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UNIT 4 :Overseas Students
Integrated Skills Development
Passage Au pair
"Au pair" is an arrangement under which a girl who is not less than seventeen years old comes to the United Kingdom primarily to learn the English language and to live for a while as a member of a resident English-speaking family. She receives her keep, entertainment and pocket money (￡ 5 to ￡ 7 a week is not unreasonable) and is expected to help with the housework and the care of any children. The relationship between the girl and her hostess is a personal one depending for its success both on the willingness of the hostess to help the girl in her studies and amusement, and on the readiness of the girl to play her part in the life of the household.
The "au pair" girl should be told what facilities will be afforded her for learning English at part-time classes, or under private tuition, and about the amount of time she may expect to be able to set aside each day for study and amusement.
The reasonable maximum time during which an "au pair" guest may be expected to perform domestic tasks, or to be on call for household duties (including baby-sitting and the care of children) is about five hours daily; and she should be given at least a day a week free. It is important that the "free time" should be really free, that the girl should be at liberty to meet her friends and to go sight-seeing and to concerts, cinemas, etc., and that she should have the time and opportunity for religious observance.
In return for keep and what the host family does, an "au pair" girl is expected to help her hostess with household duties on a partnership basis, and to do her share of any kind of housework which the hostess herself does. Where however the hostess employs other help for heavier housework, she should expect the "au pair" girl only to help with such jobs as bed making, washing up, tidying and dusting, baby-sitting, taking children to and from school and looking after them in the house; she should not in that case be asked to do heavy housework.
The "au pair" guest will normally expect a bedroom to herself. She should be treated as a daughter of the house, taking her meals with the family and sharing their amusements. Under a proper "au pair" arrangement the relationship between the hostess and the girl involves acceptance of social equality and is not founded on a mistress-servant basis.
Where the "au pair" arrangement is made with a girl who is still abroad, she should be given precise travelling directions and should wherever possible be met on arrival.
New Words and Expressions
acceptance
n. 承认；接受
amusement
n. 娱乐
baby-sit
V. （代人临时）照看婴孩
concert
n. 音乐会
domestic
a. 家里的；本国的
equality
n. 平等
facility
n. （常用复数）设施，福利
hostess
n. 女主人；女服务员
involve
V. 包含；使卷入
keep
n. 生计，衣食
