UNIT 7: Skills Test A

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

For questions 1–5, choose from the list (A–H) what

                                         
each speaker says about their experience of using
                                      .. the language.

........................................
A I found it hard to follow when people spoke quickly.
........................................
B It took me a while to get the confidence to speak.
........................................
C People were pleased when I tried to speak the
........................................ language.

....................................... D I didn’t use the language as much as I wanted.

E I used another language with some success.

                                        
F I learned a lot from written signs.
                                        
G People didn’t understand my accent.

                                         H My previous language learning wasn’t useful.

                                        
Speaker 1 1      

                                         Speaker 2 2      

Speaker 3 3      
___/10
Speaker 4 4      

Speaker 5 5      

___/10

Task 2

For questions 6–10, choose from the list (A–H) how

each speaker felt about the accommodation.

A not spacious enough

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B unusual Speaker 1 6      

C futuristic Speaker 2 7      

D impressive from the outside Speaker 3 8      

E great fun to be in Speaker 4 9      

F rather boring Speaker 5 10      

G very tidy
___/10
H cosy

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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 What took him longer to become familiar with was the lifestyle.

B Apart from that, life went on as normal: job, computer, working out in the gym.

C He has also lost a lot of weight and feels fitter than ever before.

D Instead, he wanted a cheaper way, surrounded by trees and nature.

E The house is the very opposite of high-tech!

F It helped that Mark knew exactly what he was doing thanks to his professional qualifications.

G Some visitors, on the other hand, politely say the house is ‘very cosy’.

___/12

Task 2

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

17 What could Mark hear when he spent his first nights in the treehouse?

18 When and where did Mark go at one point when he couldn’t live in the treehouse?

19 What does Mark do with objects in his house to stop it getting untidy?

20 What does Mark not like very much about his new lifestyle?

___/8

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 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.
Mark decided he didn’t want to live in a flat in the city
and see most of the money he earned from his job
disappear on paying for that. (11)       Mark
aimed to live a simple life and, as far as possible,
avoid spending lots of money on luxuries and
supermarket food. So he also grew a vegetable garden
near his treehouse.
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. (12 )       He drew up plans and
made sure that nothing was wasted. It was a complex
feat of engineering that Mark’s university teachers
would have been proud of, especially as much of the
material he used was second-hand. Mark needed to
keep costs to a minimum and so got material from his
local recycling centre in the city.
At first he was rather anxious about living there with
only a torch to provide light at night. But he soon got
used to all the sounds of the woodland and farm
animals at night. (13)       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. He admits that he did spend two
weeks at his parents’ house in the depths of winter.
Mark describes his treehouse as his own personal
palace, and says it beats living in a block of flats any
day. (14)       Mark admits that they have a point.
It is rather cramped and can easily become messy if
he’s not disciplined, but he likes that. Therefore he
always hangs up his clothes and never leaves them
lying around, putting things away as soon as he’s
finished with them.
Mark does have a few home comforts, like cushions, a
rug, a bench. He also has a solar-powered charger
which enables him to run a laptop, but that is basically
the only twenty-first-century gadget he needs. (15)
One thing he misses is water from a tap – he has to go
to the farm most days to fetch water in buckets. In the
summer he washes in a nearby stream, at other times
he uses a watering can and bucket.
Mark has noticed that living close to nature means he
is much more relaxed, in contrast with his work
colleagues. When they visit his new home they say
they wish they’d had the same idea! Mark says that his
year has given him a wonderful feeling of self-
confidence and happiness. (16)       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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