Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Exercise 3: Life in a yurt 3

Life in a yurt 3
3Decide if the sentences below are True, False or Not Given. 

  • 1What is a yurt?

    I live in a yurt. 'A what?' most people ask. A yurt is kind of a big tent. Inside it's like one big round room. We have a wood-burning stove in the middle that keeps us warm and provides hot water. We also use it for cooking, but only in the winter because we don't light the stove in the summer. We have a sleeping area and a living area. And outside we have a smaller tent where there is a shower and a toilet. I've always lived in a yurt. My friends think it's cool. So do I.

  • 2What sort of people live in yurts?

    No one knows when people began living in yurts. But it's likely that it started thousands of years ago and probably in Central Asia. Yurts are still very popular amongst the nomads of Central Asia. These are people who are always moving to find new land for their animals or a better climate. Yurts are very convenient for nomads because you can take them down and rebuild them very quickly. Obviously, my family aren't nomads, but we do sometimes take our yurt with us when we go on holiday.

  • 3What's it like living in a yurt?

    Living in a yurt is very different from living in a house. Well, I've never lived in a house, but I can see the differences. The only heat we get is from the stove in the middle of the yurt. In winter, we keep it going the whole time to keep the yurt warm, and we cook with it. In summer, we don't use it and we cook on a little gas cooker. There's no electricity, but the walls are white and let in plenty of light during the day. At night we use candles.

  • 4What's it like living in just one room?

    There are more than just practical differences to living in a yurt. For example, I can't go and shut myself away in my bedroom like my friends do. Because the yurt is just one big room, the whole family is together all the time. In one way this is very nice. I think we feel closer to each other than many families. However, it does mean we have to think carefully about what we do and say, and how it will affect the people we live with. When my sister and I do our homework, for example, my mum and dad have to be quiet.

  • 5How else is it different?

    It makes a difference to the routine of our lives. We have no electricity, no running water, no central heating. The household chores are very different. We don't load the washing machine or put the dishes in the dishwasher. We don't put wet clothes in a dryer. We have to collect wood for the stove from the forest. We have to get water from the nearby river. We have to wash clothes by hand and hang them out to dry near the warmth of the stove.

  • 6How many people in Europe live in yurts?

    In Europe, you usually see yurts on campsites where they provide luxury accommodation for campers. Not many people in Europe live in yurts full-time. However, where I live, down in the south-west of England, there is a large community of yurt people. At first, there were problems with the local council, who didn't want to give permission for people to live in yurts. But now they realise that we look after the land and don't make a mess, so they are happy to let us live there. It's just as well really because I'd hate to live in a house!

  • 1In winter, it's cold inside a yurt.

  • 2In Central Asia, people live in yurts so they can move home more easily.

  • 3The writer's family don't stay in the same place for very long.

  • 4They have a refrigerator that runs on gas.

  • 5The writer has a good relationship with his family.

  • 6The writer has to wash his own clothes.

  • 7Yurts are not popular places to live in Europe.

  • 8Nowadays, local councils accept people who live in yurts.

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