EXTRA READING COMPREHENSION 9

  1  The following words are in the text in Exercise 2. Find the words and guess their meanings. Then use a dictionary to check your guesses.

       1.  management      ……………………               3.  tense      ……………………

       2.  relaxation           ……………………

  2  Read the article. Write true (T) or false (F).

ANGER MANAGEMENT Amanda was furious, so she hit a window with her hand and broke the glass. Steve kicked a classmate because he was insulted by him. Sally hasn’t spoken to her parents for days because they won’t allow her to go to a music festival with her friends. Amanda, Steve and Sally have got problems controlling their anger. This control is called “anger management”. There are good reasons to learn anger management. Most importantly, it stops us from saying or doing things we’ll be sorry about later. Second, if you don’t control your anger, you won’t make friends easily. Finally, anger management can even prevent heart problems later in life. Anger management experts have developed practical techniques for controlling anger. One suggestion is simple: when you’re beginning to get frustrated about a situation, leave the room. If that’s impossible, try a quick relaxation exercise. This helps because anger causes the heart to work faster and the muscles to become tense. So count slowly to ten or imagine a peaceful place. This will help you become calmer and respond better to the situation. Exercising also helps because it causes your brain to produce special chemicals. These chemicals are called endorphins and they make you feel good. Other helpful activities are writing in a diary, drawing, painting, dancing, playing an instrument and listening to music. Try these anger management techniques. Maybe they’ll help you.

                                                                                                                                           

       1.  Amanda broke her hand when she hit the window.    

       2.  Steve was insulted by someone.                                                 

       3.  Sally hasn't spoken to her friends for days.                 

       4.  When we’re angry, our heart works faster.                   

       5.  If you count to ten slowly, you'll feel calmer.                

  3  Correct the false sentences from Exercise 2.

4  Answer the questions according to the text.

       1.  What is anger management?

                                                                                                                                                  

       2.  What are two good techniques to control anger?

                                                                                                                                                  

       3.  What is the connection between exercise and feeling good?
                                                                                                                                                   

EXTRA READING COMPREHENSION 8

  1  Read the text. What do the numbers below refer to?

RUNNING A MARATHON How many kilometres can you run? Maybe you can run two or three kilometres easily. But what about 42.195 kilometres? That’s the official distance of a marathon. The name marathon comes from an ancient Greek legend. According to the legend, in 490 BC, a Greek messenger was sent from Marathon to Athens to tell the people about the Greek victory over the Persians. The messenger, Pheidippides, ran to Athens without stopping. It was about 40 kilometres, and after he gave people his message, he fell down and died. Is the legend of Pheidippides true? People don’t know the answer, but the legend is very well known in Greece. When the first modern Olympic games were held in Athens in 1896, Pierre de Courbertin, the organiser of the games, decided to have a 40-kilometre marathon race like the one in the legend. In 1908, 2.195 kilometres were added to the marathon at the London Olympics so athletes could run from Windsor Castle to the royal box at the Olympic stadium in White City. Later, people decided to make 42.195 kilometres the official distance. Today, people compete in more than 800 marathons a year. They must train hard for many months to run this distance. Some people run quickly and some run slowly, but everyone receives a medal for finishing a marathon.

       1.  42.195   ……………………                      5.  1908    ……………………

       2.  490        ……………………                      6.  2.195   ……………………

       3.  40          ……………………                      7.  800      ……………………

       4.  1896      ……………………

  2   Answer the questions according to the article.

1.       Who told the Greek people about their victory?
2.        What did Pierre de Coubertin organise?
3.        Where did the 1908 marathon begin?
4.        What do all marathon participants receive?

                                                                                                                                                   

EXTRA READING COMPREHENSION 7

  1  The words below appear in the text in Exercise 2. Find the words and guess their meanings. Use a dictionary to check your guesses.

       1.  tube            ……………………                 3.  wrapped    ……………………

       2.  pull apart     ……………………                 4.  package     ……………………

  2  Read the text. Then answer the questions.

A BRITISH TRADITION AT CHRISTMAS On Christmas Day, families around Britain eat Christmas lunch together. While they are eating, people wear paper hats. Where do the hats come from? Christmas crackers! A Christmas cracker is a British tradition. It’s a paper tube inside colourful paper. Two people hold the ends of the cracker and pull it. When the cracker is pulled apart, it makes a loud crack sound. Inside the cracker there’s a paper hat, a small present and a joke on a piece of paper. The same jokes have appeared in Christmas crackers for years, so most people know them. Christmas crackers were invented in the 1850s by Tom Smith. Tom Smith sold sweets and chocolates. They were wrapped in paper and one day he decided to put a short message in the packages. Many of his sweets were bought by men to give to women, so the messages were usually love poems. After some time, Smith changed his packages so they made a loud sound. The sweet became a small present and in the 1900s, paper hats were added by Smith’s sons. Later, the love poems were replaced by jokes, and people began calling the crackers Christmas crackers because many people bought them at Christmas. Today, most homes in Britain have got a box of Christmas crackers.

       1.  What is the connection between Christmas crackers and paper hats?

                                                                                                                                                  

       2.  What are Christmas crackers wrapped in?

                                                                                                                                                  

       3.  How have Christmas crackers changed since they were first invented? List three differences.

3 Write T (true) or F (false) according to the text in Exercise 2.

                                                                                                                                           

       1.  Paper hats are worn on Christmas Day.                             

       2.  Christmas crackers were invented in 1900.                           

       3.  In the 1850s, love poems were put inside the crackers.     

       4.  Most of Smith’s sweets are bought by women.                     

      5.  Many Christmas crackers are sold in Britain.     

EXTRA READING COMPREHENSION 6

  1  The words below appear in the text in Exercise 2. Find the words and guess their meanings. Use a dictionary to check your guesses.

       1.  thief     ……………………                        4.  block                  ……………………

       2.  steal     ……………………                        5.  security code     ……………………

       3.  lock      ……………………

  2  Read the text. Then complete the sentences with suitable modals according to the text.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR MOBILE PHONE You’ve got a new mobile phone. It’s got a touch screen, a big display and a great digital camera. You can do amazing things with it. But can you protect it from mobile phone thieves? Here are some tips to help you. Tip 1: Most thieves steal phones so they can make expensive phone calls on them – and you have to pay for these calls. If you lock your phone with a security code, many thieves won’t want to steal it. Tip 2: Use an ultraviolet pen to write your address and home phone number on your phone. You should write them on the phone and on the battery. You can’t see ultraviolet writing under a normal light, so a phone thief won’t know it’s there. But it will help you identify the phone. If someone wants to return the phone to you, it will help him or her, too. Tip 3: Press *#06# on your keypad and a special code will appear on your phone’s display. If someone steals your mobile, give the code to the phone company. The company can use the code to block the phone permanently. Then the thief can’t use it with your SIM card or with any other SIM card. Tip 4: Download a program like GadgetTrak. This program can find your phone. It can even take a photo of the thief!

       1.  You …………………… put a security code on your mobile phone.

       2.  You …………………… write your name on your mobile phone, but you …………………… use a normal pen.

       3.  A phone company …………………… know your special code to block your mobile phone.

       4.  Thieves …………………… use your mobile phone when it is blocked.

       5.  You …………………… download GadgetTrak before you can use it.

EXTRA READING COMPREHENSION 5

  1  Read the text. Then choose the correct answers.

CITY LIFE In the 1940s, it became fashionable for families in the United States to buy homes in residential neighbourhoods outside the cities. These areas, called suburbs, were quiet and peaceful. Life in the suburbs was especially popular for people with young children. They preferred homes with gardens and friendly, safe neighbourhoods. But recently, things have begun to change. More and more people are choosing to live in cities. They like the convenience of city life – for example, being close to work and not spending hours on trains or buses every day. In addition, they enjoy being near concert halls, cinemas and restaurants. Because suburbs haven’t got as many people as cities, there isn’t much variety of places to go and things to do. It can be boring, especially for teenagers. This worries some parents and they have decided to make a change. If they move to a city, their teens will have more to do. What will happen if a lot of people want to move to cities? First of all, cities will become more crowded. Also, if city homes are in great demand, they will become more expensive. Will rich people move to cities and poor people to suburbs? How will these changes affect us in the future? At the moment, there are more questions than answers.

       1.  Suburbs are / aren’t residential neighbourhoods outside cities.

       2.  People in cities spend / don’t spend too much time on trains and buses.

       3.  People with teenage children prefer / don’t prefer quiet neighbourhoods.

       4.  If teens have got a lot of things to do, their parents will / won’t worry.

       5.  Most of the poor people from cities have / haven’t moved to the suburbs.

EXTRA READING COMPREHENSION 4

1 Read the text. Then answer the questions.

A FASHIONABLE WEDDING Have you ever been to a wedding? The bride’s dress is one of the most important parts of the event, and most women spend a long time choosing the right one. But what is the right dress? Wedding dresses, like other types of clothing, reflect the fashion of the time. In Ancient Rome, people believed white was the favourite colour of the god of marriage, so women wore white wedding dresses. But in the medieval period, colourful material was more expensive than plain material. Rich women wore colourful wedding dresses with a lot of cloth to show their status. Ordinary people wore practical dresses from plain cloth. After their wedding, they wore their wedding dress at church and for celebrations. The long white wedding dress of today became fashionable after Queen Victoria got married in 1840. Many brides saw her wedding photograph and decided to wear similar dresses. People began using machines to make cloth in the 19th century, so cloth wasn’t as expensive as before and more people had the money to pay for long dresses. During World War II, people needed cloth to make uniforms, so brides wore short dresses. But when the war was over, long dresses were “in” again. Since then, the style and length of wedding dresses has changed as different fashions have become trendy or outdated. So what do you think wedding dresses will look like a hundred years from now?

       1.  Why did some medieval women wear colourful dresses?

                                                                                                                                                  

       2.  What did other medieval women do with their dresses after their wedding?

                                                                                                                                                  

       3.  What type of wedding dress did Queen Victoria wear?

                                                                                                                                                  

       4.  What happened as a result of Queen Victoria’s wedding dress?

                                                                                                                                                  

       5.  How did machines change fashion?

                                                                                                                                                  

       6.  Why was cloth important during World War II?