An english family

Read and translate the following text.

We shall speak about an English family. It is a very big family. In fact there are really three families.

Alice and Arthur Heath are grandparents. They've got one son - Harold. They live with Harold and his wife. Arthur Heath is 70 years old. He had his birthday last week.

Fred Beaumont is a widower. He spends a lot of time with his grandchildren.

Bertha Beaumont died in 1990.

The Beaumonts had two daughters - Jean and Betty. Jean married Harold Heath.

They've got three children - one girl and two boys.

Harold Heath's father used to work on the railways, but Harold works for a car manufacturer.

Betty's husband is John King.

The Kings have four children. The names of the children are Shirley, Johnny, Christine and baby Sandra.

Elizabeth Heath is 16, and she is still at school. She is studying for her exams. Her favourite subject is Spanish.

David and Paul Heath are Arthur Heath' grandsons.

David spends a lot of time with his grandfather. They love trains, and old Mr. Heath is always telling David about the railways in the old days.

Robert King is Betty King's nephew. His father George is John King's brother. Robert has a wife Owen and a little daughter Tracey who is going to be two years old next month.

Robert King's sister married Alan Marshall last year. They went to their wedding in an old bus.

Brian King loves cars. Brian is still at school. He doesn't like school much. He wants to leave school and work in a garage. Brian is fifteen, and so he's going to leave school next year. He loved his sister's wedding. He rode in an old bus and learnt about its engine.

Draw the family tree of this family and speak about each member of the family.

What does the family mean?

Every word in a dictionary has one or more meanings but the word family is one of the most meaningful. Below are only a few meanings of it attached to my experiences that prove them.

The family means learning. We learn the basics of culture, heritage and our ways of lives within the family. Two, three or sometimes four generations, all living under one roof, working, eating and feeling together. Youngsters imitate their elders. Family members are their role models. Children of a doctor parent want to become a doctor. We comb our hair the way our parents comb… How tragicomic is the situation of a father who continuously advises his child what not to do but failing to set example his child says, «Dad, I will not do what you do, yes?»

The family means behaving sensibly. When the family members behave carelessly, it is felt even in the capillary of the society, resulting in an unhealthy society… During my university years, I used to teach science to some secondary school students at my leisure. Out of my experience, whenever I come across a child having problems, be it psychological or otherwise, later I realized when I visited their families that it stems from the family itself. I’ve never seen a child perfectly normal but has a problematic family or the vice versa. Just like the child of our next door neighbour. He was quite shy and antisocial. Whenever I saw him, instead of smiling and socializing childishly, he used to stay afar frowning. I knew the reason. Often we were listening the screams of his parents quarrelling.

The family means love. The more you receive love, the stronger your heart becomes. Thus, you can love more people or people more. It’s not a vicious but a precious circle… One of my relatives once visited an orphanage. When she entered the house, small children jumped to her arms. She took one of them in her arms and spent some time there. When she attempted to release the child, she couldn’t. Because, the child was hugging her tightly. Parents! Fill the heart of your children with hugs and kisses for there is no substitute for love. We can warm our shivering hands anywhere but our hearts can only be warmed at the hearth of a family.

The family means our fundamentals laid down deep inside us. Later in our lives we built everything on this basis. Surely, strong fundamentals will let an individual construct a world on it. Simple sentences and phrases learnt as principles shape our mind and determine the way we act later on… I still remember and apply two principles once told by my tailor father, «If you’re satisfied with what you have done, everybody will be...» and «The one who cannot undo what he has done can’t be a master.»

The family means sharing. We have relations with our neighbours because we live in the same building. We have ties with our classmates for we attend the same school. We feel related with the other supporters of the team we support, or with the people who eat at the same restaurant, even with those who wear the same brand of shoes or drive the same brand of car… The sharing acts in a family are countless. We share the same house. We eat together at the same table for years. We feel happy or sad together. We play with our siblings and receive gifts from our aunts and uncles. Mom takes us to school and dad collects after school. Our grandparents help us in doing homework. Then it is our spouses and children that we share a whole life with.

The lions or the ants, the birds or the fish, they all live in families. One flower doesn’t mean spring. One tree doesn’t mean a forest. United we are strong, divided we are the poorest.

Answer the following questions:

1. How many meanings does the word «family» have?

2. What do we learn in the family?

3. Why can the family be called a fundamental of a healthy society?

4. Explain the expression: «The more you receive love, the stronger your heart becomes».

5. What fundamentals does the family give us for our future life?

6. In what way does the family teach us to share?

7. How do you understand: «One flower doesn’t mean spring. One tree doesn’t mean a forest.»?