Reading text a

I

We have a nice flat rather far from the centre of the city. It is in a new sixteen-storey high-rise building in Gagarin Avenue. As there are so many storeys in the building it has two lifts.

Our flat is on the fourth floor. It has all modern conveniences such as central heating, gas, electricity, cold and hot water, and a chute to carry rubbish down.

There are three rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a hall in our flat.

The living-room is the largest and the most comfortable room in the flat. In the middle of the living-room we have a square dinner-table with six chairs round it. There is a hanging lamp above the table. To the right of the dinner-table there is a wall-unit which has several sections: a sideboard, a wardrobe and some shelves. At the opposite wall there is a piano with a piano stool in front of it.

Between the two large windows there is a little table with a colour TV set on it. Our TV set is of the latest model. Near the TV set there are two cosy armchairs. Nothing is more pleasant in rainy weather than to sit in a comfortable armchair and watch TV programmes.

A small round table, a divan-bed and a standard lamp are in the left-hand corner. This table is for newspapers and magazines.

The walls of the living-room are light-green and there are a few prints and water-colours on them.

II

The bedroom is smaller than the living-room and not so light as there is only one window in it. In this room there are two beds with a bedside-table between them. An alarm-clock and a small lamp with a pink lamp-shade are on the table. In the left-hand corner there is a dressing-table with a big mirror.

In this room we have a built-in wardrobe with coat-hangers to hang clothes on. There is a thick carpet on the floor and plain light-brown curtains on the window.

III

The third room is the study. It is not so large as the dining-room but it is as cosy as all the other rooms.

There is not so much furniture in it, only the most necessary pieces. It has a writing-desk with drawers to keep papers in. Pens, pencils, a writing-pad and a few dictionaries are lying on the desk. There is a telephone on the left. Just behind it there is a reading lamp. On the right there is a desk-clock and a calendar. A desk-armchair stands in front of it. I’ve also got a computer on a little table near the desk. There are books on the shelves all round the walls. In the right-hand corner there is a bookcase full of books. Among them there are many English books in the original and in translation as I am a student of English.

A small table with a radio stands in the left-hand corner. Near it there is a sofa with some cushions. In my opinion the study is the best room in our flat.

Notes on the text

Обратите внимание на следующие фонетические особенности:

1. сложные существительные обычно имеют одно ударение на первом компоненте:

'living-room, 'dining-room, 'sideboard, 'tooth-brush, 'looking glass

Если второй компонент состоит из двух или более слогов, на него падает второстепенное ударение:

'dinner-ֻtable, 'wash-ֻbasin

Ряд существительных составляют исключение; в них оба компонента имеют сильное ударение:

a'larm-'clock, 'arm'chair, 'gas'stove

2. в географических названиях, где вторым компонентом являются слова avenue, square, road, lane, embankment, garden(s), sea, ocean, ударение падает на оба элемента:

Ga'garin 'Avenue, 'Red 'Square, 'London 'Road, 'Park 'Lane, the Ne'va Em'bankment, the 'Summer 'Garden(s), the 'Black 'Sea, the 'Indian 'Ocean

Если в подобных названиях вторым компонентом является слово street, ударение падает только на имя собственное:

'Gogol Street, 'Hertzen Street