miércoles, 3 de julio de 2013

TOWNS AND BUILDINGS



1 Underline the most suitable word.
a) As you can see, the garden has two ornamental iron doors/gates and there is a stone path/pavement leading to the house.
b) This is the front entry/entrance, but there is another door at the edge/side of the house.
c) All the rooms have covered/fitted carpets.
d) All the cupboards/wardrobes in the kitchen and the bookshelves/library in the living room are included in the price.
e) There is a beautiful stone chimney/fireplace in the living room, and there are sinks/washbasins in all the bedrooms.
f) At the top of the stairs/steps there is a coloured/stained glass window.
g) The bathroom has a shower/washer and modern mixer pipes/taps.
h) At the top of the house there is a/an attic/cellar and the garden contains a
glasshouse/greenhouse and a garden hut/shed.
 i) There is a wooden fence/wall on one side of the garden, and a bush/hedge on the other.
 j) This is a fine single/detached house in a quiet neighbourhood/suburb.


2 Match the words in the box with a suitable explanation (a-l). Not all words given are possible.

a) Rectangular hole in the front door letterbox...
b) Long narrow rectangular piece of wood or metal fixed to the wall.
c) Short road between the street and a house or its garage
d) Use this if you want someone to open the front door
e) Put the dirty dishes in this
f) This system makes the house warm
g) A small carpet
h) More than one person can sit on this
i) An area at the top of some stairs
j) Wipe your feet on this before you enter the house
k) Pull these to cover the windows
1) Small seat without back or arms

3. Complete each sentence (a-j) with a suitable ending (1-10) so that the meaning of the word in italics is clear. Use each ending only once.
a) I would prefer to live in a cottage 6.
b) The shopping centre has a multi-storey car park
c) My grandmother bought a bungalow
d) Jenny lives in a small flat
e) This street is only for pedestrians
f) Helen and John live in a square
g) Peter has moved to a London suburb
h) This village is surrounded by lovely countryside
i) Sue's new house is unfurnished
j) My house is semi-detached

1 on the third floor of a modern block.
2 and he commutes to work in the centre.
3 with room for over 2000 vehicles.
4 but the rent is so high that she cannot afford much furniture.
5 which has a beautiful garden in the middle.
6 in a small village in the country.
7 and the neighbours often bang on the wall.
8 because she had difficulty climbing stairs.
           9 with fields, woods, streams and a small lake. 10 and cars and lorries are not allowed.

4.  Complete each sentence with the words home, house or a word formed from one of these words.
a) The old couple decided to live in an old people's home.
b) Jane can't stand washing and ironing and other
c) Graham bought a terraced in a quiet city street.
d) Many people sleep on the streets of London.
e) Jack was unable to look after his children so he employed a
f) I come from Newcastle. It's my town, you could say.
g) Paul used to live on the river on a boat.
h) When I went to boarding school I felt very sick at first.
i) Our first home was on the estate on Oakwood Hill.
j) Pour yourself a drink and make yourself at

5. Choose the most suitable word or phrase to complete each sentence.
a) The view from the skyscraper D. over New York harbour.
A) shows up B) sees about C) stands up D) looks out
b) The old houses opposite are going to be
A) broken down B) knocked down C) put down D) taken down
c) ! You're about to push the wheelbarrow over my foot!
A) hang up B) stop off C) get away D) look out
d) Please the rubbish because the dustman is coming tomorrow.
A) take in B) make up C) put out D) tie down
e) Please come and unblock our drains! I'm you!
A) doing without B) counting on C) seeing to D) waiting for
f) I can't put these plants in pots. I've earth.
A) run out of B) put up with C) given up D) come up with
g) We through the window by climbing up a ladder.
A) fell out B) got in C) ended up D) set off
h) I've been planting trees all day and I'm
A) worn out B) taken in C) run down D) grown up
6  Use the word given in capitals at the end of each line to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.
A house in the country
When Ann decided to move house, it was mainly because
she was tired of the (1) neighbourhood ... she live in. NEIGHBOUR
crowded, there was a (2) of parking places, and SHORT
the view from her (3) windows was of distant STAIRS
factory chimneys. Luckily she arranged the (4) SELL
of her house very easily, and with a small (5) from LEND
the bank, was able to buy a house in the country. It was an
old farm building, which had been (6) and turned into BUILD
a modern house. After loading all her belongings in a van,
Ann managed to get them into the new house (7) DAMAGE
She (8) most of the rooms with what she already FURNITURE
owned. Even her curtains were the right (9) for the LONG
windows and she only had to buy a new (10) for COOK

the kitchen. It seemed too good to be true. Surely something would go wrong!
KEY: 



































Telly mix

Big Brother
Channel 5 have released a new, longer promo for Big Brother UK, as it’s launch date is confirmed.
The fourteenth series of the Channel 5 show will kick off its live launch from 9PM on Thursday, June 8, with this year’s show being named ‘Secrets and Lies’.
The launch will be spread over two nights, starting on the Thursday and continuing with a second live show on Friday, also at 9PM.
This year bosses are telling us to expect Big Brother to be “harder and harsher” than ever, promising “countless twists, turns and tough tasks”
Suspicion will be rife as the housemates attempt to untangle Big Brother’s web of secrets and lies. How will they separate the fact from the fiction and do they have secrets of their own?
In the ‘Big Brother: Secrets & Lies’ house, it’s all about self-sufficiency and recycling. As the housemates enter through the front doors, they will be greeted by a huge feature wall containing recycled life-size front doors. But what do they signify and what lies behind them?
The sweeping staircase will take them down into an eco-style living space. Although impressive in appearance, this house is not a hotel and provides a tougher environment than ever before.”
The redesigned Big Brother house will features 27 remote controlled cameras, 12 fixed cameras, five manned cameras and 10 infra-red cameras, as well as a ‘tower cam’ that will provide ‘sweeping views’ of the garden.
But just #WhatsTheSecret? Find out when the live launch kicks off next month…
Browse more pictures of Emma below…


Read more: http://tellymix.co.uk/videos/149282-big-brother-2013-uk-video-watch-the-new-promo-for-series-14.html#ixzz2XyqqJBbY

Compound nouns



Complete the gaps in the following sentences with compound nouns 

a. I had a terrible__________ I couldn’t eat a thing all day.

b. The ferry crossing was awful. I felt the entire way____________.

c. The nurse checked my _______________and told me it was a little high.

d. I went to the opticians for an _____________and he said I had twenty-twenty vision.

e. I’ve got a terrible ____________. I’ve taken two aspirin but it’s still not gone away.

f. My grandfather doesn’t have any of his own teeth. He wears _______to eat.

g. He contracted ______________from a mosquito bite while travelling in the Tropics.

h. My younger sister has been ever ___________since she met her new boyfriend.

i. When I went abroad to study , I felt terribly ____________. I missed my family very much.

KEY: machine, phone, chair, nail , rack, key; stomachache, seasick, blood pressure, eye test, headache, false teeth, yellow fever, love sick, home sick

martes, 2 de julio de 2013

Bribery and Corruption

It's perfectly alright, as long as nobody knows.
http://youtu.be/bbTfR64PArU

Pizza, pasta, bribery and corruption

Italy's courts are creaking under the strain of sleaze cases.
Is Italy more corrupt than its European Union partners? Are its institutions and people sleazier than the average? Is there any way of knowing?
Glancing at recent news reports, you would be forgiven for arriving at a definite yes for all of those questions. From north to south, the peninsula is suffering a dearth of honesty.
Ten traffic police officers in Caserta, near Naples, were arrested this week on suspicion of extorting bribes from motorists, in return for waiving tickets. When the officers were not racing to scenes of accidents to allegedly blackmail the guilty party, they were filing fake reports for truckers about theft from lorries, in exchange for a share of the merchandise.
Last week, five Red Cross volunteers in Sicily were arrested after hidden cameras in a warehouse showed them robbing food aid - milk, cheese, flour and rice - to be transported in ambulances and sold to supermarkets. Two of the suspects had used the food to supply their own bakeries.
A Sicilian court sentenced Corrado Carnevale, a former high court judge, to six years, for colluding with the Mafia by annulling mobsters' convictions. The Italian head of Coca-Cola's bottling plant in Albania, Cristina Busi, 52, was arrested for an alleged £14m tax fraud.
A Calabrian court ordered the arrest of the provincial government's president, Carmine Talarico, for suspected tax fraud, abuse of office and lying under oath. Four other men - businessmen and politicians - were also implicated in the plot to rip off public work contracts.
The vice-president of Tuscany's regional assembly was charged with demanding bribes for interfering with the provision of pharmaceutical contracts.
An investigation into alleged vote-selling by Cosa Nostra to candidates in last May's general election, led to 10 arrests. Five pounds per vote was the going rate, say prosecutors.
Marcello Dell'Utri, business partner of the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is on trial for Mafia collusion, and Giulio Andreotti, a former prime minister, is due to face the same charge in yet another trial due this September.
The list goes on. It is a catalogue of backhanders, scams, skimming, fraud and greed. Corruption infects every strata of society, a pall of sleaze hanging over the country. 

Bribery & Corruption


Edward Snowden's escape and casinos: The Mini Roast - video

On The Mini Roast, Tom Glasson and the team consider Edward Snowden fleeing Hong Kong for Ecuador and ask: is escape to Ecuador Wikileaks' only plan? And will Snowden and Julian Assange live together in paradise? Also coming under the team's unflinching gaze: Sydney's Star casino and its quest to remain the city's first choice for gambling.