Reading Test 11 form (14-3, 15-3) II term

Read a text about home design and answer the questions. For questions 1 to 7, choose the correct answer. You can see some feedback after submitting your answers.

Text 1: Welcome to the home of the future

The 2009 British Homes Awards challenged the industry to design a house that can adapt to different life stages.

The participants were asked to rethink the construction and design of individual homes, so that they were easily adaptable to less mobile inhabitants, and also to create communities in which ageing occupants could continue to enjoy shared amenities.

The top design also had to be attractive to its potential buyers, because the competition was put to the public vote.

The winner, gaining 12,000 votes from Mail on Sunday readers, was the strikingly modern SunnySideUp, designed by Kosi Architects. Here are its three main features:

1. Upside Down House

The architects took as a starting point the accepted norm for a house – rows of houses facing onto streets crammed with cars, with living rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms above. Then they scrapped it.

They ended up with the living room, dining room and kitchen on the top floor where they can benefit from the light and views, and maximise energy efficiency. And they put the bedrooms on the ground floor where the garden aspect gives inhabitants increased privacy, and a cool temperature is maintained throughout the day. The two floors are linked by wide, gentle gradient stairs, which are designed to allow for a stair lift to be fitted if necessary as owners age.

2. Concealed Parking Spaces

But the feature that, according to Warren Rosing, one of the Kosi architects responsible for the design, was particularly popular with the public, is actually the parking.

In a SunnySideUp development no one has to look out onto a street full of cars, or worry about their kids being run over, because the terrace zone at the first floor level link all the homes and is a car-free zone.

Vehicles are tucked away on the lower floor, leaving safe and pleasant spaces outside the houses for people to meet, and kids to play.

A lift takes people directly from garage to living area, so that all residents, including the elderly and those with heavy shopping, can move comfortably between the floors. The natural feel of the front area is enhanced by the planters that are placed outside the kitchens at the front to encourage residents to grow vegetables and flowers where they can be seen.

The idea is that not only would they look pretty, but they would be a talking point, encouraging interaction between residents on the terrace area outside.

3. Flexible Spaces

But it’s the fact that the space is designed to adapt to the changing needs, including the fluctuating income of its owners, that makes it a thought-provoking, as well as a winning, design.

The lower-floor bedrooms have separate outdoor access so they can be easily l.e t. The idea is that owners can get some extra money to pay for their mortgages during the first years. And later in the future, those bedrooms can be used as a granny flat, or an office, and can easily be converted into a separate one-bed flat if your kids won’t leave home.

And if more space is required, as well as the usual loft that can be converted, there is potential for a gallery floor to be inserted in the living room.

4. Where can you get one?

At the moment the SunnySideUp house is still just a set of drawings. But Warren Rosing says, “We are hoping to have it built.”

The organisers are in talks with builders, but due to the economic climate it may take longer than we would like.”Weʼre sure it will be worth the wait” they say.

From Pruebas de Certificación de Idiomas 2010. Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas del Principado de Asturias

TASK:

According to the article, The British Homes Awards challenged architects to design a house …

Read the text a famous British town and for questions 1 to 7, choose the correct answers.

Text 2: Chocolate town for chocolate workers

If you love chocolate, maybe you have eaten a bar of Cadbury’s Bournville chocolate. But Bournville isn’t just the name of an English chocolate bar. It’s the name of a village which was built especially for workers at the Cadbury’s chocolate factory.

George and Richard Cadbury took over the cocoa and chocolate business from their father in 1861. A few years later, they decided to move the factory out of the centre of Birmingham, a city in the middle of England, to a new location where they could expand. They chose an area close to the railways and canals so that they could receive milk deliveries easily and send the finished products to stores across the country.

Here, the air was much cleaner than in the city centre, and the Cadbury brothers thought it would be a much healthier place for their employees to work. They named the site Bournville after a local river called ‘The Bourn’. ‘Ville’, the French word for town, was used because at the time, people thought French chocolate was the highest quality. The new factory opened in 1879. Close to it, they built a village where the factory workers could live. By 1900, there were 313 houses on the site, and many more were built later.

The Cadbury family were religious and believed that it was right to help other people. They thought their workers deserved to live and work in good conditions. In the factory, workers were given a fair wage, a pension and access to medical treatment. The village was also designed to provide the best possible conditions for workers too. The houses, although traditional in style, had modern interiors, indoor bathrooms and large gardens. The village provided everything that workers needed including a shop, a school and a community centre where evening classes were held to train young members of the workforce.

Since the Cadbury family believed that their workers and their families should be fit and healthy, they added a park with hockey and football pitches, a running track, bowling green, fishing lake, and an outdoor swimming pool. A large clubhouse was built in the park so that players could change their clothes and relax after a game. Dances and dinners were also held here for the factory workers, who were never charged to use any of the sports facilities. However, because the Cadbury’s believed that alcohol was bad for health and society, no pubs were ever built in Bourneville!

The Cadbury brothers were among the first business owners to ensure that their workers had good standards of living. Soon, other British factory owners were copying their ideas by providing homes and communities for their workers designed with convenience and health in mind. Today, over 25,000 people live in Bournville village. There are several facilities there to help people with special needs, such as care homes for the elderly, a hostel for people with learning difficulties and affordable homes for first-time homeowners and single people. Over a hundred years since the first house in Bournville Village was built, the aims of its founders are still carried out.

TASK: Choose TWO correct answers

Bournville is ...