Level B2 General English

Lesson 38

Family And Relationships
家族と血縁関係

Whenever we meet someone we very often hear them say you look just like… or you are the spitting image of so and so. Most times they say you look like your parents or your grandparents and many times they are correct. It is quite a normal thing for us to inherit the looks of our parents and grandparents due to the inheritance of genes.

Sometimes the looks will skip a generation or two before they come out and there semblance to the person from the past can be uncanny. Sometimes a child will look like their mother but not like their father, while other times they will look like their father but not their mother. Sometimes children will look alike such as twins, brothers and sisters or cousins.

There are also times when someone will say you look just like your father when in fact you have been adopted and they did not know about it. The fact is they were just saying it to make you and your parent feel good. The real truth in all of this is that we may in some ways resemble one or more of our parents or grandparents in looks and also in some of our mannerisms.