Read several interesting facts about houses and add some more

• The oldest house in the world was discovered at Mezhirich near Kiev in the Ukraine in 1965 by a farmer. It is approximately from 10,000 ВС and it is made of mammoth bones

• The Smallest House in Great Britain can be found on the Quay, in Conwy, Wales. Its dimensions are 3.05 metres x 1.8 metres.
• Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, is the oldest in continuous occupation. Windsor Castle is one of the principal official residences of the British monarch.

The building officially opened on 4 January 2010 in United Arab Emirates, Dubai. From May, 2008 it's the tallest skyscraper in the world, its height is 828 m, 163 floors. Burj Khalifa has been designed like city within a city, with its own parks, lawns, boulevards

6.Put each of the following words or phrases in its correct position in the passage below:

The first thing I had to do in Belfast was find somewhere to live, if possible a small, one-bedroomed (a) ……………………………………... I didn’t want to share a kitchen or toilet; I wanted to be independent in my own (b) ……………………………………place. I decided I could pay a (c) ………………… of £50 a week. I couldn’t find what I wanted in the newspaper (d) ………………… so I went to an (e) ………………….. They offered me a nice place. It was in a modern (f) ……………….. on the third floor. I had to pay the agency a (g)…………………, and the (h)………………… wanted a big (i)………………… and (j)…………… from my employer and bank manager.

7. Put one of the following words in each space in the sentences below:

1. She wanted a place ………….her own.
2. He’ll move ………….tomorrow.
3. He’ll move………….his new flat tomorrow.
4. I share the kitchen…………three other people.
5. The landlord asked the tenant…………. more rent.
6. My flat is ………….the top floor.
7. My flat is………….a modern block.
8. The house is …………good condition.
9. I looked ………….advertisements………….the newspaper.
10. She pays a rent……..£90 a week.

8. Find Russian equivalents for the following proverbs:

1. People who live in glass houses should never throw stones.
2. Do not bum your house to get rid of the mice.
3. As you make your bed, so you must lie on it.
4. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
5. Home is where the heart is.
6. East or West - home is best.

9. Put each of the following words or phrases in its correct position in the passage below:

Tony and Sheila’s first home was a (a) …………… house, one of a line of houses all connected. But several years later when they had a small child, they found it rather (b) …………… for three people. They wanted something more (c) ……………… and so decided to move. They went to an (d) ……………… and looked at details of the houses he had to offer. They looked at a (e) ……………… house (one of a pair attached to each other), liked it, and asked a (f) …………… to inspect if for them. He said that it was in good (g) ……………….and they therefore decided to buy it. Luckily they sold their house quickly and soon a (h) ……………… firm was taking all their furniture and other possessions to their new home. But already, after a couple of years, the; are hoping to move again. Tony’s business is doing well and they want to get an (i) ……………… to design a modern, (j) ……………… house for them, and a (k) ……………… to build it.

10. Match the two parts of the idioms and translate them into Russian:

III. Read two texts, translate the underlined expression and be ready to speak about your home or your “sweet home”, how you imagine it would be.

TEXT 3. SWEET HOME

Home, sweet home. It does not matter what your home is like - a country mansion, a more modest detached or semi-detached house, a flat in a block of flats or even a room in a communal flat. Anyway, it is the place where you once move in and start to furnish and decorate it to your own taste. It becomes your second “ego”.

Your second “ego” is very big and disquieting if you have a house. There is enough space for everything: a hall, a kitchen with an adjacent dining-room, a living-room or a lounge, a couple of bedrooms and closets (storerooms), a toilet and a bathroom. You can walk slowly around the house thinking what else you can do to renovate it. In the hall you cast a glance at the coat rack and a chest of drawers for shoes. Probably, nothing needs to be changed here.

You come to the kitchen: kitchen furniture, kitchen utensils, a fridge with a freezer, a sink, a dishwasher or at least a dish drainer, an electric or gas cooker with an oven. Maybe, it needs a cooker hood?

The dining-room is lovely. A big dining table with chairs in the centre, a cupboard with tea sets and dinner sets. There is enough place to keep all cutlery and crockery in. You know pretty well where things go.

The spacious living-room is the heart of the house. It is the place where you can have a chance to see the rest of your family. They come in the evening to sit around the coffee table in soft armchairs and on the sofa. You look at the wall units, stuffed with china, crystal and books. Some place is left for a stereo system and a TV set. A fireplace and houseplants make the living-room really cosy.

Your bedroom is your private area though most bedrooms are alike: a single or a double bed, a wardrobe, one or two bedside tables and a dressing table.

You look inside the bathroom: a wash-basin, hot and cold taps and a bath. There is nothing to see in the toilet except a flush-toilet.

You are quite satisfied with what you have seen, but still doubt disturbs you: ‘Is there anything to change?’ Yes! The walls of the rooms should be papered, and in the bathroom and toilet - tiled! Instead of linoleum there should be parquet floors. Instead of patterned curtains it is better to put darker plain ones, so that they might not show the dirt. You do it all. but doubt does not leave you. Then you start moving the furniture around in the bedroom, because the dressing table blocks out the light. You are ready to give a sigh of relief, but… suddenly find out that the lounge is too crammed up with furniture.

Those who live in one-room or two-room flats may feel pity for those who live in houses. They do not have such problems. At the same time they have a lot of privileges: central heating, running water, a refuse-chute and… nice neighbours who like to play music at midnight. Owners of small flats are happy to have small problems and they love their homes no less than those who live in three-storey palaces. Home, sweet home.

TEXT 4. MY HOME

I would like to tell you a few words about my home. To begin with, I want to tell you that I live in Odessa. Our city is comparatively young, but it is famous for being the biggest seaport of Ukraine and a popular sea resort. It is a crossroads of cultures, languages and trade.

Our family lives in a new flat in one of the largest newly built residential areas. We moved into our flat seven years ago. It is a three-room flat on the fifth floor of an eight-storey building. It consists of a living-room, a study, a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, two closets and a lavatory. There are two balconies in our flat: the first one is in the living-room, and the second one is in the bedroom. Our flat has all modern conveniences: central heating, running cold and hot water, electricity, telephone and gas. Besides, there is a lift and a chute in our building. The layout is very good. I must admit. The rooms are light, though not very large. In my opinion, it’s quite a modern-looking flat. The windows face the park in front of the building and the view is really wonderful.

Our living-room is quite a big room of about 19 square metres. It is the largest room in our flat. My parents don’t like much furniture in the house, so in the living-room there are two comfortable armchairs, a sofa, a coffee-table and a nice thick carpet on the floor. Opposite the window there is a wall unit, but it doesn’t take much space in the room. Of course there is a colour TV set, a stereo tape-recorder and a DVD in the living-room. A nice chandelier is hanging from the ceiling and there is a standard lamp to the left of the sofa. During the day. the light comes in through the window, but at night, when it gets dark, we switch on the light and draw the curtains across the windows. We like to receive our guests in this room.

Now I would like to describe our study. At first it was my daddy’s room, but as 1 grew older, it became mine. To tell you the truth. I am very happy to have a room for myself, that’s why I always try to keep it tidy. There is a sofa, a writing table, a bookcase and a wardrobe in my room. On the wall there are some shelves full of English. Ukrainian and Russian books. There is a radio set on the shelf and. I must confess. I like to listen to the wireless in the evening. The dressing-table is next to the sofa. In the chest of drawers I keep clean linen and handkerchiefs and in the wardrobe I keep my clothes, which I hang on coat-hangers. I have two water-colours on the wall above the sofa. They are nice copies of my favourite paintings by Serov.

My parents’ bedroom is the smallest room in our flat, but it is very cosy. There is a double bed with a bedside table, a bracket and my parents’ wardrobe in this room. There are also some beautiful houseplants on the windowsill.

But the most popular and favourite place for all of us is the kitchen, as we spend most of our time there. We all are not big-eaters, but we use the kitchen as a place where we can have a chat about our problems and life. In the kitchen there are some chairs, a table, a cupboard, a sink with water taps, a fridge and a gas cooker. Of course, we usually have our meals there.

We like our flat very much. It is also important that our house is rather close to the bus station and we can easily get to any place we like.