Text exercises

Exercise 1. Before you start working at the text practise the sounds in the following words and word combinations.

1. [P] – doctor, not, modern, following, long;

[L] – lawn, also, call, before, arcahrd;

[EV] – cosy, also, only, own, so;

[x] – Sandford, pantry, grandmother;

[H] – rooms, two, fruit;

[aI] – behind, dining-room, quite;

[E:] – nursery, furniture;

[e] – Betty, bedroom, every, many;

[aV] – house, downstairs.

2. a) отсутствие оглушения перед глухими согласными:

Sandford’s house, is comfortable, Sandford says.

b) замена альвеолярных согласных зубными:

and the rooms, and the bathroom.

с) потеря взрыва:

fruit trees, but Doctor, must pay.

d) отсутствие твердого приступа:

in front of, there is a green lawn, is also, his own.

Exercise 2. a) Listen to the recording of the text “Doctor Sandford’s house”. Mark the stresses and tunes.

b) Practise the text for test reading. Listen to the text carefully until you

say it in exactly the same way.

Exercise 3. Answer the following questions.

1.Is Doctor Sandford’s house large? 2. What is there in front of the house and behind it? 3. What rooms are there in the house? 4. What kind of furniture is there in the house? 5. Is it Doctor Sandford’s own house?

TEXT B

The house is situated at the bottom of the Chess valley next to the river Chess. It’s about 20 miles from London and just outside the village of Chorleywood. It’s a really splendid period property. The oldest parts are Elizabethan, but there were some additions in the 1820s.

It seems typically English to me. There are long corridors and huge oak-panelled rooms, and you can imagine all sorts of scenes from history taking place here.

As you come in through the front door, you find yourself in a large hall with an open fireplace, which is unusual. One of the doors on to the right of the hall leads into the living room. This room faces south, so it’s very sunny, and it has a lovely view of the whole valley. The furniture matches the style of the house, so there’s a lot of leather and dark, heavy wood. Next to this room there’s a dining room which has French windows leading onto a small patio.

Also on the ground floor there is a study, kitchen and utility room. A wide staircase takes you to the first floor, where there are five bedrooms. The largest is about 25’×20’, a really vast room which looks out onto the garden.

The house is in 2.5 acres of land, and there is a green house, a shed, a swimming-pool and a tennis court.

It’s a beautiful place to be at any time of the year. In winter it’s warm and cosy and in summer there’s so much to do outside.

Word combinations and phrases

to be situated to lead into/to lead onto

splendid period property to face south

to seem typically English to smb to have a lovely view

to come in through the front door to match the style of the house

to find oneself to look out onto

to do outside to be in 2.5 acres of land