1、Family Life Text Families,Unit 3,About the Author,Jane Howard: Jane Howard is a reporter, editor and writer, whose works included a widely praised biography of Margaret Mead and a close look at the dynamics of families,Information related to the text,Memorial Day: Memorial Day is a United States fed
2、eral holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the Civil War), it was e
3、xpanded after World War I.,Language Points,1. Each of us is born into one family not of our choosing. (Para. 1): Everyone was born in the family which we didnt have right to choose beforehand. The author pointed out the truth that we can not choose the families which we were born into just as we can
4、 not choose our parents, brothers and sister.,2.The new ones by definition cannot spawn usas soon as they do that, they stop being newbut there is plenty they can do. (Para.1): It is not sure that the new family which picks its members cleverly can produce us. If they still produce us, they are not
5、the new families. When the new families have the same old members, they lost the meaning of being new. Even though they are not the new ones, they can still wrok some wonders.,3. Some blood dynasties produce such figures regularly; others languish for as many at five generations between demigods, wo
6、ndering with each new pregnancy whether this, at last, might be the messianic baby who will redeem us. (Para.2): Some families regularly produce chiefs (heroes, or heroines), around whom other family members cluster. While other families are in the difficult situation of lacking a chief for a long t
7、ime, which makes their members feel very painful and eager to produce a chief. Every time there is a new-born baby, the family members wonder whether this baby will be the one who can save them out of the difficult situation.,4. Look, is there not something gubernatorial about her footstep, or music
8、al about the way he bangs with his spoon on his cup? (Para.2): Does the baby walk in a way like a governor?Or does the sound made by the baby using his spoon and cup have a special rhythm? Because family members are eager to have a hero, they try to find any possibility of ahving a gifted baby.,5. G
9、ood families have a switchboard operatorsomeone like my mother who cannot help but keep track of what all the others are up to, who plays Houston Mission Control to everyone elses Apollo. (Para.3): Good families have such a person, like my mother in my family, who cares every member of the family. S
10、uch a person gives attention to the development and progress of every one in the family. He or she plays role as a housekpper, taking charge of everything in the family, like Houston Mission Control taking charge of all spacecraft in the sky.,6. Good families are much to all their members, but every
11、thing to none. (Para.4): Good families have the atmosphere in which most of their members feel good. Good families do not change their family atmosphere in order to meet the need of some particular members.,7. The blood clans I feel most drawn to were founded by parents who are nearly as devoted to
12、whatever it is they do outside as they are to each other and theiri children. (Para.4): The families which I am most interested in are the ones in which the parents devoted to whatever they do at homa as well as outside. They also devote their life to both their children and other people around them
13、.,8. Such clans exude a vivid sense of surrounding rings of relatives, neighbors, teachers, students and godparents, any of whom at any time might break or slide into the inner circle. (Para.5): Such families show their vivid mood to the circles of realtives, neighbors, teachers, students and godpar
14、ents. So it is easy for the members to blend in their circles.,9. Inside that circle a wholesome, tacit emotional feudalism develops: you give me protection, Ill give you fealty. (Para.5): Inside the circle, they develop a sound, implied and emotional relationship which is like that in feudal societ
15、y; if you protect me, Ill be loyal to you.,10. Nothing welds a family more than these. Rituals are vital especially for clans without histories, because they evoke a past, imply a future, and hint at continuity. (Para.6): Rituals are the best ones that can unite a family. Rituals are very important,
16、 especially for the families which dont have histories. Rituals are essential because they can make the family members reacall their past, and they can suggest their future, and they infer the continuity of generations.,11. These performances were always hollow, because the phenomenology of the mome
17、nt got sacrificed for the idea of the moment. (Para.6): These performances (talking about the topics that celebrate our cohesion as a family) were always barren because these performances can not reflect the real feelings and ideas at that moment.,12. They emerge around constitutive moments, moments
18、 that only happen once, around whose memory meanings cluster. (Para.6): These rituals come into being at some special moments that happened only once. The momories of all the family members cluster at these moments, which will haunt in their minds.,13. I know clans whose members greet each other wit
19、h gingerly handshakes or, in what pass for kisses, with hurried brushes of side jawbones, as if the object were to touch not the lips but the ears. (Para.7): I know some families whose members shake hands cautiously when they greet each other. Or they greet each other in the way which is mistakenly
20、seen as a kiss, for they only brush sides of jawbones of each other hurriedly, as if the object they are going to touch is not the lips but the ears. Pass for: be mistaken for or accepted as sb. or sth. else. Childrens toy guns now look so realistic that they can often pass for the real thing.,14. M
21、ore and more I realize that everybody, regardless of age, needs to be hugged and comforted in a brotherly or sisterly way now and then. (Para.7): Gradually I become aware of the fact that no matter how old we are, we sometimes need to be hugged and consoled in a brotherly or sosterly way.,15. Parent
22、hood, however, is a state which some miss by chance and others by design, and a vocation to which not all are called. (Para.8): Some people lose the chance of being parents intentionally or accidentally. Parenthood is not a job that everybody has the opportunity to be invited to do. By chance: witho
23、ut advance planning She had met her Mr. Right by chance. By design: intentionally Whether by accident or design, we met there again.,16. Attention, in excess, can turn to fawning,which isnt much better than neglect. (Para.8): Too much attention will become a kind of flattering. It is not better than
24、 being neglected. 17. If actual grandparents are not at hand, no family should have too hard a time finding substitute ones to whom to give unfeighed homage. (Para.9): If there is no actual grandparent in the family, it is not a big problem, because it is easy to find someone to act as a grandparent
25、, to whom family members pay their sincere respects.,Insert Title Text,Family Life Text Families,Translation,All families are different, and all families have their own issues, but the qualities of a good family tend to be the same: respect, responsibility, tolerance, honesty, courage, integrity, se
26、lf-discipline, compassion and generosity. Respect your parents. Do this not just by giving them respect, but by listening to what they say and trying your best to make them happy. Realize that life is not always going to go smoothly. Try to face the “ups and downs” in your family life with positive
27、thinking and a cool mind. Try to compromise whenever and wherever its possible.,You will have to compromise a lot in life; family is the first environment to begin learning this important skill. Be honest, but bear in mind that sometimes saying nothing can be better for a family relationship than saying everything. Try to feel free to communicate with each person in your family. There should be a “Family Time” for all the members to eat together, play together. No ones family life is perfect; but you can make yours good through efforts.,
