The divorces that can save families.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 905.

Read the text and right down its main idea (5-7 sentences).

II. Reading activities.

Match the words from the text to their Ukrainian equivalents.

I. Pre-reading activities.

Unit 3.

Translate into English

1 Менеджмент визначається як організація та координація діяльності підприємства у відповідності до його цілей.

2 Елементи менеджменту використовувалися ще у будівництві пірамід у Єгипті.

3 Менеджери приймають ключові рішення та вирішують складні проблеми..

Becky Branford's parents split when she was 11. Her father, Nick, moved out, and her stepdad, Ralph, moved in. It took time for the new family unit to settle down – initially Ralph and Becky's younger brother, Matthew, found it difficult to get on – but "quite quickly, everything got better," says Branford, who is now 28.

"There weren't the rows and the tension. My dad bought a flat nearby and became re-incorporated into the family. He would have a turn cooking a meal each week at the family home and was on the dog-walking rota".

Now the Branfords function as a family of five. "I feel that I've three parents," says Branford, who works in online news at the BBC.

"Ralph is the opposite of my dad, he's quite emotional, and was good when we were growing up. I felt able to confide in him about boyfriends in a way I couldn't with my parents. He made my adolescence more enjoyable, than it would have been without him.

"We often go out for the evening together now, and Ralph and dad joke about who should sit at the head of the table. Dad is my dad, but Ralph has become 'uncle' to my cousins."

Out of a difficult situation, the Branfords managed to forge a new – and very happy – family. Becky's boyfriend, Owen, comes from a similarly split-and-mended modern clan. They joke that they have seven parents between them and keeping up with them all is practically a full-time job.

Branford, from Camberwell, south London, says, We have four parental engagements a month, just to keep in touch with everyone."

The latest divorce statistics, were greeted with dismay. In 2003, the divorce rate rose for a third year and marital breakdowns left 153,527 children under 16 in broken homes.

Study after study has told us of the terrible emotional scars that can be left by divorce. But what we rarely hear is that once the emotional mercury starts to fall, those scars can heal pretty well.

No family relationships can ever be the same after divorce, but it may be that there are some positive aspects for children in gaining step-parents and siblings. It speeds emotional maturity and negotiating skills and may mean that a child has a whole range of interested, concerned adults hovering around, rather than the traditional two.

Far from drowning in misery, many children are relieved when their parents split up and pleased when they settle down with someone new. Tradition has it that children loathe their "wicked stepmother" and step-siblings, but is that really true?

Not all children are crushed by divorce: ever-adaptable, they settle into the new pattern of family life.

Branford's family was unusual in moulding so well in its new form as her father did not remarry.

"Things usually tend to change when both husband and wife have a new partner, "says Kathleen Cox, author of Children and Divorce: a Guide for Adults.

"While someone is single their former husband or wife may feel responsible for them and that can create tensions on both sides. But once they are settled in new partnerships things tend to relax, which makes it easier for the children.

If a couple can be sensitive and generous in their dealings with one another, the children will find it much easier to settle and can even gain from having four loving parents around them."

This was Branford's experience. "My parents handled everything amazingly", she says. "I marvel at how they were able to do it, but they are incredibly loving, lovely people and we never felt we'd lost either of them.

"Divorce can be horrible at the time, but it's not the end of the world."

Digest, 2005, № 9.