1 B
2 F
3 C
4 D
5 A Saturday 16 May 2015
Wednesday 13 May 2015
Gapped reading 3
Read the article about the effects of
climate change in the UK. Five sentences have been removed. Which sentence A-F
fits each gap (1-5)? There is one extra sentence you do not need to use.
Unexpected challenges from environmental change
Climate change is a long-term change in weather patterns over
periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It is one of the
greatest environmental issues of our time.
The effect of changes in our climate has been a hot topic for many
years. (----- 1 -----) As weather
patterns become more serious, railways, roads, and power water supplies also
need to be protected.
Scientists say that higher temperatures and rainstorms could affect
wi-fi communications. In addition, wetter winters and drier summers might lead
to subsidence – the sinking of the ground – damaging underground cables. So,
what does that mean for people who need to use these communications? If climate
change affects the quality of the signal, or there is no signal due to extreme
changes in temperature, people will clearly be disadvantaged. It would be very
serious if communication systems were not working in the height of an emergency.
(----- 2 -----)
The Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, recently explained the
government’s plans to take action. (----- 3 -----) However, if these facilities
cannot deal with the increase in floods and storms likely to accompany rising
temperatures, the money will have been wasted, she warned. Speaking at
Blackfriars Railway Station in London, which a UK rail company says is being
redeveloped with the long-term effects of climate change in mind, Ms Spelman
said the UK economy would not be able to grow if infrastructure – transport and
communications networks and reliable energy and water supplies – failed.
Ms Spelman explained that our economy is built on this infrastructure.
But it could not grow if there are repeated power failures, or goods cannot be
transported because roads are flooded and railways have been damaged, or if
heavy rainfall or high temperatures negatively affect wi-fi signals. She also
asked for help from British businesses. (----- 4 -----)
A government report published recently outlines how planning and
design of new systems needs to consider the effect of climate change. This is
especially important as many projects will still be there in 50 to 100 years
from now. (----- 5 -----) It also highlights the role of the government in
protecting the UK from the effects of climate change. Rail Minister Theresa
Villiers explained that although the UK government needs to manage money very
carefully, it is committed to spending considerable sums on transport through
vital projects such as the Thameslink upgrade, Crossrail, the proposed High
Speed rail network and more electrification of the rail network.
The
new Blackfriars Railway station in London is being fitted with technology
including sun pipes, rainwater harvesting systems, insulation and solar panels
to make it less reliant on water and electricity networks. Perhaps this station
will lead the way for others all over the country to become more environmentally
friendly.
A The study gives details of what action needs
to be taken by the owners of transport networks, for example.
B And now government ministers in the UK have
warned that the internet could be badly affected due to climate change.
C Over the next five years, it intends to spend
around £200billion on UK transport and power supplies.
D According to Ms Spelman, they could develop
new technologies to help our current systems better deal with climate change.
E She was sure that it was essential for the
work to be done immediately.
F This is why the issue must be dealt with.
Thursday 7 May 2015
Online gapped reading
Click here
Strategies to answer the questions
- Quickly read through the paragraph headings so you can see what they say.
- Then look at the first paragraph.
- Often only the topic sentence needs to be read carefully because the main idea and answer are there - you may be able to just skim the rest.
- Sometimes, however, the answer is not in the topic sentence and the whole paragraph needs to be read more carefully.
- If a match is not immediately obvious, move on to the next one.
- If you are unsure between two answers at first, put them both in. You may be able to eliminate one answer later if it fits another paragraph better.
- If at the end you are still stuck between two answers for a question, pick which fits best.
Things to beware of
- There are always more choices of paragraph headings on the list than paragraphs, so be careful when matching them.
- Watch out for synonyms - often words in the paragraphs and paragraph headings will not be the same; they will be synonyms.
- Having a noun from a heading that is in the paragraph does not guarantee they match - you still need to read it carefully to check.
Wednesday 6 May 2015
Writing assignment (200-250 words)
You have received a letter from a friend who has problems to sleep. You suffered from the same problem and found a solution so give him advice in a letter.
Friday 24 April 2015
Tuesday 21 April 2015
Wednesday 8 April 2015
Help yourself
HELP YOURSELF
In the last couple of
decades, self-help books have been a publishing phenomenon, often topping the
bestseller lists. Readers have lapped up their advice on how to do a wide
variety of things, from becoming successful and rich to improving their
relationships. If you’re facing a particular problem in your life, there’s a
host of self-help books for you. If you have the idea that you want to improve
yourself in some way, 1there
are any number of self-help titles just waiting to advise you. If you
want a successful career, no problem – step-by-step guides will tell you
exactly what to do. But, despite their enormous success, there’s a question
many people ask: do these books actually do what they claim to?
Obviously, as in any
field of publishing, some self-help books are better than others.2 Some may be based on actual
research and case studies – there’s some substance to them that suggests they
can, at least to some extent, be taken seriously. Others, however,
amount to little more than psychobabble – empty nonsense dressed up as serious
psychological insight. These books bombard the reader with a mass of
meaningless jargon, disguising the fact that they have nothing to say beyond
the obvious that you would not need to buy a book to know. 3 It’s the latter category that
has given self-help books a bad name among critics of the genre.
The kind of advice given
in self-help books is often more or less the same. Pretty standard statements
are made in many of them, but does this advice stand up to scrutiny? Psychologists
who have studied a range of self-help books connected with happiness say the
answer to this is ‘not always’. They say that although the emphasis the books
place on aiming for good relationships with families, friends and colleagues 4 has, in some ways, some scientific
basis in terms of what does actually lead to personal happiness, in
other ways the advice given is actually false.
5 For example, the books commonly tell you that it is
good to express your anger; the psychologists say this simply causes you to
remain angry. You are often told to try to think happy thoughts when you are
sad; the psychologists say that attempting to do this simply emphasizes your
unhappiness for you. The books tell you to focus entirely on your aims in life,
looking only at the desired outcome; psychologists say you need to focus just
as much on the problems you have to overcome in order to reach your goals. The books tell you to
keep praising yourself to increase and maintain a high level of self-belief;
the psychologists say that actually this doesn’t work because 6 you need praise from other
people in order to increase your self-esteem.
Perhaps the key question
on self-help books is: do they work? Do people feel they have directly helped
them? Whatever critics may say, do the people who buy and read them get real
results from them? The answer to this question appears to be ‘sometimes’. 7 Research indicates that the kind
of book that deals with a particular problem can be effective in helping people
with that problem, particularly if the problem in question isn’t a severe one,
for example mild depression or anxiety. The situation is less clear with
books dealing with personal growth or development. Some people do say that
these books have helped them but it is by no means certain, and hard to
measure, whether this is really the case.
8. What is clear about all self-help books, however, is
that they offer people hope.
9.The actual advice they
give and whether or not this is accurate or effective is probably less
important than the fact that they tell the reader that change is possible,
that there is hope of a better life, that people can overcome difficulties and
improve themselves and their situation. While this may sound like a good thing,
there is, however, a downside to it. To get people to buy them, these books
often make exaggerated claims about what they will do for people. 10They can raise unrealistic
expectations in the reader, suggesting that a better life can quite
easily be achieved, that anyone can get what they want out of life. The truth
is of course that changing yourself and your life may be very difficult indeed
and require an immense amount of effort, if it is even achievable at all. So self-help books are open to
the claim that they present a false picture that can only lead to
disappointment in the end.
1 In the first paragraph, what does the writer
emphasize about self-help books?
A
The fact that one person might buy many of them.
B
How quickly the genre became popular.
C
The number of them available.
2 In the second paragraph, the writer expresses
a preference for self-help books which ________.
A
don’t use any jargon at all
B
explain technical terms in a clear way
C
give examples to support their advice
3 The writer says that self-help books
containing a lot of ‘psychobabble’ ________.
A are seldom
popular with readers
B have affected
the reputation of all self-help books
C exist in
greater numbers than other kinds of self-help book
4 What does the writer say about self-help books
connected with happiness?
A
There is evidence to support some of the advice they give.
B
They vary more than other kinds of self-help book.
C
They are the most popular kind of self-help book.
5 Psychologists say that some advice in books
about happiness ________.
A
could produce different bad feelings in people
B
could make people feel worse than they did
C
is too hard for people to carry out
6 Which of the following do psychologists
believe?
A
You won’t have greater self-confidence unless other people praise
you.
B
Focusing on problems is more important than focusing on goals.
C
Thinking only about aims can result in greater unhappiness.
7 Research into whether self-help books really
help people suggests that ________.
A
those dealing with personal growth and development are the least
useful
B
people want to believe that they have helped them a lot
C
they are not very useful for serious problems
8 What do all self-help books have in common,
according to the writer?
A
They all contain some useful advice.
B
They all have the same basic message.
C
They all sympathize with the reader.
9 When asking whether self-help books work, the
writer suggests that ________.
A
this may be more important than whether the advice is correct
B
not enough attention has been paid to this
C
readers may not be honest about this
10 The writer concludes in that last paragraph
that self-help books ________.
A are more
influential than is generally thought
B may actually
be harmful to people
C are only
taken seriously by certain kinds of person
Thursday 5 March 2015
Tuesday 3 March 2015
Thursday 26 February 2015
Wednesday 18 February 2015
Wednesday 11 February 2015
Plurals of some Latin words: curriculum- curricula
alga
|
algae /i/
|
basis
|
bases
|
codex
|
codices
|
crisis
|
crises
|
nucleus
|
nuclei /ˈnjuːklɪaɪ/
|
oasis
|
oases
|
thesis
|
theses
|
Thursday 5 February 2015
Wednesday 4 February 2015
Tuesday 20 January 2015
Monday 19 January 2015
Tuesday 13 January 2015
Thursday 8 January 2015
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