Cover of the textbook Speakout Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book

The key answer of exercise 2

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 10.4 - The people's palace for the textbook Speakout Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book with authors Frances Eales and Steve Oakes from Pearson Education

Question

  1. Watch the DVD and check your answers to Exercise 1B.
  2. Work in pairs and answer the questions. Then watch the DVD again and check.
  3. Watch the DVD again and underline the correct alternative.

Answer

a)

Sentence 2 and 3 are covered in the DVD. (Sentence 1 is only partly covered. The reporter talks to local people and the designer of the building but doesn’t speak to any celebrities.)

b)

  1. Why → Birmingham has a bad reputation for its architecture and wants a new image. How → by putting up buildings with unusual and modern designs.
  2. She describes the city and its people as young, energetic, colourful, bold and delicate. She says they tried to make the building bold and delicate at the same time.
  3. Because it brings unity, brings everybody together.
  4. There are cafés, auditoriums and roof gardens. The clip also shows a variety of sitting areas.
  5. It's a long bench facing the window. You can dream or chat to someone next to you.
  6. Specifically, a man calls it user-friendly, a woman mentions the outside area with the balcony, and a man says it's a good place to relax and to spend the day because it's so big.

c)

  1. heritage
  2. investment
  3. austerity
  4. individual
  5. user-friendly
  6. especially; bit