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 bed-rooms 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 coatrack and a chest of drawers for shoes. Probably, nothing needs to be changed here.
You come to the kitchen: kitchen furniture, kitchen utensils, a refridgerator (fridge) with a freezer, a dishdrainer, 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 sink, 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-storeyed palaces. Home, sweet home. (Merkulova Y.M. English for University Students, St. Petersburg, 2002.)
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Ex.13. Complete the following sentences choosing the appropriate word or phrase from the list. Change the form of the words if necessary. Translate the sentences into Russian.
to be lined to be full of to be covered
to be pinned up to lie in heaps to be concealed
to be lost beneath to stand open to be pasted
to lead to be arranged to be tiled
to be separated to to be painted to be papered
1. If the floor...... .one can easily hear footsteps on it.
2. Other walls..... ..with white bookshelves from which books overflow to the floor.
3. The door between the office and a small dark room at the back always ..
4. The floors downstairs. with Indian carpets.
5. The walls...... .with pictures of aircrafts.
6. A staircase................... from the ground floor to the first floor.
7. The notice........ .. and became the centre of attention.
8. A typewriter, some writing paper, pens and pencils everything... carefully... on top of the bookcase.
9. The walls in the sitting-room but not painted, which made the room look a lot cosier.
10.The room.......... .. dark expensive furniture. Oriental car pets, smart lamps, everything first-class.
11.The incident and nobody ever learned anything.
12.A sick child............ nearly. the heap of blankets.
13. Books, papers, manuscripts, stacks of letters all around the study.
14.The dining room.. from the rest of the house by a narrow passage.
15.As the tiny house green, it was almost lost on the green
background of the garden.
