Unit 4 english family

Proverbs and sayings

Like father, like son.	Какой отец, такой и сын.
Spare the rod and spoil the child.	Пожалеешь розги – испортишь ребенка.
Marriages are made in heaven.	Браки заключаются на небесах.
A good wife makes a good husband.	Хорошая жена – хорош и муж.
Every family has its black ship.	В семье не без урода.

Text 1 english family3

Years ago it was important to have large families. The best Victorian mother was the mother who had the most children. The best Victorian father was the father who had the most sons. It was important to have many children. If you were rich, you needed sons to help you with your work. Rich or poor, you needed daughters to help you with a large household.

Not only children were important. Everybody in the family was important. The large family gave people a sense of stability.

Now things are different. Young people leave the place where they lived with their parents and take their own families (wife and children) with them. Their own family becomes more and more important as they forget their other relatives.

In Britain, families are getting smaller and smaller. People have fewer children because children are expensive. Who can afford more than three children? Who can afford a large house for them? Many people believe that two children will be ideal for an English family. There is another problem now. Britain is a small country where 59 million people live. 12 million of those live in London. People can’t have big families when they live in a small country.

Now people get more and more isolated. Sometimes they live very close to other people but don’t know them. They have only each other to talk to. What is the future of the family?

Active vocabulary

to be important	быть важным
to be rich	быть богатым
to be poor	быть бедным
household	домашнее хозяйство
sense of stability	ощущение стабильности
to leave [li:v]	оставлять, покидать, уезжать
to live	жить
to become	становиться
relatives	родственники
to get smaller	зд. становиться меньше
fewer children	меньше детей
to be expensive	быть дорогим
to afford	позволять себе
to get isolated	быть изолированным
to live close to…	жить по соседству

Answer the questions.

1. What kind of Victorian parents were the best?

2. Why was it very important to have many children?

3. What gave people a sense of stability?

4. Are things the same or different now?

5. Why do young people leave the place where they lived with their parents?

6. Why do English people have fewer children now?

7. How many people live in Britain?

8. Do people get more isolated or communicative?

9. What are the reasons of people getting isolated?

10. What kind of family would you like to have?

Exercise 1. Give the English equivalents for:

браки заключаются	иметь больше всего детей
помогать по хозяйству	каждый был важен
чувствовать стабильности	уезжать из родительского дома
забывать своих родственников	становиться более важным
становиться меньше	будет идеально
не могут иметь	становиться более уединенным
жить по-соседству	будущее семьи
быть богатым	родственники

Exercise 2. Are the following sentences true or false? Give your arguments.

1. Years ago only children were important.

2. Britain is a large country where 150 million people live.

3. Young people leave the place where they lived with their parents and take their own families with them.

4. Sometimes people live very close to other people and communicate with them.

5. Many people believe that four children will be ideal for an English family.

6. In Japan people have a lot of children.

7. Nowadays the situation is the same, as it was before.

Exercise 3. Translate the sentences from Russian into English.

1. Большая семья дает ощущение стабильности.

2. Люди не могут иметь большие семьи, когда живут в маленькой стране.

3. В Великобритании семьи становятся все меньше и меньше.

4. Могут ли люди иметь большие семьи, когда живут в маленькой стране?

5. Люди становятся все более изолированными, особенно когда они переезжают жить заграницу.

6. Сын моей сестры – мой племянник. Он любит кататься на роликах.

7. Моей старшей сестре 25 лет, она не замужем.

8. Не только дети важны в семье, каждый важен.

9. Кто может позволить себе иметь много детей?

10. Иногда люди даже не знают своих соседей.

11. Бабушки и дедушки очень важны. Они дают много любви и доброты всей семье.