Text 2. Agatha christie (1890 – 1976)

Agatha Christie was born on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, Devon, England. Her father died when she was a child. Christie was educated at home, where her mother encouraged her to write from a very early age. At 16 she was sent to school in Paris where she studied singing and piano.

In 1914 Christie married Archibald Christie, an officer in the Flying Royal Corps. During World War I Agatha worked in a Red Cross Hospital as a hospital dispenser, which gave her knowledge of poisons. It turned out to be useful when she started writing mysteries. Christie’s first detective novel introduced Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective, who appeared in more than 40 books. Poirot is an amiably eccentric character who draws conclusions from observing people’s conduct and from objects around him, creating a chain of facts that finally reveal the murderer.

Miss Marple, an elderly spinster, is a typical English character. She relies on her feminine intuition and empathy to solve crimes. Miss Marple was featured in 17 novels.

In 56 years Christie wrote 66 detective novels, her autobiography and several plays. Christie’s characters are usually well-to-do people. Often the comfortable lifestyles of her characters are undermined by financial problems, which lead to murder. In many stories the reader is fooled into suspecting an innocent character, but Christie was most innovative when she revealed the guilty party: it has been the narrator, a group of people or a serial killer who tries to hide an obvious motive for his killing one of the victims.

Unit 2 text 3. Generation gap

The generation gap is a gap between the views of the younger generation of teenagers and the views of their parents.

Many parents in the United States want their children to be creative and question what is around them. In a democratic society, American children are taught not to obey blindly what is told to them. When children become teenagers, they question the values of their parents. This is a part of growing up that helps teenagers stabilize their own values.

When American parents and teenagers do argue, usually it is about simple things: the teenager’s attitude towards another family member or the quality of the teenager's schoolwork. Another common reason for arguments is that parents want their children to help more around the house.

Of course, some children and teenagers become troublemakers or juvenile delinquents. Many American parents are learning how to handle these serious problems by returning to patterns of discipline once considered to be old-fashioned. For example, some parents today have joined a group called Toughlove. This is a group started by parents who say that to love a child means to discipline that child.

However other parents strongly disagree with the Toughlove approach. They believe that individual freedom with a stress on ethical values and caring for others is more effective than discipline in producing responsible adults.

Text 4. Family courts

In some countries there are special courts for family matters that have a functional relation to the legal problems affecting families. Such problems include marriage, divorce, maintenance of spouses or of children, adoption, custody of children, juvenile delinquency, care and protection of children, assault on a spouse or a child, marriage contracts, etc.

Those who favour special courts for family matters argue that family law is concerned with human relationships that require a judicial environment different from that of ordinary civil actions. Another argument favouring family courts is that a high proportion of family proceedings are undefended; for example, proceedings concerning adoption and children in need of care normally require not so much the application of law as an inquiry into what are the best interests of the child. In family matters, moreover, the court has need of social workers, probation officers, liaison with various social agencies. Since children and young people are often involved, there is need of special legal officers to present inquiry material to the court or to represent the interests of the children (which may conflict with the positions taken by their parents).

A number of countries have established special courts for cases relating to children and young people. Less progress has been made in the area of comprehensive family courts. One reason may be that family law can be less rewarding and more time-consuming as compared with more prestigious fields of law.