dwellings

6.Do you like your house or flat? Why?

7.Do you have a good view from your flat windows?

Lesson 3

1. Match an adjective in A with its antonym (opposite) in B.

2. Write the missing forms of the adjectives.

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3. Write down four more positive things and four more negative things you could say about a house/flat or the rooms in a house/flat.

Which positive features are the most important for you? Which negative features do you hate the most?

4.Complete the sentences using the comparative or superlative form of the adjective.

1.Ann’s house isn’t very modern. Your house is _____ than Ann’s.

2.Bob’s garden isn’t very big. Your garden is _____ than Bob’s.

3.The buildings in Rome are _____ (old) than the buildings in New York.

4.My room faces south. It’s the _____ (light) room in our flat.

5.A house in London is _____ (expensive) than a flat.

6.The rooms on the ground floor are the _____ (dark) in the house because they don’t get very much sun.

7.In Britain, living in a house is _____ (common) than in Europe.

5.Read the text and find two superlatives.

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I live in a modern nine-storey block of flats in the centre of Novokuznetsk. I have a three-room flat on the forth floor. Not far from our block there is a bus stop so it takes me 15 minutes to get to University by bus. If the weather is fine and I have free time, I can walk to University.

Our flat is not big but comfortable. There is a living room, a bedroom, and a room for our son. His room is the smallest but it is light and cosy. He is only three years old so there are many toys in it.

The living room is the largest room in the flat. It has a balcony and faces the yard. There is a big carpet on the linoleum floor. On the right there is a dresser and a bookcase. Opposite them there is a sofa and two armchairs. Between the armchairs there is a small table with newspapers

and magazines. Above the sofa there are three pictures with beautiful landscapes. In the right-hand corner there is a TV and a DVD-player. In the evening before going to bed, our son likes watching animated cartoons. The lace curtains complement the furniture and the carpet.

As for the kitchen, it is not large. There is a kitchen table, three chairs, a cupboard on the wall, an electric cooker and a big fridge in the corner. My wife likes cooking and she is good at cooking so there are some modern appliances in the kitchen.

6.Now draw a plan of the living-room (ex.5) and compare it with your classmate’s.

7.Write suitable questions for these answers.

1.Nine floors.

2.In the centre of Novokuznetsk.

3.On the forth floor.

4.Fifteen minutes.

5.My son’s. It’s only nine square meters.

6.Between the armchairs.

7.A big fridge.

8.Read about the three houses and compare them.

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9. Here are some sentences about the houses (ex.8). Are they true or false? Correct the false sentences.

1.Park House is the cheapest.

2.Swansea is the most expensive house.

3.Swansea is more modern than Park House.

4.Park House is the most modern house.

5.Swansea is the biggest house.

6.Park House is smaller than Rose Cottage.

7.Swansea hasn’t got a garage.

8.Park House has got a bigger garden than Rose Cottage.

9.Swansea has got the biggest garden.

10.Park House is the nearest to the town centre.

11.Park House is the farthest from the sea.

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10. Present your project work “My House / My Flat”

to your classmates and teacher.

Independent Work

Exercises

1. Transform the following questions using there is / there are.

Have you got a picture in the kitchen?

Is there a picture in the kitchen?

1.Have you got a mirror above the washbasin in the bathroom?

2.Have you got a towel rail on the same wall as the washbasin?

3.Have you got a wardrobe and a chest of drawers in your bedroom?

4.Have you got a lamp on your bedside table?

5.Have you got an alarm clock?

Ask your group mates to answer your questions in class.

2. Here are some things you find in the living room or kitchen but the letters are jumbled. What are they, and where do they belong to?

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6.There are ____ lovely pictures on the wall.

7.There are not ____ plants in the kitchen.

4.Make the following sentences interrogative or negative.

1.The house has a garage.

2.The flat has a balcony.

3.The house belongs to my brother.

4.Her family rents this flat.

5.Our rooms are draughty.

6.I have a balcony with a wonderful view of the park opposite the block of flats.

7.There is no lift, so I climb five flights of stairs every evening to reach my flat.

8.My friends often stay with me.

Text

Travel from Western France across Europe to the Urals and you will see cities surrounded by modern blocks of flats. Of course some English people enjoy flat-life, but for the vast majority of them, the basic idea of a home is a brick house with rooms upstairs and downstairs.

The English use the word house for a dwelling intended for one family. They would never say of a block of flats that it is a house. They always distinguish flat from house. A flat is still unusual, except in city centres where it is unusual to live anyway.

Typically English house is a legacy of the industrial revolution. It is small with two small rooms downstairs and two small rooms upstairs. Of course, nowadays many houses are much bigger, with larger rooms and more of them, but still such houses are of the same pattern. Downstairs there is a small hall. The English rarely wear heavy winter coats, so they don’t need much cloakroom space. They often have a bathroom and a lavatory together upstairs, but a separate lavatory downstairs. Bedrooms are very private and used exclusively for sleeping. Almost all such houses have their own back gardens. However tiny, this is much preferred to communal land. They like to have their own fences, their own little garden sheds and their own strips of land outside their front door.

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In England a house does not qualify as old unless it was built at least a hundred years ago. They still have hundreds of thousands of really old houses, built between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. They are considered very ‘desirable’ and are therefore very expensive even if they are small. Many of them are strikingly beautiful.

(286 words, 1364 characters)

Project Work “My House / My Flat”

Draw a floor plan of your flat or house, take photos of your block, yard and rooms, and think of a short but interesting presentation you are to give in front of the class. Think about what you will say and the language you will need.

Библиографический список

1.Тарасенко В.Е. Things British: Учебное пособие по страноведению Великобритании / В.Е. Тарасенко. – Новокузнецк: Изд-во СибГИУ, 2008.

2.Redman S. English Vocabulary in Use / S. Redman. – Cambridge University Press, 1997.

3.Soars, Liz. Headway Elementary: Student’s Book and Workbook / Liz and John Soars. – Oxford University Press, 1997.

Содержание

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Учебное издание

Составитель

Тарасенко Валерий Евгеньевич

DWELLINGS

Методические указания по организации практических занятий

и самостоятельной работы студентов 1 курса, изучающих английский язык

Технический редактор Н.И. Суганяк

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