Vocabulary

Family relationships: relatives/to be related by blood/by marriage/by birth, close/distant relatives, ancestor, (great-)grandparents, grandson/daughter, great- aunt/uncle, niece, nephew, (second) cousin, wife/husband, godfather/mother, half brother/sister, stepmother/father/sister/brother, son/daughter…, (identical) twins, to skip a generation, on someone’s side, in-laws: sister/ mother/ daughter…- in-law

Describing family: single, married, widow, widower, bachelor, spinster, orphan, guardian, to adopt, to be married to sb, to be named after sb, to bring up, (blended, extended, nuclear, single-parent) family, to find out about sth, to get on, to grow up, household, to outlive, to scatter, to take after sb in sth, to take the responsibility, to trace back, be … years sb’s junior/senior | be sb’s junior/senior (by … years)

Describing the position of a child: to affect the personality, to feel left out, to be spoilt, naughty, lazy, ambitious, to get one’s full (special) attention, to attract (draw) one’s attention, to lavish one’s time (care, love etc) on sb, inevitable, to hand down, to treat sb like…, to live up to one’s expectations, to be overshadowed, to take responsibility for sth, to be independent, to get (win) back one’s attention

Family microclimate: to be tolerant of, strict, thoughtful, to advise sb about sth, appreciation, to get into the habit, to hang out with sb, to have sb doing sth, to have power to do sth, to have (no) say in …, (im)mature, to make a contribution, mutual, to push sb around, to set one’s mind to doing sth, to splash out, to stay out of trouble, to stay off drugs

Pets: companionship, commitment, adorable, cute, homeless, on spontaneous decision, additional expense/patience, follow pet-keeping rules, feeding, veterinarian, pure-bred, to think twice, to accept responsibility, animal-proof, leave unsupervised, sit on the lap

Unit 3 the place we live in

W hen we speak about personal values we mostly mean moral principles and beliefs. But there is a sort of physical level of values. We may place great value on comfort, cleanliness, quality, and physical perfection in whatever we do or have. Homes, to some extend, belong to this category of values. A truly comfortable home serves up more than basic needs; it is tailored to everyday life. Some people value privacy and the feeling of being protected the home gives. For others home is associated with hospitality. It provides a place to entertain friends, a place to have fun and enjoy pleasures of their life. And for some people house means having a family. What values do you associate your place of living with?

Ex.1 Read the definitions a) – i) and match them with the types of the houses:

a terraced house, a castle, a block(of flats), a hut, a caravan, a bungalow, a cottage, a semi-detached house, a detached house (country).

1. A large strong building with thick high walls and towers, built in the past by kings or queens, or other important people, to defend themselves against attack.

2. One of a row of similar houses that are all joined together.

3. A road vehicle without an engine that is pulled by a car, designed for people to live and sleep in, especially when they are on holiday / vacation.

4. A house that is joined to another house on one side.

5. A house that is small, usually old and in the country.

6. A small, simply built house or shelter.

7. A house that is not joined to any other house.

8. A house all on the ground level, no upstairs.

9. A building that contains individual flats on different floors.

Ex.2 Look at the pictures and label the buildings:

1. _________

2. _________

3. _________

4. _________

5. _________

6. _________

7. _________

8. _________

9. _________

Ex.3 Fill the gaps with the words given above.

1. Many people dream of buying a… in the country where they can escape to at weekends.

2. We live in a…. house so we get noise from the neighbourhood on both sides.

3. I’ve moved to a …. now as I found I couldn’t manage the stairs any more at my age.

4. I live in a modern … on the seventh floor.

5. We visited the ruins of a medieval … which are magnificently sited high up on a cliff.

6. It costs a lot of money to heat the … house when you live in a cold climate.

7. Most families in England live in a … or … house with a small garden and a garage.

8. It was a small beach …which had no cooking or sanitary facilities.

9. Many old houses were knocked down and people got new flats in a many-storied … .

10. To my mind, this is a fine … house for a family with three children in a quiet residential neighbourhood.

11. My house is … and it annoys me most of all when the neighbours’ children start bouncing the ball against the wall.

12. Graham bought a … house in a quiet city street.

13. The Johnsons prefer to live in a … when they are on holiday because they can travel with comfort and stop at any place they like.

Ex.4 Brain Teaser

Find out who can live in that sort of accommodation: a palace (or a castle), an igloo, bed-sit, a wigwam (or tepee), a monastery, a convent, a communal flat, a ranch(-house), a tent (or caravan), a penthouse, a sewer, a pagoda, a two-bedroom flat, a yurta (nomad tent), a shelter of branches, a chalet.

Ex.5 Study the plan of the detached house.

1. Look at the plan and match the following words with the numbers on the plan:

w indowsill, doorstep, garage, balcony, sunshade, terrace = patio, window, swing, French window, hanging basket, aerial, roof, lawn, hedge, tub of flowers, window box, attic = loft, chimney, back door, fence, drainpipe, basement, vegetable patch / garden, shutter, screen door.

1. …………

2 …………

3. …………

4. …………

5. …………

6. …………

7. …………

8. …………

9 …………

10. …………

11. …………

12. …………

13 …………

14. …………

15. …………

16. …………

17. …………

18. …………

19. …………

20. …………

21. …………

22…………

23. …………

24. …………

25 ………….

2. Draw the front of that house, label the following words:

door bell (knocker), gate, mat, porch, hedge, path, driveway, letterbox, garage, front door, shed, flowerbed.

Ex.6 Fill in the gaps with an appropriate word.

1. My father expects me to help mow the ... at the weekend.

2. He keeps all the gardening tools in a ... in the corner of the garden.

3. At the top of the house there is a … which I’m going to convert into an extra bedroom.

4. The burglars got in by climbing up a ... and through the bathroom window.

5. They got on so well with their neighbours that they decided to take down the ... between their gardens.

6. There must be someone at home. I can see smoke coming out of their ... .

7. There’s a …. under the house where we store the produce we grow in our garden.

8. I couldn’t see over the ..., but I could hear children playing in the front garden.

9. I opened the …and had hardly stepped on the path when I was immediately set on by a large dog.

10. In the past people used … for storing food, nowadays they converted it into a big enough to walk in built-in wardrobe.

11. We walked up some stone … to the … door, wiped the feet on the … and rang the … bell .

12. On quiet summer evenings we have a very simple supper round the fire in the sitting room and then lay the table for tea on the ….

13. In summer when I put the … of flowers out on the … it looks like a small garden.

14. We had to climb ten … of … to get to her flat because she lives on the fifth floor and the lift wasn’t working.

I t does not matter what your home is like — a country mansion, a more modest detached or semi-detached house, a flat in a block of flats or even a room in a communal flat.

Home is a little world where one lives according to his own rules, his needs and dreams. Everyone creates his home in the way he understands it. That’s why many people believe that home is as much a reflection of a person's personality, as the clothes he wears, the books he reads and the friends he spends his time with. Visiting one’s home you can get the basic information about its owner, his interests, his lifestyle and character. What is your house like?

Ex.7 Reading

1. Read the text and say if it resembles your own place of living.

The place where you once move in becomes your second "ego". You start to furnish and deco­rate it to your own taste. If you have a house or your own flat there is enough space for everything: a hall, a kitchen with an adjacent dining-room, a living-room or a lounge, a couple of bedrooms and pantries, a toilet and a bathroom. You can walk slowly around the house thinking what else you can do to renovate it. In the hall you glance at the coat rack, a big framed mirror and a chest of drawers for shoes. Probably, nothing needs to be changed here.

You come to the kitchen: kitchen furniture, kitchen utensils, a refrigerator (fridge) with a freezer, a sink, an electric or gas cooker with an oven. Maybe, it needs a cooker hood?

The dining-room is lovely. A big dining table with chairs in the centre, a cupboard with tea sets and dinner sets. There is enough place to keep all cutlery and crockery in. You know pretty well where things go.

The spacious living-room is the heart of the house. It is the place where you can have a chance to see the rest of your family. They come in the evening to sit around the coffee table in soft armchairs and on the sofa. You look at the wall units, stuffed with china, crys­tal and books. Some place is left for a stereo system and a TV set. A fireplace and houseplants make the living-room really cosy. Your bedroom is your private area though most bedrooms are alike: a single or a double bed, a wardrobe, one or two bedside tables and a dressing-table.

You look inside the bathroom: a washbasin, hot and cold taps and a bath. There is nothing to see in the toilet except a flush-toilet. You are quite satisfied with what you have seen, but still doubt disturbs you: 'Is there anything to change?' Yes! The walls of the rooms should be papered, and in the bathroom and toilet — tiled! Instead of linoleum there should be parquet floors. Instead of pat­terned curtains it is better to put darker plain ones, so that they might not show the dirt. You do it all, but doubt does not leave you. Then you start moving the furniture around in the bedroom, because the dressing-table blocks out the light. You are ready to give a sigh of relief, but... suddenly find out that the lounge is too crammed up with furniture.

Those who live in one-room or two-room flats may feel pity for those who live in houses. They do not have such problems. At the same time they have a lot of privileges: central heating, running wa­ter, a rubbish chute and... nice neighbours who like to play music at midnight. Owners of small flats are happy to have small problems and they love their homes no less than those who live in three-storeyed palaces.

2. Draw a plan of your flat. Say what other items of furniture you can see in your hall, kitchen, dining room, lounge, bedroom.

Ex.8 Reading.

1. Tell your partner what kind of house you live in and what your favourite room is. Give your reasons.

2. Read the text “A room of my own” about Ivan Steward to find out what kind of place he lives in, and what kind of person he is.

Ivan Steward is a window cleaner. Window cleaning is not only his bread and butter, it is also his inspiration, because some of his ideas on interior decoration came to him when he was looking through his customers’ windows. He once saw a seaman’s chest looking splendid in someone’s room and set his heart on finding a similar chest. He finally came across one in the market. “They told me it was washed up on the shore – I wanted to believe that, so it’s true as far as I am concerned.” Now it’s in the sitting room of his top-floor flat with its panoramic view of London.

If the room has a faintly Continental air, that’s because while cleaning windows in Holland he noticed that Dutch people tended to have wooden floors rather than fitted carpets. “They have all these different coloured woods, so I decided every time I came back I was going to bring back some wood.”

Ivan, now 41, is just under two metres tall, log-limbed, with a gentle manner but a considerable degree of drive and enthusiasm. As well as being a window cleaner, he is also an actor.

Ivan bought the Persian rug in a carpet sale out of the money he was paid for playing in the TV series. His other role paid for the sofa and the Victorian farmhouse chair. His mother, who died some years ago, gave him the cheese plant, and most of other plants he bought in the flower market. The television-set stands on a cut-down Victorian table. He is devoted to dogs, and his girlfriend gave him the carved wooden dog on the bookshelf. He also has a retriever called Sidney.

The African figure on his coffee table is one of the three he bought in Africa when he went to stay with a fellow drama student who lived there. He came across the pair of boat paintings at a Sunday jumble sale in Essex.

Ivan keeps all his tips in the gin bottle and hoping to buy his flat soon.

3. Answer the questions:

1. Where does he get ideas how to decorate and furnish the room?

2. Do you think his room is cosy?

3. How do the things in his room reflect his lifestyle, his character, his interests? Prove your answers with the examples.

4. Do you like his room? Why?/Why not?

Ex.9 Listening

1. You’ll hear five speakers. Match the number of the speaker (Sp1 - Sp5) and the letter of the corresponding statement (A, B, C, D, E or F). There is one extra statement.

1. It’s important for me to feel comfortable in my bedroom.

2. I share a bedroom with my sister.

3. My old bedroom was bigger than this bedroom.

4. No one can enter my bedroom when I’m not here.

5. My parents get annoyed when my bedroom is untidy.

6. I try to keep my bedroom as tidy as possible.

2. Listen for the second time and write down five different ways how to introduce sth.

3. Write a short paragraph describing your room (5-6 sentences).

Ex.10 Talking points.

1. D ecide where exactly in the house /flat you would possibly put these things. Give reasons.

2. Look at the pictures. What can you say about the lifestyles and characters of t he people these rooms belong to?

3. Choose the picture you like best. Can you explain why? Use the following adjectives and phrases: old-fashioned, modern, tiny, spacious, crammed with furniture, light, dark, cosy, (un)comfortable, unusual, (extra)ordinary, soft, well-planned, tidy, clean, scattered, in a mess, ascetic, fantastic, simple, unpretentious, etc.

4. Does your room reflect your personality? Would you like to change anything in it?

5. In what way would you decorate and furnish a living room or a bedroom?

O ur home is much more than just a castle, it is our identity and our prime obsession. This is why a house is not something you just passively “have”, it is something you constantly “work on”. Working on home improvements is an opportunity to exercise our creative talents. Or at least that’s how we like to think of it. Although it may sometimes be an economic necessity, we see the arrangement, furnishing and decorating of our homes as an expression of our unique personal taste.

Ex.11 Read people’s complaints and tick (ν) the ones that are true for you. Add one more sentence as in the example.

ν		It’s so far from the city centre! It takes me an hour and a half to get there.
		I have to share a room with my brother/sister.
		There’s always so much housework to do!
		It’s terribly noisy!
		We’ve got some awful neighbours!
		There’s too much furniture in the flat!
		Almost nothing in our house/flat is new.
		There’s always something that’s not working.

Ex.12 If sth is broken, damaged or torn it needs to be repaired / mended / done up / restored / renovated. Some problems you can manage yourself, for others you need to call out/to send for someone.

1. What do you have to do when you have problems listed below? Match them with the possible solutions.

e.g.: If the hot/cold tap is dripping, you have to put a bowl and call out the plumber.

	problems		solutions
	The hot/cold tap is dripping.		To cut, to mow
	The roof is leaking.		To make draught-proof window and door
	The sewage drain is blocked.		To paint
	The paint on the windows is peeling off.		To put the bowl, to call out the plumber
	The wallpaper is faded.		To renew
	The glass panel in the window is cracked.		To take away
	The kitchen is flooded.		To put a new one
	The washing machine broke down.		To wash by hand, to go to the laundry
	The bathroom door-handle has come off.		To screw it back on
	The ceiling is sooty.		To knock down, to remove
	The plug is not working.		To install radiators
	The grass is overgrown.		To unblock the drain, to send for the plumber
	There is no central heating in the house.		To renovate
	The garden shed is very old..		To whitewash, to paint
	The bulb has burnt out.		To block the water, to send for the plumber
	There’s builders’ rubbish everywhere.		to change
	There is a draught in the room.		To mend, to repair

2. Make a list of things people do when they move to a new flat or house.

Ex.13 Read the dialogue and substitute the italicized words in American English for their British English equivalents.