4. Need / could do with

Match the sentences with the follow-up comments:

1. I must get the vacuum cleaner fixed.

2. The garden's in a bit of a state.

3. The plug on this iron is loose.

4. The front door looks terrible.

5. We've been here for ten years now.

6. Look at the state of this bath.

a. The screws need tightening.

b. The whole place needs re-decorating, с It really could do with a coat of paint.

d. It could do with a good scrub.

e. The grass needs cutting.

f. The carpets could do with a good clean.

Fix is more informal than mend or repair.

5. Asking for help

Complete the following sentences with these words:

hand mind something favour

1. Could you do for me? Could you just run to the shop and get some more eggs?

2. Could you do me a ? Could you just peel these potatoes for me?

3. Could you give me a making the beds?

4. Would you helping me with the dinner?

6. Answer the questions:

• Do you do much housework?

• Which jobs do you really hate doing?

• Which jobs don't you mind so much?

Household chores by Vivien

There are stereotypical responsibilities of the husband, the wife, and the chil­dren in a family. They say that the wife's responsibilities are, basically, to do everything, as far as I can see... to make the beds in the morning, cook breakfast, and then when the chil­dren go to school and the husband goes to work, to start washing the clothes, then tidy up the kitchen, do the washing up, clean the kitchen, go shopping and buy the food for the week, and then put out the washing. If she has a garden, she can hang the washing out on a washing-line - and then tidy up the living room, do the "hoovering" (the vacuum cleaning), and tidy the children's bedrooms, al­though I think it should be the chil­dren's responsibility, really, to keep their own bedrooms tidy.

The typical role of a husband, I sup­pose, is that during the week he goes out to work and earns money for the family. Maybe, at the weekend, he cleans the car and does more techni­cal things around the house, like changing fuses and putting up shelves. Lots of people in England are really into DIY, that's do-it-yourself, and they try to make furniture, put in their own bathroom appliances, put tiles on the bathroom walls them­selves, put up shelves and things like that, and these things are usually seen as the husband's responsibility. It's also seen as his job to put up the wallpaper, paint the walls, and maybe also to work in the garden, mowing the lawn, cutting the hedges, trim­ming the rosebushes, etc.

I think it's becoming much more bal­anced these days, as quite often the wife goes out to work too, and, of course, when she comes home from work she doesn't want to have to start doing the vacuuming immedi­ately. Some men are more willing to iron their own shirts and sew on buttons than others, but I think, nowadays, they're quite often willing to help out with the household chores, such as cooking or washing up the dirty plates after the meal.

Concerning the children's responsi­bilities, I think they should defi­nitely keep their own rooms tidy, and make their own beds. If I had chil­dren, I would give them some pocket money, but on condition that they did some chores around the house every week. In this way, they might learn that the house doesn't clean it­self. You have to get the vacuum cleaner out and do some work if you want the place to stay tidy.

Wife, mother and career woman... well, I suppose if you're a housewife and that's what you've decided you want to be, then that's fine, but you have to take all the duties that go with that. So you have to be pre­pared to look after children and really play some part in their upbring­ing, and help them learn to read and write, and teach them how to tell the time and do up their shoelaces, take them to school, things like that. You also have to be prepared to do all the boring menial household duties. However, I think that if a woman wants to go out to work, she should be able to. Some people think it's really bad if the wife leaves the chil­dren, puts them in a nursery school and goes out to work, as if she was neglecting them, but if she stayed at home with the children and was mis­erable, it wouldn't solve anything, because maybe then she would just resent the children. So, a woman should follow her own heart, I think, and if she wants to work, then that's fine.

In England now, and I think in Hungary as well, it's more accepted that a woman can have a family and a career, whereas before it was seen as something shocking, and men were outraged that their children would be left with strangers, and thought that it was the wife's duty to bring them up. I think that's all changed now.

I share a flat with a Hungarian girl, and I think we split the household chores quite evenly. It doesn't seem to be that different in Hungary and in England. I think everybody hates doing the hoovering wherever they are. Although some people really like ironing, I can't say I do. I don't re­ally like any household chores that much. Hoovering's probably about the best one, and the worst I think is cleaning the bath, because it kills your back.

I don't like sewing or knitting or any of those typical female pursuits. I'm terrible at knitting. We used to have to knit at school, knit scarves, which they said they would make into blan­kets for the poor or something like that. Mine was always so awful that my mum would have to take over, and she would end up doing it. We also had to go to some sewing classes, but I was always bottom in them as well. So I don't sew now very often. I could sew on a button, but that's about it.