ACTIVITY 147:
Listen to Laura Doomer who is describing a
house. Choose the most appropriate title from the
menu and then, check the
correct answer. Don't worry if
there are some words you don't understand: you should be
able to get the general idea.
Now listen Laura Doomer while you
check the transcription of her description below.
"Erm ... the
loveliest house that I've ever lived in was one that I lived
in with my grandparents when I was a child. And the name of
the house was Crosslands. And I have some very very happy
memories of Crosslands."
"It was ... it
seemed so huge to me as a child. And it had a lovely living
room with a piano in it and a lovely sort of hall with lots
of carpets and chests and antiques and so on.
And there was a mysterious room, it was the drawing room,
and we only used it on Sundays, or erm when the vicar came
for tea, or Christmas Day or Easter Day, and I was ... used
to be amazed about this room because it had the best
furniture in it but it was covered up with sheets ... it was
as if all the furniture was wearing clothes ... and it
seemed to me ridiculous that we couldn't enjoy this
beautiful furniture all the week through really."
"And
probably my favourite room was the kitchen. It had a lovely
red flagstone floor, which was always highly polished, and
an Aga, you know one of those big cookers that heats the
whole room so it was always warm there, and there was a kind
of clothes-horse above it that we used to hang all our
clothes on, and it was just ... it was lovely. It was a very
warm room with baked bread and ... my grandmother used to
make ice cream and we'd eat it in there and ... there was a
vegetable garden leading from there so I spent a lot of time
in the vegetable garden picking peas and eating them ... my
grandmother used to get really cross with me because I used
to pick all the vegetables and the fruit for our meals and
then I'd eat half of them, because they tasted so delicious
coming fresh from the garden."
"Now, I went
back to it a few years ago and it was a big mistake. They've
modernised it inside, they've got rid of those lovely old
fireplaces ... have just gone. And they've knocked a wall
down so the drawing room and the living room have become one
big modern plastic kind of room."
"But I think
what upset me most about it was the feeling that the house
had shrunk, it had become smaller and that my memory of this
lovely large warm comfortable house had turned into an old
house with modernised rooms inside it. And it taught me a
lesson really, that you can't go back on the past and
recapture it. But there's a beautiful memory there."
ACTIVITY 148:
Answer these questions after listening to Laura
describing a house she remembers from her childhood, make deductions to
answer the questions below in the blank spaces.
Then check the alternative answers.
1.
Whose house is Laura describing?
2.
Who is living there now?
ACTIVITY 149:
Now, mark if statements 1-to-8 are TRUE
or FALSE. If necessary, listen to Laura again. Finally,
check your answers.
TRUE
FALSE
1.
When the speaker was a child, she thought the
house was very large.
2.
She couldn't understand why they didn't use
the drawing room every day.
3.
She liked the living room best.
4.
She liked the kitchen because it was warm and
smelt nice.
5.
Her grandmother used to get cross with her for
not helping to pick the vegetables and fruit.
6.
The interior of the house is the same now as
it was when the speaker was young.
7.
When she returned, she felt unhappy at the
size of the house.
8.
She realised it is not a good idea to revisit
the past.
¡¡ Qué hermosos recuerdos de la
niñez!! En la página siguiente Mr. Grammar te explicará
acerca de los usos del PASADO SIMPLE, PASADO PROGRESIVO y PASADO
PERFECTO SIMPLE ...
