- Câu hỏi 25835:
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: Pigeons are fatter in Liverpool than in other cities.
- Câu hỏi 25839:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Early morning in California, and Elizabeth Safran, a public relations consultant, is dealing with a huge number of e-mails. Everybody in the small company works from home and relies on e-mails and instant messaging to stay in touch. Elizabeth worries about her work-life balance and thinks that ‘technology makes us more productive, but everyone is working all the time – weekends, evenings. It is too much.’
Five o’clock Friday afternoon in the , Paul Renucci, managing director of a systems integration company, switches off his computer. He now works at home and is off to pick up his children. In the past, it would take him two hours to get home from the office.
Ms Safran and Mr Renucci represent different side of a modern problem: the capacities of the latest communications technologies, such as e-mails, texts, messaging and video conferencing, make it difficult to draw the line between work and leisure and raise important questions about the nature of ‘flexible working’- where employees can work where and when they choose.
There are three issues here. First, does the rise of portable, networked devices such as the Blackberry and Palm Treo really damage an individual’s work and life? Second, what is the effect of these devices on traditional workplace relationships? And third, how do individuals manage them?
A Microsoft survey found that where flexibility had increased, so had productivity and employee morale, together with lowered stress levels and staff turnover.
However, individuals can suffer technology-related stress as work moves into their free time and from the complexity of the gadgets they must use, such as mobile phones where manufacturers try to persuade customers upgrade more frequently.
Statement: Those working with flexibility find it difficult to get spare time.
- Câu hỏi 25842:
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: Vitamins to help people study are illegal.
- Câu hỏi 25848:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Early morning in California, and Elizabeth Safran, a public relations consultant, is dealing with a huge number of e-mails. Everybody in the small company works from home and relies on e-mails and instant messaging to stay in touch. Elizabeth worries about her work-life balance and thinks that ‘technology makes us more productive, but everyone is working all the time – weekends, evenings. It is too much.’
Five o’clock Friday afternoon in the , Paul Renucci, managing director of a systems integration company, switches off his computer. He now works at home and is off to pick up his children. In the past, it would take him two hours to get home from the office.
Ms Safran and Mr Renucci represent different side of a modern problem: the capacities of the latest communications technologies, such as e-mails, texts, messaging and video conferencing, make it difficult to draw the line between work and leisure and raise important questions about the nature of ‘flexible working’- where employees can work where and when they choose.
There are three issues here. First, does the rise of portable, networked devices such as the Blackberry and Palm Treo really damage an individual’s work and life? Second, what is the effect of these devices on traditional workplace relationships? And third, how do individuals manage them?
A Microsoft survey found that where flexibility had increased, so had productivity and employee morale, together with lowered stress levels and staff turnover.
However, individuals can suffer technology-related stress as work moves into their free time and from the complexity of the gadgets they must use, such as mobile phones where manufacturers try to persuade customers upgrade more frequently.
Statement: it used to take Paul Renucci hours to get to work.
- Câu hỏi 25851:
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: Only children will take pills to improve their intellectual performance.
- Câu hỏi 676156:
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 visit an Indian restaurant?
- Câu hỏi 676179:
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 wants an old fashioned house.
- Câu hỏi 676203:
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.
- Câu hỏi 676229:
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: The wedding was expensive.
- Câu hỏi 676233:
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 talk about the atmosphere of the restaurant?