Assignments

(a) Quickly look through the list and mark the lettered phrase nearest in meaning to the word or phrase tested.

1. Be puzzled about: (i) be interested in; (ii) be surprised at; (iii) not be clear on.

2. Regard: (i) look at; (ii) respect; (iii) guess.

3. Constantly: (i) some of the time; (ii) from time to time; (iii) all the time.

4. Whereas: (i) for the reason that; (ii) nevertheless; (iii) yet.

5. Beneficial: (i) healthy; (ii) unhealthy; (iii) satisfactory.

6. Share: (i) talk with another; (ii) work out together with another; (iii) use together with another.

(b) Explain difference between:

1. "Love" and "affection". 2. "Ethnic" and "national".

(c) Select the statement which best expresses the main idea of the text. Give your reasons.

1. Love means different things to different people. 2. Love changes constantly, because we change from day to day. 3. There are different kinds of love. 4. As long as man has existed, family love has been the cornerstone of civilized society. 5. Love brings people together, because they care.

(d) Sum up what the text has to say on each of the following points.

1. The definition of love. 2. The different kinds of love. 3. Family love and its importance to society. 4. True love. 5. Love in the life of an individual.

(e) Say if the author also believes that love is an "abstract" thing.

(f) It is true that warmth and support are basic needs. But is it the family alone that can offer warmth and support to a person?

(g) Give your understanding of "being your natural self".

(h) Read the text critically, and offer your criticism of the author's statements, arguments, and conclusions.

(i) Write a précis of the text.

Ex 42 Read the text carefully, without a dictionary. While reading, pay special attention to the words you don't know: look carefully at the context and see if you can get an idea of what they mean. During the second reading pick out the key sentences. Write a summary of the article.

WHO IS HEAD OF THE FAMILY?

Before the Great October Socialist Revolution the man was the breadwinner, the head of the family. The revolutionary upheavals, however, led to marriage becoming a union of two free and independent people. Women acquired legal, economic and thus psychological independence.

In most cases in the Soviet Union today both husband and wife are breadwinners. What happens about the head of the family?

On the sociologists' questionnaires more and more people now describe their families as being without a head, especially when the form-filler is young and has a higher education.

The old traditions are crumbling, but still current. The present concept of "head of family" is not the old one. Our sociologists define the role as "the exercise of distributive and regulatory functions essential to family life".

With the real strength the woman has now acquired in the family it is not she who is dependent — the others are dependent on her.

The once weaker sex manages so much and decides so much that the force of real infra-family power is willy-nilly concentrated in her hands. At the same time she is the head of the family, yet not quite its head, for in the family she is simultaneously everything rolled into one.

But does a woman need to become the family head? The family reproduces the social structure of society, and in the democratic society it is hardly essential to prescribe which of the partners must be the head. In fact, why have a head?

It is far more reasonable to suppose that in each case the leading position should go to whichever partner is able to fulfil the role better and more efficiently.

Whatever happens, things will never again be as they used to be in the family, however much some may sigh for this. The family is a living organism, reacting sensitively to socio-economic changes.