Practice English Listening B1+ Exercises – Do it yourself

A

Speaker 1: a wardrobe; yes

Speaker 2: kitchen cupboards; yes

Speaker 3: a table; not really (it’s wobbly)

B

A 3   B 1   C 2   D 1   F 3   G 2

1

I love IKEA. Especially the bookshelves. We have several. And I’m usually pretty good at putting their stuff together. But I have had a few problems over the years. I remember I once had some trouble with a wardrobe. After hours and hours, and a lot of swearing, I finally managed to put it together. But I’d assembled it in my study, next to the bedroom, which was where the wardrobe was going, because I had more space there. And when my husband and I tried to move it into the bedroom, we couldn’t get it to fit through the door. So I had to take it to pieces, move all the bits into the bedroom, and start all over again. I suppose it was my fault, though, not IKEA’s. And the wardrobe looked very nice and has lasted for ages.

2

About three years ago, my girlfriend and I went to IKEA to buy a kitchen. The units were cheap and cheerful, but they also looked quite well-designed, and we were very excited by how good it was all going to look. The guy in the store said they were easy to put up, that it wouldn’t take long, etc., etc., and I’m quite handy – quite practical – so I thought, ‘No problem’ – though I admit my girlfriend was a bit sceptical. Anyway, when we got home, I thought I’d assemble one cupboard, just to see how easy it was going to be. It was a nightmare. The instructions were incomprehensible – it took me the whole afternoon just to do this one cupboard, and when it was finished, I realized I’d put the door handle on the wrong way round. In the end, we had to pay someone to come and do it all for us. But at least they looked good.

3

I have lots of things from IKEA – it’s great for students because, generally speaking, it’s pretty cheap. Anyway, I bought a table there with my boyfriend not long ago. We started putting the table together, and at one point we had three legs screwed in. Then we reached for the screws to attach the fourth leg – and realized there were no more screws. We had to take off the other three legs, take one screw off every one of them and reassemble the table. So now at least it has four legs, but it’s rather wobbly, and I’m not very happy with it. It does annoy me when they don’t give you the right number of nails or screws or whatever, and it’s not the first time it’s happened to me. Now I always check before I bring stuff home.