B) Turn the above situation into a dialogue and act it out.

 

10. Look at the following ways of giving advice (some of which appear in the text) and accepting advice or rejecting it:

 

Giving advice

 

I would advise you to DO...

Personally, I think your best course would be to DO...

(slightly formal)

 

It might be a good idea if you DID... (tentative)

Your best bet would be to DO...

I suggest you DO...

Why don't/can't you DO... (direct)

I think you should DO...

(If I were you) I'd DO… (direct: informal)

Accepting advice

 

That sounds a good idea

(certainly) seems like good advice) Thank you.

 

That's certainly a possibility. (slightly tentative)

 

Right. do

I’ll that. Thanks. (direct: informal)

Yes. try

Rejecting advice

 

can

I'mnot sure I do that. You see+EXCUSE

‘d be able to

 

Isn't there anything else I can/could DO...?

I'm sure that's excellent advice, only + EXCUSE (tentative)

that's not really possible. (direct)

I’m afraid, that’s out of the question. (direct: strong)

11. Here four people are presented, each of whom has written about a personal problem. Please, write each a letter of advice:

 

1. A twenty-year-old girl who has married a man of thirty. He works too hard and comes home very tired and bad-tempered.

2. A twenty-five-year-old girl, a university graduate. She has met a man who is impatient to marry her, but she wants to finish a year's post-graduate study first.

3. A thirty-five-year-old man Whose wife is a business-woman with a very successful career. She frequently comes home from work very late because she has meetings.

4. A woman of sixty who is a divorcee herself, comes to know that her son-in-law has committed adultery. Her daughter is still unaware of it.

 

12. Pair work. Below are situations for dialogues where one of the parti­cipants is facing some problem in his/her family. The other partner should give him/her some advice. Act out the dialogues using appropriate cliches of giving advice:

 

1. The wife complains that the husband doesn't pay enough attention to the children.

2. The husband thinks the seventeen-year-old daughter is too young to go out on dates. The wife disagrees.

3. The wife has a full-time job and is angry because the hus­band does not help around the house.

4. The husband complains about his wife's mother interfer­ing in.

 

13. Group work. Split into two groups of four to six students:

 

1. One of the groups has to prepare the role of the inter­viewers and write down questions each interviewer could ask the members of the "ideal family". The other group represents an "ideal family"; they should allocate the different roles with­in the group and talk about the personalities, ways of behav­iour and ideas of the people in their family and give advice to other families.

2. The "ideal family" is interviewed by a different interviewer in turn in front of the class. At the beginning each member of the family introduces either himself or another family member.

3. Since a lot of the students' values and ideals regarding families will have become obvious, they should discuss them afterwards.

 

14. Role play the following scene with other members of your group. Each person plays a different role in the family. Make a decision as a family group:

 

A mother has just enrolled into evening language classes. She has a lot of studying to do and cannot do all the housework any more. Her husband and two teenage children want her to be happy, but they are not used to helping with the housework much. However, they do not like TV dinners and dirty clothes. What can they do?

 

15. Group discussion. "What are the changes in family life?";

 

Sociologists say that the relationship between men and women is changing rapidly nowadays. Dating customs are changing. More women are working. Family life is changing. Men are helping more in the home. At the same time, the divorce rate is rising. More and more single parents are raising children nowadays. Discuss the following: What changes are taking place in family life? What are your predictions for the future? What changes in behaviour will become acceptable the future? Will more women work? Will divorce become more common? Will the size of the average family change? What things won't change?

 

16. Here are some English proverbs dealing with marriage and family life. Illustrate them with a short story:

 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard.

Men make houses, women make homes.

It's a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock.

 

17. Do library research and prepare an essay on one of the following topics:

 

1. Major problems young couples face.

2. The impact of social changes in modem society on family life.

3. Women's movements in the USA.