Ivan sokolov

1. What did a recent survey reveal concerning the number of single parent families in Britain?

2. Why did I. Sokolov found the fund “Parent Link”? What is its purpose?

to change the patterns; to improve; to repeat the patterns; to do what was done to us or the opposite; to need help; support and encouragement practically.

3. What is the biggest issue of the single parent family in I. Sokolov opinion?

to give security in feelings; to talk openly; to communicate; to listen to children; to encourage to express their feelings; to jump down smb’s throat; to zip it up; to keep it to themselves.

4. How does I. Sokolov prove the importance of a child’s communication with both parents, even in a split family?

a balance; both sexes; to need the experience of living with men and women; to need a switch, a balance of energy; “We don’t choose to be single parents.”

5. Can a relative of the nuclear family fill the gap?

single family/nuclear family; (not) to allow non-parents to come in contact with one’s children (pseudo-parents).

CAROL STONE

a TV presenter, programme “Mother of Mine”; to carry out interviews with smb for TV

1. Do children need their parents’ approval or “sanctions” for their actions, achievements, plans? Do they “rebel” in case they don’t get them?

2. What important, universally recognized observation does Carol Stone make about the specific relationship between children and parents, particularly mothers?

to be stripped of all pretence in the presence of one’s parents; to know smb backward; to give unconditional love (“There’s nothing that my mother wouldn’t have forgiven me for. It gives you security.”)

3. Why is it important, in Carol’s opinion, to give children security in their own homes?

to wake up to the harsh world that won’t give it to you.

4. Why doesn’t Carol approve of “overprotective mothers”?

the danger of leading one’s life through the child, of wanting you to be what you don’t want to yourself.

5. What proves that mothers are generally very possessive and even jealous of their sons?

“No woman is good enough for her son.”

ANN RAEBURN (journalist)

to write extensively on the problem

1. Why does Ann think there can't be any universal concept of a good parent?

to strike smb most forcibly; to be totally unfair; “the lock of the drawer”.

2. What does she mean by saying that the interviews in the studio have highlighted for her “the extraordinary accepting nature of children”?

to have no great retrospective (Ulrika); to throw things at smb; to be moved by the differences.

Vocabulary Exercises

Ex. 1. Match the words and word combinations in the left column with the suitable definitions in the right column.

1. surfeit a) to reduce to a lower grade or rank

2. recalcitrant b) formal to give a mild warning or gentle reproof to smb

3. to jump down smb’s throat c) negligence; inattention; lack of strictness or severity

4. day-care center d) to fix attention on smth

5. to baby e) indocile, disobedient, not prone to obey authority; troublesome

6. permissiveness f) to make smth easy or easier

7. to roughhouse g) bold, courageous; strong, able to endure suffering or hardship;

8. lukewarm h) colloq. to act or handle smb violently

9. to zip it up i) neither very warm nor cold; lacking warmth of feeling or enthusiasm

10. laxity j) to treat like a baby; pamper

11. to downgrade k) disrupted by divorce

12. the Victorian attitude l) to talk openly; to talk smth out

13. to zero in on smth m) place where small children may be left while their mothers are at work

14. hardy n) too great an amount or supply; excess of smth

15. to admonish o) attitude revealing the middle-class piety, respectability, bigotry, etc. generally attributed to the period of the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)

16. fad p) to keep smth to oneself; colloq. to keep one’s mouth shut

17. to facilitate q) baby who walks with short, uncertain steps

18. toddler r) colloq. to attack or criticize smb suddenly and violently

19. to open smth up (colloq.) s) fanciful fashion, interest, preference, enthusiasm, unlikely to last

20. broken/split home t) a theory in bringing up children by which a child is encouraged to behave without restriction

Ex. 2. Match the attribute (A) and the verb (B) on the left with nouns or phrases on the right, making use of the focus vocabulary. Use each word only once.

A dividing statistics

split/broken delinquency

gratifying creatures

recalcitrant line

hardy permissiveness

declining authority

excessive child

alarming homes

lax results

juvenile achievement

B to downgrade harsh rules

to reinforce resort to smth

to bridge traumatic experience

to inflict into obedience

to take on the gap

to pressure visibly

to impose skepticism

to benefit wounds

to face responsibilities

to condone enthusiasm

Ex. 3. Read the text and fill in the blanks with suitable words or word combinations in the correct form from the box below.

fad increased mobility non-issue concede

come in contact strive whimper

parental authority adolescents retain one’s loyalty

renounce pressure into peers

quality-time set limits surfeit docile

lukewarm resentful have the upper hand