A large，detached (独立的）house not only ensures privacy. It is also a status symbol. The “magnificenthome” is set in a big garden. Of course，this kind of house is an unrealistic dream for most people. But even asmall detached house, surrounded by a garden, gives the required suggestion of rural life which is dear to thehearts of many British people. Most people would be happy to live in a cottage (村舍）,and if this is a thatched(茅草的）cottage, suggestive of a pre-industrial age，so mush the better. 

Most people try to avoid living in a block of flats (what the Americans call ’’apartment blocks”). Flats，they feel, provide the least amount of privacy. With a few exceptions, mostly in certain locations in centralLondon, flats are the cheapest kind of home. The people who live in them are those who cannot afford to liveanywhere else. 

The dislike of living in flats is very strong. In the 1950s millions of poorer people lived in old, cold,uncomfortable nineteenth century houses, often with only an outside toilet and no bathroom. During the nexttwenty years many of them were given new “high rise” blocks of flats to live in which，with central heatingand bathrooms, were much more comfortable and were surrounded by grassy open spaces. But people hatedtheir new homes. They said they felt cut off from the world with all those floors up. They missed theneighborliness. They couldn’t keep a watchful eye on their children playing down there in those lovely greenspaces. The new high-rise blocks quickly got broken. The lifts didin’t work. The corridors were dark.Windows were damaged and were not repaired. There was graffiti all over the walls. 

 British people prefer________.