PARTS OF THE HOUSE – CZĘŚCI DOMU

• roof – dach
• wall – ściana
• floor – podłoga
• stairs – schody
• staircase – klatka schodowa
• ground floor – parter
• first floor – pierwsze piętro
• ceiling – sufit
• front door – drzwi wejściowe
• entrance hall – hol wejściowy
• passage – korytarz
• balcony – balkon
• terrace – taras
• loft – strych
• attic – poddasze
• cellar/basement – piwnica
• porch – ganek, (US: weranda)
• garage – garaż
• chimney – komin
• lift (US: elevator) – winda
• gate – furtka, brama

I live in a small town. It takes me 20 minutes on foot to get to school. But I don’t mind walking. I always pass by the old house, which is so beautiful that I like to imagine it’s mine. It has walls covered with ivy, a red roof and two chimneys. There is a wooden porch out the front and a balcony on the first floor. I think nobody lives there as the gate is rotten and the front door is always locked. I’ve never been inside but I’m sure there’s a fireplace in the living room and an impressive staircase leading to the attic. If I had enough money I’d certainly buy this house.

Burglaries in the holiday resort

A series of burglaries have been discovered recently in the holiday resort Astaklesis, Scotland. Especially one of them was surprising for the policemen investigating the case:

”It was a house rented by students throughout academic year”, reported one of them (wanted to stay anonymous), ”during holiday it was vacant. The burglars must have known about it because they did not smash anything to enter the property. They unlocked the door as if they had a key! We are still interrogating the potential witnesses but the whole case seems to be very mysterious – though it happened in the middle of the day nobody in the neighbourhood had heard or noticed anything unusual. We are brooding over the reason for this silence.”

The alleged connivance of witnesses is not the only point that makes the police investigate the burglary thoroughly.
“A prey of thieves was surprisingly not very imposing”, explained one of the inspectors, “though the house was equipped with a plasma – screen television and other modern devices the thieves contented themselves with… a few jars of orange jam that was kept in the cellar! We even had some problems to detect the loss as the owners were not sure how many jars of preserves they had had before the burglary took place.”

Although the owners did not make a real loss the police are treating their case seriously:
“We are still warning the people who go for holidays not to leave their properties unattended”, says the aforementioned policeman, “I wish the people understood the consequences of their light-hearted-ness. Unless they bought timers to switch the lights on during their absence or ask their neighbours to check the surrounding on regular basis, the burglaries in holiday resorts would occur.”

Nevertheless, anyone who can help the police from Asteklesis with their investigation is urged to call the police station in that town. They still wish the thieves were caught!
A teraz spójrz na zaznaczone w tekście zwroty. To właśnie wyrażenia życzeń:
I wish + Past Simple – odnosi się to do teraźniejszej albo przyszłej sytuacji, np.
I wish you were here. – Chciałbym, żebyś tu była (z tego zdania wynika logicznie, że teraz cię tu nie ma).
I wish the thieves didn`t break into our houses. – Chciałbym, żeby złodzieje nie włamywali się do naszych domów.
I wish there weren`t so many burglaries. – Chciałbym, żeby nie było tyle włamań.
I wish + Past Perfect – odnosi się do przeszłej sytuacji, której niestety nie możemy już zmienić, ale tego żałujemy.
Uwaga: Często te zdania tłumaczy się na język polski właśnie jako: „Żałuję, że…”, np.
I wish I had locked the door. – Żałuję, że nie zamknąłem drzwi.
I wish we hadn`t left our house unattended for so long. – Żałuję, że zostawiliśmy nasz dom bez opieki na tak długo.
Language trap! Attention! O ile konstrukcja „wish + Past Simple” nie sprawia z reguły większych problemów, o tyle „wish + Past Perfect” to prawdziwa pułapka językowa. Żeby w nią nie wpaść, warto sobie to zdanie tłumaczyć (w myślach) na polski jako „życzyłbym sobie, żeby…”. Jak to zrobić w praktyce?
Załóżmy, że masz przetłumaczyć na angielski zdanie: Żałuję, że nie zawiadomiłem policji.
1. Przekształcasz sobie w myślach to zdanie tak, żeby zaczynało się od: „Życzyłbym sobie”. Czyli: Życzyłbym sobie, żebym zawiadomił policję.
Oczywiście po polsku nie ma to zbyt wielkiego sensu, ale pamiętaj o tym, że to tylko wersja robocza.
2. To teraz do dzieła – tłumaczysz swoje „nowe” zdanie:
I wish I had called the police.
3. I już, świetnie, nie pomyliłeś się, gdzie przeczenie, gdzie twierdzenie, bo wiedziałeś, że musisz zamienić sobie poprzednie zdanie na „życzyłbym sobie”.
Można użyć też zwrotu I wish + would, jeśli skarżymy się na czyjeś irytujące, powtarzające się zachowanie, np.
I wish she wouldn`t forget to lock the car. – Życzyłabym sobie (to mnie irytuje!), żeby ona nie zapominała zamykać samochodu na klucz.

Temat: dom

Zadanie maturalne

Przeczytaj uważnie artykuł, a następnie przyporządkuj poszczególnym jego częściom odpowiednie tytuły (A–E). Jeden z tytułów nie pasuje do żadnej części. Za każdą odpowiedź otrzymasz jeden punkt.
How to share room with a baby and… survive
Probably it looked like this: you were leading your dull, humdrum life that, nevertheless, satisfied you completely, when suddenly your parents surprised you with an intriguing question:
“Would you like to share your room with your newborn brother or sister?”
1) ……………………………………………………………………………
Of course their faces showed delight as if they brought a Clifford puppy mixed with the newest Lamborghini Diablo car to your house but, though you felt just like answering:
“Actually not, I love my present existence as it goes. By the way, do you dream of becoming grandparents?”, looking at your mum’s angelic face you could only stutter:
“Yes, I’d love to”.
Nowadays, when your ex-babyborn sibling is crawling on all fours making all your family members proud as a peacock, you probably feel a real expert in room sharing. Let us reveal some of the secrets you have been guarding for such a long time.
2) ……………………………………………………………………………
Baby in the same room militates against efficient learning.
It is exactly on the contrary: if you are aware your room-mate will stamp on the floor, scream at their plastic toys or cry because of severe colic all night you will make use of every single second to learn if you want to stay sane. Even though you had never realized it before, Maths combined with Physics might be simpler to bear than neverending twittering of your “sweet, little sister/brother”.
3) ……………………………………………………………………………
All your things will end up as unrecognizable shreds all over the floor.
Some things seem to be inevitable though it luckily does not mean you can do nothing about them. Purchasing a safe having an armour-plated housing and armour-plating door and placing there all the valuables (first letters from your primary school beloved, first pictures drawn for your mummy or old chewing-gum wrappings) has all the advantages of a good solution. However, if you still feel unsure about it, you can always follow up the modern interior designing trends and give all your belongings away. Just walls, mattress and your baby room-mate – what a life! The only question is – do your parents like minimalistic design, too?
4) ……………………………………………………………………………
Nobody will be eager to visit your place because of your incessant desire to transform your pals into baby-sitters.
It is not so bad. When you fed up with your loneliness you can start reading books or… yes, yes, learning new vocabulary in English!
As you can see, sharing a room with a baby is not so redoubtable as it could have been perceived at first sight. It is just the question of planning and organizing your everyday life carefully.
Rozwiązania
A. Is anybody here crazy about tidiness?
B. Solitude is not so awful
C. Secret thoughts and final decision
D. Inborn skills of a newborn baby
E. Impact of a baby on results at school
1 – C (Secret thoughts to prawdziwe, sekretne myśli, a final decision to decyzja ostateczna)
2 – E (Wpływ dziecka na wyniki w szkole)
3 – A (Czy ktoś tutaj ma bzika na punkcie porządku?)
4 – B (Samotność nie jest taka zła – solitude to synonim do loneliness)
Zostaje: D – Wrodzone umiejętności noworodka – bo w całym tekście nie ma ani słowa na temat wrodzonych umiejętności dzieci.

Jak rozwiązywać taki typ zadania?

• Nagłówek z reguły ma za zadanie podsumować cały akapit. Znajdź w nim słowa kluczowe i na tej podstawie szukaj tytułu.
• Uważaj na identyczne słowa w tekście i w tytułach – to zwykle pułapki! Szukamy synonimów albo podobnych wyrażeń, ale nie identycznych.
• Tytuł raczej nie będzie się odnosił do drobnych szczegółów w tekście. Musi być jak najbardziej ogólnym podsumowaniem.
• Jak zwykle – nie przejmuj się, jeśli nie znasz wszystkich słów (a nawet większości). W 90 proc. przypadków nie przeszkodzi Ci to w wykonaniu zadania w 100 proc. – przecież aby zrozumieć główną myśl tekstu, nie trzeba wiedzieć, co to znaczy np. existence!
• Koniecznie upewnij się, że tytuł, który pozostał, nie pasuje do żadnego akapitu. Sprawdź go na koniec z każdym z nich i odpowiedz sobie na pytanie – dlaczego go nie wybrałeś?
• Nie zapomnij sprawdzić zadania przed zakończeniem pracy!

Truths and myths about sharing a room with your sister

Veni, vidi, vici. Your special reporter has just spied out the bedroom shared by two sisters and thanks to this act of his great bravery some of the myths referring to this subject might be busted:
1) Living with your sister will be a great fun.
Well, if you find endless telephone converstations, piles of dirty clothes everywhere or – on the contrary – obsession of tidiness and mopping the floor at least four times a day, television on all the day long or chatting about make-ups, gossiping about friends` friends and commenting on strangers` behaviour – funny, well, then it will probably be a great fun for you.
2) Living with your sister will be a traumatic experience.
Well, if you find friendly chats, love without any conditions, readiness to lend you all accessories, dresses and cosmetics you can imagine, and – last but not least – cleaning the window sill in case of unexpected visitors, a traumatic experience, well, then it`ll probably be so awful for you as you presume.
3) She will reveal all her secrets into your ear on the first day of your room sharing.
Will you impart yours to her? If so, great, but do not expect her to uncover her secrets in return for your sincerity. Some people need much more time to open their hearts and some of them won`t ever do it. C`est la vie.
4) She will keep all the things she finds out about you as a top secret.
It is not so obvious and it will probably depend on the kind of things: if she finds an ashtray, cigarette ends and a lighter (you must have dropped it being in a hurry for a VIM, that stands for: Very Important Meeting) she will at once put two and two together and tell your parents you are smoking. And, believe me or not, one day you will be grateful to her for this indiscretion. Your lungs will thank to her first.
Sharing a room with your sister, as everything, has brighter and darker side. Nevertheless, it forms the relationship that will probably last forever. The others, not so lucky to have siblings, may only envy it.
GIM

Pokoje w domu
– jakie mogą być?

Party in the living room
It was my birthday last week and my mum let me throw a party at home. Our living room is quite big so I could invite a lot of people. I have good hi-fi equipment. I put some cushions on the floor because six chairs, two armchairs and a sofa wouldn’t be enough for such a crowd. We danced a lot and had a great time.

Children’s room – I can relax there!
When I’m tired and want to relax I usually go to my sister’s room. She’s only 7 years old and she has the nicest room in our flat. It’s not big but it’s sunny and comfortable. She has plenty of teddy bears, puppets and dolls.

I don’t like my bathroom!
I’m going to redecorate my bathroom. It’s very small so I’m going to get rid of the bathtub and have a shower cubicle installed. I’m also thinking of changing tiles because I’m bored with the red ones. Everything will be black and white. I’ll also change the mirror as I need a bigger one.
In the kitchen
Although we have a well furnished dining room, we usually have dinners in the kitchen. My parents love cooking and they have everything that is important for a good dinner. We have not only an electric cooker, an oven and a pressure cooker, but also a fryer, a food processor and a mixer. Our kitchen table is not as big as the one in the dining room but we prefer to eat in the kitchen because we have everything at hand.
Vocabulary
living room – salon
armchair – fotel
sofa – sofa
couch – kanapa
cushion – poduszka
shelves – półki
hi-fi equipment – sprzęt hi-fi
curtains – zasłony
carpet – dywan
fireplace – kominek
floor lamp – lampa stojąca
children’s room – pokój dziecięcy
kitchen – kuchnia
fridge – lodówka
freezer – zamrażarka
dishwasher – zmywarka do naczyń
cupboard – kredens
cooker – kuchenka
oven – piekarnik
microvawe oven – kuchenka mikrofalowa
pressure cooker – szybkowar
fryer – frytkownica
mixer (US: blender) – mikser
food processor – robot kuchenny
dining room – jadalnia
table – stół
chair – krzesło
bathroom – łazienka
washbasin – umywalka
bath, bathtub – wanna
shower – prysznic
shower cubicle – kabina prysznicowa
towel – ręcznik
mirror – lustro
tiles – kafelki
bedroom – sypialnia
dressing table – toaletka
bed – łóżko
rug – chodniczek pod łóżkiem
window sill – parapet
Co można robić w domu (oczywiście oprócz uczenia się, jedzenia, odrabiania pracy domowej, czytania książek
czy oglądania telewizji)?
cleaning/making an order/ tidying up – czyszczenie/ robienie porządku/sprzątanie
doing the washing-up – zmywanie
doing the washing – pranie
ironing – prasowanie
hoovering – odkurzanie
polishing furniture – polerowanie mebli
My father wants to buy a house but we haven’t
decided yet what type of house to look for. Dad wants to have a detached house in a quiet district, whereas mum would like a mansion in the suburbs. I know we can afford none of them and I’m sure we will have a terraced house with a small garden.
We live in a block of flats now and
I like my room very much.

Vocabulary
flat/apartment – mieszkanie
bungalow – dom parterowy
detached house – dom jednorodzinny
semi-detached house – bliźniak
terraced houses – domki szeregowe
block of flats – blok mieszkalny
mansion – rezydencja
castle – zamek
in the suburbs – na przedmieściu

I live in a house in the centre so I don’t have to commute. I don’t mind the traffic, pollution and other disadvantages of living in the city because I have everything I need at hand. I often go to the cinema, theatre and shopping centres.

Vocabulary
in the centre – w centrum
commute – dojeżdżać (np. do szkoły)
in a city – w mieście
traffic – ruch uliczny
fumes – spaliny
pollution – zanieczyszczenie
shopping centre – centrum handlowe
I live in a small village surrounded by countryside. I’ve never thought of moving to the city as I love the peace and quiet of a rural area. We’ve got a little cottage in the country. It’s in a lovely position; right on the edge of a small lake, but it doesn’t get much sun, so it’s rather dark inside.

Vocabulary
small village – mała wieś
cottage – domek wiejski
in the country – na wsi
on the lake – nad jeziorem
rural – wiejski

It takes me 20 minutes on foot
to get to school. But I don’t mind walking. I always pass by the old house, which is so beautiful that I like to imagine it’s mine. It has walls covered with ivy, a red roof and two chimneys. There is a wooden porch out the front and a balcony on the first floor. I think nobody lives there as the front door is always locked. I’ve never been inside but I’m sure there’s a fireplace in the living room and an impressive staircase leading to the attic. If I had enough money I’d certainly buy this house.

Vocabulary
roof – dach
wall – ściana
floor – podłoga
stairs – schody
staircase – klatka schodowa
ground floor – parter
first floor – pierwsze piętro
landing – półpiętro, podest
ceiling – sufit
front door – drzwi wejściowe
balcony – balkon
terrace – taras
attic – poddasze
cellar/basement – piwnica
chimney – komin
lift (US: elevator) – winda
gate – furtka, brama
front door – drzwi wejściowe

I’ve just moved to a house in the suburbs. It’s got four bedrooms and a large garden. It’s very spacious. The sitting room faces south, so it’s fairly sunny.
Vocabulary
bedroom – sypialnia
spacious
– przestronny
faces south – wychodzi na południe
fairly – dosyć, raczej

This house is large. It is situated far away from the city. It is very quiet here.

The kitchen is on the ground floor.

There is a living room on the right and a bathroom on the left in this house.
Horoskop
What is your room like? Jak wygląda Twój pokój?

ARIES (BARAN)
There are two things important for you: your room must be both original and functional. You have simple furniture, no carpets on the floor. You have simple colours in your room – mostly black and white. There is always some interesting element in your room: for example a huge, red poster on the wall, or a beautiful, modern CD-player.

PISCES (RYBY)
Your room shows your creativity: patchwork on your bed which you made from your old clothes, your paintings or photographs on the wall, clay sculptures on the desk and a lot of clothes, jewellery, books, and some objects you don’t even know what to use for.

LEO (LEW)
In fact you’d like to live in a palace, unfortunately you still have to live in this small room… Your room is extravagant, full of colours, mirrors, paintings. You love transparent colourful curtains and comfortable cushions.

SAGITTARIUS (STRZELEC)
In your room there are lots of things you brought from different countries: African masks, instruments from Equador, shells and stones from Greece. These ethnic and exotic objects make your room really unique.

TAURUS (BYK)
You hate changing things, so your room probably has looked the same for years. But you are also stubborn! If you want to keep all your old posters with musicians, there is nobody to convince you that you should remove them.

VIRGO (PANNA)
You love perfection and nothing is chaotic or redundant in your room. On your desk there is only a computer, books on shelves are ordered by colours and the first thing you do in the morning is make your bed. You hate dirt, dust and unnecessary objects: you throw them away and you clean everything with great energy.

CAPRICORN (KOZIOROŻEC)
You don’t have too many decorations in your room but there is always something which shows your great sense of humour. You use space in an intelligent way – you made yourself shelves of different length and width.

GEMINI (BLIŻNIĘTA)
You love decorations and gadgets. Your room is a mixture of styles and colours. There are different kinds of chairs for visitors, cushions to sit comfortably, piles of books and magazines. You like light and air, so your furniture is light and small, but your collection of objects is so enormous that on the whole it looks a bit chaotic…

LIBRA (WAGA)
What you suffer from is difficulty in taking decisions. You might often want to change the style of your room and you experiment with colours and materials. And you always manage to achieve harmony – for example you use different shades of the same colour.

AQUARIUS (WODNIK)
Your room eiher looks old, with old-fashioned furniture, a lot of books about philosophy, dark colours, icons, or it is very modern, with lots of gadgets and technology. You can also easily combine the two styles: putting a modern computer on an antique desk is just an example.

CANCER (RAK)
You love old furniture, because you are sentimental. You might sit at your Grandma’s desk, or still keep your childish chest of drawers. You love wood and glass, so there are wooden sculptures on your shelves and little stained glass angels in your window.
SCORPIO (SKORPION)
You love extremes. Have you painted your walls red? Have you painted your floor black? Have you painted all you furniture black and red, and put candles everywhere? Then you are a typical scorpio.