Dream Houses

Dream Houses
Can you explain what a house is?

especially one that has more than one level and is usually used by one family

A house is the place where someone lives

? House

? What would your dream house be like?
? Words that are possible to be used: ? big, small, modern, old-fashion(老式的)…
e.g. I’d like a big, modern flat in central Shanghai. It would have…

Key Words
? ? ? ? Houses: cottage, flat, house, palace, castle Rooms: bathroom, bedroom, dining room, sitting room, hall, games room, kitchen

cottage ['k?tid?]
cottage(村舍，小 屋)：a small house, usually in the countryside.

Flat [fl? t]
Flat(公寓套房): a place to live that consists of a set of rooms that are part of a larger building.

palace ['p?l?s]
A palace(宫殿) is a very large impressive house, especially one which is the official（官 方的） home of a king, queen, or president.
?

castle ['kɑ:sl] ['k? sl ]城堡
A castle is a large building with thick, high walls, which were built by important people, such as kings, in former times, especially for protection during wars and battles.

Rooms

How many rooms are there in your house? Are they enough? What else rooms do you want to have?

bathroom ['bɑ?θr?m /-ru?m ] US [ ' b?θ-/ ] 盥洗室

bedroom 卧室

dining room 餐厅

sitting room 起居室，客厅

hall 门厅

games room 娱乐室

kitchen 厨房

Exercise 1
cottage

flat

castle

palac e

About the passage
? Adapted from…摘自… 改编自… ? Sandra Cisneros ? She is both a poet and short story writer in the U.S. ? The House on Mango Street The novel is about a dissatisfied(不满意的) little girl named Esperanza, the main character(主人公) of the novel. She was brought up in a poor family, but she is a young girl of many hopes and dreams.

fast reading
? There are 4 minutes for you to read the excerpt (节选) and get a general idea about each paragraph(段落). ? Complete the following exercise.

The 1st paragraph

The reasons why we came to Mango Street

The 2nd paragraph

Descriptions of the house my parents used to dream up

The 3rd paragraph

Where we lived before we came to Mango Street

The 4th paragraph

The real conditions(条件) of the house on Mango Street

The 5th paragraph

The advantages(好处) of living on Mango Street

? Which of these things did the girl’s dream house have? X ? A swimming pool ? A big garden (yard) with trees ? X ? A balcony ? Running water ? ? A games room X ? Three washrooms ? ? ? “real” stairs ? A basement ?

second reading
? There are 7 minutes for you to read the excerpt again and then finish the multiplechoices. ? 1.How many places the writer lived are mentioned in the text? ? A.one B.two C.six ? D.we don’t know the exact number.

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? 2. Which of the following statements about the house on Mango street is TRUE? ? A. We need to pay rent to landlord. ? B. The house is not a wanted house at all. ? C. We should share the garden with others. ? D. We can’t make too much noise there. ? 3.A landlord is _________. ? A. a businessman B. a piece of land ? C. an owner of a house D. a cleaner

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? 4.Why did they leave the flat on Loomis? ? A. Because the house was too old. ? B. Because water pipes broke and nobody would fix them. ? C. Because we should share the washroom with others and carry water by ourselves. ? D. All of the above. ? 5. The passage is mainly about________. ? A. the places where they lived before moved to Mango street. ? B. the life on Mango street ? C. a dream house and a real house on Mango street ? D. the reasons why they moved to Mango street.

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Now it’s time to answer the questions in our text book.
? 1) How many places has the girl lived in? ? A lot/ She can’t remember. ? 2) Where did she live before Mango Street? Why did they leave? ? A flat on Loomis. They had to leave because the house was too old; the water pipes broke and the landlord wouldn’t fix them; we should share the washroom with others and carry water by ourselves.

? 3) Why did the girl want at least three bathrooms? ? So that, when she took a bath, she wouldn’t have to tell everybody. ? 4) Who did Mama and Papa talk to about their dream house? ? To the children. ? 5) What do you think was the biggest problem with the house on Mango Street?

Retrospection (回顾)
? Self-assessment ? Think about how difficult the text was for you to understand and what makes it difficult for you, new words or sentence structures? ? List the strategies you used to help you.

Group-work Activity
? Use the vocabulary we have focused on today and discuss with your partner about the dream house that you would like.