1. The text is headlined “Are men lazy?” Does it suit the information given in the text? Below you’ll find some more headings to this text. Choose the one that suits best and motivate your choice.

a) Give us more rights and we’ll do our best.

b) Don’t expect equality in the cleaning thing!

c) Equal rights, equal responsibilities!

2. Choose the synonyms to the words given in italics according to the context.

lazy a) idle b) doing little work c) slow d) inert

to adjust a) to adapt b) to regulate c) to fix d) to arrange

mess a) trouble b) difficulty c) disorder d) dirtiness

right a) justice b) virtue c) goodness d) claim

domain a) field b) province c) territory d) branch

3. Complete the following sentences. Your answers must be related to the ideas contained in the text.

1. Men usually make more mess in “female territory” … but they often keep it neat … .

2. Women occupy … and they decide … .

3. Men usually don’t feel responsibility in … .

4. If men delay practical work at home … .

5. There is no difference in the woman’s voice when … .

6. Men don’t feel any satisfaction while … .

7. If the woman can’t make her husband do any work about the house, she …

8. Women should give men … .

4. Put the jumbled sentences in the logical order to sum up the information given in the text.

1. Men can’t feel any responsibility in areas where the woman has the last and counting voice.

2. Women usually occupy the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom, then bathroom and often decide how they will look.

3. It’s more like a reaction against a command.

4. Men don’t feel any satisfaction while cleaning up in her world.

5. Men make more mess in “female territory” where they feel like guests.

6. Men don’t like women to decide all the time.

7. There would certainly be trouble in the air.

8. They want to decide themselves what to do and when it should be done.

9. Give us some of your territory and we’ll feel different about it.

10. What would happen if the husband said that the curtains were tasteless.

11. But if the opposite happened nothing much would happen, men would simply adjust to the new curtains.

12. Men always delay practical work at home thinking of different excuses not because they are lazy.

5. Use the following words and word combinations to speak about men’s attitude toward household duties. Add connectives and some more words if necessary.

1. Men, to make a mess, women.

2. Men, to keep neat and tidy, female territory, to mess more.

3. Women, to decide, to look, her territory.

4. Men, usually, to adapt to, changes.

5. Men, to feel responsibility, area, women, the last and counting vote.

6. Men, to delay, housework, reaction, command.

7. Annoying, no right, to decide.

8. To feel no satisfaction, to clean up, woman’s world.

9. To give, female territory, rights, to feel different.

Unit VII

Pre-reading tasks