Unit 1 · p.16 Family Matters

Homework first. You wrote six sentences about your family and friends: five true, one false. Read them to your partner. Partner, find the lie.

两人互读 2 分钟，猜出假的那句。

"My grandad knows me the best." That's the false one, because last lesson you said he still thinks you're eight!

Caught by your own evidence. Good. Now a warmer: what are the benefits of having a brother or sister? With a partner, three benefits and three drawbacks. And use the personality adjectives from last lesson.

One obvious benefit is that you always have someone to talk to. The flip side is that you never have any privacy.

"The flip side", lovely. Another drawback?

My sister is very demanded. She always wants me to play with her.

Same slip as last time, so let's kill it forever. Demanded is what's asked FOR. Demanding is the person who asks. And give it the complaining tense.

My sister's really demanding. She's always asking me to play with her.

Much better, and "asking" is an action, so the complaining tense works perfectly.

Now look at your drawbacks list. Which ones are about the sibling's personality, and which are about the situation?

"Constant comparison" isn't the sibling's fault. It's the parents who compare.

Hm. Which other drawbacks would disappear with different parents?

Fights over attention. If the parents were fair, you wouldn't have to fight.

So now we have a hypothesis: maybe the problem isn't siblings, it's parents. Remember the word "spoiled". Today's question: is it the number of kids, or the parents, that makes a child spoiled?

Exercise 1. Cover the web page with your hand or a notebook. No peeking. How is life different for an only child and for someone with siblings?

Think about concrete situations: the dinner table, birthdays, holidays.

When it comes to dinner, an only child tends to have a quiet meal with their parents, whereas someone with siblings is more likely to fight about who gets the last dumpling.

Ha, the last dumpling. 抢最后一个饺子. Very real. Birthdays?

An only child gets all the presents. But they also have no one to celebrate with at home.

And parents' expectations?

An only child must to carry all the hope of the parents.

A really important point, especially in China. Grammar: "must" never takes "to". And "carry all the hope" is a bit Chinese. Try "all their parents' hopes rest on them".

An only child has to carry all their parents' hopes. All the pressure is on them.

"All the pressure is on them", perfect. Anyone see an advantage for only children?

More attention, more resources, maybe a better education.

And you don't have to share your room.

把观点写到黑板上，读完网页后回来对照。

I'm writing them up. Let's see if the web page agrees with you.

Exercise 2. Uncover the page. You have three minutes. One question only: does the web page mostly discuss being an only child, or having siblings?

计时 3 分钟。

Time. Answer?

Being an only child.

How do you know, if you didn't read every word?

The first post and the last post are both from Greg, and he's an only child. And most people talk about "onlies".

"Onlies". What a word. How did the discussion start?

Greg's friend Jen said she felt sorry for him because he's an only child.

And Greg was very angry with Jen, so he argued with her.

Did he? Find the sentence. What did he actually do?

Oh, he just smiled and kept quiet. He didn't want to say something he might regret later.

Exactly. He kept quiet with Jen, then went online to vent. 当面微笑，回家发帖. Very relatable. Who else is an only child?

Robyn. She says "Like you, I'm an only".

And Cathy?

She has a younger brother, and she's not happy about it.

OK. Now let's read properly.

Exercise 3. First, a key word: spoiled. What does it mean to say a child is spoiled?

They always get what they want, so they become selfish and demanding.

Whose fault is that?

The parents', usually. They give the child everything.

Keep that answer. Now read and listen, and mark T or F. Rule: underline the words that helped you decide. No underline, no point.

播放音频 1.04。弱的班级每题后暂停给时间。

Number 1: Greg thinks being an only child is a disadvantage.

False. He says "I've always found it to be quite the opposite!"

2: Robyn's an only child.

True. "Like you, I'm an only."

3: Robyn believes it's possible for people with siblings to be spoiled.

True. "I'd guess there are people with siblings who are, too."

4: Cathy's parents are not sympathetic to her problem.

True. Her parents don't sympathy her.

Right answer, but "sympathy" is a noun. The verb is "sympathise with", or use the adjective "sympathetic". And what's your proof?

True. Her parents aren't sympathetic. When she asks them to have a word with her brother, they just tell her to let him be.

5: Cathy thinks she'll never get away from her brother.

False. In a couple of years she'll be off to university, and she won't have to put up with him anymore.

6: Matt thinks the attitude of parents is more important than whether you're an only child.

True. He says "that depends totally on the parents, in my opinion, not on how many kids there are in the family."

Remember our question? Matt has given us an answer. 7: Greg thinks the 19th-century research is no longer relevant.

True. The psychologist was looking at kids on farms, with no other kids around. "That isn't really how things are now."

Nice. Why does that make the research less relevant?

Because those only children were really isolated. Today an only child goes to school, has cousins, friends online…

8: Greg thinks the increase in onlies could become a problem.

True, because he says we're going to see more and more onlies, and it's not a good thing.

Read the end of that sentence again very carefully. Does he say "not a good thing"?

Oh. "It won't be a bad thing for anyone." So it's false.

One little word. That's the danger of reading the first half of a sentence and guessing the rest. So: F, T, T, T, F, T, T, F.

Exercise 4. Read and listen once more. This time, underline any statements you strongly agree or disagree with. Strongly. Not "yeah, OK".

播放音频 1.04（第二遍）。之后两人比较 3 分钟。

Compare with your partner. Which one got the strongest reaction?

I strongly agree with Matt when he says some onlies might be lonely not because there aren't any siblings, but because they aren't good at making friends.

Why strongly?

Because my brother's always alone, and he has a sister, me! So it's not about siblings.

I strongly agree this: it depends totally on the parents.

You're on Matt's team, good. Grammar: agree WITH a person, or agree THAT something is true.

I strongly agree that it depends totally on the parents.

Anyone disagree with something?

I'd take issue with Robyn's point. She says it's obviously very hard to compare, but I think you can compare. You just need lots of people, like the studies on page 13.

Ooh, "I'd take issue with" and you linked it to last lesson's research. Very nice. Now, does your own experience support Matt? Is spoiled about the parents?

According to Matt's opinion, the parents are more important, and I think so.

You've merged two phrases. "According to Matt" or "In Matt's opinion". Not both.

In Matt's opinion, the parents matter more, and my experience backs that up. My cousin has two brothers, and she's the most spoiled person I know, because her dad gives her everything.

So the number of kids didn't protect her. Last job. Language spotting. Go back through the posts and circle words that show the writer's attitude, like "frankly", and phrases about conflict, like "gets on her nerves".

Honestly, hopefully, obviously, frankly, undoubtedly, understandably, admittedly, inevitably.

Gets on her nerves, getting into fights, something I might regret, makes my life miserable, have a word with him, let him be, makes things worse, put up with.

Brilliant. That's next lesson's grammar and vocabulary, already found. Keep those circles.

Exercise 5. Groups of four. Each of you describes a problem with a brother or sister. It can be real or imaginary. If you're an only child, invent one, or borrow your cousin's.

Use the bullet points as your structure: what they do, how you'd describe it, how you feel, what you've tried, their reaction. The other three give advice. Give yourselves a minute to make notes first.

学生先做笔记 1 分钟。这是流利度练习，巡视但不要打断，除非影响理解。

My little brother is always going into my room and using my laptop without asking. He's quite demanding. It really gets on my nerves.

What have you tried?

I've asked my parents to have a word with him, but they just tell me to let him be. And when I talked to him myself, it only made things worse.

That's exactly like Cathy!

Have you tried giving him his own time on the laptop? Like thirty minutes after dinner?

If I were you, I'd put a password on it.

讨论结束后，老师集中反馈几个语言点。

Great discussions. I wrote down a few things while I was listening. One: I heard "it gets on my nerve".

Yes, that was me. It gets on my nerve.

Totally natural mistake, but it's always plural: it gets on my nerves. Your nerves, all of them.

It really gets on my nerves when he takes my laptop.

Two: I heard "I gave him many advices". Advice is uncountable, like research. Some advice, a piece of advice.

They gave me some really useful advice.

Now the Extension. In pairs, think about the younger siblings on the web page, like Cathy's brother. Why might they act like that? At least three reasons.

Maybe he wants attention, because he thinks Cathy's leaving soon. Maybe he's jealous because she's older and has more freedom. Or maybe the parents never say no to him, so he never learned limits.

Now role-play: A is Cathy, B is her brother. Have the conversation she's never managed to have. Quieter people, this is your moment.

Why are you always making my life miserable?

Because you never have time for me! You're always on your phone with your friends.

Wow. Suddenly it's not one-sided, is it? Who's the spoiled one now?

Exit ticket. Is it the number of kids, or the parents, that makes a child spoiled? Three or four sentences. Evidence from one post, and one real person.

写 3 分钟，同桌按 checklist 检查。

I'm with Matt: whether a child is spoiled depends mostly on the parents. Cathy's brother isn't an only child, but his parents always let him be, so he tends to get away with everything.

Great use of the web page. And your real person?

My cousin is an only child, but her parents are strict and she's anything but spoiled.

"Anything but spoiled", 一点都不. And a hedge?

That said, an only child probably faces more temptation, because there's nobody to share the attention with.

My partner wrote "it's depend on the parents".

Ah, our old friend from the first lesson. Fix it.

It depends on the parents. No "is".

Today you read a real online argument, caught one word that flipped a whole answer, gave advice, and found a pile of language for next lesson: attitude adverbs and conflict phrases. Next time: how to say something difficult without starting a war.