Text 1. British family

A “typical” British family used to consist of mother, father and two children, but (1)___________ there have been many changes in family life. Some of there have been caused by new laws and others are the result of changes in society. For example, since the law made it easier to get a divorce, the number of divorces has increased. In fact one marriage (2)__________ now ends in divorce. This means that there are a lot of one-parent families. Society is now more tolerant than it used to be of unmarried people, unmarried couples and single parents.

Another change has been caused by the faсt that people are living longer nowadays, and many old people live alone following the death of their partners. As a result of these changes in the pattern of people’s lives, there are many households which consist of only one person or (3)__________.

You might think that marriage and the family are not so popular as they once were. However, the majority of divorced people marry again, and they sometimes take responsibility for a second family.

Members of a family – grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins – keep in touch, but they see less of each other than they used to. This is because people often move away from their home town to work, and so the family becomes scattered. Christmas is the traditional season for reunions. Although the family group is smaller nowadays (4)____________, relatives often travel many miles in order to spend the holiday together.

In general, each generation is keen to become independent (5)_________ in establishing its own family unit, and this fact can lead to social as well as geographical differences within the larger family group.

1. Вставьте в пропуски (1-5) буквы (a-e), соответствующие данным ниже фразам:

a) than it used to be;

b) in every three;

c) of parents;

d) in resent years;

e) one adult and children.

2. Отметьте данные ниже предложения как истинные (t) или ложные (f):

1. Some of the changes in British family life are the result of new laws. ¨

2. Two marriages in three end in divorce. ¨

3. People are not living longer. ¨

4. Members of the family see each other more often. ¨

5. Relatives often spend Christmas together. ¨

6. Parents want to be independent of their children. ¨

Text 2. National sport

1. Many kinds of sport originated from England. The English have a proverb, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. They do not think that play is more important than work; they think that Jack will do his work better if he plays as well; so he is encouraged to do both. Association football, or soccer is one of the most popular games in the British Isles played from late August until the beginning of May. In summer the English national sport is cricket. When the English say: 'that's not cricket' it means 'that's not fair', 'to play the game means 'to be fair',

2. Golf is Scotland's chief contribution to British sport. Sporting life in Britain is close to the social class of the players or spectators except where a game may be said to be a 'national' sport. This is the case with cricket in England which is played and watched by all classes. This is true of golf, which is everywhere in the British Isles a middle-class activity. Rugby Union, the amateur variety of Rugby football, is the Welsh national sport played by all sections of society, whereas elsewhere it too is a game for the middle classes. Association football is a working-class sport as are boxing, wrestling, snooker, darts and dog-racing.

3. Walking and swimming are the two most popular sporting activities, being almost equally undertaken by men and women.

4. There are several places in Britain associated with a particular kind of sport. One of them is Wimbledon - a suburb to the south of London where the All­England Lawn Tennis Championships are held in July (since 1877). The finals of the tournament are played on the Centre Court. The other one is Wembley - a sta­dium in north London where international football matches, the Cup Finals and other events have taken place since 1923.

Подберите абзацы, содержащие ответы на следующие вопросы:

1. What are Scottish and Welsh sport contributions? ¨

1. What does the English proverb mean? ¨

2. What sports are the two famous stadiums associated with? ¨

3. What are the most popular sports in Britain? ¨

4. What are the most popular activities for both genders? ¨