FRIENDSHIP 0 I believe that nothing matters as much as having a couple of really good 00 friends. They help you feel like good about yourself and they’ll always listen to your problems for hours on end. Since there are friends for different reasons, for different ages and stages in life. New made friends and ’best’ friends, friends for playing tennis and going to the cinema with - all of us are dependent on having friends. So how and why do we make up friends? Psychologists tell us that we prefer those we see as sharing with our views and attitudes and who are similar to us in an age and background, though not necessarily in any personality. We see our friends as reflecting ourselves, or that what we would like to be. This can be particularly important when we are teenagers. Many of people-and I’m no exception- regard their oldest friends as their closest. I have a friend so that I’ve known since some schooldays. She lives in Australia and we rarely see much each other. However, on my last birthday we got together in Paris and have spent a wonderful weekend sightseeing and talking. We will know that, no matter how many years go by when we do not get together at all, the same level of friendship always remains.

You are going to read a magazine article in which five people talk about railway journeys. For questions 22-35, choose from the people (A-E). The people maybe chosen more than once. When more than one answer is required, these maybe given in any order. There is an example at the beginning (0). Which person or people found on returning years later that nothing had changed? 0 E was unable to count on the train service? 【S1】______ enjoyed the company of fellow passengers? 【S2】______ found the views from the train dramatic? 【S3】______ 【S4】______ welcomed a chance to relax on the trip? 【S5】______ was never disappointed by the journey? 【S6】______ has a reason for feeling grateful to one special train? 【S7】______ traveled on a railway which is no longer in regular service? 【S8】______ regretted not going on a particular train trip? 【S9】______ used to travel on the railway whenever possible? 【S10】______ learnt an interesting piece of information on a train journey? 【S11】______ took a train which travelled from one country to another? 【S12】______ says that the railway had been looked after by unpaid helpers? 【S13】______ was once considered not old enough to travel by train? 【S14】______ On the rails Five celebrities tell Andrew Morgan their favourite memories of railway journeys. A Andrea Thompson—Newsreader I fell in love with the south of France a long time ago and try to get back there as often as I can. There’s a local train from Cannes along the coast which crosses the border with Italy. It takes you past some of the most amazing seascapes. It never matters what the weather is like, or what time of the year it is, it is always enchanting. Out of the other window are some of the best back gardens and residences in the whole of France. You feel like someone peeping into the property of the rich and famous. The travelers themselves are always lively because there is an interesting mix of tourists and locals, all with different itineraries but all admirers of the breath taking journey. B Rod Simpson—Explorer I have enjoyed so many rail journeys through the years, but if I had to pick a favourite it would be the Nile Valley Express, which runs across the desert of northern Sudan. The one misfortune in my youth, growing up in South Africa, was missing out on a family train journey from Cape Town to the Kruger National Park. I was regarded as being too young and troublesome and was sent off to an aunt. When I came to live in England as a teenager, I still hadn’t travelled by train. London Waterloo was the first real station I ever saw and its great glass dome filled me with wonder. C Betty Cooper—Novelist I am indebted to one train in particular: the Blue Train, which took my husband and me on our honeymoon across France to catch a boat to Egypt. It was on the train that my husband gave me a pink dress, which I thought was absolutely wonderful. Someone happened to mention that pink was good for the brain, and I’ve never stopped wearing the colour since. What I remember about the journey itself, however, is how lovely it was to travel through France and then by boat up the Nile to Luxor. It was, without a doubt, the perfect way to wind down after all the wedding preparations. D Martin Brown —Journalist We were working on a series of articles based on a round-the-world trip and had to cross a desert in an African country. There wasn’t a road, so the only way we could continue our journey was to take what was affectionately known as the Desert Express. The timetable was unreliable --we were just given a day. We also heard that, in any case, the driver would often wait for days to depart if he knew there were passengers still on their way. When it appeared, there was a sudden charge of what seemed like hundreds of people climbing into and onto the carriages passengers were even allowed to travel on the roof free. During the night, the train crossed some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. It was like a dream, like travelling across the moon. E Jennifer Dickens—Actress I imagine most people’s favourite impressions of trains and railways are formed when they are young children, but that’s not my case. I was brought up in Singapore and Cyprus, where I saw very few trains, let alone travelled on them. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that trains began to dominate my life. I made a film which featured a railway in Yorkshire. Most of the filming tool< place on an old, disused stretch of the line which had been lovingly maintained by volunteers. That’s where my passion for steam trains began. When we weren’t filming, we took every opportunity to have a ride on the train, and, when I went back last year, it was as if time had stood still. Everything was the same, even the gaslights on the station platform !

You have had a class discussion on being rich and famous. Your teacher has now asked you to write a composition, giving your opinions on the following statement: Everybody would like to be rich and famous. Write your composition.

UNDER THE CITY STREETS While skyscraper offices and elegant apartment blocks remain the public face of most major cities, these cities also have a mass of secret tunnels and hidden pipes below 【B1】______ which keep everything working. This other world exists beneath many of our greatest cities, forgotten or neglected by all but a tiny 【B2】______ of engineers and historians. For example, there are more than 150 kilometres of rivers under the streets of London. Most have been 【B3】______ over and, sadly, all that 【B4】______ is their names. Perhaps the greatest 【B5】______ to the city is the River Fleet, a 【B6】______ great river which previously had beautiful houses on its 【B7】______ It now goes underground in the north of the city and 【B8】______ into the River Thames by Blackfriars Bridge. The London Underground 【B9】______ 1000 kilometres of underground railway track winding under the capital and more than 100 stations below street level. Along some underground railway 【B10】______ commuters can sometimes catch a 【B11】______ glimpse of the platforms of more than forty closed stations which have been left under the city. 【B12】______ some are used as film sets, most【B13】______ forgotten. Some have had their entrances on the street turned into restaurants and shops, but most entrances have been 【B14】______ down. Interestingly, there is also a special underground Post Office railway that 【B15】______ a link between east and west London postal centres.

There were very few people at the concert last night. came Hardly ____________________ the concert last night.

“Don’t worry, Mum, I can look after myself now I’m sixteen,“ said Peter. care Peter assured his mother that he could ____________________ now he was sixteen.

In my opinion, Ali is clearly going to be very successful. doubt I ____________________ that Ali is going to be very successful.

BIGFOOT There are some people who believe in the existence existence of Bigfoot, EXIST a 【C1】______ ape-like creature that is supposed to live in the mountains MYSTERY of the USA. In 1967, some hunters elaimed to have 【C2】______ filmed ACCIDENT such a creature and many people see this as firm 【C3】______ that PROVE Bigfoot is real. But now, researchers have come to the 【C4】______ that the film is a trick. CONCLUDE After a close 【C5】______ of it, they claim to have identified a man-made ANALYSE fastener at the creature’s waist. Bigfoot is, therefore, 【C6】______ to be LIKELY anything more than a man in an animal suit. Some people remain unconvinced by the 【C7】______though. Bigfoot fans SCIENCE are extremely 【C8】______ that a fastener would show up on such an old film. DOUBT In 【C9】______ they say that the creature caught on camera does not move ADD like a human and that it is therefore 【C10】______ a wild creature of nature.

You are going to read a magazine article in which a father describes his relationship with his son. For questions 8-14, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Gary and Me The restaurant owner John Moore writes about his relationship with his son Gary, the famous TV chef I believe everyone’s given a chance in life. My son, Gary, was given his chance with cooking, and my chance was to run a restaurant. When I heard about the opportunity, I rushed over to look at the place. It was in a really bad state. It was perfect for what I had in mind. Coming into this business made me recall my childhood. I can remember my mother going out to work in a factory and me being so upset because I was left alone. With that in mind, I thought, “We want time for family life“. My wife dedicated herself to looking after the children and did all my accounts while I ran the business. We lived over the restaurant in those days, and we always put a lot of emphasis on having meals together line 14 It’s paid dividends with our children, Gary and Joe. They’re both very confident. Also, from a very early age they would come down and talk to our regular customers. It’s given both of them a great start in life. Gary was quite a lively child when he was really small. We had a corner bath, and when he was about seven he thought he’d jump into it like a swimming pool, and he knocked himself out. When he was older, he had to work tot pocket money. He started off doing odd jobs and by the age of about ten he was m the kitchen every weekend, so be always had loads of money at school. He had discipline. He used to be up even before me it the morning. If you run a filmily business, it’s for the family, and it was nice to see him helping out. Gary wasn’t very academic, but lie shone so much in the kitchen. By the age of fifteen he was as good as any of the men working there, and sometimes he was even left in charge. He would produce over a hundred meals, and from then I knew he’d go into catering because he had that flair. So when he came to me and said, “Dad, I’ve got to do work experience as part of my course at school“, I sent him to a friend of mine who’s got a restaurant. Gary, recently took up playing the drums and now he has his own band. Goodness knows what will happen to the cooking if the music takes off. My advice to Gary would be: if you start chasing two hams, you end up catching neither-, so chase the hare you know you’re going to catch. He understood when I said to him: “Gary, if you’re going to get anywhere in life, you’ve got to do it by the age of 30. If you haven’t done it by then, it’s too late.“ line 44 Gary went to catering college at the age of 17, and on his first day he and the other new students--they’re normally complete beginners-were given what’s supposed to be a morning’s work. But within an hour, Gary had chopped all his vegetables, sliced all his meats. He’d prepared everything. That’s my soil for you! In the end, he was helping other people out. None of is can believe how successful Gary’s TV cookery series has become. I’m extremely proud of him. I’ve always tried to tell him that if you want something, you’ve got to work jolly hard for it, because no one gives you anything. He’s seen the opportunity he’s been given and grabbed hold of it with both hands. You know, you talk to your children as they grow up, and if they only take in ten per cent of what you’ve told them, you’ve got to be happy with that. The things Gary says, the firings he does, I think, well, he must have listened sometimes.

You are going to read a newspaper article about a man who is running round the world. Eight paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-I the one which fits each gap (16-22). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0). The Runningman Bryan Green, a 32-year old from London, calls himself the “Runningman“. He runs and keeps on running through towns, cities, up mountains and across rivers. Green has set his sights on running round the world. He then flew to the north of Japan and ran to Osaka in the south. In Australia he ran from Perth to Sydney, and then he began in the Americas, bringing his current total to 23 countries, 45,000 kilometres and 30 pairs of trainers. 【B1】______ When I met Green in Rio, he had just run 70 kilometres, his daily average. He was holding in one hand a two-litre bottle of fizzy juice and in the other a piece of paper that he needed someone to sign, to confirm the time al which he had arrived. 【B2】______ He travels light, carrying with him less than many people take to work. In his backpack he has a palmtop computer, a digital video camera, a Nikon 35mm camera, a rnap, a loo[hbrush and one change of clothes. 【B3】______ “The original idea was just to see the world,“ he told me. “But, as I soon realised, I could make myself a future. I have learnt how to make money out of what [ do.“ He started off with￡20 in his pocket and estimates that he has earned about E 60,000 so far. 【B4】______ And there is something of the explorer about him. “Of course, I’ve found some places easier than others,“ he says. 【B5】______ At one point on that stage of the journey, Green got lost and was unable to find enough to eat. But generally he has been lucky with his health: he has not been injured and has never fallen ill. 【B6】______ He speaks no language apart from English and, with no space for a dictionary, has a plastic- covered sheet of A4 paper with a dozen use, fid phrases in various languages. Over dinner he is keen to talk about the Amazon jungle. 【B7】______ However, perhaps the point of a run like Green’s is not to indulge in proper preparation. Its beauty is in the improvisation. “I don’t really analyse the run any more, I just do it,“ he says. A I did it for him. Even though he akeady holds the world long-distance running record, he still needs to continue proving he is keeping up a reasonable running speed. B He has not yet sorted out a route and appears surprised when I tell him that there are no proper roads across it, as local people prefer to use the rivers instead. C He’s done this by selling his story to journalists. He is very aware that he is a marketable product. D He has learned that you must take only what you will use. He has no medical supplies and no proper waterproofs. E Apart from the day in south Australia where it was 45℃ in the shade and he collapsed, Australia is, he says, perfect running country. This compares to his experiences in temperatures of—30℃ in parts of Asia. F Next week he heads off north, towards the Amazon, hoping to run to New York. After that, he just has to take care of Africa and Antarctica. G So he is a touchingly solitary figure. He is too mobile to be able to make many friends, although he did meet someone in Australia who cycled next to him for 600 kilometres. H Fortunately, the cold and the rain don’t seem to bother him. It is partly his strength of character that made him refuse to take health insurance. I The Runningman recently arrived in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil via a roundabout route: he left London four years ago and ran through Europe to China.

“This is the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in,“ my colleague said. never “I’ve ____________________ hotel than this,“ my colleague said.

Mike’s father started the company that Mike now runs. set The company that Mike now runs ____________________ his father.

FRIENDSHIP 0 I believe that nothing matters as much as having a couple of really good 00 friends. They help you feel like good about yourself and they’ll always listen to your problems for hours on end. Since there are friends for different reasons, for different ages and stages in life. New made friends and ’best’ friends, friends for playing tennis and going to the cinema with - all of us are dependent on having friends. So how and why do we make up friends? Psychologists tell us that we prefer those we see as sharing with our views and attitudes and who are similar to us in an age and background, though not necessarily in any personality. We see our friends as reflecting ourselves, or that what we would like to be. This can be particularly important when we are teenagers. Many of people-and I’m no exception- regard their oldest friends as their closest. I have a friend so that I’ve known since some schooldays. She lives in Australia and we rarely see much each other. However, on my last birthday we got together in Paris and have spent a wonderful weekend sightseeing and talking. We will know that, no matter how many years go by when we do not get together at all, the same level of friendship always remains.

You are going to read a newspaper article about an island in the Irish Sea, called the Isle of Man, which is fast becoming a centre for film-making. Choose from the list A-H the sentence which best summarises each part (1-6) of the article. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0). A The new film industry is not expected to make big profits immediately. B The new film industry has resulted in some criticism of the island’s government. C It was initially difficult to persuade film-makers to use the island. D The island is already able to compete with other film- making centres. E Film-makers are able to find a wide range of settings for their films on the island. F More investment is planned as the new film industry becomes established. G Financial reasons have made film companies see the island as a good place to make new films. H The island’s inhabitants are keen to be involved with the new film industry. TREASURE ISLAND Only 73,000 people live on the Isle of Man, but several thousand of them have registered with Jay-Dee Promotions. This is the casting and extras agency John Banks and his wife Pat run to service tile film industry that has suddenly taken off on the island. Banks does not know exactly how many clients he has—he is too busy to count them. And Jay-Dcc is only one of three such agencies that have sprung up in the last year or two. 【B1】 __________ Until recently the island’s principal contributions to cinema were a comedy about motorcycle racing, and Tile Man.am ah, one of Alfred Hitchcock’s silent movies. But producers have now discovered an important reason to undertake the inconvenient voyage to the middle of the Irish Sca-money. In the past couple of years, the Isle of Mall government has lent over ￡6.5 million of public money to film companies. If a film is a success then the Isle of Man will receive a share of the profits. This has turned the island into an offshore I folly wood. 【B2】 __________ Only one film was made in 1995, two in 1996, but there were no fewer than eleven in the following year. However, from the beginning, the Isle of Man government has followed the strategy of Hollywood, where the role of thumb is that for every ten films, seven will lose money, one will cover its costs, one will provide modest returns, and the tenth, it is hoped, will be an enormous hit. 【B3】 __________ An island 45 kilometres long, with no history of film production, is suddenly turning out the same number of fins as the Scottish film industry, which has a huge pool of local talent and an infrastructure that has evolved over the years. However, it was always the intention of the Isle of Man government to lure productions away from England, Scotland and Ireland. 【B4】 __________ Producers have suddenly discovered the affluent little holiday island to be the perfect location for seemingly any film. It has doubled for Cornwall, Hamburg, Sydney Harbour in the nineteenth century, rural Ireland and inner- city England. It has even attracted a new production of Treasure island. Geographical specifics did not seem to be uppermost in the mind of the film’s producer: ’We gambled with the fact that we would be able to have enough sunny days to be able to do the tropical island part.’ 【B5】 __________ Tile Isle of Man film initiative was inspired not by vague dreams of glory, but by hopes of boosting the economy. Its tourist industry has been in decline for twenty years and it was thought that a hit film would help it. One of the early objectives was simply to demonstrate to a doubtful fin industry that it was possible to make feature films on the island. 【B6】 __________ The govcrnmcnt’s financial advisors have targeted films in the ￡2-3 million price rouge as premising the highest potential returns at least risk. The Isle of Mat) is an important financial centre and this expertise has aided its move into film. The island’s government has another￡6.5 million to lend over the next two years and is currently considering building a studio.

Write an answer to one of the questions 2-4 in this part. Write your answer in 120-180 words in an appropriate style. 2. Your teacher has asked you to write a composition, giving your opinions on the following statement: Your teenage years are the best years of your fife! Write your composition.

You see this notice on your school noticeboard. SPECIAL PEOPLE •Who is the most important person in your life? •Why is this person special to you? Write us an article for the school magazine answering these questions. Write your article.

An English friend, Jo, has written to you for some advice. This is part of the letter you have received. I leave school this summer and have a year free before university. I want to come to your country First I’d like to spend some time traveling. Then I’d like to find a job for three months. Please give me some advice on traveling and working in your country. Thanks, Jo Write your letter. Do not write any postal addresses.

DEALING WITH WASTE PLASTIC Every year people throw away millions of tonnes of plastic bottles, boxes and wrapping. These create huge mountains of waste 【C1】______ are extremely hard to get 【C2】______ of. Now, a new recycling process promises to reduce this problem by turning old plastic 【C3】______ new. Scientists have taken 【C4】______ long time to develop their ideas because waste plastic has always been a bigger problem 【C5】______ substances like waste paper. You can bury plastic, but it is years 【C6】______ it breaks down. If you burn it, it just becomes another form of pollution. A 【C7】______ products, for example bottles, can be re-used but it is expensive or difficult to do this 【C8】______ a lot of plastic products. Now a group of companies has developed a new method 【C9】______ recycling that could save almost 【C10】______ plastic waste. The advantage of the new process is that nearly every type of waste plastic can be used: it does 【C11】______ have to be sorted. In addition, labels and ink may be left 【C12】______ the products. Everything is simply mixed together 【C13】______ heated to more than 400 degrees centigrade 【C14】______ that it melts. It is then cooled, producing a waxy substance that can be used to make new plastic products such as bags, bottles and, among 【C15】______ things, computer hardware.

Naomi said that she would never talk to anyone else about the matter. discuss Naomi promised never____________________ anyone else,

The number of car-owners has risen over the past five years. rise Over the past five years, there ____________________ in the number of car-owners.

I don’t recommend hiring skis at this shop. advisable It’s ____________________ skis at this shop.