Bývanie
Living in towns and villages both have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of town: more
job opportunities, more possibilities to study, a better social life, sport facilities, more cultural events, and shopping centres.
Disadvantages
of town: pollution, noise, crowded streets and roads, dirt, crime…
One advantage of living in a village is that people have more privacy.
People in villages usually live in houses with a garden. Some of them also have a garage.
Living in a house has many advantages: there is more
privacy, more space - more rooms – houses usually have a ground floor and a first floor. Houses usually have a garden and a garage. You can listen
to music loudly. You can keep bigger pets: dogs, cats, horses.
But it can also have some disadvantages: It is more expensive to maintain a house. You have to work in the garden – you must cut the grass, look after the trees. You have to tidy up more rooms and clean more windows.
The countryside is usually quiet and comfortable. In summer you can go out for a walk to the forest or you can just sit in the garden, read a book or relax. People in the village usually know each other and they can help you if you need any help. But living in the countryside also has some disadvantages. Some people think that it is boring because there is no cinema, swimming pool or fitness centre and you sometimes have to travel by train or by bus if you work or study in the town.
Living in a town also has some advantages and disadvantages. People in towns usually live in a block of flats. The advantages of living in the block of flats are: It is cheaper. It is comfortable. You don’t have to clean so much because you don’t have many rooms and windows.
But it has disadvantages, too. For example: There is less privacy. There is less space. Flat usually doesn’t have a garden. You can’t listen to loud music because you have neighbours. If the lift doesn’t work, you have to go up by stairs. If anything breaks in your flat, you can cause problems to other people – for example, if your shower was broken, the water could damage your neighbour’s flat below.
Living in the town or a city is exciting. If you live in a town, you can enjoy the cultural life – you can go to the cinema, to the theatre, for a concert, to the fitness centre or a swimming pool. You can go out and have a dinner in a restaurant, if you want to. There are usually supermarkets which are opened longer than the shops in villages.
HOW DO SLOVAKS LIVE?
Many Slovaks live
in flats. A flat is situated in the same building as other flats, often forming part of the block of flats or town house. During the socialism era, a
lot of huge blocks were built in our country.
A flat may be large with nearly as much space as a house, or it may be just one room with a
kitchen and a bathroom. Most of the flats in Slovakia are two-, three- or four - room flats. Slovak houses are usually quite bigger and the older ones
are often shared by two families- grandparents, their children and grandchildren.
BRITISH PEOPLE.
People who decided to
live in houses, usually live in the system of architecture. Britain has always been a crowded country so they have always wanted to use more areas for
buildings. They built terraced houses whuch are built in a row and connected to each other.
They also build back to back houses which
share a back wall. On the picture there is a semidetached house which is joined to another house by one common wall.
More private
living:
When people want to have more privacy they would probably choose DETACHED HOUSE which stands alone in the area. They can also live in
BUNGALOW which is on the picture below, it is a house with only one floor and it is also really popular in Australia.
COTTAGE is also a
small house with only one floor but it is usually situated in the village or countryside. People use cottages for holidays and relaxing in the
garden.
A typical British house is set in a small garden. It usually has two floors and it is designed for a family of four or five people. There is a hall, a front room, a back room, a kitchen and a storage space downstairs. A garage is normally attached to the house. Upstairs there is one big bedroom and two smaller ones, a bathroom and lavatory.
COMPARISON OF SLOVAKS AND BRITISH.
Slovaks and British are
people that love gardening. Slovaks tend to have bigger gardens behind their houses and they spend quite a lot of time growing vegetables and fruits.
There is a lot of work around the house throughout the whole year. British people have gardens for pleasure. They relax and drink tea or coffee, they
do not work like slaves in the garden. They have gardener who takes care of plants, trees, flowers and grass.
The furniture in Slovak and British rooms is not very different nowadays. There are usually armchairs or sofa, a coffee table, a wall unit with TV and radio, and a book shelf. There is a carpet on the floor to make the room warm and comfortable. Most British houses have a fireplace in their living room because of cold weather as on the picture. The kitchen furniture includes the cupboards, sink, cooker, microwave, and fridge with freezer. There are also a dining table and chairs. The floor is often tiled. Slovak families usually have the washing machine in the bathroom, the British in the kitchen or utility room. Bedrooms look the same but children in Britain usually live in separated smaller rooms.
AMERICANS
The average
American family lives in house or a flat. However, many wealthy people have large apartments or houses with many rooms, tennis courts and swimming
pool. In the centre of American cities people live in apartments situated in large apartment buildings. People who live in smaller towns or villages
usually live in two floor houses with a small garden. The neighbourhood in America looks like a community and people know everything about their
neighbours. There is also a neighbour tradition. When you move to your new house, your neighbours want to welcome you with an apple pie or they invite
you to their barbecue party in their garden.
HOUSEWORKS
1. Do you like doing housework?
2. How do you think
housework could be made more interesting?
3. Di your parents ask you do any housework when you were a child?
4. Do you think children should
do some housework?
5. Which do you think is better for doing housework, a machine or a person?
6. In the future, do you think machines will
replace humans for doing housework?
Yes, I’m really into helping to do some housework if I have time because I find it can help me let off
steam. I sometimes go shopping for groceries, mop the floor and clean the bathroom with my family during the weekends to make my home more
comfortable.
I guess you should find the changes between before and after housework, then you will be motivated to do the chore to make the home
better.
Yes, I feel that doing some housework can cultivate my hands-on abilities, and sense of achievement as well. I remember that when I was a
little boy, I was often told to take out the garbage, wash the dishes and go out to buy some flavours. Therefore, I strongly recommend that children
should take part in the daily household work.
If I were to choose between the two, I’ll probably go with machines because they can do
housework better and more efficiently, for example, people are using machines to mop the floor, wash dishes and mow the lawn, whereas, you know, doing
this housework by hands is really time consuming.
I guess in the age of fast living and a culture of convenience, a machine can really help a lot
in doing housework, and do it better and more efficiently, like mopping the floor, washing dishes and mowing the lawn. But I don’t think that
machines will totally replace humans because there is still a lot of housework that is suitable for humans, like cooking.
In addition, I
collected some other common-used housework phrases so that you can select some of them in your answers. These phrases are all idiomatic.
washing
the dishes sweeping the floor
mopping the floor making the beds
preparing meals washing vegetables
cooking setting the table (for a
meal)
ironing taking out the garbage
doing the laundry (washing clothes) tidying up / putting things where they belong
shopping for
groceries and other household supplies cleaning the kitchen
cleaning the stove cleaning the refrigerator
cleaning the bathroom cleaning
the toilet
washing the windows