Learn English with this housekeeping English lesson

Date: Feb 18 2013

Grammar: Passive Voice

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Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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Are you a slob? A neat freak? Are you the kind of person who folds and puts away your clothes as soon as you get changed for bed, or who just dumps your clothes in a pile on the floor? There are probably as many different cleaning habits as there are people in the world.

Being super neat or super messy isn’t that much of a big deal when you live by yourself. When you live with roommates or a spouse or partner, you have to worry about whether your cleaning habits are compatible with the person you live with. If your cleaning habits differ, you’ll probably have to learn how to compromise, or else decide that living together isn’t going to work out. Find out how Greta and Mason deal with each other’s cleaning habits in this housekeeping English lesson.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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

Greta

Mason

Greta: I would say probably the thing that has been most annoying for the various roommates that I’ve had over the years is the fact that I can’t leave a dish in the sink. If it has food on it, if it has been used, it needs to be washed right away.

Mason: Well, right away, like 24 hours?

Greta: Right away like within 20 minutes after finishing your meal.

Mason: That sounds terrible. I mean, what if there are other things that you want to do, or what if it needs to soak for a little bit, or what if you just want to make sure that a good amount of dishes get there so that you don’t waste your energy washing just one or two dishes?

Greta: I need the sink to be clear. Otherwise I go a little crazy. Just like if you can walk into a room and you can see that there are things on the floor, it needs to be swept right away.

Mason: Things like toys?

Greta: Things like, if you can see any particles of dust, or a piece of dirt, if you can see that there is junk on floor, you need to sweep it. Right now.

Mason: I am definitely not that anal about my cleanliness.

Greta: I guess I’m a bit of a neat freak.

Grammar Point

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Discussion

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Greta has very particular cleaning habits. She likes to wash dishes as soon as she’s done eating. She also doesn’t like it when she walks into a room and can see any dirt or dust on the floor. She thinks if dust is visible, then it should be swept up.

Mason is definitely not as much of a neat freak as Greta is. He just doesn’t understand what the point is of washing your dishes right away, or picking up every last bit of dust on the floor. He has other priorities.

What are your cleaning habits? Do you identify more with Mason or Greta in this conversation? Have you ever lived with someone whose cleaning habits were very different from yours?

Comments

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DAMAVAND

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I’m not a neat freak, but keeping a bathroom clean is very important for me.

I know some people who swept or wash all their time and always think all of things are dirty or untidy and get used to cleaning everything in their house, I have one sister-in-law,who is a neat freak so much. She has a kid (about 2 years old) , sometimes I play with her, one day when we played some games together I put something around and called her to leave room, although she could not speak well, she pointed out that we couldn’t leave the room without cleaning it, and started to tidy. Then I understand being tidy or a neat freak is a habit that would be created from childhood. And when you see a neat freak look to her/his mother or father, probably they might also be neat.

Living with such people may be very difficult for both, and it’s much worse when you are not as neat as they.

In psychology, we know some smart people that they are usually untidy, so untidy is not bad thing forever, if you are not neat, never minded!! You may be intelligent!! (For building self-confidence/HaHaHa!!)

Ngubo Sixtus

South Africa

cleaning habits,everybody must do the housekeeping properly.keep your clothes,dishes,spoons,foor as well as house and yard cleaned.look after yopurself and things around you.