangerous accidents.
tolerance: willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them.
Examples:
The two peoples lived together in mutual tolerance.
This period in history is not noted for its religious tolerance.
to complain: to say that something is wrong or not satisfactory.
Examples:
Lots of people have complained about the noise.
If the service was so bad why didn't you complain to the manager?
childhood: the state or time of being a child. (-hood is a suffix. -hood= the state or time of being).
Examples:
She had an unhappy childhood.
Childhood is not always a happy time.
shelter: (a building designed to give) protection from bad weather, danger, or attack.
Examples:
The trees gave/provided some shelter from the rain.
The wall gave us some shelter from the wind.
handicapped: people who cannot use part of their body or mind because it has been damaged or does not work normally. (synonym: disabled)
Examples:
What's the best way of improving theatre access for people who are physically handicapped?
It is a shared responsibility to take care of the handicapped; these are disabled people who find it difficult to do ordinary daily tasks.
