Unit 4 a happy man is that who is happy in his family

I. Reading and discussing the topic

Task 1. Read about Olga Klimova’s family. Is it different from yours? Do you feel happy in your family?

I am Olga Klimova. I am seventeen years old. I want to tell you a few words about my family. My family is large. I am not an only child. I have got a mother, a father, a sister, a brother and a grandmother.

First of all, some words about my parents. My mother is a teacher of biology. She works in a college. She likes her job. She is a good-looking woman with blue eyes and brown hair. She is forty-nine but she looks much younger. She is tall and slim.

My father is a computer programmer by profession. He is very experienced. He is a broad-shouldered, tall man with fair hair and grey eyes. He is fifty. My father likes singing and when we are at home and have some free time, I play the guitar and we sing together. My father is handy with a lot of things.

My parents have much in common, but they have different views on music, books, films, sports. For example, my father is fond of tennis but my mother doesn’t play sports. But my parents have the same opinion about my education and upbringing.

My parents are hard-working people. My mother keeps house and takes care of our family. She is very good at cooking and she is clever with her hands. She is very practical. Besides, my mother is fond of gardening. All our family is proud of the wonderful roses she grows in the garden in our dacha. My father and I try to help her with the housework. I wash dishes, go shopping and clean our flat.

My grandmother is a pensioner. She lives with us and helps my mother to run the house. She is good at knitting. My sister Helen is twenty-five. She is married and has a family of her own. She works as an accountant for a bank. Her husband is a scientist. They have got twins: a son and a daughter. They go to nursery school.

My brother Dmitry is eleven. He is a schoolboy. I think he takes after our father. He also wants to become a specialist in computing but he is not sure yet. He is fond of music and windsurfing.

I want to become a journalist. Now I study at the University and I like to learn foreign languages. I look like my father – I’ve got his long nose and big mouth – but I’ve got my mother’s personality. I am even-tempered and always try to be in a good mood.

We have got a lot of relatives. We are deeply attached to each other and we get on very well with all members of our extended family. Unfortunately, we are very scattered and don’t see each other very often.

Active Vocabulary

- an extended family – семья в широком смысле слова, включая родственников

- a nuclear family – семья в узком смысле слова, члены семьи, живущие вместе

- good-looking – привлекательный, симпатичный

- to be experienced – быть опытным

- to be handy with smth – уметь что-л. делать

- to have similar/different views on smth – иметь схожие/различные взгляды на что-л.

- education – образование

- upbringing – воспитание

- to keep house = to run the house – вести хозяйство

- to take care of smb/smth – заботиться о ком-л./чем-л.

- to be good at smth – быть искусным в чем-л.

- to be clever with one’s hands – иметь умелые (золотые) руки

- a pensioner – пенсионер

- twins – близнецы

- to take after smb – быть похожим на кого-л. (по характеру)

- to look like smb – быть похожим на кого-л. (внешне)

- personality – характер

- a relative = a relation - родственник

- to be deeply attached to smb – быть сильно привязанным к кому-л.

- to get on well – быть в хороших отношениях, ладить

Task 2. Transcribe the following words and practise their pronunciation.

A college, biology, a profession, a programmer, experienced, an opinion, education, upbringing, gardening, a pensioner, knitting, an accountant, a scientist, nursery, a journalist, personality, a relative, even-tempered, attached, extended, unfortunately, scattered.

Task 3. Here are the answers to some questions about O. Klimova’s family. Write the questions.

a) A teacher of biology. b) Forty-nine. c) Tennis. d) About my education and upbringing. e) Cooking. f) Wash up, go shopping and clean our flat. g) Pensioner. h) In a bank. i) Two. A daughter and a son. j) My father. I’ve got his long nose and big mouth.

Task 4. Questionnaire.

1. Where are you from?

2. Where are your parents from?

3. What are the members of your family?

4. Is your family the most important thing in your life?

5. How important to you is your extended family?

6. How many of your relations live within 30 miles of your home?

7. Is your family very scattered, or do they mostly live close together?

8. How many of your relations do you know personally?

9. Do you think big families or small families are better?

10. Do you think it’s a good thing for parents to live with their married children?

11. Who do you get on best with?

o people you are related to

o people you went to school/college with

o people you study at university with

o other people (who?)

12. Do you consider yourself

o rootless

o well-rooted

o something between the two?

Task 5. Listen about Martin Peters’ family and write the names of the people in the correct places (the teacher will give you a separate sheet of paper for it). Then ask and answer questions about Martin’s family.

Task 6. Read the text “Courtship and Marriage in North America” and answer the following questions.

If a couple wants to get married in North America they can do it at just about any time and just about any place. The only three requirements for a marriage to take place are as follows: 1) the man and woman must agree that they both want to get married and that they want to marry each other; 2) the ceremony must take place before an official (a judge or a religious leader); 3) a marriage ceremony must have witnesses. There is no particular age to get married but the majority of people in North America marry when they are between 20 and 30 years old. In Canada women normally get married for the first time at 25 and men – at 27. Couples often get to know each other through dating. Typical dates include going out to a picture, to dinner, dancing club or a sports activity. Traditionally, the male asks the female for a date.

Picture a wedding in North America. There is a bride in a white dress and veil accompanied by her bridesmaids and a groom dressed in a suit accompanied by his best man. During the ceremony, the groom puts a ring on the bride’s finger, or perhaps they exchange rings as a judge or a religious leader pronounces them husband and wife. The rings are made of gold and symbolize eternity – the endless love of a couple and a perfect, lifelong union.

There are many traditions and customs connected with weddings. For example, a bride wears “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”. A wedding ceremony often concludes with the guests throwing rice at the newlyweds and the bride tossing her bouquet to the bridesmaids. They say the bridesmaid who catches the flowers will marry next. Before the wedding there are usually bachelor parties and showers.