11553 generation gap

Family Relationships
My parents married when they were very young: my mother was eighteen and my father
twenty. They fell in love soon after they met and married nine months later. Fights and
arguments between my parents were a daily occurrence. After a fight my father would
leave and go to my grandparents'.
I was very close to my grandmother for she was a kind and loving person; the total
opposite of my mother. Hannah was an excellent cook, seamstress and housekeeper. She
was also a nurse and would get up every morning cook, clean and then go to work at the
state hospital for boys. She babysat me, my brothers and sister constantly, even after
the divorce. Hannah was a saint.
When we went to the local football and high school basketball games, the cheerleaders
were in the spotlight for my mother. After a game we would compare who was the cutest,
thinnest, heaviest cheerleader. I would practice cheers in my room and after my mother
caught me one afternoon she laughed and said I had to lose twenty pounds. I laughed
along. But later I wrote in my journal how disgusted I was with my weight, how I secretly
wanted to be a popular cheerleader with many boyfriends. Unfortunately Mum found the
journal and read it at dinner one night. I was so upset.
My first steady boyfriend Roger gave me a silver ring with a peace sign on it. Mum
immediately wanted me to give it back. Of course I didn't and Roger eventually broke my
heart so I had to hear another round of "I told you so" when he asked for his ring back. I
was so humiliated.
Now that I am a mother, I can better understand why mum was so severe and
overprotective but I‘m doing my best to be my children’s friend, however
teenagers never stop complaining!


Find in the text evidence to the following statements
1. The parents’ marriage wasn’t a happy one.
____________________________________________________________
F
2. Marianne and her granny were very intimate.

____________________________________________________________
3. Marianne’s mum was very conservative.
____________________________________________________________
4. The mother doesn’t respect her daughter’s private life.
____________________________________________________________
5. The family split up but that didn’t affect the writer’s relationship with her
grandmother.
____________________________________________________________

Find in the text words/phrases having the same meaning as:
FF
Conflict= ____________
Something that happens every day= _____________
conjk
Because= _____________
A person receiving a lot of attention= _____________
To be unhappy/angry= _____________
Ashamed/embarrassed= _____________

Circle the appropriate explanation
*Hannah was a saint = mean - very good/kind - authoritarian person.
*I laughed along = laughed at her – with her - next to her
*My first steady boyfriend = changing – constant - temporary
* I had to hear another round of “I told you so” = She blamed me again – thanked me
- argued with me again humi


Use suitable words from the text to label the following pictures:

_________________

___________________

__________________

________________

Match the word with its meaning:

a.aggressive

b. grumpy

c.authoritarian

d. naughty
e.conservative

f. stubborn

g. narrow-minded
h. violent
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Someone who is determined to do what he wants and refuses to do anything else.
Someone who doesn’t like change, fashion and modern styles.

Bad – tempered and easily annoyed.
Unwilling to accept or understand new or different ideas and opinions.
Someone who does something that is not right or good, but is not very serious or a child

who behaves badly.
6. Strictly forcing people to obey a set of rules or laws.
7. Behaving in an angry, threatening way, as if you want to fight or attack someone.
8. Someone who is likely to attack, hurt, or kill other people.