Children & the family

A. Complete these sentences with an appropriate word or expression from A, B or C.
1. Mr and Mrs Smith live at home with their two children. They are a typical example of a modern
______ family
A. extended B. nuclear C. compact

2. Mr and Mrs Popatlal live at home with their aged  (adj-cao tuổi, có tuổi) parents, children and grandchildren. They are a typical example of a traditional _________ family
A. nuclear B. enlarged C. extended

Questions:
3. Mrs Jones lives on her own and has to look after her two children. There are a lot of
________ families like hers
A. single-parent B. mother-only C. mono-parent

4. Some parents need to _______ their children more strictly
A. bring down B. bring about C. bring up (v-nuôi nấng)

5. When I was a child, I had a very turbulent _________
A. upbringing (sự dạy dỗ) B. upraising C. uplifting

6. Mrs Kelly is _________ and finds it difficult to look after her children on her own
A. divorced B. divided C. diverged

7. Many men believe that ________ is the responsibility of a woman
A. childhelp B. childcare C. childaid

8. _______ is a particularly difficult time of life for a child
A. convalescence B. adolescence (thời thanh niên) C. convergence

9. A person’s behaviour can sometimes be traced back to his/her _________ (v-truy về)
A. creative years B. formulating years C. formative (adj-hình thành) years

10. The country has seen a sharp drop in the ________ in the last few years
A. birth rate (tỉ lệ sinh) B. baby rate C. born rate

11. She has five _________ who rely on her to look after them
A. dependants (noun) B. dependers C. dependents (adj)

12. ________ is on the rise, with over 20% of serious crimes being committed by children
under the age of seventeen
A. junior crime B. juvenile delinquency (phạm pháp vị thành niên) C. minor crime

B. Match sentences 1-12 with a second sentence A-M. Use the key words and expressions in bold
to help you.
1. Mr and Mrs White are very authoritarian (adj-độc tài) parents.
2. Mr. Bowles is considered to be too lenient. (adj-hiền, nhân hậu)
3. Mr and Mrs Harris lead separate lives.
4. Billy is a well-adjusted kid.
5. The Mannings are not very responsible parents.
6. My parents are separated. (adj-ly thân)
7. Parents must look after their children, but they shouldn’t be over-protective. (adj--che chở ko hợp lý)
8. Professor Maynard has made a study of the cognitive processes of young children.
9. I’m afraid my youngest child is running wild.

10. She looks quite different from all her siblings.
11. There are several different and distinct (adj-khác biệt, riêng biệt) stages of development in a child’s life.
12. Tony was raised by (v-nuôi dưỡng bởi) a foster family when his own parents died.
A. They don’t look after their children very well.
B. He is fascinated by the way they learn new things. (v-mê hoặc, quyến rũ)
C. He very rarely punishes his children.
D. I live with my mother and visit my father at weekends.
E. He never listens to a word I say, and is always playing truant (to play truant v- trốn học) from school.
F. Brothers and sisters usually bear some resemblance to one another. (to bear a resemblance to v- giống với)
G. Although they are married and live together, they rarely speak to each other.
H. They are very strict with their children. (adj-nghiêm khắt, khắt khe)
I. Of all of these, the teenage years are the most difficult.
J. Children need the freedom to get out (v- đi ra ngoài) and experience the world around them.
K. He’s happy at home and is doing well at school.
L. My families take in children who are not their own.

C. Now read this case study and fill in the gaps with one of the words or expressions from
Tasks A and B. In some cases, more than one answer may be possible. You may need to change
some of the word forms.

Bob’s problems began during his 1_______ years. His parents got
2________ when he was young, and neither of them wanted to raise him or his brother
and sister, so he was 3__________ by a 4________ chosen by his parents’
social worker. Unfortunately, his foster-father was a strict 5________ and often beat him.
Bob rebelled against this strict 6_________ , and by the time he was eight, he was already
7_________ , stealing from shops and playing truant. By the time he reached
8_________ , sometime around his thirteenth birthday, he had already appeared in court
several times, charged with 9_________ . The judge blamed his foster parents, explaining
that children needed 10_________ parents and guardians who would look after them
properly. The foster father objected to this, pointing out that Bob’s 11________ - his two
brothers and sister - were 12________ children who behaved at home and worked well at
school.

This has raised some interesting questions about the modern family system. While it is true that parents should not be too 13__________ with children by letting them do what they want when they
want, or be too 14__________ by sheltering (v-che chở, nương nấu) them from the realities of life, it is also true that they should not be too strict. It has also highlighted the disadvantages of the modern
15__________ family where the child has only its mother and father to rely on (or the
16__________ family, in which the mother or father has to struggle particularly hard to support their 17___________ ).  In fact, many believe that we should return to traditional family values and the 18__________ family: extensive research has shown that children from these families are generally better behaved and have a better chance of success in later life.

Answers:
A.
1. nuclear 2. extended 3. single-parent 4. bring up (we can also use the words raise or rear)
5. upbringing
6. divorced 7. childcare 8. adolescence (the noun is adolescent) 9. formative 10. birth rate
11. dependant (the adjective is dependant)
12. juvenile delinquency (in Britain, a juvenile is anybody below the age of 18, which is the
age at which somebody becomes legally responsible for their own actions)

B.
1. H (authoritarian can be a noun and an adjective) 2. C 3. G 4. K 5. A 6. D 7. J (we can also use the expression over-caring) 8. B 9. E 10. F 11. I 12. L

C.
1. formative (adj-hình thành) 2. divorced 3. brought up 4. foster family (a child who is raised by a foster family is called a foster child. The verb is to foster (v-nuôi dưỡng)) 5. authoritarian
6. upbringing 7. running wild
8. adolescence
9. juvenile delinquency 10. responsible 11. siblings 12. well-adjusted
13. lenient 14. over-protective
15. nuclear 16. single-parent 17. dependants 18. extended

Other words and expressions which you might find useful include:
abuse / rebelliousness / relationship / supervision / minor / relatives / nurture / kin / family life / split up / broken home/ divorce rate

More informations:

Read the following eight examples of bad behavior in children listed below. Discuss the best and worst ways for parents to react to each of these behaviors. The "best way" means away that is likely to teach good behavior to the child. The "worst way" is a way that will probably not be successful in teaching good behavior: Make brief notes about your ideas.
1. Sarah, a 2 year old, keeps throwing her food on the floor and cries untill her parents pick it up.
2. David, a 5 year old, is angry and frustrated. He hits his baby sister.
3. Ronnie, a 6 year old, runs up and down the aisles when his parents take him to the supermarket and screams when they tell him to stop.
4. Sheila, an 11 year old, is caught copying a classmate's test.
5. Stephen, 12 year old, takes money from his father's wallet.
6. Tim, a 13 year old, begins to smoke cigarettes.
7. Erica, a 15 year old, refuses to go to bed until 2 a.m
8. Freddie, a 17 year old, comes home really late and won't explain to his parents where he has been.

Lecture: Family Lessons
1. I'd like to focus on three of the way that children acquire their behavior.
2. A reward can be defined as a positive reinforcement for good behavior.
3. Most parents use rewards unconsciously.
4. Punishments are the second important way in which a child is socialized
5. Both rewards and punishments are controversial. Many people think that they are not effective.
6. Some people argue that the reward is unneccessary because it is like a bribe.
7. The child should be taught that it's his duty to help with household chores.
8. Some of us grew up expecting to be spanked if we misbehaved.
9. Our parents may have hit us on hand if we talked back to them.
10. Some children are subject to really serious physical abuse.

1. Children's first role models are their parents.
2. There is an old saying in English: Don't do as I do. Do as I tell you." ... But this advice doesn't work most of the time.
3. If you smoke yourself, it is probably ineffective to tell child not to smoke.
4. Many people do not even realize the impact that they can have on a child.
5. It is common for babysitters, relatives, and child-care centers to take care of children.
6. The most important thing for children is to grow up in an environment where there are fair rules that are clearly established and followed consistently by everyone.