Text exercises

Exercise 1. a) Listen to the recording of the text “My favourite room”. 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 2. Ask 10 questions for your groupmates to answer.

Conversation practice

Exercise 1. Choosing the words from the list below furnish your study, bedroom, living room, kitchen, dining-room.

A sideboard, a cupboard, a piano, a bed, a night table, a dressing-table, a sofa, a bookcase, a wardrobe, a TV set, a tape recorder, a writing desk, shelves for household things, stools, chairs, armchairs, refrigerator (fridge), a kitchen table, bookshelves, a carpet, some pictures, a vase with flowers.

Exercise 2. Describe the following:

1. Your flat.

2. Your friend’s flat.

3. Your classroom.

4. A room in a picture you bring in class.

Exercise 3. Speak about the advantages and disadvantages of:

1. your present home

2. central heating

3. having a country house

4. having a telephone at home

Exercise 4. 1). Listen to a text about Mr. Priestley’s house and get ready to answer the questions about the text.

2). Retell the text.

Exercise 5. 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.

My favourite room is …. I like it because it is ….

Show your plan and talk about why you like the room.

Part IV. Writing text sharing a flat.

Sharing a flat certainly has some advantages. To begin with, it should be cheaper, and if you are sharing with people that you get on well with, it is nice to have some company at home rather than being all on your own. Also the household chores are shared, and that is very important. Particularly when you are younger, and you are living apart from your parents for the first time, it can be very enjoyable to live with people of your own age, whose interests and life-style you share.

However, sharing a flat does have some distinct disadvantages, and the main one is that the flat is not your own, so you cannot do what you want in it. What happens if you want to go to bed but your flat-mate wants to play music? To a certain extent you have to be unselfish. What is more, there can be little privacy.

I would say that as you get older, it is probably better to live on your own. Having had my own flat for a few years, I would not like to have to share again.

Exercises

Exercise 1.Read the text about the advantages and disadvantages of sharing a flat.

1. How is the text organised? What is the purpose of each paragraph?

2. Which of the words underlined can be replaced by one of the following?

On the other hand / In my opinion / First of all / Especially / Moreover / Another point is that

3. Look at the beginning of paragraph 2.

… sharing a flat has some distinct advantages.

… sharing a flat does have some distinct advantages.

What is the difference?

4. “What happens if you want to go to bed but your flat-mate wants to play music?” This is called a rhetorical question, because the writer either knows the answer, or he doesn’t want the answer. He is simply making a point in his argument.

5. Write short paragraphs discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the following. Conclude with your own preferences.

• Holidays in your country or holidays abroad.

• Living in a town or in the country.

• Learning English at the University or learning English while you’re doing a job in an English-speaking country.