An interview with a family counsellor
Interviewer: I’m sure that a lot of
people have no idea what a family counsellor’s job’s really 1)________. Do you
think you could tell us a few things about it?
Counsellor: Yes, well, it’s quite an
interesting job actually, we have to deal with very interesting cases day 2)_________
day – or perhaps, I’d better use the work complex here – you know the majority
of these cases are rather sad as a matter of 3)__________.
I: Could you give me an example 4)____________?
C: Yes, certainly. Last year I had to deal with the case
of a little boy for example. This little chap – eight years 5) __________ he
was – had always been as good 6)__________ gold, doing terribly well at school –
a real bright button of a boy, if you know what I 7)_________. ... now this
lovely picture changed dramatically, quite unexpectedly, literally out of the 8)_________;
from one day to the next he began stammering...
I: You mean he began to speak with pauses and repeated
sounds like this without any warning, just 9)_________?
C: Yes, that’s exactly. And, what’s 10)________ worse,
he started to behave very badly at school, became a real nuisance, really, very
serious discipline problems indeed, like beating up other children, and not
answering the teachers’ questions, stealing money from the staff room, things
like that.
1)
a – is, b – like, c – likes
2)
a – to, b – from, c – by
3)
a – fact, b – thing, c – facts
4)
a - semmi, b –
for, c - of
5)
a – under age, b – of age, c – age old
6)
a – than, b –so, c – as
7)
a – mean, b – say, c – am saying
8)
a – boy, b – blue, c – sudden
9)
a – over the night, b – fortnight, c – overnight
10)
a – even, b – more, c - yet
So he really started to
show rather worrying symptoms. His teachers, and of course, his parents were
terribly shocked, they just couldn’t understand these 1) _____________ changes,
and they were really very seriously worried. Well, to 2)_________ cut a long
story short, the case ended 3)________ on my desk, and I decided to sit down
and have a chat with the whole family. My little patient, his mother, his
father and his little sister, who was 2 and a half at the time, they all came
into my office and sat down on the sofa that you’re sitting on 4)__________ the
moment. The father first, then the mother right next to him, and then the
little girl, and finally the little fellow himself over there at the far right
end of the sofa. Now, the moment they
were seated, the little girl started to climb on her mother, 5)____________ and
kissing her, talking to her all the time, obviously doing everything she could
to take all of her attention. When my little patient tried to ask her mother
anything or tried to take her hand, the little girl would just raise her voice
or hug her mother even more closely, really she 6)_____________ it completely
impossible for the little boy to have any kind of communication with his
mother. Well, it was obvious that he was suffering from this situation; you
could see the frustration in his eyes.
I: But did he actually do anything? I mead did he do
anything aggressive or violent?
C: No, nothing, nothing at all. Eventually, poor boy, he
just gave it all 7)__________, and sat there quietly, hardly said anything at
all for the whole thirty minute session.
I: Oh, what happened then?
C: Well, I decided arrange the scene for the next
session a bit. First of all, I asked the father to take care of the little girl
while we were talking, so that she 8)___________ crawl all over the place, and
particularly so that she wouldn’t go up to her mother and take up her
attention. I also asked him to make sure that he and the little girl were the
last to sit down after coming into my office. Then I asked the mother to make
sure that she came first into the office and I also told her to sit down at the
far left end of the sofa. And I explained to them that I wanted the little boy
to 9)__________ the best place for himself.
I: And what did the little boy do?
C: Well, as you may have guessed, he immediately sat
down right next to his mother, kind of, well, blocking the way for his sister.
Wow, you should’ve seen the difference! Now that he was sitting next to his
mother and was also getting all her attention, of course, his behaviour changed
10)_____________. He was much more open, he was obviously not frustrated, he
was ... just happy.
I: So it was all because...
C: Yes, it was that simple. The poor little chap was
suffering from, well, a lock of loving care and attention and he reacted to the
situation in ways that really shocked everybody. I think he was giving clear
signals. He was sending a kind of behavioural SOS that something was terribly
wrong. Unfortunately the parents simply hadn’t realised that they’d just paid
too much attention to the little girl.
I: And did things get better?
C: Well, yes very much better, just as dramatically as
they got worse when the first symptoms appeared. Thank God, the parents
understood the situation immediately and they spent more time with him, so
things became perfectly all right in no time at all, and apparently they
haven’t had any problems ever since. You know, the human soul is a very
sensitive thing, and if we do not pay attention to the seemingly unimportant
details, we might very easily cause or suffer injuries for a lifetime.
at up up sudden
chose made completely choose hugging cut make wouldn’t
The exercise is based on a listening from the language book Blackbird.
