Together with your partner, agree on one best way of coping with each of the following problems. What are you both going to do?
You both have hangovers but you have an exam today.
You find out that one of the people you are drinking with has spiked your drinks.
Another student in your class who usually sits near to both of you has really bad BO (= body odour)
You both have sunburn and/ or sunstroke.
One of you has been bitten or stung by a jellyfish, spider, scorpion or snake.
You have both missed the last train home (Do not hitchhike!)
You are both drifting out to sea on an airbed
Your car breaks down in the middle of the Outback
There is an outbreak of avian influenza (= bird flu), SARS, mad cow disease (=BSE) or foot and mouth disease in or near your city.
You are planning to hike together in the mountains but the weather forecast isn’t good.
You are being mugged by someone with a knife
All your friends in Australia/ NZ/ the UK are from the same country as you, and you never speak English outside class.
You have both come back to your youth hostel after the curfew so the main door is locked and you can’t get it.
You have accidentally broken your host mother’s vase when she isn’t home.
Your host family have a really strong local accent and you can’t understand them
Your host family has been robbed because you forgot to close your window and/ or left the front door unlocked when you went out at night.
There is mouldy and out-of-date food in the refrigerator, but you don’t know who it belongs to
Someone keeps stealing your food from the shared fridge
Your landlord keeps on coming into your house when you aren’t there.
One of the people in your shared house hasn’t come back for 3 days but hasn’t told you where they have gone.
You sometimes see and/ or hear mice in your kitchen.
Your roommate is having sex in your shared room and you want to go to sleep.
Your flatmate never washes up (= does the dishes)
The person sleeping under you in your bunk bed is always snoring.
You keep on getting mould in the bathroom of your student house.
The neighbours on both sides of your terraced house are very noisy.
You live in a bad neighbourhood and are scared of walking home alone after dark.
You tried to cook an egg in your host family’s microwave and it exploded.
You don’t have the key to the loft and/ or basement and you are dying to know what is in there.
Your pants have fallen off the washing line of your apartment balcony and landed on the balcony of someone two floors below you.
Your halls of residence room has a locked drawer with no key.
You think your housemate has an eating disorder (= anorexia, bulimia, binge eating etc.)
Your roommate is obsessed with Feng Shui and gets upset when you move anything to another place.
You accidentally cook meat in your vegetarian flatmate’s saucepan.
The central heating is programmed to only come on in the morning and evening.
There is a coffee stain on the carpet.
You aren’t sure if the tap water is safe to drink.
Someone keeps on throwing away recyclable bottles, newspaper etc. in the normal bin.
Your roommate is suffering from homesickness.
You both start spring cleaning and your housemate continues sitting there and watching the box (= watching TV)
Change groups and tell your new partner what you are going to do to solve one of the problems “We are going to…”/ “We are planning to…” Can your partner guess which of the problems that is a solution for? Do they agree that it is a good idea?
Underline all the words and expressions above connected to housing and accommodation
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