16. Read and translate the text.

It is no easy matter to manage a house. It is especially hard when one works too. That’s why a second day off is of great help to housewives. They may do the housecleaning on Saturday and Sunday may be their day of rest.

The Browns have a real housecleaning on Saturday. Here are a few words about the way they fix up their flat.

Ann and her mother are up early in the morning. To begin with, they change the bedclothes, make the beds, collect the dirty linen and put it into the basket for dirty linen. After that they open the windows to let in the fresh air and start tidying up the rooms. They dust and polish the furniture, mop the floor, clean the carpets with a vacuum-cleaner, shake out the doormate and bed rugs in the yard and arrange them on the floor. Then Ann and her mother brush the clothes, polish the shoes and get down to tidy up the kitchen. While Mrs. Brown scrubs the gas-range and cleans the kitchen table, Ann washes the sink and the bath-tub with cleansing powders. Last of all they sweep the floor with a broom and wash it. Now that everything looks shining and spotless Ann and her mother feel quite happy about it.

Ann is always ready to help her mother to do the cleaning or a turn-out. As far as Ann’s father and brother are concerned, they don’t do much about the house. Ann’s brother, Jack, is too small to help, he is only four. Small as he is, he never throws his toys around the room, but puts them away himself. He never comes home in torn clothes and thus saves his mother the trouble of mending them.

Ann’s father’s only household duties are to seal up the windows to keep out the cold and fix electrical appliances (the vacuum cleaner, the washing-machine, the iron) when they go wrong.

17. Choose the words or word combinations you can correctly use in these sentences.

A real housecleaning, to fix, to make, to shake out, to scrub, cleansing powders, household chores, to run, to mop, a broom, to wax, neat and tidy, to brush, to polish, to change.

1. They say she is a good housewife and …… the house nicely.

2. In the kitchen we …… the sink and the gas-range with …….

3. The …… are shared equally in Peter’s family.

4. Aunt Rose …… the floor with ……every day and …… it once a month.

5. They have …… every Saturday and …… the carpets and rugs in the yard.

6. After a turn - out the room looked …….

7. Mr. Smith is very experienced in …… electrical appliances.

8. We usually …… the bedclothes every week.

9. Lena often oversleep in the morning and has no time left to …… the bed.

10. My little brother …… the clothes and …… the shoes himself.

18. Supply the missing prepositions and adverbs where necessary.

1. There are always a lot of things to do when you decide to fix …… the flat.

2. It’s necessary to beat …… the carpets and rugs, polish …… the furniture to say nothing of sweeping the floor.

3. If you want to tidy …… the kitchen you should start with scrubbing the gas-range.

4. Windows are sealed …… in autumn to keep …… the cold.

5. To turn ……a flat is no easy matter, especially when there’s no one to give a helping hand.

6. Housecleaning may be done quickly and easily if all the members of the family attend …… the duties …… earnest.

7. She’s such a busybody! When she comes …… home, she cleans the flat …… top …… bottom every day.

8. The trouble …… housework is that whatever you do seems to lead …… another job to do or a mess to clear……!

9. I have a sort …… feeling now that she has arranged that party to impress friends …… her domestic virtues.

10. Husbands help their wives …… the house …… their own way.