What do you know about the British Royal Family? Choose the correct answer and then discuss it with your partner. You may need to use the Internet to find out the correct answer.

1. When is Price George’s birthday?

a) 22 July

b) 22 June

c) 21 April

d) 29 April

2. What are Prince Philip’s pet names for the queen?

a) Little grape

b) Tillabet

c) Cabbage

d) Spike Wells

3. What famous British school did Prince William graduate from?

a) Eton

b) Oxford

c) Cambridge

d) Rugby

4. What is Prince Harry real name?

a) Charles Harry Andrew

b)   Henry Charles Albert David

c)   Hens Edward Charles

d) Harri Earl of Richmond

5. Princess Diana is buried at:

a) Westminster Abbey

b) The garden at Sandringham House

c) An island at Althorp, the Spencer family estate

d) Highgate Cemetery

6. What kind of sport is the Queen Mother a particularly dedicated fan?

a) Wrestling

b) Horse racing

c) Polo

d) Tennis

7. Which of the following is the Queen’s private residence?

a) Balmoral Castle

b) Windsor Castle

c) Buckingham Palace

d) Hampton Court

8. The Queen has had a lifelong affinity for corgis. What was the name of the first corgi to come into the Queen’s life?

a) Susan

b) Dookie

c) Spark

d) Konni

9. What is the number of countries, where the Queen is the head of state?

a) Four

b) Eight

c) 16

d) 21

10. What was the maiden name of Diana, Princess of Wales?

a) Lady Diana Spencer

b) Diana, Lady Spencer

c)  Lady Diana

d)  Lady Spencer

11. Why is Prince Michael of Kent not in the line of succession to the throne?

a) He converted to Islam

b) He married a Roman Catholic

c) He became a Zoroastrian

d) He married without the Queen’s permission

12. How old was the Queen Mother when she died in 2002?

a) 90

b) 95

c) 75

d) 101

 

Listening and Speaking

1. Listen to the audio about family problems (http://www.listenaminute.com/f/family.html). Fill in the gaps and discuss the questions below with your partner.

Family problems

What does _______ mean to you? In a perfect world, all families should be ______and everyone should _______ together. I know a lot of families that have many problems. ______________who don’t like each other, ______ who never talk to each other. I wonder why this is. How can you live so ______ to your family ________ and feel apart from them? There is a lot of talk in the ______ about the breakdown of __________. Divorce is rising everywhere in the world. This means ________ parents have less time to spend with their _______, which creates problems. Maybe the stress of_________ puts too much pressure on families. It seems as though family life was better a ________ or two ago. Is this true for families in your country?

(From: http://www.listenaminute.com/f/family.html)

Here is a list of typical family problems, look it through and rank the most and the least common problems according to your opinion. Discuss your ideas in group.

1. Separation

2. Divorce

3. An alcoholic or drug addicted parent

4. An abused parent

5. An abusive parent

6. Parents who nag or criticize

7. Parents who are overprotective

8. Parents who fight

9. A parent's remarriage

 

Discuss the following questions with your partner:

1. Is your family a happy one?

2. Is it usual to have family problems?

3. Do you have any problems in your family? If so, what kind of problems?

4. How do you solve problems in your family?

5. Who is the person in your family that makes everyone feel comfortable and relaxed?

 

4.  Every family has problems. Divorce has become one of the most frequent problems. Follow the link http://www.listenaminute.com/d/divorce.html and listen to the audio, filling the given words into the gaps.

 allowed, monogamy, husband and wife, church, magistrate, marriage, culture, British history.

Divorce

Divorce has existed for about as long as _______so although we've had a lot of practice at_________, we're still not very good at it!

The ancient Greeks liberally _______divorce, but even then the person requesting divorce had to submit the request to a_________, who would determine whether or not the reasons given were sufficient. In contrast divorce was rare in early Roman_________. However, as the empire grew in power and authority, civil law embraced the idea that either ___________could renounce the marriage at will.

Throughout the last thousand years, divorce was generally frowned upon and from the earliest years of the Christian age the only 'proper' way to dissolve a marriage was by annulment - a status that was granted only by the________. Of course, one British king changed all that during the Sixteenth Century by having arguably the most famous divorce in__________. In 1533 Henry VIII famously broke England's ties with the Catholic Church and changed the face of our nation forever purely because he wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn.

(From: http://www.listenaminute.com/d/divorce.html)

5. Follow the link on the website Divorce statistics (http://www.divorcestatistics.org/divorce-demography.html) and find out the information on the following questions:

1. What country ranked the first place in the number of divorces in 2012?

2. What country had the highest rate in the period of 1960-1980s?

3. What are the most common reasons of ending up marriage in a divorce?

 

Grammar focus

NOUNS