Adoption Lesson 522 of the everyday course of Mova's primary school: 46 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: the lesson at school .
0 Adoption is when a child whose birth parents can't bring them up joins a new family for good. 1 The birth parents are the ones the child was born to; the adoptive parents are the ones who bring the child up. 2 Both are real, in different ways. 3 Adoption is made official by a judge in a family court. 4 On Romilly's court day she wears her sparkly shoes. 5 The judge smiles, signs the papers and says, «Congratulations.» Then he gives her a teddy from a basket. 7 Romilly names the teddy Judge. 8 Isla always knew she was adopted; her mum and dad told her when she was tiny, with a picture book about a family. 9 Now she's nine and asks, «What was my birth mum like?» They don't know everything, but they show her a letter her birth mum wrote when Isla was a baby. 10 Mila gets a letter from her birth mum once a year, passed on through the adoption agency; this is called letterbox contact. 11 Mila keeps every letter in a shoebox with a ribbon round it. 12 Kiran wonders if his birth dad has the same nose and the same laugh. 13 His mum says that when he's grown up, he can usually find out more. 14 Some children find out late, and that's hard. 15 Callum learns at nine, from his cousin at a party: «Ye're adopted, did ye no' know?» («no'» is Scots for not). 16 He's shocked and furious, and storms home. 17 His parents sit with him and admit they kept waiting for «the right time», which never came. 18 «We should've told you years ago. 19 Ask us anything.» It takes Callum a long time to feel okay. 20 Most families now tell children early, so it's never a shock. 21 Adopted children hear all sorts. 22 A kid tells Marcus-Lee, «Your mom's not your REAL mom, that's facts» («facts» means that's true). 23 Marcus-Lee says, «She's real. 24 She's the one who's here.» Ana was born in Colombia and looks different from her mum and dad. 25 In Boston people stare at them in the supermarket. 26 «It's wicked annoying,» Ana says («wicked» means very, in New England). 28 Families made by adoption come in many shapes. 29 Sam-Jo and his big sister Ruby were adopted together, so they never had to be apart; they're close, and they fight over the remote like any other brother and sister. 30 Theo's sister Priya was adopted too, from a different birth family. 31 «We're both adopted, so we're basically twins,» she jokes. 32 They're four years apart. 33 And every year on the day Zac's adoption became official, his family has pizza and a film. 34 «Gotcha day!» he shouts. 36 Either way, it's a celebration of becoming a family. 37 Adoption is when a child joins a new family permanently because their birth parents can't bring them up. 38 Birth parents are the parents a child was born to; adoptive parents are the parents who bring the child up. 39 Adoptive parents are real parents. 40 An adoption is made official by a judge in a family court. 41 Many families tell children they are adopted from very early on, so it is never a shock; finding out late can be very hard. 42 Adopted children are often curious about their birth family, and that is normal. 43 Letterbox contact means letters between an adopted child's family and the birth family, passed on through an agency. 44 When adopted people grow up, they can usually find out more about their birth family. 45 Adoptive families can look different from each other; staring is rude, and a child chooses what to share. 46 Brothers and sisters are sometimes adopted together so they can stay together. 47 Some families celebrate the day an adoption became official, sometimes called «Gotcha day» or «family day». 48 «Proper job» is West Country for well done, «no'» is Scots for not, «facts» means that's true, and «wicked» in New England means very. ← previous Foster carenext → Kinship care: living with Gran or an aunt↑ back to Everyday This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/522-adoption/