Topic:

Home, Neighbourhood, City

By Mara del Mar Snchez Vera

Eke out: live from day to day, as with some hardship Neighbourly: friendly Unneighbourly: unfriendly Downtown central part of a city Uptwon not much business or industry there To provide accommodation Give or recieve shelter or lodging Boarding house Home ownership Household chores / expenses Swing: live a in a lively, modern, and relaxed style Live down: live so as to annul some previous behavior Cash out: choose a simple life style after questioning personal and career satistaction goals. CITY o o o o o

Freewheel: live unhurriedly, irresponsible Mortgage money from a bank or similar organization, especially in order to buy a house or apartment Skycrapers Rented accommodation / property / housing Peppercorn rent a very small amount of money that you pay as rent Home comforts: the things that make you feel comfortable DIY: Do it yourself (doing maintenance and building works in your house) Be handy around the house = to be practical and able to do jobs in the house

Office building: Building that houses professional and administrative offices. Citizen: a resident of a city, state or nation; a consumer of public services. Growth strategies: planning for future population growth, resource use and development. Ordinance: a law enacted by a city or county affecting local affairs such as traffic, noise and animal control. License fee: a fee required of a specific business in order to control the effects that the business might have on a community. Townspeople Metropolitan area Borough a town, or a division of a large town Estate BUILDINGS UK a group of houses or factories built in a planned way; a housing estate an industrial estate (= a group of factories)

Department store Shopping mall Convention center Pedestrian zone Sidewalk Suburbs / Outskirts

EXPRESSIONS: House and home o o o o There's no place like home Live and let live Home from home: a place that is as comfortable as your home Put ones houses in order: put personal affairs into good order Keen open house: to be always ready to provide hospitality Get a foot on the housing ladder: manage to buy your first house so that you can buy a bigger second one later
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People who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones: something that you say which means people should not criticize other people for faults that they have themselves The grass is always greener on the other side of the hence

BUYING A HOUSE To arrange a mortgage with a bank before you start looking They took out a 40 000 mortgage (= They borrowed 40 000) to buy the house.
Do you pay your mortgage on a fixed or variable rate?

To go to an estate agent: company which represents buyers and sellers of properties If you see something you like, the estate agent will arrange for you to view the property. If you see something that takes your eye, you put in an offer. To get a structural survey done. A qualified surveyor will inspect the house and write a report that illustrates any structural problems, like damp or drainage problems. You need to appoint a solicitor (a lawyer) to do the conveyancing (= the legal paperwork.) Once the contracts are signed and exchanged, you complete on your house. Then you might want to throw a house-warming party. It's becoming more difficult for young people to get a foot on the housing ladder.

In a house:
Houses are made of brick and cement. In a row of terrace houses (houses joined together), the interconnecting walls are cavity walls: they have a space between them to allow air to circulate. On the interiors, the walls are covered in plaster, and then either painted or decorated with wallpaper. Main water Electricity and gas supply Representatives of companies visit houses reguraly to take meter readings Plumbing: change the taps, get a professonal to install gas boiler Building work: putting up shelves, fitting cupboards and doors, assembling furniture. Electrical jobs: change a plug or change a socket (the hole in the wall where you put the plug in to connect to the electricity supply). Big jobs: loft conversions and building extensions. You need to apply for and obtain planning and buildind permission to employ a firm of builders.

Problems in houses:
Suffer from damp (humidity) or dry rot (caused by water seeping into walls) and timber (wood). Window sills (the piece of the wall internal or external in which the window is set) and window frames (the wood that goes around the window) should be made waterproof (so that water cannot get in), and most people have central heating via radiators to keep the air inside warm and dry. Special thermostats set on the wall help to regulate the temperature in the room. In addition, most people have insulation in the loft to keep warm air in, and cold air out.
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 Floors: parquet (wooden squares), laminate flooring (a type of thin wooden plank), or tiles (either ceramic or vinyl).

Decorating and renovation:

o Get planning / Building permission: to get authorisation from the town hall to do work on your house o Give something a lick / a coat of paint: paint walls o Hang / put up wallpaper: to attach new paper to the walls o Throw out / replace the old light fittings: change the lights o Go for a (name of fashion) effect: recreate a particular look o Put the finishing touches to: complete the decoration with the final details o Have an extension: build on to the existing house to provide more rooms o Turn the dining room into a spare bedroom: convert a room into one with a different purpose No household security devices are proof against the determined burglar. Britain produces 20 million tonnes of household waste each year. Our hotel room has all the home comforts, such as a coffee maker, reading lamp, nice soaps in the bathroom . The hotel was home from home.

Neighbourhood:
Neighbourhood problems: noisy neighbours, vandalism and graffiti, loitering Community activities: - walking club or exercise group - book club - play group - games night - neighbourhood pick-up sports - house warming parties

From: http://www.english-at-home.com http://www.wordreference.com

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com http://www.learnenglish.de http://visual.merriam-webster.com/