Daily Life - Heating (C0176)

A:

It's freezing in here! Can I turn up the heat?

B:

Don't touch that thermostat! You don't paythe bills around here!

A:

Dad! Are you serious? What's the point of having central heating if we can't use it! Look, I can see my breath!

B:

Put on a sweater! I'm not gonna let you run up my heating bill just because it's a bit chilly.

A:

Dad! I'm gonna catch a cold!

B:

When I was your age, my parents didn't have central heating like you do! We had a furnace inthe center ofthe living room and that was it. We used it to cook, heat the house and even dry our clothes! We never caught a cold. You should be grateful!

Key Vocabulary

run up

acquire bills or debts

turn up

increase the intensity of a device

chilly

very cold

catch a cold

become infected with a cold

grateful

thankful

Supplementary Vocabulary

wood stove

a metal closed fire chamber that burns wood fuel for heating and cooking

thermos

container lined with insulating material that keeps liquids hot or cold

fireplace

a structure, made of stone or brick, for holding a fire at the base of a chimney

frost

a deposit of tiny ice crystals formed when water vapor condenses at a temperature below freezing

sub-zero temperatures

cold temperatures, below 0°C (zero degrees celsius)

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