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A ‘typical’ British family used to consist of mother, father and two [?] , but in recent years there have been many changes in [?] life. Some of these have been caused by new laws and others are the result of changes in society. For example, since the law made it easier to get a [?] , the number of divorces has increased. In fact one marriage in every three now ends in divorce. This means that there are a lot of one-parent families. Society is now more tolerant than it used to be of unmarried people and single [?] . Another change has been caused by the fact that people are living longer nowadays, and many old people live alone following the [?] of their partners. As a result of these changes in the pattern of people’s lives, there are many households which consist of only one person or one adult and children. You might think that marriage and the family are not so [?] as they once were. However, the majority of divorced people marry again, and they sometimes take responsibility for a second family. [?] of a family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - keep in touch, but they see less of each other than they used to. This is because people often move away from their home town to work, and so the family becomes scattered. [?] is the traditional season for reunions. Although the family group is smaller nowadays than it used to be, relatives often travel many miles in order to spend the holiday together. In general, each generation is keen to become independent of parents in establishing its own family unit, and this fact can lead to social as well as geographical differences within the larger family [?] .

Who looks after the older generation?
There are about 10 million old-age pensioners in Britain, of whom about 750,000 cannot live entirely independently. The [?] gives financial help in the form of a pension but in the [?] it will be more and more difficult for the national economy to support the increasing number of elderly. At the present time, more than half of all old people are looked after at home. Many others live in Old Peoples’ Homes, which may be private or state-owned.

The individual and the family
Relationships within the family are different now. Parents treat their children more as equals than they used to, and children have more [?] to make their own decisions. The father is more involved with bringing up children, often because the mother goes out to work. Increased leisure facilities and more money mean that there are greater opportunities for the individual to take part in [?] outside the home. Although the family holiday is still an important part of family [?] (usually taken in August, and often abroad) many children have holidays away from their parents, often with a school party or other organized group.