She is a control freak and very good at getting her way. She is constantly worried about her three children and often forces Ben to go out of his way to monitor or look after them. She is a tour guide but seems to spend most of her time at home. She is a terrible cook, and the rest of the family often have to sneak the food she has prepared into the bin without her noticing.
Janey Harper
He is the oldest of the three siblings. He is a complete layabout who is constantly changing jobs - one minute, a self employed stunt-man, the next a sperm-donor. He is extremely laid-back and certainly cannot be trusted to carry out an important task or look after money
Nick Harper
Fashion-conscious, money-loving, boy-mad, she spends all her time on the phone, switching boyfriends or pestering her parents for money so she can go shopping.
Michael Harper
He is a dentist who is constantly grumpy and sarcastic. When he is not at work sacking another assistant, he is at home trying to relax (which never works). Ben isn't all bad though, behind his moody exterior he does really love his family and has to put up with being bossed about and manipulated by his wife
Susan Harper
He is the youngest of the children. He is a smart, clever, geeky adolescent. He looks down on his family as he is more sensible than the rest of them put together and often ends up having to get them out of trouble.
Comment upon the meaning of the expressions and reproduce the context of the episode where they were used.
· It gives you that "fingers slammed in the car door" look.
· Portable does not mean submergible
· Stop laying the guilt trip on me
· We had a rewarding e-relationship going
· a 48-year-old gas fitter
· You know parents say they'll love you no matter what?
· To end up with a stalker.
· I booked her into another dentist
· To fob smb off
· Yellow Pages
· Some dentists aren't rude, grumpy and donn’t think an effective painkiller is "Shut up!"
· A cobbler
· Pearlescent
· Knickers
· her father is chairman of a major electronics business
· "pull the other one"
· a rebel
· a tank top
· To savour
· “Toad in the hole”
· The fount of all girlie wisdom
· A probation officer
· Blinkered (adj)
· dentistry
· wasteland
· "airheaded shopping machine from hell"
· a schoolgirl crush
· epithelial cuff
· a molar
· cracked filling
· handiwork
· fraud
· to give smb the creeps
· to botch smth
· defecating rodent
· to hear through the grapevine
· a bloke
· 50 quid
· to type in a keyword
· I'm getting the hang of this!
· To be judgmental
· a gourmet cook
· a disinterested party
· to digress
· a framework
· a scaffold
· to let his family go to pot
· a sucker
· a total git
· to floss
Discussion questions
1.Do you believe in the saying “a cobbler without shoes”? Can you give any examples?
2.What do you think of the idea of getting acquainted via the Internet? Dwell on the upsides and downsides of this way of finding a partner.
3. Can a person get a kick out of being a dentist? Why is Ben always grumpy and sarcastic about his profession?
4. What age do you think children should fly the nest? Should parents help them to start their own life or should they do it on their own?
