Growing up and growing old

NOTE:The period between 13 and 17 approximately is called adolescence,and the boy / girl is an adolescent.

Sam was bornin Scotland but when he was two, his father got a new job in Los Angeles, and he grew upin California. He went to universityat 19 where he metAnthea. He went out with her (= she was his girlfriend;he was her boyfriend)for three years, but towards the end they had lots of rows(= arguments) and finally they split up(= separated/ended their relationship). In his mid-twentieshe met Marie. They fell in loveand, got marriedwithin six months. One year later she got pregnantand they had their first child, a boy. But the marriage was not a success. Sam lefttwo years afterwards and they got divorced(= the marriage ended officially). Four years later, Marie remarried(= got married again), and as you can see in the picture, she is now expectinga second baby (= she’s pregnant).

3.3 What stage of life are these people at?

1 Paul isn’t two yet, so he’s still a …toddler… .

2 Albert was a bus driver for 40 years but stopped work two years ago, so he’s now ………. .

3 Susan is 25, so she is in her ………. .

4 Caroline is 48 this year so she is now in her ………. .

5 Ron is 33 and his wife is 32, so they are both in their ………. .

6 Joan is 75 this year, so she is quite ………. .

7 Jason was born six weeks ago, so he’s a ………. .

8 Leyla is 13 this year, so she’ll soon be a ………. .

9 Ravi is 18 this year, so legally he becomes an ………. .

10 15 is often a difficult age for boys going through ………. .

3.4 Are these sentences true or false about the people? If false, write the correct answer below.

1 Sam was born in Ireland.

2 He grew up in the south of Ireland.

3 He went out with Anthea for two years.

4 They split up because Sam went to live in Japan.

5 Sam fell in love with Marie.

6 They had a baby a year after they got married.

7 Marie is now expecting her third child.

8 Marie left Sam.

3.5 Find the logical ending for each of the sentence beginnings on the left and construct Rebecca’s life.

3.6 You will often meet sentences that refer back to important information contained earlier in the text. These reference sentences can help you work out the answers to some of the multiple-choice questions. Reference sentences usually – but not always – contain words like this, that, these, those, etc.

1)Match the sentences (a-d) with the statements they refer back to (1-4).

1 I grew up in a huge family and I helped my mother look after the younger children. It never crossed my mind to complain about having to do this. As kids, we all knew we had to help out.

2 I was an only child and my parents gave me everything. They worried about me all the time and they were very selective about the children they would allow me to play with.

3 When I was a child we lived really well. We had a beautiful house, a maid and expensive foreign holidays. My parents never saved a penny. Then my father lost his job. After that, we were always terribly short of money and I couldn't go to college because I had to go out and get a job.

4 I was very close to my grandparents when I was growing up. They used to take me out and buy me things and tell me all kinds of stories which I loved listening to.

a) All that made me a rather nervous and selfish person, if I’m honest.

b) This is why I feel it is very important that my children should spend time with my own parents.

c) That’s the kind of upbringing which teaches you to get on well with other people and to be unselfish.

d) That experience showed me how important it is to look after your money.

2) Read the following paragraphs of a text about a person’s upbringing and answer the multiple-choice questions.

I grew up in a small industrial town. My parents both worked in a nearby factory. Few families in the town were well-off but most of us were content with our lives. More than anything, it was the closeness of our families that kept us happy. On Sundays, everyone would put on their best clothes and go out to visit relatives and friends. All of us were brought up to understand the importance of our families to us and we developed a strong sense of belonging to the community we grew up in. Those values have stayed with me throughout my life.

● What do the words those values in the above sentence in italics refer to?

A) respecting your family and the people around you

B) being happy to work in a factory all your life

C) keeping in touch with relatives as well as with friends

D) wearing respectable clothes when you go out on Sundays

Although our town was industrial, it was surrounded by beautiful unspoilt country. As a child, I spent hours on end playing with my brothers and sisters, cousins and friends in the woods around the town, catching fish in a nearby river and, in the summer, swimming in the freezing water. We would all rush out of the house after breakfast, appear briefly for our lunch, which we ate as fast as we possibly could, and then we would be off again out of the house to meet our friends. By the evening, we were so tired that we couldn't stay awake and had to be carried to bed by our parents. / often wish my own children could have grown up like that.

● What do the words like that in the above sentence in italics refer to?

A) living in an industrial area

B) being free to go out and play all day

C) having a river nearby

D) being tired and ready to go to bed early

My parents couldn't afford to send me to college so I had to get a job. Like most of my relatives, I went to work in a local factory. I was assigned to the accounts office where one of my uncles worked. I knew I would have to wait years to get a good position there. Many people, including my parents, told me I was lucky to have got a job in that department because there were a lot of people unemployed. / knew I could never look at life in this way.After just six months in the job, I walked out.

● What does the phrase look at life in this way in the above sentence in italics refer to?

A) wanting to work with your relatives

B) accepting that you cannot go to college

C) wanting to have a high position

D) being satisfied with whatever you have got

I moved to a city in the south of the country where, after a lot of hard work, I built up a whole business empire. Today, I am one of the richest people in the country. I have children of my own now, who I send to an expensive private school. I have seen most parts of the world and I own several houses, racehorses and a private collection of classic cars. On the other hand, I often remember how happy I was while I was growing up. Then I wonder if such thingsare, in the end, all that important.

● What do the words such things in the above sentence in italics refer to?

A) moving to another part of the country

B) the experiences of your childhood

C) living the typical lifestyle of a wealthy person

D) being able to give children a private education

3.7 Study the information. Before you read the text answer the following questions:

1 Who do you live with?

2 Do other members of your family live near you, or do you have to travel to see them?

MODERN FAMILIES

What is a “traditional” family nowadays? With more and more couples choosing not to get married, and with the number of divorces and second marriages increasing, the idea of the “traditional family” (two married parents, an average of two children, grandparents living nearby) is rapidly disappearing in some countries. Here are some personal examples and statistics from the English-speaking world.

3.8Read the texts and find out how many people Callum, Meera, Ben and Trudi share a house with.

● My name’s Meera, and I live in Wolverhampton, near Birmingham, in England. I live with my parents, my brother and my sister. My grandmother lives next door. My mum was born here in Britain, but my grandmother moved here from India in the 1960s when my dad was a little boy. My dad has two sisters - Auntie Sunita and Auntie Rani. Auntie Sunita lives in the same street as us, and Auntie Rani lives in Birmingham, which is only 15 miles away. They’re both married, and I’ve got five cousins. We see them almost every week. Someone is always visiting our house, or we go to Birmingham to see them. And two years ago we all went to India to see our family there.

● I’m Callum, and I live with my parents in Cambridge, in the east of England. We moved here when I was five because of Dad’s job, but my mum comes from the north of England, and Dad comes from Scotland. I’ve got a grandma in Edinburgh and a granddad in Yorkshire. And I've got two cousins who live near London, because that’s where Dad’s sister and her husband live. We see my cousins about three times a year, and we go up to Edinburgh every New Year, but I can’t remember when I last saw my granddad in Yorkshire. He always sends me presents, though!

● I’m Ben, from Portland, Oregon, and my family is a bit complicated! I’ve got a sister called Ella, but three years ago my parents got divorced and now both of them are re-married. We live with my mom, Julie, and my stepfather, Bob. Bob’s got a daughter called Daisy, but she doesn’t live with us, she lives with her mom. My father’s name is Pete. He and his second wife have just had a baby boy, Charles, so I’ve got a new half-brother!

● My name’s Trudi, and I’ve got a sister called Beth. Our mum and dad are divorced, so we live with just our mum in the o suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Our dad has an apartment in the centre of town, and we spend a every other weekend there. After school every day we go to our grandma’s house and have a meal there, because our mum doesn’t finish work until six o’clock. She collects us at half past six, except on Wednesday evenings when we go swimming with our dad.

3.9 Underline the correct alternatives to complete the sentences.

1 Callum’s aunt and uncle / grandparents live near London.

2 Callum often / sometimes sees his cousins.

3 Meera’s aunts both live near / faraway.

4 Meera often / rarely sees her cousins.

5 Daisy is Ben’s half-sister / stepsister.

6 Julie is Pete’s ex-wife / stepmother.

7 Trudi’s mum and dad live in different place s/ together.

8 Trudi never sees her dad / sees her dad regularly.

3.10 ROLE PLAY.Getting to know you

STUDENT A

Get to know something about Student B by asking him/her questions and filling in the following form. (Student B will also ask you questions.)

STUDENT B

Get to know something about Student A by asking him / her questions and filling in the following form. (Student A will also ask you questions.)

● Before starting, work out which questions to ask. For example:

What’s your name? Have you got any sisters?

When and where were you born? When did you start learning English?

● When, you have finished, use the answers Student A / B gave you to retell about his / her background.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2423