1.6. Alternative lifestyles

Task 1. In this section, you are going to examine many different ways of life that can be found in the United States. Discuss the following questions with your groupmates:

1. How acceptable are these ways of life in your country?

• a man and a woman living together without getting married

• a man or a woman living alone and never getting married

• a group of people living together who are not related, but who share interests and beliefs

• people marrying two or three times during their lifetime

2. How common do you think these living arrangements are in the United States?

Task 2. Give yourself one minute to skim the text "Alternative Lifestyles." Without looking back, write down the headings you saw and some key words you remember. What do they tell you about alternative lifestyles in the USA? Discuss your predictions with the group.

Task 3. Read the text "Alternative Lifestyles" and translate it in the written form.

Alternative lifestyles

J oe and Anna are both in their mid-twenties. They met and fell in love two years ago and soon after decided to live together. They have thought about getting married but have no plans to do this just yet. They think they would like to have children one day, but want to be sure they get along well as a couple before taking this big step.

Living together

Many couples in the United States today, like Joe and Anna, choose to live together without marrying. In the past, very few couples lived together without a formal wedding ceremony or marriage license. Today, cohabitation¹ occurs in all sectors of U.S. society - college students, young working adults, middle-aged couples, and even people in their six­ties and seventies. In 1970, the number of unmarried couples living together was only slightly over half a million. By 1998, it had soared to over 4 million. A similar trend has occurred in many countries.

These days there is very little social disapproval of living together, and courts increasingly protect couples' rights as if they were legally married. Nev­ertheless, it is still quite rare for couples to live together permanently without marrying. For most couples, living together is a temporary arrangement that leads to marriage after two or three years.

Living together is just one example of the many alternative lifestyles found in the United States and other parts of the world today. Others include staying single, and living with a large group of other adults and their families.

Staying single

Over the last twenty years, there has been a huge increase in the number of people who remain single. In 1998, about 25 percent of all U.S. households were single-person households. In other countries, similar statistics can be seen. In Australia, for example, approximately one in twelve people lives alone, and this number is expected to double over the next twenty years. Most people who live alone are young adults who postpone marriage into their late twenties, but some are in their thirties and forties. One reason they often give for staying single is that they have not met the right person. Others say that marriage involves much commitment and responsibility, or that they prefer the single lifestyle.

T here are two important sociological reasons for the increase in singlehood. First, the social pressure to get married has declined. Second, the opportunity for singles to have a good life has expanded. This is especially true for women. As educational and employment opportunities for women increase, marriage is no longer the only path to economic security, emotional support, social respectability, and meaningful work.

Communal living

Members of a commune

cook together.

Sometimes a group of people who are not related, but who share sim­ilar ideals and interests, decide to live together as one unit or commu­nity. In these types of communities, sometimes called communes¹, the members share their possessions and their skills in order to be inde­pendent of mainstream society. Many, for example, grow all their own food and educate their children in their own small schools. It is diffi­cult to estimate how many communes exist in the United States or other countries around the world, but the Fellowship for Intentional Communities estimates there are thousands. More than 600 of these are registered members of their organization. While these vary in type and size, all are based on a principle of cooperation among members.

The concept of communal living is now being applied to some city housing projects. In cohousing², buildings are designed so that resi­dents can really live as part of a community while keeping their own personal space. In one project in Sacramento, California, residents have their own private areas but share a garden, a dining room, a children's playroom, a laundry, and lounge. They take turns cooking three com­mon meals a week, and in many ways behave like one big family - sharing their possessions and helping each other out when needed.

Monogamy, polygamy, and serial monogamy

Elizabeth Taylor is seen here

with her 7^th husband.

There are two major types of marriages: monogamy and polygamy. In monogamy, one wife and one husband have an exclusive sexual relationship. In polygamy, a person has more than one spouse, (usually the husband has more than one wife). Monogamy is the only legal type of marriage in the United States and most other nations. Polygamy is still legal in some parts of the world, especially Africa and the Middle East, although it is declining in both regions.

Some people have only one husband or wife at a time, but marry, divorce, and remarry a number of times. This is sometimes called serial monogamy. The famous actress, Elizabeth Taylor, who has had seven husbands, is an example of a serial monogamist.

Task 4. Re-read the introduction to the text (par. 1) and then check the statement that best describes how the introduction relates to the text.

1. It gives an example of something explained in the text.

2. It links the reader's own experiences to the text.

3. It asks questions that will be answered by the text.

4. It tells you how the text will be organized.

Task 5. One way to figure out the meaning of an unknown word is to look for its relationship with other words in the same word family. Even if you cannot figure out the exact meaning, your understanding can be enough to allow you to read on. For example, in paragraph 2 of the text, you can get an idea of the meaning of the word sector by recog­nizing that it is related to the word section.

Look at the phrases from the text below. Write down at least one other word you know that is related to the underlined word and try to figure out the meanings of the underlined words. Use your dictionary to check your answers.

in order to be independent	depend
formal wedding ceremony
there are two important sociological reasons
share similar ideals
of mainstream society
sometimes called serial monogamy

Task 6. One of the best ways to achieve a better understanding of a text is to make up some questions and discuss them. Questions of the following three types are most common:

• Type 1: questions about the data (that is, the information and ideas in the text) - who, what, when, where, and how questions.

• Type 2: questions that ask you to look more closely at the data – to find relationships between different parts of the data, to compare and contrast, to analyze, and so on.

• Type 3: questions that ask you to think critically about what you have read – to evaluate or assess the data, and to justify your answer.

A. Here are examples of the three types of questions about the "Living together" subsection of the text. Answer them:

1. What is the meaning of cohabitation?

2. Why are more people living together these days without marrying?

3. Do you think that marriage will soon be a thing of the past? Why or why not?

B. With your partner, write 3 questions of the three types about the rest of the text.

C. Join another pair of students and discuss your and their questions of Types 1 and 2. Then discuss questions of Type 3 with the whole group.

Task 7. Complete the gaps with words from the text:

1. Only about one in three couples who _____________ end up getting married.

2. We’ve always got _____________ well with my sister.

3. The current _____________ in the area of computing is towards part-time employment.

4. The accident has left George _____________ disabled. He’ll never be able to walk.

5. There’s been a huge increase _____________ phone charges.

6. Because of damage to their homes, many people had to stay in _____________ accommodation for few months.

7. _____________ medicine can cure many problems, but not diseases like cancer.

8. Thanks to your energy and _____________, the fundraising was a great success.

9. The _____________ political parties are losing support to smaller, more radical organizations.

10. In many developed countries, there’s a lack of effective _____________ between industry and higher education.

Task 8. Paraphrase the underlined vocabulary units in the text in the written form. Make up 5 fresh-context sentences with the word combinations you like most.

Task 9. Translate into English:

В эпоху Возрождения было дикостью жить вместе, не вступая в брак. Но что же было делать тем парам, которые были уверены, что всегда будут вместе, но откладывали брак по тем или иным причинам? Некоторые пары, как, например, Ромео и Джульетта, не могли обвенчаться из-за вражды семей, но решились на отважный шаг и приняли решение о венчании без согласия родителей.

В наши дни взгляды общества на вступление в брак стали более либеральными. Общественно приемлемым явлением стало сожительство как временная мера перед вступлением в брак. Все понимают, что брак накладывает на человека большие обязательства и ответственность, поэтому до вступления в брак стараются понять, этот ли человек им нужен. Более того, некоторые считают брак и вовсе необязательным и выбирают один из альтернативных способов совместного проживания, например, отдельное проживание или проживание в коммунах. В последние годы наблюдается значительный рост числа таких людей. Всегда найдутся те, кто захочет отличаться от остальных.

Task 10. Write a summary of the text “Alternative Lifestyles”.

 SPEAKING

Task 11. What is a lifestyle of the future? Will marriages still exist? Or will people prefer to stay single? Or will they live in communes? Express your point of view and give reasons for it.