Shape Up at Shaker

Words in Use (Lesson 5)

• tradition
• rural
• burden
• campus
• majority
• assemble
• explore
• topic
• debate
• evade
• probe
• reform

Read the following passage to see how the new words are used in it.
   
Shape Up at Shaker
Each summer at the Shaker Work Group, a special school in rural Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where teenagers learn by working, it has been a tradition to have the teenagers take on the burden of setting their own rules and living by them. Although there are some adults on the campus, teenagers are a majority. One summer the group assembled to explore the topic of lights-out time. There was little debate until 10:30 P.M. was suggested. Why? Everyone at the Shaker Work Group works a minimum* of several hours each morning on one project and several hours each afternoon on another. Since everyone has to get up early, no one wanted to stay up later at night anyway. Few teenagers at the Shaker Work Group try to evade the rules. When one does, the entire group meets to probe the reasons for the "villain's"* actions. Their aim is to reform the rule breaker. However, at Shaker Village, the theory* is that teenagers who are busy working will have no time to break rules.