1. Can parents be prosecuted for physical punishing their children?

a) They can be prosecuted for that under Swedish law;

b) It’s nonsense;

c) It’s possible only in European countries.

2. Why do some Japanese couples refuse to register their marriage?

a. It’s too expensive;

b. One of the spouse is required to sacrifice his or her name for the
sake of the other;

c. It’s a new fashion.

3. Do children born outside legitimate marriages in England have the
same rights to financial support from their fathers as legitimate chil­dren?

a) Yes, they do.

b) Children from broken families don’t have any support.

c) Legitimate children have more rights to financial support.

4. Is every Englishman allowed to start divorce proceedings even after
a month of his marriage life?

a) Yes, that’s true, a month is enough for the marriage to be carefully
tested.

b) Yes, he is. In England you can start divorce proceedings whenever
you like.

c) No, he isn’t. English law doesn’t allow people to dissolve their marriage within a year of their family life.

5. Do housework, time spent together, emotional support give wives any
rights to share property after divorce?

a) Yes, such things are considered valid and give rights to property.

b) Only legal ownership and money contributions are taken into
consideration.

c) It depends. Everything is up to the jury.

II. Say whether the statements are true or false.

1. In many countries the law never interferes in family life.

2. In Great Britain there are special family courts.

3. In Japan it is prohibited not to register marriages.

4. It is difficult to be granted British citizenship for the children born
outside the country.

5. Nowadays courts ignore legal ownership and money contribution.

III. Which of the definitions of “divorce” coincides with the definition given in the text.

a) divorce is a legal ending of a marriage so that husband and wife are free to marry again;

b) divorce means committing adultery;

c) divorce is a separation of women from their husbands.

TASKS

Task 1. Read the following words and translate them into Russian. Define their part of speech:

important, society, legal, intervention, to promote, physical, limited, capacity, private, property, emphasis, registered, arrangement, deterrent, legitimate, financial, estranged, citizenship, payment, available, domestic, readily, lengthy, especially, division, satisfactory, to separate, ownership.

Task 2. Write the infinitive of the following verb forms:

prosecuted, limited, transferred, registered, requires, born, married, nullified, dissolved, feared, including, bought, caring, issued.

Task 3. Find the words with the similar meaning among the following:

legal, individual, to prosecute, physical, capacity, property, private, emphasis, corporal, to require, to sue, ability, ownership, attention, legitimate, to demand, to give up, protection, petitioner, to define, defense, plaintiff, to determine, to reject, custody, to divide, trusteeship, to separate.

Task 4. Find the words with the opposite meaning among the following:

marriage, public, important, easy, separate, respondent, private, difficult, divorce, insignificant, petitioner, present, children, united, previous, adults.

Task 5. Replace the words in italics by their synonyms from the text:

1) The law must control family relations through legislation.

2) This businessman is rich enough to support a football team.

3) Please don’t list my name.

4) Your must stop smoking if you want to feel better.

5) I can’t believe you have decided to dissolve your marriage. Your family seemed to be an ideal one.

6) Remember, you must use public money only for lawful purposes.

7) He used to donate to the Red Cross.

Task 6. Suggest the Russian equivalents for the following

• to regulate family relations through legislation;

• to start divorce proceedings;

• to refuse to get divorced;

• to transfer private property;

• to register one’s marriage;

• to give up something in favor of the other;

• to get no financial support;

• to be granted British citizenship;

• to calculate welfare payments;

• to dissolve one’s marriage;

• to find respondent’s behavior unreasonable;

• to commit adultery;

• to satisfy the claims of the petitioner;

• to have custody of the children;

• to contribute much to the property;

• English legislation;

• legal intervention in family life;

• to look beyond legal ownership and contribution