Modelo 2 · B1 Preliminary: Reading completo (partes 1 a 6)

Five people need somewhere to stay for a weekend. Below are eight places.

6 Bruno is travelling alone, wants to meet other people, needs it to be cheap and does not mind sharing a room.
7 Elsa is bringing her dog, needs somewhere to park and wants to cook her own meals.
8 Karim has to work during the day. He needs a fast connection and a desk, and above all quiet.
9 Lidia is coming with two small children. She wants to be close to a beach and needs a cot.
10 Pau arrives by bus at two in the morning and leaves very early the next day. He wants somewhere near the station.

A Hostel in the old town. Shared rooms from 18 euros, kitchen for guests, a walk around the city with other guests every evening.
B Small hotel beside the bus station. Reception open 24 hours, rooms from 55 euros, breakfast served from six in the morning.
C Country house. Every room has a desk and a fibre connection. No television. No guests under twelve.
D Apartment 200 metres from the beach. Two bedrooms, cot free on request, small pool.
E Cottage with a garden. Pets welcome, private parking, fully equipped kitchen.
F Campsite. Tents only, hot showers, open from June to September.
G City flat. Sleeps four, fourth floor, no lift and no parking.
H Spa hotel. Full board, adults only, minimum two nights.

The bus driver who learnt every name

Paula Ribas has driven the number 14 bus for nine years. For the last four of them she has known the names of about sixty of her passengers.

It began with an old man who got on at the hospital stop every Thursday. He always said good morning; she always said it back; after two months she asked what he was called. His name was Emilio, and he told her that she was the third person he had spoken to that week.

Paula started asking the other regular passengers. Not everybody wanted to answer, and she says that is fine: she asks once and never again. About two thirds of the people she asks tell her, and after that she greets them by name.

The bus company was not sure about this at first. A manager told her that talking to passengers slowed the route down. Paula kept a note of her own times for a month and showed him that she was, on average, ninety seconds faster than the timetable. The subject was never raised again.

What surprised her most was the effect on the passengers themselves. People who have heard somebody greeted by name start talking to each other, and the back of the bus, she says, has got noisier every year. Last winter, when Emilio stopped appearing, four different people asked her where he was. She did not know. In March he came back with a walking frame, and the whole bus, she says, behaved as though a cousin had come home.

The year I stopped playing the piano

I gave up the piano at fifteen, after nine years of lessons. (16) I told my parents it was because of the exams that year, which was not true.

The truth was a single afternoon. I had played a piece badly at a concert, and a woman I did not know told my mother, in front of me, that I was not really musical. (17) I simply decided, without saying anything to anybody, that she was right.

For eleven years I did not touch a keyboard. (18) I would leave rooms where somebody was playing one.

What changed things was moving house. The flat we rented came with an upright piano that the owner did not want. (19) It stood there for four months, closed, and I walked past it twice a day.

I opened it in February, on a Tuesday, when nobody else was at home. (20) I now play for half an hour most evenings, badly, and I have never enjoyed anything more.

The library that lends tools

The public library in Tormes does not only (21) ___ books. Since 2021 it has also lent drills, ladders, sewing machines and a cement mixer.

The idea (22) ___ from a survey in which residents were asked what they owned but hardly ever used. Nearly everybody (23) ___ a tool they had bought for one job and never touched again.

Borrowing works exactly like borrowing a novel: you need a library card, you (24) ___ the tool for a week, and you pay nothing. Items come back in worse condition than books do, so a small (25) ___ of the budget is set aside for repairs, and two retired electricians check anything with a plug.

The scheme has been copied by eleven other towns, which the librarian (26) ___ as the best possible compliment.

A note to a new neighbour

Hi,

Welcome to the building. I live in the flat next (27) yours, on the fourth floor.

A few things that nobody tells you. The bins are collected on Tuesdays and Fridays, and (28) you put them out on Monday night the caretaker will move them back in. The hot water takes about two minutes to arrive, (29) do not give up on it. And the door to the roof is open, which is not official, so try not to tell too (30) people.

If you need anything at all, knock. I am usually at home (31) the evenings, and I have a ladder, a drill and a spare key to the postboxes, (32) is more than the last tenant had.

Nerea