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A2 DIY & Making Things • 12 Minutes

IKEA and the Idea of Flat-Pack Furniture

📋 How to use this lesson

For the Teacher:

Give learners 4 minutes to read the story and 8 minutes to answer the questions.

Check the answers together using the 'Evidence' lines in the explanations.

For the Learner:

First, read the short story and look at the Word Help underneath.

Next, finish the 8 questions and read the 'Why' lines to see how each answer works.

How Flat Packs Began

Read this short story about how flat packs started.

A vintage 1950s car with an open boot, a wooden table with its legs taken off resting beside the car on a city street, c

IKEA is a furniture company from Sweden. Ingvar Kamprad started it in 1943 in a small town in Sweden when he was 17 years old. Today, IKEA is famous for flat packs. A flat pack is furniture in a flat box that the customer puts together at home. IKEA says the idea came in the 1950s, when a designer, Gillis Lundgren, had to take a table to a photo studio. It did not fit in his car, so he took the legs off. Flat packs take less space and cost less to send, and the furniture breaks less on the way. Lundgren did not invent flat-pack furniture, but he made the idea popular.

📖 Word Help: Words to Know

flat pack

furniture sold in pieces in a flat cardboard box.

put together

to join all the pieces to build something at home.

fit in

to have enough space to go inside an area or a car.

take off

to remove a part (like taking legs off a table).

💡 Why this works: Connecting with 'so'

In everyday English, we use so to show what happens because of something.

"I fixed the leak myself, so I didn't need to call anybody."

From our story: "It did not fit in his car, so he took the legs off."

Practice: 8 Questions (Easy to Hard)

Read each question carefully and choose or type your answer.

Question 1 • True or False Easy

1. Ingvar Kamprad started IKEA when he was an old man.

____ True ____ False

Question 2 • True or False Easy

2. A flat pack is furniture in a flat box that the customer puts together at home.

____ True ____ False

Question 3 • Multiple Choice Easy-Medium

3. Where is the furniture company IKEA from?

____ a. Norway ____ b. Sweden ____ c. Germany ____ d. France

Question 4 • Multiple Choice Medium

4. In the 1950s, why did Gillis Lundgren take the legs off the table?

____ a. The table was broken. ____ b. He wanted to paint them. ____ c. It did not fit in his car. ____ d. The photo studio asked him to do it.

Question 5 • Multiple Choice Medium

5. Did Gillis Lundgren invent flat-pack furniture?

____ a. Yes, he was the first person to create it. ____ b. No, but he made the idea popular. ____ c. No, Ingvar Kamprad invented it in 1943. ____ d. Yes, he invented it in a small town.

Question 6 • Matching Medium-Hard

6. Match each reason (cause) to what happened because of it (result):

Reason

Breaks less on the way

Took legs off

Cost less to send

1. Table did not fit in car

____ Breaks less on the way ____ Took legs off ____ Cost less to send

2. Boxes take less space

____ Breaks less on the way ____ Took legs off ____ Cost less to send

3. Pieces stay packed flat

____ Breaks less on the way ____ Took legs off ____ Cost less to send

Question 7 • Short Answer Hard

7. In what year did Ingvar Kamprad start IKEA?

Write the year (4 numbers): ____

Question 8 • Short Answer Hard

8. Type the missing word from the passage:

Flat packs take less space and cost less to ____ .

Reading: The Story of IKEA Flat-Packs

IKEA and the Idea of Flat-Pack Furniture

📋 How to use this lesson

How Flat Packs Began

📖 Word Help: Words to Know

💡 Why this works: Connecting with 'so'

Practice: 8 Questions (Easy to Hard)

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