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Lesson one text: a glimpse of London. Grammar

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Who is head of the family?
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READING


Ex 41 Read the text, and do the assignments coming after it.


Although much has been written about this subject, whenever we are puzzled about it, we ask the question: What is love? Love means different things to different people. Children regard love from their point of view, while they are very young. As we grow older, love grows into different dimensions with our maturing. Love changes constantly, because we change from day to day.

There are different kinds of love. Whereas we live in a mechanized world, we hold a special affection for nature. When you look at the lake, your heart is glad that the water is there. Unless you spend a week in the mountains, you will not know the beneficial effects of mountain air. As soon as the sea wave touched your foot, you realized why you had always wanted to be at the seashore.

Wherever there is a family, there is the love of a parent for the child. Warmth and support are basic needs. There is also the love of a child for its parent. Family love means being your natural self. For parents, it means caring for someone's needs more than for themselves. Before thinking of themselves, parents will help their children. Once you have found the need to be with someone, you will also feel the desire to share and care. As long as man has existed, family love has been the cornerstone of civilized society.

When true love comes, you do not look for sensations, which are indepen­dent of one another. You feel a lasting affection for each other. Two people unite into one. You want to give everything to the person you love. Now that you've found love, you're only afraid that your loved one might die first.

Love has been called an "abstract" thing, which means that it is difficult to define. But for those who desire it, it is very real. They find comfort in the touch of a hand, or a kiss or being close to someone dear. Sick persons can become well again, as soon as love enters their hearts. Love can overcome family feuds, it can bring together people of dif­ferent ages, as well as ethnic and national background. Love brings people together, because they care.

(After "Love" by William Samelson)


Assignments


(a) Quickly look through the list and mark the lettered phrase nearest in meaning to the word or phrase tested.


1. Be puzzled about: (i) be interested in; (ii) be surprised at; (iii) not be clear on.

2. Regard: (i) look at; (ii) respect; (iii) guess.

3. Constantly: (i) some of the time; (ii) from time to time; (iii) all the time.

4. Whereas: (i) for the reason that; (ii) nevertheless; (iii) yet.

5. Beneficial: (i) healthy; (ii) unhealthy; (iii) satisfactory.

6. Share: (i) talk with another; (ii) work out together with another; (iii) use together with another.


(b) Explain difference between:

1. "Love" and "affection". 2. "Ethnic" and "national".

(c) Select the statement which best expresses the main idea of the text. Give your reasons.


1. Love means different things to different people. 2. Love changes constantly, because we change from day to day. 3. There are different kinds of love. 4. As long as man has existed, family love has been the cornerstone of civilized society. 5. Love brings people together, because they care.


(d) Sum up what the text has to say on each of the following points.


1. The definition of love. 2. The different kinds of love. 3. Family love and its importance to society. 4. True love. 5. Love in the life of an individual.


(e) Say if the author also believes that love is an "abstract" thing.


(f) It is true that warmth and support are basic needs. But is it the family alone that can offer warmth and support to a person?


(g) Give your understanding of "being your natural self".


(h) Read the text critically, and offer your criticism of the author's statements, arguments, and conclusions.


(i) Write a précis of the text.


Ex 42 Read the text carefully, without a dictionary. While reading, pay special attention to the words you don't know: look carefully at the context and see if you can get an idea of what they mean. During the second reading pick out the key sentences. Write a summary of the article.


WHO IS HEAD OF THE FAMILY?


Before the Great October Socialist Revolution the man was the breadwinner, the head of the family. The revolutionary upheavals, how­ever, led to marriage becoming a union of two free and independent people. Women acquired legal, economic and thus psychological inde­pendence.

In most cases in the Soviet Union today both husband and wife are breadwinners. What happens about the head of the family?

On the sociologists' questionnaires more and more people now de­scribe their families as being without a head, especially when the form-filler is young and has a higher education.

The old traditions are crumbling, but still current. The present concept of "head of family" is not the old one. Our sociologists define the role as "the exercise of distributive and regulatory functions essential to family life".

With the real strength the woman has now acquired in the family it is not she who is dependent — the others are dependent on her.

The once weaker sex manages so much and decides so much that the force of real infra-family power is willy-nilly concentrated in her hands. At the same time she is the head of the family, yet not quite its head, for in the family she is simultaneously everything rolled into one.

But does a woman need to become the family head? The family re­produces the social structure of society, and in the democratic society it is hardly essential to prescribe which of the partners must be the head. In fact, why have a head?

It is far more reasonable to suppose that in each case the leading position should go to whichever partner is able to fulfil the role better and more efficiently.

Whatever happens, things will never again be as they used to be in the family, however much some may sigh for this. The family is a liv­ing organism, reacting sensitively to socio-economic changes.