Familia ca temă de discuţie la testul oral, pentru testarea IELTS

Relaţii de familie şi de apartenenţă

A man was talking to a ticket agent. He told her, „I want to buy a bus ticket for Norwald.”

The ticket agent, searching their book of destinations, questioned him. „Norwald? Let me find that. Hmm… never heard of it. Let me see… Norwald. I don’t see Norwald listed, and I can’t find it on the map. Just where is Norwald, anyway?”

The man replied, „Norwald is over there. He’s my brother-in-law.”

One of the burdens of office of the small town mayor was his brother in-law, a fellow who liked to throw his or rather, his in-law’s political weight around. The mayor had instructed his policemen and other city officials to treat him just like they would any other taxpayer.

The brother-in-law got a ticket for overtime parking. He immediately descended in fury on police headquarters, waving the ticket and sputtering, „Hey, do you know who I am?”

The desk sergeant surveyed him calmly, picked up his phone and dialed the mayor’s office. „Tell the mayor,” he said to the secretary, „that his brother-in-law is down here and can’t remember his own name again.”

Vocabular specific

În limba engleză, rudele prin alianţă sunt denumite aplicând sufixul „-in-law” la cuvântul care desemnează ruda corespunzătoare din propria familie. Astfel, „mother-in-law” înseamnă „soacră” (sau „mamă-soacră”), „father-in-law” înseamnă „socru” (sau „tată-socru”), „sister-in-law” înseamnă „cumnată”, iar „brother-in-law” înseamnă „cumnat”.

De reţinut este faptul că pluralul acestor cuvinte compuse nu se formează adăugând „s” la sfârşitul lor, ci după cuvântul la care se aplică „-in-law”. De exemplu, pluralul pentru „mother-in-law” este „mothers-in-law”, nu „mother-in-laws”.