Exercise 3. Retell the text. Exercise 4. Read the text.

Exercise 4. Read the text.

Love your neighbours?Sometimes it can be difficult!

Yоu can choose your friends but you can't choose your neighbours. The people who live upstairs, downstairs and next door can have a very big influence on our lives - and it isn't always positive! The typical problem that people have with their neighbours is that they make a lot of noise. In a European newspaper survey these were the top eight problems:

They argue loudly. Their babies cry. They have noisy parties. Their dogs bark. They watch TV late at night. They move urniture. They play a musical instrument. They argue with their partner.

I think I'm a good neighbour. We don't disturb anyone. If we're having a fire in the garden, we think about the best time to do it. I'm on call for an elderly neighbour in case she falls. When we had an extension built recently, we went out and spoke to everyone about it. Once, we allowed one of our hedges to grow too high and the neighbours complained, but we went out and hired some special equipment to cut it down the same day.

I like to think that I'm a good neighbour. We try not to annoy people and if anybody wants us, we're here, we'll help. Some neighbours complained about the garage over the 30 years that we've been here, but they're not our immediate neighbours, who have never said anything.