I. Translate and explain the following words and phrases. Then, use them to describe the modern tendencies in family life. You can do it in the form of the snowball game
Immediate/nuclear family● the basic unit of the society ● traditional family values ● mainstay of national life ●go out to work ● stay at home ●households ● married couple ● second marriage ● previous marriage ● live alone/together ●solitary nation ● cohabiting ● rear children● work outside the home ●go back to work ●SAHM ●raise /adopt children ●foster children
Russian Family: What is it Like?
Lead in
Ø The number of nuclear families is reducing both in Britain and in the USA. Is the situation different in Russia? What kind of difficulties are young families likely to have? Think of your and your friends’ families; share the information with your group mates.
Reading
I. In pairs, read the following statements and try to guess if they are true (T) or false (F). Then, read the text quickly to check if you have guessed right.
| T | F | |
| 1)Many of the Russians know the history of their families. | ||
| 2) More than a half of every 100 marriages end in divorce. | ||
| 3) Many divorcees do not want to remarry. | ||
| 4) A housing shortage is a problem of young families. |
II. Now read the text in detail. Answer all the questions above. What is your family like?
Russian Family: What Is It Like?
So what is it like, the family tradition? Whose descendantsare we? What are the stories your granny used to tell? What can family albums, letters and diaries reveal? What is your grandfather’s name? What is the name of your great-grandfather? Many of the Russians are not able to answer these simple questions. The family tradition is lost for them. And it is one of the reasons why most people have no sense of familyhonor and pride.
A group of people who have the same name and sit together in front of the TV set is not yet a family. Here are some family statistics in Russia. Over 80 per cent of women and about 70 per cent of men marry by the age of 25.
At present, more than 40 out of every 100 marriages end in divorce. Every year about one million families break up. About 50 per cent of divorced do not want to remarry. Men remarry more often than women. Over 50 per cent of divorced men remarry within the period of ten years, while only 25 per cent of such women do so. Many young families have material difficulties. As a result, young couples often have to rely on the assistance of their parents.
The housing shortage is another problem of many young families. Most young people don’t wish to live together with their parents after they get married but half of them have to do this. As a result, these young people have no necessary experience in family life. They don’t know how to run household, how to manage the family budget, how to bring up children.
In its various forms the human family has been in existence for as long as man himself. The family tradition has preserved the picture of a Madonna with a child in her arms. Can this beauty save the world? Shall we have this tradition in future, or lose it, as we lost so many other beautiful things?
Vocabulary practice