SPEAKING

Discuss the questions.

1 How big is your immediate family / wider family?

2 How often do you meet up as a family? Why?

3 How similar / different are you in your family?

VOCABULARY Character and habits

Match the sentences about people’s characters (1-9) with the explanations (a-i).

1 We’re all very open and friendly in our family.

2 None of my family are very organized.

3 My brother’s very calm and confident.

4 My dad’s quite strict, while my mum’s a bit soft.

5 My brother’s very reliable.

6 Both my sisters are quite smart.

7 My grandparents are very patient.

8 Both of us are quite practical.

9 She and I are both very creative.

a Between us, we can repair most things in the house.

b We’re always happy to welcome people into our home.

c We’re both good at inventing stories or having lots of ideas.

d We often forget appointments and we’re all quite messy.

e They never got annoyed with us when we were kids –

even when we were getting upset.

f They’ve always done well at school and got good grades.

g He’s just very sure of himself, while I’m more anxious

and worry about things more.

h If he promises to do something, he always does it.

i I always ask her for things because she usually agrees.

Use each adjective in bold in Exercise to talk

about you and your family or other people you

know.

I’d say we’re all quite open and friendly in my family Apart

from my little brother maybe. He’s very quiet and stays in a lot.

To be honest, we’re all quite organized in my family. Our

house is very tidy.

LISTENING

Listen to the introduction to a podcast. Answerthese questions.

1 What’s the podcast about?

2 What’s the episode about?

Before you listen to the rest of the podcast, discuss which of these statements you think are true.

1 The oldest child is special because they’re first, the

youngest is special because they’re last, but if you’re in

the middle you’re just not!

2 The oldest child is usually more intelligent than younger

brothers and sisters.

3 The youngest child often isn’t taken seriously. They’re

always ‘the baby’.

4 If you’re the only daughter, you usually do more in the

house than any brothers.

5 People often treat twins as one person rather than two

individuals.

6 If you’re an only child, you grow up more quickly.

7 Kids from big families are usually more competitive.

Choose two sets of questions to discuss.

1 What do you think of the podcast? What other areas of family life would be a good topic?

2 What things do you think have affected your character? What about other people in your family?

3 Have you learned anything new recently or found out that what you thought before was wrong? What was it?