Task 1. You are going to listen to people talking in ten different situations. For questions 1–10,
choose the answer (A, B or C) which fits best according to what you hear. You will hear the text twice.
1. You hear a boy talking about his family’s move to the city. How does he feel about it?
A pleased about the range of facilities there
B irritated by the public transport system
C frustrated because he didn’t want to move
2. You hear two friends talking about a competition. What do the entrants need to design?
A a park that will appeal to young people
B a park where people can train for the next Olympics
C a skate park with WiFi
3. You overhear two friends talking about a new sports complex. What will the boy do?
A teach his brother to swim
B play a sport in bad weather
C help his friend learn a new skill
4. You hear a news report on the radio. What does the presenter say students and their parents
are most worried about?
A the number of people using the buses
B the effect of the strike on regular services
C the extremely long wait for a taxi
5. You hear a father and a daughter talking. Why is the girl excited?
A She is going to a concert with a friend.
B She is going to see her friend perform in a concert
C She is going to a concert she didn’t expect.
6. You hear a girl talking about her grandparents. What are they going to do?
A live with the girl’s family
B sell their house
C take up some new interests
7. You hear part of an interview with a tour guide about activity holidays. What does she say
about them?
A They help young people grow more confident.
B The most popular activity is white-water rafting.
C Parents are sometimes anxious about the activities.
8. You hear a girl talking about her holiday in the countryside. What did she most enjoy about it?
A the clean country air
B eating the farmers’ food
C feeding the farm animals
9. You hear a boy and a girl talking about a concert. Why is the boy unhappy?
A His mum won’t allow him to go to the band’s concert alone.
B His dad isn’t a particular fan of the band playing at the concert.
C His mum doesn’t want him to buy the band’s music.
10. You hear two friends talking about things they regret. What do they both plan to do to
correct their mistakes?
A invite their friend to a party to celebrate her birthday
B buy their friend some birthday gifts
C try to find their friend another Hunger Games book.
Task 1. You are going to read an article about the famous novelist Charles Dickens. For
questions 1–8, choose from the members A–D. The members may be chosen more than once.
Which member(s):
1 admires Dickens for getting what he wanted in life? ________
2 talks about how Dickens’ own life made him very aware of social problems? ________
3 explains how publishers helped to keep Dickens’s readers interested? ________
4 explains how most people get to know Dickens’s work these days? ________
5 gives examples of things Dickens did to improve society? ________
6 mentions that Dickens worried about money even as an adult? ________
7 says that readers these days prefer modern books? ________
8 thinks that even today life is hard for people at the bottom of the social ladder? ________
What do you know about Charles Dickens?
This week Book Club invites members to write about England’s most famous novelist
A
Born in 1812, Charles Dickens was the second of eight children. He didn’t have an easy start. His father had a habit of spending too much and the family were always short of cash. They moved house constantly with his parents struggling to pay the rent. Life reached a crisis point in 1824, when Charles was twelve. His father had got into serious debt and his mother had sold everything the family owned, but still there wasn’t enough to pay the money they owed and put food on the table. His father was sent to debtors’ jail and young Charles was forced to leave school and get a factory job, working ten hours a day in his attempt to earn enough money to get his father out of prison. This experience left Dickens with a fear of poverty for the rest of his life. But Dickens’s extremely difficult childhood had a positive side; it gave him great understanding of the lives of poor people and he was able to write about life at the bottom of society from his own personal experience.
B
There’s a reason that Charles Dickens was fantastically popular in his time. There was a brilliant way of getting his audience hooked; his novels were printed just a chapter at a time in weekly or monthly magazines, and each chapter ended with the hero in an extremely dangerous situation or with a shocking discovery about a main character. Just as with soap operas today, it made people hungry for more. Anyone who couldn’t read tried to get someone more educated to read the new chapter to them when it came out. Today the books are classics and still sell well but they aren’t as popular as in Dickens’s day. For one thing, they’re far from being quick and easy to read. The old-fashioned language as well as the length of the novels requires a lot more concentration than today’s popular novels.
C
There have been a huge number of adaptations of Charles Dickens’s work for TV, stage and film –more than 200, in fact. It is through these adaptations more than through reading the original texts that many people get to know his work today. As a result, almost everyone is familiar with at least a few of Dickens’s stories and characters. One reason for their continuing and lasting popularity, whether as books or on screen, is that Dickens is not afraid to look critically at the dark side of Victorian society, revealing a tough, hard world. In fact, to describe disgusting housing or terrible working conditions, for instance, or cruel and strict people we use the word ‘Dickensian’, a term which comes from Charles Dickens’s name. Sadly, many of Dickens’s views of society are still relevant today. People still beg on city streets, society is still cruel to the poor and opportunities are not equal.
D
In the course of thirty-four years, Charles Dickens wrote fifteen long novels with strong storylines, complicated plots, unexpected twists and unforgettable characters with extraordinary names –Fagin, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Uriah Heep, Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim and Abel Magwitch. He also wrote a huge number of short stories and newspaper articles. He used his sharp observation and dark humour to bring people’s attention to problems in the society of his time. It’s really easy to learn something about the injustice and awful living conditions of Victorian England from books like Oliver Twist, Hard Times, Bleak House, Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield. Apart from writing fiction, Dickens contributed money to help poor children and worked hard to get laws changed on child employment. By the time he died in 1870, this hardworking, energetic and talented writer had achieved what he deserved. His childhood dreams of fame, success and climbing the social ladder had come true and he had become a literary celebrity in England and America.
Task 2. Read the article. For questions 9–15, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think
fits best according to the text.
Questioning the connection between birth order and personality
In many families across a variety of cultures, the personalities of siblings are routinely dissected and compared to draw out similarities and differences. Many of those comparisons tend to link characteristics to age, specifically birth order. Popular culture attaches a range of personality attributes to first born, middle and youngest children and 20th century research is largely responsible for this practice. Yet current academic thinking on this topic has comprehensively rejected the claims of all this previous research.....
9. What does the writer say about birth order and personality in the first paragraph?
D was one of the things that affected the development of their character.
11. The writer suggests that Family Niche Theory was …
D academic research often challenges people’s beliefs.
Task 1. Read the text and complete the gaps with ONE word only.
Recently, we’ve seen a fascinating trend on social media – a series of challenges which involve
people doing unusual things. One of the first of these challenges said (1) __________ have gone viral was a few years ago, with videos of people pouring ice-cold water over their friends’ heads –something which must (2) __________ been really uncomfortable! The idea behind the challenge was to help a charity and it raised far (3) __________ money than could ever have been imagined. This paved the way for a series of other challenges, such as the Mannequin Challenge, which involved videos of people standing completely still in a complicated scene. More recently, it’s 4) __________ possible to watch people carefully stepping on and over something that doesn’t xist in the so-called Invisible Box Challenge. (5) __________ these challenges show is that an idea can spread like wildfire on social media, bringing people from all over the world together, united in a fun activity, the result of (6) __________ is that money is raised for the less fortunate in society. Who knows what we’ll (7) __________ watching this time next year!
Task 2. Choose the correct option (A, B, C or D) to complete the text.
Picasso comes to town
A new exhibition, ‘Picasso, an artist’s life’ (8) __________ at the Brightmore Gallery next month.
It (9) __________ people in the area a chance to see the Spanish artist’s finest works, which are
being flown over from Europe at the moment. Picasso (10) __________ famous at the beginning of the 20th century and is known world-wide for his unusual style of painting that consists (11)__________ unusual perspectives. This exhibition will (12) __________ back on his changing
styles from 1900 to 1960. The gallery director, John Malcolm, has (13) __________ that this exhibition will certainly (14) __________ up to our expectations. He stated, “I truly believe this exhibition will be the greatest that (15) __________ ever come to the gallery.”
Task 3. What do these expressions mean? Choose the correct option (A, B, C or D) to answer the
question.
D He is calm
You see this announcement on an English-language website.
Articles wanted
How to Make Your Town a Better Place for the Young People
What is your local area like to live in for young people? How suitable are the facilities and are there
enough of them? How can the town planners make a difference to people of your age? Write us an
article answering these questions. We will publish the best articles on our website