II Reading

Reading 1

Read the text and fill in the table below

How not to behave badly abroad

Travelling to all corners of the world gets easier and easier. We live in a global village, but this doesn't mean that we all behave in the same way

Greetings

How should you behave when you meet someone for the first time? An American or Canadian shakes your hand firmly while looking you straight in the eyes.

In many parts of Asia, there is no physical contact at all. In Japan, you should bow, and the more respect you want to show. In Thailand, the greeting is made by pressing both hands together at the chest, as if you are praying, and bowing your head slightly. In both countries, eye contact is avoided as a sign of respect.

Clothes

Many countries have rules about what you should and shouldn't wear. In Asian and Muslim countries, you shouldn't reveal the body, especially women.

In Japan, you should take off your shoes when entering a house or a restaurant. Remember to place them neatly together facing the door you came in. This is also true in China, Korea, Thailand, and Iran.

Food and drink

In Italy, Spain, and Latin America, lunch is often the biggest meal of the day, and can last two or three hours. For this reason many people eat a light breakfast and a late dinner. In Britain, you might have a business lunch and do business.

Doing business

In most countries, an exchange of business cards is essential for all introductions. You should include your company name and your position. If you are going to a country where your language is not widely spoken, you can get the reverse side of your card printed in the local language.

In Japan, you must present your card with both hands, with the writing facing the person you are giving it to.

In many countries, business hours are from 9.00 or 10.00 to 5.00 or 6.00. However in some countries, such as Greece, Italy, and Spain remain open until the evening.

Japanese business people consider it their professional duty to go out after work with colleagues to restaurants, bars, or nightclubs. If you are invited, you shouldn't refuse, even if you don't feel like staying out late.

	Your country	Japan, China, Iran	Britain, USA, Canada
Greetings
Clothes
Food and drink
Doing business

Reading 2

Complete the text with the passive form of the verbs below

allow choose film give invite send show teach

Star Academy

Thousands of young people apply to take part in this program. They send video tapes to the producers and a group of them (1) are chosen to take part. During the series, they live in a castle, where they (2)_______ to sing and dance. They(3)_______ not_______ to speak to their friends or family and every moment of their life in the castle (4)________ Their lives (5)_______ on TV every evening and, on Saturday, there is a special show. A famous TV star (6)_______on the show and one of the contestants sings a song with him or her. At the end of the program, there is a vote and one person (7) _____.__ home. At the end of the series, the winner is (8) _______a contract to make an album.

Reading 3

Read the text and say what you think about this initiative. Define the tense of the verbs in bold.

The White House Garden

During World War II, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt led (___________ ) the war effort on the home front by establishing a victory garden at the White House. Nearly six decades later, another vegetable garden has sprouted (______________) on White House grounds to promote First Lady Michelle Obama’s cause of reducing childhood obesity by encouraging youngsters to eat a healthy diet loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington, which has had ( __________ ) its own garden since 2OO1, have helped ( _____________ ) Mrs. Obama dig and tend the garden and harvest the produce. The students also work ( _________ ) with chefs in the White House kitchen to prepare and cook what they have grown.( ______________ ) Some food from the garden finds its way into formal White House dinners and the Obamas’ family meals; the rest is donated ( ___________ ) to a local kitchen that serves ( _______________ ) the homeless.

The garden features 55 varieties of vegetables, some from seeds handed down ( _______ ) from the nation’s third president, Thomas Jefferson. All are grown ( ___________ ) organically, fertilized with White House compost and crab meal from the nearby Chesapeake Bay. Beneficial insects, such as ladybugs and praying mantises, help ( __________ ) control pests.

Mrs. Obama, who notes that the project was inspired ( ____________ ) in part by her desire to improve her own children’s diet, says, ‘The garden is an important introduction to what I hope will be ( ___________ ) a new way that our country thinks about food’.

Reading 4 Read the text.

Stress

How often have you bad a headache in the last twelve months? How many stomach aches have you had? Have you sometimes found it difficult to breathe? Have you had any skin problems? How often have you felt sad or nervous for no good reason? How often have you wanted to cry? How often have you got angry?

If your answer to three or more of these questions is too often', you are probably suffering from stress. And if you are suffering from stress, you are not alone. Over half of the adult population has had stress-related symptoms in the last year and many of them have needed help of some kind. Stress is now the major health problem of our times.

Stress, itself, is not an illness, but it can certainly contribute to illnesses, some of them serious. When you feel under stress, your body produces more of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol. As a result, the body needs more oxygen and your heart rate and blood pressure go up. At its most serious, this can lead to heart problems, but stress is also related to weight problems, coughs and colds. Scientists have also discovered that stress can lead to the loss of brain cells.

The most common cause of stress is over-work, but a difficult boss or problems with your colleagues are also common causes. Some jobs are more stressful than others, with teachers and police officers at the top of the scale and beauty therapists at the bottom. From time to time, we hear of celebrities suffering from stress, footballers like Ronaldo or the American actress, Winona Ryder. But stress can affect us all and the figures prove it. 40 million working days are lost in the UK every year because of stress-related illnesses. What is more, people who are suffering from stress do not work as well as usual. The situation is so serious that some companies now offer relaxation and stress management classes. if you think you, too, are suffering from stress, it's important to know if it is causing you health problems. If it is, see your doctor and talk about it.

What things do you do to relax?

Watch TV, do yoga, talk to a friend, play computer games, have a bath, sing songs, listen to music, close your eyes and breathe deeply, see a film, drink a glass of cocktail, etc.

Reading 5

Read the text. Answer the questions.

• Who is speaking?

• Who does he think they are?

• Why does the man suspect them?

• Why does he change his mind?

I often travel to other countries, so I spend a lot of time at airports. Today I’m travelling to Greece and at the moment I’m waiting for my plane. But I’m not wasting my time. What am I doing? I’m playing my favorite game – people-watching. Whenever I have the time, I watch other people.

Take that couple, for example. They’re buying magazines at the moment. Are they going on holiday or are they travelling on business? They aren’t wearing business clothes. But he’s carrying a briefcase. Every few seconds she looks round. Is someone following them? Perhaps they’re running away and … Just a minute. There’s a story in this newspaper. A bank clerk stole one million pounds last week and disappeared with his wife. There’s a picture of them here. Hmmm, they look similar. That’s it! The money’s in the briefcase. I must stop them.

They’re going to the departure lounge now. Quick. Oh, just a minute. They’re saying goodbye to each other. The woman isn’t going into the departure lounge. She’s walking away. Oh, well, it was exciting for a moment. Oh, what is she doing now? She’s talking to another man. They’re kissing. Now, I wonder…

Look at the story again.

Underline the examples of the present progressive tense with I, they, and she.

Find:

A) a positive statement, b) a negative statement, c) a question

Reading 6

Black Taxis, Red Buses

Read the text. Answer the questions

1 When did people use the Underground first?

2 How many airports does London have?

3 How many big train stations does London have?

4 How many taxi drivers are there in London?

5 What colour is London's taxi?

London has five airports in or near the city - Heathrow, Gatwick, London City Airport, Stansted and Luton. Heathrow is twenty-four kilometres from the city centre. About 1,250 aeroplanes - 213,000 people - fly to and from Heathrow every day.

The city has eight big train stations, too. You can catch a train from London to Paris or Brussels now. Many people live outside London and come into the city for work every day. Children know about King's Cross station because it is the train station in the Harry Potter books.

There are a lot of cars in London, and journeys can take a very long time at the wrong time of day. But the city is famous for its black taxis and red buses. You can see some of London's famous red buses today and there are other buses, too. London's 21,000 black taxi drivers have to remember 25,000 streets in London. They study maps and drive round the city for about two years. Before they can start driving people, they have to answer difficult questions about the best ways across London.

You can move across London on the Underground, too. Londoners also call these underground trains 'the Tube'. The London Underground is the oldest in the world. People first used it in 1863. Now it is about 410 kilometres long. There are three hundred stations, and some of them are nearly sixty metres under the streets. Every day, about 2,500,000 people use these trains.

The Map Man

In 1931, Henry Beck started working on a new map for the London Underground. He wanted to make the map easy for people. The London Underground only made five hundred of the maps, but people loved them. The Underground is bigger today, but the map is not very different from Beck's map.

You can, of course, walk round London! No cars or buses can go across London's newest bridge. The Millennium Bridge opened in 2000, and many Londoners walk across it every day. There were some problems with the bridge in the early days. When a lot of people walked on it, the bridge moved! People felt ill, so the bridge had to close. Builders did more work on the bridge, and then it opened again.

Read the text again. Find out the sentences with the words, phrases in bold.

Translate these sentences.

Do you find their translation difficult? Why yes? / no?