Text 5. Mobile homes in the united kingdom
A static caravan park on the cliffs above Beer, Devon, England.
In the United Kingdom, there are three main types of caravans: touring caravans and static caravans and mobile homes. A touring caravan is towed behind a car to its site and parked, often for only a brief period. Touring caravans are usually no larger than 8' wide and can have 1 or 2 axles (2 or 4 wheels respectively). Static caravans aren't towed because they are too large to tow and have a rudimentary chassis with no suspension or brakes; therefore, they are transported on the back of large flatbed lorries. The axle and wheels are used for movement to the final location when the static caravan is moved by tractor or 4x4. A static caravan will normally stay on a single plot for many years, and have many of the modern conveniences one would normally find in a home.
Static holiday caravans generally have sleeping accommodation for 6 to 8 people in 2 to 3 bedrooms and on convertible seating in the lounge. They tend towards a fairly "open-plan" layout, and while some units are insulated and centrally heated for year-round use, cheaper models without double glazing or central heating are available for mainly summer use. Holiday homes are intended for leisure use and are available in 10' and 12' widths, a small number in 13' and 14' widths, and a few 16' wide, consisting of two 8' wide units joined together. Generally, holiday homes are clad in painted steel panels. Static caravans are sited on caravan parks where the owner of the site leases a plot to the caravan owner. Many of these parks are sited in areas that are prone to flooding and anyone considering buying a sited static caravan needs to take particular care in checking that their site is not liable to flooding. Some park owners used to have unfair conditions in their lease contracts but the Office of Fair Trading has produced a guidance document available for download called Unfair Terms in Holiday Caravan Agreements which aims to stop unfair practices.
Mobile homes are designed and constructed to be transportable by road in one or two sections. Once assembled, you must be able to move the building around site in one section, and the structure must also remain divisible for road transport in no more than two sections. Mobile homes are no larger than 20 x 6.8m (65 x 23ft) with an internal maximum height of 305cm. Legally, mobile homes can still be defined as "caravans".
Text 6. My favourite room
Describing a room
Think of your favourite room. Draw a plan of it on a piece of paper.
Write down why you like it and some adjectives to describe it.
I like it because it is
My favourite room is ...
Read the description of a favourite room.
Use your dictionary to look up any new words.
There are four mistakes in the picture. What are they?
My favourite room is our kitchen. Perhaps the kitchen is the most important room in many houses, but it is particularly so in our house
because
it's not only where we cook and eat but it's also the main meeting
place for family and friends. I have so many happy memories of times
spent there: special occasions such as homecomings or cooking
Christmas dinner; troubled times, which lead to comforting cups of
tea in the middle of the night; ordinary daily events such as making
breakfast on dark, cold winter mornings for cross, sleepy children
before sending them off to school, then sitting down to read the
newspaper with a steaming hot mug of coffee.
Whenever we have a party, people gravitate with their drinks to the kitchen. It always ends up the fullest and noisiest room in the house.
So what does this special room look like? It's quite big, but not huge. It's big enough to have a good-sized rectangular table in the centre, which is the focal point of the room. There is a large window above the sink, which looks out onto two apple trees in the garden. The cooker is at one end, and above it is a wooden pulley, which is old-fashioned but very useful for drying clothes in wet weather. At the other end is a wall with a large notice-board, which tells the story of our lives, past, present, and future, in words and pictures: a school photo of Megan and Kate, a postcard from Auntie Nancy in Australia, the menu from a take-away Chinese restaurant, a wedding invitation for next Saturday. All our world is therefore everyone to read!
The front door is seldom used in our house, only by strangers. All our friends use the back door, which means they come straight into the kitchen and join in whatever is
happening
there. The kettle goes on immediately and then we all sit round the
table, drinking tea and putting the world to rights! Without doubt
some of the happiest times of my
life have been spent in our kitchen!
Describe a favourite room:
Useful language
"It's/It was in/on/near..."
"I go/I used to go there to ..."
"I spend/I used to spend a lot of time ... (read)-ing there."
b Describing the room
"It's got/It had a ... view of..."
"It's/It was quite/very ..."
"There is/There was ..."
"There are/There were a lot of..."
"It's got/It had a... atmosphere."
с Why you like/liked the room
"I like/liked the room because ..."
"I love/l used to love the
"I always feel/l felt ... there."