Text A: an original contemporary personal account extract.

The first night in my new flat, I woke whenever the heating pipes clicked. I had expected the room to feel quiet after the move, but each small sound seemed to have a source I ought to identify. I got up twice to check the kitchen tap, although it was not dripping.

The next morning, I asked the neighbour across the landing about the pipes. She laughed gently and said hers clicked too when the heating came on. After that, I stopped treating every noise as a problem. A week later, I could hear the clicks without waking. The flat had not become quieter; I had learnt which sounds belonged to it.

Text B: an original contemporary personal account extract.

In the house I rented, the back gate rattled whenever the wind came from the fields. During my first few nights there, I kept getting out of bed to look through the window. I wondered whether someone had left the gate open, but each time it was firmly shut.

One afternoon, the previous tenant came by to collect a letter. She told me the gate had always rattled in that wind and showed me how its loose latch moved against the post. I still noticed the sound, but I no longer went to the window. By the end of the month, it had become part of the weather rather than a reason to worry.

Both texts describe people’s first experiences of unfamiliar sounds in a new home.

Use these prompts to help organise your comparison:

• What sounds do the people notice in their new homes?
• How do they respond at first, and what changes their understanding?
• How does each person feel about the sounds by the end?

What similarities are there between the two people’s experiences? Use evidence from Text A and Text B to support your answer.