WRITING AND READING EXERCISES

Fill in the gaps about inline skating in Central Park ! Use the words from the box ! There are more words than you will need !

accidents - advice - care - crash - exit - helmets - places - problems - professionals - repaired - run - share - situations - skate -
track

There are some very good in Central Park to go in-line skating. There is a 6-mile long and the roads

there are pretty good. They were last in 1994, and you can skate pretty fast there. If you can do it in under half an

hour, youre really good. need about 6 minutes for it.

But remember: do not clockwise. Many happen because people do not remember that and into

each other. Please also remember that you the park with bikers, joggers and pedestrians. At the 72nd

Street from Central Park beginners can get on how to stop with their skates. Just look for guys in red shirts

with white crosses on their back, black shorts and of course, .

They are usually there on weekend afternoons from mid-April to the beginning of November. Have fun skating in Central

Park, but please take as well.

Fill in the blanks with the correct word from:

achieved appear balloon centuries changed cheaply develop development flight further invented managed
means popular rise suddenly tracks travel

The first humans dreamed of going faster and than they could on foot. They first this in Scandinavian

countries using skis. The wheel was at around 3500 B.C., but carts were very slow without the appropriate roads. So,

for many , the fastest and most popular of transport was the horse, which can run at about 50 kilometres an

hour. This record was broken in the 18th century when the hot-air and the railway both began to .

Two Frenchmen, the Montgolfier brothers, had the idea of creating a large balloon. A fire heated the air, making the

balloon . During the first flight, the two passengers were admiring the view when they saw smoke ! The

balloon was burning , but luckily, they to put out the fire and land safely.

The first train with an engine that ran on was developed by Richard Trevithick in 1803. On his first trip with passengers
the train fell off the tracks because they were not strong enough.

The bicycle did not until 1840 when a Scotsman , Kirkpatrick McMillan, created the first one to have pedals. People

rode without them before but they were not very and rather slow.

The 20th century saw the of many other means of transportation. The petrol-driven car completely the
way people thought about transportation, and so did the airplane. People have always dreamed of flying. One day in 1903 , two

American brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, managed to make a short in their newly-designed aircraft. From that

time on, a huge industry grew that allowed people to around the world, easily and .
Fill in the blanks with a word from the box:

additional advantage attended business change classes compared compulsory economy everyday expanding
government jobs offer official overtake popular qualified soak spread

Many children in school all over America are taking language courses in Chinese. The concept is easy. On one day they

learn everything in English and the next they to Chinese.

It is an to learn languages when you are young because small children up the language and use it

in situations. Chinese has become so that schools also want to parents Chinese courses.

Because of Chinas growing , Chinese has become a language many people want to learn. In the United States about 50,000

students from kindergarten to eighth grade are taking Chinese, to only 5,000 in 2004. About 100 million people worldwide are
studying Chinese as a second language.

The Chinese has a started a number of Confucius Institutes to the language and the countrys culture. Currently, there

are such institutes in over 60 countries. 2,000 students have the program in the last two years.

In the Philippines people think that learning Chinese will allow them to get better in the future. As more and more Chinese travel to

other countries as tourists or on , people who can speak Chinese have an advantage over others.

In Panama one government has even thought about making Chinese in public schools, however it is so hard to get

enough teachers to teach Chinese.

In the future Mandarin Chinese might not English as the worlds number one language but because China is further
it will become an important language.
Fill in all the gaps. There are TWO words you will not need!

abroad boiled cooks difficult dishes fancy import incorporated influence ingredients olive pasta pie
produce restaurants soil taste tasteless tea traditional varieties weather

How come it is so to find English food in England? In Greece you eat Greek food, in France French food, in Italy Italian food, but in

England, in any High Street in the land, it is easier to find Indian and Chinese than English ones. In London you can eat Thai,
Portuguese, Turkish, Lebanese, Russian, Polish, Swiss, Swedish, Spanish, and Italianbut where are the English restaurants?

It is not only in restaurants that foreign are replacing British food. In every supermarket, sales of pasta, pizza and

poppadoms are booming. Why has this happened? What is wrong with the of Britain that they prefer cooking pasta to potatoes? Why do

the British choose to eat lasagne instead of shepherds ? Why do they now like cooking in wine and oil? But perhaps it is a

good thing. After all, this is the end of the 20th century and we can get from all over the world in just a few hours. Anyway, wasnt

English food always disgusting and ? Wasnt it always to death and swimming in fat? The answer to these questions is a
resounding No, but to understand this, we have to go back to before World War II.

The British have in fact always imported food from . From the time of the Roman invasion foreign trade was a major on

British cooking. English kitchens, like the English language, absorbed ingredients from all over the worldchickens, rabbits, apples, and .

All of these and more were successfully into British dishes. Another important influence on British cooking was of course

the . The good old British rain gives us rich and green grass, and means that we are able to some of the

finest of meat, fruit and vegetables, which dont need sauces or complicated recipes to disguise their .
Write the missing words into the blanks from the box!

acquaintance bachelor boyfriend colleague employee employer lodger motorist neighbour optimist partner
pedestrian pessimist racist spectator spinster tourist vegetarian widow

She is always expecting the best to happen. She's such an .

A person who watches a sport or an event rather than takes part in it is called a .

Mrs Brown has been a since her husband died 7 years ago.

Pamela and Frank have been going out with each other since they met at the university. He is the first Pamela has ever wanted to
marry.

Amanda amd I own and run the company together. She is my .

A is someone who visits another country or district for a holiday.

Is James married yet- No, he's still a .

A is someone who goes everywhere on foot.

I work for IBM. They are my .

She never eats any sort of meat. She's a .

Julie and I work together. She is my .

Someone who drives a car is called a .

He is always expecting the worst to happen. He's such a .

A woman who has never marreid is called a .

If you work for yourself you are called self-employed. If you work for somone else you are an .

He thinks British people are far superior to other nationalities and looks down on all foreigners. He's such a .

Mary lives next door to me. She's my .

Tom rents a room in our house. He's our .

I don't know her really well. She's just an .

advertisements celebrities contents daily editor financial front

page headlines journalists media producer online reports review write

Choose the correct words to complete the text !

write the stories but the controls the of the newspaper. He or she decides which stories should go on

the . Editors also write the for the main stories. The Sunday papers have more sections than papers , for

example they have a sports section with of different sporting events, a section with articles about money and the stock

market and a section. This often has interviews with like film stars and singers. Newspapers are cheap in the UK and they

make lots of money by including . news is one of the fastest growing areas of the .

account billion business characters complicated economical fairly images inform instead message mobil
e movements popular public receive regularly sale social topics upcoming update

Twitter is a social network that allows users to send and short messages, called tweets. Tweets can be up to 140 long.

You can send tweets from your computer or even from your phone. While some social networking services like Facebook or MySpace

are more Twitter is simple to use. To send or get messages you just have to create an on Twitter. You can

only send text to Twitter, are not allowed.

Twitter users can follow what other people post. It makes you feel a part of someone elses life. People all over the world talk about different kinds

of .

In most cases Twitter is made up of many small groups of people. Sometimes only they can follow each others . You could post Hey,
Im going to the pub , and all of your friends could read it at once .

Your messages on Twitter can be private, meaning only your friends can read them or you could make them , meaning they can be seen
by everyone.

Twitter is used for many things. You can post an event, organize group conversations or just tell the world what youre doing at the

moment. You can also use Twitter of sending many texts to different people. Just post your messages on Twitter and everyone else can
see them.

Many people their Twitter status very often, sometimes even a couple of times an hour. Recently, Twitter has also been used

in . Companies use twitter to people about new products or just to post something that is on .

Twitter has become very . Since its birth in 2006 over a people around the world have been using it .

Complete the text with a word or phrase from the list!

acupuncture - cough - days off - GP - lose weight - make an appointment - put on - side effects - sneezing - virus

My father didn't feel well. He was a lot and had a bad . so he decided to to see his . The

doctor told him he probably had a and advised him to take a few . He also said he should stop smoking. My father said he

had tried but couldn't, so the doctor recommended . It was successful and he has now given up, but unfortunately there have

been : he has nearly three kilos in two weeks . Soon he'll have to go back to the doctor to ask how to .

Complete the text using one word in each gap!

By now you've arrived at school and I hope you're feeling comfortable in your new surroundings. I remember excited I was

when I went abroad for the first time. I don't know your experience will be like mine but I did think that you being a little

optimistic when you predicted that you n't be homesick at all. I imagine you may start to feel a little lonely in the next few

weeks. Just case, I'm attaching a leaflet on "culture shock" . It explains you might have certain feelings and tells

you to do about them.

Anyway, I'm sure that you'll have a great time in England - but always remember you can rely on me if you need anything.

Moving House

Think of ONE word which fits best into the blanks!

I think one of most difficult things to do is to move house, especially when you have somewhere all your life. As well as leaving

your home, you also have the problem of packing everything own into boxes. You don't realise how much you have until you have to pack

it all up ! We moving house in about two weeks' time so I know what I'm talking about! My father found a new job in another

village about a hundred kilometres from here. He has looking for an opportunity like this a long time so the whole family agreed

that we should move. Our house is sold , and my parents have found a new one. It is much bigger than the one we live

in the moment. My sister and I will have our own rooms, I'm glad about because she has been annoying me lately. She

is borrowing my clothes without asking me. She isn't very glad about moving , but I' quite excited about it, and I don't I'll mind
about living in a new town.
Going Places

When we think about how the world has changed our great-grandparents' time, it's important to take account how the

world of transportation has changed . Of course, people complain traffic nowadays, but even in the past people to think

that the roads were dangerous. When cars were a new invention, a man walk in front of them with a red flag, warning everybody

else. Now, of course, we have used to them.

Another thing that we don't find strange more is the variety of products we have in our shops. When we go to our local supermarket,

we can find tea China , bananas from South America and radios from Japan. All these products to be

transported. day, goods are moved from one part of the world to by all kinds of means of transport.

When computers were human

In the novel Dune by Frank Herbert, which is set hundreds of years the future, it is forbidden to build computers. This is because

thinking machines have become so powerful they almost took over the world. Instead, there are Mentats - humans trained to

perform the kinds of calculations and analysis that you normally expect a computer to carry .

Even Mentats are a fictional creation, human computers are something real. The word "computer" was first used than 300

years ago and referred to a person job was to perform mathematical calculations. In the middle of the 18th century, Clairault, a

French mathematician wanted to calculate the date when Hailey's Comet would return. Although he knew to do this, the
calculations were very complex, so he shared the work with several computers who helped him arrive at the correct answer.

In the 19th century an Indian mathematician was employed as a computer by a team of British explorers, and was the first person to calculate

the height of the highest mountain the world , was later named Mount Everest. During the World Wars of the

20th century, huge teams of human computers employed to work on maps, codes and countless other military and engineering

projects. It was not about 1950 that mechanical computers began to take over, and the days of the human computer were finally
numbered.

Put the following sentences into the correct order:

Amy: Thats far! Was it a long flight?

Amy: How are you?
Amy: I bet. Where did you fly from?
Brian: A little tired.
Brian: I didnt sleep well last night.
Brian: I came from London last night.
Amy: Im sorry to hear that. What went wrong?
Amy: Why is that?
Brian: Just a few hours. But I had a long layover in Frankfurt.
Brian: Im a bit jet-lagged from my flight.
Complete the dialogue:
Amy: ________ are you from?
Brian: Im from England.
 Amy: Wow! Thats far! _________ did you arrive?
Brian: I flew in last night.
Amy: _________ it a long flight?
Brian: Just a few hours. But Im still feeling jet-lagged.
Amy: __________ is the time difference?
Amy: ____________ are you doing here?
Brian: Im here for the conference.
Amy: So am I. _________ company are you from?
Brian: Im with the Sales team from Samsung.
Amy: Thats really interesting. ________ you like it?
Brian: Most of the time, yes.
Amy: ___________ do you like about it?
Brian: I get to travel to nice conferences like this!
Brian: ________ do you think of restaurant?
Amy: Its really nice. I especially liked the fish. Did you?
Brian: __________ do you find the conference?
Amy: Its really interesting. I especially liked the first speaker. _____________ did you think?
Brian: _________ was your trip?
Amy: It was mostly fine. I only had one layover. _________ was yours?

Choose the correct answer for each question:

1 The presentation was ______ by Gill Bates. 4 I would have liked to have come but I wasn't
announced ______.
built
stood
made
underlined
invited
given
allowed
detonated
kept

2 The factory was ______ 10 years ago.

5 I don't understand why you don't have the report.
built It was ______ to you over a week ago.
built
discovered
made
killed
invited
allowed
allowed
kept
sent

3 These watches were ______ in Switzerland.

built 6 The computer is working. It was ______ whilst you
were on holiday.
made
fixed
killed
made
allowed
invited
kept
allowed

kept
 sacked
7 I had to ask them to write the report again. It was
very badly ______ . asked
fixed pulled down
written opened
invited stolen
allowed

kept 13 I was ______ how to play golf by my father, who

was a good amateur.
sacked
8 The old factory used to be over there but it was
______ a few years ago asked

fixed taught

written opened

pulled down stolen

allowed

kept 14 I didn't say anything. It was best ______ unsaid.

sacked

9 Our new factory was ______ by the President at a asked

special ceremony last month.
taught
fixed
left
written
stolen
pulled down

opened
15 That's not my umbrella. It was ______ here by
kept someone or other.
sacked

10 I'm afraid we have to improve security. A asked

computer was ______ from here yesterday.
taught
fixed
left
written
stolen
pulled down

opened
16 This process was ______ by one of my colleagues
stolen and we hold a patent on it.
invented

11 I'm afraid Joan didn't resign. She was ______. asked

sacked taught
written left
pulled down stolen
opened

stolen 17 Penicillin was ______ by a Scotsman.

invented

12 He was making too much noise and was disturbing discovered

the other guests and in the end was ______ to
taught
leave.
 left

stolen

18 I'm feeling sad. My dog was ______ in an accident

yesterday.
invented

discovered

killed

left

stolen

19 I wasn't happy to discover that smoking was

______ aboard the plane.
invented

discovered

killed

allowed

stolen

20 I didn't know about it. I was ______ completely in

the dark.
invented

discovered

killed

allowed

kept