Living Underground
From the past to the future
A2 - B1 simple
English
WITH AUDIO ►: Click to open/close audio player
In most places, people build new houses upwards. Perhaps they ought to build them in the other direction, downwards, into the ground !
A long long time ago, lots of people lived under the ground, often in caves. In cold places caves were warm in winter, In hot countries, caves were cool in summer. They were also safe. Living above ground could be dangerous, because there were lots of wild animals and other dangers.
Everyone knows about "Hobbits", the little people created by J.R.R.Tolkien in his books, which have become very successful films. Hobbits, who were good people, lived in Hobbit houses below the ground, as in the picture at the top of this page. Other people lived above the ground.
Hobbits lived in an imaginary world ... but there are people in the real world who live underground too. Some people live in old underground houses, like Hobbit houses, or in caves. Others live in very modern houses.
There are old underground villages in many parts of the world, for example in France, in Spain and in Turkey... even in the USA!
Underground houses can be very well insulated, so they need little or no heating. And they are not all small like Hobbit houses. Some modern underground houses are quite big.
In Wales there is a study centre with underground bedrooms. The temperature in these rooms varies between 19° and 22° during the year - but there are no radiators, no fires. All the heating comes directly from the sun! "There are no heating costs!" says Peter Carpenter, who designed the underground building and ran the centre.
Lighting is not a problem either. Modern light tubes can bring sunlight into rooms without windows.
There are other advantages too. Underground houses use less space; sometimes they are almost invisible. The garden can be on the roof. In tomorrow's world, perhaps we will see (or not see) a lot more houses built underground.
Return to Linguapress site index
Printing: Optimized for printing
Copyright © Linguapress. Do not copy this document to any other website
Student Worksheet
Living underground
Interactive exercise - use on screen or on paper: NOUNSMost of the nouns have been left out of this copy of part of the text. Try to put them back by memory. Here are the missing nouns. Some of them are used more than once!
Here are the missing words, in A-Z alphabetical order : animals books caves. countries dangers films ground houses page people picture places summer time top winter
A long long ago, lots of lived under the , often in . In cold were warm in , In hot , were cool in . They were also safe. Living above could be dangerous, because there were lots of wild and other .
Everyone knows about "Hobbits", the little created by J.R.R.Tolkien in his , which have become very successful . Hobbits, who were good , lived in Hobbit below the , as in the at the of this . Other lived above the .
For
teachers:
Missing nouns:
All of the missing nouns are essential English vocabulary. Pupils need to know and be able to use these nouns.Articles
Teachers should point out how articles are used or not used in this text In particular, note how no article is required with generalising nouns in the plural, such as people or houses (not the people, the houses); note also how no article is used in lots of prepositional phrases in English, such as in winter or in summer.
Opposites
This text is rich in opposites. Above / below, imaginary / real, cold / hot, less / more, safe / dangerous, and other pairs.Repetition as an intensifier
: Note that the expression A long long time ago is deliberate. Sometimes, with some very common adjectives, the adjective can be duplicated for effect; so we can say a long long time ago, or a dark dark sky, or an old old man. With big, we can say a big big surprise, or a great big surprise. And so on.
Expression
Have pupils write down three reasons why a person might like to live underground, nd three reasons why someone might not want to live underground. Use these prompts.- Peter wants to live underground because.....
- James does not want to live underground because ...
More.... What is A2 English? What does it entail?
Other ideas?
EFL teachers: Help develop this resource by contributing extra teaching materials or exercises.
To contribute click here for further details
This teaching resource is © copyright Linguapress 2024
Republication on other websites or in print is not authorised
| Linguapress; home | Découvrez l'Angleterre (en français) | Discover Britain |
