Exercise 1. Read and translate the text, fulfill the task after the text. This will help you to remember and use the key words in the text.
HAVING A BABY
The day I got the results of the pregnancy test – positive, 'pregnancy confirmed' – I was over the moon. I sat down and made out a shopping list straightaway.
ListforBaby
| cot (orcrib) | for baby to sleep in |
| pram and pushchair (and a carry-cot) | to transport him or her |
| 2 dozennappies | for him or her to wear (underneath) |
| safety-pins | for his or her nappy |
| high-chair | for him or her to sit in at meal-times |
| bib | round his/her neck when he’s/she’s eating |
| dummy | for him or her to suck |
| rattle | for him or her to shake |
| toys and dolls (and a teddy-bear) | for him or her to play with |
| potty | for him or her to sit on to avoid nappies as soon as possible |
| massesofcottonwool | for general cleaning and wiping |
I couldn’t believe it: me a mother-to-be! Actually pregnant! Expecting! ‘ An expectant mother ’ – that was my favourite description of me. My friends all joked about me being on some kind of fertility drug, conceiving as I did so soon after our wedding.
I had the customary morning sickness for a while, but after that, no trouble. I went along to the ante-natal clinic every fortnight and started doing all the proper breathing exercises like an excited child. And I read! Book after book on the subject of childbirth: how big the foetus is in the womb at the various stages, the pros and cons of confinement at home, how 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, the dangers of this and that. Some of it wasn’t very pleasant reading, I can tell you.
The feeling of relief was indescribable when, at the beginning of the fifth month, the doctor said he could hear the baby’s heartbeat. He was a fully-trained gynaecologist, by the way – or was he an obstetrician? – I can’t remember. A few days later I felt the first kick, and that was a pretty exciting moment, too. It was in the twenty-eighth week that things began to go wrong. I had had several blood tests before, but after this one I was told my blood pressure was far too high – there was a risk of blood poisoning – and I would have to go into hospital. There followed a period of heartburn, cramp, vomiting and insomnia. I kept overhearing bits of conversations: ‘may have to induce labour ’, ‘if the baby is premature, we’ll...’ etc. My mind was filled with visions of incubators, induction, Caesarean operations and appalling complications. And the baby wasn’t due for another six weeks!
When the time came, I was in labour for twenty-three hours. I remember shouting through a haze as they took me into the labour ward: ‘No drip! No drugs! No stitches! Please!’ I came out having had them all, and in the end it was a forceps delivery – or so I’m told.
After all that, I just looked forward to the simple joys of motherhood. When they told me I couldn’t breast-feed and she would have to be bottle-fed, my post-natal depression really started. Some nights I would lie awake mumbling ‘Never again’.
It’s been pretty well the same story each time, but after the fifth I gave up saying ‘Never again’. I really do think that the stork system of having babies has a lot of advantages.
Ø Find all these figures and places in the text. Then show how they are relevant, as in the examples below:
Example: 15% - That’s how many pregnancies end in miscarriage.
masses – That’s how much cotton wool she bought.
1. 28th 3. at least 5 5. the ante-natal clinic 7. the labour ward
2. 23 hours 4. 2 dozen 6. every 2 weeks
Exercise 2. Put each of the words and phrases from the box in the passage below.
| pregnant | born | maternity ward | midwife |
| cots | deliver | call | obstetrician |
| parents | crawl | prams | expecting |
When a woman is (1) _______ a baby, we say that she is (2) _______. Babies are (3) ______ either at home or in the (4) _______ of a hospital. It is the job of a (5) _________ or a (6) _______ to (7) ________ new babies. The proud (8) _______ must soon decide what to (9) _______ the child. For the first six months of their lives most babies are taken out in (10) _______ and sleep in (11)_______. At eight months or so they learn to (12) _______ along the floor, and they can usually walk soon after their first birthday.
Exercise 3. Translate the following dialogue from Russian into English.
- И вы с Джил действительно решили уехать в эту дыру?
- Куда ты сказала? Будь добра, не называй Визингтон дырой. Это очень симпатичное местечко и всего 20 минут на машине от Манчестера.
- А где вы будете там жить?
- Там не трудно снять квартиру. И, между прочим, платить за нее придется поменьше, чем в Бристоле.Там не далеко есть супермаркети прекрасная больница.
- А зачем это вам вдруг понадобилась больница?
- Разве я тебе не говорил, что у Джил скоро будет ребенок?
- Что ты сказал ребенок? Ну-ка повтори еще раз!
- Ребенок!
- Что же ты сразу не сказал? Когда? Как Джил себя чувствует?
- Спасибо, все прекрасно. Мы думаем, в декабре. Да, пока не забыл, у тебя не сохранилась моя старая плетеная коляска? Джил говорит, что они сейчас в моде.
- Прости, я не расслышала, что ты сейчас сказал. Я вспомнила тебя маленького. Вроде бы совсем недавно … Коляска, говоришь? Конечно, сохранилась. Как забавно, что бывает мода на коляски.
- Даже на погремушки. У тебя, кстати, не осталось моих старых?
- Я все соберу, когда будет время, и привезу к вам в Визингтон. А сейчас иди! Джил, должно быть, ждет тебя. Всего хорошего и большой привет от меня Джил!
- Спасибо.
| Listening |
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Write down five factors that people need to consider when deciding how many children to have, if any. Put them in order of importance.
Listen to three people talking about what they believe is the ideal family size. Write the number of children that each person thinks is ideal.
Speaker 1: _____ Speaker 2: _____ Speaker 3: _____
Listen to three more people and do the same.
Speaker 1: _____ Speaker 2: _____ Speaker 3: _____
Listen again to all six speakers. Which speaker mentions that …?
1. having siblings can help you cope with life’s difficulties _____
2. They would have been a worse parent if they’d had more children _____
3. The pleasures of parenthood outweigh the challenges _____
4. they hope to be looked after by their children one day _____
5. we should limit the number of children we have, for environmental reasons _____
6. having children can affect where you choose to go on holiday _____
(from Navigate. Upper-Intermediate)
Exercise 4. You are going to read a newspaper article about people who have no siblings. Read and translate the text. Do the exercises that follow the text.
BEING AN ONLY CHILD
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A Sam Thompson, aged 10
When my mum's friend had a baby it made me think about being an only child for the first time. I thought, would I like to have brothers and sisters? But to be honest, my friend's sister looked quite annoying – he was always having to watch her and I decided I was better off on my own. There are lots of good things about being an only child. I have privacy, and I like that; some of my friends have to share a bedroom and I know that will never happen to me. Plus I get time on my own with Mum and Dad, and that's special.One thing that is good is that my friend Thomas lives really close by, so it’s easy for me to go and see him. I'd be happy to have just one child,but I'd always make sure we lived close to other kids.
B Bethany Shaw, aged 15
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I went away to school when I was seven, and the hardest thing I found was making friends. Because I was an only child, I just didn't know how to do it. The thing is that when you're an only child you're often the only child in a gathering of adults. I found being an only child interesting, in that it gave me a place at the grown-ups' table and gave me a view into their world that children in a big family might not get. And I know it has, at least partly, made me into the person I am: I never like the idea of being one of a group, for example. I'm not comfortable with being one of a gang.
D Laura Arnold, aged 36
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