- •I Choose the correct answer. Circle the right letter.
- •1 Complete the following table by ticking the correct cell and if your answer is “Yes”, justify your choice by using words from the text.
- •2 Tick the four correct statements.
- •I Complete the text with the words in the box. Use each word once
- •II Mitchell y. McDeere.
- •III. The Firm.
- •IV. Pick out 3 phrases suggesting that McDeere is the ideal candidate for the firm.
- •I Circle the right answer.
- •II True or False? Give your answer and justify your choice by quoting
- •III Rewrite each sentence replacing ‘it’ by one of the following suggestions. Note that there is one suggestion that does not fit at all.
- •IV Underline the right answer and justify your choice with a short quotation.
- •I Choose the correct answer and circle the corresponding letters.
- •II Say whether the following statements are True or False.
- •III Choose the right interpretation. Circle the corresponding letter.
- •IV Match these phrasal verbs with their meanings. Note that there is
- •I Choose the correct answer. Justify your choice by quoting from the text
- •II True or False? Justify by quoting from the text.
- •III Underline the right answer.
- •IV Match these phrasal verbs with their meanings.
I Complete the text with the words in the box. Use each word once
only.
-
1 Harvard 2 law 3 managing partner 4 Memphis
5 senior partner 6 tax firm 7 The firm is 8 tax lawyer
Mitchell Y. McDeere is a …(a)… student from …(b)… University.
He is being contracted for a …(c)… in a …(d)… . …(e)… located in
…(f)…, Tennessee. Two men: the …(g)… and …(h)… are examining
McDeere’s résumé in depth.
II Mitchell y. McDeere.
True or False? Give your answer and justify your choice by quoting
the text.
1 He is a handsome man.
T |
F |
2 McDeere is a bachelor.
T |
F |
3 He is fully qualified.
T |
F |
4 McDeere is a bright young man.
T |
F |
5 He earned his grades honestly.
T |
F |
6 He got no help from his family to pay for his education.
T |
F |
III. The Firm.
What shows that … ? |
Quotations from the text. |
a) the firm has strict moral standards
|
1 ……….. …………. …………. ………….
2 ……….. …………. …………. …………. |
b) they act differently from other firms in the area
|
1 ……….. …………. …………. ………….
|
c) the firm has an “all-white” policy |
1 ……….. …………. …………. ………….
2 ……….. …………. …………. …………. |
d) the firm has developed a male-chauvinist policy |
1 ……….. …………. …………. ………….
|
e) the managers use unorthodox, devious methods to find the “right” employees |
1 ……….. …………. …………. …………. |
IV. Pick out 3 phrases suggesting that McDeere is the ideal candidate for the firm.
1 ……….. …………. …………. ………….
2 ……….. …………. …………. ………….
3 ……….. …………. …………. ………….
THE END
TEXT 23 From “SAVAGE INEQUALITIES”
by Jonathan Kozol
Jonathan Kozol (b. 1936) – an American non-fiction writer, educator and activist, best-known for his books on public education in the United States.
(The book “Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools” was written in 1991. It discusses the disparities in education between schools of different classes and races.)
Clark Junior High School is regarded as the top school in the city. I visit, in part, at the request of school officials, who would like me to see education in the city at its very best. <…>
“We spend the entire eight grade year preparing for the state exam,” a teacher tells me in a top-ranked English class. The teacher seems devoted to the children, but three students sitting near me sleep through the entire period. <…>
Four of the 14 ceiling lamps are broken. The corridor outside the room is filled with voices. Outside the window, where I see no schoolyard, is (10) an empty lot.
In a mathematics class of 30 children packed into a space that might be adequate for 15 kids, there is one white student. The first white student I have seen in East St. Louis, she is polishing her nails with bright red polish. A tiny black girl next to her is writing with a one-inch pencil stub. <…>
Uncertain where to start, I ask the students what they’ve learned about the civil rights campaigns 0f recent decades.
A 14-year-old girl with short black curly hair says this: “Every year in February we are told to read the same old speech of Martin Luther
(20) King. We read it every year. ‘I have a dream ….’ It does begin to seem – what is the word?” She hesitates and then she finds the word “perfunctory”.
I ask her what she means.
“We have a school in East St. Louis named for Dr. King,” she says. “The school is full of sewer water and the doors are locked with chains. Every student in the school is black. It’s like a terrible joke on history.”
<…> “I would like to comment on that,” says another 14-year-old student, named Shalika. “I have had to deal with this all of my life. I started school in Fairview Heights. My mother pushed me and she
(30) wanted me to get a chance at better education. Only one other student in my class was black. I was in the fifth grade, and at that age you don’t understand the ugliness in people’s hearts. They wouldn’t play with me, I couldn’t understand it. During recess I would stand there by myself beside the fence. Then one day I got a note “Go back to Africa.”
Shalika is small and looks quite young for junior high. In each ear she wears a small enameled pin of Mickey Mouse. <…>
“You see a lot about crimes committed here in East St. Louis when you turn on the TV. Do they show the crimes committed by the government (40) that puts black people here? Why are all the dirty businesses like
chemicals and waste disposal here? This is a big country. Couldn’t they find another place to put their poison?”
NOTES
High School – the upper grades of secondary education in the US
period (Am.) – a specific, timed portion of a school day; a lesson
a lot – a plot of land
East St. Louis – a city with a population of 27,000, located on the Mississippi River in the state of Illinois ['ilinoi]
an inch – 2,5 cm
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968) – an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement; the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated in 1968.
‘I have a dream …’ – the famous 17-minute-long speech was delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. in 1963. In it, MLK called for racial equality and an end to discrimination.
Fairview Heights – a city with a population of 17,000 in the state of Illinois
recess (Am.) – a period between school classes when pupils can eat, rest or play. The British word is ‘break’.
EXERCISES