DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR TWO OF A KIND

Read an article about twins. Choose from the list A – H the most suitable summary sentence for each part (1 – 6) of the article. There is one extra summary sentence that you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0).

0 __H__

For years the problem of parents like Desmond and Karen Monk has been largely unrecognised in Britain. The Monks have twins: Colleen and Emily, aged five, who are the public image of twins. See them, and you see why no mother can walk with twins along the street without attracting admiring sounds from everybody. But the popular view does not recognize that beginning life as a twin, often under severe conditions, can mean special problems for parents, teachers and doctors – not to mention twins themselves.

1 _____

The Monks pride themselves on the way they have managed, but Karen admits: “Things were really tough when they were aged between one and a half and three. They were just very demanding, both of them wanting your attention at the same time. If you had one on your lap, the other wanted to be there. You can’t develop the same kind of one-to-one relationship with twins as you have with one child.”

2 _____

Twins often find great strength and support in one another. But this strong connection, endearing though it can be, can push individuality aside. The characters of individual children can be buried within one another.

3 _____

Despite all the similarities there are always differences. In the case of the Monks, one twin tends to be more outgoing than the other. “When they were little, this tended to flow from one to the other. For six months one would be outgoing and the other would be the opposite, very dependent. Then they would change roles. I can’t explain why.

4 ______

All twin parents face a problem as to how far play up or down twinship. Should twins have twin-like names, as has always been common practice? Should they be dressed the same to emphasize their relationship, or differently, to make it less obvious? Should they be encouraged to play together or apart? Should they go to the same school?

5 _____

Twins are now attracting increasing interest from scientists. Some extremely interesting research in the USA shows that even if identical twins are separated early in life and grow up in different places, they tend to develop surprising similarities.

6 _____

The so-called ‘Jim Twins’ are one example. In January 1979 James Lewis, a security guard in Lima, Ohio, found his twin brother, whom he had not seen since they were both adopted into different families at the age of five. A meeting was arranged 39 years after the twins had last seen each other. It turned out that both were called James. Both had married women called Linda, divorced and remarried, both marrying women called Betty. Both had owned dogs as boys, and called them Toy. The brothers have the same sleeping problems and share the same smoking habits. They also share ‘tension headaches’ that begin in the afternoon and develop into migraines.

1. You will usually find that twins are not exactly alike.
2. It has been discovered that twins who have grown up apart sometimes have amazingly similar life histories.
3. It is not clear to what degree parents should bring out the similarities between twins.
4. Studies into life histories of twins show that being a twin can lead to a very difficult life.
5. The lives of one pair of twins show extraordinary similarities.
6. Being twins has both advantages and disadvantages.
7. Managing with twins can be extremely difficult.
8. The ideas that most of us have about twins may be wrong.

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