A great many people, when they speak of home, tend to appreciate it with a certain atmosphere, certain physical surroundings, and certain emotional attitudes with themselves. This sentimentality toward home is something that has come down to us from the past. Many modern people do not have it, and I think it is a good thing that they do not.

    In the old days, life was difficult. Enemies could attack you and kill or rob you, and you had little protection against them. People did not live in well-built houses where doors could be locked. They did not have the protection of an organized police force or telephones which could summon the police instantly. How did this influence the way people felt about home?

    Small family groups clung tightly together for protection against beasts and against other men. Only the braves went beyond the small family area. Even in the Middle Ages only the most daring went to lands beyond the sea. The human pursuit of security conditioned men to love their homes. I am sure that this feeling must have been very strong among the early settlers of the United States who were obliged, by famine and oppression, to take the plunge and go to the new land where they knew no one and where they were subject to Indian attack. We can see this even today in the attitudes of minority groups who, because of a feeling of insecurity, still preserve cohesive family ties.

    Thanks to modern transportation and well-organized societies, thousands of people willingly and eagerly leave the surroundings where they were born, and the oftener they do so, the less sentiment they are likely to have for those surroundings. How has the meaning of this word “home” been altered by such activity? What does home mean to those people or to families who often move about, living first in one hotel and then another? I believe that for them home means a place where they can have privacy. For them, the atmosphere and surroundings of the place where their parents live have no sentimental attachment. 　

    Families are important to people all over the world although the structure of family is different from one country to another or from the modern family to the traditional one.

    Firstly, Let's see what similarities there are between the traditional & modern family. We can say both of them are nuclear families (with parents & their children as only members), & the role of the father in both types is to provide for his family while the mother takes care of the childre's physical & emotional needs.

    Secondly, the differences between the two are also clear. For example, the traditional husband was the head of the household while today's husband & wife share the role; And modern woman works outside the home even after she has children, namely, she's doing two jobs instead of one, so preschool children may go to a child care center or to a baby-sitter regularly (since the mother works).

   No matter it is traditional or modern, every family has the sense as following: families offer us a feeling of belonging, of love & security.

    家庭是社會(huì)的細(xì)胞，是組成社會(huì)的基本單位。自從家庭誕生以來(lái)，人們生活在不同的家庭之中，休養(yǎng)生息，繁衍后代，享受著天倫之樂(lè)。

    美國(guó)作家愛(ài)默生曾經(jīng)說(shuō)過(guò)："家庭是這樣一個(gè)地方，在一日之中，人們的胃口得到三餐的滿足，而人們的心靈卻得到千百次的滿足。"

    許多人在談到家的時(shí)候往往將它和某種氛圍、某種自然環(huán)境以及某些自我情感聯(lián)系在一起。這種對(duì)家庭的依戀之情古來(lái)有之，代代相傳。而許多現(xiàn)代人不再有這種情感了。

     在遙遠(yuǎn)的古代，人們的生活十分艱難。那時(shí)候，小型家庭群體緊密團(tuán)結(jié)，聚在一起，共同抵御野獸和敵人。只有最勇敢的人才敢離開小小的家族管轄區(qū)。甚至在中世紀(jì)也只有最勇敢的人才敢飄洋過(guò)海。人類對(duì)安全的追求決定了人們對(duì)家庭的熱愛(ài)。

    現(xiàn)在由于現(xiàn)代化交通設(shè)施的出現(xiàn)和社會(huì)組織秩序的完善，成千上萬(wàn)的人們?cè)敢獠⑶铱释x開他們的出生地。而且他們離家外出越頻繁，他們對(duì)出生地的情感可能就越淡?，F(xiàn)代人的家庭觀念已經(jīng)慢慢淡化了。這可能也是現(xiàn)代化社會(huì)發(fā)展的必然趨勢(shì)吧。

    但是無(wú)論人們的家庭觀念如何變化，家始終是我們最溫馨的港灣。在《The Wizard of Oz》，也就是童話小說(shuō)《綠野仙蹤》中小女孩Dorothy不是說(shuō)過(guò)嘛，There's no place like home，沒(méi)有地方可以像家一樣給我們歸屬感和安全感。

    在英語(yǔ)中，home, family和house都可以譯為“家”，但是三個(gè)詞的側(cè)重點(diǎn)有所不同。 house側(cè)重于“地點(diǎn)、住房”。一提起house很容易使人聯(lián)想起房屋中的家具、設(shè)備、裝飾等，如：we have a computer in the house(我們家里有一臺(tái)電腦)。

    family 側(cè)重于指家庭成員的全體，它強(qiáng)調(diào)的是人。family 看作一個(gè)整體時(shí)，意思是“家庭”，后面跟單數(shù)動(dòng)詞，如把family 看作為“家庭成員”時(shí)，應(yīng)按復(fù)數(shù)對(duì)待。后面的動(dòng)詞應(yīng)是復(fù)數(shù)形式。如：My family are all tall 我們?nèi)胰硕己芨摺?home 在三個(gè)詞中最具有感情色彩，它不僅包括家人共同生活的場(chǎng)所，還包括“天倫之樂(lè)”“家庭團(tuán)聚”的意思，如：It's time to go home 現(xiàn)在該回家了。

    我們剛剛說(shuō)了family這個(gè)詞在字典里的解釋。那你知道family還可以怎樣解釋嗎？family的拼寫大家都知道是f-a-m-i-l-y, 那么以這幾個(gè)字母開頭，就有F - father A - and M - mother I - I L - love Y - you，也就是爸爸媽媽我愛(ài)你們的意思了，倒是跟family這個(gè)詞的意義很貼合。

    husband和wife也可以按照這樣的模式解釋，比如，wife就是W - washing； I - ironing ；F - food ；E – entertaining，幾個(gè)詞就概括了一個(gè)妻子的功能。husband就可以解釋成 H——housing 有房子；U——understanding 有心靈相通；S——sharing 有分享的喜悅；B——buying 有錢買想要的東西；A——and； 還有N——never 絕對(duì)不D——demanding 要求太高。

    wife還可以有另一種解釋，W----witch 一個(gè)美女；I----intelligent 聰明伶俐；F----faithful 忠實(shí)；E----everyday 在每一天。

Part 2 Family Members and Family Tree 家庭成員 

    我們每個(gè)人都有很多親屬，那么我們應(yīng)該怎樣用英語(yǔ)來(lái)稱呼他們呢？father，mother，dad，mom 的意思分別是“父親”，“母親”，“爸爸”，“媽媽”，前兩個(gè)詞為書面語(yǔ)，后兩個(gè)詞是孩子在家對(duì)“爸爸”，“媽媽”的稱呼常用在中語(yǔ)中。還有daddy和mommy也是孩子們最喜歡的稱呼語(yǔ)。

    稱呼還有husband，wife，son，daughter，brother，sister，uncle，aunt，nephew，niece，cousin。在father mother前面加上grand組成 grandmother和grandfather，就是祖父祖母或外公外婆，口語(yǔ)當(dāng)中常用 grandma grandpa。這里哥哥，弟弟都用brother 來(lái)表示，sister可以同時(shí)表示姐姐、妹妹，這跟漢語(yǔ)是不同的，一般在西方家庭兄弟姐妹之間都可以直呼其名，那么當(dāng)你必須說(shuō)明你和你的兄弟姐妹之間的長(zhǎng)幼關(guān)系時(shí)怎么辦呢？可以在brother或sister前面加上elder這個(gè)詞，elder brother 或elder sister，就表示哥哥、姐姐了，或者也可以加上big，這個(gè)詞也能表示同樣的意義。那么在brother 或者sister前面加上younger就可以表示“弟弟、妹妹”了，就是younger brother，younger sister。

    英語(yǔ)中對(duì)親戚的稱呼跟中文也是有區(qū)別的，結(jié)婚以后，雙方的直系親屬也就是immediate family就都變成了對(duì)方的姻親in-laws，比如father-in-law就是指岳父或者是公公，mother-in-law指岳母或婆婆，sister-in-law嫂子、弟媳等等，brother-in-law指內(nèi)兄、內(nèi)弟、小叔子、姐夫、妹夫等等。一看中英文的對(duì)照，就知道英語(yǔ)對(duì)親屬的稱謂比起中文要簡(jiǎn)單得多。中文按年齡、男方還是女方的關(guān)系等等為親屬冠之以不同的稱呼，而西方人似乎不太在乎這位親戚是父親這邊的(on the father's side)還是母親那邊的(on the mother's side)，一視同仁，給一個(gè)稱呼。

    更有意思的是對(duì)distant relatives，也就是“遠(yuǎn)親”的稱呼。cousin一詞不分男女，概括了所有“堂兄弟和堂姐妹或者表兄弟和表姐妹”。而“侄子或外甥”都是nephew；“侄女或外甥女”則都是"niece"。不過(guò)，盡管英語(yǔ)中的稱謂不如中文的分工細(xì)致, "Blood is thicker than water"(血濃于水)是東、西方人都認(rèn)同的。

    那么，既然英語(yǔ)的家庭關(guān)系詞匯不難，那我們來(lái)聽(tīng)聽(tīng)下面這段話，看你是否能根據(jù)這段話畫出一張family tree。

    還是先來(lái)解釋一下什么是family tree 吧。family tree顧名思義就是“家譜圖”，英文解釋為A family tree is a diagram(表格)of the people in a family. 就是指家庭成員關(guān)系的圖解描繪。感興趣的朋友們可以根據(jù)下面這段話自己動(dòng)手畫一畫。

聽(tīng)力材料：

    Stephanie is the youngest in her family. Her elder brother Mark is married with a son Kevin. Her sister-in-law Rose used to go to the same high school with Stephanie. Her sister Kate married Thomas Hawkins last year and they've just had a baby daughter Millie. Stephanie adores her nephew and niece. Bart and Marie are Stephanie's cousins. They are children of Barbara and Peter. Aunt Barbara is the younger sister of Stephanie's father Gordon. Stephanie's mother Joy had a younger sister Liz who is divorced with a daughter Lily. Both grandparents on Stephanie's father's side have passed away. But her mother's parents Lucas and Nancy are living not far away from their house.

Part 3 Family Types 家庭類型 

Jake: Do you know what an extended family is?
Anne: Yeah. In the past, parents, their children, their children's children used to live together. This kind of family is known as an extended family.
Jake: What about a nuclear family?
Anne: Nowadays, only two generations, that is to say, parents and children live together.
Jake: How about a single parent family?
Anne: That's a family with only a mother or only a father.
Jake: So what is a blended family?
Anne: When two people who have been married and have children, remarry, and both groups of children live together. Why? You indeed asked me so many questions about family.
Jake: I just want to make a survey of public opinion on family ties.

講解：

1. 對(duì)話中Jake在做一個(gè)關(guān)于對(duì)家庭關(guān)系的看法的調(diào)查，他問(wèn)了Anne一些關(guān)于家庭類型的問(wèn)題。那么在對(duì)話中出現(xiàn)了幾種家庭類型呢？有extended family，就是“大家庭”，在過(guò)去呢，父母和他們的孩子以及孩子的孩子都住在一起，就是那種四世同堂的大家庭，不過(guò)隨著時(shí)代的發(fā)展，這種大家庭已經(jīng)很少了。

2. 另一種家庭類型就是nuclear family，核心家庭，也就是說(shuō)，父母和他們的孩子住在一起，這是現(xiàn)在一種比較普遍的家庭類型。that is to say，作為插入語(yǔ)表示“換句話說(shuō)；也就是說(shuō)；更確切地說(shuō)”。還有一種類型叫做single parent family，就是我們說(shuō)的“單親家庭”。就是家里面只有母親或只有父親。

3. 這種家庭類型主要是父母離婚的產(chǎn)物。對(duì)話中出現(xiàn)的最后一種家庭類型就是blended family，混合型家庭，就是指再婚后的家庭，男女雙方的孩子都住在一起。marry前面加上前綴“re”表示“再婚”。make a survey of something，表示“對(duì)…作全面的調(diào)查”。

4. 這里再補(bǔ)充一種家庭類型，就是“丁克” 家庭。“丁克”的英文意思是：雙份收入，沒(méi)有孩子，double income, no kids。是近年來(lái)新興的一種家庭模式，這種家庭中只有夫妻二人，不生孩子，既有家庭的溫馨，又保持了“單身貴族”的瀟灑。

Part 4 Some Sentences about Family 跟家庭有關(guān)的句子 

1. Tell me about your family.
告訴我你的家庭情況吧。
注釋：用family，表示家庭成員的情況，一般不能用home.

2. How many people are there in your family?
你家有幾口人？

3. Do your parents still work now?
你父母還在工作嗎？

4. Do you have a brother or a sister?
你有兄弟姐妹嗎？
注釋：表示疑問(wèn)，用or 而不用and。

5. What does your husband /wife do?
你丈夫（妻子）干什么的？

6. Where do your parents live?
你父母住在哪里？

7. How old is your daughter?
你女兒多大了？

8. Where does your son study?
你兒子在哪上學(xué)？

9. Learning to be an understanding, co-operating member of the family is the biggest sign of growing up.
成熟的最明顯標(biāo)志是做一個(gè)理解別人，合作的家庭成員。

10. Parents are old-fashioned.
父母很老土。

11. My daughter is too careless with money.
我的女兒花錢總是大手大腳。