LingoflyThe elevator dispute
A text in Turkish at level B1. The translation sits next to it for checking, not for support: at this level the text is read whole, and an unknown word is usually guessed from the sentence. 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: everyday topics are behind you, you know about three thousand words, and an unknown word is more often guessed from the sentence than looked up.
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.