Family Life.

Marriage is a thing which only a rare person in his or her life avoids. True bachelors and spinsters make up only a small per cent of the population; most single people are “alone but not lonely”. Millions of others get married because of the fun of family life. And it is fun, if one takes it with sense of humor.

There’s a lot of fun in falling in love with someone and chasing the prospective fiancé e, which means dating and going out with the candidate. All the relatives (parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, stepmothers and stepfather s and all in-laws) meanwhile have the fun of criticizing your choice and giving advice. The trick here is not to listen to them but to your bride-to-be and somehow get her to accept your proposal. Then you may arrange the engagement and fix the day of the wedding.

What fun is to get all those things, whose names start with the word “wedding” – dress, rings, cars, flowers, cakes, etc.! It’s great fun to pay for them. It’s fun for the bride and the groom to escape from the guests and go on a honeymoon trip, especially if it is a wedding present from the parents. The guests remain with the fun of gossiping whether you married for love or for money.

It’s fun to return back home with the idea that the person you are married to is somewhat different from one you knew. But there is no time to think about it because you are newly-weds and you expect a baby. There is no better fun for a husband than taking his wife to a maternity home alone and bringing her back with the twins or triplets.

And this is where the greatest fun starts: washing the new-born’s nappies and passing away sleepless nights, earning money to keep the family, taking children to kindergarten and later to school. By all means it’s fun to attend parents’ meetings and to learn that your children take after you and don’t do well at school.

The bigger your children grow, the more they resemble you outwardly and the less they display likeness to you inwardly. And you start grumbling at them and discussing with your old friends the problem of “ generation gap ”. What fun!

And when at last you and your grey-haired spouse start thinking that your family life has calmed down, you haven’t divorce d but preserved your union, the climax of your fun bursts out! One of your dearest offsprings brings a long-legged blonde to your house and says that he wants to marry. And you think: “Why do people ever get married? ”

Task 1. Agree or disagree with the following statements. Give your reasons.

1/ The husband should be more intelligent than the wife.

2/ Spouses should be alike.

3/ Money often keeps people together.

4/ Marriage should be compulsory for everybody.

5/ The best wife is a housewife.

6/ The marriage contract is incompatible with romantic love.

Use:

for agreement: for disagreement:

I agree entirely... Yes, that’s quite true, but...

You know, that’s exactly what I think... Perhaps, but don’t you think that...

That’s just what I was thinking.... I can’t agree with...

Task 2. Make a list of positive and negative sides of family life. Compare your lists with those of your classmates. Comment on the results.

Task 3. Make up dialogues discussing the following problems.

1/ Teenage marriage.

2/ Leadership in the family.

3/ Marriage contracts and romantic love.

4/ Divorce and one-parent families.

you can start your dialogues with the following expressions:

Would you agree that...

Do you think it’s right to say that...

Task 4. Match the English idioms in the left column with their Russian equivalents in the right column. Use them in a proper context.

1. a maiden name а. маменькин сынок
2. extremes meet б. быть под каблуком
3. a mother’s boy в. с глаз долой из сердца вон
4. to be out of hand г. строить глазки
5. to be under smb’s thumb д. блудный сын
6. out of sight, out of mind е. плоть и кровь
7. to make eyes at smb ж. жить как кошка с собакой
8. the prodigal son з. отбиться от рук
9. one’s own flesh and blood и. девичья фамилия
10. to lead a cat and a dog life к. противоположности сходятся

Task 5. Write a composition on one of the following topics. Discuss your compositions in class.

1/ Families with Many Children Versus Families with One Child.

2/ The effect of divorce on children.

3/ Grandparents. A Blessing or a Burden?

4/ How to Bridge the Generation Gap.

5/ The Ideal Family of the Future.

Present your composition in the following form.