Family Life (1)

A look into households around the world
Which members of your family do you live with? How is your relationship with your relatives? Let’s see how people around the world might answer these questions.

How many kids?
In 2011, the United Nations researched the average number of children that women have in different countries. The highest numbers were in sub-Saharan Africa, with Uganda at 6.1. In North America, it’s around 2.1, but in Europe and East Asia, it is much lower. So kids in Uganda grow up with far more siblings than those in England, for example.

Who’s at home?
Most children around the world live with both their parents. But for various reasons, some live with one parent or neither parents. This is increasingly common in regions including the Americas, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

In North America and Europe, most households include only a nuclear family. However, in the Middle East, Central and South America, and parts of Africa, more relatives live together. Many kids there grow up surrounded by siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins.

Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: What Are Relatives? 何謂 Relative？

Hello, friends! When you see the word "relative", what other word do you see in there?

That’s right, you should also see the word "relate."

So, a relative is someone who is related to you. This relationship is established either by blood or through marriage.

Now you might ask,“is there a way to differentiate the two?" Well, all your relatives who are related to you by blood migh tbe described as blood relatives or the less common blood kin.

And those relatives who are related to you through marriage can be denoted by the term in-law, your father-in-law, for example, is the father of your spouse. Your sister-in-law is the sister of your spouse. In-laws are not related to you by blood.

Okay, what if you want to describe people who are not only relatives but ones who are close to you? You can use the term loved ones, a dying person often wishes to see his loved ones or people close to his heart.

Another term that’s commonly used is friends and family, which refers to the people closest to a person. For example, I might say, only friends and family were invited to the millionaire’s private party.

Language Lab
sub-Saharan adj.
- subtropical
- subantarctic

sibling n.
a brother or sister:
- Jennifer has three siblings, one older sister and two younger brothers.
sibling rivalry 
competition between brothers and sisters for their parents' attention or love
- Even though Gina and her sister are grown-ups now, there's still a lot of sibling rivalry between them.

include v.
if one thing includes another, the second thing is part of the first:
- The breakfast was included in the room charge.
- The course is open to all students, including freshmen.
- The coach really wants to include this talented player on his team.

nuclear family n.
a family unit that consists only of a husband, wife and children
- Martin was brought up in a nuclear family.
extended family n.
a family group that consists not only of parents and children but also of grandparents, aunts etc

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