Study the following words and word combinations.

1. engagement, betrothal

• to be engaged
• to be betrothed
• to be plighted lovers

2. wedding

3. bride, fiancée

4. bridegroom, fiancé

5. matrimony

6. marriage

• to get married

· to marry smb.

Ø for love

Ø for money

· to be married to smb.

· to be married in a religious rite

· to be married in a civil form of marriage (civil marriage)

7. registry office

8. a newly-married couple

9. a love match

10. a misalliance

11. a marriage of convenience

12. marriage certificate (marriage lines)

13. to carry marriage seriously (lightly)

14. wedding ring

15. engagement ring

16. honeymoon

17. conjugal ties

18. conjugal union

19. matron of honour/bridesmaid

20. best man

21. pageboy

22. a couple

23. spouse

• husband
• wife

24. family

· a nuclear family

· a single-parent family

· a blended family

· an empty-nest family

· an extended family

· a consensual union

· a same-sex union

25. parents

• old folks at home
• father, dad
• mother, mum

26. children

• son, daughter
• senior son (daughter)
• junior son
• eldest daughter
• youngest daughter

27. full brother (sister)

28. siblings

• brother
• sister

29. ancestors

30. grandparents

• grandfather (grand-papa, grandpa, grand-dad)

• grandmother (grand-mamma, grandma, granny)

31. great-grandparents

• great grandfather
• great grandmother

32. descendants

33. grandchildren

• grandson
• granddaughter

34. great grandchildren

• great grandson
• great granddaughter

35. relatives

• distant relatives
• close relatives on my mother’s/father’s side

36. to have relationsto smb.

37. to be related tosmb.

• by birth
• by affinity

38. first cousin

39. second cousin, etc.

40. uncle

41. aunt, auntie

42. niece

43. nephew

44. to remarry

45. step-father (mother)

46. step-children (step-son/daughter)

47. step-brother (sister)

48. half-brother (sister)

49. adoption

• to adopt an orphan

50. paternity of the child is unknown

51. foster-brother/sister

52. foster child

53. foster-father (mother)

54. father (mother)-in-law

55. twins (twin-brothers/sisters)

56. triplets

57. in-laws

• son (daughter)-in-law

· sister (brother)-in-law

· father-in-law

· mother-in-law

58. godchild

• godson/goddaughter

59. godparents

• godfather/mother

60. a widow (grass widow)

61. spinster

62. an expectant mother

63. widower

64. bachelor

65. she has five children each smaller than the last

66. rising generation

67. he is a pet-model

68. toddlers (tiny tots)

69. polygamy

· polygyny

· polyandry

70. fictive kin

71. to raise (to bear) children

72. to divorce, to get a divorce

· a divorcée

73. trial separation

74. incompatibility

75. adultery

76. alimony

77. maintenance

78. divorce court

79. to dissolve/annul marriage

80. to award a decree nisi

Read and translate the introductory text.

A Family

Marriageis a thing which only a rare person in his or her life avoids. True bachelorsandspinsters make up only a small percent of the population; most single people are “alone but not lonely”. Millions of others get married because of the fun of family life. And it is fun, if one takes a sense of humour. There is a lot of fun in falling in love with someone and chasing the prospective fiancée, which means dating and going out with the candidate. All the relatives (parents, grandparents and great-grand-parents, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, stepmothers and stepfathers and all in-laws) meanwhile have the fun of criticizing your choice and giving advice. The trick here is not to listen to them but propose to your bride-to-be and somehow get her to accept your proposal. Then you may arrange the engagement and fix the day of the wedding.

What fun it is to get all those things, whose names start with the word “wedding” – dress, ring, cars, flowers, cakes, etc.! It’s great fun to pay for them. It’s fun for the bride and the groom to escape from the guests and go on a honeymoon trip, especially if it is a wedding present from the parents. The guests remain with the fun of gossiping whether you married for love or for money.

It’s fun to return back home with the idea that the person you are married to is somewhat different from the one you knew. But there is no time to think about it because you are newly-weds and you expect a baby. There is no better fun for a husband than taking his wife to a maternity home alone and bringing her back with the twins or triplets. And this is where the greatest fun starts: washing the new-born’s nappies and passing away sleepless nights, earning money to keep the family, taking children to kindergarten and later to school. By all means it’s fun to attend parent’s meeting and to learn that your children take after you and don’t do well at school.

The bigger your children grow, the more they resemble you outwardly and the less they display likeness with you inwardly. And you start grumbling at them and discussing with your old friends the problem of the “generation gap”. What fun!

And when at last you and your grey-haired spouse start thinking that your family life has calmed down, you haven’t divorced but preserved your union, the climax of your fun bursts out! One of your dearest off-springs brings a long-legged blonde to your house and says that he wants to marry. And you think: ‘Why do people ever get married?’

PART 1

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1317