Listening Basics part 2 (2) / New Listening Basics part 2

d.With telecommuting, people work __________________________

________________________________________________________

e.The best companies offer _________________________________

____________________________________________________________

VI. Only some large companies have these new policies. For most people,

working and taking care of a family is still very difficult.

4.Answer the questions about the lecture

a.What is the traditional American family like?

b.Why are more and more American women working these days? (Give two reasons).

c.What are some new problems for the American family?

d.What are the examples of how businesses respond to the needs of working parents? Which one do you find the most useful?

e.Why don‘t all American companies offer these programs to their employees?

5. Listen to the lecture once again and write out sentences with the active vocabulary (Ex. 2)

6. Retell the lecture

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2. Listening

Listen to the following people talking about their lifestyles. Decide who each speaker is and circle the appropriate answer. Then listen again. This time you will hear the correct answer.

has never been married

is divorced

is married now

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2. Social Customs

A. Words

Make sure you know the following words from the dialog: generation difference = generation gap

to be seen not heard

a vocal part of the family an old maid

a myth

a hard and fast rule

to leave the family nest

B.You are going to hear Mary Davies and her grandson Pete talking about how social customs in the United States have changed over the last fifty years. First, look at the social customs in the chart below. Think about how they have changed in your country.

C.Listen to the dialog and complete the chart:

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Manners and ways of

greeting people

Living with parents

and grandparents

3. Talking to Teens (And Getting a Reply)

A. Teens have a reputation for being difficult—especially difficult to communicate with. Work with a partner. Look over the following vocabulary below, and then the questions about teen communication. Discuss them in any order. Spend as much time discussing what interests you as you like; you don‘t need to answer all the questions.

What things do teens talk to each other about?

What things do parents and their kids have no problems talking about?

What things do parents and teenagers have disagreements about?

What things don’t teens talk to their parents about?

Do parents—even if they don‘t realize it—want to badger, nag, or beat their kids into line? When, for example?

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What are some good places for a serious talk between a teen and his/her parent?

What are some good times for a serious talk?

What are some characteristics of a good listener?

What are some characteristics of a bad listener?

What‘s a good way for a parent to approach a serious conversation with,

say, a 14-year-old?

Do your parents ever have trouble understanding you? Why and when?

Do you think it is – or would be – simple to communicate with a teenage daughter or son? Explain why or why not.

B. Sometimes the most difficult words to pick up in an English conversation are the little ones. Sometimes you don‘t need the little words for comprehension, but other times you do, so this is good practice. First read the text and write in any ideas you have for the missing words.

AA: I‘m Avi Arditti (1) __________ Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: advice (2) __________ talking to teenagers.

RS: (3) __________ friend Ali the English teacher in Iran told (4)

__________ about a book called ―Raising Children with Character.‖

AA: He suggested (5) __________talk to the author, Dr. Elizabeth Berger, (6) __________ child psychiatrist in Pennsylvania. So we took

(7) __________ advice.

RS: ―Now how is (8) __________ different, the interaction between (9)

__________ teenagers and the teenager and his or her parents?

ELIZABETH BERGER: ―I think what makes (10)__________

different (11) __________ not the words, per se, but (12) __________

teenagers are extremely sensitive to feeling that (13) __________ have a

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hostile audience or (14) __________judgmental audience. And parents often are conveying that (15) __________ exasperated, and that has a tendency to shut down communication (16) __________ kids (17)

__________ are really craving the parents‘ good graces as much (18)

__________ they may not seem to be.‖

C. Listen and check your answers. You may need to listen a few

times.

D. Below there are ten words terms from the text. Five definitions are given to you. Define the other five terms yourself by skimming the text and deducing the meaning through context.

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AA: ―Now I know that like, for a parent to begin a sentence with ‗What I‘m hearing is‘ and ‗What I‘m feeling is,‘ things like that -- you see that in the (1) __________ literature sometimes -- I mean that, to me personally, that kind of gives me the creeps [makes me feel uneasy]. But, on the other hand, are those the sorts of ways to (2) __________ a conversation with a teenager?

ELIZABETH BERGER: ―I have to say I share your ‗creeps‘ there, because it‘s a little too politically correct or (3) __________ -- therapese. I think that parents need to be honest with themselves first about recognizing that often they want to control and (4) __________ and nag and (5) __________ at and scold and sort of beat the kid into line. And in order to have a respectful conversation you have to lay that aside.‖

RS: ―So what‘s the best approach?‖

ELIZABETH BERGER: ―I think the best approach is to be a good (6)

__________.‖

RS: ―So how do you start a conversation?‖

AA: ―Yeah, you can‘t listen till they (7) __________ are saying something!

[laughter]‖

ELIZABETH BERGER: ―Well, first maybe you have to have a physical

(8) __________ in which there are expectations on both sides that they are going to be communicating with one another. Car (9) __________ are good places for this in our automobile-dominated society, oftentimes the one place that people really have a chance for an (10) __________ exchange.‖

RS: ―Also, for me what works is right before bed, I don‘t know why -- or right after exercise or sports. There seems to be a little bit of ...‖

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ELIZABETH BERGER: ―I think the bed thing is very telling because little children, especially, become very inspired and (11) __________ at bedtime. It‘s often transparent that they don‘t want the (12) __________ to go. They‘re lonely. You‘re all alone in that bed.‖

AA: ―What about for older kids, for teenagers?‖

ELIZABETH BERGER: ―Well, even there, it‘s an opportunity to say, ‗Well, what‘s going on with you, catch me up, what is going through your mind lately?‘ You know, to put it in a (13) __________ way, in a curious way, in an appreciative spirit works better, of course, with anyone.‖

AA: ―Now how should you not approach a conversation with, let‘s say, a

14-year-old?‖

ELIZABETH BERGER: ―Well, I think American parents are unfortunately highly brainwashed by the idiom of the (14) __________

department, the head nurse, the math teacher. These are great approaches for keeping a (15) __________ group together. Right? The sort of military, you know, ‗we got a task, we‘re going to do the task and you got to fly right because we‘re organized around a task.‘ You can‘t teach math class without that premise, or have everybody sing on key in a (16) __________

club or whatever the group activity is. But intimate relationships are not like that.

―Parents sometimes feel (17) __________ of their teenager, so they hang on to what they learned when they got their M.B.A. They hang on to a whole administrative set of rules and consequences. But a child is not a

(18) __________. It just does not work that way.‖

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