Podcast 152 - The Attic

B1-level short story to learn English

Story starts at 11:21

The Attic

Hello, and today I'll be talking to those students who are interested in passing the B1 exam and something that you can do, which would quickly improve your word power. That is, quickly help you to have more words to use in the writing and in the speaking part of the exams, so I'll be talking about that.

Today is the story. The story is based on a story from the American writer, O. Henry, and it's an extract really, it's not the full story and completely rewritten for B1 students. The language that we'll be using will be language connected to the topic of the house.

[Introduction]

As I said at the beginning of the podcast, I'm going to give you a tip on how you can fairly quickly improve your B1 word power. So, if you're going to take the exam, it will help you to have more vocabulary that you can use in the writing and the speaking part. Now, what is that tip? Well, it's fairly simple, really. I noticed that a lot of my students weren't really using words in the writing or the speaking part of the exam, which were the simplest to learn. Now I'm talking about words which are cognates. What is a cognate? Well, a cognate is a word which is similar in your mother tongue, and also similar in English, and they're easily recognisable because of the similarity. I'm talking especially about languages which are Latin-based languages. For example, like French, or Italian, or Spanish. And in English, nearly half our words are from Latin, as English really was based on French, a part of it was based on French influence. So we have words then, which are B1 words, and these are easily learned by students who are speakers of those Latin-based languages. I'm referring to words like:

magnificent, enormous, nervous, spectacular, historical, modern, private, luxury.

All those adjectives are B1 adjectives and quite easy for you to learn and remember, because they're very similar. So my tip, my advice is to try to use those words. Look in your textbook to see which are the cognates in B1, or for B2. They're the simplest ones to learn. I think what most students seem to do is they say, hey, yeah, I know that word. I don't need to write it down, because I recognize that word if I see it. Yes. Sure. You will recognize it if you see it. In the reading, for example, but why not use those words?

And I use those words I've already mentioned in the story today, so listen out for them, and also the vocabulary that I'm going to use today. So this is another subject now and I'm talking about the vocabulary of the story, which is about the house because this is a story of somebody who is looking for accommodation. Accommodation is a B1 word, which means a place to stay and sleep. Usually, to pay a rent and stay there. Even though it's not your own home. We call that accommodation. Also a hotel, as well, is a type of accommodation.

So other words regarding the house in this house is the ground floor, which is the floor at the bottom of the house. When you go into a house you go in at the ground floor. And then you have the first floor and second floor. If you go up the stairs or upstairs and at the top of the house, if there are several floors, you will have the top floor at the top of the house.

Another adjective which is used to describe a house which has large windows. So a lot of light is coming in. We say it is very bright - lots of light. There's a reference to a bedroom and in the bedroom there is a wardrobe. That is where you put your clothes or hang your clothes on coat hangers. Then also in the bedroom, on the bed, this is a B1 word, sheets you have sheets, which is the white material (usually very clean) that you use to cover yourself when you are in bed. And then on the sheets, you will probably have a blanket.

In the bathroom, you have a place where you can wash and that is called a basin and on the basin you have two taps. Usually a hot tap and a cold tap, and you turn them on and the water comes out. And those are called taps, which when they're turned on the water runs into the basin.

Now in this story, there is a chest of drawers in the bedroom, probably, which is a piece of furniture which has drawers which open and close and we usually keep clothes in there - in a chest of drawers.

Now this house has stairs, obviously, you use the stairs to go from one floor to the next - you go upstairs or downstairs. And each stair, we can call a step, and also at the front of the house as well. Often, just in front of the front door, you might have a step which you sort of stand on or walk up when you go into the house.

Right at the top of the house, some houses may have an attic. An attic is a small room which is usually built underneath the roof. So in a lot of houses in Northern Europe or the UK in the US the roof is often sloping. So it's not a flat roof. But it is sloping and there is a space underneath that roof. And there you could have a room and that room is called an attic.

One more word - ladder. It is a sort of a way of going up as well. But instead of stairs. It is made of two parallel pieces of wood with steps on them, which you use to usually gain access to something which is higher up. That is called a ladder. I don't know if I've explained it very well. It comes in the story.

And the story is called the attic. In fact, the original story was called The Skylight Room. And a skylight Is a little window, usually in an attic. So it's a window which is on the roof itself. So we're just looking upwards. I've changed the title to The Attic because I think an attic is more of a modern word.

So it's based on a story by O. Henry, written at the beginning of the 20th century. And I've tried to modernise it a little bit, especially the language of course. So it's all very relevant language to you, so remember to listen out for those cognate words, which are probably similar in your own language and that you could easily use yourselves and also the language which I picked out earlier to talk about the house. Here we go...

[The story starts...]

The audio script of the story is not included here.