Collocations For Talking About Your Family
Let’s begin our study of
collocations by learning some common expressions about the family. Your parents
and siblings (brothers and sisters) are your immediate family –
and your extended family includes all your relatives –
uncles, cousins, great-aunts, etc.
You can use a family tree to diagram the relationships among
your family members. A person who is related to you by
a long series of connections can be called a distant relative.
If you’re lucky, you have a loving family or a close-knit
family – these expressions refer to a family that has good
relationships, where everyone loves each other and helps each other. If you
were raised in a loving family, then you probably had a carefree childhood – that means you had nothing to
worry about when you were young.
On the other hand, a family in
which the relationships are bad or unhealthy can be called a dysfunctional family. If the children experience
abuse, poverty, or problems with the law, we can say they had a troubled childhood.
Perhaps the parents went
through a bitter divorce – that means a
separation in which there were bad/angry feelings between the husband and wife.
It’s also possible to have a messy divorce, with
a prolonged legal battle involving lots of conflicts about the separation of
the former couple’s assets (money and possessions). The decisions about the
separation of assets are made in the divorce settlement. A
family in which there are divorces or separations is sometimes called a broken home.
Sometimes the mother and
father fight over custody of the children – that
refers to who has the primary responsibility of caring for the kids. A judge
can grant joint custody – that means the ex-husband
and ex-wife share the responsibility – or sole custody to
only one parent. For example, a judge might award sole custody to
the mother, and the father has to pay child support – regular
payments to help with expenses for the kids.
If it was a mutual divorce/separation – that means the
ex-husband and ex-wife agreed to separate without fighting – then they will
probably stay on good terms with each other(meaning
to have a polite relationship without conflicts).
If a woman gets pregnant without being married or in a
relationship, then she will become a single mother. Some
women in this situation choose to have an abortion, and
others prefer to give the baby up for adoption. The
time when the baby is planned to arrive is called the due date – you can also say the baby is due in mid-October, for example.
After the woman has the baby (or gives birth to
the baby), the baby is given to the adoptive parents, who
will raise the child or bring up
the child as if it was their own. Sometimes, when the adopted child is older, he or she tries to find
their birth mother (biological mother).
TEST
Question 1
|
A friend of mine
____________ birth to her son at home with the help of a nurse.
а) gave b) took
c)
went
Question 2
|
A number of the kids in my classroom come from
_____________ homes.
a) broken b) damaged c) hurt
Question 3
|
After a _____________
divorce from his wife of 20 years, the actor married a woman young enough to be
his daughter.
a)
hostile b) cruel
c) bitter
Question 4
|
I see my ______________
family once a year, during our annual family vacation.
a)
excepted b) expanded
c)
extended
Question 5
|
I was raised in a very
_____________ family, in which everyone helped each other.
a)
joyful b) loving c) tender
Question 6
|
I was _____________ by
my grandparents after my parents passed away.
a)
created b) grown
c)
raised
Question 7
|
I'm on good
_____________ with all my former boyfriends.
a)
friends b) relations
c)
terms
Question 8
|
John had a
_____________ childhood, growing up with happily married parents and three
brothers.
a)
carefree b) careful
c)
careless
Question 9
|
Many women regret
____________ an abortion years afterwards.
a)
giving b) having c) taking
Question 10
|
My aunt's going through
a ____________ divorce; she's paying a fortune in legal fees.
a)
messy b) sloppy
c)
untidy
Question 11
|
My husband doesn't get
along with a few of my family ________________.
a)
people b) individuals
c)
members
Question 12
|
Although my salary is
low, I get child ______________ from my ex-husband.
a)
assistance b) provision
c)
support
Question 13
|
My sister ____________
pregnant immediately after she got married.
a)
got b) had c) made
Question 14
|
My son is making a
diagram of our family ____________ for a school project.
a)
roots b) tree
c)
web
Question 15
|
My wife is pregnant
with twins. They're ___________ in February.
a)
come b) due c) here
Question 16
|
Sally was granted sole
______________ of the children from her first marriage.
a)
custody b) guardian
c)
keeping
Question 17
|
Teenagers who had a
_____________ childhood often have behavior problems in school.
a)
distressed b) troubled
c)
worried
Question 18
|
The celebrity wrote a
book about his ______________ family.
a)
debilitated b) defective
c)
disfunctional
Question 19
|
The divorce
_____________ awarded the wife $500,000.
a)
contract b) reimbursement
c)
settlement
Question 20
|
There are four people
in my ____________ family.
a)
close b) immediate
c)
neighboring
Question 21
|
They have three
biological children and two ___________ children.