The elevator dispute
A short in Turkish 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 the residents' meeting everyone voiced an opinion, but no one listened to anyone. One neighbor proposed replacing…
Text
- Apartman toplantısında herkes fikrini söyledi, ama kimse kimseyi dinlemedi. Bir komşu asansörün yenilenmesini önerdi; başka biri bunu doğru bulmadı ve masrafı eleştirdi. Söz konusu olan para değil, güvenlikti: rakamlar bakım masrafının iki kat arttığını gösteriyordu. Sonunda bir uzman çağırmaya karar verdik ve küçük bir anket yaptık. Neredeyse hepsi yenilemeden yana çıktı; iki kişi karşı oldu, ama sonucu kabul ettiler.At the residents' meeting everyone voiced an opinion, but no one listened to anyone. One neighbor proposed replacing the elevator; another didn't approve and criticized the expenses. It wasn't about money but about safety: the figures showed that maintenance costs had doubled. In the end we decided to call in a specialist and ran a small survey. Almost everyone spoke for replacement; two were against, but they accepted the result.
Comprehension questions
The questions are asked in Russian on purpose: we test your understanding of the text, not your ability to read the question.
- What did one neighbor propose?
- What was it really about?
- What did the figures show?
- How did the survey end?
Frequently asked
What level do you need to read this text in Turkish?
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.