Transcripts & Answer keys

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Transcripts

1.

I could never buy a car at home because we pay a very high tax on cars. Only rich people can really afford to buy a car at home. Here in the U.S., I drive a nice new car and I can easily afford it. You don’t have to be rich to own a car, which is great.

2.

At home it only costs about $200 a month to rent a nice apartment. That’s what I used to pay for a four-room apartment in a

good neighborhood. Here in the U.S., I pay about twice that for a much smaller apartment, and it’s not in a very nice neighborhood.

3.

I bought a lot of clothes in my country before I moved to the U.S. because everyone told me how expensive American clothing is. I was kind of surprised that I could get nice clothes here for very reasonable prices. In fact, it costs me less for clothes here than it used to cost me at home.

4.

I come from a small country and not a lot of people travel by plane because it costs more than most people can afford. But the U.S. is such a big country and the population is large, so you have a lot of people traveling by plane. That’s what keeps the prices down. That means I can afford to fly here and I do it all the time. I couldn’t do that at home.

5.

Most people send their children to private schools at home because the public schools are not very good. You have to pay a lot to do that, so it’s a big expense for many people. Public schools are better here, and cheaper than in my country. People don’t have to spend a lot on tuition, so most people send their children to public schools.

6.

Here in the U.S. you need to have health insurance because it costs a lot to see a doctor or to enter a hospital. At home, you don’t have to pay much to see a doctor or go to a hospital because most of the clinics and hospitals are run by the government.

Answer keys

Task 1

1. Cheaper in the U.S.

2. Cheaper in their country

3. Cheaper in the U.S.

4. Cheaper in the U.S.

5. Cheaper in the U.S.

6. Cheaper in their country

Task 2

1. False  2. True   3. True

4. True  5. False  6. False