Where we love is our home—the house that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Look at the following pictures of houses and discuss with your partner where they are, in the city, in a town or in the countryside?

Match the Chinese name with the picture, and write the corresponding letters on the lines.

F. 村舍，小屋

A. 独立式住宅 B. 别墅 C. 平房

D. 半独立式住宅 E. 公寓

G. 排房

D. 半独立式住宅 F. 村舍，小屋

A. 独立式住宅 B. 别墅

C. 平房

G. 排房 E. 公寓

Match the following names of houses with the pictures in Task 1.

A.apartment/flat ( ) B. bungalow ( )

C. cottage ( ) D. detached house ( )

E. semi-detached house ( )

F. terrace ( ) G. villa ( )

apartment / flat:

bungalow:

cottage:

detached house:

semi-detached house:

terrace:

villa:

Tips:

a high building containing a

number of rooms

a one story house or houses

a small house in the country

a separated house

a house with one part connected

with another

(chiefly Brit.) a row of houses built in one

block in a uniform style

a large house with gardens of a rich person

Let’s check the answer.

Which of them would you prefer to live in ? Why?

A. apartment/flat ( ) B. bungalow ( )

C. cottage ( ) D. detached house ( )

E. semi-detached house ( ) F. terrace ( )

G. villa ( )

7 6

2 3

1 5

4

Do you know what kind of houses most British live in? What kind of houses do most Americans live in?

Then read the text quickly to check your guess.

Guess what mortgage loan means from the

context. Then look it up in a dictionary.

Repay means___________ .

A. to pay back money

B. to pay the money again

Guess the meaning of golden from the

context. Golden means_________________.

A

Mortgage loan is money which you get from a bank or building society in order to buy a house.

wonderful

Margin notes

抵押贷款

interior adj. inside

Move means ____________.A. to change placeB. to live in another house

Do you know what we usually call Chinatown in Chinese?

B

中国城，唐人街

suburbstheir own houses

live in the houses rented

the inner cities semi-detached/ detached houses

onceevery 7years

away from the town center

cozy villas with private swimming pools

the central citiesdetached houses/villas

all-black areas

on the Pacific/Atlantic coasts

the houses which are not mentioned

always ready to move

  Areas to live in Houses to live in Frequency of

moving

Work with your partner to summarize the similarities and differences in the way British and American live according to the table above.

The similarities:

1) Most people prefer to live away from city center. 2) The low-paid workers or less-disadvantaged people live in the city center. 3)The majority of people live in detached houses.

The differences: 1) The so-called millionaires live in villas in

America, but it isn’t mentioned in Britain.

2) The British prefer to move every seven years

while Americans prefer to move at any moment.

3) Only in America, there are some blacks who

live

in all-black areas .

Read the text carefully and answer the questions.1)According to your understanding,

what is a mortgage loan?

2) What’s the author’s attitude toward the DIY movement? How do you know?

Mortgage loan means borrowing an amount of money from a bank with your property as a security for the payment.

He thinks it’s fun and convenient. The author use the sentence “Both are fun and convenient, aren’t they?”, and the sentence is not a question. It shows the author’s attitude.

4) Why do you think “so-called” is put before “millionaires”?

3) Which people are involved in the process of moving in Britain? What are they responsible for?In the process of moving in Britain, an estate

agent, a bank or insurance company and a lawyer are usually involved. They are respectively responsible for advertising houses for sale, for the money and for handling the legal aspects of the buying and selling.

Because they are not persons who really own one million. They are just very rich.

5) Where do the lower-class people live?

6) How do you understand “Americans are a restless people”?

According to the text, we may infer that the

lower-class people may live in the city.

It means Americans always hope and expect to

exchange all the things for something better.

For example, they are always ready to move.

Surf the Internet in groups to find out how Chinese people live compared with British or Americans. Then complete the table and report to the class.

Read the following explanations carefully. Find a word in the text that corresponds to each definition and write them down on the lines._______1) amount more than half of the whole _______2) to pay money for the use of sth. _______3) about; close to the actual, but not completely exact _______ 4) a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end_______ 5) to include or affect (sb./sth.) in its operation _______ 6) to deal with _______ 7) said, done, etc. with authority _______ 8) to give sth. and receive sth. in return

_______ 1) amount more than half of the whole

_______ 2) to pay money for the use of sth.

_______ 3) about; close to the actual, but not

completely exact

_______ 4) a series of actions or steps taken in

order to achieve a particular end

_______ 5) to include or affect (sb./sth.) in its

operation

_______ 6) to deal with

_______ 7) said, done, etc. with authority

_______ 8) to give sth. and receive sth. in return

majority

rent

approximately

process

involve

handle

official

exchange

Complete the following sentences with words in Task 1. Change the form of the word where necessary.

1) As we know, the growth of population will ___________

the expansion of housing projects.

2) I think the news is true, for it is from an ___________

source.

3) Television sets are now made by a highly automatic

___________ .

4) I ___________ seats with the girl at the back of the

classroom for she was near-sighted.

5) The ___________ of the students in our class joined the

hobby

groups.

6) Miss Black, a new teacher, found it difficult to ___________

this kind of problem.

7) He finally ___________ a small room from Mrs. Green after

searching for a whole day.

8) There are ___________ 300 hundred people in the hall.

1) As we know, the growth of population will ___________ the expansion of housing projects.

2) I think the news is true, for it is from an __________ source.

3) Television sets are now made by a highly automatic

___________ .4) I ___________ seats with the girl at the back of

the classroom for she was near-sighted.5) The ___________ of the students in our class

joined the hobby groups.6) Miss Black, a new teacher, found it difficult to ___________ this kind of problem.7) He finally ___________ a small room from Mrs.

Green after searching for a whole day.8) There are ___________ 300 hundred people in

the hall.

involve

official

process

exchanged

majority

handlerented

approximately

Complete the following passage with the expressions in the box below. Change the forms where necessary.

In America, ____________ shopping centres are being built in suburban areas ____________ the city centre. The main unit of the shopping centre, which ____________ central heating, ____________ a supermarket. Modern American women are used to buying all their food in weekly visits to the supermarket. Americans invite their friends to their homes more than most people do in Europe. They seem to ____________ hold parties both for children and grown-ups. In the suburbs, Americans are extremely friendly. When a new family moves into a suburban house, the neighbors, who ____________ about half of the whole neighbourhood, will be calling at once to see if they can help in any way.

In America, ________________ shopping centres are

being built in suburban areas ____________ the city

centre. The main unit of the shopping centre,

which ________________ central heating, ____________

a supermarket. Modern American women are

used to buying all their food in weekly visits to

the supermarket. Americans invite their friends

to their homes more than most people do in

Europe. They seem to ____________ hold parties

both for children and grown-ups. In the suburbs,

Americans are extremely friendly. When a new

family moves into a suburban house, the

neighbors, who ______________ about half of the

whole neighbourhood, will be calling at once to

see if they can help in any way.

more and more

far from

is equipped with is known as

be ready to

make up

There are a lot of expressions used in the text to express amounts. Try to find them and write them down in the following table.

All Most Many A few

1) all of …

1) over 80% of …2) the majority …3) every two out of three…4) most of …

1) a lot of …2) about40% of …3)many of …

1) one third 2)15% or so of …

Let’s check the answer

Look at the following houses and find some words to describe them. Then decide which you would like to live in and tell your partner the reasons.

Read the following passages from a Real Estate Guide quickly to match them with the three pictures.

Picture 1: A Picture 2: B Picture 3: C

Read the questions and try to find which passage provides the answers and then write A, B or C in the brackets.

1) Which passage mentions the matter of catching sunlight? (

)

2) Which house has the fewest bedrooms? ( )

3) Which house contains a watering system? ( )

4) Which house doesn’t have a fenced backyard? ( )

5) In the kitchen of which house is there a dishwasher? ( )

6) Which house has a very high ceiling? ( )

7) In which house does the bathroom feature a large mirror? (

)

A, C

B

C

B

A

B

A

Find the words from the passages to replace the following coloured parts.

2) The bedrooms (all with some furniture fixed to the walls) are located upstairs together with the pleasing bathroom.

3) Inside the main house, there is a large sitting-dining room with very high overhead surfaces of rooms and a standing-alone wood heater for additional warmth on cold days.

4) This beautiful two-story house has been newly painted and plastered again.

1) The house is located to catch the largest amount of sunlight and the very best water and city natural scenery.

positioned, maximum, view

built-ins, delightful

roomy, ceilings, freestanding, extra

redecorated

Read the passages carefully and write down the words used to describe the houses. Do you have any other words to describe them? If so, write them down.

Work in groups and design your ideal house. Then write a short passage describing it by imitating one of the passages.