Daily Routines and Housework

UNIT 2

Family and Friends

Daily Routines and Housework

Stages of Life

Love and Romance, Marriage

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

 

I. Make friends with your new groupmates. Discuss the following questions.

1. What’s your name?

2. How old are you?

3. Where are you from?

4. What nationality are you?

5. What’s your surname?

6. How do you spell it?

7. What are your hobbies?

8. Have you got many friends?

9. Are you married or single?

10. Do you live with your parents?

11. Is your family large?

12. Have you got a sister or a brother?

13. What other relatives have you got? (a cousin, an uncle, an aunt, a niece, a nephew, grandparents)

14. Do you share a room/a flat with your friend/your sister/your brother?

II. Read the e-mails. Which person would you like to make friends with? Why? b)Write an e-mail about yourself.

1)

Hi! My name is Mike. I’m from Norfolk, a town in the United States. I’m twenty years old. I’m a student at Yale University, School of Art. I study graphic design. I like taking pictures; I also like going to the movies, bowling and computers. I love writing and receiving e-mails, and I hope to make friends with people all over the world. Please write!

 

 

2)

Hello! I’m Johanna. I come from Malmö, a town in Sweden. I’m 19 years old and I study culture at Malmö University. I like listening to music; I also play the piano, the guitar and I write songs too. I would like to talk to people all over the world to learn more about their culture and way of life. Please write in English and, of course, Swedish.

 

 

3)

Hi! It’s nice to meet you. My name’s Nicholas. I’m from Singapore. I’m 16. I love to play tennis and softball. I like having fun with my friends. I can write in English and Mandarin Chinese. I want to make friends all over the world.

 

 

TEXT

III. Read the text and fill in the headings. Memorize the words in bold.

1. In-laws

2. My Closest Relatives

3. Second Families

Grandparents / Grandchildren

5. My Own Family (a Nuclear Family)

My Family Tree

 

       ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

       I am married and have a family of my own. My husband is a nice man. We have two children. Our female child is our daughter, and our male child is our son. They are lovely kids.

       ………………………………………………………………………………………………

       My closest relatives are my parents: my mother and father, and my siblings (a brother and a sister). My mother is not the only child. So is my father. That’s why I also have two aunts and an uncle. One of the aunts is the sister of my mother; the uncle is my mother’s brother. The other aunt is my father’s sister.

       My father’s sister has two children: a boy and a girl. They are my cousins. (In English, the word cousin is used, whether the cousin is female or male.) My female cousin is my father’s niece, and my male cousin is my father’s nephew.

       My mother’s sister and brother are young adults, and they are single.

       …………………………………………………………………………………………….

       My husband’s family are my in-laws. His mother is my mother-in-law and his father is my father-in-law.  His sister is my sister-in-law. The term in-law is also used to describe my relationship with the spouses of my siblings. The husband of my sister is my brother-in-law, and my brother’s wife is my sister-in-law. So I have two sisters-in-law.

       The term “in-law” is used for all generations. If you are a woman, you become the daughter-in-law of your husband’s parents, and if you are a man, you become the son-in-law of your wife’s parents.

       ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

       The parents of my parents are my grandparents – my grandmothers and grandfathers. They are all alive. My siblings and I are their grandchildren – granddaughters and a grandson. One of my grandmothers has a sister, who is my great-aunt. I’m her great-niece. If your grandparent has a brother, he is your great-uncle. And you are either his great-niece or great-nephew.

       My grandmother’s and grandfather’s parents are my great-grandparents (great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers).

       If you go back another generation, the grandmother of your grandmother / grandfather is your great-great-grandmother. The grandfather of your grandparent becomes your great-great-grandfather.

       ………………………………………………………………………………………………

       My siblings and I are happy: we have two parents and a close-knit family. But there can be one-parent families and stepfamilies.

       If your mother or father remarries, you can acquire a new family and a new set of relatives. For example, if your father marries a second wife, she becomes your step-mother. Any children she already has become your step-sisters or step-brothers.

       If your mother or father remarries and has children, they become your half-brothers or half-sisters.

       You might also hear people talking about their biological brother / sister etc., to mean a brother who is related by blood, rather than by marriage.

 

VOCABULARY

PRACTICE

 

V. Complete the gaps.

 

1. My mother’s mother is my …………….

1. My mother’s father is my …………….

2. My father is my mother’s …………….

3. My father’s sister is my …………….

4. My mother’s brother is my …………….

5. My uncle’s son and daughter are my …………….

6. My aunt’s daughter is my father’s …………….

7. My uncle’s son is my mother’s …………….

8. My brother is my granny’s …………….

9. My sister is my grandpa’s …………….

10. My wife’s parents are my …………….

11. My husband’s sister is my …………….

12. Your second husband will refer to your daughter as his …………….

13. Your second wife will refer to your children as her …………….

14. Your second wife is your children’s …………….

 

 

Greeting a friend

- Hi! How are you? /How are things? /How's life?

- Fine thanks, and you? /Fine thanks, what about you?

- Not bad. /Can't complain.

At an informal party

- Hello, I'm Maria./ Hello, my name's Maria.

- Hi, I'm Sarah./ Hello Maria, I'm Sarah./ Nice to meet you, I'm Sarah.

At work-related events

- I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Harry Brown, from …/Let me introduce myself. I'm Harry Brown from…

- Nice to meet you. I'm Peter Richardson, from…/ Pleased to meet you. I'm Peter Richardson, from… /How do you do? I'm Peter Richardson from…

 

Introducing clients

- Mr. Mitchell, I'd like to introduce you to my manager, Henry Lewis.

- How do you do? /Pleased to meet you./ Good to meet you.

- How do you do?

Conversational openings

· Haven’t we met before?

· You name sounds familiar.

· Is it your first time to …?

· Have you been here / to … before?

· Have you visited / seen …?

· Are you enjoying …?

· How was the flight?

PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

TEXT 1

A Day in the Life

7 a.m. -- Your alarm is going off, time to get up! (But if you're like me, you hit snooze at least three times.)

7.15 a.m. -- You finally get out of bed, stick your feet into your cozy slippers, wash up, get dressed and head for the kitchen to have a quick breakfast: a glass of milk and three little muffins. Then grab your book bag and leave the house to catch the bus.

7.45 a.m. – You take the bus to go to university for morning classes. It takes about 30 minutes, and the bus stops right in front of the university.

9 a.m. –You have classes.

1 p.m. -- You have an hour or so to get downtown to grab some lunch. Some of my friends have lunch in the canteen or take a packed lunch.

2 p.m. – You have afternoon classes. Then you hit the computer lab to check e-mails from home, or meet your language exchange friend, a native French speaker who is learning English and you chat for an hour or two, half the time in French and half in English.

7 p.m. -- You catch your bus home; some students head for the campus where all the university dorms are located.

8 p.m. -- You come home, just in time to help prepare for a delicious dinner.

9 p.m. -- After dinner, you can do your homework, then gather around the TV and watch the evening news or movies with your host family. Sometimes you surf the Internet or read. And then you go to bed at about 10: there are no all-nighters here except when you want a night out.  

On the weekends, you can go on excursions. But this weekend, you go on a day-trip to hike along the beautiful French countryside with your host family.

VOCABULARY

Do one’s homework

dorm = dormitory - a college or university building where students live

downtown – the central area or commercial center of a town or city

get dressed – put on your clothes

Go/come home

go off - make a noise; sound

go to bed = go to sleep

Go to university

grab – take

have breakfast/lunch/dinner – eat

head (for) = go (to) - go in a certain direction

hit – 1) press or push (a button); 2) go to, arrive at

hit snooze = hit the “snooze” button – when you hit the “snooze” button on the alarm clock it puts the alarm off for another 7-10 minutes

It takes …to do smth – doing smthrequires … (time)

night out - being out usually with friends at nighttime for discos, parties etc

surf the Internet = go on the Internet

wash up – 1) to wash one's face and hands; 2) to wash (dishes, cutlery, etc.) after a meal

On/at the weekend(s)

READING COMPREHENSION

VI. Answer the questions.

1. When does the student have to get up?

2. When does he finally get up? Why?

3. Do you ever hit the snooze button?

4. What does he do when he gets out of bed?

5. Does he walk to university?

6. How long does it take him to get there?

7. How do you get to university? Does it take you long?

8. What time do the classes start?

9. When are the classes over?

10. Does he have a lunch break? A coffee break?

11. How long is the break?

12. Where do students have lunch?

13. What does he do after the afternoon classes?

14. What time does he come home?

15. What does he do after dinner?

16. Does he do his homework?

17. Who does he watch TV with?

18. He goes to bed at 11.30, doesn’t he?

19. Where does he go on the weekends?

20. What about this weekend?

21. Does he go hiking with his friends?

 

TEXT 2

Get Fit at Home.

There are lots of opportunities to get active outside the house, but staying at home doesn’t mean that you have to be a couch potato. Here are some tips on how to get fit while you work around the house.

Housework

Dust, vacuum and tidy your way to fitness. Doing four or more household chores a day can help you lose weight, tone up, and keep fit and healthy.

Put on your favourite music and start with some light housework, such as picking things up, or dusting for three to five minutes.

While washing the windows, do 10 circles to the right, then 10 to the left. This is a great all-purpose cleaning motion. Do it while polishing furniture or cleaning the bath.

Tense your muscles as far as you can while pushing the vacuum forward, then back again.

Slowly squat when picking up dirty laundry. Include one squat for every piece of laundry you put into the basket.

Step up and down a short stepladder (three or four steps) 10 times. While you're up there, dust a shelf or two. Not everybody has a ladder, but even stepping up and down on a chair to clean the doors can help.

Scrub your sink, bathroom or kitchen floor by hand, not a mop. The harder you work, the better.

Finish off with a five to ten-minute cool-down, stretching as you reach to put away the dishes or make the beds.

In the open air

Gardening will take you 30 minutes. Cutting the grass, digging and carrying objects are all exercise.

Washing your car by hand can take up to an hour. The carrying, bending over, squatting and scrubbing will improve your balance and co-ordination.

(abridged from: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/Houseexercise.aspx)

 

VOCABULARY

READING COMPREHENSION

IX. Answer the questions.

1. What are the opportunities to get active outside the house? Where can you exercise?

2. Can you get fit staying at home?

3. Are you a ‘couh potato’?

4. Do you think one can lose weight doing household chores?

5. What should you start with?

6. What should you do to train your arms and hands?

7. How can you train your legs?

8. What can you do to cool down?

9. What jobs do people do in the open air?

 

 

PRACTICE

X. a) Make up sentences and phrases using the table below.

It is at

a quarter half 10 minutes

past to

eight tweve seven

sharp

b) Say the time. Discuss what you might do at the time.

1. 7:00 a.m. 2. 8:30 a.m. 3. 9:15 a.m. 4. 10:20 a.m. 5. 11:40 a.m.

6. 2:10 p.m. 7. 4:45 p.m. 8. 6:30 p.m. 9. 9:25 p.m. 10. 10:45 p.m.

 

XVI. Match the synonyms.

1. surf the Internet 2. lose weight  3. do the vacuuming 4. throw out the garbage 5. do the washing 6. do the washing-up 7. do the shopping 8. chat 9. dorm 10. go to bed

a. wash the dishes b. dormitory c. empty the rubbish d. slim down e. go shopping f. wash the clothes g. go to sleep h. vacuum the floor i. talk j. go on the Internet

XVII. Match the opposites.

1. wake up 2. get up 3. turn on the light 4. leave home 5. go to school

a. come home b. fall asleep c. come back from school d. go to bed e. turn off the light

 

Having a bad day

       I had a very bad day yesterday. I usually get up at seven o’clock, but I …………….. and didn’t get up until eight. Then I ……………..the bus and had to wait twenty minutes for the next one to come. Of course I …………….. for work and I could see my boss wasn’t very pleased. The rest of the morning was OK, but as I was walking to the staff restaurant for lunch, I …………….. and hurt my wrist. I was really happy when it was time to go home. But things didn’t get any better, I’m afraid. There was a new driver on the bus. He went the wrong way and …………….... He turned into a very busy road and we …………….. for about twenty minutes. Then the bus …………….. petrol and ……………... I had to get off and walk the rest of the way home. When I got home, I decided to relax with a nice cup of tea, but I …………….. it all over my new skirt. I phoned my boyfriend, thinking he would make me feel better, but he said something unkind about one of my friends and we ……………... I hope today is going to be better.

STAGES OF LIFE

PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

 

TEXT

III. Read the text.

The Life of a Princess

Princess Caroline of Monaco was born on January 23, 1957. She was the first child of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace of Monaco. Her brother Albert followed 14 months later, and seven years after that her sister Stephanie was born. Prince Rainier and Princess Graces wanted their children to have a normal life. However, this proved impossible. The paparazzi have followed their lives since they were small. The activities of the two princesses have been of particular interest.

Caroline was a bright, beautiful child, and after school in England, she went to study in Paris. She adored the Paris nightlife but of course, the paparazzi followed her everywhere. Her parents were furious. They became even more upset when Caroline met and wanted to marry French banker and playboy Philippe Junot, aged 38. When Caroline, aged 21, married Junot in 1978, Princess Grace said, “This won’t last two years”, and she was absolutely right. They divorced in 1980.

The divorce was the first of many misfortunes in Caroline’s life. In 1982, her mother, Princess Grace, died in a terrible accident while she was driving with Stephanie down the narrow Monaco roads. The death of this once famous film star was a huge tragedy for the family.

However, just one year after her mother’s death, Caroline married Italian businessman Stefano Casiraghi and, with the birth of their three children, found real happiness. Then tragedy struck again. In October 1990, Stefano died in a powerboat accident. The shock caused Caroline to lose her hair. She moved from Monaco to St Rémy and for five years she stayed at home with her children.

Then, in 1995, she met Prince Ernst of Hanover, the man her mother had always wanted her to marry. Although he was already married, they began a relationship and finally married in 1999. Caroline’s happiness seemed complete with the birth of a daughter, Alexandra.

However, the pain of the past showed again on her face when her father, Prince Rainier, died in 2005. Prince Albert is now Monaco’s head of state. Caroline’s son, Andrea, is the heir. Her eldest daughter, Charlotte, who looks very like her mother, already stars in celebrity magazines. The paparazzi have started again with the next generation.

 

VOCABULARY

READING COMPREHENSION

V. Answer the questions.

1. Who are Caroline’s parents?
2. Why was having a normal life impossible for the princesses?
3. Why were Caroline’s parents upset when she married Philippe Junot?
4. What happened to Caroline and Philippe’s marriage?
5. What tragedy happened in 1982?
6. When did Caroline find real happiness?
7. Why did Caroline lose her hair?
8. Who did she meet in 1995?
9. Who is Monaco’s head of state now?

 

 

PRACTICE

VII. Match the antonyms.

elderly to be born to retire to fall in love to marry a baby

to die to divorce an adult to get a job young to fall out of love

 

 

LOVE AND ROMANCE. MARRIGE

 

PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

Love story

1. They off to the Carribean for their honeymoon.
2. She takes him home to meet her parents, and he does the same.
3. They get married, and invite all their friends and relatives to the wedding.
4. John and Mary meet at a party. A friend introduces them.
5. They start going ou t together regularly.
6. They decide to get engaged, and he buys her a diamond ring.
7. They move into a small flat together.
8. They have a baby daughter, and they call her Anna, after Mary’s mother.
9. He invites her out to see a film, and afterwards they have dinner together.

 

b) Do you like the story as it is? Make up your own version.

TEXT 1

III. Read the text.

VOCABULARY

READING COMPREHENSION

V. Explain what the following clichés mean.

1. Love's blind.

2. Love makes the world go round.

3. The Only Girl / the Only Boy in the World

4. He whispers sweet nothings in her ear.

5. He walks on air.

6. Marriage is a lottery.

7. Marriages are made in Heaven.

8. She has a little secret.

9. She is knitting a tiny garment.

 

TEXT 2

VOCABULARY

READING COMPREHENSION

VIII. Answer the questions.

1. What is ‘dating’?
2. When do boys and girls start dating?
3. Do boys or girls make the first move these days?
4. Can 17 year old teenagers get married if they don’t have parental consent?
5. Why do many couples prefer to live together first? Do you think it’s a good idea?
6. When do most weddings take place? Why? What about weddings in your country?
7. Why do you think brides have ‘hen’ parties?
8. What does a best man do during the wedding ceremony?
9. What does a groom / a bride wear?
10. Are there any traditional wedding clothes in your country?
11. What does the wedding ceremony include?
12. What is the ‘wedding reception’?
13. Why do you think the wedding cake consists of two or more tiers?
14. What should the bride and the groom do for good luck? What mustn’t they do?
15. Are there any wedding superstitions in your country? What are they?

PRACTICE

In love

Boyfriend

Girlfriend

Relationship

Going out

Kissed

Romantic

Date

 

       Peter had never had a ……………. Anna had never had a ……………. When they started …………… together, they were both very nervous. For their first …………… Peter wanted to take her somewhere ……………, so he booked a table at an Italian restaurant. He walked her home. When he left, they …………… goodnight. The next day Anna told her best friend that she was …………… with Peter and that this was the first really serious …………… in her life.

 

 

X. a) Match the beginnings and endings of the expressions below. Use one of the endings twice.

1. She fancies
2. She’s not really interested
3. She’s absolutely crazy
4. I don’t know what she sees
5. She’s always flirting

 

1. with him
2. about him
3. in him
4. you

b) Now use the expressions to complete the following sentences.

1. Julie seems to really like Ian, but personally, …………………………. He must be at least ten years older than her.

2. John isn’t very happy at the moment. He really likes this girl at college but …………… …………… at all.

3. Debbie goes bright red every time she talks to you. I’m sure ………………………….

4. Tina spends almost every evening with this guy she is seeing. ……………………….

5. I’m sure Liz fancies that guy in the accounts department. ………………………….

 

 

Get engaged

Arrange

Propose to

Ask

Set a date

 

1. I’ve got some news. I’m really excited. Mark …………… me to marry him last night. I said yes!
2. I remember the day my husband …………… me. We were on holiday in Greece. It was very romantic.
3. - Have you heard? Martin and Lisa have just ………………………. They are planning to get married next year.

- Really? That’s fantastic. Have they …………………………?

1. In some countries parents ……………………… their children’s marriages. They look for a suitable partner for their son or daughter to marry.

 

Note that the man you are engaged to is your fiancé. The woman you are engaged to is your fiancée. Nowadays these words are less common.

Bride

Clergyman

Groom

Guests

Best man

Bridesmaids

       The two people getting married are a ……………… and a ………………. They are being married by a ………………. The two little girls are ………………. The man standing on the groom’s right is his ………………. The wedding ……………… are watching the ceremony.

 

 

Health

Death

Worse

Poorer

 

I (John Smith) take thee (Jane Brown) to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for ……………, for richer, for ……………, in sickness and in ……………, to love and cherish, till …………… do us part.

 

XVII. Use these expressions in the situations below:

Broke up

Had a huge row

Get a divorce

Separated

Split up

1. - Do you think I should invite Jeff and Sue to the party?

- Haven’t you heard they’ve finally decided to ……………….

1. We invited Dave and Kate over for dinner last Saturday. It was really embarrassing. They ……………… and Kate went home in the middle of the main course.
2. Our marriage ……………… after my wife discovered I’d been seeing somebody else.
3. My wife and I ……………… last year. We hadn’t been very happy for a while. We’ve now decided that the best thing is to ……………….

 

RELATED READING I

Agatha Christie

Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie is possibly the world’s most famous detective story writer. She wrote 79 novels and several plays. Her sales outnumber those of William Shakespeare. However, she was a shy woman whose life was often unhappy and lonely.

She was born in 1890 in Devon, the third child of Clarissa and Frederick Miller, and grew into a beautiful and sensitive girl with long golden hair. She didn’t go to school but was educated at home by her mother. Her father died when she was 11.

During World War I, while she was working in a hospital, she learned about chemicals and poisons, which proved very useful to her in her later career. She wrote her first detective novel in 1920.

In 1914, at the beginning of the war, she married Archibald Christie but the marriage was unhappy. It didn’t last and they divorced in 1926. That year there was a double tragedy in her life because her much loved mother died. Agatha suffered a nervous breakdown, and one night she abandoned her car and mysteriously disappeared. She went missing for 11 days and was eventually found in a hotel in the North of England. It is interesting to note that it was while she was suffering so much that she wrote one of her masterpieces, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Agatha wanted solitude and developed very bitter feelings towards the media because the newspapers had given her a hard time over her breakdown and disappearance. She was determined never to let them enter her private life again and she buried herself in her work. On 25 November 1952 her play The Mousetrap opened in London. Today, over 50 years later, it is still running. It is the longest running show in the whole world.

She enjoyed a very happy second marriage to Max Mallowan, an archaeologist. Her detective skills were a help to him in his excavations in Syria and Iraq. She found happiness with her beloved husband. She died peacefully in 1976.

 

1. Where was she born?
2. When was she born?
3. What do you learn about her childhood?
4. Which people played a part in her career?
5. What do you think were the most important events in her life?
6. When did she die?

 

II. Read the text.

 

Changing Values and Norms of the British Family

 

       The family in Britain is changing. The once typical British family headed by two parents has undergone substantial changes during the twentieth century. In particular there has been a rise in the number of single-person households. Fifty years ago this would have been socially unacceptable in Britain.

       In the past, people got married and stayed married. Divorce was very difficult, expensive and took a long time. Today, people's views on marriage are changing. Many couples, mostly in their twenties or thirties, live together (cohabit) without getting married. Only about 60% of these couples will eventually get married.

       In the past, people married before they had children, but now about 40% of children in Britain are born to unmarried (cohabiting) parents. In 2000, around a quarter of unmarried people between the ages of 16 and 59 were cohabiting in Great Britain.

       People are generally getting married at a later age now and many women do not want to have children immediately. They prefer to concentrate on their jobs and put off having a baby until late thirties.

       The number of single-parent families is increasing. This is mainly due to more marriages ending in divorce, but some women are also choosing to have children as lone parents without being married.

The American Family

Most American families consist of a mother, a father and two or three children living in a house. There may be relatives, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and in-laws in the same community, but American families usually maintain separate households. This familial structure is known as the “nuclear family”. It is unusual for members of the family other than the husband, wife and children to live together. Occasionally an aging grandparent may live with the family, but it is usually not considered desirable. Although the nuclear family unit is economically independent of the rest of the family, members of the whole family group often maintain close kinship ties. Visiting between parents and their married children and between married sisters and brothers is frequent when they live close to each other. If they live in different communities, they keep in touch by writing letters and by telephone.

In the American family the husband and wife usually share important decision making. When the children are old enough, they participate as well. Foreign observers are frequently amazed by the permissiveness of American parents. The old rule that “children should be seen and not heard” is rarely followed, and children are often allowed to do what they wish without strict parental control. Some people believe that American parents carry this freedom too far. Young people are expected to break away from their parental families by the time they have reached their late teens or early twenties.

This pattern of independence often results in serious problems for the aging parents of a nuclear family. The job-retirement age is usually 65. The children have left home, married, and set up their own households. Elderly couples feel useless and lonely with neither an occupation nor a close family group. Many communities and church groups sponsor social centers for “ senior citizens”. At these centers older men and women can make friends and participate in a variety of planned activities, including games, trips, lectures, and discussion groups. These programmes may help some old people, but they don’t provide the complete solution to the problems of old age. 

 

 

IV. Read the text

 

       Long ago (like 1960), the rhythm of the average American housewife's life was fairly standard no matter where you went. Each day had its own task, and so the work got done in a logical, orderly fashion as the week progressed. It went like this:

Monday: Wash Day

Tuesday: Ironing Day

Wednesday: Sewing Day

Thursday: Market Day

Friday: Cleaning Day

Saturday: Baking Day

Sunday: Day of Rest

       With a few variations (some folks had a gardening day instead of a separate ironing day, or the days were not quite in this order), this is the way everyone kept house for more than a hundred years.

       There was logic behind this. Laundry was far and away the heaviest task a housewife faced, requiring a great deal of strength and fortitude to hand-wring clothes and carry big baskets of wet laundry to the clothesline from the basement washtubs. Monday was the day to do it, when you were still fresh and rested from Sunday. Tuesday's ironing followed Monday's wash. Mending and sewing on Wednesday made sense when you'd just been through the clothes and noticed what needed a button or a patch. And so on.

Domestic Chores

 

For centuries domestic work has been women’s domain. Practically housework has been always done by women. Women cooked, peeled vegetables and cut meat to make dinner. Women had to stand for hours near the stove stirring the contents of the pans. Men came home, and ate all the food, leaving piles of dirty dishes.

After a good meal women had to clear away the table and wash up. Washing up is, actually, one of the most hateful domestic chores. Scraping the scraps of solid food from the dishes and then monotonously rubbing them with a soapy sponge will bore anyone. Plates can be put on a dish-drainer, but glassware and crockery should be dried with a tea-towel. Otherwise there remain spots on them. Time to waste.

To do something with this evil in the course of time men invented food-processors, microwave ovens and dishwashing machines. Of course, they are nice things, especially the last two. Food-processors are not bad either, but if a woman doesn’t need big amounts of cut vegetables or freshly squeezed juice, a food processor doesn’t save time at all. It takes too much time first to adjust it and then to wash it.

Women have forever washed piles of linen. Hand washing left them exhausted and ruined their hands, because they has to pour out hot water into the basin and wash, then rinse the laundry in cold water. Delicate hands couldn’t stand the procedure. Men invented automatic washing machines. This is a real labour-saving device until you use a wrong detergent and it gets broken. And anyway, it can spin-dry the laundry, but can’t hand it out and iron it. Women iron the linen on ironing boards as they always have done.

Women have always tidied up the house, its cleanliness being a law. They swept up the dirt, watered the pot plants, and washed the floors, dirty with foot-marks because little children forgot to wipe their feet. They dusted the furniture and put things in their places. Floor-mops and wet cloths in their turn ruined the delicate hands. Lifting heavy buckets with water and shifting the furniture gave them backaches. Men invented vacuum-cleaners. These can only vacuum, but can’t do a thorough cleaning.

Men try somehow to help women. Drilling walls, driving in nails, and doing all kinds of repairs are specifically men’s duties. And still neither electrical appliances, nor men’s help can substitute for women’s hands. Without a housewife a home becomes forlorn. A story told once by one efficient housewife is quite remarkable in this way.

She went on a business trip for a month and her husband had to run the house himself. On her return she saw her house in a mess: all the things were scattered around, the carpet was stained and there was a thick layer of dust on the shelves. The kitchen was the worst: dirty dishes in a filthy sink, potato peelings and banana skins on the kitchen table, the kitchen floor smeared with some sticky stuff in one corner and littered with some scraps in the other, and a dustbin full of rubbish. He husband, happy that the wife had come back, said proudly, ‘I have cleaned everything. Have you noticed?’

 

VI. Read the text.

       Don't ask your spouse for help around the house. Asking for help gives the impression that the household chores are only your job and responsibility. Instead, ask your spouse to do his/her share. Chores around the house should be shared responsibilities.

       Set your priorities as a couple. What is truly important to each of you? Discuss how you both feel about home cooked meals versus quick meals or eating out now and then. Find out your feelings about dusting, cleaning the toilet, making the bed, mowing the lawn, paying bills, etc.

Sit down together and make a list of the chores that each of you absolutely hates to do. What one hates, the other may be able to tolerate. If both of you detest the same chore, then figure out a way to compromise in getting this particular unpleasant task done. Or perhaps you could tackle the horrid chore together, as a team. You could also find some money in your budget to hire someone to do that task.

       It is important, too, to be considerate of one another's body clocks. Some folks are morning people and some folks are night owls. Forcing one another to do a project or chore when they really aren't ready to do it only creates tension. Timing is important. So is sharing expectations.

       Let one another know what the coming week is going to be like. Meetings, special occasions, things that need to be done, etc. Then decide who is going to do what, make a list, post the list, and then let it go. Don't nag one another about what he/she volunteered to do. Some people dawdle more than others. If the task hasn't been done by the following week, when you next sit down to share expectations, that's the time to bring it up and talk about the undone chore or task.

       If one of you doesn't follow through on promises to do his/her share of the work around your home, try and discover together why there is such reluctance. Some husbands may view household chores as woman's work and not manly. Blaming your spouse for what hasn't been accomplished or finished is just wasting energy.

       Don't nag. Keep lists of chores written and posted if this is an issue in your home. After a while, the written lists probably won't be necessary.

       Be flexible and allow your spouse to accomplish a task in his/her own way. If having the towels folded a certain way is super important to you, then you fold the towels.

Many couples find they look at the division of chores differently. Domestic disorder simply doesn't bother some people. If talking it over with your spouse doesn't improve the situation, then do what many people do. Hire someone else to do it.

       If after discussing the situation, your mate absolutely refuses to share equally inhousehold chores, and you're tired of carrying the load yourself, then you have some choices to make. Bottom line, you can't change your spouse. You can hire some outside help, or you can quit doing some tasks that you don't want to do any more. The roof won't fall in just because you don't cook a 3-course meal every night, or you don't clean the bathroom on a daily basis.

        Look at some areas of your house and yard that you may want to cut back on to save both time and money. Try to get your home organized so it runs more efficiently. Ask yourself if some chores even have to be done on a regular basis. For instance, I'm a firm believer that if you don't stick to the kitchen floor, it doesn't need scrubbing. If mowing the lawn is taking too much time, sprinkle wildflower seeds out there and let nature do her thing. If you hate ironing, give the clothes away that need ironing and toss the iron. Do the windows have to always sparkle? With this type of downsizing, and an examination of your standard of housekeeping, your domestic chores may become less draining emotionally and physically.

 

V. Read the text. Explain and memorize the words in bold.

       It all starts with a proposal. Traditionally the man goes down on one knee to pop the question. If he receives a "yes", the couple are engaged. It is customary for the man to buy his fiancee an engagement ring, most commonly a diamond ring. Engagements can last for years, and if neither of the couple breaks off the engagement, the next step is marriage.

       Most weddings in the UK take the form of either a civil ceremony (conducted at the Registry Office) or a traditional white wedding, held in a church. (There are other ceremonies for different religions.) If the couple chooses a church service, the planning can become quite complex. The church must be booked, the service has to be chosen, flowers arranged and so on. Other arrangements (for both traditional and civil) are to draw up a guest list, send out invitations, book a reception venue (for after the ceremony), choose bridesmaids (the girls who traditionally accompany the bride in the church) and the best man (the bridegroom's friend who accompanies him to the ceremony), buy the wedding dress, arrange a honeymoon (the holiday after the wedding), compile a wedding list (a list of presents that guests can choose to buy the couple) and of course, to select the wedding ring (s).

                   The groom and best man arrive at the church first, and then the guests arrive. Last to arrive is the bride, normally dressed in a long white wedding dress with a train (material from the dress that covers the floor behind her), her face covered in a veil, carrying a bouquet of flowers, and accompanied by a couple of bridesmaids in matching dresses. Usually the bride's father walks her down the aisle until they reach the priest / vicar at the altar. The church organ plays the Wedding March, and the guests rise to their feet to watch the procession. Once they reach the altar, the bride stands with the groom, and the service begins. The service lasts for about half an hour, and contains readings (extracts from the Bible) and a couple of hymns (religious songs). The priest always asks if there are any objections to the marriage (someone can speak or forever hold their peace = never have the opportunity again to object), and at the end of the service, the couple exchange rings and are proclaimed “man and wife”. At that point, the groom is allowed to kiss his wife. The guests leave and the couple then sign the marriage register. When they come out of the church, the guests often throw confetti (small pieces of coloured paper), and the photographer takes various formal photographs.

       Next in the big day is the reception, which is often a formal lunch in a hotel. After lunch there are various speeches. The bride's father normally gives a speech, then the best man gives a speech (which is often a funny speech designed to embarrass the groom), and the bridegroom and / or the bride give a short speech to thank their guests

Some couples also arrange an evening reception, and hire a disco or band to play music for their friends.

       At the end of the day, the happy couple traditionally leave on honeymoon.

 

VI. Read the text. Explain and memorize the words in bold.

 

       The Russian wedding usually lasts for 2 days. The bridegroom and the bride have their family and friends with them. The bridegroom's company meets at the bridegroom's place and the bride's company meets at the bride's place. The bridegroom comes to pick up the bride and they go to the registry office where the official ceremony takes place. Usually it is only the immediate family and closest friends who accompany them. The rest of the guests join at the reception. The best friends of the bridegroom and bride usually act as their " witnesses ".

       The bridegroom and the bride go in the same train but in different cars. All cars are decorated with ribbons and balloons, often the bride's car has a doll on the bonnet, or two golden rings on top of the car (one bigger and one smaller), or both. Two crossed golden rings are a symbol of marriage that may also be seen on wedding invitations.

       At the registry office the bridegroom and bride will be asked if they want to marry each other, and they are supposed to answer "Yes", then they exchange the wedding rings, then they kiss each other, then they sign in the registry, then the witnesses sign. The official representative of the registry office says a few words of greeting, and then the official hymn of the marriage ceremony is played – the march of Mendelssohn. The guests who are present give flowers to the bride, and drink a bottle of Champagne.

       Nowadays many couples opt for a marriage in church but church marriages still do not have official status in Russia, and the church requires a civil marriage certificate to arrange the ceremony for the couple.

       After the marriage ceremony the couple leaves the guests for a tour around the city. Usually it is only the couple and the witnesses in one car but sometimes it may be two cars and the closest friends. The couple visits memorials to people who died in the Second World War and lays flowers there.

       After 2 or 3 hours of the city tour the couple arrives at the reception. The first thing to start the reception with is a toast. The first toast is to the new couple. One of the witnesses proposes the first toast, and then the parents have their say. For the first toast people usually drink champagne, and after the first sip somebody says "Gor'ko!" ("Bitter!"); it means the wine is bitter. All guests together start to shout "Gor'ko! Gor'ko!" To make the wine sweet, the newlyweds must kiss each other. They must stand up and kiss each other for as long as possible, and all the guests start counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." while they are kissing. This happens after almost every toast, so the couple has lots of kissing during the wedding.

       Usually when a person proposes the toast, he gives his gift to the newlyweds. Traditionally money is considered to be the best gift, and is given in an envelope. Then people have time to dance.

       On the following day the party is given at the place where the newlyweds are going to live. It starts in the morning or early afternoon. The couple wears different clothes but it must be something new bought specially for the occasion. The number of guests on the second day is smaller; actually anyone from day one can attend the party but it is usually only the closest friends and members of the family that do.

 

TOPICAL VOCABULARY                                                                             (* optional words)

 

1. adolescence 2. adult 3. alarm goes off 4. altar* 5. artist 6. aunt 7. be born 8. beautician* 9. behave 10. bride 11. bridesmaid 12. builder 13. campus 14. catch the bus/train 15. childhood 16. clubbing 17. cook 18. couch potato 19. cut the grass 20. date smb 21. dentist 22. develop 23. doctor 24. dormitory 25. do one’s homework 26. do the cleaning 27. do the ironing 28. do the shopping 29. do the vacuuming 30. do the washing 31. do the washing-up 32. driver 33. dust the furniture 34. early twenties 35. electrician 36. empty the dishwasher 37. empty the rubbish 38. engineer 39. expect a child 40. fall asleep 41. fall in/out of love 42. feed pets 43. flirt with smb 44. freedom 45. gardener 46. get dressed 47. get pregnant* 48. get up/get out of bed 49. give birth to a child 50.  go/come home

51. go shopping 52. go to bed/go to sleep 53. go to/come back from school/work 54. go to the cinema (movies)/theatre 55. go to the gym 56. go out with smb 57. great-aunt 58. great-grandmother 59. great-great-grandfather 60. grow up 61. groom 62. hairdresser* 63. half-brother 64. have a baby 65. have a bath/shower 66. have breakfast/lunch/dinner 67. have classes 68. hen night * 69. hit snooze* 70. honeymoon 71. household chores 72. keep fit 73. lad * 74. late twenties 75. laundry 76. lawyer 77. listening to music 78. lose weight 79. make the bed 80. married 81. mead * 82. mid-twenties 83. misfortune 84. mop the floor 85. move 86. nationality 87. nephew 88. niece 89. nuclear family * 90. nurse 91. pageboy * 92. parental consent 93. play tennis /football/basketball 94. play the piano/the guitar/the drums 95. play (video) games 96. policeman 97. polish furniture

98. propose 99. raise a family 100. receptionist * 101. relative 102. retire 103. rollerblading * 104. sales assistant 105. secretary 106. see smb 107. separate 108. settle down 109. share a room 110. siblings 111. single 112. single-parent/one-parent family 113. skateboarding 114. skiing/skating 115. snowboarding 116. spell 117. split up 118. spouse 119. squat * 120. stag party * 121. step-mother 122. step-sister 123. stuntman * 124. surf the Internet 125. surname 126. sweep the floor 127. switch on/off 128. take the dog for a walk 129. teacher 130. threshold * 131. throw out the garbage 132. tidy up 133. tragedy 134. trend 135. turn on/off the light 136. uncle 137. vacuum the floor 138. wake up 139. wash the clothes 140. wash the dishes 141. watch TV 142. water the flowers 143. wedding 144. wedding cake/ ring/ vows/ ceremony 145. widow

RELATED READING II

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GENERATION SEX

  Remember that Hilaire Belloc`s cautionary tale – Matilda told such dreadful lies, it made one gasp and stretch ones`s eyes? I used to love it as a child when telling lies was one of the naughtiest things you could do: Matilda ended up getting burned to death.

  These days, however, everything has changed and it`s the truths that children tell that make one gasp and stretch one`s eyes.

  A couple of years ago, my daughter Francesca, then aged 13, told me about a party she had been to one Saturday night.

  In the course of the evening, she came upon one of her friends, also aged 13, performing oral sex on a boy in the garden; the boy was standing and videoing the event on his mobile phone.

  My daughter, in whom the feisty gene has always found strong expression, pulled her friend off the boy, knocked the phone out of his hand and slapped him round the face.

  I apologise for shocking you, but then there are a number of things shocking about this event: the casual nature in which such an intimate act is performed in public, the young age of the participants and last, but by no means least, the fact that it is being filmed. This not only signals the boy`s disassociation from the physical experience, it also indicated his intention to replay the event and, no doubt, to share his triumph with his friends as one might brandish a trophy above one`s head for all to see.

  Nor was this the only such event on this particular evening. I am no prude, but Francesca painted a picture of Bacchanalia that certainly made me gasp.

  That week at school, when conducting a postmortem of their weekend as teenagers do (and always have done), the girls at her then school (she`s since moved), a private girls` school in London exclaimed: ‘Hurrah, now we are more slutty than Slutney’, the affectionate nickname of another school.

  Call me old-fashioned, but when I was a gal, sluttishness was not a condition one aspired to.

  That year, they were all dressing in Hooters T-shirts (the uniform of the well-endowed waitresses of a U.S restaurant chain whose slogan ‘delightfully tacky yet unrefined’ sums up its approach) and buttock-skimming shorts. They looked, as girls so often do, far older than their 13 years and not unlike the Playboy Bunnies who incensed a generation of feminists. (Interestingly, clothing depicting the distinctive Playboy bunny is highly popular now among teenage girls.)

  When one considers our society, it`s no surprise that our children have lost all sense of modesty.

  Not only do social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo encourage teens to share information about themselves; but when they are not taking their clothes off, their role models are spilling their guts about their ‘private’ lives all over the pages of every national newspaper, magazine and television. We have an immoderate interest in the private lives of perfect strangers. Pop stars like Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears expose the car crash that their life for all to see. Jordan, who won fame by revealing her breasts, has a documentary series where she and her husband, Peter Andre, discuss their sex life (or lack of it) in intimate detail.

  The Osbournes revealed all for our entertainment in their television series. Was this extraordinary exposure responsible in part for the subsequent drug and alcohol abuse of the two of their children who participated? One can`t help feeling it might have been. Their third child, Amy, wisely chose to stay out of the limelight. Whatever its exponents may say, reality television has a lot to answer for. I have been a documentary film-maker for more than two decades and am well aware of the power of the medium. Today`s teenagers are staring in the reality show of their own lives and doing all they can to make it as dramatic as possible.

  Where before mistakes we made when young – excessive drinking, acts of promiscuity – were quietly forgotten, now they are recorded and broadcast on the internet for all to see. From happy slapping to amateur sex videos (Paris Hilton rose to fame when a shamelessly intimate video of her and her boyfriend found its way on to the internet, a reality TV show followed, and the rest, as they say, is history).

  The sexualisation of our young is ubiquitous: boys caught cheating on their girlfriends on mobile phones, ritual humiliation and worse by YouTube (In February 2008, a gang of London teenagers aged 14 to 16 drugged and raped a woman in front of her children and then posted the film of the attack, videoed on a mobile phone, on YouTube), television programmes like Sex And The City with man-eating Samantha as the living embodiment of casual libidinous sex, all provide the back projection to our children`s lives.

  Instant fame is all. In today`s celebrity culture, no one cares how you made your name, as long as you`ve made it; there is no distinction between fame and notoriety. Do you really want things that you`ve done when drunk to be plastered all over the internet? These images are like