Text 2 Families Have a Great-Great Future

Twenty years ago, the typical extended family was “wide”. It usually consisted of two or three generations, with many children in each “nuclear family”. People had lots of aunts and uncles but often didn’t know their grandparents. However, according to a new study by the British research group Mintel, the family is changing shape. The family groups of the future will be ”long and thin”, with three or four small generations.

Here are some of their predictions:

1. Most children will know their great-grandparents (and even great-great-parents)

because people are living longer

2. Very few children will have brothers and sisters, and it will be common to be an only

child. As a result, future generations will not have many cousins either.

3. Many children will grow up isolated from other children and young adults. This will

make them more selfish and introverted.

4. More couples will divorce and re-marry, some more than once. They may have

children with their new partners, so many children will have a stepmother or stepfather

and half-brothers or sisters.

5. There will be many “boomerang children”. These are the children who leave home to

get married, but then divorce and return to live with their parents.

6. There will be more single-parent families.

7. Because houses are now so expensive, different generations may decide to live

together, so parents, grandparents, and adult children may co-own their houses, and

many couples will have to live with their in-laws.

Vocabulary Notes:

1. extended family – семья, состоящая не только из родителей и детей, но также из

других близких родственников (бабушек, дедушек, двоюродных сестер, братьев

и т.п.)

2. nuclear family – семья, состоящая только из мужа, жены и их детей

3. prediction – предсказание, прогноз

4. introverted – сосредоточенный на самом себе

5. co-own – владеть совместно с кем-либо

Text 3 Modern British Family

Father leaves for work in the morning after breakfast. The two children take the bus to school, and mother stays at home cooking and cleaning until father and kids return home in the evening. This is the traditional picture of a happy family living in Britain. But is it true today? The answer is – no! The past twenty years have seen enormous changes in the lives and structures of families in Britain, and the traditional model is no longer true in many cases.

The biggest change has been caused by divorce. As many as two out of three marriages now end in divorce, leading to a situation where many children live with one parent and only see the other at weekend or holidays. There has also been a huge rise in the number of mothers who work. The large rise in divorces has meant many women need to work to support themselves and their children. Even when there is no divorce, many families need both parents to work in order to survive. This caused an increase in children facilities, though they are very expensive and can be difficult to find in many areas. In addition women are no longer happy to stay at home raising children and many have careers earning as much as or even more than men, the traditional breadwinners.

There has also been a sharp increase in the number of single mothers, particularly among teenagers.

In the past, people got married and stayed married. Divorce was very difficult, expensive and took a long time. Today, people's views on marriage are changing. Many couples, mostly in their twenties or thirties, live together (cohabit) without getting married. Only about 60% of these couples will eventually get married.

In the past, people married before they had children, but now about 40% of children in Britain are born to unmarried (cohabiting) parents. In 2000, around a quarter of unmarried people between the ages of 16 and 59 were cohabiting in Great Britain.

People are generally getting married at a later age now and many women do not want to have children immediately. They prefer to concentrate on their jobs and put off having a baby until late thirties.

By the year 2020, it is estimated that there will be more single people than married people. Fifty years ago this would have been socially unacceptable in Britain.

However, these changes have not had a totally negative effect. For women it is now much easier to have a career and good salary. Although it is difficult to be a working mother, it has become normal and it’s no longer seen as a bad thing for the children. As for children themselves, some argue that modern children grow up to be more independent and mature than in the past. From an early age they have to go to childminders or nurseries and so they are used to dealing with strangers and mixing with other children. So while the traditional model of a family may no longer be true in modern Britain, the modern family continues to raise happy successful children.