UNIT 7: Skills Test B

Dictation
You are going to listen to a recording
about houses. Listen to the whole
recording once. Then you will hear the
recording again with pauses for you to
write down what you hear. Make sure you
spell the words correctly.
Listening
You are going to listen to five students
talking about a time they went abroad and
used another language.
Task 1

For questions 1–5, choose from the list

(A–H) what each speaker says about their
                                         
experience of using the language.
                                      ..

........................................
A At first I was too shy to speak.
........................................
B My accent was too strange for people.
........................................
C It was difficult to understand when people
........................................ spoke quickly.
.......................................
D I got little chance to use the language

                                         E Seeing written language helped me learn.

                                        
F My language studies didn’t prepare me.

G My efforts to speak made me popular.

                                        
H I spoke a different language and it worked!
                                        

                                         Speaker 1 1      

Speaker 2 2      
___/10
Speaker 3 3      

Speaker 4 4      

Speaker 5 5      

___/10

Task 2

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For questions 6–10, choose from the list G futuristic
(A–H) how each speaker felt about the
accommodation. H nice and cosy

A a bit dull and uninteresting Speaker 1 6      

B not typical Speaker 2 7      

C cramped Speaker 3 8      

D really tidy Speaker 4 9      

E the best ever Speaker 5 10      

F a great design from the outside ___/10

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Reading
Task 1

Read the article. Choose from the sentences (A–G) the one which fits each gap (11–16).
There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

A This is because he prides himself on never allowing the house to get dirty in the first place.

B Especially as much of the material he used was second-hand and didn’t cost him anything at all.

C He aimed to live a simple life and, as far as possible, avoid spending lots of money on luxuries
and supermarket food.

D One thing he does miss, though, is water from a tap.

E Mark says that his year has given him a wonderful feeling of self-confidence and happiness.

F As a boy he’d always loved treehouses and his father had built him a very basic one in the
garden of the house where he grew up.

G He admits that he did spend three nights at his parents’ house when the whole experience tired
him out and he caught a cold.

___/12

Task 2

Read the article again and answer the questions in your own words.

17 When he first started working, why did Mark not have much money?

18 In what way did Mark pay the farmer for using his land to build the treehouse?

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19 Where did Mark go to get old and used things he needed to build the treehouse?

20 How do Mark’s’ work colleagues feel about his treehouse?

___/8

Total: ___/50

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The man who lives in a treehouse
If you’ve ever dreamed of having a treehouse of your
own, you’ll be interested to read about a young man
who is actually living in one … and built it himself!
Twenty-two-year-old Mark Tamperin came out of
university with a degree in engineering and design.
The cost of university had been very expensive, so
when he got his first job, he decided to build a simple
wooden treehouse and see if he could live in it for a
year. (11)       So his decision seemed a natural
and logical one.
Mark decided he didn’t want to live in a rented flat in
the city and see most of the money he earned from
his job go on paying for that. He wanted to be
surrounded by trees and nature. (12)       So he
also grew a vegetable garden near his treehouse, and
he promised himself to use recycled and natural
materials wherever possible.
Mark built the treehouse on a farm, agreeing to do
some regular work for the farmer at weekends in
exchange for his free rent. The treehouse took three
weeks to build. Any treehouse has to be built very
carefully into the trees it sits on, so it was a complex
feat of engineering that Mark’s university teachers
would have been proud of! (13)       Mark needed
to keep costs to a minimum and so got lots of the
material he needed free from builders’ yards and from
his local recycling centre.
It took Mark longer than he’d expected to get used to
his new lifestyle. He hadn’t realised quite how hard it
would be in the early stages of his project – hunting
and gathering food, cutting firewood, looking after his
vegetables. (14)       He also had to leave the
treehouse for a fortnight in the winter when
temperatures dropped below freezing.
Mark describes his treehouse as his own personal
palace, but admits that it is rather cramped and can
easily become messy if he’s not disciplined. Therefore
he always hangs up his clothes and never leaves them
lying around. This way he finds he doesn’t needs
periods of ‘tidying up’ – (when he lived in a flat this was
a Friday evening job). (15)       Equally, he never
really needs to deal with big tasks like sorting out and
throwing out old things, because he has only what he
absolutely needs.
Mark has noticed that living close to nature means he
is much less stressed and more relaxed – by
comparison his work colleagues now strike him as
angry much of the time. When they visit his new home
they say they wish they’d had the same idea! (16)
Also he has lost a lot of weight and feels fitter than
ever before. How much longer will he stay in his
treehouse? ‘Well, I’ve settled down here and I intend to
stick with my tree house for at least another year,’ he
says.
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