I Prefer a Big Family

I. PRE-LISTENING TASK

Look up the meanings of these words and phrases in a dictionary to understand the recording better.

advantage

to share

to spoil

sociable

II. Listening and comprehension tasks

1. Listen to the recording and note down the reasons why:

1. The speaker thinks it must be awful to be an only child?

1. ____________________________________________.

2. ____________________________________________.

2. The speaker supposes there are some advantages, too.

1. ____________________________________________.

2. ____________________________________________.

3. The speaker thinks big families are better.

1. ____________________________________________.

2. ____________________________________________.

2. Chose the sentence that doesn’t contradict the sentence from the recording.

1. Some of my friends say he’s good-looking but I don’t know about that.

1. The speaker doesn’t find his brother good-looking.

2. Roland’s brother has never thought of his brother’s appearance.

3. The speaker doesn’t know what good-looking people look like.

2. She had to take her exams again last year – but she passed them second time.

1. Ellie didn’t take her exams only once.

2. Ellie wanted to take her exams again last year.

3. She passed exams twice.

III. Auditory memory check

Fill in the missing parts of the sentences.

1. _____ I think ____ family size is four.

2. He is ____ now, ____ years ____ than me.

3. He started ____ in our ____ ____ ____ .

4. The person in my family who I ____ ____ ____ ____ is my cousin Ellie.

5. She’s ____ height and ____ slim.

6. She’s changed ____ ____ ____ .

7. She’s ____ a lot of friends and she ____ ____ a lot ____ .

IV. Follow up activites

• Do you think your family is big or small?

• Write a paragraph about advantages and disadvantages of a big/small family.

Taken from Learning to Listen

by E. B. Karnevskaya, N. A. Pavlovich,

V. V. Lopatko, Minsk, 2002. – P. 21-22.

Relationships

NB: relationship (C) with/between sb – used especially to talk about personal relationship between two people.

Relation (C) with/between sb – used especially to talk about the public, working relationship between large groups, countries.

I. Look at the texts. Where do you think they are from? Who wrote them? Why? What sort of relationship is being described?

1. There was a lot of shouting late last night. The kitchen bin was knocked over and the back door kept being slammed. I wish my parents would be a bit more thoughtful. I have been through an emotional time and I need my sleep. Still I don’t expect them to understand what it is like being in love. They have been married for 14 years.

2. We’ve been married for three years, but my husband’s thoughtlessness gets me down. He never lets me know when he is coming home, and sometimes I have dinner waiting and he simply doesn’t turn up. He always says he met a friend and they sat talking in the bar or he had to work late. We have endless rows about it, and I end up in tears. Most of the weekend he is out doing his hobbies and I get a bit lonely. I’m starting to feel he’s a complete stranger to me.

II. Look at a photo, which is part of a family album. Ask and answer questions fishing for detailed information about each person in the picture (team work or work in groups of two).

III. You’re looking through your friend’s family album and asking questions about the people in the pictures.

Speech Functions Developed