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You are going to read a newspaper article about a young professional footballer. For questions 1-10, choose from the people (A-D). Margaret Garelly goes to meet Duncan Williams, who plays for Chelsea Football Club A It's my first time driving to Chelsea's training ground and I turn off slightly too early at the London University playing fields. Had he accepted football's rejections in his early teenage years, it is exactly the sort of ground Duncan Williams would have found himself running around on at weekends. At his current age of 18, he would have been a bright first-year undergraduate mixing his academic studies with a bit of football, rugby and cricket, given his early talent in all these sports. However, Duncan undoubtedly took the right path. Instead of studying, he is sitting with his father Gavin in one of the interview rooms at Chelsea's training base reflecting on Saturday's match against Manchester City. Such has been his rise to fame that it is with some disbelief that you listen to him describing how his career was nearly all over before it began. B Gavin, himself a fine footballer - a member of the national team in his time - and now a professional coach, sent Duncan to three professional clubs as a 14 year-old, but all three turned him down. 'I worked with him a lot when he was around 12, and it was clear he has fantastic technique and skill. But then the other boys shot up in height and he didn't. But I was still upset and surprised that no team seemed to want him, that they couldn't see what he might develop into in time. When Chelsea accepted him as a junior, it was made clear to him that this was more of a last chance than a new beginning. They told him he had a lot of hard work to do and wasn't part of their plans. Fortunately, that summer he just grew and grew, and got much stronger as well.' C Duncan takes up the story: 'The first half of that season I played in the youth team. I got lucky - the first-team manager came to watch us play QPR, and though we lost 3-1, I had a really good game. I moved up to the first team after that performance.' Gavin points out that it can be beneficial to be smaller and weaker when you are developing - it forces you to learn how to keep the ball better, how to use 'quick feet' to get out of tight spaces. 'A couple of years ago, Duncan would run past an opponent as if he wasn't there but then the other guy would close in on him. I used to say to him, ''Look, if you can do that now, imagine what you'll be like when you're 17, 18 and you're big and quick and they won't be able to get near you.'' If you're a smaller player, you have to use your brain a lot more.' D Not every kid gets advice from an ex-England player over dinner, nor their own private training sessions. Now Duncan is following in Gavin's footsteps. He has joined a national scheme where young people like him give advice to ambitious young teenagers who are hoping to become professionals. He is an old head on young shoulders. Yet he's also like a young kid in his enthusiasm. And fame has clearly not gone to his head; it would be hard to meet a more likeable, humble young man. So will he get to play for the national team? 'One day I'd love to, but when that is, is for somebody else to decide.'' The way he is playing, that won't be long.

Read and complete the text with the given words.

You are going to give a talk about the country life. Read the text and choose everything that refers to the country living. Where would you like to live? Some people like living in big cities, while others choose to live in the countryside. You can find some advantages of living here, such as beautiful landscapes and nature. What about tasty Eco food from farms? People love working in the farmyards. They milk cows in the barn or feed chickens and other animals. Unlike in big cities, schools aren't big or high-tech here. And they are far from the settlements, so you can feel isolated. In the city, you have everything close at hand, but in the countryside, you should ride miles to meet shops or markets. On the other hand, there is no hustle and bustle. You can meditate in fresh air. No crowded streets or heavy traffic, only peace and quiet and amazing views. I love having rest in the countryside, so my family and I live here on my holidays. But during the school year, we stay in the capital. I think it's great when you can live both in the city and in the countryside.

Choose the right answer. It is raining, ______ ?

Choose the right answer. She lives in Moscow, ______?

Choose the right answer. Your father wasn't angry with me, _____?

Choose the right answer. They are on holiday, ______?

Choose the right answer. That little boy didn't break the window yesterday, ______?

Choose the right answer. They will do that, ______?

Choose the right answer. Ann won't come back tomorrow, ______?

Choose the right answer. He was not at home, _____?

Choose the right answer. You like that song, ______?

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 1 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 2 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 3 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 4 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 5 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 6 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 7 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 8 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 9 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the best option to fill in the gap 10 in the text. Timing is very important in making a good comedy. If something should be funny but doesn’t arrive in 1. _________ course, it will not be funny. Timing has everything to do with how well something resonates with an 2. __________ , and those who practise timing do so by exercising their neurons. Humans are remarkably capable 3. ___________ sequencing only a handful of muscle movements in parallel — lifting an arm, making a fist, opening your hand, and closing it again, but we can make thousands of these timed movements at the same time. There is no reason an actor cannot act while he or she exercises 4. __________ time to time. It’s only when the exercise is done “wrong” that it produces a terrible result, and there is no greater wrong than failing to 5. ___________ the signal that sounds at precisely the right moment. In the 6. __________ of a comedy routine, several signals must be heard at the same time. One of these is the punchline. When you hear people 7. ___________ jokes, it can sometimes seem as though they’re building up to something for far too long. When they eventually get to an amusing observation, it doesn’t seem all that funny, because the punchline has been 8. __________ for too long. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build. A comedian wants to develop a degree of tension before releasing it with the punchline, but it cannot be 9. __________ played. The better the joke, the longer tension can be allowed to build.A comedian isn’t likely to tell his audience something he doesn’t think is funny! 10. ___________, this tension needs to be released at precisely the right moment or the punchline won’t be funny.

Choose the right answer. It is raining, ... ?

Choose the right answer. She lives in Moscow, ... ?

Choose the right answer. Your father wasn't angry with me, ... ?

Choose the right answer. They are on holiday, ... ?

Choose the right answer. That little boy didn't break the window yesterday, ... ?

Choose the right answer. They will do that, ... ?

Choose the right answer. Ann won't come back tomorrow, ... ?

Choose the right answer. He was not at home, ... ?

Choose the right answer. You like that song, ... ?

Choose the right answer. The weather is nice today, ... ?

Read about the rules and good manners at the concert. No Pushing First and foremost, don’t push! If the headline has just come on and you’re still at the back, don't push anybody. You should've got there earlier. Other listeners at the front made sure they got to the venue early enough to get a good spot. _______1_______. Even if you’re just trying to return to your friends after a toilet break, don’t barge through the crowd to get there. _______2_______. Don’t Talk Over Songs You’re probably going to talk at some point or another during the show. Even if it's just a quick comment to your friends about how good that last song was. _______3_______. There’s nothing more annoying than trying to listen to your favourite songs and hearing someones constantly talking over it. You’re here to listen to music, not to chit-chat. Put Down Your Phone! Depending on who you are going to see and what the general audience is like, you might end up surrounded by an ocean of smartphones with the flash on. _______4_______. Some audience members, often younger listeners, care more about showing the world they were at the concert rather than simply enjoying it. Don’t be that person. If you’re going to spend the whole night with your phone out, you may as well just stay at home and watch a live recording of the show. Be Friendly You’re in a room surrounded by people who you can relate to on some level since you're enjoying the same genre of music. Be nice to them! Part of any concert is vibing with the other people watching! _______5_______. Being a boring grinch hidden away in some corner isn’t a good look. Check Your Seat Number If you’re going to a seated performance, never sit in someone else’s seat. People are issued with seat numbers for a reason, find yours and stick to it. Even worse, if you didn’t buy a seated ticket, do not ever try to steal someone else’s seat. _______6_______. Support The Support We know you will be eager to see the singer you paid money to listen to, but give the support a chance. The support or the warm-up band is there to prepare you for the main act, and usually they are extremely talented. Be respectful and show them your support. _______7_______. Read the text again. Seven sentences have been removed. Choose from the sentences the one which fits each gap (1—7).

Read the text and mark the statements True, False or Not stated. ‘The 1900 House’ ‘The 1900 House’ was a reality television programme in Britain. It took people back a hundred years to the time of Queen Victoria, when there were no computers, mobile phones or the Internet. The idea of the show was to give people an experience of living in the past.  A modern family, the Bowler family, spent three months living like people at the beginning of the 20th century. There were the parents (Paul and Joyce) and their four children (three daughters and a son). The cameras recorded them every day. The house didn’t have a telephone, a fridge, a TV set or even central heating. The Bowlers wore clothes from 1900 and ate the food that existed in England at that time. There wasn’t much to choose from. The main dishes on the table were meat and fish, and the day usually started with a cup of tea and porridge.  The father of the family, Paul Bowler, still went to work but in an old-fashioned uniform. He couldn’t read newspapers or use a computer. The mother, Joyce, became a housewife and stayed home. She did all the cleaning, washing and cooking. The children still went to school, but they changed their clothes on the way to and from school so their classmates wouldn’t know anything about this unusual project.  The Bowlers noticed that life at the beginning of the century was much slower. It was rather hard for them to get used to the new speed. For example, it took 28 minutes to boil water and make a cup of tea. And can you imagine cleaning the house without a vacuum cleaner or washing clothes without a washing machine? There wasn’t any toothpaste or modern shampoo. Without central heating nobody thought about a warm bath or a shower in the morning. Toothbrushes were made of pig and horse hair. Toothpaste was expensive so most people cleaned their teeth using salt or soda. The children thought it was horrible. 11-year-old Hilary said, “The most difficult thing was finding entertainment. We couldn’t go to the cinema or to a café. It was a new experience to be with the family for half a day or more. It was new and hard to be nice to each other all the time. But I really think we all became closer.” 17-year-old Kathryn remembered that she couldn’t wear any make-up. She had to wear a corset every day and had only three sets of clothes: one to wear every day, the second – to wear while cleaning, and the third was for special events, like celebrations. When the show was over the Bowlers were asked: what did you miss most from the modern world? The father said it was a hot shower. The mother had longed to have a quick cup of tea. The daughters said it was the music, the hot water, shampoo and “normal sounds like the washing machine” that they missed. For the son it was pizza and the computer.  It’s interesting that the family was allowed to keep anything they wanted after the project. Joyce took her corset and each of the children took something from the house to remind them of their experience.

Read the text and choose the correct answer. English is an international language spoken by an increasing number of people around the world. In many English-speaking countries, though, English isn’t the only language. In the UK, for example, people speak Welsh, Gaelic and a few other old languages. Because these languages aren’t international, people pay less attention to them. So, what does this mean for children who grow up speaking them as their mother tongue? I grew up in Wales. My family spoke English, but the Welsh language was everywhere. When you were driving around Wales, all the road signs were in English and Welsh. As a child, I hated reading everything twice! We had Welsh television programmes too. While everyone in England was watching fashionable American TV shows, we were learning about local farming in Welsh! At secondary school I was dreaming of going to live in Paris, when I realized that instead of Welsh lessons, I needed French lessons. No one spoke Welsh outside Wales. Now I feel differently. Welsh is a part of my identity and, besides, we have better Welsh TV now! In parts of Scotland, some children grow up in families where grandparents still speak Gaelic. Gaelic has even fewer speakers than Welsh, and few are confident that this part of their culture will survive. It’s difficult when English is everywhere else in the country, but teaching subjects in Gaelic in schools helps. However, often there aren’t enough Gaelic-speaking teachers. Unless families continue to speak the language at home too, these languages won’t survive. Between 1950 and 2010, 230 languages went extinct, nowadays, a third of the world’s languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers left. Every two weeks a language dies with its last speaker, 50 to 90 percent of them are predicted to disappear by the next century. Many old languages are disappearing in the UK. People on the Isle of Man spoke Manx for centuries until the last native speaker died in the twentieth century. The same thing happened to Cornish. There was a language spoken by smugglers who were bringing goods into the country illegally, or travellers and criminals. It allowed them to keep secrets from the police, but it too has disappeared. Languages, even if they are spoken by very few people, have a history and culture, and it’s a shame to see them go. When humanity loses a language, we also lose the potential for greater diversity in art, music, literature, and oral traditions. If we care about saving forests and animals, we should care about saving languages too.

Advanced level Read the text and choose the correct option. Work–life Balance Ronan I work in a fairly traditional office environment doing a typical nine-to-five job. I like my job, but it’s annoying that my commute to work takes an hour and a half each way and most of my work could really be done online from home. But my boss doesn’t seem to trust that we will get any work done if left to our own devices, and everyone in the company has to clock in and out every day. It’s frustrating that they feel the need to monitor what we do so closely instead of judging us based on our task performance, like most companies do these days. Jo I used to do a typical five-day week, but after I came out of my maternity leave, I decided that I wanted to spend more time with my children before they start school. After negotiating with my boss, we decided to cut my working week down to a three-day work week. This of course meant a significant cut in my pay too, as I’m paid on a pro rata basis. I’ve since noticed, though, that my workload hasn’t decreased in the slightest! I’m now doing five days’ worth of work in three days, but getting paid much less for it! I find myself having to take work home just so that I can meet the deadlines. It’s wearing me out trying to juggle work with looking after my children and my family, but I don’t dare to bring this up with my boss because I think he feels as if he’s made a huge concession letting me come in only three days a week. Marcus I work for a global IT company, but because their headquarters is in the States, I do all my work online from home. That means that I don’t waste time commuting or making idle chit-chat with colleagues. I work on a project basis, and this flexibility is very valuable to me because it means that I can easily take some time off when my children need me to go to their school performances or if I need to schedule an appointment with the dentist. The downside is that without clear office hours, I tend to work well into the evening, sometimes skipping dinner to finish a task. It can also get quite lonely working on my own, and I sometimes miss sharing ideas with colleagues. Lily I’m a freelancer and work for myself. This is great because I am in control of what I do and how I spend my time. At first, I was working from home, but I found it really hard to concentrate. There were just too many distractions around: housework that needed doing, another cup of tea, my family members wanting my attention for various things. So I started to go to a nearby café to work, but the Wi-Fi connection wasn’t ideal and I found myself drinking too much coffee. In the end, I decided to rent a desk in a co-working space with five other freelancers like myself. I liked getting dressed to go to work in the morning and being able to focus in an office environment. The other freelancers do similar kinds of web-based work to me and so it’s nice to have workmates to bounce ideas off as well.

Advanced level Read the text and choose the correct option. When I Grow Up When I was in kindergarten, my class was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Colorful crayons danced across sheets of paper to illustrate our dream occupations and cherished jobs. Our drawings were hung in the school hallway for our parents to see at Back to School Night. I remember looking down the line and seeing pictures of pretty ballerinas dancing, brave firefighters putting out a blaze, and fearless astronauts leaping across the moon – admirable careers that were seen as typical dreams of five-year-old kids. My picture showed a stick figure with brown disheveled hair holding a carton of orange juice over a large rectangle that was supposed to be a counter. Underneath was my barely legible handwriting: “When I grow up, I want to work at the Market Basket because it would be fun to swipe orange juice across the scanner and talk to customers.” To this day my parents won’t let me forget that out of everything I could have aspired to be, my five-year-old self wished to work at the local grocery store. When we are young, questions of what we want to be when we grow up are common. Yet we are not expected to respond with an answer that is likely to come true. However, when we become teenagers, we are asked the very same question twice as often. The difference is, now we are supposed to answer with confidence. Teenagers are expected to know exactly what they want to be and how they are going to achieve that goal. Not all of us can be so sure at this age. Even though I am in high school, I cannot answer convincingly. But I don’t consider that a bad thing. How am I supposed to know what I will want to spend my time doing at the age of thirty or forty? When I think about the future, I definitely don’t see myself working at the counter of the Market Basket, but in reality, if that was what would make me happy, I would do it. So, the next time someone asks me what I want to be when I grow up, I will simply say, “I want to be happy.” And it is hope that drives us in this direction. “Hope is not a grain of sand,” the Gambian poet, Lenrie Peters, echoes, but no matter how tiny it is, it would still be sufficient to keep the youth alive and sane in most extreme circumstances. It is hope that spurs the youth on, to be up and doing. It is hope that keeps the youth going no matter how hard it is. Nelson Mandela as a youth hoped against all hope for the liberation of his people and he actually lived to see his hope being fulfilled. Robinson Crusoe, cast away on an uninhabited island, hoped against all hope for survival and this propelled him to start from scratch and build a compound and large farm single-handedly. Far away in “Another Country: the Land of Literature,” Sister Eileen Sweeney sums up through her writings that Hope is the anchor that keeps “the ship” called “youth” steadfastly held together no matter the high and stormy sea of passion, pain, distress or tribulation that batter against it. Happiness is a destination for everyone. We may want to walk different paths in life, narrow or wide, crooked or straight, but we all want to be happy wherever we end up. Choose your path, but don’t worry too much about choosing wisely. Make a mistake or two and try new things. But always remember, if you’re not happy, you’re not at the end of your journey yet.

Read the text "Robot Teachers" and do the tasks.

Read the text and choose the correct options. Coffee decaffeination processes Every day it seems that medical researchers come out with a new study about coffee, how it is extremely unhealthy for you and/or full of amazing benefits. The focus of most of these studies is more particularly about the effects of caffeine on human health. As caffeine, coffee’s most potent element, is a stimulant, it can produce both positive and negative effects. It can wake you up in the morning, but it can also lead to sleeplessness, a racing heartbeat, and anxiety. It is therefore no surprise that many people have decided to cut caffeine out of their diets. As for me, I have grown to like the taste of coffee, but to me the main purpose of drinking it is to get an extra jolt of energy. That is why I will admit to a certain prejudice against decaf, perhaps prompted by bad experiences with weak and tasteless brew, because it is true that the actual process of removing caffeine from coffee can degrade the taste beyond repair. Early decaffeination attempts involved soaking the green beans in water and then using various solvents to separate the caffeine in the resulting water solution. The beans were then re-introduced to the caffeine-free solution in order to absorb some of the flavour they had lost. Solvents used included benzene, chloroform, and trichloroethylene, all of which were later found to have toxic effects. In the 1970s, dichloromethane came into use to replace the earlier solvents before it too was deemed possibly carcinogenic. In response to these concerns about solvents, some coffee companies began to run the water solution through charcoal filters as a means of removing the caffeine. The so-called Swiss Water Process, developed in Switzerland in the 1930s, goes one step further. After a batch of coffee beans has been steeped in hot water, that water is filtered, and then is used to soak the next batch of beans to be processed. In this way, the beans lose caffeine as they soak, but lose less of their flavour. Yet another method that aims to safely remove caffeine from coffee beans involves a fascinating compound procedure. The solvent used in this method is neither water nor one of the earlier toxic solvents. Instead, caffeine in the coffee beans is dissolved by means of carbon dioxide. In order to accomplish this, the carbon dioxide must become a supercritical fluid, created when it is compressed and heated to the point that it has the same density in liquid and gaseous forms. As this supercritical CO2 is passed through the beans, it can penetrate them because of its gaseous properties, and yet is able to dissolve the caffeine they contain because of its liquid properties. In 2004, Brazilian scientists identified a new strain of coffee beans with a naturally low level of caffeine. They found three coffee plants from Ethiopia that contain almost no caffeine, as they seem lack an enzyme necessary to caffeine production. If these plants can be crossed with commercial strains of coffee plants, we may one day see more coffee on the market that is naturally low in caffeine. With these advances, and the current methods of decaffeination, decaf junkies are sure to be able to get their fix of coffee that not only tastes great, but won’t keep them up half the night. As for me, I do want to stay up half the night, so I’ll stick to my full-strength brew.

Read and choose the correct answer. Where are you going to go on holiday?