5. Listening

5.1 Modern Families

Listen to James describing his family situation and answer the questions.

1. What are Rachel? Louise? Richard?

2. What is James opinion of Richard?

3. Who is the eldest child in the house?

4. Why doesn’t James like Louise’s behaviour?

5. What does their mum say when James and Rachel complain about Louise?

6. What happens when they have an argument with Louse?

Discuss what you think James should do about his family situation.

5.2 Working mothers

a) How do you think that working mothers who leave their children with other people feel about the situation? Discuss it with your group-mates.

b) Alison and Berth both leave their children at Daisies Day Care Center. Listen to what they say and answer the questions.

1. How many children does each woman have?

2. How long do their children spend at Daisies each week?

3. How does the woman feel about their children being there?

6. SPEAKING

1. Give talk on your family. Remember to say who is in your family, what they do, what things you like to do together, who you are close to in your family, and why.

2. Imagine you are talking to a person from England. Ask him about his family.

3. Speak about the history of your family. How did your family find itself in Siberia/in the Altai Region?

4. Every family has some customs and traditions. Speak about the traditions and rules in your family and the household chores you all have.

5. Compare traditional families and modern ones. Do they differ much? Have a panel discussion with your group mates.

6. Imagine you have many brothers and sisters. And your friend is an only child in the family. Talk about the advantages and disadvantages of living in these types of families.

7. Discuss the problems modern families have. Express your opinion about the importance of family planning.

8. Speak about the family of your dream.

9. Draw your family-tree and tell the other students in your group about your ancestors.

10. Discuss family climate. Remember to say about generation gap, sibling conflict, love for each other and tolerance.

7. READING

7.1 Look through the text. Say what information is given in its first, second, third passage.

7.2 Read and translate the text.

Household chores

There are stereotypical responsibilities of the husband, the wife, and the children in a family. They say that the wife’s responsibilities are, basically, to do everything, as far as I can see … to make the beds in the morning, cook the breakfast, and then, when the children go to school and the husband goes to work, to start washing the clothes, then tidy up the kitchen, do the washing up, clean the kitchen, go shopping and buy the food for the week, and then put out the washing. If she has a garden, she can hang the washing out on a washing-line – and then tidy up the living room, do the “hovering” (the vacuum cleaning), and tidy the children’s bedrooms, although I think it should be the children’s responsibility, really, to keep their own bedrooms tidy.

The typical role of a husband, I suppose, is that during the week he goes out to work and earns money for the family. Maybe, at the weekend, he cleans the car and does more technical things around the house, like changing fuses and putting up shelves. Lots of people in England are really into DIY, that’s do-it-yourself, and they try to make furniture, put in their own bathroom appliances, put tiles on the bathroom walls themselves, put up shelves and things like that, and these things are usually seen as the husband’s responsibility. It’s also seen as his job to put up the wallpaper, paint the walls, and maybe also to work in the garden, mowing the lawn, cutting the hedges, trimming the rosebushes, etc.

I think it’s becoming much more balanced these days, as quite often the wife goes out to work too, and, of course, when she comes home from work she doesn’t want to have to start doing the vacuuming immediately. Some men are more willing to iron their own shirts and sew on buttons than others, but I think, nowadays, they’re quite often willing to help out with the household chores, such as cooking or washing up the dirty plates after the meal.

Concerning the children’s responsibilities, I think they should definitely keep their own rooms tidy, and make their own beds. If I had children, I would give them some pocket money, but on condition that they did some chores around the house every week. In this way, they might learn that the house doesn’t clean itself. You have to get the vacuum cleaner out and do some work if you want the place to stay tidy.

Wife, mother and career woman … well, I suppose if you’re a housewife and that’s what you’re decided you want to be, then that’s fine, but you have to take all the duties that go with that. So you have to be prepared to look after children and really play some part in their upbringing, and help them learn to read and write, and teach them how to tell the time and do up their shoelaces, take them to school, things like that. You also have to be prepared to do all the boring menial household duties. However, I think that if a woman wants to go out to work, she should be able to. Some people think it’s really bad if the wife leaves the children, puts them in a nursery school and goes out to work, as if she was neglecting them, but if she stayed at home with the children and was miserable, it wouldn’t solve anything, because maybe then she would just resent the children. So, a woman should follow her own heart, I think, and if she wants to work, then that’s fine.

Vocabulary

household chores - домашние обязанности

responsibility – ответственность

to tidy up the kitchen – прибираться на кухне

to do the “hovering” – пылесосить

to do the washing up – стирать

to earn money – зарабатывать деньги

to change fuses – менять пробки

to put tiles on something – выкладывать кафель на что-либо

to put up the wallpaper – наклеивать обои

to mow the lawn - стричь газон

to sew on buttons – пришивать пуговицы

to look after somebody – ухаживать за кем-либо

to do up shoelaces – завязывать шнурки

to neglect somebody or something – пренебрегать кем-либо, чем-либо

to resent somebody – недолюбливать кого-либо

to put in bathroom appliances – устанавливать сантехнику

pocket money - деньги на карманные расходы

to be miserable – быть несчастным

on condition that – при условии что