Lesson 10. Home sweet home

There is no place like home.

English proverb

Lead-in

1. Complete the sentence: “For me, Home is...”

2. Answer the following questions.

1. D o you like your home?

2. Is it a house or a flat?

3. How many rooms are there in your house?

4. Which room do you like best?

5. Have you got your own room?

6. Why do you like it?

7. What furniture is there in your room?

8. Is your room comfortable?

9. What furniture would you like to have in your room?

10. Are there any flowers in your room?

11. Do your friends like your house?

3. Make lists of five positive things and five negative things you could say about a house or a flat.

POSITIVE	NEGATIVE
The rooms are very light.	The rooms are very dark.

• Which positive features are the most important to you?

• What negative features could you put up with?

4. Make up sentences from the following table.

The hall	is is	the room which is used for sleeping.
The study		the passage into which the main entrance or front door opens.
The bedroom		the room used for reading, writing, etc.
The dining room		the room where you have a wash, bath or a shower.
The living room		the room used for cooking.
The kitchen		the room for general use such as relaxing, entertaining.
The bathroom		the room where you eat meals.

5. Explain the meaning of the following word combinations.

a three-roomed flat (= a flat with three rooms)

a beautifully painted picture (= a picture which is painted beautifully)

a ten-storied block of flats (= a block of flats which has ten storeys)

• a well-planned flat

• a nicely furnished room

• a well-cleaned room

• a well-heated flat

• old-fashioned furniture

• a good-sized hall

• beautifully decorated streets

• a badly-repaired flat

• a well-repaired room

• a well-equipped kitchen

6. Fill in the gaps with “some”, “any”, “no”. Translate the text into Russian.

It’s a modern kitchen, nice and clean with a lot of cupboards. There is a washing machine, a fridge, and a cooker, but there is ... dishwasher. There are ... lovely pictures on the walls, but there aren’t ... photographs. There is a radio near the cooker, but there is ... TV set. There are ... flowers, but there aren’t ... plants. On the table there are ... apples and oranges. Ah! And there are ... cups and plates next to the sink.

7. Read the text and do the task below.

Alex, my friend, moved to a new flat. It is in a nine-storied block of flats in a quiet residential area near the park. The flat is neat, clean and in good repair.

His two-roomed flat is well-planned and nicely furnished. The rooms open from a good-sized hall. The living room is large and light. There are two windows in it facing east and it gets very much sun. The living room is beautifully decorated and comfortable. There is a TV set in the corner near the window with a video next to the TV set. In the opposite corner there is a coffee table and two armchairs. By the wall opposite the window there is a sofa. There is a water-colour picture above the sofa. It is a still life. Next to the sofa there is a low table with a CD player on it. Alex likes listening to music on his hi-fi. There is a bookcase by the wall opposite the doorway. Alex has some more bookshelves but they are in the hall. In the middle of the room there is a nice carpet. The curtains on the windows match the carpet in colour.

The bedroom isn’t large but is comfortably furnished. There is a window in it facing the park, so the room is very quiet. There is a bed, a bedside table, some chairs and a wardrobe in it. There is a grey rug on the floor and dark curtains on the window.

The kitchen is fairly large and well-equipped. There are two tables, a fridge, a freezer, some cupboards on the wall, a sink and some stools in the kitchen. There is, of course, a cooker here, too.

8. Describe Alex’s flat, using the hints below.

The flat: new, a block of flats, nine-storied, a residential area, quiet, neat, clean, good repair, two-roomed, nicely furnished, good-sized hall;

The living room: large and light, two windows, to face east, to get much sun, beautifully decorated, a colour TV set, a coffee table, two arm­chairs, a sofa, a water-colour picture, a bookcase, a CD player, a hi-fi, a carpet, curtains;

The bedroom: not large, quiet, the window facing the park, a bed, a bedside table, chairs, a wardrobe, a grey rug, dark curtains;

The kitchen: fairly large, well-equipped, two tables, a fridge, a freezer, cupboards, a cooker, some stools.

GRAMMAR REVIEW

9. Supply the missing articles. Answer the questions following the text.

Mrs. Bond is ... widow. Her husband died two years ago. She has three children – two boys and ... girl. Michael, ... younger son, is thirteen years old and goes to ... local grammar school. Her elder son, John, is twenty-nine. He is ... engineer and works for... oil company.

Mrs. Bond’s daughter, Susan, is nineteen. She is studying at ... business college in London.

... Bond family live in Putney, ...suburb of London. They have ... large house. It has four bedrooms, ... living room, ... dining room, ... small study, ... kitchen, ... and two bathrooms. There are also two empty rooms at ... top of ... house.

Mrs. Bond likes ... house but she sometimes thinks that she will have to sell it and buy something smaller. She has ... part-time job at... local public library. The work is interesting, but... pay is not very good. So ... big problem in ... lives of... Bond family at... moment is money.

1. What is the Bonds’ house like?

2. Why does Mrs. Bond think sometimes that she will have to sell the house?

3. What do you know about the Bond family?

10. Fill in the gaps with prepositions. Translate the text into Russian.

Mr. Bridge’s office is ... Hope Street. It is right ... the centre ... Liverpool. It’s a nice room ... the second floor... a large old building. Mr. Bridge is ... his room now. This is what his room is like. There are two desks and a table ... the room. Mr. Bridge’s desk is ... the left ... the window. There is a large map ... Liverpool ... the wall. ... Mr. Bridge’s desk there is a lovely picture of Liverpool. ... the right ... the door there is a filing cabinet. There are a lot ... shelves ... the wall with lots ... books ... them. ... the far end ... the room there is a TV set. There are nice curtains ... the windows. There are a lot... people ... the room now.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

11. Your flat is badly in need of redecoration. Naturally, you are not going to do everything yourself. Say what things you want to have done.

Example:

We must have the door upholstered.

I’d like to have the kitchen sink changed.

What about:

1. installing a new bath?

2. white-washing the ceilings?

3. painting the windows?

4. re-papering the walls in the rooms?

5. painting the kitchen yellow (green, blue, etc.)?

Would you like to have any other changes made? What are they?

12. Read the following and answer the questions that follow.

Mr. Green and Mr. Wood work at the same office. Each has recently bought a house in the country. When they meet after their summer holidays they tell each other what has been done in their respective houses and gardens. Mr. Green likes to do things himself. Mr. Wood prefers to pay rather than work himself.

1. What do you think each of them says to the other if during the summer in both households:

• the houses were painted?

• garages were built?

• some old trees in the gardens were cut down?

• new fruit-trees were planted?

• the lawns were mown several times?

• the hedges were trimmed?

2. Say what things you usually do or have done for you by others before you go away on holiday.

13. Work in pairs or small groups. Make up a list of as many types of houses as you can.

READING

14. Scan the passage to answer the following questions:

• What would strike a visitor to Britain as far as housing is concerned?

• What is the difference between terraced, detached and semi-detached houses?

• What sort of new buildings are there in city centres in Britain?

No visitor to Britain can help being struck by the many building sites and the relatively large number of new houses and flats that he sees in the suburbs of towns and cities all over the country, but especially in the South-East and Midlands of England. The overwhelming majority of these dwellings are two-storey houses, built either in rows (terraced houses), in pairs (semi-detached houses), or singly (detached houses), with a small enclosed garden at the front and the back. In recent years a considerably higher proportion of new housing has been in the form of flats, and blocks of flats have now become a common feature of the urban scene. Nevertheless, the traditional British prejudice in favour of houses has only been modified, not fundamentally changed. An increasing number of people, chiefly elderly persons and childless, prefer to live in bungalows.

As is implied above, most of the new residential areas and housing estates have been built on the outskirts of towns and cities, well away from the industrial estates with their factory buildings, warehouses, power stations and railway sidings, and also at a considerable distance from the town or city centres, where most of the new buildings consist of shops, office blocks, luxury flats and public buildings.

NOTES:

1. a dwelling house a dwelling	жилой дом жилище
2. a bungalow	одноэтажный дом на одну семью
3. a residential area	жилой квартал
4. a hosing estate	участок, застроенный жилыми домами
5. an industrial estate	промышленный район
6. outskirts = suburbs	окраина, предместья (города)
7. accommodation	жилье

15. Read the following text and describe:

1. a semi-detached house;

2. advantages and disadvantages of living in the suburbs.

Suburban Life

This is how house agents describe a semi-detached house in a language of their own: “For sale. Compact semi-detached residence in select suburbs. Three bed, kitchen and bathroom, garage space, nice garden”.

A residence is here merely a house. A compact residence makes the best of the fact that it is a very small house “Semi-detached” means that it is joined as a twin to a similar house.

Besides, the “nice garden” is mostly at the back and is entirely surrounded by nice gardens of other compact residence. There is a small gap at the side of your house, between it and the next pair of Siamese twins, through which you can transport pig-manure for your tomatoes into your back-garden. Your half of this gap may be wide enough to provide standing room for a car. That is what the house agent means by “garage space”. When your finances have recovered from the deadly shock of buying a house and paying the heavy mortgage (ссуда, залог) most people have to take up to buy a house at all, you can erect a proper garage there.

In the suburbs of Britain’s towns there must be several million compact residences with three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and two rooms and a kitchen downstairs. There live the large suburban nation who form the tidal wave of passengers surging by train and bus to the offices and shops in the centre of the towns and ebbing away to the suburbs at night. They know that travelling in the rush-hours is horrible, but they would rather do that than bring up their children in a cramped flat ten or twelve floors up in the middle of the city. So the children are the main reason why no amount of town-planning will make flats for families popular.

SPEAKING PRACTICE

DISCUSSION

16. Discuss your preferences in connection with the things mentioned below.

1. a house in town / in the country

2. a house / a flat

3. life in the suburbs / in the central part of the city

4. a room at the students’ hall of residence / a rented room

Language material for expressing likes/dislikes and preferences:

I (quite) like ...

I love ...

I’ve always wanted ...

I prefer ...

I ’d rather have/do/like ...

I’m afraid I don’t like ...

I dislike ...

I hate ...

CONVERSATION

17. Work in pairs. You are to rent a country cottage for your family. Phone the landlord and ask him the following questions to find out the information you need.

1. How many rooms are there in the cottage? What are they?

2. How many windows are there in the living room? Is it light?

3. Is it cold in the cottage in rainy weather?

4. Is there central heating in the cottage?

5. Is there a refrigerator in the kitchen?

6. How high is the rent?

7. Are the neighbours good mixers?

8. Is there a bus stop near the building?

18. Work in pairs. Talk about an ideal home and plan it. Use your imagination. Think about:

• w here the house is;

• the number of rooms upstairs and downstairs;

• the furniture;

• the colours;

• the garden;

• any pets.

19. Comment on the following.

1. Houses are built to live in and not to look on. (Francis Bacon)

2. Men make houses, women make homes.

3. East or west, home is best.

20. Give a talk on the following topics.

1. Describe a flat you’d like to live in.

2. Speak about the housing conditions in this country.

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