Unit 02 Love and family

Clip 1 Valentine’s Day

Voice-over: An avalanche of color today at Britain’s biggest flower market, new Convent Garden. Even by the standards of Valentine’s Day, trade has been awesome. Double an average day and 20% up on last year. But this is where love really was in the air, as mobile phone masts radiated romance. The industry estimates 80 million text messages were sent, double the daily average.

Man 1: The good thing with a text message is you nearly always get a response. You can’t guarantee to get that when you send a bunch of flowers or an anonymous card.

Man 2: OK, this might not be the most sentimental thought, but on Valentine’s Day romance isn’t just an emotion, it’s a rapidly growing industry. Today 25 million pound’s worth of flowers were given. Twenty-two million cards were sent and at least 2.25 million romantic e-mails were sent on work computers.

Voice-over: That’s according to those using a new system to stop Internet pornography. Screening for X-rated[1] material, today had an accidental but interesting by-product.

Man 3: Coincidentally we pick up this time of the year triple X’s in e-mails. And of course what we discover is that an awful lot of these are just Valentine’s messages signed with kisses and not pornography at all.

Voice-over: But even with flower prices tripling through Valentine’s Day demand, many people felt they couldn’t get away with merely sending an e-mail or text. And that meant shelling out around five pounds a time for a single red rose.

Man 4: Definitely we’re under some kind of pressure today. With just some flowers and just card of some sort, you know.

Man 5: I think it’s quite commercialized, but I guess it’s always good to give each other presents on Valentine’s Day.

Voice-over: But today has proven that the electronics which have become a part of life are also rapidly becoming a part of love. Chris Choi. ITV News.

Clip 2 Househusband

Voice-over: Getting ready in the morning is the same rush for this family as it is for any other. The only difference is Kirsty’s parents have swapped traditional roles. The mother the breadwinner, the father part of a growing breed of men turned homemaker. When four-year-old Kirsty was born, it made sense to her father to look after her. He enjoys it, but now has the problem traditionally faced by mothers wanting to get back to work.

Man 1: As far as an employer is concerned, your availability is very sporadic, so you can’t even start part-time work, or look for part-time work, with a view to getting full-time work.

Voice-over: Conference organizers say parents like Kirsty’s are increasingly put in the position where they do all or very little parenting. They say by giving men more freedom to be with their children, a crisis of fatherhood could be avoided. Greg Oliver. ITN. Central London.

Voice-over: John Stanley is something of a statistical oddity, a single father struggling to bring up his young son. Mr. Stanley from Corbey is one of only 2% of families run solely by men. He is separated from his parents but unlike nine out of ten cases, won custody of three-year-old Sean. But while single moms may now be accepted as part of modern day life, society, it appears, has been slower when it comes to dads.

Man 2: What’s the most difficult bit, you seen to be isolated by yourself. You don’t seem part of a society... no more. Now people look at you a bit different, you know, like your dolls ground you and things like that.

Voice-over: Whatever father’s statutory成文法 rights, many families are adopting an increasing egalitarian approach to their roles as parents. In the Dixon’s case, they are now both breadwinners and both share the work of child caring.

Man 3: Before I thought, if I’m going to work, she does all the housework and all the kids. And if she went to work I would do everything. But now we’re both working and we both still do the work in the house.

Voice-over: Whoever the breadwinner, few would argue nowadays that a man’s place too can be at home. Though, when it comes to political correctness, don’t rely on the children.

Man 4: Who would you prefer, your mommy or daddy staying at home?

Girl 1: Mommy.

Man 4: But daddy is all around, isn’t he?

Girl 1: I like mommy better, ‘cause mommy is nice.

Clip 3 Stepfamily

Voice-over: The Bennet family settle down for Sunday lunch in Biggin Hill in Kent. Michael and Margaret married three years ago after both being widowed. Their children, who come from both marriages, range from 13 to 20 and all still live at home. Michael is a plasterer, currently stacking supermarket trolleys, because he can’t find enough work. Margaret is a playground supervisor in her son’s secondary school. Money is tight and the family is of viral support.

Man 1: I’m married to this nice lady and we get on quite well, you know. And things could be better for us but we just have to accept what we’ve got. Sometimes I feel that I just don’t want to go on sometimes, because it’s, you know, too much pressure is on here all the time. My family here...they really give me all the support that I need really. They’ve seen through the good times and they’ve seen me through the bad times.

Girl 1: Some families are breaking down, but I think they’ve been sort of reformed in stepfamilies. I think my friends have different sorts of stepfamilies. My father died and my stepfather’s wife died so then you know, they married and formed another family unit.

Voice-over: The idea of family then remains very strong, despite the emotional and economic strains of 90s life—a fact which surprised the researchers.

Man 2: We looked wherever we could in the survey to look for evidence that what was actually happening to the family was somehow dangerous or threatening, and we couldn’t find it. Broadly speaking, as far as we can measure these things, people still have as much contact with the family as ever, and rely on their family as much as ever for practical support and emotional support.

Voice-over: One final observation: More people are now happy to see explicit sex scenes on television, provided it is after the nine o’clock watershed. Attitudes towards gay sex on television though remain more inhibited. Overall, the social attitudes survey presents a contradictory picture. Moral values may not be in crisis, but they are changing to reflect new styles of family life. A point which politicians and pundits[2] would do well to remember.

Clip 4 Arranged marriage in India

Voice-over: At a Sikh temple in Derby, Bulvinder Singh and Suvinder Kaur are joined in holy matrimony. It is the third time they have met. This is an arranged marriage, brokered through by an intermediary. The couple introduced only after the two families had agreed on their mutual acceptability.

Woman 1: It was with the family pushed and then we were allowed for 10 minutes to talk. That we could talk about the entrance to your...

Voice-over: Nearly all Asian marriages here are arranged, the majority successfully so. But sometimes the line between arranged and forced is a thin one. If it’s cross, there can be bitter unhappiness. This fugitive Muslim bride would not show her face.

Woman 2: To convince my parents that I don’t like the person, I tried to commit suicide. And at the first daylight, at least they will understand my feelings that I don’t want that guy. Now when I got back from the hospital, I’ve been pushed again to go.

Voice-over: The Asian community frowns on separation and when it happens, the cultures of East and West can collide with painful consequences. The younger generation do not so readily share adherence to the old ways. Increasingly expectations are different.

Woman 3: Often the young client would say, “But I don’t love him. I never wanted to marry him. I was forced into it. Why can’t I get divorced?” Then I have to say, “Well you can’t. Because the law doesn’t allow you to do that.”

Voice-over: But when Nazreen Akhmal’s marriage was annulled by a Scottish court, a crucial precedent was set.

Man 1: Get out of here you bastards!

Voice-over: Her father is enraged by the media attention. Cameron Fyfe, the lawyer of Nazreen and Shamzad says the Scottish rulings will be legally persuasive in England as well. He’s already handling seven similar cases and believes he has opened a floodgate for potential clients.

Man 2: They tell me there’s an army of people out there who are stuck in arranged marriage and want out of them, because they were forced into them against their will. And they now see these particular cases as being a way out of the situation.

Woman 4: It took me three years to get where I am now. I’m a single person who was forced into that marriage and I was never happy. And I think it was worth it in the end. I’m free and single now.

Man 3: Here at the wedding reception in Derby, no one has any doubts about arranged marriages. “They are”, they say, “the best way.” They point to centuries of tradition, which have shown that when two families are joined like this, the foundations on which the partnership is built are more solid than those enjoyed by Western couples.

Voice-over: For Suvinder and Bulvinder there are no misgivings. Both will follow tradition willingly. Both believe the right arrangement has been made. But for others, court cases now being prepared may present a way out of marriages which seem to offer little chance of happiness and no hope of escape. Tim Ewart. News mat Ten. Derby.

Clip 5 Married relationship

Woman 1: There is no perfect way of bringing up children, but two married parents offer the best chance. Not only do they provide the stability and security which children need, but they offer an example of life-long commitment. Unlike other relationships between men and women which are often based on desire, the exercise of power and flinty[3] passion, a married relationship is based on self-sacrifice and equality and it offers children a link to the wider world of employment and social life in addition to the protection and security which it gives.

Man 1: I think it is very important for the children to obviously have a stable family unit surrounding them. I think it can be beneficial for them in the long term as they develop to know that their mother and father were married and that we love one another and continue to love one another.

Voice-over: The Watsons have been married for 18 years and have three children. They speak from experience.

Woman 2: We always know that we can depend on them, sort of, say, from grandparents and brothers and sisters if, if necessary. I know that if I had a problem, when somebody was sick, when the children were sick or when Stuart was sick, I know that I could ring my mum if you like and my parents certainly. I know they would be in the car and be down here and they would be supporting us, looking after the children if necessary and I’m sure your parents would too.

Man 1: True, and by not saying it.

Voice-over: It’s the lifetime commitment of the parents that gives children security and stability and makes wider family support possible. When that is threatened, it affects all.

Woman 2: All the children have got friends who’ve been in the situation where parents have got divorced and it affects the children from the marriage but also our children being sort of involved, especially when they’re younger. And as it’s going on it affects family members too. I mean the, it makes them insecure, even if they’re not part of it, for seeing what’s happening to others.

Voice-over: Nor can you separate the emotional effects from the financial.

Man 1: It would be disastrous financially, from the emotionally and everything else. If I then had to go and set up another home and pay maintenance and all the rest of it, yes it would be devastating financially.

Man 2: As far as married people are concerned with children, there are no allowances that a single person with children can also get. And in fact there are no allowances in the tax system at all for somebody having children.

Voice-over: Should we now reconsider the framework of law and taxation?

Clip 6 Working mothers

Woman 1: I’m a mother of three daughters and when I had my first it was very very difficult when I got back to work as I had to work full-time or I basically would have lost my job. And there was no flexibility.

Woman 2: I’m a working mother of two children. I’ve never asked for special treatment from my company and I feel that I’ve worked extra hard in order to keep my job.

Woman 3: I’m the owner of a couple of small businesses and I don’t choose to employ women of childbearing age because my businesses cannot sustain the costs.

Woman 4: So Sylvia, what you are saying is that in your business you wouldn’t have employed women like Sue and like Francis when they were having their children.

Woman 3: Not when they were having children and that sounds absolutely awful, but how can I sustain a year’s maternity pay which is what it’s gonna be next year?

Woman 2: A lot of people that have come back to work who’ve taken shorter contracts—working hours—and they’ve actually ended up because of their work situation staying behind after work. So probably even though their contract is reduced, working almost as long as a week as before, so...

Woman 3: But there are also businesses that can’t necessarily sustain you doing work at home.

Woman 4: Somebody has to bring up children, haven’t they? And they have to be supported in doing that. Frances, what makes you sort of angry that, that women are expected to take the bulk of the childcare and yet they’re still being discriminated against their work?

Woman 1: Yes. Unless you earn a huge sum of money, then you’re able to be more flexible with regards to your childcare and your job. But if you’re not, then its’ basically like a draw in most cases. I mean generally we’re all individual cases but I’m sure there is a large portion of women in society—particularly in the UK—who basically cannot afford to work because for one they can’t afford childcare and for one they are not going to be able to get employment that allows them to work around their children’s school hours.

Voice-over: Three women, three very different views.

Unit 03 Travelling

Clip 1 Increased demand for UK holidays and attractions

Man 1: We've been full at half term and indeed at Easter. That's nothing new for us. We've always been full those terms. But we did see in 2009, we've actually filled up much quicker than we had done in previous years. And I think we're 15% up on peak bookings this summer already.

Woman 1: Around 11 million Brits are making an overnight stay this Easter. That's pretty much the same as last year. But there has been a shift in our choice of destination. Around 73% of holiday makers are choosing to stay here in the UK. That's up 6% on 2008. But just 19% are choosing to travel abroad. That's down by a massive quarter on last year.

Voice-over: Many Brits are shunning European city breaks and tropical beaches because the poor exchange rates for Sterling would leave them out of pocket. The weak pound is also encouraging an influx of overseas visitors. That's great news for tourist attractions here.

Woman 2: We're finding that when people are holidaying at home, if they are staying for a long time, they may go to the seaside. If they are taking a short break, they are very attracted to going for a city break. And obviously attractions play a huge, a huge part in that. Museums, galleries. Most people that we interviewed for example have said that they visited an attraction or a museum over the last year.

Clip 2 Tourism hit by cost of living in London

Woman 1: We found that eating and drinking has been very expensive, particularly for a family of four. Do you have any ideas about that?

Woman 2:Yeah definitely. I mean, there are loads of different markets that you can go to around London. Where you can get fresh local produce and it's great to just kind of walk around and get a feel for it. And obviously there’s loads of cafes as well, so lots of little side street cafes. places where you can go and get cheap eats. But on a day like this, I mean you can get a picnic together. Just go around to one of the parks. And London has got more parks than any European city. So you know, get a picnic together. Go and sit down and just, you know, look around at the people, look around at the place that you're in.

Voice-over: No sooner said than done. Off to Primrose Hill and although the family had already paid to take a spin[4] on the London Eye, this was a picnic with a breathtaking view for free.

Woman 3: Nathan and Laurie, you've brought your whole family to London. It's a very expensive trip. Do you think the weak dollar will now put American tourists off coming here?

Woman 1: Yes I think it will. We actually spent a couple of years thinking about the trip, planning the trip and we were actually hoping to come when the dollar was a little stronger. So it's certainly, I think it will affect people.

Woman 3: And Nathan, people have to be quite careful about planning their trips as well.

Man 1: We have been careful. We've been very fortunate that we have friends here in London who put us up for the time that we've been here. And we've used train passes to move around. We spent a lot of time walking between sites and spent a lot of time deciding which sites we were going to see.

Voice-over: With weather that makes the capital gleam, there was just time to take in Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street. More stories for the classmates in Vermont and all at no extra cost to mum and dad. Emma Walden, London Tonight.

Clip 3 Stonehenge

Stonehenge, the greatest standing stone circle in the world, 4,400 years old. Stonehenge is one of the most amazing achievements of prehistoric engineering. The sheer effort involved in its construction was equivalent to us putting men on the moon today. Yet it remains one of the world's most mysterious sites because so little is really known about it.

Stonehenge is found on the rolling Downland of Salisbury Plain in the heart of southern England. This open countryside is rich in prehistoric ruins. Giant megaliths巨石碑, great barrows or burial mounds are testaments to the intense communal activity of the pastoralists who grazed animals, grew wheat and worshipped unknown gods. There are countless theories on who the architects of Stonehenge might have been. Some people said they were the Greeks, the druids or people from the fabled lost city of Atlantis. Others said it was magically erected by King Arthur's sorcerer, Merlin. Were the circles built as gateways to the heavens above? Today the stones stand silent refusing to yield their secrets.

What is certain is that the builders of Stonehenge possess remarkable knowledge and skills. Over time Stonehenge evolved from a round ditch with a wooden temple in the middle to a complete stone circles linked by lintels门楣 on top. Inside was a circle of smaller stones and at its center five sets of the largest stones of all. Human muscle and a primitive system of ropes and wooden levers must have been used to move the giant stone over some considerable distance, when upright the largest stone stood at 27 feet and would have weighed among 40 tons—the weight of six elephants. This must have been a mammoth communal effort. But for what purpose? The builders left no clues, but it was for something very important indeed.

Some claim Stonehenge was a burial site for high ranking citizens, others a temple for worship of ancient earth deities. The most likely theory is that Stonehenge marks the passage of time. According to astronomer Gerald Hawkins, Stonehenge was a vast prehistoric observatory, because the stones were precisely aligned to witness the rising and setting of the sun and moon on key dates, like the solstices. On the longest day of the year in June, the sight of the dawn sun appearing behind the sacred heelstone is as dramatic today as it must have been for the ancients endeavoring to read the heavens above. Modern druids come here to commune with mother earth and the skies and they are not alone. Every year over a million people are drawn to Stonehenge to gaze at these great stone circles of magic and mystery, as sacred today as they were to the primitive peoples who built them thousands of years ago.

Clip 4 Southwold named as quintessential seaside resort

Well here is the answer. We're in East Anglia, we're on the Suffolk coast and we are at Southwold. Now, I think there are possibly two images of a traditional British seaside town. One is kiss-me-quick funfairs[5], fast food, noisy nightlife and that sort of thing. That is not what you get in Southwold. This town harks back to an earlier gentler era. Promenades on the pier perhaps? This one was refurbished as late as 2001. Or what about afternoon tea in your beach hut? Those ones down there are so sought after, they change hands for 30 or 40 thousand pounds. Or perhaps a visit to the 19^th century lighthouse up there at the back of the town. Some people say Southwold is caught in a bit of a time warp. And if that's true, well, that's obviously just how people like it.

One thing it does have in common with other places though is fish and chips. More than three quarters of the people in this survey say the quality of fish and chips marks out a good seaside town. But if Southwold is relatively unknown as against perhaps Torquay, Blackpool—both of which were beaten in this poll. I think one thing that does enhance its reputation is its relative accessibility for weekending Londoners, many of whom seems very keen to buy into this indefinable mixture of nostalgia and simplicity, which underpins Southwold's charm. And if it's a bit difficult to fully appreciate those charms on a terrible day like this, it's all going to be different on the Bank Holiday weekend, isn't it?

Clip 5 Pearly Kings and Queens celebrate Harvest Festival

Voice-over: Pearly Kings and Queens. For most people perhaps a quick reminder of a London long gone, if not totally forgotten. What you might not realize is that the Pearly tradition is still very much alive and sparkling in the capital. Today marks the Peary’s annual Harvest Festival parade in the city of London. An event now in its 10^th year.

Woman 1: It is such a colorful tradition and it’s for a good cause. It’s all for charity. So charities benefit from us doing it, so it’s got to be good.

Woman 2: The original Pearly story is worthy of a Dickens tale. A young orphan called Henry Croft from Kings Cross was so impressed with the pearly trouser seams from his local market traders, that he set about covering his entire suit with pearl buttons. He then set about collecting money for local orphanages and workhouses.

Voice-over: Today around 30 London families continue Henry’s philanthropic works. Cash raised from today’s festival will be donated to the White Chapel Mission, a charity which supports the homeless. But London’s alternative royal family say that there are other important reasons to keep this grand old Cockney custom alive.

Woman 3: When it was the Queen’s diamond jubilee, golden jubilee... I forget. 2002, they had a big parade down Pall Mall and they had every country represented and a month before they said, “We haven’t got England represented. Let’s get the Pearly Kings and Queens!”

Clip 6 The Great Pyramid

The only survivor of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World is the Great Pyramid of Egypt, built 4,500 years ago to house the final resting place of pharaoh Kufu. The Great Pyramid is the largest of the three pyramids at Giza. Symbols of one of the greatest civilizations in the ancient world, they rise up like stone mountains on the edge of Egypt’s western desert. Egypt’s capital Cairo and the mighty River Nile lie to the east.

There is an old Arab saying “Everything fears time but time fears the pyramids”. These monuments are testament to the ancient Egyptian belief in the afterlife and their survival over the centuries. For the ancient Egyptians, the pyramid represented the beginnings of the world, a mound土堆 on which the Sun God stood and brought all other gods and goddesses into being. This was the stairway to all eternity. The Egyptian Pharaohs thought of themselves as living gods who one day would leave the earth to join the Sun God who journeyed across the sky by day and through the perilous underworld by night.

The vital force linking the pharaoh to the gods had to be preserved in an indestructible container of stone. The Great Pyramid of Kufu is huge. Taller than the Statue of Liberty, it stands at 450 feet high. It took around 100,000 craftsmen and laborers 20 years to build and over two and a half million blocks of limestone were moved into place—six million tons. An engineering feat that beggars belief[6]. But could construction of the Great Pyramid have hidden other mysteries known only to the ancient Egyptians? When grave robbers forced their way in 1,100 years ago, they found the passageways deliberately blocked and the stone sarcophagus[7] of King Kufu empty. Had the dead pharaoh risen to heaven?

Scientists today are confident the pyramid was built to serve an astronomical purpose. The four sides are accurately aligned to the four compass points. The mysterious ventilation shafts通风井，竖井 found inside and the grand gallery leading to the king’s tomb were most probably sight lines observing the movements of the stars. Some theorists believe that the pyramids were specifically built to mirror the Orion constellation after the deity Ositis, who was associated with the great cycle of birth, death and resurrection. They also think the shafts were channels to transport the soul of the deceased pharaoh to his god counterpart in the sky. Only when the king is in the heavens can the power of the spirit world be returned to the land of the living. The pyramids were perhaps the means by which this could be achieved. An intriguing theory, but the Sphinx half lion half god which guards the gates of the sacred pyramids looks due east to a place in the sky where 12,500 years ago the lion constellation rose at dawn on the day of the spring equinox. Could this be the work of a civilization more ancient than first thought, a civilization that wanted to communicate with the heavens and unlock the secrets of the universe, now lost for all eternity? Whatever the truth, one thing is certain—the vision of the pyramids and the Sphinx like all other ancients sites around the world will continue to stir the imagination of mankind for millennia to come.