Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life

Impr
ov
e Y
our Englis
h: Englis
h in Ev
er
yda
y Life
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merchant marine:
A nation’s publicly or privately owned 
commercial sailing fl eet.
nine-to-fi ve:
Th
is term refers to the typical hours that 
most people work during a fi ve-day workweek, 9:00 a.m. 
to 5:00 p.m. It is often used to refer to a typical, fi ve-day 
workweek job.
’round:
Short for 
around
.
sabbatical leave:
At academic institutions, a leave 
of absence granted to faculty members every seven 
years, during which they can pursue other interests or 
activities.
wanna:
Want to. 
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Describe your family. How are the families of 
these speakers like your family?
2. What kind of work do/did your parents do?
3. How has your family life changed since coming 
to America?
4. For which speaker do children play a large role? 
How does that compare to your family or to 
when you were growing up?
5. What memories do these speakers have of their 
families?
6. Identify three words or phrases in this chapter 
that are new to you, and write a sentence with 
each one.

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33
THE HOME
In this chapter, interviewees talk about their 
homes.
1. 
ROW HOUSES
WOMAN:
OK, I live in a little 
Victorian house
, and, uh, as 
you walk in, there’s a little entrance, and then there’s a-a 
living room and a kitchen—there’s an arc and the kitchen 
is right there, so the kitchen and the living room are 
together. And then there’s a stairway, and upstairs there 
C H A P T E R 3
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