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Home Repair
简体
Home Repair
家居维修

Learn English with this English lesson about Home Repair

Date: Oct 19 2012

Themes: Family, Hobbies

Grammar: Passive Voice

Intro

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For many people, the American Dream involves owning their own house. But while home ownership comes with plenty of perks, it also has a big downside. If anything breaks or goes wrong with the house, it’s up to you, not a landlord, to fix it.

Some people are very handy and enjoy making their own home repairs. But for others, a leaky faucet or broken stair means one thing. It’s time to call a handyman. Hear Marni and Amy talk about what they do when something has to be fixed in their homes.

对许多人而言,美国梦包括拥有自己的房子。但是尽管自置居所的好处颇多,却也有很大的弊端。如果家里的东西坏了或出故障了,那就只能由你自己来修理,而不是房东。

有些心灵手巧的人,很享受自己在家动手修理。但对其他人而言,水龙头漏水或楼梯残破都意味着一件事:该打电话叫维修工了。听听玛尼和艾米谈论当她们遇到家里有东西需要修理时,是怎么做的。

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Marni

Amy

Amy

Marni:  There is a wonderful thing about being a renter, and that is that you are never responsible for any sort of home repair.

Amy:  That is the truth. I think the worst thing about being your own handyman is that even when you can do a job, you just don’t because you don’t want to do the work, and then…Like, there are a couple things in my house that I just stare at, and think about how this should be fixed, but it’s on me or my husband, and neither of us will do it.

Marni:  Right, right. Well, is your husband a very handy person, or is he…?

Amy:  He’s fairly handy. There’s certain things that he won’t do, like plumbing or electricity or whatever. But he’s fairly handy, and he does like to have the handyman’s tools and everything.

Marni:  Right, right.

Amy:  What about you? Do you spend a lot of time at the hardware store?

Marni:  I don’t. I am not a handy person at all, and I don’t really have confidence in my skills. I feel like, this thing would fall apart, so that’s why I would rather have somebody else who I know knows what they’re doing take care of it.

Amy:  So then if it goes wrong, you have someone else to blame.

Marni:  Exactly.

 

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Discussion

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Marni thinks that the best part of renting a house rather than owning it is that you don’t have to do your own home repairs. If something breaks in a house you are renting, you can just ask your landlord to fix it for you. Marni is not handy and does not like to try to do her own home repairs.

Amy is not very handy either. Her husband is fairly handy, but he does not always make repairs quickly. Amy and her husband have some things in their house that need to be fixed, but neither of them wants to do the work to repair them.

Amy and Marni agree that it’s best to get a handyman to do your repairs for you. That way, if something goes wrong, you can blame someone other than yourself.

Do you like making your own home repairs? Are you a very handy person? What do you do when something breaks in your house?

 

Comments

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Sphenothalami

Syrian Arab Republic

Yes, I like repairing stuff in my house by my own hands. I’m a handy person. Yesterday, I fixed two broeken chairs, and if something breaks in my house, I try my best to repair it, of course if I know who to. Otherewise I would call a handyman.

08:47 AM Oct 20 2012 |

wannicho

wannicho

China

this article reminds me of my dad who passed away last june,due to a serious heart disease. my dad is a very handy man who can play all of the roles whenever there was sth broke in the house , plumbing , electricity…he also  made funitures ,when my parents got married , my dad made their own bed and some of the sofas,  and we have all the handyman’s tools in our house, it’s just like a mini- hardware store, my dad liked to own them, he always put them into work anyway, not for collecting n showing off.but my dad didn’t work as a handy man, just love handyman’s jobs as a hobby. so neighbors need tools always know we have them.

05:02 AM Oct 20 2012 |

peacefullife

Morocco

im a handy person, i like to depend on myself to fix things, doing my best before i call the handyman

04:23 AM Oct 20 2012 |

1 person likes this

Ahshan

Ahshan

China

i like to be a handy person.

10:00 PM Oct 19 2012 |

Eliza09

Eliza09

United States

In my case my husband is fairly handy when it comes to home repair, but sometimes it is good to look for a handyman when the problem requires more work and time.

08:12 PM Oct 19 2012 |

1 person likes this

DarknessLight

Germany

I never try to do any home repairs, cause, you know, I might make it worse!! so I’d rather leave it for someone who knows better. But sometimes when YOU break something you’d try to fix it yourself so you wouldn’t get punished, you’ll just do it whether it’ll be fixed or not, so it’d seem like at “least you tried”.

07:45 PM Oct 19 2012 |

1 person likes this

Englishty

Englishty

Egypt

Actually the person in my house that i consider a handy person is my mom, she is a very good at fixing things when anything breaks down and i think this is better cause home repairs now cost a lot so instead we should learn these stuff for saving our money.

05:58 PM Oct 19 2012 |

GentleKid

GentleKid

Saudi Arabia

I am sure iam handyman most things need repair in our own home iam ready to fix it iam really happy:)

04:40 PM Oct 19 2012 |

manu_wj

manu_wj

Italy

I don’t consider myself an handyman. I just try to do what I can. I can paint house or to fix a broken door/window, but I certanly can’t do electricity and plumbing works. I mean, it’s better to call the experts.


Here my favourite handyman



Laughing

02:05 PM Oct 19 2012 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

Morninggirl.    How good to have neighbours like your father ,an honorable person that  gives his service  as an electrician  and is not expecting  money in return  from  his friends.   Innocent 

01:48 PM Oct 19 2012 |

Morninggirl

China

I’m totally not handy concerning home repairs. Actually I never thought about this issue before. Cause I don’t need to worry about anything breaks or goes wrong with the house. If any such things happen, my father will fix it. My father is an electrician. He works in a middle school and maintain the electrical equipments in the school. So whenever any electrical equipment goes wrong, I just turn to my dad. I always take it for grant. My Dad is good electrician. I’m very proud of him. Many people ask him for help if something goes wrong with electrical equipments. If our neighbours or his friends ask him for help, he will not charge them.


Just like every coin has two sides, there is also negative side. That is I don’t know how to repair things at all! Maybe I should learn something from my Dad. 

 julito

julito

Argentina

I agree with Marni, in America if you rent a house , the lanlord is responsible for any damage in his property , but what if you  buy a house  or an apartment , not only you will have to pay the mortgage on it , unless you are a handyman , you will have to hire  qualified  people to fix  your roof , appliances ,or whatever is with problems in your house, not to mention the termites and the gardener  to mow the lawn and trim the bushes and roses.When people retires  and  have to live  with less money that comes from the pension  ,all these expenses put an extra burden  on their saving account, is better to sell the house and move to an apartment.Undecided


12:55 PM Oct 19 2012 |

Ngubo Sixtus

South Africa

i do like the subjject

12:18 PM Oct 19 2012 |

Moriza

Moriza

Ukraine

If I can do something myself-I do it,if no-we call for our handyman,and he does everything perfectly.


Though I always liked the handymen,my husband makes at home nothing.He likes to say “It,s not mine.Tell me what should be done and it will be done tomorrow”.


Different men-different thoughts.

11:34 AM Oct 19 2012 |

Nabilo

Nabilo

Germany

I prefer to fix things in home myself and that mostly works. Previously I hadn’t nothing to do with a handyman, but over time I have become better in making home repairs.

11:11 AM Oct 19 2012 |

Irene Forever

Ukraine

I am not a very handy person in making repairs in my own home as I have many other tasks. To do something well, a person should be qualified it it. I don’t like doing man’s work.


Still I am very lucky to have a beloved man who can do almost everything about the house beginning  from the driving a nail in and finishing with fixing my computer problems.


Lucky me! :)

07:33 AM Oct 19 2012 |

mojtaba

mojtaba

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i’m not handy person  but when i had to fix so i do that 

06:43 AM Oct 19 2012 |

Lubomusl

Lubomusl

Russian Federation

I’ve never made my own home repair,but I will try to do my flat cozy.I’m not a very handy person so I will ask my friends to help me.

06:23 AM Oct 19 2012 |

kenlin16

kenlin16

Taiwan

I like to do all kind of repairing thing because I am an engineer and I believe that you gain truly knowledge by hand doing rather than by reading or even worse paper testing.


I usually do the reparing on the weekend since it is the time I have most of my time. I do car . motorcycle and home reparing and electricity,lighting, hardware and software repairing as well. I enjoy the repairing because it satisfies my curiosity and I like the way they look after they got fixed.Cool

05:14 AM Oct 19 2012 |

dustbin

dustbin

China

Like

01:59 AM Oct 19 2012 |

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