4. Answer the questions:
1) What advice is given in the text?
2) Why do people usually want to spruce up their rooms?
3) Have you ever tried to spruce up your room?
4) If you are going to smarten any interior will you follow this advice?
5) Have you got any other design ideas how to redecorate an interior? Can you continue this list of tips and give your own recommendations?
5) What tips did you like best? What advice will you follow?
5. Dialogue. A friend of yours has got tired of his/her room and wants to renew the interior. He/She asks you to give a piece of advice.
PART 3
TEXT 1
2. Read the text.
Where dreams begin
The Sparkles Hotel in Blackpool, England is a family hotel with difference. What makes it stand out from all the other hotels in town, is that each room has its own individual theme. There is the Cinderella lounge, where the chairs are silver slippers and the Lost City of Atlantis dining room, especially designed to be the perfect place for you to enjoy your fish and chips. Every detail in every room of the hotel, even the bathrooms, has been carefully chosen to give it a fun and unique atmosphere.
In fact so much work has gone into making each of the sixteen rooms special, it is difficult to believe that just one year before it opened the hotel was a run-down building with a huge hole in the roof. After replacing the roof and planning a whole new interior, the owner, aptly named Mrs. Sparkle, began to totally transform the place. She says, “It was really hard work redecorating each room, making the curtains, painting the walls and restoring old furniture; but it was fun as well.” Now that the work is finished and each room has its own make believe theme, she has no doubt that it was definitely worth the effort.
Mrs. Sparkle always dreamt about living in a doll’s house and she is very happy that she has been able to turn this fantasy into a reality. “Now I just want to be able to provide a place where other people’s dreams can come true too,” she says.
There are certainly some amazing rooms to pick from. Guest can choose to stay in the Teddy Bear’s Picnic room, the Barbie room, the Ruined Castle room, the Dinosaur room, the Chocolate room or even the African den, which is designed to make you feel like you are deep in the jungle complete with toy monkeys and animal prints. All the rooms are stocked with toys and books so your children won’t get bored, even if the English weather let’s you down.
In addition to the fantastic guest rooms, Sparkles has much to offer its young visitors. Every time you book a room you can be sure that entertainment, most of which is organised by Mrs. Sparkle herself, is included in the package. To give busy parents a break in the morning, there is the games hour in the Sparkle’s den, a large play area, and in the evening, puppet shows and story-telling mean that there is never a dull moment.
Sparkles Hotel offers a fantasy world for the whole family to enjoy. So if you want to give your children a holiday to remember or even to relive your own childhood dreams, Sparkles is the place for you.
to stand out – выделяться
lounge – салон, гостиная
slippers - тапочки
aptly – удачно, метко
amazing - изумительный
to pick from – выбирать
den – берлога, логово
print – отпечаток
to let down – подводить
entertainment – развлечение
puppet – кукольный
dull – скучный
to relive – пережить снова
2. Find the English equivalents in the text:
семейный отель с отличием, собственная индивидуальная тема, гигантский, трудно поверить, идеальное место, здание в ужасном состоянии, усилия определенно того стоили, кукольный дом, претворить фантазию в реальность, мечты могут осуществляться, быть глубоко в джунглях, игрушечные обезьяны, заказать номер, включать в себя, час для игр, кукольные представления.
3. Answer the questions:
1. Where is the Sparkles Hotel?
2. What type of hotel is it?
3. Why does it stands out from all the other hotels in town?
4. How many rooms are there in the hotel?
5. What kind of rooms are there?
6. What room is especially designed to enjoy fish and chips?
7. What room makes people feel like they are deep in the jungle?
8. What has every detail in every room of the hotel been carefully chosen for?
9. How much time did it take her owner to create such an atmosphere?
10. Was it only hard work to redecorate the hotel?
11. Why is Mrs. Sparkle happy?
12. What is her dream now?
13. Who organised most part of entertainment?
14. Why are children never bored in the Sparkles Hotel?
15. Whom is for?
16. Would you like to stay at the Sparkles Hotel? In what room? Why?
4. Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-F for each paragraph:
For children of any age
A dream world for everyone
The transformation
A varied choice
No ordinary hotel
Where dreams come true
TEXT 2
1. Read the text.
How would you like to live in a castle, a tree house or even underground? This might not be as unusual as you think. It seems that these days more and more people want to live somewhere special and out of the ordinary, and if they can’t buy what they want they are quite prepared to build it from scratch.
For John Mew and his wife Josephine, their home really is their castle. They have built their own English castle in the Sussex countryside. The building is brand new with all the luxuries you would expect from a house that cost more than $350,000 to build. However, when you first see it from the outside it would be easy to think that you are looking at an ancient monument. The building has a lot of the features of a traditional castle, including a keep, a moat and a drawbridge. “My choice of house is somewhat eccentric and building it was very hard work, but we’ve got the perfect place to live,” Mew says. Although some would say that the building is impractical and may be cold in harsh British winters, he certainly has got a unique and spacious home.
If you don’t look carefully, you might not even see the home that Jonathan and Shanon Ridd built at all! That’s because the house is a converted underground water tank. The only thing that can be seen from the surface is a door leading into the hillside. “We’ve never wanted to live in an ordinary house,” Shanon says. “Living below ground means that our home is quiet and very cosy – none of the usual draughts. It doesn’t damage the local surroundings and has very low fuel bills. Some of our friends find it dark and feel shut in when they first visit, but they soon get used to it!”
a castle - замок
underground – под землей
from scratch – с нуля
luxury - роскошь
ancient – древний, старинный
a feature - черта
a keep – главная башня
a moat - ров
a drawbridge – подъемный, разводной мост
harsh - суровый
spacious - просторный
draught - сквозняк
fuel bill – счет за отопление, электроэнергию
shut in – зд. в заточении
2. Find the English equivalents in the text:
необычный, быть вполне готовым, ожидать (предполагать), легко подумать, традиционный, выбор, суровая зима, уникальный дом, совсем, бак для воды, единственный, удобный, привыкнуть.
3. Choose the most suitable answer:
1. More and more people build their own home
a) so that they can live underground
b) so that they can have exactly the home they want
c) because it is cheaper than buying a new house
d) because they want all the modern luxuries you find in a new home
2. John and Josephine Mew
a) know that their choice of home is unusual
b) found that creating their dream home was easy
c) wanted to live like people in traditional castles
d) converted an ancient building into a modern house
3. What do Jonathan and Shanon Ridd say about their house
a) it’s just an ordinary house
b) they always wanted to live underground
c) it doesn’t harm the environment
d) they don’t pay anything for heating and lighting
4. Find the opposites in the text to the following words:
usual, ordinary, inside, practical.
Determine the way they are formed. Make up your own sentences.
5. Answer the questions:
1. Why do more and more people prefer to live somewhere special?
2. Is the house of John and Josephine Mew convenient to live in?
3. What are advantages and disadvantages of living in a converted underground water tank?
TEXT 3
1. Read the text.
If an underground home doesn’t appeal to you, how about living in the tree tops? Dan Garner, a tree surgeon from Gloucestershire, certainly thinks that this is the way to go up in the world.
“When our family became short of space at home our solution was to build a luxury tree house in the garden. The tree house is build into a spruce tree six metres above the ground. It has one main room, a bedroom and a balcony running around two sides.” Garner is so happy with this practical extension to his home that he thinks he can convince more people of the benefits of living in the trees. He wants to set up his own enterprise making more of the deluxe tree dwellings, saying, “Tree houses are airy, secure and comfortable and the only disadvantage is that they might not be suitable for people who suffer from hay fever or a fear of heights!”
Even people who live in more ordinary settings sometimes can’t resist doing something to make them stand out from the crowd. One extreme example of this is Bill Heines’ house in Headington, Oxfordshire. Until one morning in 1986, his house looked much like all the others in his street, when suddenly overnight a 7.5 m long fibreglass shark appeared to have crashed through the roof. The shark was a sculpture by local artist John Buckley. At first some people complained that it might be dangerous or that it spoilt the look of the neighbourhood, but engineers check that the sculpture was safe and the “Headington shark” has become a well-known and popular landmark. It seems that no matter where you live, you can always do something to make sure your house says something to about who you are.
appeal – нравиться
short of - нехватка
solution - решение
a spruce tree - ель
extension - расширение
convince - убеждать
benefits – польза, выгода
enterprise - предприятие
deluxe - роскошный
airy – полный воздуха
disadvantage - недостаток
suitable - подходящий
suffer from – страдать от
hay fever – сенная лихорадка
settings – обстановка, окружение
to resist – устоять
fibreglass – стекловолокно
shark - акула
to crash - врезаться
complain - жаловаться
dangerous - опасный
to spoil - портить
to check - проверять
2. Find the English equivalents in the text:
как насчет, подняться, создать собственное предприятие, над землей, безопасный, боязнь высоты, выделиться из толпы, выглядеть как все остальные, известный, популярный, не имеет значения, убедиться.
3. Find the synonyms to the following words from the text:
ideal, to like, to examine, surroundings, famous, convenient, appearance.
4. Answer the questions:
1. What is the way to go up for Dan Garner?
2. When did he decide to build a luxury tree house in the garden?
3. What are the advantages of tree houses?
4. Are there any disadvantages?
5. What does the author of the text say about people who live in ordinary settings?
6. Do all people like unusual houses? Why?
7. Would you like to live in an unusual house?
5. Choose the most suitable answer:
1. Why did Dan build a tree house in the garden?
a) He wants to persuade people to buy such a house
b) His family wanted to live in a tree house
c) He built it to earn a living
d) His family needed more room
2. The “Headington shark”
a) was created by Bill Heines
b) crashed into the roof of Bill Heines’ house one night
c) was immediately popular with everyone in the town
d) was built without any warning
3. Unusual houses
a) say who their owners are
b) are dangerous for other people
c) spoil the look of the neighbourhood
d) are not convenient to live in.
TEXT 4
1. Read the text.
The Harper family live in a large, comfortable home. Like many other houses, it has all modern conveniences. Unlike many other houses, it has no windows. The Harpers live in Coober Pedy, Australia, where two thirds of the population live underground.
The underground dwellings range from dugouts to luxurious caverns with beautiful furniture. The Harper family home has 3 spacious bedrooms and a large living room. The Harper children, Tom and Wendy, spend most of their time in the games room or swimming pool! The house is clean and comfortable and the Harpers enjoy entertaining guests there.
The Harper’s beautiful home is a result of their own hard work, as it was once just a small, two-room cave home. “The advantage of living underground is that, if you need another room, you just dig it!” says Mr. Harper. “And the advantage of living in an opal-mining town is that you often find opals while you are extending your house!” Besides, children can make as much noise as they want, because the walls are soundproof.
The underground homes at Coober Pedy offer an interesting way of life, as well as peace and quiet and relief from the desert sun. The Harper family are certainly content. “Life is so much simpler underground,” says Wendy. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
to dig - копать
opal-mine – шахта по добыче опалов
scorching - палящий
dugout - землянка
cavern - пещера
to extend - расширять
quiet – тишина, спокойствие
relief – зд. спасение, облегчение
content – довольный
2. Find the English equivalents in the text:
подобно другим домам, все современные удобства, две третьих населения, жить под землей, выглядеть радушно, просторный, игровая комната, двухкомнатная пещера, преимущество, звуконепроницаемый, подземный дом, представить себе.
3. Answer the questions:
1. Why does the Harper family home have no windows?
2. What does underground home help to escape from?
3. What kind of houses are there in Coober Pedy?
4. What are the advantage of living underground in an opal-mining town?
5. Why does Wendy think that life is so much simpler underground? Do you agree?
6. Would you like to live in such a town? Why/why not?
Литература
1) Dictionary of English Language and Culture: Longman, 2000.
2) Электронный словарь ABBYY Lingvo 11: Англо-русский словарь общей лексики. 100 тыс. статей. © ABBYY Software, 2005.
5Содержание
Введение……………………….……………………………………...3
Vocabulary………………………………………………………………4
Part 1…………………………………………………………………..10
Part 2…………………………………………………………………..28
Part 3…………………………………………………………………..95
Литература………………………….………………………………..103
Содержание…………………………………………………………..104