American Family Trends

FAMILY

I. Topical vocabulary

Life Story

to be born	родиться
to grow up	расти, взрослеть
to have a happy childhood	иметь счастливое детство
to go to school (to be at school)	учиться в школе
to be a teenager (to be in one’s teens)	быть в возрасте от 13 до 19
to leave school	заканчивать школу
to enter the university	поступить в университет
to graduate from the university	окончить университет
to join the army	пойти в армию
to start work	начать работать
to fall in love with sb	влюбиться в кого-л.
to get engaged to sb	обручиться с кем-л.
to marry sb	жениться на ком-л.,
to get married	выйти замуж за кого-л.. пожениться
to be married to sb	быть женатым на ком-л., замужем за кем-л.
to start a family	начать семейную жизнь
to expect a baby (to be in a family way)	ждать ребенка
to give a birth to a girl / boy (to have a baby)	родить мальчика /девочку/ ребенка
to adopt a child	усыновить, удочерить ребенка
to bring up children	воспитывать детей
to divorce sb (to get divorced with sb)	разводиться с кем-л.
to grow old	стареть
to make a will	составить завещание
to inherit sth	наследовать, унаследовать что-л.
to die	умирать
to be buried	быть похороненным

II. Texts

Text A

Read the text and find English equivalents for the following Russian words and word combinations: 1) имя; 2) фамилия; 3) мама; 4) папа; 5) сестра, 6) брат; 7) родители; 8) племянник; 9) племянница; 10) теща; 11) тесть; 12) зять; 13) тетя; 14) дядя; 15) двоюродные братья и сестры; 16) бабушка и дедушка; 17) состоять в браке.

My Family

I am Steve Jones. Steve is my first name and Jones is my surname. I am seventeen years old. My family is large. We are four in our family: a father, a mother, a sister, a brother and me.

My parents are fine people. My mother’s name is Emma. She is forty-two. She’s tall and slim. My father’s name is Ben. He’s forty-five. He’s often very busy. My sister’s name is Dolly. She is twenty-three. She is married. Her husband’s name is Ted. Dolly and Ted’s son Den is my nephew. Their daughter Ann is my niece. My father is Ted’s father-in-law. My mother is Ted’s mother-in-law. Ted is my parents’ son-in-law. And I am Ted’s brother-in-law. We are close friends. My little brother’s name is John. Johnny is only six. He’s very noisy. His life is easy. My father’s sister Bess is my aunt. My mother’s brother Nick is my uncle.

My aunt and uncle’s children are my cousins. My cousins’ names are Mike and Jane. My grandparents, my parents’ parents are not very old. My two grandfathers are about seventy. My two grandmothers are sixty-five. I am a student. My hobby is music. We are all very happy together.

Say whether these statements are true or false.

1. Steve Jones is fifteen years old.

2. His family is large.

3. They are six in the family.

4. His mother’s name is Sadie and she is fifty-one.

5. His father’s name is Ben.

6. Steve’s sister Dolly is twenty-three.

7. Her husband’s name is Paul.

8. Dolly’s daughter is Steve’s cousin.

9. Steve’s father is Ted’s father-in-law.

10. Ted is Steve’s parents brother-in-law.

Text B

Family Life

Marriage is a thing which only a rare person in his or her life avoids. True bachelors and spinsters make up only a small percent of the population; most single people are ‘alone but not lonely’.

Millions of others get married because of the fun of family life. And it is fun, if one takes it with a sense of humour.

There’s a lot of fun in falling in love with someone and chasing the prospective fiancée, which means dating and going out with the candidate. All the relatives (parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, stepmothers and stepfathers and all in-laws) meanwhile have the fun of criticizing your choice and giving advice. The trick here is not to listen to them but propose to your bride-to-be and somehow get her to accept your proposal. Then you may arrange the engagement and fix the day of the wedding.

What fun it is to get all those things, whose names start with the word ‘wedding’ – dress, rings, cars, flowers, cakes, etc.! It’s great fun to pay for them.

It’s fun for the bride and the groom to escape from the guests and go on a honeymoon trip, especially if it is a wedding present from the parents. The guests remain with the fun of gossiping whether you married for love or for money.

It’s fun to return back home with the idea that the person you are married to is somewhat different from the one you knew. But there is no time to think about it because you are newly-weds and you expect a baby.

There is no better fun for the husband than taking his wife to a maternity home alone and bringing her back with the twins or triplets.

And this is where the greatest fun starts: washing the newly-born ’s nappies and passing away sleepless nights, earning money to keep the family, taking children to kindergarten and later to school. By all means, it’s fun to attend parents’ meetings and to learn that your children take after you and don’t do well at school.

The bigger your children grow, the more they resemble you outwardly and the less they display likeness with you inwardly. And you start grumbling at them and discussing with your old friends the problem of the ‘ generation gap ’.

And when at last you and your grey-haired spouse start thinking that your family life has calmed down, you haven’t divorced but preserved the union, the climax of your fun bursts out!

One of your dearest off-spring brings a long-legged blonde to your house and says that he wants to marry. And you think ‘Why do people ever get married?’

Match the following words with their definitions.

Bride	The relationship between two people who are husband and wife
Groom / bridegroom	A ceremony in which two people get married
Offspring	To be similar to someone or something especially in appearance
Marriage	A formal agreement to get married
Wedding	The man who is getting married
Honeymoon	The difference in opinions or behavior between older and younger people which often causes problems between them.
Engagement	No longer married because the marriage has been legally ended
To resemble	The woman who is getting married
To be divorced	Someone’s child or children
Generation gap	A holiday for two people who have just got married

Text C

American Family Trends

The United States of America is a very multinational and multi-cultural country. This nation formed by immigrants has a little of almost every culture of the world mixed together. That’s why it’s hard to talk about something typical for Americans – what is common for one family can be unusual for another. Of course, there are stereotypes. An American family with two parents and two children living in a single house and having a pet and two cars is one of them. As all stereotypes, that’s not true in most cases.

The traditional American family consisting of a husband, wife and children is becoming less and less frequent. More people who are not legally married are living together. More and more children are being raised in single-parent families, by both poor women and by women who are professionally employed. Others postpone marriage and childbirth and as a consequence bear fewer children than women who marry earlier. Among the educated more and more couples are deciding to have fewer and fewer children. An exception to this trend occurs among blacks, Hispanics and among the very poor. In 1990 the size of the average American family was 3.2 individuals.

Young people rarely live with their parents. Usually, upon graduation from high school children move out of the family home. To reduce expenses young people frequently rent apartments or a house. Usually two to five young people rent an apartment or a house together and share other expenses.

While young people are getting married later in life, the divorce rate is increasing. Roughly 50% of all marriages in the US now end in divorce.

Now let’s have a look at an American family – the Palermos, living in Dallas.

Kent (an accountant) and Connie (works part-time as a pre-school teacher) have two children – Valerie (15) and Lindsey (11). They live in Bedford a suburban town in a house, as most Americans.

The Palermo family is a very busy family, mostly with sports activities. After school (it starts at around 8 am and finishes at about 3 pm) the girls are busy with soccer and basketball practices, their hobbies and everyday homework. They study five days a week from Monday to Friday, and have the same schedule every day. Kent and Connie also like sports and are very active people. Connie was a soccer player in elementary school, also took ballet lessons and was in a girl-scout club. Kent played football, basketball, baseball, ran track, was a boy-scout. Now he enjoys playing golf and likes hiking. As their hobbies, Lindsey and Valerie take piano lessons, and Valerie also plays clarinet in a school band.

In their free time, Palermo family enjoys visiting their friends, going to movies, exhibition centres, different events such as rodeos and fairs, or just having rest near the TV. The girls also like video games, playing table-tennis, bike-riding, playing with their dog and going shopping to the malls – their most favourite thing. They also love visiting their friends.

Another Palermo family’s favourite activity is travelling. They also like being outdoors exploring Texas by hiking and camping near one of hundreds of man-made lakes.

Holidays – Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving – the Palermos usually spend gathering with friends and relatives like one large family.

The last name Palermo has Italian routes. As most Americans, the Palermos have a lot of different nationalities in their family tree. Connie is German, English, Dutch, French, American Indian, Irish… Kent is Italian, Czech and has native American ancestors.

Spending Sunday morning in church is very common for American families. Many churches offer Saturday evening services because of people’s busy schedules. Church for Americans is not only praying, but also a chance to meet with friends.

Answer the following questions.

1. What is a stereotype of an American family?

2. Why is the traditional American family becoming less frequent nowadays?

3. What is young people’s attitude to family life?

4. The divorce rate is increasing, isn’t it? What are the reasons?

5. Does the Palermo family conform to the typical stereotype of the family? Why/why not?

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16