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Spring Cleaning

Date: Apr 09 2010

Grammar: Simple Future Tense

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Intro

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How do you know when spring has arrived? Is it when the birds start chirping and flowers start blooming again? Or is it when you suddenly feel a powerful desire to clean out your closet and scrub your bathroom?

Spring cleaning is one way people choose to mark the changing of the seasons. In the first warm days of the year, they clean their houses from top to bottom. Although spring cleaning may not be the most exciting way to welcome the longer days and nicer weather, sometimes it’s necessary, especially if you’ve fallen behind on your housework during the winter.

Find out if Beren and Devan will be doing their spring cleaning this year.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Beren

Devan

Beren: Do you spring clean?

Devan: I do. I do it every year.

Beren: Really?

Devan: Yeah.

Beren: Like top to bottom cleaning?

Devan: Yep, scrubbing, bleaching, mopping, dusting.

Beren: Woah. Do you throw stuff away? Do you clean out your closet?

Devan: That’s my one problem, is that I like to clean my house really well, but I am secretly a bit of a hoarder.

Beren: What do you hoard?

Devan: Too much stuff. Like I have this closet that’s gonna be my big project I’m gonna tackle this year that’s full to the brim with all these boxes of stuff that’s just like all these things I’ve accumulated throughout my life like, you know, toys and love letters.

Beren: Really? You’re gonna spring clean your love letters?

Devan: It’s time.

Beren: It’s a good time.

Devan: It’s time, you know? It’s just all these little things I’ve been hanging on to for so long. All my old report cards and it’s like, if my parents don’t even want to hang them on the fridge then why am I hanging on to them, you know?

Beren: What is it about the spring that lends itself to cleaning?

Devan: Everything’s fresh and new and like everything that died off is blooming again, you know, it’s like a fresh start.

Beren: You’d think it’d be like New Year’s Eve cleaning then.

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Discussion

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Devan spring cleans every year. Her only trouble is with throwing old things away. She likes to hold onto everything from old toys to love letters. This year she plans to clean out her closet full of old stuff.

Many people like to clean in the spring because it is a time of new beginnings. You can start over in the spring with a totally clean house. Beren is surprised that Devan spring cleans. It doesn’t sound like Beren plans to do a spring cleaning this year, but maybe she’ll do a New Year’s Eve cleaning instead.

Do you spring clean? Is there a traditional time to do a top to bottom cleaning in your country?

Comments

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jejo

United States

Here is my story. My mom used to ask me to clean my room because it was meesy. When I ask her about something I miss, she directly says clean your room then you'll find what you need. it works very well.

In this lecture, she found a love letter after she cleaned her home from top to bottom.

Also, dust has different meaning. it could be a noun.

khaled mohamed

Egypt

it very very good reaaly

frank_2009

Mexico

Hello. Is a good idea spring clean. I don't use a specific time to clean my house but I try to do it twice in a year because I work with a lot of books.

yliana

Peru

hi everybody.personally, i do spring cleaning although i`m a bit of a hoarter because if i don`t do it i feel like i haven`t taken a shower and i don`t like to see my bedroom dirty. i think in my country people keep their houses clean and they just do it when there is a party or christmas and new year are closing.bye:P

yliana

Peru

yliana

Peru

yliana

Peru

abdu al-rhman

Yemen

This is the first time I am hearing about Spring Cleaning. Its a good thing that atleast once in a year you get to clean up the house and make it look neat and clean.

SÉRGIO

Brazil

i just clean my house when it's a big mess!! there isn't a specific time… nice to know this tradition!!

努力的男孩

China

hello ,i am achinese ,i like spring

rebel lee

China

I live in China.Spring festival is the most important festival of our country.And we usually clean our houses before the festival to welcome it.Spring festival is the first day of a whole new year for us,it’s the best time for a new start.

dearpesar

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

in fact spring cleaning is originally for old big iran that included some part of turkey. afghanistan, tajikestan and ….. it's norouz cermony for persia and we do it as our ancestors did and this year is the first year iran registred norouz new year in UN

Gerly

Dominican Republic

In my country is spring all year,therefore we have spring cleaning all year but I m'always lazy to clean my room,I will try to clean my room coming soon and get more space to new things.

jmrock

Mexico

i mexico, is not common the spring clean,but it sound interesting teh spring clean!

oksana35

Ukraine

In my country (Ukraine) we do spring cleans too. It is perfect time to refresh house from dust and get rid of junk. It is like in spring when nature awakes from long winter sleep.

reyhaneh

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

Absolutely yeah, we do it in Iran every year before spring comes & it`s exactly before our new year time (Norooz)

so we do a top to botttom cleaning in order to get ready for spring & a new beginning.

we threw some stuffs away but I`m somehow like Baren, a hoarder ;p

anyway think it`s a good tradition coz makes everything ready for a new beginning.

euden-d

Bhutan

This is the first time I am hearing about Spring Cleaning. Its a good thing that atleast once in a year you get to clean up the house and make it look neat and clean. It feels nice and cozy when the house is clean and you like to stay in the house forever. I would like to spring clean my house from next year.

rosendo

Mexico

i live in a aparment with 3 roommates and we try to organized each other to clean the house once a week bcs most of the time we are in the office but not for this reason we dont take care of the house.

saludos.

ala4fadeel

Sudan

In my country(Sudan) we have festival cleaning instead of spring cleaning; every year we have 2 festivals( Eid-Alfitr & Eid-Aladha) in these 2 occasions, we clean our houses from top to bottom. I think I'm a hoarder because I have been keeping some stuff since I was in primary school.