TEXT 2. The Importance of the Family

1. The family is important for every person, young and old. It is only a warm dry place to live and enough food to eat. The family gives уou a sense of stability, understanding and support, makes you feel secure comfortable. Here you feel loved for being special and unique to the people you feel close to.

2. The roots of the family date back to prehistoric times. The family changed a lot ever since but preserved its essence. Families can be made many different types of relationships that result from such factors as divorce, remarriage, job mobility, and changing social attitudes.

3. In its traditional understanding family is a group of people who are closely related. Psychologists usually refer to a family consisting of mother, father and their children, who are either twins or siblings, as a nuclear family. Some of them are one-parent or single-parent families. A family which includes aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, grandparents other distant relatives is called extended family. Relatives keep in touch but they see less of each other than they used to.

4. These days the word "households" has appeared to describe a group of people living together. In most cases household consists of parents and children, too. But there may be other relationships, such as single mother or father, divorced or remarried parents, young couples with no children, adult children who live on their own, etc.

5. Mothers play a special role in the family. They bring up children and create a friendly home atmosphere. Children are more often attached to their mothers and feel a great deal of confidence to them. Mothers encourage children to greater efforts, point out mistakes for the progress to be made. They are caring, loving, generous, overprotective and ambitious about the adorable children. Sometimes it's a very delicate task demanding tact and patience because teenagers are very radical in their opinions.

6. Fathers are usually the main breadwinners in the family and stay less time at home. Still there exists the strongest human relation between father and child. While we turn to our mothers for love and support, we often need our fathers for approval. Many famous men and women have talked about the importance of their fathers to them. They always try to follow their fathers' advice and this helps them to be the best at whatever they do.

7. Many people have happy memories of their grandparents. Their grandparents, especially grandmothers, loved them, gave them special treats, toys and sweet. Sometimes, grandparents even helped them when they had problems with their parents. It seems that for many people, their grandparents were a very happy part of their childhood. Today, many children do not live with their grandparents. However, grandparents still have an important role in their grandchildren's lives. They still love and care for their grandchildren, and make their lives happier, too.

8. I'd like to say that there are times in our lives when everything seem to be going badly. You feel depressed and suffer from despair and can't cope with problems. In this case a fatherly manly hug or a mother's loving embrace can really restore you from ashes. In this case you understand that even if the whole world turns its cold shoulder on you, there'll still be a family to turn to for love, compassion and understanding. And as every great masterpiece the family will remain in your soul forever.

1. Choose the headings:

a) A special role of mothers

b) "Households"

c) A very happy part of our childhood.

d) To be important to everybody.

e) Problems of mixed families.

f) A means for restoring you from ashes.

g) Psychological types of families.

h) Factors of family making up.

i) The main breadwinners.

2. Ask the following questions to your partner to find out about his/her family. Then, tell the class about your partner's family.

1. What is a "family" in your understanding?

2. Is the family an important social institute? Why?

3. Who has the greatest influence on you in your family?

4. Can you talk freely and openly on different things with your family people?

5. Have you got any secrets from your mother/father?

6. What may create a cordial/hostile family atmosphere in a family do you think?

7. Do you agree that discipline must be used in the family when necessary?

8. Who disciplined and took care of you when you were a child?

9. What is your idea of a united family?

10. What family traditions are there in your family?

11. What has changed in the family organization of late?

12. What is an "ideal family" in your opinion? What role would each member play in such a family?

13. Would you bring up your children differently than you were brought

up? How?

14. Is it important for your family to eat meals together? What does уour family talk about during meals or when they are together?

15. What memories do you have of your grandparents from your childhood?

16. Do you always find support among your relatives?

III. CULTURE CONNECTIONS

Read the text and do the tasks after it.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16