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.

PART V. LISTENING

Exercise 1. Look at the pictures together. Listen to someone describing them. There are five mistakes in each description. Say “Stop!” when you hear a mistake.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Exercise 2. Listen to the description of the kitchen and fill in the gaps.

It’s a modern kitchen, nice and clean with a lot of cupboards. __________ ’s a washing machine, a fridge, and a cooker, but there isn’t a dishwasher. There are some lovely __________ on the walls, but there aren’t any photographs. There’s a radio ________ the cooker. There are some flowers, but there aren’t _________ plants. On the table there are some apples and oranges. Ah! And there are ________ cups and plates next to the sink.

Exercise 3. 1)Listen to the telephone conversation and decide which of the four flats below, A, B, C or D is being described.

2) Listen again and tick (ü) the boxes to show which of these things the flat has.

	yes	no	not mentioned
lift balcony phone shower bath garage cooker fridge central heating
Exercise 4. Listen to the conversation and complete Sharon’s notepad.

PART VI. GRAMMAR

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 6861