If you look from a helicopter at any English town, you will see that the residential areas consist of...

1. E. In better-off areas, these boxes will be further apart, and the green patches attached to them will be larger.
2. D. They are either hidden, or even not there at all.
3. B. Or at least that’s how we like to think of it.
4. C. This is an unwritten rule of home ownership and the moving-in ritual.
5. F. This is why a house is not something you just passively ‘have’, it is something you constantly ‘work on’.

1. E
2. B
3. D
4. F
5. C

To complete the text, it is important to understand the flow and logical connection between the sentences. Here is the completed text with the appropriate phrases inserted:

If you look from a helicopter at any English town, you will see that the residential areas consist of rows of small boxes, each with its own little patch of green. E. In better-off areas, these boxes will be further apart, and the green patches attached to them will be larger. The principle, however, will be clear: the English all want to live in their own private houses with their own gardens.

What you cannot see from your helicopter, you will learn as soon as you try to visit an English home. A. You may have its address and a map, but you will have great difficulty in finding the house you are looking for. Some humorists claim this is the result of ‘a conspiracy to mislead foreigners’, pointing out that our streets are never straight, every time a street bends, it is given a different name, there are at least 60 confusing synonyms for ‘street’.

The house numbers are at least as well camouflaged as the street names. D. They are either hidden, or even not there at all. One taxi driver explained: ‘ An Englishman’s home is his castle, right? We can’t actually have massive walls around it, but we can make it difficult to get to.’

The Englishman’s home is much more than just his castle; it is also his identity and his prime obsession. B. Or at least that’s how we like to think of it. The mania for home improvements is widespread. Research shows that only 2% of English males and 12% of females have never done any Do-It-Yourself.

Working on home improvements is an opportunity to exercise our creative talents. F. This is why a house is not something you just passively ‘have’, it is something you constantly ‘work on’. Although it may sometimes be an economic necessity, we see the arrangement, furnishing and decorating of our homes as an expression of our unique personal taste.

Here’s a breakdown of how the sentences fit into the text:

1. E fits after describing the view from a helicopter, providing a comparison between different areas.
2. A logically fits after mentioning what cannot be seen from a helicopter, emphasizing the difficulty of finding a specific house.
3. D explains the camouflage of house numbers, which complements the previous sentence about the difficulty of locating houses.
4. B fits after describing the Englishman's home as more than just a castle, adding a reflective note.
5. F fits well with the idea of home improvements being a way to express creativity, reinforcing the notion of active involvement in maintaining and improving one's home.

This arrangement ensures a coherent and logical flow of ideas in the text.