UNIT

UNIT 2 Proficiency

2
Describing family and home

Home Life
Describing your neighborhood
Giving directions

This is my family tree. The first pictures are

READING: Family tree my grandparents. They are on my father’s side
of the family. My grandfather is 76 years old.
A. Read about Ellen’s family. He is serious but kind. He was a doctor. My
Fill in the family tree with the family grandmother is 72 years old. She is talkative,
vocabulary (mother, grandfather, etc.) like me and my mother. She is also very funny.
and names. My grandparents have three children. There is
my father, Paul. He has an older brother,
Steven, and a younger sister, Beverly. Of
course, Steven is my uncle. He’s a cook in a
nice restaurant. Beverly, my aunt, is a
housewife. Her husband, Robert, is an engineer.
My father is a scientist. He helps make
medicine. This is my mother. Her name is
Michelle. She is a manager at a bank. She is
very smart and hardworking. There are three
children in my family. I am the oldest. I have
two younger sisters, Jennifer and Elizabeth.
My uncle, Steven, isn’t married and he has no
children, but my aunt has two children, Randy
and Clarissa. They are my cousins. Clarissa
is a few years younger than me. She’s in high
school. Randy is in middle school. Clarissa is
Ellen
nice. Randy is not.

B. Read again. Fill in the chart. Some information is not given in the reading.

Person Occupation Description

Grandfather Doctor Serious, kind

Grandmother Doesn’t say Talkative, funny
Father

Mother

Uncle Robert

Uncle Steven

Aunt Beverly

Cousin (Randy)

Cousin (Clarissa)

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 UNIT 2
GRAMMAR: Possessive adjectives and nouns

Possessive adjectives Possessive nouns

I → my Maria is my friend. Sam → Sam’s This is Sam’s brother.
you → your What is your name? Maria → Maria’s This is Maria’s sister.
he → his This is his book. Sam and Maria → Sam and Maria’s That is Sam and Maria’s house.
she → her I am her friend.
we → our This is our home.
they → their That is their car.

SPEAKING: How many people are in your family?

A. Complete the chart. Use the model sentences to ask and answer the questions.
How many ____________ are in your family?
There are _______ in my family. I have _________ people in my family.
There is only one _______ in my family. I have only one __________ in my family.
There aren’t any _______ in my family. I don’t have any _________ in my family.

How many ________

You Student #1 Student #2 Student #3 Student #4 Student #5
are in your family?
brothers
sisters
aunts
uncles
cousins

B. Prepare your report. Follow the examples.

Example:
Maria has the most brothers. There are four brothers in her family.
Vinnie and Maya have the most sisters. There are three sisters in their families.

I talked with five people.

_______________________ the most brothers. There are ____ brothers in ______ family.
_______________________ the most sisters. There are ____ sisters in ______ family.
_______________________ the most aunts. There are ____ aunts in ______ family.
_______________________ the most uncles. There are ____ uncles in ______ family.
_______________________ the most cousins. There are ____ cousins in ______ family.

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UNIT 2
Home Life

LISTENING: Family portrait

A. Listen to Professor Violet describe her family portrait. Complete the chart below with information about
five of the seven family members she describes.

brother
Relation: _________________________________________

antony
Name: ___________________________________________

Occupation: ______________________________________

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Age: _____________________________________________

Personality: ______________________________________

profesora universitaria
Relation: _________________________________________ old the son
Relation: _________________________________________

Ana
Name: ___________________________________________ alex
Name: ___________________________________________

Occupation: ______________________________________ elementaly school estudy

Occupation: ______________________________________

Age: _____________________________________________ 7
Age: _____________________________________________

Personality: ______________________________________ energetic and curious

Personality: ______________________________________

hus band
Relation: _________________________________________ Father
Relation: _________________________________________

james
Name: ___________________________________________ marcus
Name: ___________________________________________

Marketer
Occupation: ______________________________________ acountan
Occupation: ______________________________________

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Age: _____________________________________________ 62
Age: _____________________________________________

smart and confided

Personality: ______________________________________ serius ......
Personality: ______________________________________

VOCABULARY:
Occupations

A. Review the following vocabulary. Look up words you don’t know.

B. Add two more occupations to the list.

Writer Manager Scientist Doctor Programmer Engineer Teacher

Architect Nurse Artist Graphic designer Accountant Homemaker
Student Salesperson Banker Musician Technician Secretary Marketer
___________ ___________

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 UNIT 2
LISTENING: Occupation review
A. L
 isten to the students discuss their career plans. Write the name of the occupation each
student is interested in. Some students have more than one answer.

Ann: ________________________________ Sam:_____________________________________

Tom: ________________________________ Ellen:_____________________________________

Rachel: ______________________________ Carlos:___________________________________

SPEAKING: Introducing family members

A: Fill out each box giving information about four people in your family (grandmother, mother, father,
brother, etc.). Review vocabulary for occupations and personality in Unit 1.
Follow the examples.

Relation: Mother Relation: Brother

Name: Julia Name: Mark
Occupation: Salesperson Occupation: High school student
Age: 47 Age: 16
Personality: Kind and talkative Personality: Smart and stubborn

Relation: Relation:
Name: Name:
Occupation: Occupation:
Age: Age:
Personality: Personality:

Relation: Relation:
Name: Name:
Occupation: Occupation:
Age: Age:
Personality: Personality:

B: Using your notes, describe your family members to your partner. Speak in complete
sentences. If you have a picture of the family member, show it to your partner.

Example: This is my mother. Her name is Julia. She’s a salesperson in a company.

She is 47 years old. She is kind and talkative.

Unit 2: Home Life 17

UNIT 2

LISTENING: Sam’s family picture

A. Listen to Sam and Ann talk about Sam’s family. Complete the chart with the missing information.

Who is he/she? Occupation Age Appearance personality

High school Short Intelligent

Martin Sam’s brother 16
student handsome Funny
Michael Sam’s ___________

Paul Sam’s ___________

Judith Sam’s ____________

VOCABULARY: Home

D A

F I G
E

C J

A. Label the places

_______ bedroom ______ kitchen ______ bathroom ______ yard

_______ upstairs ______ downstairs ______ living room ______ stairway

_______ driveway ______ garden

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 UNIT 2
SPEAKING: Describing your home
A. Describe your home or apartment to your partner. Talk about all of the rooms (bedroom,
kitchen, living room, bathroom, etc.) and places outside the home (yard, garden, etc.).

Use the following sentences:

There is one _______________________ . Example: There is one kitchen.
There are _________________________ . Example: There are two bathrooms.
There isn’t a _______________________ . Example: There isn’t a garage.

VOCABULARY: Household items

A. Identify the following things in the pictures.

Kitchen: counter, refrigerator, oven, microwave, chairs, garbage can

Bedroom: bed, pillow, nightstand, dresser, desk, pictures, floor, lamp
Living room: couch/sofa, coffee table, bookshelf, window, door
Bathrooms: toilet, bathtub, mirror, shower, sink

GRAMMAR: Prepositions of location

The bird is The bird is The bird is The bird is The bird is The bird is
in the on the next to the in front of behind the above the
birdhouse birdhouse birdhouse. the birdhouse. birdhouse. birdhouse.

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UNIT 2

LISTENING: Room description

A. Listen to Sam describe his room. Draw the items that are not in your picture.
The items should be in the right place.

SPEAKING: Information transfer

A. Partner A turn to page 131. Partner B turn to page 133. There are five things in your partner’s
picture that are missing in your picture.
 escribe your picture and ask questions to find the missing items. Draw the missing items in
D
your picture. Use the following language:

In my picture, there is a _______________. In my picture, there are ______________.

Is there a ______________ in your room? How many _______________ are in your room?

Where is the _________________? Where are the _______________?

It’s (next to, between, on, in front of) ___________________ the ___________________.

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 UNIT 2
WRITING: Describe your bedroom

A. Describe your bedroom.

Example: In my bedroom, there is a bed and two pillows. There is a nightstand next to my
bed. There is a desk and a chair next to the closet. On the desk, there are books and ...
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

LISTENING: Places in town

A. These words are used to describe a neighborhood. Listen to the conversation between
Tom and Ellen. Circle each word that you hear in the conversation.

Apartment Bus Stop East Fire Station Grocery Store House

Library North Park Pool Restaurant Shop
South University West

SPEAKING: What is in your neighborhood?

A. Read the examples below.

Singular In my neighborhood, there is a library.
In my neighborhood, there is a pool.
In my neighborhood, there isn’t a fire station.
Plural In my neighborhood there are three bus stops.
In my neighborhood, there are many restaurants.
In my neighborhood, there aren’t any parks.

B. Following the examples, create sentences to describe your own neighborhood.

Read your sentences to a partner.
Singular In my neighborhood, there is a_____________________________________.
In my neighborhood, there is a_____________________________________.
In my neighborhood, there isn’t a___________________________________.
Plural In my neighborhood there are______________________________________.
In my neighborhood, there are_____________________________________.
In my neighborhood, there aren’t any_______________________________.

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UNIT 2

LISTENING: Neighborhood tour

A. Listen to Ellen describe different buildings in the neighborhood. Label the missing buildings
and places with the words from the box below.

Apartment building Bank Grocery store Pool

SPEAKING: Information transfer

A. Work with a partner. One of you should look at Map A, on page 131. The other should
look at Map B, on page 133. Both of you know where the restaurant and the bus stop are, but
not all of the other places. Describe where each building is so that your partner can fill in the
blanks on their map. Then have your partner do the same for you.

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 UNIT 2

LISTENING: Where is everybody?

A. Listen to the students say where they are and who they are with. Fill in the table.

Where? With who?

Ann At home in her bedroom alone

Pete

Ellen

Tom

Carlos

Diana

WRITING: Where is everyone right now?

A. Where do you think your friends and family members are right now? Write sentences for
at least three of your friends or family members. Follow the example.

Certainly 100%
Probably 70-90%
Maybe 50%

Example: It is 11:30 AM on a Tuesday. My father is maybe at work. My mother is probably

at home. My younger brother is certainly at school.

It is ________________________ on a __________________________.

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

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UNIT 2

READING: The Changing Family

A. Using the following charts, fill in the missing information in the reading below.

Chart 1: Average number of children per family Chart 2: Family living arrangements of children

50%
1976 2015 1960s 2016
Livingwith
with Living with Livingwith
Living with
40% Living
only Living with fatheronly
only
40% 41% motheronly
mother fatheronly
father only father
7%
7% 1%
1% 3%
3%
30%
Other
Other

24% 9%
9% Livingwith
Living with
20% 23% 22% 24% motheronly
mother only
23%
23%
14%
10% Other
Other Livingwith
with
11% 14%
Living
Livingwith
Living with
14% bothparents
both parents
bothparents
both parents
60%
60%
0% 83%
83%
One Two Three Four or more One Two Three Four or more
child children children children child children children children

The Changing Family

Write your answers to the following questions:
1. How many children did your grandparents have? _________
2. How many children do your parents have? _________
3. How many children do you think you will have? ________

If you are like most people in many parts of the world, the answers to those questions are getting
smaller with each generation. In the 1970s, most American families had ______ children. About
_____% of families had three children, and about 23% of families had two children. Only 10% of
families had only one child. These days, most American families have ___ children, and families
with only one child have doubled to ____%. In the 70s, about 40% of all families had four or
more children, but now only ___% do. Family sizes are shrinking. Is this trend happening in your
home country as well?

What are the reasons for having fewer children? Money tends to be the most common reason.
In most families, both parents need to work, and child care in the United States is expensive.
Another leading reason is that parents want more time to spend on the children they have. People
have a limited amount of free time, and the more children they have, the less time they can spend
with each one. The third most common reason is simply that more parents want to have a little
more time for themselves. Raising children takes a lot of time and energy and leaves little free time
for parents.

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 UNIT 2

Another big change in families is with the parents. Traditionally, most children lived with both
parents. Many families also lived with their grandparents in the same house. In the 1960s,
most children lived with both of their parents. Only __% of children lived with just one parent.
In 2016, ___ of children live with both parents. A total of 26% of children live with a single
_____________. That means either the mother or father does not live at home. 14% of ________
do not live with their parents at all. Most of these children live with grandparents or other family
members.

Comprehension
Match

Three reasons for smaller families A. People do not have enough money
for more children.
1. ________
B. People do not think the world is
2. ________ (or will be) a good place for
children.
3. ________
C. Parents want more time for
themselves.
Not mentioned in the reading: D. With fewer children, you can spend
more time with each child.
________ and _________
E. People are worried about
overpopulation (too many people
in the world).

SPEAKING: Your future family

A. Discuss the following questions with a partner.

1. How many children do you plan to have?
2. What are the reasons you do not want to have more?
3. What do you think about people having fewer children? What are the possible good and
bad points?
4. Is this situation in the reading similar in your own country? If yes, what are the reasons why?

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UNIT 2

WRITING & SPEAKING: 5-minute conversations

A. Write at least three sentences for each question. Use the following cues to help you think of
more things to say on each topic:

Wh-Questions

What? Who? When? Where? Why? How?

Example: Tell me about your dream house in your future.

What? My dream house is big. It has many rooms. There is also a swimming pool!

Who? There are my future husband and three children in my house. There is also a dog.

When? I will have my house in about 10 years.

Why? I need a big house so I can have a big family.

How? In the future, I am rich!

1. Introduce yourself (name, occupation, family, personality)

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

2. Tell me more about your family.

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

3. Tell me about your dream house in your future. ______________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

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 UNIT 2

4. Describe your house or apartment.

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

5. Describe your room.

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

6. What places are in your neighborhood?

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

7. What are some of your favorite places (restaurants, stores, parks, etc.) in your town?

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

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