Listen and repeat
FAMILY LIFE
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A British family has recently celebrated the birth of their 18th child. It was a girl and her brothers and sisters have welcomed their new sister. Her eldest brother is 26 and the parents already hâve two grandchildren. The family announced the birth of the child on their family website. They described the girl as “beautiful”. The family owns a bakery and hopes the children will take over the family business. It looks as if the era when the average British family would hâve only two or three children is over. In Britain there are more families with four children than anywhere else in Europe. Social scientists say that this is the resuit of immigration into the country of families from Asia and Africa.
APPEARANCE AND LOOKS
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Everybody knows that our appearance matters in what people think about us. Appearance is important not only in a romantic relationship but also in politics. Appearance is not ail about beauty. The moment we see a person our mind starts evaluating their personality according to their looks. What especially matters is the persons face. This means that the impression somebody’s face makes on others can cost the person his or her political career. When we vote for a candidate we think that we are weighing his or her personal qualities. In fact, we are examining their face. Research has shown that if a candidates appearance displays compétence, power and leadership, but not beauty or good looks, it can cause a political victory or defeat. These findings are really important.
OCCUPATIONS AND HOBBIES
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There are some very rare occupations that may seem strange to somebody while in reality they are interesting and even tasty. One such profession is a chocolaté engineer. When you hear the word “engineer” what cornes up in your mind is perhaps heavy machinery. A chocolaté engineer does not hâve anything to do with either machinery or the heavy equipment industry. Chocolaté engineers design chocolatés. This profession is chosen by those who love designing things, hâve a good imagination and a good sense of taste. The job of a chocolaté engineer is to create an assortment of delicious chocolaté recipes. They taste their products first. Another tasty occupation is a tea taster. Such specialists are very important in the tea industry because tea must be examined for quality.
PURCHASES AND POCKET MONEY
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Small children can understand money. They get the idea that in order to buy something you hâve to pay for it. Also, they know that in order to hâve money you hâve to earn it. Of course, kids can t earn their own money yet and that is why parents start giving pocket money to their children at a certain âge. Apart from fun, pocket money can be a great tool for teaching children the art of budgeting, saving money and setting goals. Besides, children can be taught how to donate small sums to charity. In other words, pocket money can be used to teach small children decision-making but children should not be paid for obeying their parents or for helping them about the house.
EMAILING, TEXTING AND CHATTING
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Mobile phones hâve become very popular and texting is taking the lead. In many situations sending text messages called SMS via the téléphoné is more préférable than emailing somebody. Unlike emails, SMS texts are delivered alerting the téléphoné owner to the arrivai of a new message. Not many of us check their email on a regular basis while SMS texts hâve a sense of urgency and we must answer them at once. Besides, texting is used for personal contacts while emails are often the channel of business communication. A great advantage of SMS texts is that they can be sent frorn any location thanks to the mobile device in your pocket. You do not hâve to sit in front of a computer or carry a heavy laptop with you.
SCHOOL LIFE AND HOLIDAYS
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One of the oldest schools in the world is a school in China. It was organized in the year 143 BC and it was the first Chinese public school. Soon after that the building of the school was destroyed in a fire but the school was rebuilt a couple of years later. This was not the end for the tests of life for this school. The school was destroyed by wars many times and only ruins remained but each time it was rebuilt again and again. It survived hurricanes and earthquakes, blizzards and storms. In the 20 century it was called a model for secondary schools nationwide. For many Chinese students it is a great honour to study at that school. Would you like to study in such a school?
CHOOSING A PROFESSION
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The teaching profession has proved to be one of the most popular careers among school graduâtes in the UK. The choice was made out of 40 different professions on the list. About a third of the participants were interested in teaching. Other professions that generated interest included those of engineer, psychologist and artist. The medical profession was not as popular as last year and only 10% of those questioned expressed interest in being a doctor. Instead, journalism, police work and social service hâve risen in popularity. The girls’ preferences were teaching, psychology and social work while boys were more inclined to choose a technical walk of life. The majority of school leavers want to continue their studies in some way while some 10% will work.
RUSSIAN TRADITIONS
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Traditional Russian souvenirs are popular ail over the globe. The matryoshka is the best known gift from Russia. It is a set of painted wooden dolls of different sizes that are hidden one inside the other. In some rare cases there can be 50 dolls and even more. Traditionally these dolls are painted dressed in a Russian peasant dress with a headscarf. Khokhloma is another traditional Russian craft which originated in the 17th century near the city of Nizhny Novgorod. It is a style of painting on wooden dishes and on furniture. This beautiful and unique style can be recognized for its red and gold flowers on a dark background. Gzhel is yet another style of painting dishes and cups, docks and lamps in blue and white.
SIGHTSEEING
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People who go sightseeing in the thick Brazilian jungle may arrive at a shocking place — a small American-style town with streets, houses, a police station and even a golf course. The différence is that here in the middle of the rainforest there are no people. Only monkeys jumping on the rooftops. The town was built in the ’20s and its inhabitants abandoned it in the 1940s. The famous car maker Henry Ford bought this land and wanted to build a factory there to produce rubber for his cars. The workers were moved there from Michigan. The rules of life in the town were very strict and the workers did not like it. Besides, the rubber production was very slow and the project failed.
FAMOUS PEOPLE
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If you ask an adult about the most famous clown in the world, everyone will immediately remember their childhood and a circus arena with a comedian on it who can be both funny and sad. If you make a list of names then, perhaps, in the USA the entertainer called Bozo will be at the top of the list. One should know that more than one clown performed under that name. Many actors used to wear the same popular mask for their performance. There are popular clown names in different countries and the children admire their bright caps and baggy trousers, sense of humour, funny jokes, spectacular tricks and friendly personality. Nobody can imagine the circus without a clown making us laugh.
TRAVELLING
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In the past, travelling was a very risky adventure. There were no roads. The transport was very primitive and slow. Many people travelled on foot and faced ail sorts of dangers from wild beasts, bad weather and robbers. Only the bravest people dared to set out on a long journey. They preferred to travel in groups. Later travellers learned how to train four-footed animais like the horse or the camel and travelling became a little more comfortable. These days people travel in comfort and nearly every country in the world has a network of railways and air connections. If your business is very urgent you can travel by air and arrive at your destination in no time.
TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
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It is true that many teenagers are carried away by taking selfies, listening to music, messaging or playing games. However, there are talented young people who create something useful and make life better for everyone. Thanks to the invention of a school student it is no longer necessary to wait for hours to charge ones cell phone. This device was considered the best at an international fair of young scientists. You will agréé with this decision of the sélection board if you know that with this gadget a téléphoné can be charged in 20 to 30 seconds. It contains a lot of energy in a very small space. Besides, it can be recharged 10,000 cycles compared with 1,000 cycles for ordinary batteries.
GLOBAL PROBLEMS
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Over the last 50 years the human population has increased nearly three times and as a resuit we hâve been using a lot more water than before. Besides, industrial waste has polluted much of the fresh water resources. Agriculture demands its share of water as well. This means that the water supply is decreasing. Less fresh water on the planet means not only thirst but also hunger. The reason is that human beings dépend upon fish and animais for food. If fish and wildlife become extinct, we may face extinction ourselves. A debate is now going on about what causes the shortage of water. Global warming is factor number one. People from different cultures hâve to work together or face mutual destruction.
MASS MEDIA
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The mass media has changed over the last décades. The internet has become available and today it brings us the information of our choice at a great speed. The internet is now a platform for news, music, films, talk shows, sports events, advertising, trading, playing games and even doing business. The internet has made the rhythm of our life much faster than before. We now spend much less time sitting down and give more energy to switching over, telephoning, messaging, emailing, contacting, booking, registering, checking in and out. Thanks to the new mass media we keep up to date with news of ail kind twenty-four hours a day. When the long-awaited moment to relax cornes, we make the most of it in front of the computer again. This is especially true for the younger génération.
HEALTH
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Robots start to play an active rôle in the medical check-ups of patients. They can even do it at a distance if a patient is very far away from the hospital. Robotic technology is very important in telemedicine, but these days robots go one step further. They can now patrol hospital corridors and call on the rooms to check on patients’ health. After the examination of the patient, the robot can put ail the results on record for the doctor to see and make further instructions to the medical staff. Medical robots look like a mobile cart with a video screen and medical monitoring equipment. The cart “knows” which way to go and which patients to monitor at a given time. This device frees the doctors’ time.
FAIRY TALES
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The brothers Grimm were German authors who wanted to save their national literary traditions for future générations. They travelled ail across Germany recording traditional taies from storytellers. These stories were not the ones we typically find in Disney s classical films. These original stories were often sad with unhappy ending for both the good and the bad characters, because life was hard. Over time these stories were made “milder” for children and the dark épisodes were taken out from the texts. Today Grimm taies are read in over 140 languages. Some fairy taies were rewritten and became part of other cultures. The original texts belong to German folklore.
STUDY SKILLS
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Many traditional study skills are not as hot these days as they were yesterday. Yet, they are not forgotten either. One of the important study skills in the past was neat handwriting. Learners would spend hours tracing the letters and writing clearly. These days we type and text more often than write. The computer is a skillful writer. The printouts are clean, clear and easy to read. So, is there still the need of writing neatly? Filling in a blank form is a vivid example. If you do not master the art of writing, your text will not be clear enough and nobody will be able to understand it. Doing oral sums is another important skill. How will you calculate percentages if there is no calculator at hand?
ART AND ARTISTS
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This Australian child is often called young Picasso. She is only five, but her finger painting is not just child’s play. This little girl is described as the world’s youngest professional artist making money from her paintings. She has already shown her pictures in two exhibitions and will soon display her pièces at a gallery in New York. The young talent has already earned more from her paintings than many professionals during their lifetime. She has been painting since the âge of two. The money she has earned has been put into her own bank account by her parents, the Russian-born mother and Australian father. Her success is explained by the style that she uses unlike other children of her âge painting with fingers.
EXTINCTION
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Extinction of animais occurs when a particular species completely disappears from the face of our planet. Disappearance of animais has been going on since life began on Earth, but today, the processes are faster than ever before. Species disappear because of changes caused either by nature or by people. Sometimes a terrible natural event, like a gigantic meteorite, can kill wildlife. Other times, extinction takes place because the climate changes. After the Ice Age, the climate became warmer and the glaciers melted. Many species died out. They were used to cold and could not live in warmer conditions. Currently, the animal world is being destroyed by pollution, illégal hunting, agricultural and industrial projects.
GAMES
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Blindfold chess is a chess play, in which participants hâve a bandage to cover their eyes. They do not see the chessboard or the pièces on it, keeping the whole picture in their mind. This is how they take decisions and make the moves. This kind of chess was considered a miracle for centuries. It is even more surprising how blindfolded players manage to run games against a number of people. The participants say how the pièces are to be moved and the moderator fulfills the commands. The first blindfold game in history was, perhaps, played at the beginning of the 8th century in the Middle East. In Europe this practice became popular when a recognized master would play chess blindfolded against a weaker opponent.
Использованная литература: Мильруд, Радислав Петрович. ОГЭ. Английский язык : Устная часть. Тренировочные тесты : учебное пособие / Р. И. Мильруд ; под научной редакцией К. С. Махмурян : 2-е изд., доп. — Обнинск : Титул, 2017. — 56 с.