The building's accounts
A short in Spanish text at level B1. The translation sits next to it: reading with a dictionary is still too early at this level, and without support it will not happen at all. At this year's meeting the manager handed out a sheet with the building's expenses, and for the first time somebody…
Text
- En la junta de este año el administrador repartió una hoja con el gasto del edificio, y por primera vez alguien la leyó entera. Resultó que la limpieza se llevaba un tercio del presupuesto y que el ascensor costaba el doble que el año pasado. Una vecina del cuarto, que es contable, calculó el gasto por unidad y lo puso en una escala del uno al diez para que se entendiera. La subida no había sido brusca: había subido suavemente durante tres años, un poco cada vez, y por eso nadie se dio cuenta. Decidimos pedir tres presupuestos más y redondear el gasto de cada piso a la baja, repartiéndolo a partes iguales. El administrador dijo que con esas cifras íbamos justos y que no quedaría margen para imprevistos. Al final aprobamos un fondo de reserva pequeño, y la vecina del cuarto quedó encargada de mirar las cuentas cada trimestre.At this year's meeting the manager handed out a sheet with the building's expenses, and for the first time somebody read it in full. It turned out that cleaning eats up a third of the budget, and the elevator costs twice as much as last year. A neighbor from the fourth floor, an accountant, calculated the expense per apartment and laid it out on a scale from one to ten so that it could be understood. The rise had not been abrupt: it had gone up smoothly for three years, a little each time, and that is why nobody had noticed. We decided to request three more quotes and round the expense per apartment down, splitting it equally. The manager said that with those figures we were just scraping by and there would be no margin for unforeseen expenses. In the end we approved a small reserve fund, and the neighbor from the fourth floor was put in charge of checking the accounts once a quarter.
Comprehension questions
The questions are asked in Russian on purpose: we test your understanding of the text, not your ability to read the question.
- How much of the budget went to cleaning?
- How did the expenses grow?
- What did they decide to do with the expense per apartment?
- How did the meeting end?
Frequently asked
What level do you need to read this text in Spanish?
B1. That means: you know the letters and have a stock of everyday words — about two or three hundred.
How to read a text in an unfamiliar language usefully?
First all the way through without peeking at the translation — just to catch the familiar words. Then with the translation. Then all the way through again: the second pass brings noticeably more, and that feeling matters more than any rule.