Define the type of the family.

1. We are many. All the members of our family have close relations. We live together.

2. They have the only child who is in the centre of their attention.

3. We are many. We share our parents’ attention.

4. We enjoy doing many things together with our grandparents who live with us.

5. There are only two of us. We do everything together.

6. When I have a problem I can always find a person to discuss it with.

7. Sometimes I feel a lack of one parent badly.

8. My father is my best friend. But I have no mother. She is dead. I have a stepmother.

9. They are good parents but all their children are adoptive.

10. They are unhappy because there are no children in their family.

Fill in the missing words and word combinations from the list below.

1. I ___________ with my parents and all of us ___________ of each other. 2. My ___________ are my best friends and we never ___________. 3. He is a bad father, he doesn’t feel ___________ for his family. 4. I have many uncles and aunts so I have many ___________ . 5. My mother is going to marry again, so I’ll have a ___________ . 6. I ___________ my room with my sister. 7. My grandfather’s ___________ is my grandmother. 8. They ___________ adoptive children but they love them very much. 9. My sister ___________ but I know that she doesn’t love her ___________ . 10. Small families, so-called ___________ are typical for most European societies. 11. If parents ___________ , children are left with a mother or a father only. 12. She is in a bad ___________ today. 13. Family relations ___________ on many things. 14. He does everything ___________ to be happy. 15. How many members does your family ___________ of?

______________________________
responsibility, stepfather, get on well, share, mood, take care, siblings, consist, are divorced, bring up, nuclear families, depend, husband, in order, relatives, wife, is married, quarrel

Match the phrases in column A with those in column B. More than one answer is possible.

Model: I am the youngest in my family. It’s a disadvantage. Everyone tells me what to do.

Would you prefer to be the only child or one of two or three children?

A	B
1. I am the youngest in my family. 2. A disadvantage of being the only child is that … 3. An advantage of being the only child is that … 4. I get along well with my brothers and sisters. 5. The advantage of having brothers and sisters is that … 6. I always quarrel with my brothers and sisters because …	a) It’s an advantage. b) It’s a disadvantage. c) I am the centre of attention. d) they tease (дразнят) me. e) I always share personal secrets with them. f) they are my best friends. g) everyone tells me what to do. h) I can do whatever I want. i) we always take care of each other. j) we spend a lot of time together. k) I have nobody to play and share secrets with.

A) Match the verbs to the nouns.

to wash to dust to do to iron to vacuum to clean to mop (мыть, протирать шваброй)

the beds the carpets the clothes the dishes the windows the floors the furniture

b) Which of these household chores do you do? How often? Which do you like/not mind/hate doing?

Model: I sometimes wash the dishes in the evening.

Complete the sentences with the word combinations from the box.

to cook meals, the “hovering”, organized among the members of our family, iron, to keep the flat tidy, do, household chores, take care, my usual round of duties, keeping the house, shopping, wash up

My Household Chores

As I am very busy I can’t help my parents much in ___________. But still I have some ___________. I ___________ my room and my bed and ___________. It’s not difficult ___________ if you do your rooms regularly. Once a week I help my mother to do some other work about the house, ___________or ___________ the clothes, for example. This is ___________.

My brother has his own duties. He repairs electric appliances, does ___________ and goes ___________. All the duties are ___________. But we ___________ of each other and help each other.

Answer the questions.

1. How big is your family? What type of family is it? Are you married? 2.Do you have any brothers or sisters? Are you the oldest among your siblings? How old are they? 3. Do you have any children? If yes, what are their names and ages? 4. Do you like your family? Why or why not? 5. Do you live with any of your grandparents? 6. Do you often argue with your mother or father? What about? 7. Do you often visit your grandparents? 8. How do your parents look like? (tall, short, relatively normal height, slender, a little bit plump, lovely, good-looking, handsome, attractive, fair hair (blonde), brunette, brown-haired, wavy / curly / straight / long / short hair, medium length hair, to be bold = to have no hair, to wear glasses, fair / lightly tanned skin, swarthy, moustaches, beard, high forehead, long eyelashes, even white teeth, rosy cheeks) 9. What are the occupations of your family members? 10. What does your father do? What’s his job? 11. Do you call your parents by name? 12. Are you pressured by your family to act in a certain way? 13. Are your parents strict? 14. Do you get along well with your family? 15. Do you usually haveany influence on family matters? 16. Do your parents let you stay out late? 17. How often is your entire family together? 18. What do you and your family like to do together? 19. Who do you get along better with, your mother or your father? 20. Which do you think is more important: following the dreams your parents want for you or following your own dreams? 21. What was the most important thing your parents taught you? 22. Do your parents get along well with each other? 23. How do you share household duties in your family? 24. Who keeps the house? 25. Do you help each other to do the work about the house? 26. Who does the cooking? 27. Are you a good cook? 28. What is your usual round of duties?

GRAMMAR EXERCISES