INTRODUCTORY READING AND TALK

Marriage is a thing which only a rare person in his or her life avoids. Truebachelors andspinsters make up only a small percent of the population; most singlepeople are"alone but not lonely".

Millions of others get married because of the fun of family life. And it is fan, if one takes it with a sense of humour.

There's a lot of fun in falling in love with someone and chasing the prospective fiancee, which means dating and going out with the candidate. All the relatives (parents, grandparents and great-grand­parents, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, stepmothers and stepfathers and all in-laws) meanwhile have the fan 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, rings, 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 fan 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 fan 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 fan 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 fan to attend parents' meetings 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 fan!

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 fan bursts out!

One of your dearest offsprings brings a long-legged blonde to your house and says that he wants to marry. And you think: 'Why do people ever get married?'

1. Choose one of the names in the family tree below and say how the per­son is related to other people. Note that the pictures of marriage part­ners are connected with wedding rings.

► Pattern: William Luke is Leon Luke's son, Philip Smith's nephew and Laura White's grandson

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2. Make up your family tree and speak about your family.

3. Work in pairs and talk. Imagine that:

a) you are speaking with a distant relative trying to find out what relation you are to one another;

b) you show your family album to your friend and answer all his or her questions.

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