Read the following article and choose the best answer for the following question:
In 1988, Maria Mutola was playing football as the only girl in an all-boys team in a local competition in Mozambique. ‘We won’, she said. ‘At first, no one thought it was a problem that I was a girl. But then the team we beat complained’.
The story appeared in a local newspaper and Jose Craveirinha, who had encouraged other African athletes, learnt about Maria. He went to meet her and found her kicking a ball around outside the football club. He realized immediately that she was fast. ‘He talked to me about athletics. I had no idea what he meant. The only sport I knew about was football. Then he bought me running shoes and took me training. It was such hard work and my legs really ached.’ But Jose visited her parents and persuaded them she could be successful and this would help end their poverty. They agreed to let him take her away to train.
In 1991, she finally accepted and invitation to train in the United States. She had refused previously because she knew she would miss her family. Her background was unlike those of the girls she met in the US. She explains, ‘They were good athletes but, while I worried about my parents having enough to eat, they worried about dresses and make-up. They knew very little about me and even less about my problems. But I knew I was lucky to be there. The trainers were brilliant and I learn a lot.
Today, Maria still runs and for most of the year she lives happily in South Africa with her mother.
Question: When Jose first introduced Maria to athletics, she
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Liverpool city council want to clear the city of fat pigeons. They say that that people are feeding the birds, which makes them fat. The pigeons get bigger because their normal diet would consist of seeds and insects, not high-fat junk food they are eating in the city centre.
The council want people to know that everyone who feeds the pigeons is responsible for the streets being so crowded with these birds. They hope to encourage the birds to move away from the city centre and into parks and open spaces.
Ten robotic birds have been brought into the city centre to scare the pigeons away and visitors are asked not to give the pigeons any food. The mechanical birds - known as 'robops' - will sit on the roofs of buildings. They can be moved around to different locations. They look like a peregrine falcon, which is a bird that kills pigeons. They even make noises and flap their wings to scare the pigeons. They hope that the pigeons will go away before the city becomes the European Capital of Culture in two years.
Statement: The robotic birds can move around the city centre.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Shambo, the bull at the centre of a three-month legal fight, has been killed. After a positive test for TB, an order was made for his slaughter, in keeping with the law. However, the multi-faith community where he lived went to court to try to save him as he was a sacred animal to Hindus.A High Court judge said that the order to kill him was unlawful, but the decision was overturned in the Appeal Court. Police had to be called in as worshippers had formed a human shield around the animal to stop him being taken away. Opinion is very divided on the issue- some believe that he was a danger to the national herd and needed to be killed, while others feel that religious beliefs should be respected and the community had offered to provide sufficient measures to ensure that he would not infect any other animals if he contracted the disease as they planned to isolate him. The authorities cut through the security fence and led the bull away. The following morning they announced that he had been given a lethal injection.
The debate on the issue is unlikely to end with the death of Shambo and may widen into a debate about the policy of killing cows that test positive for TB.
Statement: The community did not do much to try to save him.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Shambo, the bull at the centre of a three-month legal fight, has been killed. After a positive test for TB, an order was made for his slaughter, in keeping with the law. However, the multi-faith community where he lived went to court to try to save him as he was a sacred animal to Hindus.A High Court judge said that the order to kill him was unlawful, but the decision was overturned in the Appeal Court. Police had to be called in as worshippers had formed a human shield around the animal to stop him being taken away. Opinion is very divided on the issue- some believe that he was a danger to the national herd and needed to be killed, while others feel that religious beliefs should be respected and the community had offered to provide sufficient measures to ensure that he would not infect any other animals if he contracted the disease as they planned to isolate him. The authorities cut through the security fence and led the bull away. The following morning they announced that he had been given a lethal injection.
The debate on the issue is unlikely to end with the death of Shambo and may widen into a debate about the policy of killing cows that test positive for TB.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Some scientists have predicted that healthy adults and children may one day take drugs to improve their intelligence and intellectual performance. A research group has suggested that such drugs might become as common as coffee or tea within the next couple of decades.
To counter this, students taking exams might have to take drugs tests like athletes. There are already drugs that are known to improve mental performance, like Ritalin, which is given to children with problems concentrating. A drug given to people with trouble sleeping also helps people remember numbers.
These drugs raise serious legal and moral questions, but people already take vitamins to help them remember things better, so it will not be a simple problem to solve. It will probably be very difficult to decide at what point a food supplement becomes an unfair drug in an examination.
Statement: A sleeping pill helps people remember numbers.
Read the following article and choose the best answer for the following question:
Orbis is an organization which helps blind people everywhere. It has built an eye hospital inside an aeroplane and flown it all over the world with an international medical team. Samantha Graham, a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl from England, went with the plane to Mongolia, Samatha tells the story of Eukhtuul, a young Mongolian girl.
Last year, when Eukhtuul was walking home from school, she was attacked by boys with sticks and her eyes were badly damaged. Dr Duffey, an Orbis doctor, said that without an operation she would never see again, I thought about all the everyday things I do that she couldn’t , things like reading schoolbooks, watching television, seeing friends, and I realized how lucky I am’.
‘The Orbis team agreed to operate on Eukhtuul and I was allowed to watch, together with some Mongolian medical students. I prayed the operation would be successful. The next day I waited nervously with Eukhtuul while Dr Duffey removed her bandages. ‘In six months your sight will be back to normal’, he said. Eukhtuul smiled, her mother cried, and I had to wipe away some tears, too!’
‘Now Eukhtuul wants to study hard to become a doctor. Her whole future has changed, thanks to a simple operation. We should all think more about how much out sight means to us.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The building company Hong Kong Housing is building a new suburb in Shanghai, a city with a population of more than 15 million people. But this suburb is not like other parts of Shanghai. It is a little piece of England. The name of the new area is "English Town". The manager of Hong Kong Housing, Shi Guangsheng, says many people in this area of China want to buy an English house and live in an English town.
"This town is like Bristol or Chester. There is an English square and there are pigeons to feed like in Trafalgar Square, London. There are four English-style pubs and you can buy English beer to drink. There is a canal and you can row a boat there like in Cambridge."
Are there any cricket fields? "No, there aren't any places to play cricket because nobody in Shanghai can play this game. But there is a football stadium like those in England. And the thing we are very proud of is our shopping street. There are several shops where you can buy traditional English food like fish and chips or Christmas Pudding."
The rich Shanghai businessman can do some gardening too. For with every house in "English Town", there is an English lawn and there are long gardens with ponds and tall hedges.
But there is one problem. The houses in this part of town cost a minimum of $400,000!
Read the following talks about eating out and answer the question below:
1.The last time I went to a restaurant was about 2 months ago. My wife and I wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary with a good meal so we went to an expensive Italian restaurant in downtown Lisbon. We both had pasta to start and for the main course my wife ordered a steak and I chose fish. For dessert we both ate chocolate cake topped with fresh cream. Delicious!
2. I went to a restaurant yesterday evening with my sister's children. It wasn't very expensive and the menu was very limited. We all had a burger and French fries, and drank cola. It wasn't very good.
3. My boyfriend loves spicy food so this restaurant was perfect. The waiters were all really friendly and polite, and they played traditional sitar music which was very relaxing. The menu offered vegetarian dishes as well as meat dishes served with rice and a sauce - it depended on how hot you wanted it! I chose a mild beef curry but my boyfriend had a lamb 'vindaloo' - he also drank 2 liters of water!!
4. My class at the university went there last weekend. It's a very popular type of restaurant in my country. It generally offers one type of food (a kind of bread with cheese and tomato sauce) which you then choose what ingredients to add on top of it. I asked for olives and mushrooms on mine and my classmates each had something different so we could taste a piece of each person's meal.
Question: In which paragraph did the person go there for a special occasion?
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Considering their wedding cost over $20,000 and took a year and a half to organize, you would be surprised to hear that Richard and Victoria Hammond now intend to forget it. Well, almost.
"It was a wonderful wedding, an unbelievable day," says Victoria. "But we have so much we want to do together now, we are both looking to the future." Her husband, banker and amateur race driver Richard, agrees. "Both our minds are now fixed firmly on the future. I'll never forget our wedding ceremony or the reception we had at a cliff-side hotel afterwards, but there's so much we want, so many hopes. Our marriage is so much more important than the wedding."
"At the moment, we are still living with my parents," explains Victoria, "so our first wish is to find our own place. We intend to start looking for a new house with all the modern conveniences in the suburbs in the new year." Both Victoria and husband Richard have a lot of siblings. Do they intend to add to the extended Hammond family? "We plan on having two or three children ourselves," Richard tells me. "Victoria is just wonderful with children and I can get 3 years paternity leave from my work, which is just perfect."
The young couple has just returned from a two-week honeymoon spent in an authentic Scottish castle. Both the newly-weds are big travel lovers and Richard hopes this will continue. "I would like to go travelling as much as possible together. Travelling with someone else is such a sharing experience. I think it's sad to experience all the wonderful places in the world and have no-one else there." Victoria also has another great travel ambition that she might have to do alone. "I have always been fascinated by safari and my real wish is to go on safari. Richard has no interest in wildlife though."
And what about the marriage itself? In a world with such a high divorce rate, how do Richard and Victoria hope to avoid all the problems that beset so many other couples? Richard explains thoughtfully that "our ambition is to always talk to each other. If you stop communicating, what chance do you have?" His wife goes along with that completely. "I hope that we can speak about things, but also not expect everything to be easy. I think many people expect the wedding to be the end of getting to know each other. I think it's the start."
Statement: Their first ambition is to find a house to live in.
Read the following talks about eating out and answer the question below:
1.The last time I went to a restaurant was about 2 months ago. My wife and I wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary with a good meal so we went to an expensive Italian restaurant in downtown Lisbon. We both had pasta to start and for the main course my wife ordered a steak and I chose fish. For dessert we both ate chocolate cake topped with fresh cream. Delicious!
2. I went to a restaurant yesterday evening with my sister's children. It wasn't very expensive and the menu was very limited. We all had a burger and French fries, and drank cola. It wasn't very good.
3. My boyfriend loves spicy food so this restaurant was perfect. The waiters were all really friendly and polite, and they played traditional sitar music which was very relaxing. The menu offered vegetarian dishes as well as meat dishes served with rice and a sauce - it depended on how hot you wanted it! I chose a mild beef curry but my boyfriend had a lamb 'vindaloo' - he also drank 2 liters of water!!
4. My class at the university went there last weekend. It's a very popular type of restaurant in my country. It generally offers one type of food (a kind of bread with cheese and tomato sauce) which you then choose what ingredients to add on top of it. I asked for olives and mushrooms on mine and my classmates each had something different so we could taste a piece of each person's meal.
Read the following talks about eating out and answer the question below:
1.The last time I went to a restaurant was about 2 months ago. My wife and I wanted to celebrate our wedding anniversary with a good meal so we went to an expensive Italian restaurant in downtown Lisbon. We both had pasta to start and for the main course my wife ordered a steak and I chose fish. For dessert we both ate chocolate cake topped with fresh cream. Delicious!
2. I went to a restaurant yesterday evening with my sister's children. It wasn't very expensive and the menu was very limited. We all had a burger and French fries, and drank cola. It wasn't very good.
3. My boyfriend loves spicy food so this restaurant was perfect. The waiters were all really friendly and polite, and they played traditional sitar music which was very relaxing. The menu offered vegetarian dishes as well as meat dishes served with rice and a sauce - it depended on how hot you wanted it! I chose a mild beef curry but my boyfriend had a lamb 'vindaloo' - he also drank 2 liters of water!!
4. My class at the university went there last weekend. It's a very popular type of restaurant in my country. It generally offers one type of food (a kind of bread with cheese and tomato sauce) which you then choose what ingredients to add on top of it. I asked for olives and mushrooms on mine and my classmates each had something different so we could taste a piece of each person's meal.
Question: In which text did the person eat fast food?
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The makers of a controversial computer game about bullying have decided to go ahead and launch it despite calls for it to be banned. In the game, players take on the role of a new students at a school and have to fight the bullies, by punching them or hitting them with a baseball bat.Critics have said that the game encourages violence, but the makers deny this and say that, while there is violence in the game, it is just an amusing look at school life, besides which, the violence in the game is directed against the bullies to protect pupils who are being bullied. The makers also say that players will learn to stand up to bullies.A British politician, a former minister, has called for it to be banned as it might affect the way young people perceive violence.Anti-bullying charities have said that the game might make people respond violently to bullies, which might make things more complicated and result in injuries.
Statement: The anti-bullying charity thinks the game is good because it might make pupils stand up to bullies.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The makers of a controversial computer game about bullying have decided to go ahead and launch it despite calls for it to be banned. In the game, players take on the role of a new students at a school and have to fight the bullies, by punching them or hitting them with a baseball bat.Critics have said that the game encourages violence, but the makers deny this and say that, while there is violence in the game, it is just an amusing look at school life, besides which, the violence in the game is directed against the bullies to protect pupils who are being bullied. The makers also say that players will learn to stand up to bullies.A British politician, a former minister, has called for it to be banned as it might affect the way young people perceive violence.Anti-bullying charities have said that the game might make people respond violently to bullies, which might make things more complicated and result in injuries.
Statement: A British politician has spoken in favour of the game.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The makers of a controversial computer game about bullying have decided to go ahead and launch it despite calls for it to be banned. In the game, players take on the role of a new students at a school and have to fight the bullies, by punching them or hitting them with a baseball bat.Critics have said that the game encourages violence, but the makers deny this and say that, while there is violence in the game, it is just an amusing look at school life, besides which, the violence in the game is directed against the bullies to protect pupils who are being bullied. The makers also say that players will learn to stand up to bullies.A British politician, a former minister, has called for it to be banned as it might affect the way young people perceive violence.Anti-bullying charities have said that the game might make people respond violently to bullies, which might make things more complicated and result in injuries.
Statement: In the game, the player takes on the role of a bully.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The makers of a controversial computer game about bullying have decided to go ahead and launch it despite calls for it to be banned. In the game, players take on the role of a new students at a school and have to fight the bullies, by punching them or hitting them with a baseball bat.Critics have said that the game encourages violence, but the makers deny this and say that, while there is violence in the game, it is just an amusing look at school life, besides which, the violence in the game is directed against the bullies to protect pupils who are being bullied. The makers also say that players will learn to stand up to bullies.A British politician, a former minister, has called for it to be banned as it might affect the way young people perceive violence.Anti-bullying charities have said that the game might make people respond violently to bullies, which might make things more complicated and result in injuries.
Statement: The politician thinks it might make young people look at violence differently.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The makers of a controversial computer game about bullying have decided to go ahead and launch it despite calls for it to be banned. In the game, players take on the role of a new students at a school and have to fight the bullies, by punching them or hitting them with a baseball bat.Critics have said that the game encourages violence, but the makers deny this and say that, while there is violence in the game, it is just an amusing look at school life, besides which, the violence in the game is directed against the bullies to protect pupils who are being bullied. The makers also say that players will learn to stand up to bullies.A British politician, a former minister, has called for it to be banned as it might affect the way young people perceive violence.Anti-bullying charities have said that the game might make people respond violently to bullies, which might make things more complicated and result in injuries.
Statement: Only critics agree that the game encourages violence.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The makers of a controversial computer game about bullying have decided to go ahead and launch it despite calls for it to be banned. In the game, players take on the role of a new students at a school and have to fight the bullies, by punching them or hitting them with a baseball bat.Critics have said that the game encourages violence, but the makers deny this and say that, while there is violence in the game, it is just an amusing look at school life, besides which, the violence in the game is directed against the bullies to protect pupils who are being bullied. The makers also say that players will learn to stand up to bullies.A British politician, a former minister, has called for it to be banned as it might affect the way young people perceive violence.Anti-bullying charities have said that the game might make people respond violently to bullies, which might make things more complicated and result in injuries.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Come and sail on a Crystal Cruise ship. We have three ships: The Crystal Queen, The Crystal Princess, The Crystal Palace.
Come and sail in luxury on cruises around the Caribbean Sea for 7 or 14 days.
Our seven-day cruise costs $2000 and our two-week cruise is $3500.
A typical one week cruise
Day One - departure from Miami
Day Two - free day in Nassau, in The Bahamas
Day Three - near Haiti
Day Four - visit Puerto Rico and Antigua
Day Five - free day in Barbados
Day Six - free day in Port of Spain, Trinidad
Day Seven - travel to Caracas, Venezuela
Day Eight - fly home.
All food and drink is included in the price of your cruise (except for alcoholic drinks). Our cruise ships all have a casino, a cinema, a five-star restaurant, a theatre, a library and a fully equipped gymnasium.
If you prefer to go on a cruise in another part of the world, we also organize cruises in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean.
Our ships carry over 2000 passengers and we have nearly 600 crew members.
So come on board today for the holiday of a lifetime!Call immediately: 020-4455832
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Considering their wedding cost over $20,000 and took a year and a half to organize, you would be surprised to hear that Richard and Victoria Hammond now intend to forget it. Well, almost.
"It was a wonderful wedding, an unbelievable day," says Victoria. "But we have so much we want to do together now, we are both looking to the future." Her husband, banker and amateur race driver Richard, agrees. "Both our minds are now fixed firmly on the future. I'll never forget our wedding ceremony or the reception we had at a cliff-side hotel afterwards, but there's so much we want, so many hopes. Our marriage is so much more important than the wedding."
"At the moment, we are still living with my parents," explains Victoria, "so our first wish is to find our own place. We intend to start looking for a new house with all the modern conveniences in the suburbs in the new year." Both Victoria and husband Richard have a lot of siblings. Do they intend to add to the extended Hammond family? "We plan on having two or three children ourselves," Richard tells me. "Victoria is just wonderful with children and I can get 3 years paternity leave from my work, which is just perfect."
The young couple has just returned from a two-week honeymoon spent in an authentic Scottish castle. Both the newly-weds are big travel lovers and Richard hopes this will continue. "I would like to go travelling as much as possible together. Travelling with someone else is such a sharing experience. I think it's sad to experience all the wonderful places in the world and have no-one else there." Victoria also has another great travel ambition that she might have to do alone. "I have always been fascinated by safari and my real wish is to go on safari. Richard has no interest in wildlife though."
And what about the marriage itself? In a world with such a high divorce rate, how do Richard and Victoria hope to avoid all the problems that beset so many other couples? Richard explains thoughtfully that "our ambition is to always talk to each other. If you stop communicating, what chance do you have?" His wife goes along with that completely. "I hope that we can speak about things, but also not expect everything to be easy. I think many people expect the wedding to be the end of getting to know each other. I think it's the start."
Statement: Victoria thinks she now knows Richard sufficiently well.
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Considering their wedding cost over $20,000 and took a year and a half to organize, you would be surprised to hear that Richard and Victoria Hammond now intend to forget it. Well, almost.
"It was a wonderful wedding, an unbelievable day," says Victoria. "But we have so much we want to do together now, we are both looking to the future." Her husband, banker and amateur race driver Richard, agrees. "Both our minds are now fixed firmly on the future. I'll never forget our wedding ceremony or the reception we had at a cliff-side hotel afterwards, but there's so much we want, so many hopes. Our marriage is so much more important than the wedding."
"At the moment, we are still living with my parents," explains Victoria, "so our first wish is to find our own place. We intend to start looking for a new house with all the modern conveniences in the suburbs in the new year." Both Victoria and husband Richard have a lot of siblings. Do they intend to add to the extended Hammond family? "We plan on having two or three children ourselves," Richard tells me. "Victoria is just wonderful with children and I can get 3 years paternity leave from my work, which is just perfect."
The young couple has just returned from a two-week honeymoon spent in an authentic Scottish castle. Both the newly-weds are big travel lovers and Richard hopes this will continue. "I would like to go travelling as much as possible together. Travelling with someone else is such a sharing experience. I think it's sad to experience all the wonderful places in the world and have no-one else there." Victoria also has another great travel ambition that she might have to do alone. "I have always been fascinated by safari and my real wish is to go on safari. Richard has no interest in wildlife though."
And what about the marriage itself? In a world with such a high divorce rate, how do Richard and Victoria hope to avoid all the problems that beset so many other couples? Richard explains thoughtfully that "our ambition is to always talk to each other. If you stop communicating, what chance do you have?" His wife goes along with that completely. "I hope that we can speak about things, but also not expect everything to be easy. I think many people expect the wedding to be the end of getting to know each other. I think it's the start."
Statement: They both have many brothers and sisters.