Family Relations

The word "family" is associated with warm tender relations between members of the family. Consideration as a fortress of such relations becomes possible when people in the family do many things together, overcome troubles and live friendly. Love gives a feeling of happiness.

But nowadays young people think that family cannot be based only on love and understanding. The social position and salary are also important. But on other hand, labor achievements, mood and what is called happiness depend on family relations. When young people marry, they sometimes think that happiness in their marriage will be created by somebody else, not by themselves. They are mistaken. It is their own duty. Both husband and wife must create their future together. A strong marriage does not mean that husband and wife must have similar characters but the ability to understand each other. It's really very difficult to keep up a marriage without mutual understanding. All members of the family should trust each other; tell each other about their joys and sorrows. A married couple with such relations look happy, joyful and relaxed.

Children should love, respect and obey their parents. Their parents should also remember that role of family in the children's personality formation is exceptional; no other social institution can substitute it. The erosion of family relations inevitably leads to the deformation in the normal children's development. Clever and understanding parents always should be ready to help their children and find the way out.

Housework may take a great deal of people's time. But if all members of the family help each other, have their special duties, keeping house won't be so difficult. To create a happy family is a difficult task, but everything depends on ourselves. Family will be happy only when everyone will think about the happiness of the others.

Task 1 Give the Russian equivalents to the following words and word combinations from the text.

Warm tender relations, consideration, overcome troubles, social position, labor achievements, depend on, duty, strong marriage, similar characters, mutual understanding, joys and sorrows, obey, personality formation, substitute, find the way out, take a great deal of (smth), housework

Task 2 Discuss the following questions in pairs using the words and word combinations from the previous task.

1. What does the author associate the word “family” with? What do you personally associate the word “family” with?

2. What do family relations depend on?

3. What mistake do young people make at the beginning of their marriage?

4. What are good parents like according to the author? Do you agree? What are your parents like in terms of family relations?

5. Who does happiness in a family depend on? What do you personally do to create a happy family?

Text 2

The Swedish Answer: Unisex Marriage

By Sarah Jolly, a British housewife who lived in Sweden for 3 years

Would you like a unisex marriage with husband and wife sharing housework and breadwinning day and day about? I can only report that Swedish wives flourish on it.

They are outward-looking, and a conversation with them is likely to be about their work, hobbies or families. They look enthusiastic in all kinds of ways. During the three years I lived in Sweden while my husband was working there, I repeatedly heard how much Swedish wives appreciated and enjoyed their families and homes because they were away from them for some of the time in their own careers.

The average Swede, though tall and handsome, doesn’t spend much time paying a woman compliments. Perhaps this is because he is quite prepared to treat her as an equal.

When a young couple marry they don’t take it for granted that the husband is the breadwinner, and the wife is the housekeeper. They have a flexible approach, sharing out the work and chores in a way which suits them. No one criticises them if they reverse their traditional roles. As Katerina, a Swedish wife, explained to me: “Stefan and I have known each other since childhood. We went to the same kind of school, and we both trained as dentists, so why should one of us have a career?” A doctor who works in a Child Care Department thought that women had a right to work and support themselves. “I can understand a woman who prefers housework to factory work, but I just cannot understand an educated woman who doesn’t work.”

“When we married I was studying”, a woman psychiatrist told me. And of course, when I got my qualification I started to practise.” She couldn’t imagine training and then not using her vital skills.

Nor is it only professional women who expect to work. The girl who came to clean my house told me that her husband was a postman. “He’s up early, and then he comes home early in the afternoon and looks after the baby while I go out to work.”

Increasingly, the Swedish husband accepts that household chores are partly his responsibility.

(from The Daily Telegraph)

Task 1 Find words and collocations in the text that mean the following.

1. a person who works to support a family

2. be well and active, prosper (v)

3. easy-going, sociable (adj.)

4. put a high value on (verb)

5. accept smth. as true or certain without discussion (verb)

6. a small task or a piece of work, especially an ordinary everyday task (e.g. in the home)

7. again and again (adverb)

8. a very important ability to do smth.

9. distribute duties

10. agree (v)

Task 2 Mark the statements true or false. Disapprove the false ones.

1. The author is a Swedish wife.

2.Swedish wives don’t appreciate unisex marriage.

3. Swedish wives enjoy their families and homes because they work.

4. Swedish men tend to say pleasant things to Swedish women very often.

5. It doesn’t matter who the breadwinner is in a Swedish family.

6. Both Katerina and Stefan have their careers.

7. A doctor who works in a Child Care Department thinks that qualified women shouldn’t work.

8 .Swedish husbands are ready to share household chores with their wives.

Task 3

NB! While presenting a topic (a monologue) make sure there is logical connection between sentences. To achieve it use different linkers appropriately. The following exercise will help you to practise the usage of linkers. It’s also advisable to include the information from the exercise in the final monologue on the topic.

Make sure you know all the linkers in the box. Then put one word in each of the blanks in the text.

Also although and because besides but so

……. there are many different kinds of families in the world, there are some things that are the same everywhere. Not all societies have western-type marriage with one wife and one husband, …. Some kind of marriage is universal. And when a person marries, …. The new wife or husband, he or she also gets a complete new family of in-laws. Marriage with close relatives do not always produce healthy children, all societies have rules about who can marry who. Each society …. Has a division of work based on age and sex. In modern western societies, there is a move to change this last rule …. It can be unfair to women, …. It will be interesting to see if this succeeds.

LISTENING

You’ll hear a news-based article the headline of which is «Internet helps families stay more in touch”.