The home and accommodation

THE HOME

Reading

Cider with Rosie is a modern classic by Laurie Lee. It describes the time when he was growing up just after the First World War. Lee was one of a family of eight who lived in a cottage in the Cotswolds[1] in what was then a remote part of the English countryside. The world which Laurie Lee describes has now vanished.

CIDER WITH ROSIE

With our mother, then, there were eight of us in that cottage, using rooms on its three large floors. There was the very big white attic where the girls used to sleep. On the floor below, Mother and Tony shared one bedroom; Jack, Harold and I had the other. But the house had been so often changed, since its building, that it was almost impossible to get to one's room without first passing through someone else's. So each night there was a procession of half-seen figures going sleepily to bed, until the last candle was blown out.

But most of the time when we were awake, while we were growing up, we spent in the kitchen. Until we mar­ried or ran away, it was the common room we all shared. In it, we lived and ate in the thick air of crowded family life; we didn't mind the little space; we trod on each other like birds in a nest, pushed past each other without unfriendliness, all talking at the same time or all silent. But we never, I think, felt overcrowded, because we were as separate as the notes of a piano.

That kitchen, showing the marks of our boots and our lives, was untidy, warm and low. Its muddle of furniture seemed never the same; it was moved around every day. Coal and sticks of beech[2] wood crackled in a black fireplace and stove; towels hung to dry on the fireguard; the mantel­piece above the stove held an untidy collection of fine old china and potatoes of unusual shape. On the floor there were strips of muddy matting; the windows were crowded with plants in pots; the walls supported stopped clocks and picture postcards. There were six tables of different sizes; some armchairs with their insides bursting out; boxes, books and papers on every chair; a sofa for cats, a small organ[3] for coats, and a piano for dust and photographs. And on the floor all round everything, the years had made shape­less piles of Mother's news-papers.

The home and accommodation

1. a. When you choose a home to rent or buy, which of the following points is or would be more important for you? Write 1, 2 and 3 beside the three most important ones.

b. Compare your ideas with a partner's. Do you agree?

2. Match the pictures with the words in the list.

Types of house/places people live:

detached house: not joined to any other house

semi-detached house (informal: semi-): joined to one other house

terraced house: joined to several houses to form a row

cottage: small house in the country or in a village

bungalow: house with only one storey (no upstairs)

villa: large house with big gardens or a rented house in a holiday resort/tourist area

mansion: large imposing residence

hut: often small and temporary dwelling of simple construction

farmhouse: dwelling on a farm

bedsit: bedroom and living room all in one

time-share: holiday flat or house where you have the right to live one or two weeks a year

3. Use the word below to label the plan.

basement flat maisonette

studio flat second floor flat

bedsitter penthouse flat

ground floor flat balcony

4. Which of the kinds of home in exercises 2 and 3 are most common in your country? Are they similar to or different from similar kinds of home in other countries you know? What are the main differences?

5. Imagine you have decided to go to study in Britain for two or three years. What would you do about accommodation? Which of the following would be the most important two considerations for you? Compare your priorities with a partner's.

college b cleanliness c price

USING A DICTIONARY

DEFINITIONS 6. All of the words below can be used instead of live. Using a dictionary if necessary, match them with their definitions a inhabit e reside b occupy f squat c settle g stay i lodge h dwell

1. to start to live in a place after moving from somewhere else 2. [of large groups of people or animals] to live in a country or 3. area 4. to live in a place for a while as a visitor or guest 5. [formal] to have one's home in a place 6. to be in (a house or room) 7. [literary or old use] to live in a place. 8. to stay in someone else's home in exchange for paying rent 9. to live in an unused building without permission and without paying rent

7. Use the verbs above to complete the following sentences.

a. When Clare was a student at university, she ___________ with two old ladies for a year. The rent was very reasonable.

b. If you come to Boston for a few days, you can__________ with us. We have plenty of space.

c. The Tuaregs parts of Northern Africa.

d. The homeless couple broke into the empty house and_________ there for six months. Then the owner forced them to leave.

e. After the war, the Van Dongs left Vietnam and eventually __________ in Bordeaux.

f. That house doesn't seem to be ___. There are no curtains in the windows, and I've never seen anyone go in or out.

MEANING IN CONTEXT

8. Complete the following with appropriate words from the box, using a dictionary if necessary.

We spent six months in London in 1988. Finding a home was hard. For the first week, we were a) _____ of the parents of a friend of mine. They were very kind and showed us great b) _______ . Our c) ________ also helped us look for a place to live and put us in touch with an d)_______ which specializes in short-term accommodation. On the fourth day we went to visit a two-bedroomed flat in Fulham which was to e)_______ . We liked it a lot, but the f)_______ told us that she had promised to g)_______ it to another couple the day before. They had had trouble with the h) ______ of the flat where they were living: he wanted to increase their i)_______ by 30 percent, and they were refusing to pay, so he was going to j)_____ them. That's why they needed another home. We were very worried when we heard this, and we learnt that it is very important to read your k) ____ or lease carefully before signing it. Then your rights as a l) ______ can be protected.

Anyway, the next day we heard that the flat in Fulham was available after all, so we hurried back to the agency, checked the m)______ carefully and paid a n)_______ of Ј400 as well as the first month's o)_____ - another Ј400. Living in London was going to be pretty expensive.

WORD FORMATION

9. Look at the verbs in the following sentences. Then complete them using nouns with these endings:

People -er/-ier -ent/-ant

Places: -ing -ence -ment -ation

1. A person who lodges with a family is their __________ .
2. The large home which a rich family resides in is their _______ .
3. The person who occupies a home, even if only for a short time is the ________.
4. The place where a person lodges, usually for a short period, is called his or her _______ in formal English, or digs in informal British English.
5. People who squat in empty houses without the owners' permission are called _______.
6. A place where a group of people decide to settle, for example in a jungle or uninhabited area, is called a ________ .
7. The people who inhabit a country or city are called its _________ .
8. People who went to a newly developed part of a country to settle there were often called _______.

10. Fill in the table describing your current home (or a home you know well). Describe its rooms, its atmosphere, its location, any special features or views, etc. and the people who live there. Is it similar to your ideal home? If not, what would your ideal home be like?

b Compare the description of your ideal home with a partner's

MEANING

RELATED WORDS.

11. Read the following advertisements for homes taken from a British estate agent's publicity. Assuming you had the money, which home, if any, would you want to look at and why?

Spacious Victorian terraced house enjoying views across the city. Handy for local shops, buses, schools, etc. Porch, entrance hall, 2 impressive reception rooms, kitchen/ breakfast room, bathroom with shower, 3 bedrooms, gas central heating, small but delightful garden.	Southern outskirts of the city: a double -fronted pre-war semi-detached 3-bedroomed house in a quiet tree-lined road. Convenient for local shops, and city buses. Period hall, good-sized lounge, dining room, utility room/storeroom, electric storage heaters, double-glazing, charming mature garden, garage.
A purpose-built upper floor flat located in one of the city's prime residential areas, some 10 minutes' walk from the city centre and railway station. Close to local shops and canal path walks. Commanding superb views over the city and surrounding hills. Gas central heating, hall, 6m x 4m living room, bathoom, 2 double bedrooms with wardrobes, garage.	A very well-proportioned detached bungalow, not far from the city centre containing a luxury kitchen, an impressive open-plan living room with a fireplace, 4 double bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. Gas central heating, fair decorative order throughout, large secluded garden, and double garage.

MEANING

RELATED MEANINGS

12 The following adjectives are all taken from the advertisements above. Put them in the table according to whether their meanings relate to size, distance, age or quality.

13. Using a dictionary if necessary, find one other compound word beginning with each of the following.

a good- b open- c well- d purpose- edouble-

14. Use vocabulary from the advertisements to prepare a new advertisement for a house or flat you know well (or for an imaginary flat/house) to put on the class noticeboard. Remember that you can exaggerate its advantages and understate its disadvantages. Aim to get as many people interested as possible!

WORD USE

METAPHOR AND IDIOM

15. Can you work out what these expressions mean?

WORD USE

PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

16. Put the words in the following in the correct order to make famous sayings and lines from songs about home. Are there similar sayings and quotations in your language?

a where/is/home/is/the heart

b wish/homeward/were/ bound/I/I

c home/keep/fires/burning/ the

d no/home/like/there's/ place

e heart/absence/the/fonder/ makes/grow

I home/home/sweet

FOCUS WORDS.

WORD CHECK: Refer to Focus Words and Focus Phrases only

1 Of all the kinds of room mentioned, which do you feel most comfortable in? Why?

2 There are several compound words in the list. Which have the stress on the first part and which have the stress on the second part? Do there seem to be any rules?

3 Make up a short story with someone else in the class in which you use all the Focus Phrases.

4 Which words in the list do you find:

a strangest? Why?

b hardest to pronounce? Why?

17. Furnishing and decorating the home.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 3424