Unit 4

Accommodation

1. In each line circle the word with a different sound in the stressed syllable. Listen and check your answers.


electricity amenities condominium
mansion apartment inhabit
spacious detached vacant
homeless modern hostess
realtor region rear

2. Put the following words in the correct column according to the pronunciation of “u”. Listen and check.


  • bungalow
  • chute
  • secluded
  • utility
  • dustbin
  • duplex
  • upstairs
  • suburbs
  • suburbs
  • cushion
  • untidy
  • studio
  • superb
  • nursery
  • rubbish
  • infuriating
[V] [(j)u׃] [A] [Vә] [ә] [E׃]

3. Transcribe the following words. Listen and check. Comment on the sound phenomena in these words.

launderette accommodation lounge
garage concierge mature
landscape inconvenient occupy
row house well-proportioned pre-war
terraced situated downstairs
storey bedroom dangerous

4. Listen to four people describing their ‘dream house’ and say which speaker


  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • • would not like other people living nearby?
  • • would like to live somewhere that was partly old and partly modern?
  • • would not spend much time inside their dream house?
  • • doesn’t think they will ever get their dream house?

Listen again and fill in the gaps.
a) When I retire, if I can , I’d like to live in a somewhere , not too . The most important thing for me would be garden – I’d like a English garden, with fruit trees and – not too big, though. I’d spend my life in the garden, especially in the .

b) My dream house would be , by , on a beautiful . It’d be and quite simple, with and , and from every window you’d be able to see . It’d be quite , with no for miles and miles. Can you imagine – just the sound of and ?

c) I’d like to have a big in the , maybe one of those beautiful with big rooms and and a going down to . But the and would have to be , because old ones are cold and a bit . I’d need some help though, so ... .

d) If I won the lottery, which of course I won’t, I’d buy a big near the river with , a really , you know, with one of those which orders food all by itself when you are running out and a and – but all very and .