生活英语口语:大家族

S: does your family have a record of your ancestors?
N: sure. My mom has been working on our family tree for years. She’s always updating it.
S: do you have a copy of your family tree in your house? I’d love to see it.
N: I can show it to you now, if you like. I think it goes back about 8 generations so far.
S: that’s amazing. Do you have a large extended family?
N: I’ve got 30 cousins on my mom’s side and 10 cousins on my dad’s side.
S: are you very close to your first-cousins?
N: the ones that are my age are close relatives. Now that I’m older, I don’t spend as much time with them as I used to, so I don’t know my younger cousins as well as the older ones.
S: I see. who’s the head of your household?
N: it’s definitely my mother. And, her mother is definitely the matriarch of the bigger family.
S: that’s interesting. What does your grandfather think of your step-mother?
N: at first, she was quite critical of her, but now that they’ve been married for a few years, she’s starting to accept the fact that my father divorced my mother.
S: that’s pretty much how you feel about your step-mother. Like grandmother, like grandson.