In conjunction with Developing Teachers.com

LET’S TALK ABOUT IT:
12 “CONVERSATION” LESSONS
FOR AN INTERMEDIATE LEVEL CLASS
MICHAEL BERMAN

Where We Live

What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a big city like London? Working in small groups, make a list and then choose a spokesperson to tell the rest of the class about what you think:

Advantages / Disadvantages

We like living in a big city like London because ______

We’d rather

We’d prefer to live in the country because______

We’d sooner

Which of these sentence starters describes your situation? Find and then complete them:

I’ve always lived in a big city, which is probably why ______

Up to now I’ve always lived with my family so______

I’ve never lived in a big city before, which is probably why______

I was born and brought up in the country, which is probably why ______

In the past I’ve always had my own car so______

I’ve never lived in a small village, which is probably why______

I was born and brought up by the sea, which is probably why______

I’ve always lived in the suburbs, which is probably why______

In the past I’ve always lived on my own, which is probably why______

I’ve never lived in the centre of the city, which is probably why______

I’ve never lived in a house with a garden before, which is probably why ______

Up to now I’ve always lived within walking distance from the place where I work so______

Match the numbers on the left with the letters in the right to complete the collocations like the example:

  1. busa. bin
  2. car b. centre
  3. doctor’s c. crossing
  4. football d. hall
  5. litter e. library
  6. parking f. lights
  7. post g. meter
  8. public h. office
  9. shopping i. park
  10. swimming j. pool
  11. town k. stadium
  12. traffic l. station
  13. tube m. stop
  14. zebra n. surgery

Which famous place am I describing? It’s in the North of London / It’s on the Jubilee Line / It’s the biggest one in the whole country / It’s also on the Metropolitan Line / It holds a lot of people / It has no roof / It has floodlights for evening games / You can watch the Cup Final there

The answer, if you haven’t already guessed, is Wembley Stadium. Now choose three famous places in London and write five clues about each of them like the above example. Then find a partner and test each other:

Fill in the gaps in the passage below with words from the following list. Use each word once only:

accommodation / bills / building / council / flatmates / freehold / landlord / leasehold / licence / mortgage / permit / rent / suburbs / tenant /

It’s not easy to find ______in Central London and it’s also very expensive. That is why most people live in the ______. As a ______, you will have to pay ______each month to a landlord. There are of course many other ______you will need to budget for too. These include ______tax, water rates, a TV ______, a monthly phone bill, electricity, and perhaps gas too. If you have a car, you might also need to pay road tax, insurance, and also for a parking ______To save money you might want to find some ______to share a place with.

If, on the other hand, you can afford to buy your own place, you will probably need a ______and you can obtain this from a bank or a ______society. Houses and flats are sold freehold or leasehold. ______means the property is yours forever and then your children’s, but ______means it’s only yours for a certain number of years – usually either 99 or 999 for some reason.

Accommodation is an uncountable noun in English, which means it can never be used with the indefinite article “a” and that is has no plural form. The following sentences all contain examples of uncountable nouns too. See if you can find them:

  1. The only ______there is in the flat is a bed, a table and two chairs.
  2. If you take my ______, you’ll look for somewhere cheaper to live.
  3. Put your ______in a black plastic big and then leave it in the bin outside the front of the house.
  4. You can pick up some ______leaflets about your legal rights as a tenant from the local Citizens Advice Bureau.
  5. One way of saving ______is not to flush the toilet so frequently. Another way is to share your bath with a friend.
  6. I’ve been looking at possible places to rent all day but the ______isn’t very good I’m afraid as most of it is much too expensive for us.
  7. The problem with buying a large car is that it uses a lot of ______. That’s why it might be a better idea to consider buying a motorbike instead.
  8. Living in such a damp flat is no good for your ______and it’s probably why you keep coughing all the time.
  9. Of course, if you have ______, then finding a suitable place to live is never going to be a problem.
  10. The reason why this flat is so cheap compared to the others is that there is no public ______nearby

Match the numbers on the left with the letters in the right to complete the collocations like the example: 1-m / 2-i / 3-n / 4-k / 5-a / 6-g / 7-h / 8-e / 9-b / 10-j / 11-b / 12-f / 13-l / 14-c

Fill in the gaps in the passage below with words from the following list. Use each word once only:

accommodation / suburbs / tenant / rent / bills / council / licence / permit / flatmates / mortgage / building / Freehold / leasehold

The following sentences all contain examples of uncountable nouns too. See if you can find them:

1 furniture / 2 advice / 3 rubbish / 4 information / 5 water / 6 news / 7 petrol / 8 health / 9 money 10 transport