The Boarding House

“The Boarding House” is the second story featuring a female main character, this time a mother who has separated from an abusive husband and has established a degree of success running a boarding house. The mother realizes that one of the tenants in the boarding house, a man in his mid-30s, has been having an illicit affair with her 19-year-old daughter Polly. According to the highly conservative societal moral expectations of the time, the man would need to either marry Polly or pay her a large amount of compensation. However, he is worried that if he does not marry her, that gossip will spread throughout the town about what has happened and damage his business reputation.

For the rest of the collection, each short story will have at least one sample writing task that could be used for extra practice in writing the essays — either a “Task A” literature sample from the story or a “Task B” based on an article covering a topic related to that story. The 2023 exam’s fragment from The Fountainhead was extremely challenging, so the more practice students can get writing about literary fragments and their themes the better.

Writing Task A: "The Boarding House"

The first listening task uses a segment from the US TV chat show called The Real in which the three female hosts discuss whether getting married when someone is still in their 20s is “too young.” This task might be quite challenging since the hosts talk quickly and use a lot of slang language, but at C1 level the students need to be able to understand a wide variety of spoken situations and will have listening tasks where speakers have challenging accents or speaking styles.

The task connects with “The Boarding House” because Bob Doran, who is in his mid-30s, is pressured into marrying a 19-year-old girl that he has been having an affair with. It might be interesting to discuss with students what age they consider “normal” to get married (if at all), as this is something that wildly varies over place and time. 

Listening Task: Is Getting Married in Your 20s Too Young?

In the story, there is a more than ten-year age gap between two of the characters who are in a romantic relationship. This listening task explores the issue of age gap in a relationship, with an Australian relationship coach giving advice on the matter.

Listening Task: Best Age Gap for a Successful Relationship

Now, try reading the story and answering the comprehension questions. This task is a shortened version of the type of multiple-choice questions students will get in the first task of the reading section, although it is unlikely to be from a literary fragment and more likely to come from a non-fiction article.

Reading Task: "The Boarding House."

Finally, here are a few speaking tasks you and a friend can use to practice for the exam. The topics are connected with "The Boarding House," and you should mention the story in your talk.

Speaking Task: Managing a Reputation 

Speaking Task: Taking Responsibility 

After completing the tasks, you can continue on to the eighth short story, "A Little Cloud".