SPEAKING FOCUS ACTIVITY 2

Good morning my name is Irene and this is my colleague Opera and your names are Karl Viva,
Elena Calvie. Can I have your Mark Sheets, please ? thank you. First of all we'd like to know
something about you, where are you from, Karl ? I’m Germany, I live just outside Berlin now
but I grew up in the center of the city. And Elena? Italy. What do you do Elena? I work in a
hotel. Karl, what do you like most about the area where you grew up? Well, that so many things
really but I suppose the one that really stands out for me is living so close to a great City like
Berlin. Elena, who has more influence on your life ? your friends or your family? my family.
Why? I don’t know really, they just do.

LISTENING FOCUS

1. When I was in the process of moving I began to wonder if it was really feasible to live in such
a small space. I mean, I've always had lots of stuff so we can get down has been a pretty daunting
task I'm still work, actually it's hard to part with some things but the payoff is the best less and
less clutter and a lot less dusting and tiding to do that in my old flat I spend more time outside of
course because you can feel pretty hand in such a small space and that can be too much at times.
I was stuck inside for a couple of days last week and all that heavy rain and I really did begin to
feel that I was going to go crazy.

2 This was to be our dream home but in some ways it's turned out to be a complete nightmare I'd
always lived in Flats where I can pretty much see into every room so I had no idea how edgy I
was going to feel in a large house like this. have to be careful not to watch horror films on TV
because I start to imagine every Creak and groan from the rauf to his act to me someone looking
in one of the other rooms. it's glorious to have so much space of the years of living in poke Flats
I've finally being able to take my grandfather's grand piano and a beautiful old sideboard as a
storage. I would never have gotten them into my old place

3 I used to think it would be good to move out of the center of the city but really we got it over
here, apart from the usual shops there's a cinema tomorrow the pleasant Cafe and in a really great
out center, with a theater, where they show excellent movies. If we lived out of time we both
really miss a lot. She was always on about how much she would love a big house with a garden
but I think in our heart of hearts she would never be able to justify the expense. The nice balcony
with a few pot plants is enough though I must admit her way World in by other buildings on
Hillside and that gets to me sometimes.

4. I try to find something a bit bigger but everything I looked at was way outside my price range.
I've had to put some of my things into storage, but perhaps one day when I have my dream home
I'll have space for more than a sofa bed in a desk. I tend to go out to eat, eating for breakfast the
kitchen that is so tiny this barely room to Chocolate carrot and it's difficult to get rid of the
cooking smells off to woods. It's their loads of cafes on the street anyway, so I'm spoiled for
choice in terms of places to eat. A lot of my name is hang out there in the mornings as well so
I've got to know them. Is a real sense of community here

5. Where we lived before the rooms, we just know to make the most stuff. The dining room for
example. It was in the kitchen so we barely went to know. It's not too to cramps here but there's
no excess either. we're in an ounce of all the rooms everyday we both work from home and so we
which claimed one of the spare bedrooms in an office. mine is right next to the room on neighbor
Thomas set up as a gym and I can hear him working out switch get some items at times. Still, at
least it reminds me that I'm living in close proximity to other people. Can be quite comforting
actually.

GRAMMAR FOCUS

The years I've been telling all my friends that I wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of
London to somewhere quiet and peaceful. What I had in mind was a little cottage near the sea.
Well they do say you shouldn't wish too hard or you'll wish just might come true and that's
exactly what happened. I was at the blue, I was offered the job managing a hotel in a remote
Pavey island, suddenly it seemed to me that I had in fact always being a real City person who
could negotiate the complexities of the oven life the crowded underground train, the ruler of
traffic the millions of people all of it and without blinking but the job of it was too good to turn
down. In a few weeks later, I found myself in Castle town back in less than 24 hours I've gone
from a huge Metropolis with a population of over eight million to acquaint fishing village with
belly 800 in habitant. It was a huge change. By the beginning of next month so I would have
been living here for exactly a year I've been looking back retracing my steps I'm coming to
understand just how great a change it has actually being. I've got to know almost all of those
eight hundred people and found a real sense of belonging. that was also occasionally longed for
the anonymity of city life. I spent hours exploring a glorious Countryside by bicycle and on foot
and have discovered a taste for silence and Solitude I didn't know had. I've also had great fun
managing the hotel and getting to know some of its rather eccentric regular guests. by the time
the first year comes to an end almost all my London friends would have been here to stay and
they loved it almost as much as I do of course at all many things I miss. Thus, in the end the
crowded underground trains in the noisy London traffic I can do easily without.