2017-10-28 Saturday: 7 Living space

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
“2017-10-28 Saturday: 7 Living space”
---
Homework: 5-6 test (You should do this if you’re going to continue in level 4 next session. If you’re not, you can still try the test and I can grade it for you.)
---
How big does a house need to be?
With your partner, design (and draw a floor plan) for a very tiny house (at most 25 m^2 in area).
Make sure to include all the things you think are absolutely necessary, such as a bathroom, a place to sleep, etc.
---
Vocabulary: house features
---
p. 82 part 1 - With a partner, decide which of these features are necessary when choosing a place to live, which are important but not necessary, and which you don’t care about. Also add anything else you think is necessary.
Make sure you know the difference between balcony/terrace/porch and between yard/garden.
(Use a dictionary [not a translator] if you aren’t sure about the meaning of some words.)
---
part 2 - For the first three pictures, what are some advantages and disadvantages of that type of house?
---
p. 83 part 4 - Listen to an architect talk about different living spaces and complete the sentences.
(Ignore the numbers in the audio. They aren’t for this exercise.)
1 bad weather
2 more basic
3 shelter
4 brick or stone
5 house
6 your house
7 design
8 cities
---
Grammar: comparatives and superlatives
comparative - to compare two things
    short adjectives: add -er: cheaper, bigger, prettier, nicer
    long adjectives: add “more” or “less”: less expensive, more interesting
superlative - to talk about more than two things
    short adjectives: add -est: cheapest, biggest, prettiest, nicest
    long adjectives: add “most” or “least”: least expensive, most interesting
    (Grammatically, “first” and “last” are very similar to superlatives.)
equative - to say two things are equal (or unequal)
    all adjectives: “as...as”: as cheap as, as big as, as expensive as, as interesting as, as solid as
    “not as” has the same meaning as “less”
double comparative - to say something is changing over time
    Houses are getting more and more expensive in Boston.
    Summers are getting hotter and hotter.
paired comparative - to say two quantities change together
    The bigger the house, the more expensive it is to heat.
    = Between any two houses, the bigger house is more expensive to heat.
    The smaller the house, the faster it gets dirty.
    = Between any two houses, the smaller house gets dirty faster.
---
BREAK
---
p. 83 part 7 - Rewrite these sentences (with the same meaning) to use the word in parethesis and start with the bold word.
1 Houses are less appropriate for local conditions.
2 A cave house is not as small as you think.
3 An igloo is not as cold inside as you might think.
4 New houses are getting more and more expensive.
  (New house prices are getting higher and higher.)
5 My tent is the best in (the) camp.
6 This house is the oldest.
7 A house on stilts survives more easily in floods. (We can also use “more”, “less” and “as” with adverbs.)
8 You can put up a ger more quickly than a brick house. (Adverbs formed with adjective+ly always use “more” or “less”.)
---
“Go fast.” = Now you’re going slowly and you should go fast.
“Go faster.” = Now you’re going somewhat fast but you should go faster.
---
Irregular comparatives and superlatives:
good - better - best (also well - better - best)
bad - worse - worst
far - farther - farthest
much/many - more - most
little - less - least (“little” as a quantity, not a size)
---
How can we compare Boston and NYC?
Boston is older than NYC.
NYC is bigger than Boston.
Boston’s buildings are nicer than NYC’s.
Boston is as beautiful as NYC.
Boston is not as dirty as NYC.
NYC is more expensive than Boston.
Boston doesn’t have as many people as NYC.
Boston is less busy than NYC.
Boston is the most beautiful city in New England.
NYC is the most popular and famous city in the United States.
NYC is also the most populous city (the city with the most people living there).
---
What do you think Manhattan Island was like 400 years ago?
---
p. 84 part 2 - Use the words from the box to complete these sentences. (some words will not be used)
1 atmosphere
2 public transportation
3 financial
4 modern
5 built-up (there are buildings everywhere)
6 skyscrapers
7 residents (= the people who live in a place)
8 neighborhoods (= the areas)
neighbor = a person who lives next to you or near you
ambient (adj) - in the surrounding area
ambiance (n) - atmosphere/feeling
---
Read “Before New York”
https://welikia.org/explore/mannahatta-map/ - This is the computer map they talk about in the article.
---
Grammar: Additional ways to talk about the past
- simple past: A beaver showed up one morning in 2007. (This happened once.)
- used to: There used to be sandy beaches along the coasts. (This was true for a while, but not now.)
- would: Beavers, bears, and turkeys would roam freely through forests. (This was a repeated action.)
---
“would” - repeated action in the past, may or may not still be true today
When I was a child I would play hide and seek every day with my friends. Now I play it with my host kids.
---
“didn’t use to” - Now this thing is true.
I didn’t use to wear glasses. = Now I wear glasses.
I didn’t use to have long hair. = Now I have long hair.
My grandparents used to live far away. = Now they don’t live far away. (Because they live nearby or because they died.)
My grandparents didn’t use to live nearby. = Now they live nearby. (So they’re not dead.)
---
p. 85 - Rewrite these sentences with “used to” if possible. (If it happened only once or it’s still true now, you can’t use “used to”.)
1 New York used to be greener than it is now.
  (“New York used to be green.” = Now it’s not green at all.)
2 There used to be a lot of forest and natural landscapes. (“there” is a dummy subject)
3 no “used to” - “The early residents” still don’t live in a large city (because they’re all dead).
  (New York residents didn’t use to live in a large city. - This is fine because now New York residents do.)
4 People used to hunt beavers for their skins.
5 no “used to” - This only happened once.
6 What originally used to be in the area where Fifth Avenue is now?
---
Grammar/Vocabulary: “like” and “as”
She dresses like a witch every day. = Her clothing is similar to (what I imagine) a witch’s clothing.
She dresses as a witch every Halloween. = Her costume is a witch.
I cried like a baby. = I (recently) cried in a way similar to a baby.
I cried as a baby. = I cried when I was a baby.
As a teacher, I don’t think that’s a very good way to learn English.
	- This advice is coming from Greg the teacher (not Greg the Bostonian or Greg the roommate).
---
p. 89 part 6 - Complete the sentences with “like” or “as”.
1 As (I am a life-long resident.)
2 like (parks that are similar to this one)
3 as (It is a vacation destination.)
4 like (It’s similar to a palace.)
5 Like (It’s similar to all great cafes.)
6 like (My studio is similar to yours.)
---
as = because: I don’t want to go outside as it’s raining very hard.
like = such as = for example: There are many good restaurants like ____ and ____.
---
Homework: Write a promotional description of your town or neighborhood, similar to the one on p. 89.
	also: read the articles on p. 99 and do parts 2, 3, 4 on p. 98