Family Life

Dialogue A

A: Good afternoon, is your wife in?

B: Not yet but she will be here in fifteen minutes. Come in and wait for her.

A: Thanks. Nice house.

B: Thank you. Oh, won’t you sit down?

A: Thanks…Fine day, isn’t it?

B: Oh, yes, very warm and sunny.

A: Oh, is it your family album?

B: Yes. We always keep it here. Would you like to have a look?

A: I’ll be delighted. Who are these people?

B: Our parents. This man and woman are Jane’s parents, my mother-in-law and my father- in law. And here are my parents.

A: I see. Your mother is very young and beautiful in this picture. If I’m not mistaken you are the picture of her.

B: Right you are. And father? He is still a very handsome man, isn’t he?

A: How old is he now?

B: Sixty seven, but he is still very handsome. And this is our son Martin. He is nineteen. He is a University student. He is going to be married in a year.

A: Good luck! What a lovely face? Who’s this?

B: This is Jane’s cousin, my sister-in-law. Her mother, Jane’s aunt, is a famous actress, and her uncle is an artist, and a very good one. His son is also an artist.

A: Very interesting. And who are these elderly people?

B: The woman is my grandmother. She is very nice, kind and loving grandmother but sometimes she is very talkative. The man is my grandfather. He died five years ago.

A: I’m sorry. And your grandmother, where is she now?

B: With us, in London.

A: This very old photograph. Who’s this funny little baby? A boy, isn’t it?

B: Yes, and a very big boy now.

A: Oh! It’s not you, is it?

B: It is. Oh, Jane is already here!

Tasks

1. Read the dialogue for detailed understanding and ask questions on the content.

2. Retell the dialogue, as if you were one of the participants.

3. Act out your own dialog dialogue “My family album” on the analogy.

Dialogue B

Jack: Hi! You’re Tomas Brown, aren’t you?

Tom: Bingo! And you?

Jack: I’m Jack, your new roommate.

Tom: Nice to meet you, Jack.

Jack: Nice to meet you, Tomas.

Tom: Call me Tom.

Jack: O.k. Where are you from, Tom?

Tom: London. And you?

Jack: Liverpool. No offense but you look so young! How old are you?

Tom: Twenty two. I was born on October 21, 1994.

Jack: You don’t say so! This is my birthday too but I’m a year younger!

Tom: Today is October 10^th. How about celebrating our birthdays together?

Jack: Sounds good. I planned to invite my close relatives.

Tom: Is your family large?

Jack: Neither big nor small. We are six altogether.

Tom: Any brothers, sisters?

Jack: Two brothers – John and Mikael – and a sister Liz.

Tom: How old are they?

Jack: My elder brother, John is 20. The younger one, Mikael is 14. Liz is nine.

Tom: What do they do?

Jack: John is at the university. He is doing Biology, Chemistry. He is going to become a doctor. Mikael is in high school. Liz goes to grammar school. She is fond of reading detective stories.

Tom: Who are you close to?

Jack: All the three but possibly closest to Liz. She always shares my sense of humour. Unfortunately I won’t invite her.

Tom: Why not?

Jack: She is too young for such parties.

Tom: What do your parents do?

Jack: As for my father he is a civil servant and works in central London. Mom is a teacher and works in Croydon, a town on the outskirts of London.

Tom: Do you all live in Liverpool?

Jack: Yes, the whole family, except for my grandparents. I like my Granny Dotty very much. We are good friends. She loves adventures so much.

Tom: Are you related to Mrs. Rayburn?

Jack: She is my aunt. And who of your relative will come?

Tom: None. I'm a foster child. I was brought up in an orphanage.

Jack: Oh, I’m sorry.

Tom: No problem. We’re going to have a lot of fun.

Tasks

1. Read the dialogue for detailed understanding and ask questions on the content.

2. Retell the dialogue, as if you were one of the participants.

3. Act out your own dialogue “Meeting my roommate” on the analogy.

Dialogue C

David: Oh, my God! You must be Sheila Connors, a movie star!

Sheila: Yes, it’s me.

David: I’m David Gordon from “City Life”. I’m writing an article about you. Can you answer a few personal questions?

Sheila: A few. And not too personal.

David: They say you are the only daughter in the family.

Sheila: Oh, they are mistaken. Our family is rather large. It consists of six members.

David: I’m sorry about your grandparents.

Sheila: My grandparents?

David: They say they died a week ago.

Sheila: No, they are alive! They are retired but still full of life and energy. Granny is busy as a bee, running the house, cooking dinner. She has a heart of gold.

David: They say your mother is a street vendor.

Sheila: A street vendor? Incredible! She is a journalist and she is always on business. She finds her job very interesting.

David: Oh, she is my colleague!

Sheila: She is. But she works for “Daily News”.

David: You don’t see each other often, do you?

Sheila: No. We miss each other badly when she is on business and I act in a film.

David: So, you hate your little stepbrother. He is very naughty.

Sheila: Of course not! He is everybody’s pet. By the way, all kids are naughty, did you know?

David: No doubt. And please, a few words about your little daughter.

Sheila: My who? I have no kids of my own! Who’s spreading all these rumors about me?

David: Your aunt Jane.

Sheila: I have no aunt!

David: You do. Oh, here she is! Hello, Jane.

Sheila: Mom?! What are you doing here?

Mother: Such a nuisance! Sheila, I can explain everything.

Tasks

1. Read the dialogue for detailed understanding and ask questions on the content.

2. Retell the dialogue as if you were one of the participants

3. Act out your own dialogue “Interviewing a famous person” on the analogy.

UNIT 1. FAMILY LIFE

Part 1

Every Family is different

There are different views on family life. Some people can’t do without the support and love of their families. Others say it is the source of most of our problems and anxieties. Whatever the truth is, the family is definitely a powerful symbol. It is also a castle. Moreover it is the most basic and ancient of all institutions, and it remains the fundamental social unit in every society. Thus, the family is a group of people related by blood or law, living together or associating with one another for a common purpose. That purpose is usually to provide shelter and food, and to bring up children. The nature of family keeps changing: there are a number of types of family that exist in a society at any time.

Sociologists divide families into two general types: the nuclear family and the extended family, which may include three or more generations living together. In industrialized countries and increasingly in the large cities of the developing countries the nuclear family is regarded as normal. Most people think of it as consisting of two parents and two children. But a more accurate conception of the family must take account of the many different forms that have existed or still exist both in Britain and in other cultures. Nevertheless the nuclear family has largely replaced the extended one.

What characteristics, then, are common to this family form? To answer the question let’s discuss some attitudes towards personal relationships and family life of one well-to-do English family – Bill and Carol Taylor.

They are probably quite like many of the families you will meet if you come to England. The family lives on a housing estate in a pleasant outer suburb of West London. Bill and Carol Taylor are both in their early fifties. They are kind, thoughtful and intelligent people. They have been happily married for thirty years. To tell the truth there’s no one they call the head of the family because they usually share important decision-making. As for Bill he studied engineering at university, and now he works for a firm, which provides advice and materials for health and safety at work, he is a technical specialist on noise stress. It’s due to Bill, that the company is a flourishing one. When he was younger he dreamed of becoming a professional musician.

Carol did not go to university. She graduated from a teaching training college and taught for four years at a primary school before her eldest child was born. In the traditional family, the wife stayed at home with the children while the husband earned money, although at present 60 percent of all married women work outside the home. So a majority of couples have two wage-earners. One reason for this change is that women want and expect to have careers. Another reason is economics. With rising prices, many families cannot survive on one’s person’s salary. But Carol took her marriage for granted and devoted herself to the family. Carol and Bill like many couples of the middle class planned to have three children. (A number of single children in Russia astonishes many British visitors). So there are five people in their family. From the parents’ point of view, they want to bring up their children to be healthy, happy, hard-working, attractive, kind, sociable, good at lessons, good at sport, with other interests as well, and have successful careers in which they will earn a good living and live happy lives. That’s why the Taylor children live in comfort in an impeccable family with amiable dispositions and you simply can’t imagine how Bill and Carol adore them.

To tell the truth sometimes Carol and Bill have had plenty of worries over the children as they were growing up. As usual, there are a lot of family problems that the parents are glad to discuss with their children and help them in a difficult situation.

Sarah is shortsighted and very shy. It’s only due to Carol she worked hard and got quite good marks for her lessons. Sarah inherited her father’s musical gifts and played the flute. She had quite good marks for geography in the national A-level exam. She applied to read geography at a provincial university with a good reputation in the subject.

As for Peter, he was a cheerful boy, energetic and lazy by turns. Peter was fed up with exams and schoolwork. And he thought he could get a job in the local supermarket. But his parents found it ridiculous: one needs a proper income to bring up a family: for that he needs qualifications. So he attends courses in engineering and technical studies at the local College of Further Education, while he continues to earn money working part-time in the various shops in the area.

Kate is a restless girl of eight. She is everybody’s pet. Sometimes she is very naughty. On the one hand she is a trouble-maker, on the other hand she is a loving daughter and sister.

No wonder the Taylors have been trying to find clues for everybody of them: either children or parents. The parents are easy to deal with. As I have already mentioned there are no problems of misunderstanding with adults in this family. The parents understand that children want to live their own life, to make their own mistakes. No wonder that there are amiable dispositions between all the members of the family. They trust each other and try to do their best to make their home cosy and worth. They are inclined to think that the family is a kind of retreat from the stress and tension of the working day. It’s a place where they can have a rest and feel their protection and care. As a result the Taylors managed to build up a friendly family. When they are sick and tired of their usual routine, their family is a shelter from any troubles and misfortunes.

A few years later children will leave their home, marry and set up households of their own. Although the nuclear family unit is economically independent of the rest of the family, members of the whole family group often maintain close kindred ties. Visiting between married sisters and brothers is frequent when they live close to each other. If they live in different communities they keep in touch by writing letters and by telephone.

In the story of Bill and Carol Taylor and their children grandparents are absent. Where are they? Do they miss seeing their grandchildren very much? Is it true that the British do not care for their elderly people and choose to put them away into old’s homes and forget them? You see, the most important thing is that the retirement age for most jobs in this country is 60 for women and 65 for men, but in practice, many people expect to work until they are 65-70. People are living longer – often 20 years after they’ve retired from their job. Modern culture tends to value youth rather then age. So grannies and grandpas are actually physically active, living in their own homes along way from their children with their own interests and ideas.

Tasks

1. Read the text for detailed understanding. Translate the following paragraphs of the text: 1, 2, 4, 10.

2. Give the summary of the text

3. Retell the text as if you were:

1) Bill Taylor

2) Carol Taylor.

3) Granny or grandpa

4) Sarah, Kate, Peter

5) Russian visitor

6) Bill’s boss.

Part 2

Family structure

Thus, we may say that the family is a relatively permanent group of people related by ancestry, marriage, or adoption, who live together, form an economic unit, and take care of their young.

There are people who say that the family unit in Britain is in crisis and that traditional family life is a thing of the past. This is of great concern to those who think a healthy society is dependent upon a stable family life. They see many indications that the family is in decline, in such things as the acceptance of sex before marriage, the increased number of one-parent families, the current high divorce rate and what they see as a lack of discipline within the family. Some politicians blame social problems, such as drug taking and juvenile crime, on a disintegrating family life.

Nevertheless, the British live longer, marry later, have fewer children and are more likely to get divorced than ever before. Young people leave home earlier, though not necessarily to get married. More women now go out to work and more people, especially the old, live alone. The nuclear family (parents and perhaps two children) has largely replaced the extended family where several generations lived together.

Although patterns are changing, most people in Britain still get married and have children and stay together until the end of their lives. People are marrying later: the average woman gets married at twenty-four to a man who is just over two years older (although it is estimated that 40 per cent of couples live together before getting married).

Significant family events such as weddings, birth and funerals are not automatically accompanied by large gatherings of people. It is still common to appoint people to certain roles on such occasions, such as ‘best man’ at a wedding, or godmother and godfather when a child is born. But for most people these appointments are of sentimental significance only. They do not imply lifelong responsibility. In fact, family gatherings of any kind beyond the household unit are rare. For most people they are confined to the Christmas period.

Mrs. Average now has her first child at the age of twenty-seven, but she will have only one or two children: only one mother in four has more. Nine out of ten married women will have children at some point in their lives. And despite the changes in working habits it is usually the woman who has overall responsibility for domestic life: the traditional division of family responsibilities still persists.

Britain has one of the highest divorce rates in Western Europe: approximately one in three marriages ends in divorce, half of them in the first ten years of marriage. As a result more people are getting remarried and there are now over a million single parents looking after 1.6 million children. There has also been a sharp rise in the rate of illegitimacy: in 1987 23 per cent of babies were born outside marriage. Therefore, the family has changed greatly in the last 20 or 30 years. Many of these changes are similar to changes taking place in other countries. However, these trends do not necessarily mean that the nuclear family is disappearing and experts say that the family is as strong as ever and it is still at the center of most people’s lives.

Exercise 3. Answer the questions to the texts:

Part I

1. What is family for different people?

2. What is the definition of family?

3. What is the purpose of family?

4. What is the difference between a nuclear and an extended family?

5. What is a typical family in industrialized countries?

6. What kind of family are the Taylors and why?

7. Where do the Tailors live?

8. How old are Bill and Carol? How long have they been married? Who is the head of their family? Which fact proves it?

9. What is Bill's educational background?

10. What was Bill's dream when he was a child?

11. What is Bill? What do his responsibilities include?

12. Did Carol go to university? What is her educational background and working experience?

13. Do all British married women stay at home with kids? Why is that?

14. How did Carol take her marriage?

15. How many children does a typical British family have? What are British visitors surprised at in Russia?

16. What do parents want their children to be?

17. How can you characterize the Tailors and their relations?

18. Sarah has no health problems, doesn't she? Is she a talented girl? Has she already chosen her future occupation?

19. What kind of a boy is Peter? Does he enjoy his studies? What do parents think about it?

20. What is Kate's character? What is the family's attitude to her?

21. Was it too hard for Bill and Carol to communicate with their kids? Why?

22. What is family for Tailor's children?

23. Are young families in Britain totally dependent on their parents? How do they communicate with their relatives?

24. Do grannies live with their children and grandchildren? Why? What is the retirement age in the UK? Do all people quit their jobs after it?

Exercise 4. Ask questions to match the following answers. Think of all possible variants:

1. A:…?

B: Yes, I do. I can’t live without love and support of my family.

2. A…?

B: My family is a castle – a shelter from all troubles and misfortunes.

3. A: …?

B. No. I think extended families are much wider spread in our country.

4. A…?

B: Sarah is 12, Pete is 10, and Kate is 7.

5. A…?

B: He is a specialist in noise stress.

6. A: …?

B: She is both. But most men think that beautiful women are stupid.

7. A: …?

B: Yes, they do. And they often don’t think about their children when they part.

8. A:…?

B: Sarah. She learnt to play it when she was six.

9. A:…?

B: On her own. She is very active at her late seventies.

10. A:…?

B: In a week. We’re so happy to become husband and wife.