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The listening exercises in Business Spotlight Plus (p.15) are based on the article “Sky-high prices” (Names & News, p. 8). Here, we provide you with the audio file and transcript.
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Sky-high prices
In most places, to be homelessobdachloshomeless means also to be jobless. But Vancouver has a different problem: housingWohnraum, Wohnungenhousing in the Canadian city is so overpriced that even well-paid construction workers and tradespeople are living in illegal settlements, such as under elevatederhöhtelevated train tracks.
Mike Diddy works as a drywaller (N. Am)Trockenbauer(in)drywaller, building an apartment tower where condominium (N. Am.)Eigentumswohnungcondominium prices start at Can$ 500,000 (about €330,000). He lives in a convertedumgebautconverted school bus because he says he can’t afford monthly rents of nearly Can$ 2,000 for a one-bedroom apartment. “For me to get a place I’d want to be [living in], I would have to have two or three roommateMitbewohner(in)roommates and we probably wouldn’t to get along(miteinander) auskommen, sich verstehenget along at the end of it,” Diddy told Maclean’s magazine.
City officials mainly ignore the illegal campers, unless there are complaints. That was the case when a local business reported that someone had been stealing power by to run an extension cordein Verlängerungskabel verlegenrunning an extension cord from a motorhomeWohnmobilmotorhome parked on the street to the firm’s outdoor socketSteckdosesocket.
Diddy doesn’t need to steal power, though. The 38-year-old uses two marine batterySchiffsbatteriemarine batteries to provide electricity on the bus. “They last forever — as long as I’m not to blend sth.etw. mixenblending margaritas,” he comments.