03-04 FAMILY

• English
• Special Education

AKINATOR GAME

Think about a real or fictional character!

Reading

In most families there are two children, a mother, and a father. Of course, it's difficult to tell because there are families with more than two children and many couples get divorced and the children usually stay with the mother. In some families there are three generations living together. This means that one or both the grandparents live with the family too, and they help with the housework and they also look after the children while the parents are at work. I have a relatively large family: my parents, a younger sister and an elder brother, and my grandmother. She moved to our house after the death of my grandfather three years ago. My father is 44 years old. He is a tall man with curly brown hair and a moustache. He works as a corporate lawyer for a big international company. Although he's very busy, he has several hobbies.

He does woodwork, plays tennis regularly, and sometimes goes hunting, and he always finds time to be with us as well. My mother is an elegant slender woman. She has big blue eyes, and she has her hair dyed red. She is a nursery school teacher, and on every second day she teaches aerobics for women. Her hobby is knitting and embroidery, and she took up patchwork about a year ago. My grandmother is at home and helps her with the housework. She's an excellent cook and she always prepares our favourite dishes. My younger sister is 8 years old and goes to a nearby primary school. She takes after my mother in both her appearance and character.

She's kind and intelligent and likes going to school very much because she has lots of friends there. She goes to piano lessons twice a week, and she's good at swimming too. My elder brother is a university student. He studies engineering in the capital where he rents a flat near the university with two of his friends. I miss him very much because I can discuss everything with him. He comes home almost every weekend and we go to the gyrn together. As we both are great movie fans, we go to the cinema nearly every Saturday evening. We have a dog, a cat, a tortoise, and some fish in the aquarium in the living room. I and my brother look after all the pets and sometimes my father takes the dog for a walk to the park. I give the dog dogfood and some hot dogs or meat in the evenings. 

 

The cat is fed by my brother, who gives it catfood and some milk. The tortoise likes fresh lettuce the most. We clean the aquarium every month and feed the fish in the mornings. A vet comes to see the pets once a year. He vaccinates the dog and the cat and prescribes some vitamins if necessary. When we are on holiday; either our neighbours

or my grandparents look after the pets. We live together in a big house. My grandmother lives downstairs and we live upstairs. We usually get together on Sundays when my grandmother cooks lunch for the whole family, including my cousins and their parents. Of course, we meet my grandmother on others days too, but we don't spend much time together.

 

Discuss the following:

1. What is the average family like in Hungary?
2. What is your own family like?
   
3. In what ways do you take after the members of your family in appearance and character?
   
4. How about household pets? Have you got one? Who looks after the pets in your family?
   
5. Do you live at home? Do your grandparents live with you?
6. Do you get on well with your family?
7. Do you spend a lot of time with your family? What sort of things do you do together?

Discuss the following:

1. Has your relationship with your parents and other members of your family changed as you have grown older?
2. Do you have a lot of relatives?
3. Do you think that large families are happy families?
4. What do you think might be the effects of technology on family life?
   
5. What factors are important in deciding when to leave home?
   
6. What is the ideal age to start a family?
   
7. What is your opinion of early marriages?
8. How do you imagine your future family?

Goodbye!