Reading test: Paris canal is officially clean enough to swim in this summer

This week's reading test is taken fron The Independent article Paris canal is officially clean enough to swim in this summer.

Read this text and choose the best sentence (A - J) for each gap. Two of the sentences do not correspond to any of the blanks. 0 is as an example.

A - after test results confirmed the water is clean enough for swimming – 0 Example
B - if it is considered a success
C - pollution has reduced by 25 per cent
D - that means many residents escape the city
E - the much-loved Paris Plages programme gets new water feature
F - the third is reserved for swimmers with a depth of 2 metres
G - to clean up its waterways for years
H - where people were allowed to swim in the Bassin
I - which has been running for 15 years
J - which links the Canal St Martin and the Canal de l'Ourq in the north east of the city


Paris canal is officially clean enough to swim in this summer

This summer Parisians will be able to cool off in the city’s canal (0) … . The city council had already voted in favour of canal swimming last year but the final go ahead hinged on the health tests results. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted the good news on Sunday with a message that read: "We promised! From this summer for Paris Plages, you will be able to swim in the Bassin de La Villette."

But water lovers will not have to negotiate the canal without assistance. Three swimming pools will be built bankside along the Bassin de la Villette, (1) … , at a cost of £1.1 million. Water for the pools will come directly from the canals. The Bassin sits along the south side of the Quai de la Loire in the 19th arrondissement. The temporary pool structures will be 90 metres in length and 16 metres across with varying depths. The smallest of the three pools will be reserved for children at 40cm deep. A pool for loungers will be up to 120cm deep and (2) … . 

The Bassin is one of the locations of the Paris Plages summer beach festival, (3) … . Paris traditionally sees an August exodus due to the combination of uncomfortable heat and tourists. In 2002, then mayor Bertrand Delanoë set up the first beach on the Rive Droite, bringing in sand and deckchairs to provide a haven for overheated city-dwellers. The scheme has been a huge hit and last year there was a popular one-off “open day” event (4) …, preparing the way for the pools.

Paris has been taking proactive steps (5) … . Celia Blauel from the City Council said: “The results show 15 to 20 traces of bacteria per millilitre, while the top limit is 100 per millilitre. We have been taking action for five years and the water is of a high quality.”

The city of lights has also been trying to improve all aspects of life around the river. Last autumn City Hall banned cars and motorbikes from the banks of the Seine, renovated pedestrianised areas and created a 10-hectare park known as the Rives de Seine filled with green spaces and sports pitches. Since traffic was banned (6) … .

The pools are scheduled to open on 15 July and will be accessible until the end of the summer, with the city estimating up to 1,000 visitors a day. They hope to repeat the scheme in 2018 (7) … .

KEY: 
1J 2F 3I 4H 5G 6C 7B

Reading test: Russian explorers find 'swamp' of Soviet money

Read the BBC article Russian explorers find 'swamp' of Soviet money and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each gap. 0 is an example.

A group of explorers in Russia have found around a billion roubles in old Soviet money at an abandoned mine, but it's all completely (0) … .

The group from Saint Petersburg, who publish a blog on abandoned sites across Russia, (1) … the money after following rumours that large quantities of cash (2) … in old missile silos near Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Komsomolskaya Pravda news website reports. After travelling for several hours across rough terrain in Russia's Vladimir region, they found the mine literally overflowing with cash.

The site contains an estimated one billion roubles ($18m; £13.5m at current exchange rates, or $33.3m at the "official" Soviet rate in 1991) in Soviet Union banknotes of various denominations issued between 1961 and 1991, all (3) … legal tender in the Russian Federation. The mine (4) … in recent years, leaving what was essentially a swamp of banknotes bearing the face of Vladimir Lenin, the explorers' YouTube channel shows.

According to their (5) … of events, elderly locals told the team about the mine, but said that nobody (6) … go near the place because it was linked to the Soviet Union's ballistic missile programme, and contaminated with radiation. (7) …, Geiger counters showed that this was not the case.

Team member Olga Bogdanova said that the sight of such "riches" was difficult to convey in words. "There's delight and some sadness, (8) … you realise that this is a bygone era which will never return, that all this money would have been more than enough for anybody," she said. Just 100 roubles would have been a very good salary back in Soviet times.

Fellow explorers Anton Alekseev and Sergey Volkov were (9) … interviewed on Rossiya1 television, where the presenter noted that the (10) … was dumped following a government decision at the end of the Soviet Union, and that this might be one of at least three such sites across Russia.

The video has caught the imagination of social media users, many of whom wish that the money was (11) … legal tender. "I would dive in there like Scrooge McDuck," says one user, while another exclaimed, "I wish I (12) … have a time machine, return with a pack of those banknotes and buy myself a controlling stake in Google, Gazprom, Rosneft, and never work again."

0 Example:
A. priceless
B. valuable
C. worthless

1
A. came across
B. came round
C. came up to

2
A. had been dumped
B. have been dumped
C. have dumped

3
A. any longer
B. any more
C. no longer

4
A. drowned
B. flooded
C. inundated

5
A. account
B. narrative
C. tale

6
A. could
B. dared
C. tried

7
A. Although
B. Despite
C. However

8
A. because
B. even though
C. so

9
A. additionally
B. incidentally
C. subsequently

10
A. bucks
B. cash
C. currency

11
A. already
B. still
C. yet

12
A. can
B. could
C. will

Photo: BBC

KEY: 
1A 2A 3C 4B 5A 6B 7C 8A 9A 10B 11B 12B

Reading test: The ridiculous story of airline food and why so much ends up in landfill

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the multiple choice reading comprehension type of task. To do so, we are goint to use The Guardian's article The ridiculous story of airline food and why so much ends up in landfill.

Read the text and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence.

The ridiculous story of airline food and why so much ends up in landfill

You probably know about the waste problem in our oceans. But how about the one in our skies? Airline passengers generated 5.2m tonnes of waste in 2016, most of which went to landfill or incineration, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates. That’s the weight of about 2.6m cars. And it’s a figure set to double over the next 15 years. Toilet waste is included in that statistic. But so are miniature wine bottles, half-eaten lunch trays, unused toothbrushes and other hallmarks of air travel.
The airline industry has taken criticsm for its growing greenhouse gas emissions as passenger numbers rise. But could its massive waste footprint be solved without affecting the sector’s growth? A Spanish project launched last autumn by a group of companies including Iberia Airlines and Ferrovial Services is taking up this challenge. The scheme aims to recover 80% of cabin waste coming into Madrid’s Barajas airport by mid-2020 through simple measures such as using trolleys designed for waste separation, says Juan Hermira, Iberia’s lead for the project. About 2,500 cabin crew members will be trained in the basics of waste separation as part of the push, he says.
It’s one of a handful of initiatives that suggest parts of the industry are waking up to waste. Last year, Gatwick opened an on-site waste-to-energy plant, reducing the need for lorries to transport waste elsewhere. The power produced currently goes back into the plant, but Gatwick hopes the facility will eventually help to heat the north terminal. Like Heathrow, it is also targeting a 70% recycling rate by 2020.
America’s United Airlines has switched to compostable paper cups and last year began donating unused amenity kits to homeless and women’s shelters – it expects to divert more than 27 tonnes-worth by the end of the first year. Virgin, meanwhile, has set up a system for recycling all parts of its headsets, including ear sponges, which are used as flooring for equestrian centres.
Despite actions like these, the mountains of airline waste continue to grow. So what more can be done? For Michael Gill, IATA’s head of environment, regulation is key. At the moment EU animal health legislation, drawn up as a reaction to diseases like foot and mouth, dictates that all catering waste arriving from outside EU borders be treated as high-risk and incinerated or buried in deep landfill. A coffee cup from the US, for example, will be treated as hazardous waste because it might have had milk in it. Donating uneaten food to charity is impossible. A more rational approach is needed, Gill says, one which identifies elements of cabin waste that actually pose a risk to health and takes into account the stringent hygiene standards airlines are already subject to. He points to a forthcoming IATA-commissioned report which concludes that dairy and honey in airline waste pose a negligible threat to animals.
Better procedures on the ground would also help ease the classification problem, says Magda Golebiewska, group environment manager at TUI Airlines. East Midlands and Gatwick airports have started tagging rubbish bags with their origin but elsewhere it’s common practice for waste from inside and outside the EU to get thrown together and processed collectively as international catering waste, she says.
Most important, however, is getting the cabin crew’s buy-in, says Golebiewska. This can be a challenge since the crew is already busy meeting on-board sales targets and looking after passengers, she says, but it is crucial: “How well the [waste] segregation is done really depends on how much effort they put into it.”
The environment is not the only concern on the minds of Golebiewska and others. Cabin waste costs the industry $500m (£400m) per year, according to IATA, a figure that it says is rising faster than waste volumes thanks to growing disposal costs. Bringing this down will require airlines to take a different approach to procurement, says Matt Rance. If they can be persuaded to focus on a product’s full life cost, rather than unit price, then investing in more durable headsets or blankets and ditching disposables starts to make sense, he says.


1. The waste airlines produce
A. does not only refer to food.
B. is all burnt.
C. is twice as much as it used to be 15 years ago.

2. The Spanish project launched last autumn
A. contemplates the separation of waste without any human intervention.
B. intends to separate waste on board.
C. is trying to reduce the airlines waste by limiting the sector’s growth.

3. In Britain
A. Gatwick Airport is planning to open a plant to recycle waste.
B. Heathrow Airport currently produces 70% of its power through recycled waste.
C. they are reducing road transportation of waste in some of the main airports.

4. In US
A. United Airlines cups can be used as fertilizers.
B. United Airlines donates uneaten food to homeless and women’s shelters.
C. Virgin recycles all parts of its headsets to make floors.

5. For Michael Gill,
A. dairy and honey from airlines could well be used to feed animals.
B. donating food is a sensible solution.
C. waste from airplanes should be incinerated or buried.

6. According to Magda Golebiewska, in EU
A. all waste is processed equally, no matter what its origin is.
B. airports mark waste bags with their origin.
C. the waste from inside and outside the EU is separated.

7. For Magda Golebiewska
A. airlines’ ground staff have a crucial role in waste segregation.
B. flight attendants are already doing a lot of work.
C. pilots should be responsible for waste segregation.

8. In the last paragraph, it is said that
A. not using disposable products would be a good solution.
B. the price of getting rid of waste is not going up.
C. waste volumes are being successfully controlled.

KEY: 
1A 2B 3C 4A 5A 6A 7B 8A

Reading test: Seven top tips for driving long distances with children

In this week's reading test we are going to use The Guardian article Seven top tips for driving long distances with children to practise the heading-matching kind of task.

Read the article and choose the heading A-I which best suits each of the extracts. There are two headings you do not need to use.

A - Asking the wrong question
B - Disconnect to connect
C - Divide the day in well-defined stages
D - Don’t say you’ll do something you may not be able to do
E - Get together with other travellers
F - In-transit activities
G - Leave early, go slow
H - Set great destinations
I - The great distractor

My wife and I had just bought an old motorhome online so  40,000km, 30 countries and one year later by trial and error and with many tears, often mine, we discovered the best ways to have a great family road trip.

1
After a week of solid driving north through the Norwegian fjords towards the Arctic Circle, my family staged a revolution by way of a sit-in, demanding a no-drive day. Revelling in this break, from then on we slowed down, ensuring we were stationary for at least one day in every three. On particularly long driving days, we left early, ensuring everybody was fresh, and arrived before the kids’ witching hour. We stopped regularly at parks or playgrounds, where, unlatched from their seatbelts, the kids ran free like puppies off leashes. This child-friendly pace of dawdling tea stops and long, lazy lunches created as much entertainment as the awesome destinations.

2
Armed with colouring and reading books and paper, and with no mobile internet, the kids started entertaining themselves. We sang silly songs, told stories, and sometimes they slept. Occasionally, we counted cows, castles or yellow cars through the windows. At these times I tried not to be game-competitive – there’s little dignity in screaming “I won!” at a two-year-old.

3
Being with my children 24/7 for an extended period, I discovered how food constantly simmered in their little minds. Promising it, making it, drawing it, from anticipation to devouring, food was the thing that stopped them from paying attention and focusing. Just murmuring the word gelato could produce well-behaved discipline an army sergeant would yearn for. We also maintained a spare crisp packet in the glovebox of the vehicle at all times, cracked open like a glass-fronted fire alarm, only in emergencies, which seemed to occur quite often.

4
Promises of climbing castles, eating food and petting zoo animals could tame even the surliest child. But the great parental trap, the ill-thought-out promise, was to be avoided. When I found there was no gelato in the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco and no Ice Hotel in Sweden (it melts in summer), the disappointment blowback was extreme.

5
 “Has everybody been to the toilet?” seemed like a reasonable question at the start of each drive. Invariably, the kids said yes. Within five minutes of being on the road, however, the toilet concept sunk in, forcing an emergency pullover. We stopped mentioning it.

6
Driving for weeks towards the north pole became a pumped-up adventure once the kids knew they would visit Lapland’s Santa Claus and feed his reindeers. Turkey? Easy – underground cities. Oxford? The grand hall of Hogwarts. Involved in the upcoming stages of our journey, the children would chirp like excited squirrels, making the journey that much better.

7
No TV, internet, tablets or phones – it seemed like a good idea to reclaim “old-fashioned” family time and let the kids’ imaginations run wild. And it was – for a week. Soon we began to crave a hit of Google. But immersed in the rarefied air of each other’s company and discovering a new level of mutual attentiveness, we played games, lit fires, counted the bonging of church bells and connected as a family as never before.

KEY: 
1G 2F 3I 4D 5A 6H 7B

Reading test: The economics of beard popularity in the US

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the insert-the-word kind of task.

In the Vox article The economics of beard popularity in the US, a number of words and phrases have been taken out. Insert the word A-M in the corresponding blank. There are three words/phrases you do not need to use. 0 is an example.

The economics of beard popularity in the US

You (0) … think people grow beards (1) … their fashionability or warmth, but author and professor Stephen Mihm says there might be (2) … reason. In a New York Times piece, he claims that in Western countries, trends in beard popularity often closely follow (3) … in capitalism.

(4) … the mid-19th century, communists and labour radicals grew thick Karl Marx–style beards as a form of protest. Members of the business community viewed these movements (5) … scary and threatening to the establishment, and as a result, beards became not allowed in general society. But (6) … these protests ended and capitalist enterprises could safely show their supremacy again, beards came back into fashion, and titans of the business world began to put on impressive displays of facial hair as a means of showing an image of strength and masculine individuality.
In the early 20th century, beards again began to be associated with anti-capitalist movements, and for (7) … a century they were nowhere to be seen in corporate boardrooms and many parts of society.

Then along came the tech boom, (8) … made many untidy computer geeks in Silicon Valley rich and powerful members of the capitalist landscape. People like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Jack Dorsey redefined (9) … we view powerful business heads and have helped bring in a new period of beard acceptance and popularity.


A - another
B - as
C - because
D - because of
E - during
F - how
G - like
H - may 0 Example
I - nearly
J - once
K - other
L - trends
M - which

KEY: 
1D 2A 3L 4E 5B 6J 7I 8M 9F

Reading test: Windsor Castle anti-terror barriers 'ugly', locals say

Read this BBC article and choose the world or phrase A-N that best fits into each gap. There are three words you do not need to use.  0 is an example.

Windsor Castle anti-terror barriers 'ugly', locals say 

New security barriers around Windsor Castle (0) … branded "ugly" by some locals. They were installed (1) …  to afford extra protection at Wednesday's Changing of the Guard ceremony (2) …  last week's attack in Westminster. Police asked the public to understand (3) … the barriers were "necessary".

But some residents in the Royal Borough have reacted (4) … to the extreme measure.  Many complained they were unattractive, (5) … others said the number of parking spaces had been reduced (6) … . Shami Kalra (7) … it was "sad" to see the "beautiful streets of Windsor" lined with anti-terrorism barriers, and gave the impression the town was "running scared". One woman living in the town commented the "ugly barriers" had been installed with "two hours notice" and tweeted: "If it's not safe to change the guard. Don't do it. The barriers severely impact people (8) … live there."

Thames Valley Police believe the measures are proportionate and necessary (9) … there is "no intelligence to indicate a specific threat to Windsor". The barriers will be in addition to the normal road closures which had (10) … been arranged for the Changing of the Guard event.

A - after
B - already
C - although
D - angrily
E - as a result
F - have been – 0 Example
G - however
H - overnight
I - said
J - told
K - while
L - who
M - why
N – yet

Photo: BBC

KEY:
1H 2A 3M 4D 5K 6E 7I 8L 9C 10B

Listening test: Books

This is John Kuti's story of his relationships with books throughout his life. Listen and match each of the extracts 1-6 with the corresponding heading A-H. There are two headings you do not need to use.

Source: British Council Learning English

A - A book for travelling
B - Family life is an obstacle for readers
C – Reading books rediscovered
D - Reading strange books and books nobody had read
E - Taking a long time to read short books
F - The adventure books of my childhood
G - The end of books
H - Working with the TV on


The adventure books of my childhood
I suppose I was an avid reader of "literature" between the ages of nine and fourteen. I had enough time to be White Fang, Robinson Crusoe, and Bilbo Baggins and Jeeves. Of course there was room in the schoolboy's imagination for some real historical figures: Scott of the Antarctic, all of the Vikings, and Benjamin Franklin were good friends of mine.

Looking for strange books and books nobody had read
In adolescence, I began a long search for strange and radical ideas. I wanted to challenge my elders and betters, and stir up my peers with amazing points of view. Of course, the only place to look was in books. I hunted out the longest titles and the authors with the funniest names, I scoured the library for completely unread books. Then I found one which became my bible for the whole of 1982, it had a title composed of eleven long words and an author whose name I didn't know how to pronounce. It was really thick and looked dead serious. Even better, it put forward a whole world-view that would take days to explain. Perfect. I took it out of the library three times, proud to see the date-stamps lined up on the empty library insert.

Taking a long time to read short books
Later, I went to university. Expecting to spend long evenings in learned discussion with clever people, I started reading philosophy. For some reason I never found the deep-thinking intellectuals I hoped to meet. Anyway, I was ready to impress with my profound knowledge of post-structuralism, existentialism and situationism. These things are usually explained in rather short books, but they take a long time to get through. They were the end of my youthful reading.

The end of books
Working life was hard to get used to after so much theory. It was the end of books for me. There didn't seem to be much in books that would actually get things done. To do things you had to answer the telephone and work a computer. You had to travel about and speak to people who weren't at all interested in philosophy. I didn't stop reading, you can't avoid that. I read all day. But no books came my way, only manuals and pamphlets and contracts and documents. Maybe most people satisfy their need for stories and ideas with TV and, to tell the truth, it was all I needed for ten years.Then, one fateful day, my TV broke and my landlady took it away.

Working with the TV on 
My new TV is an extra circuit board inside my computer. It's on a desk in front of a working chair and I can't see it from the bed. I still use it for the weather forecasts and it's nice to have it on while I'm typing this…

Reading books rediscovered
Now, I just like books. I have a pile of nice ones by my bed and I'm reading about six simultaneously. I don't want to BE any of the characters. I don't care if a thousand people have already read them. I don't have to search through libraries. There are books everywhere and all of them have something to read in them. I have the strange feeling that they've been there all along, waiting for me to pick them up.

 Photo: British Council

KEY:
1F 2D 3E 4G 5H 6C

Reading test: Lent 2017

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the insert-the-sentence type of task. To do so, we are going to use The Telegraph article Lent 2017 starts today, here's everything you need to know about Ash Wednesday.

Read this text and choose the best sentence (A - K) for each gap. TWO of the sentences do not correspond to any of the blanks. 0 is an example.

A - angered some traditionalists
B - as a reflection of Jesus's sacrifice in the Judean desert
C - fall on the same date each year
D - for prayer and penance
E - it can fall on any Sunday
F - it is determined by when Easter falls
G - to give up a particular vice
H - to use up rich, indulgent foods like eggs and milk
I - which comes before Easter in the Christian calendar
J - which marks the start of Lent in the Christian calendar – 0 Example
K - which means 'spring'

When is Ash Wednesday 2017?
Ash Wednesday, (0) … , has been observed by Britons for centuries. Its exact date changes every year, because (1) … . But it is always the day after Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, and it always falls in February or March. This year, it is on Wednesday, March 1.
In January last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, suggested that Easter should (2) … . The plan, which would schedule the Christian festival on the same Sunday each year, was welcomed by parents and schools but (3) … .
At present, Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox around March 21. This means (4) … between March 22 and April 25. Archbishop Welby said that Easter should most likely be fixed for the second or third Sunday of April.


What is Lent?
Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, a period of 40 days (excluding Sundays) (5) … .
Christians who observe Lent use it as a time (6) … . By observing Lent, Christians are remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who withdrew into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days before his crucifixion.
Traditionally, pancakes are eaten on the day before Ash Wednesday (7) … before the 40-day fasting season of Lent begins.
This year, Easter falls on Sunday, April 16. The English word Lent is a shortened form of the Old English word 'lenten', (8) … .

 Photo: Wikipedia

KEY: 
1F 2C 3A 4E 5I 6D 7H 8K

Reading test: A criminal gang reportedly stole £2 million worth of rare books

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the grammar and vocabulary multiple choice task. To do so, we are going to read the Business Insider article A criminal gang reportedly stole £2 million worth of rare books.

Read the article and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each of the blanks. 0 is an example.

A criminal gang reportedly stole £2 million worth of rare books

A gang of thieves has reportedly stolen over £2 million (0) … of rare books from a warehouse near Heathrow airport in a "Mission Impossible"-style heist, The Mail on Sunday reports. The newspaper reports that over 160 rare books were (1) …, including works by Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Leonardo da Vinci.

Thieves reportedly (2) … the warehouse in Feltham, Middlesex by climbing onto the roof, cutting holes through the reinforced skylights, and then abseiling down into the building. The heist, (3) … took place on the evening of January 29, was captured on the warehouse's CCTV cameras, The Mail on Sunday reports.

Thieves were observed ignoring all other items stored in the warehouse, instead targeting four containers that stored rare books. A source (4) … The Mail on Sunday that the gang of criminals checked the contents of the containers against a list, "throwing (5) … they didn't want away." The books were being stored in the warehouse temporarily as they made their way to the California Book Fair.

The gang then placed the rare books into holdalls and pulled them onto the roof of the building using ropes. The bags were (6) … placed into a van and driven away.

The Mail on Sunday reports that the thieves likely stole the books to order, as it would be difficult to resell the titles. The newspaper says that scientific works of the type stolen in the raid, "are particularly in demand." It speculates that a wealthy collector known as "the Astronomer" (7) … have ordered gangs to steal books for him.

The most valuable book stolen in the raid is a 1566 edition of "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" by Copernicus. The book, (8) … as "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," set out Copernicus' theory that the Sun is at the centre of the universe, not the Earth.

The owner of the rare Copernicus book stolen in the raid, identified only as a dealer from Padua in Italy, thinks “it was clearly a robbery done to order. It was a specialised gang. They took only books, (9) … ."

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has published two separate lists detailing every book believed to have been stolen in the heist. It lists two dealers (10) … have had stock stolen from them: Librario Bado e Mart s.a.s. di Bado R. e C. from Padua, Italy, and Michael Kühn from Berlin, Germany.

(11) … book that is believed to have been stolen is a 1656 Galileo book titled "Opere di Galileo Galilei," another early scientific work about the universe.

A copy of "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" by Isaac Newton was (12) … stolen in the raid. The book was a landmark work covering physics and mathematics.

0 Example:
a) priced
b) value
c) worth

1
a) caught
b) robbed
c) stolen

2
a) entered
b) entered on to
c) entered to

3
a) that
b) what
c) which

4
a) informed to
b) said
c) told

5
a) some
b) the ones
c) whichever

6
a) after
b) first
c) then

7
a) had to
b) may
c) should

8
a) described
b) known
c) translated

9
a) just those
b) nothing else
c) nothing more

10
a) what
b) which
c) who

11
a) Another
b) One
c) Other

12
a) also
b) as well
c) too

KEY:
1C 2A 3C 4C 5B 6C 7B 8C 9B 10C 11A 12A

Reading test: Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study

For this week's reading test we are going to use The Guardian article Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study, by by Phillip Inman.

Read the article and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence.

Happiness depends on health and friends, not money, says new study

Most human misery can be blamed on failed relationships and physical and mental illness rather than money problems and poverty, according to a landmark study by a team of researchers at the London School of Economics (LSE).

Eliminating depression and anxiety would reduce misery by 20% compared to just 5% if policymakers focused on eliminating poverty, the report found.

Lord Richard Layard, who led the report, said on average people have become no happier in the last 50 years, despite average incomes more than doubling.

The economist and former adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown said the study, called Origins of Happiness, showed that measuring people’s satisfaction with their lives should be a priority for every government. The researchers analysed data from four countries including the US and Germany.

Extra spending on reducing mental illness would be self-financing, the researchers added, because it would be recovered by the government through higher employment and increased tax receipts together with a reduction in NHS costs from fewer GP visits and hospital A&E admissions.

“Tackling depression and anxiety would be four times as effective as tackling poverty. It would also pay for itself,” he said. The report supports the arguments put forward by Layard over several decades that social and psychological factors are more important to the wellbeing of individuals than income levels. “Having a partner is as good for you as being made unemployed is bad for you,” he said. The report claims that state-run organisations, including schools, must become more focused on tackling anxiety and mental health issues.

“This evidence demands a new role for the state – not ‘wealth creation’ but ‘wellbeing creation’,” Layard said. “In the past, the state has successively taken on poverty, unemployment, education and physical health. But equally important now are domestic violence, alcoholism, depression and anxiety conditions, alienated youth, exam mania and much else. These should become centre stage.”

The economist said it was a curse on children that they were judged by society solely on their educational attainment. The report adds: “The strongest factor predicting a happy adult life is not children’s qualifications but their emotional health. There is also powerful evidence that schools have a big impact on children’s emotional health, and which school a child goes to will affect their emotional wellbeing as much as it affects their exam performance.”

Layard rejected accusations that he was arguing against closing income inequalities but said improvements in mental health services would have a greater impact.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has pledged to increase funding for mental health services. In September he said the care offered to children and young people was the service’s biggest weakness.

But the Department of Health admitted last month that the number of mental health nurses working in the NHS in England has dropped by almost a sixth since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, from 45,384 in England to 38,774 in July this year.

The report will be presented to a conference in London on Monday that has been organised by the LSE and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

1 According to a team of researchers at the London School of Economics
A. eliminating depression and anxiety would make people four times happier.
B. failed relationships is at the root of human unhappiness.
C. money problems don’t bring unhappiness.

2 In the last 50 years
A. our income has stayed the same.
B. our level of happiness has not changed.
C. people have become poorer.

3 In Lord Richard Layard’s opinion, the money spent on reducing mental illness
A. might bring more unemployment.
B. would lead to an increase in taxes.
C. would pay for itself in the long run.

4 The study Origins of Happiness claims that
A. citizens’ mental condition should be prioritized.
B. income levels are not really important to citizens.
C. it is convenient for people to have a partner.

5 The study says that so far the state has failed to deal with
A. domestic violence, alcoholism, depression and anxiety conditions, alienated youth, exam mania.
B. poverty, unemployment, education and physical health.
C. both A and B.

6 The study also emphasizes that
A. exam results should be given priority.
B. exam results should not be a key factor in a child’s development.
C. the choice of school is of no importance for a child’s development.

7 At the end of the article it is said that
A. income inequalities are not being taken into consideration anymore.
B. the money spent on mental health services has been increased.
C. there has been a reduction in the mental health staff.

Photo: Perth Now

KEY: 
1B 2B 3C 4A 5A 6B 7C

Reading test: Travelling rules I’ve completely broken

This is part of Adi's blog post on Love the Search, Traveling Rules I’ve Broken Along The Way.

Read the paragraphs below and match them to their corresponding heading A-I. There are two headings you do not need to use. 0 is an example.

A - I ate street food and drink tap water
B - I wear skimpy clothes
C - I went to places tagged with adverse travel warnings
D - I’ve climbed mountains and hiked trails solo
E - I’ve gone to strange new countries unprepared
F - I’ve gotten too drunk to remember anything
G - I’ve travelled without ANY insurance – 0 Example
H - I’ve trusted strangers with my valuables (and my life)
I - I’ve walked alone at night many times

Traveling rules I’ve broken along the way

0
This is a big no-no! They say that if you can’t afford travel insurance then you can’t really afford to travel at all. I want it, but I haven’t really found a company that has convinced me. I’m willing to sacrifice a chunk of my hard earned savings for security. But I’m not completely sold whenever I read the fine print. For example, did you know that you’ll need to file a proper incident and police report to claim for theft or robbery? But what if you didn’t have the time for that? Also, they won't reimburse your medical bills if you’ve been found driving a motorbike without a proper licence and helmet. But the reality is, no one really cares in Indonesia where people start driving at the age of 9.

1
While traveling across Southeast Asia and Latin America solo, I’ve started to cross borders without a guidebook nor a hostel booking. Backpackers usually just show up to a place, walk around to find a hostel, which is what I did in Koh Chang. Unfortunately, it was Chinese New Year that weekend and everything was fully booked. I remember walking around the island with other travellers who arrived late on the ferry with me that night. Even the camping spots were bursting with tents and hammocks. After about a couple of hours of desperately searching, we found bungalows that were three times our budget, but at 1:00 am, we had to give in.

2
Thank goodness I’ve never had any problems with my stomach, even after traveling India where my friends remembered to brush their teeth with bottled water, yet still got the Delhi belly. I guess my digestive system is a little stronger than most. I grew up in a third world country where I eat any kind of food and drink ice from running water. Some people I’ve travelled with are so careful, they don’t even order salad because they’re not sure of the quality of water the vegetables have been washed with. So some of them just end up ordering boiled rice. Yum. I don’t know how they can pass up a delicious plate of gado-gado or a halo-halo!

3
Because of food of course. And because sometimes you really don’t have a choice. In Puerto Viejo, all the taxis are unmarked, dodgy looking cars. You wonder, “Which is safer? Walking in the dark by myself or taking an unmarked cab with an unidentified driver?” I don’t know! My advice, try to walk with other travellers or worst case scenario, walk really fast and try not to look like a tourist. Let the receptionist or someone in your hostel know what time you’re supposed to be back at the hostel.

4
It was the Yi-Peng (lantern) Festival in Chiang Mai and the whole town was in a celebratory mood. We walked to 7-11 and bought a big bottle of Chang, a brand of beer with higher alcohol percentage than what I was used to. Let’s just say, I made very bad choices that night. Never ever get too wasted to know your way home, even if you’re with friends you trust completely!

5
It was scorching hot in Cartagena, Colombia early in January. 32°C to be exact. So I wore my shortest shorts, my yoga top and of course, was catcalled by the locals the whole time. I tried to ignore each comment “Hola, chinita! Guapa! Vamos a mi cama!” as I tried to appreciate the colonial surroundings. But at the end of the day, I walked back to my hostel, sick to my stomach because of all the bad energy I absorbed. In these situations, either you die of heat wearing conservative attire, or just completely ignore everyone’s comments. It’s really your choice.

6
Hitching rides on the back of motorbikes is probably the biggest gamble I do on a regular basis. I’ve gotten in a few accidents, all in Indonesia. The worst one landed me in the ER with scrapes all over my body and a head concussion from riding with a drunk driver. I’ve learned to take my bicycle everywhere with me instead!

  Photo: Adi on Love the Search

KEY:
1E 2A 3I 4F 5B 6H

Kiosko

Kiosko.net is a visual daily press directory that gives access to the world's largest news sites and displays a readable image taken from today's frontpage cover of each newspaper.

The site can be useful for both English students and teachers to compare how the same news item is reported from a different perspective.

h/t to Nik Peachy.

Reading test: Austria village churches hire bouncers to block tourists

Read the BBC article Austria village churches hire bouncers to block tourists and choose the word or phrase A-N that best fits into each of the gaps in the text. There are three words or phrases you do not need to use. 0 is an example.

Austria village churches hire bouncers to block tourists

A (0) … Austrian village has brought in "bouncers" at its churches (1) … stop tourists disturbing services, it's reported.

Visitors from all over the world (2) … to the lakeside village of Hallstatt, a Unesco World Heritage Site, and it's particularly popular with tour groups from Asia. But some have been (3) … the locals with their eagerness to document church proceedings, even whipping out cameras and selfie sticks (4) .. funerals and photographing the mourners, the Heute website reports.

In response, the village's two churches have started to (5) … their doors before services begin or put someone at the entrance to block tourists. "Bouncers" are also posted to the local cemetery when funerals are being conducted, the meinBezirk news portal says. Church leaders stress that visitors are (6) … welcome at other times.

Parish council head Reinhard Kerschbaumer adds a touch of self-criticism when explaining the problem. "We should sometimes (7) … more moral courage and have the heart to (8) … something and not just grumble after the fact," he tells meinBezirk, adding that the tourist barrier might then not be needed.

Hallstatt's appeal is far-reaching: in 2012, a replica of the village was unveiled in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Mayor Alexander Scheutz overcame initial (9) … to fly to China for the opening ceremony, telling the BBC that locals found it amusing that their little village was "important (10) … to get a copy".


A - already
B - annoying
C - do
D - doubts
E - during
F - enough
G - flock
H - in order to
I - lock
J - make
K - picturesque 0 Example
L - show 
M - still
N – when

Photo: Nick Csakany/Wikimedia

KEY: 
1H 2G 3B 4E 5I 6M 7L 8C 9D 10F

Read Listen Learn

Read - Listen - Learn is a collection of graded reading activities ranging from elementary to advanced level.

Most of the texts have audio recordings, so learners can read and listen at the same time. Similarly, the stories have a glossary and some graphic aids to help the student understand the most complex vocabulary in the stories.

The stories can be either fictional or non-fictional and they range  between 1,000 and 2,000 words.

To select which story to read, just click on the Find articles tag at the top.

Read - Listen - Learn is free, but you have to log in with through Facebook.

Reading test: Lark or owl, working nine-to-five will make you tired

Read The Guardian article Lark or owl, working nine-to-five will make you tired on the way our natural circadian rhythms doesn’t agree with the typical working day. Choose the best sentence (A - J) for each gap. There are two sentences you do not need to use. 0 is an example.

A - a stressful commute to reach a fixed point
B - and embracing flexible working
C - individuals have very different sleep-wake patterns – 0 Example
D - many expect workplace flexibility in the workplace
E - to beat their wings to a different rhythm
F - to fit the workplace around the worker
G - to reach peak alertness at around noon
H - what if that commute were simply eliminated?
I - when we experience jetlag, or a lack of sleep
J - which isn’t possible under a fixed structure

Lark or owl, working nine-to-five will make you tired

Every day, 21.18 million people in the UK work nine to five. This may seem intuitive – we all know people tend to work best during daylight hours. But even within these parameters, (0) … .

Our internal body clock is a natural process governed by circadian rhythms that regulate levels of energy and alertness throughout the day. So (1) …, this interferes with our ability to think.

Much research has been done on when we work best, but little of that knowledge has filtered through to the workplace. The average employee will take a few hours after arriving at work (2) … . This peak then subsides until around 3pm. After this low, alertness tends to increase again until a second peak at 6pm. Then it’s a steady decline until the ultimate low at 3.30am. Finally, alertness climbs again and the cycle repeats.

This, however, is the average cycle with people deviating hugely. Some fall into early morning achievers (larks), while others work better in the evening (owls).

Consider the typical working day: a 7.30am start; (3) … before 9am; an hour for lunch often spent at the desk; and a tiring commute home leaving work at 5pm each day.

The notion of the nine-to-five working day was established in Victorian times, not an age much aware of worker welfare, and it is easy to see the conflict between this fixed structure and our natural circadian rhythms. So how can businesses adapt? Already numerous companies are rejecting this outdated idea of a fixed working routine (4) … .

With the early evening peak of alertness occurring precisely when a vast majority of workers are wrestling with motorways or public transport on their commute home, (5) … . It’s won’t work for everyone, but there are a large percentage of professionals travelling unnecessarily to a fixed location.

Solutions are available today. Businesses of every size and in every sector are consuming flexible workspace and a new pattern is emerging which aims (6) …, rather than vice versa. Business leaders are listening to workers struggling with the daily cost and frustration of commuting. And they are embracing flexible working to attract the best employees.

Whether employers are quite ready to allow individuals to nap during the day during low-energy spells is a debatable point. But there is certainly receptiveness for improved workplace wellbeing and for trusting employees to maximise their productivity on their own terms.

Giving a little scientific thought to the process of productivity – and allowing owls and larks (7) …– works best for everyone.

Photo: University of Nebraska - Lincoln

KEY: 
1I 2G 3A 4B 5H 6F 7E

Reading test: What we hate about Christmas

Read the text about irritating modern-day Christmas traditions and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each gap. 0 is an example.


The interminable build-up
It used to be December before the distant sound of sleigh bells and ringing tills (0) ___ your ears. Classy families even waited to put up their trees until Christmas Eve. Now the festive season starts directly after Halloween. (1) ___  it’s actually Christmas, I’m bored of Christmas.

Mulled wine
Ever (2) ___ a nice glass of red wine and thought: “This would be much better if it was hot and full of woody shrapnel?” Me neither.

Christmas jumpers
Five years ago, novelty knitwear became a “thing”. Primark started selling monstrosities with snowflakes, reindeers and unfunny slogans on them. People now believe Christmas jumpers are soooo ironically kitsch. They’re not. They’re itchy and make you (3) ___ a child.

Christmas cards
The keeping-in-touch element (4) ___ by social media now, leaving Christmas cards as just a pain in the posterior. And you, of course, will offend someone by leaving them out.

Coffee chains loving Christmas
Red cups? Pumpkin spice lattes? Christmas sandwiches and “Crimble Crumble”? Just (5) ___ my coffee and misspell my name like usual.

Travel hell
Ah, the one time of year when you need to get around: going shopping, attending parties, getting to your family, getting away from them again. So obviously, railways are closed, flights are (6) ___ , roads are jammed and it’s impossible to (7) ___ a cab.

Work lunches
If you’re on one, they’re a torture chamber of forced jollity. If you’re not on one, you can’t enter a pub or restaurant without seeing a long tableful of depressed-looking people in paper hats pretending to like (8) ___ . And you can’t get to the bar because it’s two-deep with amateur once-a-year drinkers who don’t know how to order properly.

Christmas trees on social media
Everybody shares. Nobody (9) ___. I hate to sound tree-ist, but they all look the same.

Secret Santa
Why bother giving a hastily-wrapped gift to a colleague you barely know? Then forcing out a hollow laugh, pretending to like (10) ___ they bought you? Get everyone to chip into a drinks kitty instead. Boozy Santa beats Secret Santa every time.

Feeling like death for a month with so much drinking and eating
Hangovers give you a cold. Work stress (11) ___ your tiredness. The weather worsens your manflu. By Christmas Eve, you’re in danger of total physical collapse.

Finding the end of the sellotape
I’ve calculated how long you’ll spend doing this during your lifetime. I’ll (12) ___ you the answer just as soon as I’ve found the end of this Sellotape. Damn, I thought I had it then. It must’ve been the light or a hair.

Parcel delivery
“We rang the doorbell but you were out”. No, I was in. You just didn’t ring the doorbell. “We’ve left it in a safe place”. Where it’ll get wet/muddy/nicked. “Please book a redelivery.”

0 Example:
A. arrived
B. got
C. reached

1
A. By the time
B. For when
C. After

2
A. blown
B. sipped
C. sucked

3
A. look as
B. look like
C. to feel as

4
A. has been replaced
B. has changed
C. has replaced

5
A. cook
B. do
C. make

6
A. broken
B. grounded
C. stopped

7
A. call
B. hail
C. stop

8
A. each other
B. them
C. themselves

9
A. cares
B. matters
C. minds

10
A. that
B. the thing
C. what

11
A. adds to
B. brings
C. gives

12
A. inform
B. say
C. tell

KEY: 
1A 2B 3B 4A 5C 6B 7B 8A 9A 10C 11A 12C