9     I can talk about families

A    Family relationships

Marilyn Monroe was an only child from a single-parent family, but she lived with foster parents until she was seven, and then she was adopted by her mother’s best friend. She got married at sixteen, and she got divorced three times.

Bill Clinton’s father died before he was born. His mother, Virginia, had to find a way to support Bill, so she studied nursing, and Bill was brought up by his grandparents. When Bill was four, his mother married Roger Clinton, who became Bill’s stepfather. Roger and Virginia had a son called Roger, who is Bill Clinton’s half-brother.

 

Glossary

only child  a child with no brothers or sisters.

single parent  a mother or father who looks after their children alone.

foster parent  sb who looks after another person’s child in their home for a time.

adopt a child  take sb’s child into your family and legally make them your child.

get divorced  legally end your marriage. SYN get a divorce.

support sb  help someone live by giving them money, food, or a home.

bring sb up look after a child and teach them how to live.

stepfather  a man who has married your mother but is not your father (related words: stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister).

half-brother, half-sister  a brother or sister who has either the same mother or the same father as you. 

4     ABOUT YOU  Write your answers to Exercise 3, or ask another student. 

Answers from a Spanish person

1     I was brought up in Salamanca, in Spain.

2     I’ve got a younger sister.

3     No, I don’t have any half-brothers or -sisters.

4     One of my friends is a single parent.

5     One of my colleagues has recently got divorced.       

B    Family history

I’m related to a member of the royal family.

We have ancestors who were Russian immigrants. They emigrated from Russia to Britain in the nineteenth century.

I’m from London, but previous generations of my family lived in Malta.

Some of my relatives were originally from China.

I look like my grandmother, but I take after my father. We’re both very lazy!

 

Glossary

be related to sb  be in the same family as sb. relative N. SYN relation.

member  a person who is in a group such as a family or a club.

royal  relating to a king or queen (see picture).

ancestor  a person in your family who lived a long time ago.

immigrant  a person who comes to a foreign country to live there.

emigrate from  leave your country in order to live in another.

previous  happening before the one you are talking about.

generation  all the people in a family born at about the same time.

originally  in the beginning, before other things happened.

look like sb  have the same appearance as sb.

take after sb  be like an older member of your family.

7     ABOUT YOU  Write your answers to Exercise 6, or ask another student.

Answers from a Japanese person

1     No, I’m not related to anyone famous.

2     Yes, we have a royal family. The current monarch is Emperor Akihito.

3     Previous generations of my family have lived in Kyoto and Osaka in Japan.

4     I’m often told that I look like my grandmother.

5     I take after my dad. We’re both good with our hands.

8     Test yourself. Look at the glossary words and cover the meanings. What are the meanings?