Тесты для подготовки к итоговой аттестации в 9 классе по английскому языку
тест по английскому языку (9 класс) на тему

Test 1

Взаимоотношения с друзьями и в школе

Раздел 2 (задания по чтению)

1. Variety helps socializing
2. The Net socializing
3. Negative socializing
4. Fears of loneliness
5. Socializing dominates education
6. Eager to socialize
7. Family socializing
8. Kids need more socializing

А. Most students that don’t have any friends at school get depressed or something because they feel lonely, down, and that nobody wants to talk to them. They also might get those phobia things, like for instance, being insecure when talking to someone, or people, for one of the “first” times. So therefore, when a teacher calls them, they might feel uncomfortable with answering. They also might have stuff going through their heads and can’t focus on a test, worksheet, or whatever class assignment.

В.  In many instances, the failure to socialize may be a key factor in qualifying for special education. It is one of the triad of feature for a diagnosis of autism, for example. Special education has a very strong emphasis on inclusion, which in significant part provides for increased social interaction. Learning how to get by in society is an absolutely key component to education, irrespective of whether it is the subject of a performance test.

С. In order to get through school properly you need to be able to socialize. It is especially important for little children. That’s why in my early childhood education course we are learning that developing ways of having healthy social interactions is so important for children.

D. Various societies have varied socializing skills among their members. It does not mean that one culture is superior to others. It just depends on the way that the civilization under study has progressed. A civilization which has cultivated its young generation with a common set of rules and a uniform educational system is more likely to be at harmony. But on the other hand in the United States of America each minor community brings its culture, its ethnicity and their customs. Having so many socializing influences makes the society more tolerant.

E.  My boyfriend used to go out clubbing all the time. But I’m an introvert and I can’t stand that way of easy living.  I told him how it made me feel but he says he wants to start going out more, he says socializing is part of his path in life. I asked him what it would be like if we had our own place, he said he would be working all day and then out socializing every night except for the weekends, then he would spend it with me, this is what he would be like if we lived together.

F.  Every time I use Myspace, Facebook or Bebo, I have a chance to socialize. I use these websites to talk to old friends and make new friends, but the thing is I never ever get that chance to meet a friend, it would be cool to try that, but I don’t know what socializing websites guarantee that, I would like a safe teen site, where I can meet and make cool mates.

G. There are two types of socializing, depending on the nature of factors that influence them. One is positive when a person learns through good and happy experiences. Parents teaching their kids from their experiences, learning from books or from peers are some example of positive socializing. Positive socializing can take on the form of natural socializing and planned socializing.

I have a problem socializing with girls

I try to follow the rule ‘treat others the way you want to be treated’. But the thing I’ve realized is that a lot less seems to bother me than bothers girls. If a girl told me something like ‘I really like you but you’re in a dead end job and I am accustomed to a more expensive lifestyle therefore I wouldn’t compromise.’ I would just say okay.

I don’t know, but the way I am, I prefer if people tell me the truth like that so at least I know what’s wrong and maybe I can do better next time. However with girls I noticed telling the truth gets me hated. Girls call me rude and everything. I started lying to girls in college recently and I managed to get back relations pretty easily so I can imagine why lots of guys do it.
The interesting thing is the girls seem to suspect that I’m lying but they still smile and go along with it anyway. Telling girls what they want to hear gets me much further than I used to get. I always had difficulty lying to people because of my morals but these results are astonishing. Women always shun me for telling the cold hard truth so I didn’t know what to do. So I just started doing what got results.

A 7         The guy tries to follow his own rule.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        Girls don’t worry much about many things as the guy thinks.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        Many girls told him that they prefer a more expensive lifestyle.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        If a girl explains her choice to date or not, the guy just submits.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        The guy likes being told what the real matter is.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        All girls like the truth about them as the guy finds it.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        Girls find the guy rude as he tells openly his opinion.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         Telling lies makes all business with girls easier according to the guy’s opinion.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3 (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Joe.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

Задание А7-А14

А7 – 3; A8 – 1; A9 – 3; A10 – 1; A11 – 1; A12 – 2; A13 – 1; A14 – 1

Раздел 3

Задание В4-В12

B4 – would like; B5 – to hire; B6 – to escort; B7 – longer; B8 – women; B9 – spending; B10 - are taught; B11 – have been choosing; B12 – best.

Задания В13-В18

B13 – behavioural; B14 – interacting; B15 – religious; B16 – important; B17 – unconsciously; B18 – children.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Hello Joe,

I am glad to receive your letter as it’s been a long time you wrote to me. You mentioned your new school. It’s nice to have everything new as you have a chance to turn over a new leaf in your life. But remember what ever you do that’ll build your new reputation. You should try to do your best at your studies even if you had problems in your old school.

You have also asked about my school. I go to a day school. We have a class of twenty two pupils and some of them are my friends. I like my school as we have interesting lessons and the teachers are also very professional.

Yours,

Josephina

Test 2

Досуг и увлечения молодежи

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. The main point
2. The Net influence
3. Lack of choice
4. Wild way of entertaining
5. The top five
6. Media communication
7. Mobile media entertainment
8. Modern interests

А.  Between December 2003 and December 2005, total TV reach declined but the biggest fall was among young people – it fell by 2.9% for 16 –24 year-olds. During 2005, reach declined by 2.2% in that age group. Reach is defined as at least 15 minutes of consecutive TV viewing in a week. Industry figures say the decline could be due to the growth of the internet. DVDs and gaming could also be factors, they said.

В.  Digital Spy is a showbiz, entertainment and digital media community. It is the UK’s largest independent entertainment website generating over 90 million monthly page impressions. Digital Spy is also renowned for its extensive and unique coverage of Big Brother each year. The discussion forums have more than 290,000 registered users and 28.3 million posts.

С. Young people (8–18) devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week), increasing by one hour and seventeen minutes a day over the past five years, according to a new study, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, designed and analyzed by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Stanford University researchers.

The increase in media use is driven in large part by ready access to mobile devices like cell phones and iPods. Young people now spend more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones (a total of 49 min. daily) than they spend talking on them (33 min.).

D. When I plan my parties, I spend time thinking about the menu, the music, the table settings, centerpieces and all the other little details that go into making a wonderful event. But the first thing I really focus on is my guests. After all, that’s the real reason for all the rest. They are usually my friends and I try to do my best to adjust my party to each of our company.

E.  He writes a blog, downloads Korean television shows, manages two Web sites devoted to music and plays an online game called Rongguang Hospital, at Baidu.com. “I started doing a lot of this when I was about 11 years old,” says Mr. Li, a freshman at the Shanghai Maritime University. “Now, I spend most of my leisure time on the Internet,” he says. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

F.  Additionally, anyone under 18 and out of childhood has severely limited options when it comes to entertainment. Just about everybody has experienced the frustration of being under 18 and having nowhere to go apart from the movies or the zoo. Most young people are interested in popular music, but beyond their TV and radio, there’s very little offered to them. Essentially, any licensed premises are out of bounds which creates an enormous void in popular music options.

G. This survey was done in March 2010 (Term 1), and so it is not surprising that summer Hollywood blockbusters featured in the films listed by students as the most enjoyable film they’d watched recently. The top 5 films were Alice in Wonderland, Avatar, Shutter Island, Valentine’s Day and The Hangover. It is interesting to note that 3 of the top 5 films have unrestricted ratings.

In most ways, Sarah McCarthy is your average high schooler. She has a job, college plans, but also a peculiar passion for a 16-year-old: She’s a vinyl junkie. And none of that hipster new stuff. To this senior high school student, there’s nothing like the raw crackle, the depth of sound, her delicate hand on diamond-tipped stylus to spin from the dusty stash of records she found in the basement of her grandfather.

“He gave me his receiver and speaker system and told me to listen to it the way it was made to be listened to,” McCarthy said. “I’ve turned a lot of my friends on to it. They come over a lot to listen with me.”

At a time when parents feel positively prehistoric as they explain how to use plastic ice-cube trays or speak of phones with cords and dials, this teen knows what a record is. Not only that, she knows the difference between a 45 and an LP. She met her boyfriend in a record shop and now works there.

“Listening to old music remastered to a newer format is almost comical,” Sarah said. “They weren’t meant to be digitalised. Listening to Jimi Hendrix on my iPod doesn’t capture his endlessly deep guitar solos quite like a 33 LP of ‘Blues’ does.”

This girl’s in love with vinyl, and she’s not the only member of Generation Digital with an ear for records.

A 7         Sarah is no way an ordinary girl.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        Sarah’s hobby is collecting vinyl records.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        Sarah’s granny gave all the records to her.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        Sarah’s friends also enjoy her hobby.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        Sarah also collects phones with cords and dials.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        Sarah’s hobby helped her to find a job.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        Music of the 60-s is not meant for CDs.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         iPod is a device which can show all the beauty of a guitar solo.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Roy.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

Задание А7-А14

A7 – 2; A8 –1; A9 – 3; A10 – 1; A11 – 2; A12 – 1; A13 – 1; A14 – 2.

Раздел 3

Задание В4-В12

B4 – is spreading;  B5 – contains;  B6 – lyrics;  B7 – depressing;  B8 – beliefs; B9 – themselves; B10 – listening; B10 – remember B11 – listening; B12 – others.

Задания В13-В18

B13 – entertainment;  B14 – Recently; B15 – exposure;  B16 – meanings; B17 – objectionable; B18 – youth.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Hello, Roy.

I am glad to receive a letter from you. As for hostels you are writing about, I think, it is a good way for young people to travel. You are able to save money, meet new friends and spend the best time of your life. If you come up with an idea to go somewhere, you may pack your bag and move on.

I do have friends in other countries. When I travel around Europe visiting them or sightseeing I prefer to stay not in a fashionable hotel, but in a hostel just like you and some of my friends. It looks like a student dormitory where several people live all together in one room.

See you soon,

Mike.

Test 3

Взаимоотношения в семье

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. BUILDING NEW RELATIONS

2. RENT A GRANNY

3. CARE AND SUPPORT

4. KEEPING FAMILY TOGETHER

5. PLAYING FAVOURITES

6. GOING OUT TOGETHER

7. FAMILY VIOLENCE

8. DIFFICULT RELATIVE

1. Of course, as your children grow, marry and have children of their own, it is not as easy to spend each holiday together. Be flexible and either alternate holidays or pick a few specific holidays where the entire family will be together. Sometimes it sounds like an overwhelming feat, especially if you have a large family, but as I said, children, even when they become adults, need those special occasions and traditions and they will go out of their way to make sure they happen.
2. If you are lucky enough to have a sister, you already know that is a special bond unlike any other. Many factors can affect your relationship with your sister as you get older, however, such as age differences, geographic location, new family responsibilities - even sibling rivalry!
3. If your sister-in-law is much younger than you, then it will be very easy for you to win her over. Little girls love spending time with their big brother’s girlfriends, and you’re this little girl’s big brother’s wife, so she’s going to be elated to spend time with you. Play together with Barbie dolls, or ask her to help you decorate some Christmas cookies. Become her friend, and take an active interest in her, and she will love you forever.
4. When parents are surveyed on the subject of favoritism, nearly all respondents say that despite their best efforts to the contrary, they have favored one child over another at least occasionally. “I see the frustration and behavior problems in our oldest child resulting from the favoritism their father shows our youngest child,” said one parent in response to a recent Vision survey on the topic. “It is a very serious problem in our family.”
5. A new "grannies-for-rent" service in Poland brings together elderly people without families, and people who miss having real grandparents. A local University for the Elderly set up the programme, which aims to benefit people from all generations. 
6. Unfortunately for many, home can be anything but a safe haven. Men and women alike may find their home a fierce battleground. For children it may be where they are most vulnerable to assault, misuse or deprivation, ironically at the very hands of those who have a duty to safeguard and nourish them. Even the elderly may have reason to fear those who should be their caretakers.
7. Parents give an enormous amount to their children, and as a result they’re extremely invested in them, in helping them grow and thrive. They look out for their interests, stay up with them when they’re sick, clean up their messes when they’re sick - all of that investment helps the child grow and feel secure.

Frequency of Cheating

Relationship cheating is a very common occurrence. If you haven’t experienced it yet, there’s a good chance you eventually will.

I found it difficult to track down good cheating statistics. Slightly more than half of all married people will cheat on their spouses at some point in their lives. Men apparently cheat more often than women, but the gap isn’t huge.

Most of the time cheating does occur, the other spouse doesn’t know about it, with women being in the dark slightly more often than men.

That’s if you’re married. If you’re in a committed relationship but aren’t married, then I’d imagine that the odds of cheating are even higher. Partly I say that because cheating is more common when you’re younger and becomes less likely as you age.

The big game-changer here is the Internet, which makes even 10-year old stats seem very dated now. Recent surveys suggest that most people have flirted online at one point or another, that when people spend time in chat rooms they’re usually motivated by romantic interest, and that about a third of adults have had real relations as a result of a connection that began online.

In the USA alone, tens of millions of people cheat on their primary relationship partners. Most of the time when people cheat, they hide it from their partners, and they usually succeed in doing so, not because they’re so great at keeping secrets but mainly because their partners fail to recognize and acknowledge the telltale signs.

Statistically speaking, if you get involved in committed relationships or marriage, the odds are better than 50–50 that you’re eventually going to cheat at some point in your life. And you’ll probably hide it from your primary partner, and you’ll probably get away with it.

Of course you can decline to join this group if you desire so. However, there’s still a good chance you’ll end up in a relationship with someone else who’s a member, and you probably won’t know. Or you’ll know, but you’ll retreat into denial about it.

A 7         People cheat each other often enough.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        Women are less cheaters than men.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        People always know when they are cheated.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        Cheating is very typical for teenagers.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        The Net made cheating more difficult.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        Online relations are a good beginning for future dates.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        Most people hide the fact of cheating their partners.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         People never know why they cheat their partners.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Molly.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

6 – extra

Задание А7–А14

A7 – 1; A8 – 1; A9 – 2; A10 – 3; A11 – 2; A12 – 1; A13 – 1; A14 – 3.

Раздел 3

Задание В4-В12

B4 – are; B5 – has made; B6 – is preventing; B7 – keeping; B8 – better; B9 – creating; B10 – to play; B11 – will get; B12 – organize.

Задания В13-В18

B13 – relationships; B14 – privacy; B15 – unannounced; B16 – perfectly; B17 – healthy; B18 – fairly.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Dear Molly,

I’m glad you’ve finally written to me. I do remember you’ve a big family. I think it’s so good to have time together in every possible way. You seem to enjoy each other’s company. If it’s a problem to find a place to spend a weekend you may stay home and read a book or watch a family film. You may also play some games like football outside if the weather is nice.

As for our family we seldom spend time together. Mom prefers to watch serials or look through a magazine, dad works a lot and spends almost every weekend in the office, so I usually go out with my friends.

See you soon,

Mike.

Test 5

Внешность

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. GAMER APPEARANCE OPTIONS
2. NOWADAYS APPEARANCE COMES FIRST
3. INDIVIDUALISM IS BETTER THAN IMITATION
4. BUYING SCREEN APPEARANCE
5. HOROSCOPE PREDOMINANCE
6. COMMON APPEARANCE FOR A GREAT MAN
7. PERSONALITY DICTATES APPEARANCE
8. NEVER KNOWS WHICH WAY TO LOOK

A  However, some people become so insecure because of unfair judgment passed on them based on their appearance, that they actually begin using their appearance as a tool to hide who they really are. That’s unnatural and the person they turn into ends up being quite unlikable to those outside their group most of the time. We were all born the way we were for a reason. Granted, it may be a reason we don’t yet understand, but there is a reason and instead of trying to run from our differences and fit in with everyone else, we should understand who we are. That will bring us that much closer to finding the answer, to why we are the way we are.

B  Aries – is mostly of medium height and athletically built. The head and forehead are standing out. Eyebrows are bushy. His temper is fiery. Such person is a ground breaker in everything. He is very active and energetic, prefers to act then think of his deeds. The head injuries may take place.

C  With all of the character customization options that you get with Skyrim, it’s easy to go overboard and choose an appearance that seems exciting at first, but that quickly loses its appeal. If you’ve already invested dozens of hours in your character, earned a ton of gold, and completed numerous quests, it’s not surprising if you don’t want to go back and do it all over again with a new character just to change the way you look. Fortunately, there is a way to change your character’s name and appearance later in the game by using the console. You can also use this to change your sex if you want, just don’t change your race!

D  When he was forty-one years of age Wesley was described by Dr. Kennicott as being “neither tall nor fat. … His black hair, quite smooth and parted very exactly, added to a peculiar composure in his countenance, showed him to be an uncommon man.” Tyerman says, “In person Wesley was rather below the middle size, but beautifully proportioned, without an atom of superfluous flesh; yet muscular and strong, with a forehead clear and smooth, a bright penetrating eye, and a lovely face, which retained the freshness of its complexion to the latest period of his life.”

E  Hello, I was wondering does anyone know if it’s possible to get the Cleric armour appearance from the character creation screen? I’ve found that you can get ones similar to it by buying or finding half plates that have the full plate icon, but I haven’t found the exact appearance so far. It’s the one with the chain robe and the armoured shoulders and neck piece with the tabard over the top, it’s really a driving incentive for me to find this armour if possible, also does anyone know if the Paladin armour from the character creation screen exists in the game? I play on the Sarlona server and my character is named Grimand Oathhammer, if anyone has either of these armours and they are sellable, would they be willing to sell or trade with me?

F  If you are good, personality comes naturally. No matter what color, race or religion you belong to, if you are a good human being, you will never be alone. All you need is to believe in what you do, and do it with complete dedication, honesty and love. And, your efforts will be rewarded. If you are good at something, believe in your talent, don’t look back. If you want to, you can! This is the kind of confidence, you get when you believe in your strengths and values. Every individual is a different package and everyone has a personality.

G  Appearance speaks a lot for you than personality. For instance when you appear for an interview, the interviewer will judge your appearance before he gets to know your personality. Suppose you are meeting your potential in-laws for the first time, you are dressed in a dirty jeans, sandals and shaggy hair, believe me you will not a get a wife! You need to look presentable for you to be taken seriously. First of all from the description above, you will be expressing yourself as a disorganized person. I think appearance is very important.

Why Some Don’t Care About Their Appearance

Despite the extremely superficial nature of this society there are still people who are able to avoid the notion that you have to adapt to a particular standard of beauty mainly because they are comfortable in their own skin. To outsiders it might appear that these individuals don’t care at all what they look like when the reality is that they simply have different priorities, and so even if their appearance doesn’t feature very highly on their list it doesn’t mean that they give no consideration to their appearance whatsoever.

For some individuals appearance is extremely important because it gives them an edge. They may already feel confidence when they are with colleagues and friends, but looking good gives them the extra boost they need.

Other people don’t attribute that much importance to appearances, especially if they have a laid-back attitude, are confident in themselves, and don’t have a job which requires power-dressing. This doesn’t mean they don’t care about their appearance; just that they have better things to do with their time than dressing up when all they are going to do is sit behind a desk all day.

Some people do care about their appearance, although it may not look that way to others. There are individuals who possess their own unique sense of style, which might entail showing off their tattoos and piercings, as well as wearing clothes which don’t seem to go together and look rather scruffy. However, these individuals may well belong to their own ‘tribe’ and this is their uniform. As far as their fellow ‘members’ are concerned they are one of them, and are dressed to reflect this. The rest of the world might think these individuals don’t care about their appearance, but usually the opposite is true.

Of course, there are those who really don’t care what they look like, and usually justifiably so. If you’re homeless, have a drink or drug problem, or a mental health issue, you can be forgiven for not making your appearance a priority.

Unfortunately, everybody is judged by their appearance in this society, so that if you don’t fit in with what is expected you are usually written off as being a bit weird. Everybody has their ups and downs, though, and surely nobody spends every second of their life trying to look their best. There are occasions when you’re sick or are grieving and feel down, so that the last thing on your mind is your appearance. Only the people closest to you are able to judge if you are ‘yourself’ or not, though, since strangers see you for a split second without comprehending how you are feeling at any given moment.

Most people do care about their appearance when they are in good spirits and things are going well in their life because they want to demonstrate that they belong to this society, which generally means conforming to certain standards in terms of their appearance. There may be some who decide to ignore convention, but these tend to be in the minority, while very few individuals don’t care at all what others think about the way they look.

A 7         Some people don’t care about their looks as they find it unimportant.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        For some people good appearance means additional points in their salary.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        There are people who think dressing up is useless for their job.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        Tattoos and piercings can be taken as a sign of haut couture.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        Some people don’t look proper but the same as their friends.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        Men are usually preoccupied by bigger problems than appearance.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        Only strangers can make a just decision about your look.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         Few people are inattentive to the norms of appearance in society.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Maurice.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

8 – extra

Задание А7–А14

A7 –1; A8 – 3; A9 – 1; A10 – 2; A11 – 1; A12 – 3; A13 – 2; A14 – 1.        

Раздел 3

Задание В4–В12

B4 – Character’s; B5 – To change; B6 – is located; B7 – Type; B8 – created; B9 – making; B10 – including; B11 – messing up; B12 – will be prompted.

Задания В13-В18

B13 – saying; B14 – charmed; B15 – personality; B16 – grooming; B17 – appealing; B18 – unkempt.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Dear Maurice,

I’m happy to receive a letter from you. I hope everything’s ok. It may be right to show only beautiful people on TV as you think. They really look attractive and may enlarge the audience of the programme. But it may turn out that good looks are the only thing they have. But that is not enough for a good show to be the best.

As for your party it is a chance for you to check whether appearance is everything or not. Anyway you should wear something you find beautiful, some smart dress, but no champagne. It can only spoil everything.

See you soon,

Maurice.

Test 7

Покупки. Карманные деньги

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. COMBINE ENTERTAINMENT AND SHOPPING
2. MONEY IS NOT A PROBLEM
3. SHOPPING AND SERVICES
4. FASHION FOR KIDS
5. BRITAIN’S SPECIAL OFFER
6. BEST WAYS OF SHOPPING
7. ART IN SHOPPING
8. ECO SHOPPING

1. One of London’s most high-profile eco shops, Eco Age was set up by siblings Nicola and Livia Giuggioli (Colin Firth’s wife). The shop in Chiswick stocks 1700 eco-friendly, fairly traded, recyclable and durable products including gifts, gadgets, fashion and furniture…
2. Department stores are a London speciality. From Harrods to Harvey Nichols, Selfridges to Liberty, they are located across the city, stocking everything from footwear to furnishing and clothes to caviar. Most London department stores also have cafés, restaurants or bars – perfect when you need to recharge your batteries after an extended shopping session. Some even offer you the chance to unwind with a luxurious spa or beauty treatment. You’ll also find extensive cosmetics departments as well as bridal wear in the majority of larger stores.
3. Theatre De La Mode is a dynamic fusion of paper sculpture and fashion. Theatre de la Mode has collaborated with paper sculptor Andrew MacGregor to create an exhibition of sculpture, dedicated to the jacket. Later in the week, Melanie Porter’s pop-up store will showcase the designer’s stunning new collection of unique, contemporary designed chairs. Sourcing chairs from across the UK at auctions and markets, Porter transforms these pieces of forgotten furniture into beautiful works of art. Porter undertakes everything from the restoration stage to the individual upholstery, producing a one-of-a-kind piece to treasure.
4. There are many London food markets selling specialist and organic foodstuffs.
   So whether you’re searching for unusual ingredients, or just fancy treating yourself to some home-made delicacies, take a look at some at London’s best food markets. For example, the award-winning Borough Market is one of the largest food markets in the city, spreading under the railway arches at London Bridge. It’s a gourmet’s paradise, offering top quality produce and artisan foods from all over Britain and the continent.
5. If you want your toddler to look as stylish as Suri Cruise and the Beckham boys, head to Selfridges where you can pick up your favourite designer clothes in miniature. Juicy Couture, Diesel, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein are just some of the top name brands available for little people in the famous Oxford Street store.
6. Whether you’re looking to shop, dine, stroll, be entertained or experience some unique heritage, there’s plenty of things to do in London’s Covent Garden. At the heart of Covent Garden is the market with its quirky craft stalls, boutiques and restaurants. The central piazza has a thriving café culture and is buzzing with outlandish street entertainers and fun events all day, every day.
7. London is a great place to shop for the latest fashions, even if you’re on a budget. London’s high streets are packed with fantastic shops where you can bag a cheap bargain. And if you’re after cut-price designer labels, London’s regular sales are well worth a visit. This low-budget brand is massively popular with dedicated followers of fashion. In terms of quality, you get what you pay for but it’s perfect for bargain fashion that you’re only planning to wear a couple of times. You’ll often find designer-inspired pieces appearing on the rails just weeks after their catwalk debut. Stock changes constantly, so if you see something you like, snap it up!

Interviewing Pilotto

Pilotto and his design partner Christopher De Vos have their own studio, with scrupulously ordered mood boards of digital computer-aided designs, and wide, high tables with samples spread across them.

It’s a far away from the Vyner Street cupboard room where I met them five years ago, when they represented a young label singled out by Time Out as one to watch for spring/summer 2007. Back then, half-Austrian, half-Italian Pilotto and half-Belgian, half-Peruvian De Vos had just secured a first buyer for their exquisitely printed collection – Seven, an adventurous boutique in New York. Now, the brand has more than 30 buyers including Liberty, Harvey Nichols and Colette in Paris, and counts Samantha Cameron and Michelle Obama as fans.

How have you made the transition from the tiny label of five years ago to the global brand you’re managing today?

Peter Pilotto: ‘A lot of that is thanks to the Centre for Fashion Enterprise which supports and incubates young fashion businesses. It gave us security – two years not to worry about rent. It gave us a studio, the use of the sewing machines and facilities. And, very importantly, it also gave us a lot of advice about accounting. As a young designer, you don’t consider the fact that if you sell a lot in a season, that can be the riskiest moment. It can mess you up in January when you have to pay your manufacturers but you haven’t delivered to clients yet. It can all be over if you don’t manage the moment right – that’s what the CFE is there for. Young designers just think: Great, I sold a lot. And not: ‘I’m going to have to pay people a lot of money before anyone pays me.’

You’ve always shown in London. Do you feel under pressure to go to Paris and get access to a different kind of buyer and exposure?

CDV: ‘No. Not any more. We get the buyers here. I think the buyers go to every fashion week and make up their minds while they travel. Then they like to make their orders in Paris at the end of it. Even the London stores do that.

PP: ‘We are happy in London – the support has been amazing. That’s why London Fashion Week is so incredible – because all these young designers are able to show and start a business, which would be almost impossible in Paris financially. Here, because of the CFE it’s easy. We’ve been through a struggle, but still, we’re managing.’

Do you feel like there’s a kind of uprising in British fashion at the moment?

Both: ‘Totally!’

CDV: ‘I think it’s exciting that people are now staying in London, and keeping it strong. People seem to be coming back. Also, it’s London Fashion Week, but a lot of us are from everywhere.’

Yes, I was going to ask about that. How did a label with a Belgian, Italian, Peruvian and Austrian background come to be seen as British?

PP: ‘Because we’re here – we’re a London-based label. We started it here right after I graduated.’

CDV: ‘We also manufacture a lot in London. Yes, it’s expensive; the things we make here are the expensive, technical pieces. We used to manufacture everything here but now for some of the separates we’re more careful of the cost.’

A 7         Pilotto and Christopher have made a great career for a short time.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        Pilotto and Christopher have the most famous clients in all countries in the world.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        The designers are very thankful to the CFE for all they’ve done for them.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        The designers appreciated the CFE business advice as the most important.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        First the designers were under pressure away from London fashion market.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        Pilotto and his partner think they could have started their business in Paris.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        London is becoming one of the fashion capitals again.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         The designers have a British brand as they manufacture everything in Britain.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Marty.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

6 – extra

Задание А7–А14

A7 – 1; A8 – 3; A9 – 1; A10 – 1; A11 – 1; A12 – 2; A13 – 1; A14 – 2.

Раздел 3

Задание В4–В12

B4 – is rewarded; B5 – houses; B6 – nineteenth; B7 – will find; B8 – are used; B9 – its; B10 – is; B11 – has been; B12 – London’s.

Задания В13–В18

B13 – hostess; B14 – directly; B15 – giving; B16 – to be impressed; B17 – diners; B18 – smoked.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Dear Marty,

Thank you for your letter. It’s a pleasure to receive it. I agree pocket money is always not enough but you should think of it yourself. It’s your duty not your parents to support you with money. If you need more you can find some week-end or part-time job. It’ll help you not to waste your time and think of your expenses.

And do not forget about your exams. Arrange your time to be able to prepare well for each subject. I usually use the help of my sister who asks me questions so that’s the way I revise the material. I try to do my best as I do care for my results.

See you soon,

Maurice.

Test 10

Проблемы выбора профессии и роль иностранного языка

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. BAD EXPERIENCE AT EARLY AGE
2. ANOTHER CHANCE
3. CONSTANT TRAINING
4. ANOTHER POINT TO LEARN BEFORE GRADUATION
5. MAKE ANOTHER CHOICE
6. TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE
7. CREATIVE JOB HUNTING
8. ASSESS YOURSELF

1. I’m Jason Boylan and I’ve been in the workforce for about 14 years. I was laid off from the auto sector and now I’m in the Second Career program. When I was fired, I felt like I was a little bit lost and scared to make a step in my life. I heard about the Second Career program at the assessment centre in our local community. I chose Culinary Management because there are a lot of jobs created from the culinary department. After graduating from Fleming College, I have a long term goal to either owning my own restaurant or becoming an executive chef somewhere - which has always been a dream of mine to do. The Second Career program has made it very comfortable for me to go to that next step.
2. Before you can make a career choice you have to learn about yourself. Your values, interests and skills, in combination with certain personality traits, will make some careers especially suitable for you and some particularly unsuitable. You can use career tests, to generate a list of occupations that are deemed appropriate. Some people choose to have career counselors or other career development professionals check these tests but many try to use free career tests that are available on the Web.
3. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly publishes articles in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Each article contains information regarding the nature of the work, working conditions, employment outlook, education and training, and earnings for that occupation. A solid educational foundation is important, although, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, it is not as important as experience especially in such professions as actors. However, even actors with well established careers polish their skills in acting classes with other professionals. Dancers spend many hours in training as do musicians.
4. A survey by the TUC found that employees in small businesses are more satisfied at work. They were also found to be the most committed and loyal to their organisations. They also felt most engaged by their employer and had the most freedom to choose their working patterns. There were far fewer reports of bullying, lower stress levels and fewer complaints about long working hours. The Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses said ‘In terms of the way they treat their staff, small businesses consistently out perform their bigger competitors. Small business owners know that the greatest asset is their staff and they are more likely to treat them as individuals and recognize their needs. By having a committed and loyal workforce the smallest business has a bigger advantage.
5. I have enjoyed learning how to sell myself, tapping into my skills, I previously was unaware, were so important to future employers. Also, developing a greater understanding of what the employers want to see and hear on a CV and during an interview has given me confidence. I feel that the relaxed nature of this course to do assignments and quizzes at your own leisure makes this module very appealing as both a learning process and personal development. I also like the idea that anyone can do it alongside their degree, even in final year when employment possibilities really are at the forefront of our minds.
6. A graduate had been trying to get into investment banking, but without success and had exhausted all the normal routes. As a last resort, he had 100 postcard-sized CVs printed. He then went round the “Square Mile” in the City, where all the main financial organizations in London are located and proceeded to place one of these CVs under the windscreen of every Rolls Royce and top of the range BMW and Mercedes he came across. Next day, he had several phone calls offering him interviews from the senior executives whom the cars belonged to. Note that we are not advocating this approach: one graduate jobseeker put up 200 poster sized CVs around Hull and ended up being fined for bill posting!
7. As you begin the journey of choosing a career, you may be surprised to discover the ill effects of negative childhood experiences coloring your decision-making process. Tragic situations during childhood, such as extreme poverty, death, and other traumatic events affect individuals at the chemical level, strongly influencing their overall health and their choices as adults. They may believe their options are limited to careers that have no prestige or that they will be stuck in the same career forever, according to the Career Development Center. Young adults who are at the effect of traumatic childhood life events may believe they are not allowed to fail and, if they do, there is no chance of succeeding in another career.

Second Career

Jeff Statham: This is my car that I’ve had for years now, made in Canada. I worked in the automotive industry for about the last 12 or 13 years, a plant in Whitby. We produced the seats for the cars built here in Oshawa. Continuous layoffs - and eventually I got hit by them - and now I’m here. I’m currently in the Second Careers program here at Durham College. I’m in the law and security administration program and my ultimate goal is to become a police officer. It’s been great. I love the program.

Ted Dionne (Instructor, Durham College): It gives someone like Jeff an opportunity to do something that he may have wanted to do. He probably had it in the back of his mind that he wanted to do something different visualizing what you want to do in the future …

Jeff Statham: I’ve wanted to go back to school for years but with shifts it’s hard to do. Money is not always there to do it so this Second Careers covers my schooling and it’s a perfect opportunity for me.

Jeanette Barrett (Second Career rep): The Second Career provides financial support to go back to school to do up to a 2-year program. Our Second Career advisor keeps in touch with them.

Jeff Statham: I’ve never really had report cards at work worthy of putting on the fridge, but at the end of my first semester I ended up on the dean’s list, so now my mother finally has a report card on her fridge.

John Milloy (Minister of Training, Colleges & Universities): For workers like Jeff, Second Career is ideal. We have a network of service providers throughout the province called Employment Ontario and they serve as an entry point for anyone who is looking for a job in the province. We work with them to find the best course of action.

Jeff Statham: We have two kids at home that we have to make sure get their homework done, so I’ll make sure I’ll get my homework done as well. Just being in school now I feel a hundred times better, so I’m really looking forward to whatever the future holds.

A 7         Jeff Statham has lost his job in the car industry.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        Jeff Statham has been studying to get a new profession.        

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        Jeff Statham finds the Second Career program difficult to cope with.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        The Second Career program gives a chance to take up a profession of a dream.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        Jeff Statham wanted to work at school.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        Jeff Statham can only cover the schooling program in the Second Career.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        One should have a financial support from his company to do in the Second Career.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         Jeff Statham has tuned out to be an A student.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Patricia.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

5 – extra

Задание А7–А14

A7 – 1; A8 – 1; A9 – 3; A10 – 1; A11 – 2; A12 – 2; A13 – 2; A14 – 3.

Раздел 3

Задание В4–В12

B4 – to have; B5 – bachelor’s; B6 – need; B7 – related; B8 – is required; B9 – training; B10 – want; B11 – faster; B12 – their.

Задания В13–В18

B13 – advertising; B14 – directors; B15 – advertisement; B16 – really; B17 – creative; B18 – position.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Dear Patricia,

Thank you for writing to me. I am always glad to know the latest news. I think your mom is right to see the advantage of knowing foreign languages for your future career. You may easily find a job in some foreign company or work abroad if necessary.

I am really surprised that you want to change the color of your walls. If I had such a choice I would take some pastel paints to create a peaceful atmosphere in the room. I don’t think it’s a good idea to paint the walls by yourself. It’s too difficult. But it’s up to you to choose it.

See you soon,

Maurice.

Test 11

Страна/страны изучаемого языка и родная страна.

Географическое положение, климат, население, города и сёла, достопримечательности

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. BAD WEATHER WARNINGS
2. CALCULATING WEATHER
3. SPORTS WEATHER
4. NEW INFORMATION FROM SPACE
5. THE NAVY SERVES THE WEATHER
6. THE POWER OF WEATHER
7. WEATHER PREVENTS NEW RECORDS
8. SPEEDY WINDS

1. The Met Office and the Environment Agency are warning the public to be prepared for possible travel difficulties as many areas see 20–40 mm of rain and some areas see up to 80 mm falling by the end of Monday. Steve Willington, Met Office Chief Forecaster said: “A deep area of low pressure is moving North from the Bay of Biscay and will bring a very unsettled kind of weather to all parts of the UK this week. The public should keep up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings for their area on our website and with forecasts on TV and radio. Everyone should be prepared for the effects of heavy rain and strong winds as they combine to bring the potential for travel problems and localized flooding over the next few days.”
2. Metop-B was launched by a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, yesterday and once in orbit will collect critical data for weather forecasters, such as the Met Office. Along with its partner satellite Metop-A, it will orbit the Earth from pole to pole at an altitude of around 800 km, taking measurements including temperature, humidity and cloud properties, as well as snow and ice cover, sea surface temperature and land vegetation. EUMETSAT will take over control of the Metop-B satellite from the European Space Operations Centre on 20 September 2012, and will spend around six months checking the performance of the satellite in orbit and validating all data taken from its observations. Once this is completed the Metop-B satellite will be declared operational.
3. The Royal Navy submarines are to play a potentially important role helping map the effects of climate change deep under water in the world’s coldest environment. Very little is currently known about the areas of water beneath the ice of the Arctic as sensors for long-term monitoring are difficult to place. However, submarines, including those based at Devonport, routinely travel through these remote areas and now the information that crews gather will be made available to scientists. Tim Clarke, a marine scientist at the Ministry of Defence’s Science and Technology Laboratory, said it would make a big difference. “What this represents is the availability of important scientific data, previously inaccessible, which can only move the study forward,” he said.
4. One of the most famous climbers of all time, Apa Sherpa, who has conquered Everest a record 21 times, says he may not be able to do it again. Why? Because climate change is making the world’s highest and most dangerous peak unclimbable. Apa, popularly known as the ‘Super Sherpa,’ who first conquered Everest in 1989, told AFP that the absence of snow on the mountain concerns him greatly. He said:  ‘In 1989 when I first climbed Everest there was a lot of snow and ice but now most of it has just become bare rock. That, as a result, is causing more rockfalls which is a danger to the climbers’. 
5.  A major winter storm brought very strong winds across much of the UK on 3d of January, 2012. The worst affected area was southern Scotland. In this area, this storm was judged as the most severe for 13 years – since 26th of December, 1998, with wind speeds exceeding those of the recent storm of 8th of December, 2011. Very strong winds were also experienced across much of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This storm was followed by a further extremely windy period from 4th to 5th of January, 2012 – with further damaging winds across northern and eastern England. These storms followed a particularly turbulent time of weather from late November to mid-December.
6. The idea of creating a weather forecast using dynamic equations was first put forward by English mathematician, Lewis Fry Richardson, in 1922. He realized the dynamics of the atmosphere could be modelled by doing thousands of equations, thus being able to predict the weather. In a pre-computer age, however, the only way to apply his numerical method was by hand. He estimated it would take 64,000 people to perform the calculations needed to make a forecast in time for it to be useful. While this wasn’t practical, Richardson’s theory formed the basis for weather forecasting as technology improved.
7. The weather can have a huge impact on sports – from cycling to surfing, cricket to beach volleyball. As the UK’s national weather service, we’re always there when it matters, applying our science so that people can make the most of the weather. Many sports are affected by the weather in some way and conditions are important to athletes and spectators alike. Sometimes the impact of weather on sport is clear for all to see. It can help or hinder - headwinds make running and cycling harder, while tailwinds help push us forward. Some world records are invalid if set under certain conditions. Most of those participating in indoor sports like squash or badminton aren’t too worried, but for sports like hockey or windsurfing, the weather is central to the entire event.

Tube Map Used to Plot Londoners’ Life Expectancy

A version of the Tube map has been produced to show how life expectancy varies from station to station. The contrast it depicts between Tube stops is severe, with the variation in life expectancies of children born near stations only minutes apart being years different. The map - called Lives on the Line - was created by University College London by researcher Dr James Cheshire and shows some surprising results. For example, it shows there is a 20-year difference in life expectancy between those born near Oxford Circus and others born close to some stations on the Docklands Light Railway.

Newborns around Star Lane are predicted to live, on average, for 75.3 years in contrast to 96.4 years for those near Oxford Circus. There is a six-year difference between Pimlico and Vauxhall – both the stations on the Victoria line, but on the opposite sides of the River Thames. In 2008, the London Health Observatory showed that if travelling East on the Tube from Westminster, every two Tube stops represented more than a year of life expectancy lost. This work inspired Dr Cheshire’s latest research, which uses data based on government statistics showing life expectancy at birth for those living around the stations.

“I wondered if different patterns emerged across the Tube network,” he said. He said he chose to use the Tube map as “it’s famous the world over and something most Londoners can relate to”. Dr Cheshire said the map showed that “if you’re poor as a child, your diet may be poor and sadly it can follow you for the rest of your life”.

Other differences depicted on the map are no less striking. For example, if you travel eastbound between Lancaster Gate and Mile End – 20 minutes on the Central line – life expectancy decreases by 12 years.

But not all the Tube lines show a trend depending on which direction you travel. “London is a city that’s very diverse and one of its great characteristics is that rich and poor people live side by side,” Dr Cheshire said.

A 7         Dr James Cheshire made a new map of the London Tube.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        Lives on the Line is a new novel by Dr James Cheshire about the London Tube.        

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        People are predicted to live different number of years on the opposite sides of the  River Thames.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        Dr Cheshire’s latest research was supported by the government.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        Diet is an important factor which has a great influence on life expectancy.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        Dr Cheshire used the map of the London Tube as it is very reliable for Londoners.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        Life expectancy may fall from station to station up to twelve years.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         London is a combination of the rich and the poor.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Patricia.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

6 – extra

Задание А7–А14

A7 – 2; A8 – 2; A9 – 1; A10 – 3; A11 – 1; A12 – 1; A13 – 1; A14 – 1.

Раздел 3

Задание В4–В12

B4 – has taken; B5 – its; B6 – fifth; B7 – Manchester’s; B8 – coming; B9 – taken; B10 – biggest; B11 – to live; B12 – travelling.

Задания В13-В18

B13 – proportion; B14 – buildings; B15 – Environmental; B16 – mistaken; B17 – inordinate; B18 – ahead.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Dear Patel,

It’s nice to receive another letter from you. I also like geography but I don’t think I’d like to take it as my future career. I know you are fond of travelling but it’s not quite all connected with that kind of job. You should think over all the advantages and disadvantages of your future job and what professional education you are to get for it.

As for the cycle I strongly recommend you to buy some of the latest make as you will be able to use all the facilities of the new gadgets for cycles. I am not sure of the make myself so you’d better speak with the consultant in you sports shop.

See you soon,

Carl

Test 14

Технический прогресс

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. NO LONGER FIRST
2. NEW MACHINE OF ITS OWN
3. DO NOT WORRY, JUST WAIT
4. UNSATISFIED POLITICIANS
5. FOR COMPETITION NOT FOR CUSTOMERS
6. DO YOU REALLY NEED AN EMPLOYMENT?
7. ON-LINE AND PRIVATE

8. A FREE LETTER MORNING

1. Apple should be a lot more worried about its latest bug than it appears to be. Scheduling the Do Not Disturb function in iOS has been broken since New Year’s Day and as with any error from Apple, it’s got plenty of press. The bug, caused by the way the underlying operating system handles the change in year, will fix itself by January 7 but the inconvenience is a sign post to something bigger. This isn’t the first time iOS has suffered from date-related bugs. In November 2010, iOS 4 got confused by the switch to Daylight-saving time, left alarms unadjusted and caused users to oversleep. Then in January 2011, iOS 5 suffered from a bug where non-repeating alarms set before the New Year failed to ring. Apple’s response then was the same as to the Do Not Disturb issue now – wait and it will fix itself. When something goes wrong with an Apple product, the company’s tone is often one of weary surprise that anyone is bothered, as if faults are just features you haven’t noticed before.
2. Many people have felt the awful sensation of something they thought was private on a social networking site going public. Facebook’s privacy settings are pretty secret, and frequently shift without notice. When you try to set things below the absolute maximum, it becomes difficult to work what is or isn’t private. Can friends see it? Can friends of friends see it? What I may have wanted to share as a 19-year-old student I may not want to have seen as a 24-year-old user. Without extreme, painstaking attention, it’s very hard for long term users to clean their old potentially embarrassing posts; indeed, the recent flap about private messages being shown online publicly was all traceable to old but very private posts that older users couldn’t believe they had shared openly five or six years ago.
3. The Government’s attempts to computerise the chaotic Job Centre system have taken a turn today, with the announcement that in future it will use online cookies to follow job seekers around the Internet, and make sure they are actually looking for jobs. The Job Centres will know how many searches you’ve done on the government jobs website, and if you’ve turned down any good opportunities. You can turn off the cookies, but that takes away low-skilled jobs, making it even harder for people to get out of being unemployed.
4. Vodafone subscribers were unable to send and receive emails or access the web on Friday morning following a technical fault. The outage lasted for part of the morning with Vodafone customers taking to Twitter to complain about the problem. A BlackBerry spokesman said that the problem was with Vodafone. “All BlackBerry services are operating normally but we are aware that a wider Vodafone service issue is impacting some of our BlackBerry customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa. We are supporting Vodafone’s efforts to resolve the issue as soon as possible.” Vodafone said the outage was caused by a router error and that services were being restored.
5. Apple could launch a cheaper version of the iPhone later this year, according to reports. A cheaper iPhone has been rumoured for years but, according to reports, Apple could launch the device later this year. The cheaper handset could be similar to the current model but with a cheaper, less expensive body, the Wall Street Journal reports. Apple is considering an iPhone with a polycarbonate plastic case, which would be cheaper to make than the glass iPhone 4 and 4S or the aluminium iPhone 5. The paper says Apple might still decide not to launch the device but that a cheaper iPhone is needed to help the company compete with cheap smartphones running Google’s Android operating system.
6. The world’s biggest technology companies come to Las Vegas every year hoping the products they launch will become international hits. The Japanese giants that used to dominate the industry are now rarely jackpot winners at the international Consumer Electronics Show. In an industry increasingly dominated by Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft – Sony, Sharp and Panasonic have all unveiled more misses than hits. As a consequence they are between them battling losses that will top £12bn this financial year alone. Sony hopes that its waterproof, and class-leading, mobile phone will help it turn the corner. Sharp, if it survives its admitted “material doubt” that it can service its debts, thinks big TV screens are the way forward.
7. In the land of the coffee maker, the pod is the king. Led by Nespresso and George Clooney, millions of pounds is being spent on machines that meld the convenience of quality coffee in pods with our unending love of coffee. Yet Starbucks, the chain that support that fascination, has not had a machine of its own. Until now. The Verismo 580 is a £149 machine, putting it squarely in the mid-range. Cheaper models are available, but the build quality needed to maintain the required pressure for decent coffee means this is the sort of price where good quality becomes an expectation. Indeed, with some of the excellent Nespresso machines from companies such as Magimix available for less, the Verismo ought to be fantastic. Sadly, it’s not. On the plus side, it heats up water in just 15 seconds, and is quickly ready to use.

Peter the Great

Born in Moscow, Russia on June 9, 1672, Peter the Great was a Russian czar in the late 17th

Stop talking rubbish about 3D printing

Pick up any technology magazine, and you’ll find sentimental articles about how the world is going to be completely transformed by 3D printing – everyone from Wired to the Economist has speculated on changes to society that 3D printing will bring. The ability to turn objects into data – to copy physical things – has led many people to predict an attack of 3D piracy. It has been written a lot about the criminal possibilities connected with the machines. Yesterday, the founder of Makerbot came out to say his product will “fuel the next industrial revolution”.

Having talked to a bunch of manufacturing engineers, I’m not so sure. All the enthusiasm for the “revolution” seems to come from journalist observers of the 3D printing scene, the companies offering the “revolutionary technology”, and a handful of Lefty academics thrilled by the idea of abolishing property. People actually involved in manufacturing are not so sure that it’s magic. Let’s take a British example.

There was a huge internet furore a few months back when Games Workshop, a British toy soldier manufacturer, felt it had been the world’s first victim of digital piracy, and issued a takedown notice on a 3D printing pattern for a vehicle similar to one from its Warhammer 40,000 game. A huge wave of copying, a minefield of intellectual property issues, was predicted.

In actual fact, very little of that has happened.

Patterns for model soldiers exist on file-sharing sites like the Pirate Bay. However, the economics just don’t support pirating on that scale. Unlike, say, pirating music, where the act of listening is free, printing out models costs money. A box of model soldiers goes for about £20 online, about £25 in the shops – but the plastic to print them out at home currently costs around £35, and the most common printer – the Makerbot – costs about £2,000. So an epidemic of piracy seems unlikely. Printing is also a fairly exacting process – it takes time, effort, and often you get a pile of goo at the bottom of your machine rather than the thing you wanted. Widespread physical copying won’t happen, in the same way that photocopiers didn’t lead to an epidemic of photocopying books.

The technology just isn’t there yet – even successful prints create models that look like they’ve been left on a radiator for a few hours. And if it’s not good enough for model soldiers, it’s certainly not good enough for things with complex moving parts. One engineer told me: “You have to appreciate how expensive and how specialised most factory tooling is. You can run a 3D Printer for six months and never make the same item twice.”

He thought it would be 10 to 15 years before printers able to create factory-quality products would appear, and those ones able to do in metal would probably never make it into the home. He did, however, confidently predict being able to print out parts for his BMW on the factory level ones in a few years’ time, but pointed out that those machines weren’t going to drop below a million pounds a piece any time soon, and that even if they did, the materials to make the parts at the right tolerance for a car were incredibly expensive to buy.

None of the current methods of home 3D printing – the thermal fusing of plastic filaments, using UV light to cut polymer resin, depositing glue to bind resin powder, cutting and laminating paper, or even using a laser beam to fuse metal particles – are even close to reaching the standards a machine would require. It’s all very well to upload weapon parts to the internet, but without the means to do metal you’ve printed yourself a cool accessory for your Halloween gangster costume – and if you’re stupid enough to press the trigger, it’s more likely to take your arm off than actually fire a bullet.

It strikes me that 3D printing is the microwave of manufacturing. If you look back at newspapers from the 1970s, people predicted that microwaves would be the only device in a kitchen, and that every dish would be microwaved. That never came to pass. Like microwaves, 3D printing will be important, but this isn’t the industrial revolution that techno-libertarians would have you believe.

A 7         It seems 3D printing has been spoken and argued a lot about in the press.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        According to the founder of Makerbot 3D printing will make copying physical things possible.        

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        The revolutionary technology of the 3D printing will take place in the 21st century.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        3D printing will definitely encourage pirating objects.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        The quality of 3D copied objects is rather doubtful.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        It will take a quarter of a century to make 3D printing successful.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        3D printing is technologically so difficult that it will never come home.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         3D is comparable to microwaving in its history and development.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Fillip.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

4 – extra

Задание А7–А14

A7 – 1; A8 – 1; A9 – 3; A10 – 2; A11 – 1; A12 – 1; A13 – 1; A14 –1.

Раздел 3

Задание В4–В12

B4 – fourth; B5 – more; B6 – had failed; B7 – was; B8 – is fully installed; B9 – counting; B10 – its; B11 – to stimulate; B12 – more secure.

Задания В13–В18

B13 – customers; B14 – chosen; B15 – storage; B16 – import; B17 – Amazon’s; B18 – automatically.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Dear Fillip,

I am writing to your previous letter about the iPhone. I guess everyone really wants to have one as it is very convenient. You may do a lot using an iPhone but on the other hand it is extremely expensive especially for a teen. Not everyone can afford it that’s why everyone wants it.

As for the book you are asking about, I can say that there is a wide choice in any e-library where you can easily download it from. I’ll send you one of the references. There is a list of classical and modern e-books. You’ll see yourself which one to take.

See you soon,

Gloria.

Test 14

Глобальные проблемы современности

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. Late but true
2. Dangerous art
3. Found treasure
4. Total Control
5. Famous Russian sports model
6. Trevelling for a job
7. A very historical date
8. Changing political status

1. On Monday Barack Obama will urge a bruised America to renew itself by re-winning its founding principle of opportunity equality, in the second presidential inauguration ceremony. Addressing a crowd expected to total half the 1.8 million who made a pilgrimage to Washington for his swearing-in four years ago, Mr Obama will try to set a purposeful tone for his final four years in power. “This country’s gone through some very tough times before,” he said in a video message released by the White House in advance of the ceremony. “But we always come out on the other side.” Amid terrible unemployment, he said there was “nothing that can stop America” when its people had a “fair goal” to “get a great education, get a good job, look after their kids and get some basic security”. Mr Obama will speak on Martin Luther King Day, 50 years after the civil rights leader’s rousing address at the end of his March on Washington.
2. Britain may face a flood of Romanian and Bulgarian economic migrants as in December, work permit restrictions for Romanian and Bulgarian economic migrants end, and the European Union labour market is thrown open to them. British ministers, conscious of how wrong the last government got it over Polish immigration in 2004, are refusing to reveal their projections of how many migrants may come to the UK, although one Conservative MP has estimated it to be as high as 425,000. Unexpected or not, there is a mixed opinion.
3. In the highly anticipated interview on the Oprah Winfrey Network, disgraced US cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win all seven of his Tour de France titles. In the pre-recorded interview Oprah Winfrey asked the disgraced cyclist: “In your opinion was it humanly possible to win the Tour de France without doping, seven times in a row?” “Not in my opinion,” replied Armstrong. Wearing a blue blazer and open-neck shirt, Armstrong was direct and matter-of-fact. “I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times,” said Armstrong. He escaped a few questions and refused to implicate anyone else. “I don’t want to necessarily talk about anybody else, I made my decisions, they are my mistake and I’m sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say I’m sorry for that,” he told Oprah. Either way, a story that seemed too good to be true – cancer survivor returns to win one of sport’s hardest events seven times in a row – was revealed to be just that.
4. The government of the Falklands has set a date for a referendum on the future sovereignty of the islands. On March 10, 2011 Islanders will go to vote on a simple yes or no question: “Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom?” The Government of the Falkland Islands has arranged for outside observers to monitor the referendum in order to prove it is free and fair. Argentina claims British forces stole the territory from them 180 years ago and have ruled it as a colony ever since. Islanders have predicted an overwhelming vote for “yes.” The authorities in the Falklands hope the vote to send a firm message to Argentina that islanders want to remain British.
5. Doctors were battling to save the eyesight of the director of Moscow’s world famous Bolshoi Theatre following a horrific acid attack in the street outside his home. Sergei Filin was returning home from a reception to mark the 150th birthday of famed director Konstantin Stanslavsky at about 11pm on Thursday night when the attack happened. Speaking from his hospital bed on Friday, Mr Filin said he was just getting out of his car near his home when he was approached by an unknown man who shouted at him and then threw acid in his face. “I got scared and I thought he was going to shoot me,” a bandaged Mr Filin said in an interview with Russia’s REN TV. “I turned to run, but he raced ahead of me.” The 42 year-old former ballet star said his attacker was wearing a mask and scarf to cover his face.
6. Chinese PR officers have been instructed to step-up their online activities and tap into the social-media revolution to spread “positive energy” across the Internet. Beijing’s propaganda chief gave the order at a meeting on Thursday, according to a report in the Beijing News. Beijing’s “2.06 million” propaganda workers “should make more efforts in opinion guiding on hot topics”. It is said in an apparent reference to 60,000 directly employed propaganda officials and 2 million informal collaborators, likely including students and Party members. By expanding its presence on social media sites, the Communist Party would be able to “handle hot topics effectively, strengthen the online mainstream public opinion and improve the ‘ecology’ of online public opinion.” Referring to Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, propaganda officials should: ‘Browse on Weibo, set up Weibo accounts, send Weibo messages and study Weibo.’ Beijing appeared to tighten its control over the internet by announcing new regulations that, if necessary, would require users to register their real names before using the service.
7. An amateur prospector has discovered a massive gold nugget in Australia, worth an estimated AUS $300,000 (£200,000). The man, who wants to remain anonymous, located it with a metal detector in Ballarat, in the state of Victoria. It has not been revealed exactly where the nugget, which weighs 177 ounces, was found but Ron Wheaton at Ballarat Goldfields outdoor museum says it is likely there is more gold in the region. “If you research where the gold has been in the past, yes, there’s gold to be found in Ballarat,” said Mr Wheaton. Cordell Kent, owner of The Mining Exchange Gold Shop in Ballarat, who is selling the nugget on the finder’s behalf, says it was one of the most significant in his 20 years in the business.

Peter the Great

Born in Moscow, Russia on June 9, 1672, Peter the Great was a Russian czar in the late 17th

Gerard Depardieu ‘building a wooden house so he can go fishing in Russia’

Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who took Russian citizenship after a tax dispute earlier this month, has already started building himself a home in his adopted country, a top Russian film official has said. Depardieu, who has been in the centre of the heated debate on tax exiles as France’s Socialist government looks to rise tax levels for the wealthy, was attracted to Russia not for its 13 percent flat tax rate, but for the fishing, according to the official.

“Depardieu said in his letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would like to buy a little house near Moscow,” Nikolai Borodachev, director of the state film archive Gosfilmofond, said in one of his interviews on Friday. “When he saw our countryside, birch trees, ponds with wild ducks swimming on them, where you can go fishing, he decided to settle here.” The star of Cyranо de Bergerac was so taken with the Russian countryside that he bought a plot of land in Belye Stolby, a village outside Moscow, long before Vladimir Putin handed him a passport earlier this month, Borodachev said.

“Gerard chose the plot himself. And he asked me to start building a big beautiful house, which has to be made of wood,” he said. Work on the house apparently began in August. Borodachev, who claims Depardieu as a close friend, revealed that the Frenchman set his sights on Russian citizenship a full three years before the current scandal around taxes.

“Depardieu never ran from taxes, and has already paid the French treasury 145 million euros. He talked about his desire to take Russian citizenship three years ago, when there was no law on the new tax. Even then, he wanted to live in Russia,” Borodachev said.

“He likes that in Russia you can easily communicate, regardless of class or social status. He says that he has never seen such internal freedom as there is in Russia in any other country,” he added.

Belye Stolby is in some senses a natural choice for the actor. It also houses the national film archive that Boradachev presides over, and it is just 25 minutes from the city’s busiest airport – giving the former Oscar nominee plenty of opportunity to slip back into the celebrity life style he is accustomed to. But apparently the most important consideration for the actor is the fishing.

Depardieu has also been offered a house in Mordovia, a relatively poor region known mostly for its prison colonies that he visited during his inaugural trip as a Russia citizen earlier this month.

That gift from the regional government was not Depardieu's idea, and is still under discussion, according to Borodachev. But if he does take the offer, he will want to be near the water.

“If he wants to live there they will give him a little cottage outside Saransk next to a pond so he could sit with a fishing rod,” said Borodachev. “The countryside there is very beautiful.”

To cement his status as a committed citizen, Depardieu is said to be planning to release gift versions of Russian cartoons and present them to orphans and sick children. Boradachev said there is already a script for a historical drama about Catherine the Great in which Depardieu will play cossack rebel Yemelyan Pugachev.

A 7         Gerard Depardieu has already started to build a Russian house.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        According to the official Depardieu was not attracted to Russia by its tax laws.        

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        Depardieu has always been fond of fishing even in France.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        Depardieu asked Putin to build a house for him somewhere outside Moscow.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        Depardieu made his decision to settle in Russia after admiring its wild nature.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        Depardieu has never had problems with tax laws in France before the new law.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        Depardieu wants to have another house in Mordovia.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         Depardieu is supposed to continue his filming career in Russia.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Karen.

White a letter to her and answer her 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

5 – extra

Задание А7-А14

A7 –3; A8 – 1; A9 – 3; A10 – 2; A11 – 1; A12 – 1; A13 – 1; A14 – 1

Раздел 3

Задание В4–В12

B4 – shown; B5 – have revealed; B6 – Canada’s; B7 – logos; B8 – has; B9 – were introduced; B10 – have been banned; B11– saying; B12 – went.

Задания В13-В18

B13 – searchers; B14 – management; B15 – western; B16 – basement; B17 – electrocutions; B18 – successive.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Dear Karen,

It’s nice to receive another letter from you. You are right to say that the Royal family is not just a common family but a symbol, I think. All of them together make more news in the country than any other political crises. Remember the latest accident with William and his wife. Some people start their day with reading about the Royals.

As for the trip to London you are going to take everything seems very easy to arrange if you refer to any reliable tourist company. But it may be rather expensive, I mean the whole trip. You should go in summer as you will be able to enjoy the beauty of London’s parks.

See you soon,

Marcus.

Test 15

Здоровый образ жизни

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. TRACK OF YOUR OWN STEPS
2. DANGEROUS SPORTS
3. SPACE SPORTS
4. HOW TO LIVE LONGER
5. RIGHT TIME FOR SPORTS
6. NO FAST FOOD
7. DRINK MORE
8. QUICK SKATER LEGS

A. The effect of exercise on sleep according to a study published in the February 1997 issue of “Sleep,” exercise enhanced the sleep quality of the older adult participants. Specifically, aerobic exercise can aid sleep by helping you doze off faster and sleep better. But another study, published in the June 2009 “Journal of Sleep and Sleep Disorders Research,” found that sleep didn’t improve with increased exercise. Workouts stimulate you and your metabolism, so avoid exercise right before bed. Consider body temperature as well. A cool body temperature helps to encourage sleep, so allow for a cool-down period well before bedtime. Late afternoon exercise is optimal.

B. Speed skating requires strength, precision, power and quickness. While some sports such as long-distance running require slow, steady muscle contraction, speed skating involves high-speed contractions that are considered explosive or power moves. To get speed skater legs, the Pittsburgh Speed Skating Club recommends a training program including power moves such as bounce jumps, broad jumps and jump thrust squats.

C. The U.S. Surgeon General recommends that healthy adults get 30 minutes of moderate exercise each day. By taking 10,000 steps every day, you can reach this level of activity. A pedometer is an excellent way to track your steps. It also helps establish a baseline for your normal activity level so you know how much more activity you need.

D. Once dieters decide to change their eating habits for weight loss purposes, many focus on solid foods alone. However, the amount of calories you ingest from drinks like soda, fruit juice and alcohol may be the true culprit for excess fat storage. Making simple changes to your beverage consumption habits may be the ticket to losing unwanted body fat. Good old-fashioned water is one of the best drinks to help you lose body fat. Not only is it usually free and helps cleanse toxins out of your body, but it may also help to boost your metabolism. You should drink at least six to eight glasses a day. Try adding a splash of lemon or lime to give it a zesty flavor.

E. Astronauts must maintain their physical fitness levels while they work aboard the International Space Station. Exterior equipment maintenance and repair may require energy-sapping spacewalks; astronauts must also be prepared to execute physically taxing emergency landing operations aboard their transport vehicles. At the same time, astronauts lose bone and muscle mass while they live in a gravity-free environment. A well-structured exercise program provides the astronauts with the best chance to maintain physical readiness.

F. A 2007 study in the “Journal of the American Medical Assosciation” found that people who exercise regularly live longer due to a number of factors. According to Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, head of the department of kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, individuals who are middle-aged have an average muscle mass loss of approximately 1 percent per year. Strength training offsets this muscle loss later in life, translating to fewer falls, which is among the leading causes of death in the elderly. A 2009 study in the “American Journal of Neuroradiology” found that older individuals who exercise at least 180 minutes per week for 10 consecutive years also have brain blood vessel activity similar to that of younger individuals, providing neurologic longevity.

G. On your journey to health and well-being, there may come a point when you cannot exercise. For example, you may need a workout break or suffer an illness or injury. Fortunately, while you are recoverring, you can stay fit by avoiding the consumption of bad foods, like donuts and cheeseburgers. While this may sound easy, fast food restaurants are located on every corner and avoiding unhealthy foods is a challenge. However, not eating bad foods may help keep you in shape until you can hit that treadmill again.

Peter the Great

Born in Moscow, Russia on June 9, 1672, Peter the Great was a Russian czar in the late 17th

My Toughest Workout: Olympic Triple Jumper Christian Taylor

Though he’s also a top competitor in the long jump and 400-meter relay, Christian Taylor narrowed his goals. Now he wants to beat the world record in the triple jump.
“The coach says it’s better to exceed in one than to be average in several,” he says.

Taylor’s personal best, 17.96, won him gold at the World Championships in South Korea in 2011. Finally, he’s looking to top the world record, set by Jonathan Edwards at 18.29 in 1995.

He hopes that the Olympic crowds will help him get more energetic.

“That’s my fuel, my energy source,” he explains. “I’m a big believer in feeding off the energy of the people around you.”

There is another thing that will help him fly. A 2-minute drill that he likes to do with Will Claye, a former teammate of Taylor’s at the University of Florida who will also be representing the U.S. in London.

The drill is a series of jumps that tests consistency, stamina and mental toughness. The goal is to hit the same mark as many times as you can. “It’s a really intense workout,” Taylor says. “After the first minute, when it really hits you, you are just burnt out.”

It’s that kind of power that he’s used to propel himself to the top. “I wouldn’t call myself a competitor or an athlete if I wasn’t trying to be the best, ever,” he says. “I feel like I am flying, and I get so excited that I want to come back down and see where I am.”

The drill is simple, but exhausting. Taylor repeats a triple jump as many times as he can in two minutes. As soon as he hits the sand, he runs back to the starting mark and repeats, trying to hit the same mark each time. He performs two sets with a 20-minute rest in between, just because it’s so rough. In two minutes, he estimates he gets about 20 jumps in.

The jump drill is part of a set that includes a lot of technical work, sprinting, and jumping. His warm-up lasts about 45 minutes (little bounds, accelerations, 60–75 meter sprints). Then he goes to the runway for light drills, standing long jumps, alternating bounds, little things to wake up the fast-twitch muscles. That’s when he starts going into the different jump drills, like the one above. But he also adds medicine ball drills, as well as weights work.

It’s hard to say what will really help Christian Taylor to win, his self assurance that he must win or long trainings every day with the set of exercises.

A 7         Christian Taylor is the champion in the long jump.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        Christian Taylor believes that a sportsman should be good at somewhat one.        

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        Christian Taylor find people as a source of energy that helps to fight.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        Will Claye was famous for his long jump at the competition.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        Will Claye has worked out his own set of exercises to train mental and physical skills.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        The exercises include repetition of the same task with the same goal.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        Any sportsman should have an inner desire to win.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         Technical work, sprinting, and jumping are just some of Christian’s every day traning.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Kevin.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

2 - extra

Задание А7-А14

A7 – 2, A8 – 2, A9 – 1, A10 – 3, A11 – 1, A12 – 1, A13 – 3, A14 – 1.

Раздел 3

Задание В4-В12

B4 – more, B5 – do you know, B6 – best, B7 – ways, B8 – helps, B9 – feel, B10 – pull, B11 – will add, B12 – lives.

Задания В13-В18

B13 – mistake, B14 – unlikely, B15 – National, B16 – drinkers, B17 – observational, B18 – dependence.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Hi Kevin,

It’s nice to receive a letter from you so soon. As for keeping fit I agree it’s difficult enough to have regular exercise as it takes time and effort. You should have some definite goal to keep yourself working every day. It’s easier to talk about it but hard to do. Sometimes friends that go in for sports together with you can really help.

Reading about your new plans I think it good to have a part-time job to have pocket money all the time. You’d better start in summer, find some job in a café as it seems the easiest to start with.

Love,

Jim.

Test 16

Глобальные проблемы современности

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. Limited natural resources
2. Unequal financial resources
3. Our obligation before future
4. Against the east
5. Nuclear weapons
6. Climate change
7. Religious world of today
8. Women’s rights

A. The earth is ours to use as we please without regard for the future, for our children, for the earth itself.  We must reassume our historical responsibility for our children’s future by protecting their heritage.  The reckless anarchy of the exploitation of the earth must be replaced by responsible dialogue among the users, and among the governments of the earth.  At present, we have a gathering of the Big 7 or 8 on how to manage the world to their own advantage.  Such a dialogue, however, brings up questions of justice and fairness in the allocation of the resources of the earth.  A new protocol must be worked out whereby the universal declaration of human rights is more than a God’s wish-list that is lost in the fight of big corporations to use the resources of the earth.  

B. The oil, the water, the old growth forests are all limited resources.  They must be conserved for the most important future uses.  Oil is necessary for the operation of all sorts of machinery, yet it is not being conserved but endlessly pumped out of the earth and sold to the highest prices.  Drinkable water, too, is increasing rare; indeed, it is sold in stores for the same price of colas.  But underground water is needed for crops, and the underwater reserves are running out.  Here, national and international management are required.  

C. We are faced with the problem of Global Terrorism which has been called the shadow of the process of Globalization. As the world is becoming one place, so it is that the effects of terrorism have global effects. Also it may be understood that the causes of this global terrorism are likewise global in nature, with disaffected individuals and groups caught up in ideologies of global scope and participating in causes that go beyond international and even inter-continental barriers. We see this particularly in the Muslim world, where issues in Palestine, Bosnia, Afghanistan or Iraq can mobilize people on the other side of the world to want to make interventions.

D. Global poverty and hunger are increasing each year instead of decreasing.  The agricultural land of the earth is owned by fewer and fewer people.  Much of what is left in the hands of small farmers is being bought up by international agribusinesses - by multinational corporations distant from land but close to big money. The big oil, the pharmaceutical companies, the media conglomerates, the insurance companies, including medical insurance have more influence on government policies than the poor or even the general population.  Government policies seem more oriented to maintaining the economy than in the economic and physical well-being of their populations.  

E. Another major problem that looms on the horizon and one that probably is already upon us and exerting its effects, is the phenomenon of Global Warming. It can be argued endlessly whether Global Warming is man-made or whether it’s a natural phenomenon, however the empirical evidence certainly shows that Global Warming is indeed occurring. This is made manifest in the melting glaciers and polar ice caps, the increase in hurricane activity (with category 4 and 5 hurricanes, the most intense, doubling in frequency over the past 50 years), changing rainfall patterns and of course the actual increases in measured surface temperatures.

F. It seems that the danger posed by an arsenal of 50,000 missiles in Russian and America is less today than 15 or 20 years ago when Jonathan Schell’s The Fate of the Earth saw catastrophe on the horizon and a real possibility of giving the earth back to the insects and grasses.  The cold war between Russia and the U.S. has thawed, but the proliferation of weapons goes on, and the growing masses of nuclear waste.  Why?  Because the military ways of thinking go on, the national security imperative still drives small countries to spend most of their small budget on weapons instead of social programs.  We need to outgrow the dangerous and costly structures of thinking that are our legacy from modernity.  Instead of endless debates, we need dialogue and negotiations—not just in Ireland, Russia, East Timor, Pakistan, the Balkans, the Middle East—but in the United Nations about the natural resources, power concentrations, poverty, human rights of the populations of the world.  

G. The UN system continues to give particular attention to the issue of violence against women.  The 1993 General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women contained “a clear and comprehensive definition of violence against women and a clear statement of the rights to be applied to ensure the elimination of violence against women in all its forms”.  It represented “a commitment by States in respect of their responsibilities, and a commitment by the international community at large to the elimination of violence against women”.

Peter the Great

Born in Moscow, Russia on June 9, 1672, Peter the Great was a Russian czar in the late 17th

Simple Solutions to Global Problems

What if the answers to global crises - from devastating hurricanes to the malaria epidemic to global warming  - were simple and relatively inexpensive?

Journalist Stephen Dubner and economist Steven Levitt, the authors of "SuperFreakonomics," say that throughout history, ’cheap and simple fixes’ often solved the world’s biggest problems.

Take the medical crisis that more than 50 years ago frightened every American child and nearly broke the American health care system. The problem was polio, and the solution was not more hospitals or more efficient iron lungs that would make breathing easier. The answer was a vaccine.

“Polio’s just one of thousands of examples like that, where a simple solution will prevent so much heartache going down the road,” Dubner said.

The "SuperFreakonomics" duo argue that it's no different in modern times. “We love to think the world is terrible and difficult, and that it’s much worse now than it’s ever been. But the fact of the matter is that’s almost always wrong” Dubner said. “The world is actually better now than it ever was and all the unsolvable problems that appear keep getting solved.”

Intellectual Ventures, a company in Bellevue, Wash., has been in the business of solving global problems since 2000. The self-proclaimed invention company uses inventions from some of the smartest scientists, mathematicians, software engineers and patent experts in the world, including Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer at Microsoft.

“Our only job is to invent. And so we try to swing for the fences and try to solve really big problems. And sometimes we do!” Myhrvold said.

Although their ideas are sometimes strange and outrageous, Intellectual Ventures currently ranks in the top 50 among companies that file patents worldwide. Myhrvold said the key components are “simple, and cheap and effective. And when you’re lucky and when things are going all right, you can come up with an idea that’s all of them.”

A 7         The solutions of all global problems are not expensive.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        The American medical system was ruined about fifty years ago.        

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        The way out of the polio crisis was vaccine.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        The solution to the polio crisis was quickly found.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        Simple solutions may also be used nowadays.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        The world has changed for the better as Dubner thinks.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        Intellectual Ventures is a big company which always solves global problems.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         Intellectual Ventures’ ideas are very often odd for common people.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Kat.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100-120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

Задание А7-А14

A7 -2, A8 – 2, A9 – 1, A10 – 3, A11 – 1, A12 – 1, A13 – 2, A14 – 1.

Раздел 3

Задание В4-В12

B4 - to be called, B5 - will happen, B6 – vary, B7 -  Earth’s, B8 – technologies, B9 - are also mentioned, B10 – is mainly based, B11 – began, B12 - is largely rejected.

Задания В13-В18

B13 – globalization, B14 – interrelationship, B15 – appearance, B16 – delivery, B17 – existence, B18 – ecological.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Hello Kat,

It’s nice to get another letter from you. I hope everything is OK. I wonder why you are worried about such global problems as pollution. I guess you are right to think that it is the major problem of today. If we cope at least with this one our world will be much better and cleaner.

As for the laptop you are going to buy I don’t really know which one is better for you as everyone has his own preferences. I find macbook as one of the best makes of all the laptops possible. But it’s up to you to decide which one to choose. Of course, a lot depends on the sum you are going to spend.

Best wishes,

Max.

Test 17

Страна/страны изучаемого языка и родная страна. Города и сёла, достопримечательности.

Раздел 2. (задания по чтению)

1. DENSELY POPULATED CITIES
2. INDUSTRIAL BUT ARCHITECTURAL
3. OUR OBLIGATION BEFORE FUTURE
4. THE HEART OF BRITAIN’S INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT
5. DIFFERENT IN NATURE
6. CHANGE OF REPUTATION
7. AWARDED FOR THE CULTURE DEVELOPMENT
8. GROWING BIG IN AUTUMN

1. City Mayor’s table of top UK cities is made up of the country’s 200 largest cities, towns and districts. Not all areas listed in the table are urban in nature. For example, South Gloucestershire, north of Bristol, is predominantly rural, while Bath and North East Somerset comprises the spa city of Bath and the mainly rural area of North East Somerset. In Scotland, the Scottish Borders comprises the markets towns of Peeble and Galashiels as well as large areas of rural and uncultivated hill areas.
2. With a population of more than seven million people, London, the UK’s capital, has no equal among its UK peers. Britain’s only other city with a population of more than one million is the West Midland city of Birmingham. With Leeds, Glasgow and Sheffield, there are only three more British cities with a population of more than 500,000.
3. Scotland’s capital and the seat of its Parliament, Edinburgh combines the young and modern sensibilities of a great university city and national capital with a historic and dramatic setting. Edinburgh has about half a million people, including more than 62,000 university students. At least 13 million people visit it every year. During the main festival month of August, the population of Edinburgh swells by more than one million, making it, temporarily, the UK’s second largest city.
4. Manchester is often called the first modern city. In the 18th century this Northwestern city, 30 miles from Liverpool, was the cotton making capital of the world and one of the breeding grounds of the industrial revolution. Now it is also full of museums, galleries, theatres and libraries as well as outstanding civic architecture. Today, some of the most exciting architecture in Britain can be found in Manchester and the nearby Salford Quays area.
5. A combination of industrial courage and engineering know-how made Birmingham the manufacturing engine of Britain through the 19th century and most of the 20th. James Watt first commercially manufactured his steam engine here; the transatlantic cable and the Orient Express were Birmingham built, and this was the heartland of the British motor industry.
6. Scotland’s largest city and the third largest city in the UK, Glasgow’s had long taken a back seat to Edinburgh with tourists and visitors. Its reputation as a rough, crime-ridden, dirty and hard drinking city put people off. But, since the mid 1980s, Glaswegians have worked hard to turn that image around. And they’ve succeeded. In 1995, Glasgow was European Capital of Culture. The award wasn’t for the heritage culture that enlivens Edinburgh but for an entirely more contemporary vibe. And it keeps getting better.
7. When visitors think of Liverpool, the Beatles come immediately to mind. And, of course, there’s plenty to do that’s Beatles related. In 2008, the mantle of European Capital of Culture landed on Liverpool, revitalizing this city in England’s northwest, as the award often does. Liverpool’s Albert Docks area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its role in the maritime history of Britain’s. Visitors to the area can explore Liverpool’s part in the history, in emigration to the New World and in the spread of trade and culture across the British Empire.  

Peter the Great

Born in Moscow, Russia on June 9, 1672, Peter the Great was a Russian czar in the late 17th

Red Bull Soapbox Race in London

Just like the weather, the competition was heating up at The Red Bull Soapbox Race at London’s Alexandra Palace over the weekend. Around 70 amateur competitors took part in the crazy race which involved driving around the track in a homemade, motorless soapbox, relying on courage, gravity and possibly some Red Bull to get them across the finishing line.

There was a colourful and imaginatively-designed array of vehicles, from soapboxes shaped like Mexican wraps to one inspired by Olympic athlete Usain Bolt.

The winners of this year’s race were the Phya-Bird team from Newcastle, with Coffin Dodgers and ‘Does My Scrum Look Big In This?’ coming second and third respectively.

The victor of the race is not solely determined by the first vehicle to cross the finish line but also the creativity of the design. Teams were made up of four members, who were required to design and build the vehicle which can be any shape and made of any material that fits in with the guidelines.

The competition is held all over the world and past races have taken place in South Africa, Australia and Sweden. The event has been taking place since 2000 and there have been over 40 soapbox races, this year’s competition returned to London after a nine-year gap.

A 7         The Red Bull Soapbox Race takes place on Sunday mornings.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 8        All the competitors were not professional.        

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 9        The cars of the competitors worked on soap foam.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 10        There was a good variety of soapbox cars at the competition.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 11        Olympic athlete Usain Bolt took part in the competition.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 12        The Coffin Dodgers took the second prize at the competition.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 13        The teams were allowed to build cars of any materials according to the instructions.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

A 14         The previous competition was nine years ago.

        1) True                2) False                 3) Not stated

Раздел 3. (задания по грамматике и лексике)

Раздел 4 (задания по письму)

You have 30 minutes to do this task.

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Mossy.

White a letter to him and answer his 3 questions.

Write 100–120 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

Ключи

Раздел 2

Задание В3

Задание А7–А14

A7 -3, A8 -1, A9 – 2, A10 – 1, A11 – 2, A12 – 1, A13 – 1, A14 – 2.

Раздел 3

Задание В4–В12

B4 – England’s, B5 – eleventh, B6 – oldest, B7 – shopping, B8 – were still hiding, B9 – are, B10 -  Others, B11 – used, B12 – best.

Задания В13–В18

B13 – traditional, B14 – scholars, B15 – disagreement, B16 – fascinating, B17 – winners, B18 – entry.

Раздел 4

Задание С1

Hello Mossy,

It’s nice to write to you again. I think travelling is the best activity any person can have. You may find yourself the happiest person if you can travel and visit the most popular places in the world, at least. It’s good if you have a chance to go to some exotic cities not only capitals.

Travelling on a bicycle is also very nice. You can really try some websites to choose which make and size you would like to buy. You can have an on-line consultant as I, for example, don’t have any experience in buying bicycles.

Best wishes,

Max.