Inside Celebrity Homes
Look at the two pictures below. What kind of person does this house belong to? What’s this person’s job? What do they enjoy doing? Is it a family or a single person?
Now watch the video and check.
Link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IndOeoGVkpU&list=PLpi4YdMCC439sN_5vIza6IfQm0qc-IqPO&index=30
Which context do these words appear in? Write down the approximate context - the sentence or phrase they were used in. You can translate the words first and then listen, or first listen and then translate.
| integration | |
| background | |
| atmosphere | |
| from scratch | |
| remind | |
| frame and layout | |
| influence | |
| going around | |
| custom-made | |
| committing |
2. Listen again and complete the following sentences with the missing words:
1) ___ drew me to this house ___ this big room and the integration with the outdoors.
2) ___ that with the living-room space and ___ ___ entertain people ___ perfect for me.
3) ___ ___ the right kind of atmosphere ___ ___ ___ live.
4) We have parties, we ___ ___ ___, we have dinners…
5) When I first ___ ___ ___, he said this kind of reminded him…
6) ___ ___ ___ to bring a lot of Asian influence into the house.
7) It was an interactive process – ___ to visit furniture stores, ___ him bring some things up here... just ___ around LA, ___ at stuff and me ___ ‘Oh, I love that, oh I love that’.
Watch the video again together with reading the transcript. If there are any parts you don’t understand, use a dictionary to help you. The first time you watch it, read the transcript as you listen. After that, watch at least two more times and shadow the speaker – read the transcript aloud together with the speaker trying to keep up the pace and imitate the intonation.
Now think about your ideal home. Find around 5 pictures on the internet that inspire you. Those may be pictures of houses, rooms, even textures or furniture. Now write about your ideal home. What does it look like? What style would you use? What would give it a special character?
Answer Key
Which context do these words appear in?
| integration | What drew me to this house was this big room and the integration with the outdoors. |
| background | This beautiful patio with the trees and the hills in the background. |
| atmosphere | It felt like the right kind of atmosphere for me to live. |
| from scratch | Everything started from scratch. |
| remind | When I first brought Don (the designer) over here, one of the first things he said was that it kind of reminded him of a Thai temple. |
| frame and layout | Inspired by the frame and the layout of it, and my fiancé being half-Thai as well… |
| influence | …it just felt right bringing a lot of Asian influence to the house. |
| going around | It was an interactive process with Don – going to visit furniture stores, having him bring some things up here... |
| custom-made | Above the piano, we have these custom-made – the lyrics of some of my songs from my first two albums are printed on the chandelier. |
| committing | The hardest part is actually committing to one. |
2. Listen again and complete the following sentences with words to complete a grammar structure:
1) What drew me to this house was this big room and the integration with the outdoors.
2) Integrating that with the living-room space and where we entertain people was just perfect for me.
3) It felt like the right kind of atmosphere for me to live.
4) We have a lot of parties, we have friends over, we have dinners…
5) When I first brought Don over here, he said this kind of reminded him…
6) It just felt right to bring a lot of Asian influence into the house.
7) It was just an interactive process – going to visit furniture stores, having him bring some things up here... just going around LA, looking at stuff and me saying ‘Oh, I love that, oh I love that’.
Transcript
Hey I’m John Legend, and welcome to my home and my Architectural Digest photoshoot.
What drew me to the house was this big room and the integration with the outdoors. This beautiful patio with the trees and the hills in the background. And then integrating that with the living-room space and where we entertain people was just perfect for me. It felt like the right kind of atmosphere for me to live. It’s a living-room as a kitchen and a dining-room. We have a lot of parties, we have friends over, we have dinners. Some of our best memories are in this room.
My designer’s name is Don Stewart and I met him through Kanye West actually. Everything started from scratch. We never had a place in LA before, so we didn’t have anything to kind of bring stuff to. We maintain a place in New York and so we didn’t bring any stuff from New York. When I first brought Don over here, one of the first things he said was that this kind of reminded him of a Thai temple. And inspired by the frame and the layout of it, and my fiancé being half-Thai as well, it just felt right to bring a lot of Asian influence into the house. It was just an interactive process with Don – going to visit furniture stores, having him bring some things up here. A lot of the stuff in the living-room was actually one day me and Don just going around LA, and looking at stuff and me saying ‘Oh, I love that, oh I love that’. Above the piano, we have these custom-made – the lyrics of some of my songs from my first two albums are printed on the chandelier.
I enjoy furniture shopping – it’s fun. The hardest part is actually committing to one. Because you’ll see, you know, a few that you really like and it’s, like, fifteen thousand dollars. You have to kind of imagine it in the space, bring it up there and see if it works, and once you buy it – it’s a commitment, you gonna have it for a while.