Read the texts. Match the texts (A – D) with the sentences (1 – 4).
(A) Living sculptures
Gregory Kloehn is a sculptor with a difference. Not only are his sculptures created from bits of rubbish, but each of his unique creations offers a homeless person somewhere to live.
Gregory works in California, where there are a lot of people living on the streets. Each of his sculptures is no bigger than the average sofa, but the tiny, one-roomed shelters are as wonderful as mansions for a person who is sleeping rough.
Gregory searches on rubbish dumps to find pieces to use. A washing machine door is as good as a normal window. A fridge door can make a fine front door, and has useful shelves on the inside. And each home is on wheels so that it can be pushed around easily.
Gregory used to make sculptures for rich people. Now he knows that his creations really make a difference to people’s lives. And he has also inspired other people to start building.
(B) Build your own tiny home
If you wanted your own house, would you build it yourself? Some Americans are now building miniature homes for themselves in order to live more cheaply and in a more ecological way than usual. And with wheels on their home, they can go anywhere! Part of the fun is making it yourself – even if you don’t know how.
‘Most people who are interested in tiny houses don’t have any building experience,’ says Ryan Mitchell, founder of TheTinyLife.com website, who organises conferences for interested people, and one of the conference speakers is Dee Williams, who has been living in her cosy wooden home since 2004. She wishes that more help had been available then. ‘I didn’t know anyone else who was building a little house at the time, anywhere,’ she says. Now you can find thousands of instructional videos on YouTube, if you want to make your own!
(C) The designer micro-house
Italian architect Renzo Piano is famous for designing Europe’s tallest skyscraper, the Shard in London. Now he has gone to the other extreme: he’s designed the smallest house possible. It’s just two and a half by three metres and can be carried on a lorry.
The interior is divided into two halves. There’s a living room in the front with a sofa and folding table. At the back of the house, there’s a small kitchen with a cooker and fridge, a shower and a toilet. It’s really energy-efficient, with solar panels on the roof and a container to collect rainwater, so the house is incredibly cheap to run. The house is called ‘Diogene’, named after the Greek philosopher Diogenes who rejected luxury by living in a large ceramic jar! The Diogene is currently on display in Germany. And at just £17,000, this designer house isn’t as expensive as many family cars, so a lot of people are interested in it.
(D) Well-contained housing
If you heard that they were putting homeless people into shipping containers, you might be shocked. But that’s exactly what is happening in Brighton, England. The Brighton Housing Trust has been inspired by a similar housing estate in the Netherlands. It is developing 36 studio flats in the town centre, using old shipping containers. The flats will have a window at each end and a toilet and shower room in the middle. On one side there’ll be a kitchen and small dining table, and on the other side a living room with a sofa bed.
At 24 square metres, they are smaller than a shared room in a homeless hostel. But they are much more desirable and certainly spacious enough for one person. They are also stackable. The containers will sit on top of one another with stairs connecting them. And in future, if somebody wants to move them, they can simply pick them up and take them to another site.
1. The builder of these homes uses only recycled parts.
2. There is information on the internet to show people how to build these homes.
3. These homes are powered by renewable energy.
4. These homes can be found in two European countries.
Listen to four people and choose the correct summaries.
1. For the past two weeks, speaker 1 has been _________. [sleeping badly]
2. He’s got a new neighbour, but speaker 2 hasn’t _________. [spoken to him]
3. Speaker 3΄s husband is in the mountains and nobody can __________. [phone him]
4. Speaker 4 couldn’t take part in the race, although he really __________to be fit for it. [tried]
Complete the sentence with a compound noun.
My uncle’s ____________is small, but cosy.
studio flat
Complete the second conditional sentence using the verbs in brackets.
If we ______(play) hide-and-seek, we ______(not find) each other for hours.
played, wouldn’t find
Complete the sentence with the comparative and superlative form of the adverbs in brackets.
Adam speaks French ________than Jason, but Chris speaks ________.(fluently)
more fluently; the most fluently
Choose the correct verb.
My neighbour works in London. I’m not sure what he ______, but it must be well paid.
does
Put the words in the correct order.
I thought / longer / The journey was / than
The journey was longer than I thought.
Complete the sentence with the past simple or would + base form, depending on the meaning.
I want to go to bed, but our guests are still here. If only they ______(leave)!
would leave
Complete the sentence with less, the least, fewer, or the fewest.
There are_______flowers in the flower bed this year than last.
fewer
Put the words in the correct order.
in Greece / hotter / it was / The weather here is / than
The weather here is hotter than it was in Greece.
Put the words in the correct order.
more spacious / The flat was / than / appeared / it
The flat was more spacious than it appeared.
Choose the correct verb.
I like travelling, but flying ______me anxious.
makes