1.

MOBILE HOMES
One of every nine new homes built in the United States is a house on
wheels. About four million Americans, many of them elderly retired
citizens, now live permanently on wheels. They are not campers by the
roadside on a vacation trip. Rather, they are park dwellers, as they call
themselves, living in permanent mobile home parks or communities, with
attractive landscaping and paved streets. Some of these parks have
clubhouses, swimming pools, a shopping centers containing a market, a
beauty shop, a barbershop, a restaurant, and a laundry.
More than 18,000 of these mobile home parks are scattered all over
the United States, from California to Maine, from Florida to Alaska. Some
are luxury parks. Others are crowded trailer camps. Between these two
extremes are the majority of good parks, well planned, and suited to the
pocketbook of the average park dweller.
Giving up their fixed houses and apartments, park dwellers have to
chosen to live in aluminium-covered vehicles propped up on concrete
blocks, but required by law in most states to rest partly on their wheels.
Too big and too heavy to be pulled behind passenger cars, these homes
are moved by two trucks. But park dwellers dont shift from one trailer
park to another. They move on an average of only once in twenty-eight
months. Having chosen their mobile community, they are loyal to it. Many
of them settle there for good.
Its the life for us! declares trailer dweller Sam Gibson. The
Gibsons, who are retired, live in a mobile home that is expandable. When
the trailer is ready for towing, one side is pushed in toward the other, thus
making it narrow enough to fit on the highway. When it is parked, the
trailer can be opened wide again to make more floor space. The living
room is as large as many living rooms in fixed homes. About one-fourth of
all new trailer homes are made with pull-out rooms. Some have two or
three bedrooms, half a dozen closets, and a kitchen in addition to large
living room.
The Gibsons house on wheels is in a trailer park with space for over
500 mobile homes. Some parks are larger, and many are much smaller.
Nearly all of the Gibsons neighbors are either retired or nearing
retirement. They have all shaken loose from the possessions they had
gathered through the years and speak enthusiastically of their new
freedom, we like it here, they say. And any time we want to, we can call
a tow truck and go somewhere else.
The Gibsons have many friends in the park. Both belong to bicycle
club and ride almost daily over the four miles of winding streets. And both
enjoy games and dancing in the clubhouse one or two night a week.
Unlike apartment dwellers un big cities, the Gibsons know their neighbors.

Its the atmosphere of the small town where everybody says hello, one of
the neighbors is fond of saying.
Some of the Gibsons neighbors point to the economy of their living.
Compared to the price of a fixed home today, mobile homes are truly
economical. Only one of every five buyers pays cash. The others make a
down payment and take five to seven or more years to pay the balance. In
return for their money they got a home fully equipped with furniture,
heating units, and sometimes even air conditioning. All the trailers are
covered with metal and are insulated against heat and cold. Facilities for
connecting plumbing, telephone, electricity, and fuel lines are supplied by
the parks.
All types of people make their home trailers-college student,
businessmen, workers whose jobs require them to move frequently, and
many retired people like the Gibsons. Once nothing than a fad, mobile
home living can now be regarded as a permanent American way of life.

COMPREHENSION
1. How many new homes built in the United States are mobile homes?
2. How many Americans live in them?
3. What are the parks in which they are located like?
4. What does the Gibsonss mobile home look like?
5. Why do the Gibsons like their life as a park dweller?
6. In what way is a mobile home economical?

WORD STUDY
IDIOMATIC PHRASES
Suited to the pocketbook of
= not too expensive for
Giving up
= leaving, abandoning
Move on an average of only
= the average park dweller moves
only once in
once in twenty-eight months
for good
= permanent
Its the life for us
= Its the best life for us
They have all shaken loose from
= all of them have got rid of
One of every five buyers
= one-fifth of all the buyers
Make a down payment
= pay a small amount at first
Take five to seven or more years
= pay the rest of the money during
fixed periods in the five to pay the balance
seven years
that follows

A beauty shop

= a place where women go to have their

hair arranged, their nails polished, and so
on.

STURTURE STUDY
WORD ORDER
Example. And both enjoy games and dancing in the club house one or two
nights a week. We see that the adverb of place (in the club house) comes
before the adverb of time (one or two nights a week).
The general rule to place adverbs in the sentence is as follows:
1. Adverb of place - before adverbs of time or after verbs of motion.
2. Adverb of manner
- after verbs.
3. Adverb of time
- at the end of sentence or after an adverb of
place or at the beginning of the sentence
4. Adverb of frequency
- before the verb or after the auxiliary verb.
5. Adverbs of degree
- after objects.

EXERCISE
Put the word in brackets in the right order.
My friend Pedro (English, speak, very well). His parents brought (up, him)
to speak several languages, but of the foreign ones that he knows, he
(best, English, speaks).
That is nice for me, (is, it, not)? Pedros mother tongue is Spanish, and I
have learnt a little of it, but it is (for me, still, very difficult), and (is, it, the
same) with my sister. Fortunately (can, our friends) speak (English, very
good). That is lucky (is, it, not)?
I wish I could speak (myself, such good Spanish). We (all, want) to take
Spanish lessons, but we have (time, too little) for that. We can read the
language (enough, well), but (can, neither, we) speak nor write it.
My sister and I went (last week, to Pedros house). We like (going there,
very much) because Pedros mother is (a, such) good cook. Not only (can,
she) cook Spanish food, but (also, can she) cook English dishes. Before we
went there, she asked us what (we, would) like to eat, and we said that we
(did not, exactly) know, but that we would prefer Spanish food. Sometimes
Pedros mother cant find her glasses, and (she gets, then) very angry,

and we (all, have) to search the house. When one of us finds them, she
says, Oh, (God, may) bless, my child! and kisses him warmly.
Last week we got (rather late, to her house), and she got (of course,
excited) because she thought we were not coming and that food which
she had cooked would be wasted. She kept on asking Pedro whether (we,
were) coming. We could (do, nothing) but apologize very humbly when we
finally arrived.