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 upacquire bills or debts
turn upincrease the intensity of a device
chillyvery cold
catch a coldbecome infected with a cold
gratefulthankful

Supplementary Vocabulary

wood stovea metal closed fire chamber that burns wood fuel for heating and cooking
thermoscontainer lined with insulating material that keeps liquids hot or cold
fireplacea structure, made of stone or brick, for holding a fire at the base of a chimney
frosta deposit of tiny ice crystals formed when water vapor condenses at a temperature below freezing
sub-zero temperaturescold temperatures, below 0°C (zero degrees celsius)

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