SECTION 1 : MATCHING INFORMATION :

Which person
1 wrote a book?
2 found a way to enable people to do something more quickly?
3 looked older than he was?
4 now visits other countries?
5 chose an unexpected career?
6 broke a record for raising money?
7 was surprised by his own popularity?
8 inspired other teenagers to succeed?
9 was looked after by a well-known person?
10 used feedback to improve an idea?
Teenage success stories
A Balamurali Ambati, doctor
Balamurali Ambati was clearly very talented as a boy, studied hard at school and did well. Along with his older brother, he
co-authored a medical manual aged just 11 aimed at would-be doctors. It was already obvious what he wanted to become – a
doctor, and so he worked hard to achieve his dream. He graduated from New York University when he was 13, began
medical school when he was 14, attending the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, also in New York. Being very tall (over 1
metre 80 centimetres), he didn’t stand out as being different, and so people assumed he was the same age as the other
students on his course. He graduated aged just 17, becoming the world’s youngest doctor, a record which he still holds.
These days, Ambati is now Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Utah, and works as a volunteer with the ORBIS
Flying Eye Hospital, practising and teaching in developing nations across the globe.
B Nick D’Aloisio, computer programmer
Aged just 15, Nick D’Aloisio made headlines with the app he created, Trimit, which reduced news content into short
summaries that could be processed in much less time than would be needed to process the original text. When his app
received funds from Hong Kong, Nick became the youngest person ever to have received investment of this kind. This
helped Nick used to identify criticisms of Trimit’s using user comments, and then to redesign the app as Sumly, which was
released to much praise in December 2011. Since then, he has published academic articles, studied for an Oxford University
degree, and continues to develop his business.
C Luka Sabbat, model
When you look at the Instagram feed of model, influencer and internet sensation Luka Sabbat, it’s easy to see why he’s been
called ‘the internet’s coolest teenager’. When he started using social media, his name spread very quickly. ‘For some reason,
people were really into me. I don’t know why’ he says modestly. Even as a toddler, Luka was well connected – his
babysitter was high-profile model Lara Stone. For Luka and his career, it seems that the only way is up. He models for top
brands and it’s not unusual for a picture of him just sitting on a chair to get over 30,000 likes in a matter of minutes. When
Luka has something to say, the online world sits up and takes notice.
D Boris Becker, tennis player
The German tennis player came to world attention as an unknown 17-year-old when he became Wimbledon champion in
London in 1985. His powerful serve, strength and speed on the court enabled him to beat the South African Kevin Curren,
then ranked the world’s fifth best men’s player. The tennis world had never experienced such an extraordinary result. When
Becker was a young teenager, becoming a sporting superstar wasn’t really on the cards. ‘The plan from my parents for me
was to finish school, go to university, get a proper degree and learn something respectable. The last thing on everyone’s
mind was me becoming a tennis professional.’ But he turned professional at the age of 16, and the rest is history. Becker’s
success prompted adolescents all over the world to take up the game, hit the ball hard and try to do their very best. Becker
now lives in Switzerland.

Which person says that advertising

1 can be uninteresting if there’s a lack of variety?
2 has a mostly negative impact on the urban landscape?
3 can damage the appearance of the countryside?
4 may be a waste of energy resources?
5 can lead to a break of concentration in a job?
6 should not be allowed in certain public places?
7 can be a source of potential danger?
8 can sometimes make you feel better?
9 is good if it makes you think about something?
10 is useful in providing work for talented and creative people?
Advertising in public places.
like it or love it?
We asked five people for their opinions
A Rob Stevenson, lorry driver
The main problem is that the location of posters can be a safety hazard if they block your view of junctions or road signs.
I’m not distracted from driving by the content so much, just by the fact that a poster is there. I’ve no time to read them or
study them, though the names of products must stick in your memory. Posters in fields get a lot of attention because you
certainly notice them as you drive down the motorway. They must be a bonus for the farmer who gets an income from them,
but I suppose they do make a bit of a mess of the rural environment. On the whole, there aren’t too many posters on the
roads – not compared with some countries I’ve driven through.
B Josie Pelham, cabin crew
Walking through airports in uniform, I tend not to look around too much. That’s because I run the risk of being asked
questions by confused passengers who mistake me for ground crew, but helping them is not my job. But adverts in airports
have a captive audience because people end up hanging around waiting for delayed flights in lounges or at boarding gates,
so in those places they must work well for the advertisers. When travelling, an amusing advert can brighten up my day, but I
do tend to see endless dull adverts for banks round the airport and they don’t fit into that category! Planes are even being
painted externally to carry advertising. I saw one decorated to advertise house music in Ibiza. How cool is that?
Portable speakers
C Damian Stenton, lawyer
To be honest, I can take or leave street advertising – I don’t pay it much attention and posters aren’t that obtrusive. I don’t
even mind posters in the countryside, though I know that’s an issue for some groups in society. Some of the paper posters
are being replaced by TV screens. I guess that enables the company to make more money, as they can switch adverts easily
– and it also saves paper. But it’s rather environmentally unfriendly as each advertising screen obviously has to be powered
by electricity. At a time when we’re all being urged to cut down on consumption of precious resources, putting up TV
screens everywhere seems rather counterproductive.
D Danni Rochas, interior designer
I often feel surrounded by posters and advertising, it seems to be taking over our city. I am reminded of an episode of The
Simpsons where the town’s outdoor advertising comes to life and hunts down the residents. I’m resigned to the fact that
posters are ‘necessary’ commercialisation, but I find them less annoying when they ‘give’ something positive in exchange
for being such an intrusive presence on the urban landscape. Occasionally, though, advertisers find a new angle on an issue
that’s really thought-provoking and that must be positive. So maybe I’d prefer it to exist rather than not.
E Naomi Hesketh, student
I try to walk straight past most posters as if they weren’t there, but some do manage to grab your attention nonetheless. I
really like those that are colourful or imaginative. I think advertising allows lots of clever people to reach a wide public with
their ideas, and we all benefit from that. Why would you even look at a boring poster? I think production values are
important, too, in making you trust the advertiser. I agree with banning posters from parks and on historic buildings, but
there’s nothing wrong with them in shopping streets and main roads. They make the environment brighter.

In which section is the following mentioned?

1 a reason for the writer not going on a country walk
2 the need to achieve something on one particular walk
3 one reason why walkers spend a lot of time looking at paths
4 not enjoying a meal whilst out on a walk
5 walking routes that become hard to follow in places
6 how interesting it might be getting to know strangers on a walk
7 the fact that group walking activities are growing in popularity
8 the amount of work needed to maintain paths for walkers
9 walkers feeling a need to compete with each other
10 paths maybe having been originally made by animals
A good walk
When songwriter and singer Roddy Woomble isn’t playing with his band,
he loves nothing more than going on long country walks. He tells us about his hobby.
A
I’m sure I’m not the only one who occasionally stops to think about the footpaths that carry us over the hills. Who made
them? Who was the first to walk that way – the sheep or the shepherd? The dictionary definition of a path is ‘a track laid
down for walking or made by continual treading’ and also ‘the direction in which a person or thing moves’. Somewhere in
between I think you’ll find the mountain path. I am particularly fond of watercolours or photos with paths in them. I also
like it when old paths suddenly vanish only to reappear a bit further on, to the frustration of many other walkers. I appreciate
also all the effort that has gone into the upkeep of mountain paths, so that they are still available for recreational use.
B
Walking in upland areas, you get to know the paths pretty well since a good proportion of your time is likely to be spent
head down, gazing at them as you walk. This is never truer than when you’re walking into wind and driving rain. That’s
when your boots have to pick your way over the slippery rocks and muddy puddles that constitute many mountain paths and
trails in the winter. But I’m no great fan of walking on my own. Occasionally I’ll do it – I’ll read a few lines of
Rousseau’s Reveries of a Solitary Walker to get myself mentally prepared, then head out for a day of solitude. The problem
is, halfway through I usually get the urge to share my thoughts about things I’ve noticed along the way. Even if you do
bump into other walkers, this is not always something you want to do with strangers. Time on your own is worthwhile, of
course, but I think it’s better to mix it up with some company.
C
On previous solitary rambles I’ve often reached the summit only to enviously watch a group having a mid-walk picnic,
happily chattering away, snapping pictures of the view, while I sat, just out of sight, alone, brooding over a sandwich. I’ve
forgone many days out on the hills in order to avoid this feeling. Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to join a group and take
to the hills with people you’ve only just met. It’s fascinating to imagine the group dynamics on such initial outings. For
example, would there be long awkward pauses in the conversation? Would you feel the need to keep a conversation going
from leaving the car to returning to it, or would it become an ego thing about how many hills you’ve each climbed and how
steep the path was?
D
On the other hand, is an established walking group a collective of like-minded, interesting, articulate individuals, all
enthusiastic for the outdoors? A place where conversation is free-flowing, with long gaps left for each other’s thoughts,
followed by a shared meal afterwards? I’m assuming it’s both since walking clubs seem to be attracting more members than
ever. I must think about joining one. Another ambition of mine is to climb the hill in front of me as I write this. I’m sitting at
a picnic table outside the club where my band is giving a concert later and, as I eat my lunch, I have an uninterrupted view
of the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis in Scotland. As I say, I’ve never been up it, but I have a brilliant
photo which a friend took from the summit. It’s said to be a vantage point like no other. There may be technically harder
mountains in the country, but there are none higher; which means lots of people feel an urge to go to the top of it.
Which person
1 mentions how good it is being able to make your own decisions?
2 enjoys seeing employees make a success of things?
3 had to solve a technical problem before launching the business?
4 is surprised to have attracted such a wide variety of clients?
5 is happy to have received positive feedback from clients?
6 sometimes feels anxious about financial aspects of the business?
7 took time to decide what type of business to start?
8 was able to draw on experience gained in a similar working situation?
9 was keen to make use of a wide range of existing skills?
10 was keen to work on a more personal level with clients?
Starting your own business
We talked to four people who gave up working for somebody else and started their own business
A Beautician
I had to rethink my future when the multi-national company I worked for as a marketing executive decided to move my job
to the USA. My life back then, wearing designer clothes and taking regular long-haul flights, couldn’t be more different
from today. Well, I wanted a job where I’d have the chance to interact with people more, and saw a gap in the market for a
beauty salon locally. Working for yourself is great as you can make your own mind up about things and you aren’t driven by
someone else about when and how you do that. But the flipside is that there’s nobody to share the burden with when you
wake up in the middle of the night worrying about how you’re going to pay the rent. But I have no regrets.
B Gym owner
After seventeen years working in banking, I wanted to try something totally different. A business that used a combination of
my financial, sporting and parenting experience, but which didn’t involve such long exhausting hours at the office appealed
to me a great deal. I came across the concept behind The Little Gym by accident when I was surfing the Internet. It’s a novel
concept that had gone down really well in the USA. It caters for children from four months to twelve years, giving them
good-quality physical instruction and a cerebral work-out at the same time. Having control of my own life is a definite high,
as is seeing my staff doing a good job. Every day is different, so it’s never boring.
C Caterer
I worked for a big international company, but was no longer finding it rewarding. I’d completed twenty years’ service, so I
had some money saved up, but not enough to retire on. But I took six months off and we went to stay with my wife’s family
in Spain. It was a good opportunity to ponder the question: ‘What next?’ That’s when we got the idea for Tapas in a Box.
We were in a bar eating the local Spanish food called ‘tapas’ and I thought: ‘This would be perfect for people back home
who want to have a great, relaxed time with friends, without spending ages cooking.’ The challenge was then to work out
how to deliver the mix of foods all at once, because tapas includes things like raw almonds and chilled cheeses as well as the
hot things that need heating in an oven. Once we’d cracked that, we were up and running. I can’t stress too much the thrill
you feel when a customer tells you they’ve had a great time. The sense of having gone from a new idea to actually
delivering something good is very motivating.
D Virtual PA
I’d been a secretary and personal assistant (PA) for twenty years and had begun to dread the thought that I’d be at the same
desk until I retired. When the company announced that its European office was to close, I could’ve taken a drop in salary
and found another job locally, but decided to set up my own business instead. I got my idea because, in effect, I’d been a
virtual PA all along. My boss was usually only in the office a couple of days a month, so we’d always worked remotely by
email and phone calls. I thought I could offer a similar service to other busy people. Now I’ve got all sorts of regular clients,
including surveyors, solicitors, an advertising agency and even an author. I never expected such a mix. I can’t wait to see
what challenges lie in store for me.
Which person’s father …
1 always had faith in his son’s abilities?
2 encouraged his son not to give up in the face of disappointment?
3 gave his son advice in a light-hearted way?
4 made his son realise the need to try harder?
5 may not have succeeded in passing on certain ideas to his son?
6 never blamed his son for mistakes that he made?
7 put no pressure on his son to follow in his footsteps?
8 reassured his son when equipment let him down?
9 showed his son how to perform practical tasks?
10 was willing to listen to his son’s suggestions?
What’s the best advice your father ever gave you?
We asked four successful young men.
A Tony: Racing driver
‘Drive it like you stole it and keep it on the black stuff!’ I was quite nervous when I first started racing, but those were my
dad’s jokey words of wisdom and they made me feel better at the time. In the beginning, I had quite a few spins on the
circuits – the very first one was particularly scary because the car left the track, but he never said it was my fault. I used to
drive a Porsche 924 and pretty much every single race something would break, but Dad would just say: ‘Don’t worry about
the car, we can always fix it.’ I didn’t like people behind me when I went round corners, but Dad was always telling me not
to take any notice, to focus on what I was doing. I’ve got a long way to go, but Dad’s really good – he’s hardly the most
polite person to have around if things don’t go well, but he’s my role model.
B David: Record producer
Because Dad and I have always been close, there was no one moment when he imparted some big philosophical piece of
advice. I think his greatest gift has been his general unwavering belief in me. Since I was about fourteen, he’s given me the
opportunity to input ideas and have my say about the bands we work with or the equipment we use, which is amazing. When
you’re part of a family business, it can sometimes feel as if you have to be there, but my brother and I have done other
things, and we’re back with Dad again because we want to be. He left the decision to us. Dad’s also been good at giving
career advice because he’s done it and he’s got the experience. He’s given me that drive and ambition to succeed.
C Andy: Buyer for a department store
I was probably Dad’s most unruly son. He tried to teach me a lot of things – how much I’ve taken on board is another
matter. But I don’t think I’m such a disappointment to him! He’s a very cool dad, but he’s quite traditional in some ways.
He’s always said that if you want to succeed, then get on with it. If you’re going to do something, do it right away or at least
write it down so you don’t forget! I’m proud of my dad and how hard he worked for us to have a lovely childhood and good
lifestyle. Dad also taught me valuable skills like how to change the oil in my car, how to play tennis and ski – although the
last time he saw me doing that he said he feared for his life!
D Simon: Rugby player
He had this catchphrase: ‘Under-prepare, and you prepare to fail.’ I heard it time and again. A typical teenager when things
went wrong, I was always trying to blame everything and everyone but myself. He used his catchphrase and explained that if
you don’t put sufficient effort in, you’ll never get anything out of whatever it is you’re doing. That’s stayed with me ever
since, even now when I’m playing professionally. He’s always given a fair amount of advice. He made me realise that if you
just stick at something, no matter how hard things get, then your time will come. It’s the hardest thing to hear when things
aren’t going well. At the beginning of the season, I wasn’t getting picked for many matches. Then when the chance came to
play, I really took it.

Which paragraph
1 gives an example of Jessica having good luck?
2 refers to the role of Jessica’s family in helping her achieve success?
3 suggests it is surprising that Jessica does not understand herself better?
4 mentions a previous sporting disappointment that Jessica had?
5 explains why Jessica is so popular with the local public?
6 explains why another athlete was surprised at Jessica’s performance?
Olympic history book
7 mentions a painful childhood memory?
8 suggests that Jessica’s appearance can give a misleading impression?
9 says that Jessica’s relationship with someone can sometimes be difficult?
10 contrasts Jessica’s personality on and off the track?
Jessica Ennis: heptathlon Olympic champion
A There have been many great Olympic athletes in recent years, but few have been taken to their country’s heart quite as
warmly as gold medal winner Jessica Ennis. Her quiet determination to succeed, her good humour when faced by setbacks
and the absolute joy she showed when finally becoming Olympic champion have all contributed to this, as has the difficulty
of the sport she has chosen to compete in: the heptathlon. This involves turning in world-class performances in seven track
and field events over two days. At first sight, Jessica – at just 1.65 metres and 57 kilos – may seem an unlikely winner of
such a physically demanding sport, but once the action begins it soon becomes clear she has the speed, strength and
endurance to beat anyone.
English language courses
B Jessica recognises that her normally easygoing nature is transformed into something much fiercer when she has to
compete. She knows that success only comes from being highly motivated and totally focused on each event. In her
autobiography Unbelievable, she talks of the way she was picked on at school by bigger girls because of her background and
lack of size, and how that has made her determined to succeed, particularly against taller and stronger athletes. She also
points out that she is not from a particularly sporting family and that her sister ‘absolutely hates sport’, but says she was
introduced to athletics by her parents, who have continued to give her encouragement and support throughout her career as
an athlete. Her mother was born in the UK and her father in Jamaica.
C She gets on well with her family, as she does with her husband Andy, saying she dislikes conflict and wherever possible
avoids arguments with people. The only exception is her trainer Chell, with whom she has a row ‘every day’. And although
Jessica is a psychology graduate, she is unable to explain how she acquired the tremendous self-discipline that has enabled
her to keep training to Olympic gold medal standard while so many others have given up along the way. Of course, at that
level nothing can be taken for granted, as she discovered when a sudden injury put her out of the Beijing Games. She
describes that as the lowest point in her career. Typically, though, Jessica bounced back, and once ft again began training
just as hard as ever.
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D By the time of the London Games in 2012 she was in the best shape of her life, and on this occasion she was fortunate
enough to remain free of injury. Some of the times she recorded in the heptathlon were so fast that she would have achieved
good positions in the finals of track events such as the 200 metres. That brought to mind a race won two years earlier against
the world champion, who couldn’t believe she had lost to someone who trained for seven different events. Since the London
Olympics, Jessica has continued to take part in competitions, receiving numerous awards including World Sportswoman of
the Year. She has also featured on a special postage stamp and has had a post box in her home city of Sheffield painted gold
in her honour.

Which section
1 recommends paying the entrance fee?
2 states that the beach has featured in advertisements?
3 says visitors may be surprised by the water temperature?
4 points out that the water is quite shallow?
5 suggests visitors should take photos of the beach?
6 says visitors can walk on the beach in their bare feet?
7 mentions a pleasant smell from the trees?
8 advises visitors to get to the beach early in the day?
9 states that it is not always possible to visit the beach?
10 warns visitors to the beach to protect their skin?
Four of the world’s best beaches
Which are the best beaches on Earth? Here are our top four.
A Rodas Beach, the Cies Islands, Spain
Some of Spain’s most spectacular beaches lie in Galicia on the Atlantic coast, and perhaps the most stunning of these are on
the Cies Islands. These unspoilt and uninhabited islands are a national park, with public access limited to the summer
months, and contain the perfectly-shaped Rodas Beach with its pure white sand and clear blue sea. At first sight it almost
seems tropical, until dipping your toe in the water encourages you to spend a lazy day on the beach rather than dive in for a
swim. There you can enjoy the quiet, the warmth of the sun and the scent of pine from the nearby woods, and later on have
an excellent meal in the reasonably-priced fish restaurant close to the beach.
B Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Australia
Australia is famous for wonderful beaches, and Whitehaven must surely be one of its very best. Set against a background of
amazingly-green tropical forest, and with views across the clear blue ocean to distant small islands, the sandy white beach is
like something from a picture postcard or a TV commercial. As you would expect in such a sunny climate, the water is
pleasantly warm, ideal for swimming on or below the surface. The sand, in contrast, always remains cool as it is of a type
that reflects the sunlight, so you won’t need sandals. As the island has no permanent inhabitants, and most day trippers leave
by boat quite early, in the late afternoon and evening you can have the place almost to yourself.
C Matira Beach, Bora Bora, Tahiti
Matira Beach on the Pacific island of Bora Bora has incredibly white sand, beautiful fish swimming in clear blue-green
water, and stunning sunsets. The air temperature hardly varies around the year, and neither does that of the ocean – which is
only waist high even hundreds of metres from the shore. And unlike windier beaches nearby, Matira is quite well sheltered.
There isn’t, however, much shade, so it is advisable to use plenty of sun cream, and the sand can feel uncomfortably hot
unless you wear beach shoes or something similar. There is no charge to visit the beach, yet it rarely becomes crowded at
any time of day. Everyone should go there at least once in life, and when you do, make sure you have your photo taken as
the sun goes down.
D Anse Source d’Argent Beach, Seychelles
This must be one of the most photographed beaches in the world, so don’t forget to get some shots of your own, especially
of the sea and the sand framed by the background of enormous pink rocks, with tall palm trees right behind them. It’s easy
to see why commercials have been made there. The patches of brilliantly white sand between those beautiful rocks make it
the perfect place to spend a relaxing day, and it is well worth the small amount it costs for access. The best spots – those
with both sunshine and shade – quickly get taken, so make sure you arrive well before the sun starts to beat down and the
sand heats up.

Which student
1 is studying at a university that was not their first choice?
2 has found it easier to make friends at university than they had expected?
3 wishes they had more time to take part in social activities?
4 chose their university partly because a relative had recommended it?
5 complains about the travelling time from their accommodation to the city centre?
6 wants to continue studying at the same university after they graduate?
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7 praises the approach to teaching at their present university?
8 decided to study at the university because of its location?
9 sought the opinions of current students before choosing a university?
10 is finding student life less expensive than they had expected?
My university
Six first-year students say what life is like at their universities.
A Zehra Erdogan
There’s a club here for just about every sport or social activity you can think of, and they’re a great way to get to know other
students. I’d wondered whether I might feel lonely here with my family so far away, but I needn’t have worried. There’s a
group of us who get on really well, and two are already talking about doing research here once they’ve finished their first
degrees. That’s my aim too.
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B Ben Robertson
I had to take out a loan to cover my costs as a student here, but I quickly found there were all kinds of expenses I hadn’t
thought of, such as the cost of getting into town and back from the student village, where I live. The buses aren’t cheap and
it takes ages to get there, too, but I didn’t check that when I chose this university. That’s something I could have done quite
easily online, but unfortunately I didn’t. Actually, the main reason I came here was to be with my friends, who applied at the
same time as I did.
C Anika Mishra
I found it relatively easy to settle in here, just as I thought I would, really. I’d done some research on the various places
offering the course I wanted to do, and what I found particularly helpful were the online comments by people actually
studying in each one. Actually, this one had always appealed to me as my aunt did a research degree here and said it was a
good place to live and study, though unlike her I think I’ll move onto another university once I’ve graduated.
Student Discount Program
D Lotte Peeters
Before I came here, people had been telling me I’d find it hard to live on my government grant, but that hasn’t really been
the case because during my free time I’m nearly always in the halls of residence with the other students. There’s so much to
do there that it doesn’t matter that they’re quite a long way from the university, which is right in the centre of town. In fact, I
can’t do half the things I’d like to do because I’m a medical student and I’m just too busy studying to join any more
societies or clubs.
E Pablo Flores
Universities in different parts of the world tend to be quite similar in some ways, such as the international mix of students,
the atmosphere and even the buildings, but something I like about studying here is that you spend a lot of your time in
seminars with a tutor. So, nearly a year on, I’m actually quite relieved I had my application rejected by the top university on
my list: if I’d gone there I would have spent all day taking notes in lectures. The only downside is that the cost of living is
quite a bit higher in this country.
English Language Course
F Maxim Kuznetsov
As I have family and friends living in several nearby countries, I needed to be somewhere close to an airport offering budget
flights. So studying here looked ideal, and though I’ve noticed prices are quite high in the city, there’s plenty to do on
campus and I rarely need to go there. Actually, the only time I do that is when some of my old friends come to visit me, and
on those occasions we take the train. There’s a good service into town, and I can get a discount by using my student card.

Which person
1 bought a second-hand bike?
2 says their new bike is good value for money?
3 found it difficult to slow down at one point?
4 had to take their bike in for repair?
5 needed to put the bike together before they could ride it?
6 bought a new bicycle to replace one that had been stolen?
7 says that riding their bike up hills is tiring?
8 says they wish they had checked the size of the bike sooner?
9 had to get off their bike when they were riding to fix it?
10 compares cycling with another way of keeping fit?
My new bicycle
Four people talk about their bikes.
A Jonas Hagen
I bought my new mountain bike online and as soon as it was delivered to my home in kit form I set to work. Once it actually
looked like a bike and I’d checked that everything seemed to be working properly, I set off down the road. All went well at
first, but later on I had a brief moment of panic when the brakes suddenly failed and I narrowly avoided crashing into a
hedge. I adjusted them when I got home, and since then they’ve been fine. The only other adjustment I’ve had to make is to
raise the seat to the maximum because it turns out this bike is for riders whose inside leg measures considerably less than
mine. I should really have noticed that before I bought it.
B Lili Huang
I originally bought my bike just for occasional use, but now I go everywhere on it. It’s great exercise, every bit as good as
going to the gym. It feels just the right size for me and somehow I always feel full of energy when I’m on it, even when my
friends and I ride into the mountains at weekends. I’ve only ever had one breakdown, which was when the chain broke.
Fortunately there was a garage nearby, where a very kind car mechanic quickly got me back on the road. I don’t know what
I’d do without my bike, which is slightly worrying because a lot of people round here have had their bikes stolen. That’s
why I keep it in the hall downstairs, rather than in the street.
C James Thompson
This is only the second bicycle I’ve ever bought. It was on offer at the local cycle shop and I think I got something of a
bargain because on the whole I’ve been pleased with it. At first I had some difficulties with the gears, but I managed to sort
those out while I was riding. It’s a very solid bike, though that does mean it’s rather heavy and I wouldn’t want to have to
push it far if I had a breakdown. It also makes pedalling up steep slopes hard work, although fortunately most of the routes
round here are reasonably flat. I don’t think it’s the kind of bike anyone would want to steal, but I always secure it with a
good strong lock just in case. Recently I’ve also fitted more powerful front and rear lights so that drivers can see me better
after dark.
D Mia Doherty
I actually chose this bike in something of a hurry. I’d left my old one outside the sports centre and when I came back it had
just disappeared. I reported it, of course, but that was the last I ever saw of it, and I needed a new one to get to work every
day. I probably paid more than I should have done for it, though I know the previous owner had looked after it well and I
haven’t had any trouble with it. Apart, that is, from a flat tyre which meant I had to stop and mend it on the way home in the
pouring rain. Riding it certainly helps keep me ft, and even in weather like that I wouldn’t change it for a car. The only
incident I’ve had was when a dog ran out into the road in front of me, but the brakes did their job superbly.

Which person
1 misses a place they used to go to as a child?
2 states that tourism provides a considerable number of jobs for local people?
3 wishes local people had opposed the construction of certain holiday homes?
4 claims that tourism has destroyed a traditional industry?
5 blames the tourist industry for spoiling the local countryside?
6 feels that the presence of people from other cultures benefits the local community?
7 criticises the behaviour of tourists in their town?
8 says the town is wealthier than it was before it became a tourist resort?
9 believes that most of the profits from the local tourist industry go abroad?
10 is not convinced that so-called green tourism actually benefits the environment?
Living with tourism
Five people describe how tourism has affected their home town.
A Leonor Sousa
It can’t be denied that tourism has attracted investment, which has certainly raised living standards here, but the cost in other
respects has been extremely high. Take the effect on the environment, for instance. When my parents were young this used
to be an area of fields and woods, but now everything is covered in concrete. The tourists themselves aren’t responsible for
this; it’s the construction companies, property developers and estate agents who are to blame because they’re the ones
making all the money. They’re all based in the big cities and bring in their own people, so they hardly create any
employment at all for local residents.
B Yusuf Demir
When I was growing up in my home town there was a path I used to walk along to go to school, and last summer I went to
see if it was still there. It was, but the view from it had changed completely. Now there is a vast shopping mall, with a
cinema and cafés alongside. I don’t actually mind that, because it means there are lots more things to do, and I also like the
fact that it has a really international atmosphere. It’s good for local people to meet visitors from other parts of the world, try
new kinds of food and hear about different ways of living.
C Matt Walker
Tourism has changed this town so much, even in the years since I was at junior school. In those days there was a football
pitch near the harbour where we would kick a ball around, but it’s gone now, which is a pity. In the harbour itself luxury
yachts owned by people from richer parts of the country have replaced the fishing boats, to the extent that there is now no
sign of what used to be the main source of income and employment locally. In the evenings the town is certainly a lot
livelier, but sometimes people start doing things they would never think of doing back in their own home towns, and then
the police have to be called.
D Trisha Chandra
I was just a child when tourism first took off here and those incredibly ugly houses were built for summer visitors. The
residents really should have protested about that. It was all the fault of the town council, who only ever thought in the short
term and seemed to give planning permission to anyone who applied to build anything. Nowadays there’s talk of ecological
tourism, but that’s just a way of making people feel less guilty about the harm they are doing by making a few insignificant
changes, such as re-using towels in their hotel rooms.
E Daniela Navarro
I know some of the new hotels and holiday apartment blocks are unattractive, and that the bars, restaurants and nightclubs
that cater for tourists have changed the nature of the town, but without them unemployment – particularly among the young
– would be far worse than it currently is. That, though, is as far as the economic benefits to the town go, as the only ones
making any real money out of all this are the big tour operators and the owners of hotel chains, none of whom are actually
based in this country. Also, very few tourists learn our language. I know it must be difficult for them because most of them
are quite old, but it means there’s little communication between us and them

Which person
1 is surprised at the job her friend now has?
2 is sure that this time their friendship will last?
3 thinks her life may have changed as a result of meeting her friend again?
4 feels that in one way she and her friend have similar personalities?
5 believes that even without the Internet they would have met again?
6 regrets losing contact with her friend years ago?
7 was initially unsure whether she wanted to talk to her friend again?
8 told her friend she was sad to hear what had happened to her?
9 was surprised at how little her friend’s appearance had changed?
10 admits she wrongly predicted her friend would never have a successful career?
Friends again
Five people talk about the school friends they have met up with again thanks to social media websites.
A Nadia Hassan
Although we’ve been living in different countries for a long time, I know I should have made more of an effort to stay in
touch with Amina because we always got on well together, even though we’re quite different people. For instance, I’m much
more ambitious than her and have no plans to start a family, whereas she already has two children. It’s quite a contrast in
lifestyle, and although it’s great that we’re both content with our own lives – and we’ve enjoyed catching up with each
other’s news – I don’t really know whether in the future we’ll have enough in common to keep the relationship going.
B Julia Nowak
The first thing that struck me was that Natalia still looked much the same as she had ten years earlier, unlike some other
people in their late twenties – especially those who have had serious personal issues to deal with during that time. She’s also
still very keen on sports, which I’m not, but she remains as sociable as she ever was and I suppose we’re quite alike in that
respect. In fact, she was one of the first people I thought of when the idea of contacting my old classmates occurred to me,
and it’s great you can do that online so easily. Otherwise you could lose touch with them forever.
C Olivia Morgan
Back in our school days I always liked Megan, but she was never keen on studying so I sort of took it for granted that she
would end up doing a job that didn’t require qualifications. Now it turns out she went on to do really well academically and
for two years was a Philosophy lecturer at a top university. The other mistake I made was being rather cautious about
responding when she first got in touch with me online last autumn, when in fact as soon as we saw each other on the screen
we started chatting again as if that ten year gap had never existed. I think we both quickly realised that we wouldn’t ever let
anything like that happen again.
D Maite Silva
I was delighted when Carla told me she has such a good job. Somehow I always knew she’d do well, though I must confess
that back then she was the last person I would have imagined becoming an economist because she was pretty hopeless at
maths. But when she appeared on my laptop screen after all those years I was impressed by how mature she sounded and
looked, and in fact she might be having an influence on me. Ever since we met up again, I’ve found myself taking a more
serious attitude to my career, with promotion now a real possibility.
E Yan Lin
When I realised my old classmate Ming was trying to contact me I didn’t hesitate for a second in replying. Somehow I’d
always known that one way or another we were bound to run into each other at some point, because when we left school
we’d both gone off to do the same subject at different universities. What I hadn’t been prepared for, though, was the news
that she’d had to interrupt her studies owing to personal problems. I expressed my sympathy, but she assured me she’d
recovered and eventually graduated, and that since then she’s been working in advertising. Which of course is exactly what I
do, too.

In which section does the writer

1 suggest why Canaletto’s work was less appreciated in his home city than elsewhere?
2 give examples of how Canaletto tricks the viewer in his pictures?
3 claim that Canaletto’s paintings contain a kind of historical record of Venice?
4 tell us where Canaletto worked on the composition of his pictures?
5 mention the reason why Canaletto didn’t paint exactly what he had seen?
6 suggest a weakness in the work Canaletto painted away from Venice?
7 give some details of Canaletto’s initial painting technique?
8 say that Canaletto took a risk by specialising in a particular kind of art?
9 describe different artistic reactions to Venice?
10 refer to the effect Canaletto’s paintings had on artists in another country?
Canaletto and Venice
An expert describes the close relationship between the great 18th century Italian painter Canaletto and his home city.
A Canaletto’s lifetime subject was the city of Venice. Apart from the works done during his decade in London, he painted
virtually nothing else, and Venice has never been so minutely and extensively painted by any other artist. His response to
Venice was not like the dramatic, emotional response of a visitor overpowered by the city’s haunting beauty and magic, as
the British painter Turner was later, for example. Canaletto’s paintings, with their love of incidental detail, betray a deeper-
rooted, more lasting attachment – the affection of a native Venetian.
B Canaletto depicted the city as it really was, documenting the changes in the cityscape over the years – Piazza San Marco
being repaved, palaces being reconstructed, graffiti appearing and disappearing. Above all, he suffused his painting with the
natural light and atmosphere of Venice which was second nature to him. When he went to London in 1746, Canaletto could
not quite come to terms with painting the cooler tones and the unsympathetic climate of England, and somehow his
paintings of the River Thames always ended up looking rather like the Grand Canal.
C In spite of his natural affection for Venice, Canaletto’s paintings were rarely bought by his fellow Venetians. This was
probably because the locals did not need reminders of their city, and also because in Venice ‘view painting’ was not taken
very seriously in comparison with historical and religious painting, or even landscape and figure painting. To become a
‘view painter’ at that time was quite a brave choice and, by the end of his career, Canaletto had done much to raise the status
of the genre. However, his influence was felt more among painters in England, the home of his major patrons.
D Canaletto’s extraordinarily detailed and accurate scenes were perfect for the foreign tourists in Venice, who wanted
souvenirs or mementoes of their visits. The more accurate the scene the better, in fact, and Canaletto’s first patron, Owen
McSwiney, persuaded him to change from his earlier picturesque and theatrical style to a more factual one. Instead of loose
brushwork and thick paint, alongside dramatic contrasts of light and shade, Canaletto adopted more of a snapshot approach,
which proved to be very commercial. His colours became brighter, the paint surface smoother, and the scenes looked more
realistic. McSwiney wrote ‘his excellence lies in painting things which fall immediately under his eye’, as if he worked
directly from nature. At a casual glance, everything in his pictures is instantly recognisable and looks exactly as it does, or
did, in reality. In fact, Canaletto never painted from nature – his pictures were created in the studio.
E In working out the compositions, he used his imagination and a certain artistic licence. Although he paid the minutest
attention to the detail of a decorative carving, a ship’s sails or washing hanging out, Canaletto felt at liberty to distort and
reorganise the main objects in his paintings in the interest of dramatic effect. He would alter the sweeping curve of the
Grand Canal, for example, or include more in a composition than could be seen from any single viewpoint. The clutter of
traffic on the waterways looks random and natural, but the position of each boat was carefully worked out to achieve the
best effect. In this way, he conveyed the essence of Venice even if he deceived the eye. The drawings which formed the
basis of his compositions range from rapid sketches of ideas for painting, done on the spot, to large-scale fully detailed
preliminary drawings. Sometimes, he made precise drawings for engravers to copy, and occasionally he produced them as
works of art in their own right, in which case they were finished in the studio.

In which section does the writer mention

1 how a child’s background can affect behaviour?
2 that the results of Mischel’s long-term research were surprising?
3 reasons for questioning the results of the original experiment?
4 claims that training young children to resist temptation will have long-term benefits?
5 the proportion of very young children who were able to resist temptation?
6 an everyday example of the need for self-control?
7 that Mischel may have oversimplified the route to success in life?
8 that Mischel’s own life experience has influenced his work?
9 strategies employed by participants during the test procedure?
10 two major factors which affect everyone’s ability to resist temptation?
The Marshmallow Test
A psychology experiment carried out with a group of pre-school children in California in 1968 led to the development of
ideas that are still relevant today.
A
In 1968, Walter Mischel set a challenge for a group of children aged three to five at the nursery school his daughters
attended in California. A researcher offered each of them a marshmallow and then left them alone in the room. If they could
resist eating the colourful sweet until the researcher returned up to 15 minutes later, they would be given a second sweet.
Some children ate the marshmallow straight away, but most would engage in unintentionally comic attempts to resist
temptation. They looked all around the room to avoid seeing the sweet, covered their eyes, wiggled around in their seats or
sang to themselves. They pulled funny faces, played with their hair, picked up the marshmallow and just pretended to take a
bite. They sniffed it, pushed it away from them or covered it up. If two children were doing the experiment together, they
engaged in a conversation about how they could work together to reach the goal of doubling their pleasure. About a third of
the children, the researchers reported, managed to wait long enough to get the second treat.
B
What Mischel, a clinical psychologist, wanted was to understand how children learned to deal with temptation. Over the
following years, the group of children remained friends. When Mischel chatted to his daughters about their former
classmates, he began to notice an interesting pattern: the children who had exhibited the most restraint in the ‘marshmallow
test’ were doing better in life than their peers. He decided to investigate further. For more than 40 years, Mischel followed
the lives of the nursery students. His findings were extraordinary. It turns out that being able to resist a treat at the age of
five is a strong predictor of success in life: you are more likely to perform well at school and develop self-confidence and
less likely to become obese, develop addictions or get divorced.
C
Mischel still teaches psychology at Columbia University and has just written The Marshmallow Test, a book summing up
half a century of research. When Mischel was young, his family was forced to move from a comfortable life in Austria to the
US. They settled in Brooklyn, where they opened a bargain shopping store. Business was never good and Mischel believes
that moving from ‘upper middle class to extreme poverty’ shaped his outlook. He is concerned with trying to reduce the
impact of deprivation on an individual’s life chances. The conclusion he draws from his marshmallow research is positive:
some people may be naturally disciplined but the ability to resist temptation is a skill that can also be taught. Teach children
self-control early and you can improve their prospects.
D
However, no single characteristic – such as self-control – can explain success or failure. Some critics have pointed out that
Mischel’s original subjects were themselves children of university professors and graduate students – not exactly a
representative sample. Other scientists noted that variations in home environment could account for differences: stable
homes and one-child families encourage self-control, whereas in less stable homes and those with many children, if you
don’t grab a marshmallow now there won’t be any left in 15 minutes. Mischel answers these critics by noting that studies in
a wide variety of schools found similar results. He acknowledges that the environment shapes our ability to resist temptation
and observes that genetics plays a role too. But he still believes that the ability to resist temptation can be learnt and
encouraged. I asked Mischel whether self-control comes easily to him. ‘Not at all,’ he said. ‘I have great difficulties in
waiting. It’s still difficult for me to wait in a queue in the bank.’

SECTION 2 : GAPPED TEXT :

Taking part in the Young Businessperson scheme
14-year-old Carly Smithson reports on taking part in the Young Businessperson scheme at school
The aim of the Young Businessperson scheme was to give young people like my classmates and I a taste of what it’s like
running a business, providing an insight into the world of work, and raising awareness of the skills needed in the real world
that can’t be learnt in academic lessons, such as handling money and keeping records.
We were going to work in teams to set up and run small, and hopefully profitable, businesses from school. The first thing we
did was attend a workshop with the scheme’s leader, Matt. He encouraged us to think about businesses we might be able to
create and manage with limited resources. (1)………… Take shoelaces. They stop your shoes slipping off, but also allow
people to fasten their shoes comfortably, regardless of how big their feet are. It’s a simple idea, but imagine how many pairs
of laces there are, and how much money must be made from sales!
We spent the first half of the workshop coming up with problems we encounter in our daily lives. I find it annoying when
food packets tear in the wrong place when you open them, so the food inside spills out or goes off more quickly than if it
would if the packet could be re-sealed. (2)………… Matt then split us into smaller groups to choose one of the problems
and consider a possible solution for it. My group worked on what I’d mentioned, and our suggestion was to create snack
packets which could be re-fastened.
(3)………… ‘But think about how much more expensive it would be than producing current kinds of packet,’ he said.
‘More resources would be needed so manufacturing costs would be higher. They’d take longer to make, too. Then there are
existing products on the market, such as boxes with lids, which people can use and re-use for this purpose.’ He wasn’t being
unkind, I realised, but pointing out considerations businesses have to make in order to make a profit.
It was a useful exercise aimed at developing our ‘business heads’. Plus, we could never have made the packets at school
without specialist machinery and equipment. (4)………… In the end, our group came up with a glove for washing dishes
which would not only protect hands from hot water, but prevent the inconvenience of having to search around in the water to
find a dropped cloth. Matt approved it, and our group was given a small amount of money with which to buy essential
materials.
In addition to making the gloves, each person was assigned a specific role. (5)………… This would be used for promotional
purposes, and to make sure every member of the group could explain things consistently to customers. We had a few minor
disagreements along the way, but even those were no bad thing as we learnt to compromise and resolve conflict.
It was when we came to selling our products that we came up against our first real problem: not many of our classmates
wanted a washing-up glove! We sold more to teachers than other students. (6)………… Matt was positive about that,
though. He said we’d learnt a good lesson: we hadn’t thought about the needs of our target market. He praised us on our
teamwork, though, and said he’d recommend any of us for jobs in the future!’
A He was pleased we’d tried to be more ambitious than other groups.
B We should have chosen something more straightforward, and that’s what we decided to do next.
C Although we covered our costs, we made very little profit, which was disappointing.
D Successful organisations often offer a solution to a problem, we learnt.
E When we fed back our ideas, Matt wasn’t as enthusiastic as we’d hoped.
F Other students shared their experiences and mentioned other minor but frustrating issues.
G I was responsible for creating an accurate description of our product.

In defence of women’s boxing

Lucy O’Connor thinks that women’s boxing is widely misunderstood
Women’s boxing is a new addition to the list of sports included at the Olympic Games. But according to Lucy O’Connor,
winner of various international competitions, it’s still widely misunderstood – a situation that Lucy’s hoping to change.
After graduating, Lucy took up boxing on the advice of a sports coach, who thought it would improve her general fitness.
But Lucy soon set her sights on competitions and it wasn’t long before she was boxing at the National Championships,
which she eventually went on to win
As a result of her success, Lucy was accepted on to what the navy calls its ‘elite sportsman’s programme’. (1)………… .
Every day now starts with a run at 7 a.m., followed by a skill and technique session or a strength and conditioning circuit.
Come the afternoon, there are more aerobic workouts, before Lucy gets into the ring and practices with other elite boxers.
As with all competitors, diet is a huge part of Lucy’s life. Since she first started boxing, she’s had to shed twenty-eight kilos.
Losing the last six, which took her into the flyweight category, required great determination. (2)………… As she explains:
‘I don’t go out to party anymore. Thankfully, I’m married to my boxing coach, so at least I’ve got some sort of social life!’
Lucy’s husband boxed as a heavyweight himself and he’s in her corner for all her domestic competitions.
Lucy’s mum works as a buyer at a big department store, and Lucy has been testing out products for the store’s sports
division. Whilst preparing for a recent international championship, Lucy wore a new titanium-based sports clothing range
designed to improve circulation and aid recovery. (3)………… But how does her family react to her taking part in
competitions? ‘Mum tends to admire me boxing from afar, but Dad just loves it!’
Lucy has clearly answered questions about safety concerns before and cities all the protective gear boxers strap on before a
fight such as hand bandages, head guards, gum shields and much more, ‘Amateur boxing is not dangerous,’ she says
definitively. ‘It’s so safety-orientated and the rules are so stringent it’s actually difficult to get hurt. We approach it more as
a skill and point-scoring exercise, rather than as a fight. (4)…………’ Boxers win points by landing the white knuckle part
of their gloves on the opponent’s scoring area – essentially the upper body and head – cleanly and with sufficient force. In
five years of competitive boxing, Lucy’s suffered only a few bruises and a broken thumb.
And in response to those who think it’s ‘inappropriate’ to see women boxing at the Olympics, Lucy is quick to point out that
women have been competing in martial arts such as taekwondo and judo for years. (5)…………
Her biggest concern is that people confuse amateur boxing competitions with professional fights, where the focus is more on
aggression and hurting your opponents. ‘Female amateur boxing is about showing skill, speed and stamina,’ she says. (6)
………… ‘I find it so satisfying to be changing people’s opinion.’
A All that hard work certainly paid off and the competition itself brought out the best in Lucy.
B That’s because in order to reach that target, she had to totally rethink her lifestyle.
C Having access to this space-age training kit was certainly an advantage.
D If the sport was more in the public eye, then fewer people would make that mistake.
E Nobody complained about women taking part in those events when it was introduced.
F That’s why I’ve always regarded it as a thinking girl’s sport really.
G What this meant, in effect, was that she was able to train full-time.

Go skating in Sweden this winter

Forget crowded indoor ice rinks. Once you’ve skated on natural ice, there’s no going back.
It was the question on all of our minds, but I asked it: ‘How do you know when the ice isn’t safe to skate on?’ Niklas, our
calm Swedish guide, rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, then offered up the wisdom of a lifetime spent playing around
on frozen water. ‘When it breaks,’ he said with a broad smile.
The comment wasn’t exactly reassuring, but his easy confidence was. As long as it was just jokes being cracked, maybe
we’d be all right after all. Niklas, a maths teacher when having breaks from pursuing his favourite hobby, was not entirely
joking about his attitude to ice. (1)………… The fact that strong ice makes a deeper sound under one’s feet than thin ice
does is a useful clue.
Our group of beginners was feeling rather nervous as we stood at the edge of a vast frozen bay that first day. Niklas tried his
best to persuade us to move forward but, like hesitating penguins on an iceberg, no-one wanted to take the first step. (2)
………… ‘Look at your faces,’ shouted Niklas to the happily smiling group, racing along behind him.
Our expressions had been far less joyful the previous evening on being told that a five-hour drive would follow our flights
into Sweden’s Arlanda airport. That hadn’t been the plan; but then, in the world of natural ice skating, no-one expects very
much from plans. With its 100,000 lakes and continuous sub-zero winter temperatures, Sweden has no shortage of ice. (3)
………… For instance, too much overlying snow and you get a bumpy, uncomfortable ride; a sudden thaw and vast areas
become unusable.
Perfect conditions must be sought out, and don’t last. (4)………… Niklas had received a message via social media about
Stigfjorden, a shallow, island-studded bay around 50 kilometres north of Gothenburg on the west coast.
There we quickly discovered skating in the open air is a wonderfully leisurely activity. Push off with one skate and you can
go 10 metres with ease. Two or three quick kicks at the surface and you accelerate like a top-class sprinter. (5)………… We
weren’t yet ready to skate that kind of distance, but we certainly had a wonderful sense of freedom.
Our best day was at Vattern, one of Europe’s biggest lakes and also one of its clearest. In ideal conditions, this clarity
creates a phenomenon known as ‘glass ice’. The rocky lake bottom stretched beneath us, three metres below a surface so
perfect it was unseen. My tentative first steps left scratches; it felt like vandalising a classical sculpture. As my confidence
grew, so did my speed. The sensation as I raced across the invisible ice was astonishing, somewhere between floating,
falling and flying. Then there was a sharp noise from all around us. (6)………… No one had to say it. We were skating on
very thin ice.
A That was the reason for our unscheduled journey from one side of the country to the other.
B Ten minutes later we laughed at our earlier caution as we slid across the smooth surface, our joy as limitless as our
surroundings.
C The skates consisted of removable blades that fastened to the toes of our specialist boots like cross-country skis.
D At first I ignored it, but when thin cracks began to appear I thought it wise to return to solid ground.
E After our first session on the ice had ended, we were not surprised to be told that covering 250 kilometres in a single day
is quite possible.
F The Swedes adopt a common-sense approach: they are cautious, they test as they go, and they use ears – as well as eyes
– to check it.
G This is not always suited to skating, however.

Going up in a glider
Gliders are planes without engines. We sent our reporter to find out what it’s like to fly in one.
When I arrive at the London Gliding School, Adrian, a volunteer instructor who has been gliding for ten years, warmly
greets me. He immediately takes me off to what’s clearly the centre of all operations – the cafeteria. After a quick chat, we
drive to the launch base where Dan, my instructor for the day, begins to prepare me on all I need to know. Dan, who is
twenty, did his first solo flight at eighteen after joining the club’s cadet scheme.
Going through all the theory of how everything works and what to do once airborne seems pretty simple. I’m not so keen,
though, on the instructions about what to do in an emergency. (1)………… At least I’m wearing a parachute!
The glider is connected by rope to a light aircraft as we’re pulled up into the air. A bumpy start along the field and we’re off
and up. ‘I like it when people scream’ were Dan’s words on the ground. (2)………… But I am fiercely gripping my
parachute straps and lots of noises are coming from my stomach, which is doing somersaults. Once we’re up to around
1,500 feet, the rope is detached with a clunk from the underside of the glider and we’re free.
It’s a strange feeling – there’s a sense of safety when the rope is attached to the aeroplane. (3)………… ‘I am in control,’
Dan tells me. He’s not attempting to be heroic; this is glider talk. ‘You are in control,’ I respond. Thankfully I’m not or I
doubt we’d be swooping through the peaceful skies so smoothly and effortlessly. Something you notice straightaway is the
lack of an engine, which results in an eerie silence.
The weather conditions aren’t ideal, as it’s an all-too-familiar grey English day. (4)………… But I’m told that, with perfect
weather conditions of a clear windy day and lots of cumulus cloud, we’d be able to catch the thermals and rise, staying up in
the air for longer. It’s possible to glide as far as Scotland and back again with the right conditions!
In a glider both pilot and passenger have a set of controls, so either person can take control. The passenger can also ‘follow
through’ with the controls, basically lightly touching all their own controls and feeling what the pilot is doing. (5)…………
So when Dan tells me ‘You are in control’ and I repeat ‘I am in control,’ I’m glad he can’t see the terror in my face. After
some jumpy manoeuvres to keep the glider at ‘normal gliding attitude,’ where the horizon remains at a constant level, I’m
just getting into the swing of it when Dan regains control to bring us in for landing.
Landing a glider is much calmer than other types of aircraft. (6)………… You descend and approach the landing area,
deploying the spoilers (flaps on the wings) to weaken the air flow, and ease the glider lower until the wheels make contact
and you’re gently bumping along the field. I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to get back up in the air.
A This doesn’t make a jot of difference to the experience for me.
B Release the safety belts and jump out seems to be the only response possible.
C This has been the limit of my involvement so far.
D Once it goes, I feel I want to hold onto something in case we start falling to the ground.
E He tells me that it’s too cloudy for those acrobatics, however, and relief washes over me.
F I manage not to do this, however.
G It’s much less sudden and you notice the absence of engine roar.

I run up mountains
Mountain climbing hasn’t developed much in the past fifty years or so, but I want to introduce a new style. I call it
‘skyrunning’. It means climbing high mountains as fast as possible and using as little equipment as possible. Skyrunning is
the most honest kind of mountaineering.
Some years ago, I decided to climb Mount Aconcagua, in the Andes, which usually takes three days. I didn’t have that sort
of time – so I thought about how it could be done more quickly. In the end, I managed it in four hours and twenty-five
minutes. Since then I’ve climbed several mountains this way, including the ‘seven summits’, the highest mountains on each
continent. (1)………… When I climbed Mount Everest, the only nutrition I took with me was carbohydrate gels, salted
crackers and about three litres of rosehip tea. It took me sixteen hours and forty-two minutes to go up – a new speed record
on the northern route.
I have also set speed records on Antarctica’s Mount Vinson, the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea and other summits.
Attempts such as these need months of training and preparation, as with any serious sports. To build up strength, I
sometimes haul an enormous tractor tyre behind me while running uphill. (2)………… I call it ‘the beast’ because of the
aggressive energy I build up during these training sessions.
The psychological side of training is as important as the physical. I use foreign languages to affect my mental state and
enhance my performance. I shout things out in these, even though I know there’s nobody to hear me. I’m Austrian and speak
only a few words of the Russian language. (3)………… I couldn’t tell you why that should be the case.
Whereas Russian is full of energy and strength, English is a language that calms me and helps me to focus. Two years ago, I
was climbing in Nepal and knew that I was in danger from avalanches. I noticed that I kept saying to myself: ‘Hey man, take
care!’ (4)………… It was as if one part of me had stepped outside myself to make sure I made the right decisions, and that
phrase helped.
For other people, this might sound ridiculous, but I don’t care. In high altitudes, any mistake can be lethal, and I know how
it feels to face death. Seventeen years ago, when I was twenty-four, I was climbing with a friend in the Karakoram
mountains in Pakistan at about 18,000 feet. (5)………… It was the sound of an avalanche, which hit us and broke my right
thighbone.
My friend pulled me out of the snow, but although we had survived, we realised he wouldn’t be able to drag me back to the
base camp. I said: ‘Go, just leave me here.’ And he left me behind. I lay alone in the mountains for days. Sometimes I
hallucinated, other times I shouted. (6)………… Finally, my friend came back with other climbers and saved me. I thought
extreme mountaineering was too risky at first, but slowly my perspective changed.
There are so many mountains to climb, but I know my records won’t last forever. In ten or twenty years, skyrunning will be
established as a sport. I see myself as a pioneer.
A All kinds of songs I’d never thought twice about ran through my mind.
B I can drag this for four hours at a time.
C I couldn’t stop repeating that.
D I managed to get up all of those without any oxygen or tents.
E It’s the one I use when I need to push forward through heavy snow, however.
F Suddenly, there was an incredible rumble up above us.
G These clearly came as quite a shock.
Have we lost the ability to focus on a single task?
Daniel Goleman thinks so. Here, the bestselling science writer argues that we have become a species distracted by modern
technology.
The little girl’s head only came up to her mother’s waist as she hugged her mum, and held on fiercely as they rode a ferry to
a holiday island. The mother, though, didn’t respond to her, or even seem to notice: she was absorbed in her tablet computer
all the while.
Something similar happened a few minutes later, as I was getting into a shared taxi van with nine students who that night
were journeying to a weekend getaway. Within a minute of taking their seats in the dark van, dim lights came on as every
one of them checked a phone or tablet. (1)………… But mostly there was silence.
The indifference of that mother, and the silence among the students, are symptoms of how technology captures our attention
and disrupts our connections. Teenagers, the future of humanity, are at the centre. In the early years of this decade their text
message monthly count rose to 3,417, double the number just a few years earlier. (2)………… The average American teen
now gets and sends more than a hundred texts a day, about 10 every waking hour. I’ve seen a kid texting while he rode his
bike.
Digital interaction comes at a cost in face time with real people, through which we learn to understand non-verbal
communication such as body language. The new generation of natives in this digital world may be skilful on the keyboard,
but they can be hopeless when it comes to reading behaviour face-to-face, in real time. (3)………… Today’s children are
growing up in a new reality, one where they are connecting more with machines and less with people than has ever been true
in human history.
Then there are the costs of attention decline among adults. In Mexico, an advertising representative for a large radio network
complains, ‘A few years ago you could make a five-minute video for your presentation at an advertising agency. Today you
have to keep it to a minute and a half. (4)………… ’ Faced with problems like this, some workplaces have banned laptops,
mobile phones, and other digital tools during meetings.
A college professor who teaches film tells me he’s reading a biography of one of his heroes, the legendary French director
François Truffaut. But, he finds, ‘I can’t read more than two pages at a time. (5)………… I think I’m losing my ability to
maintain concentration on anything serious.’
After not checking her mobile for a while, a publishing executive confesses she gets ‘a nervous feeling. You miss that
moment of excitement you get when there’s a text. You know it’s not right to check your phone when you’re with someone,
but it’s an addiction.’ So she and her husband have an agreement: ‘When we get home from work we put our phones in a
drawer. (6)………… But now we try to get closer to each other instead. We talk.’
A This is why they are unaware they upset others by stopping to read a text in the middle of a conversation.
B If you don’t, everyone starts checking for messages.
C After that the temptation to go online and see if I have any new email becomes impossible to resist.
D A few words were occasionally muttered while they texted or looked through social media pages.
E If it’s in front of me I get anxious; I’ve just got to check it.
F In extreme cases, some sleep all day and play these games all night, rarely stopping even to eat.
G Meanwhile, studies show, the average time they spent talking on the phone dropped significantly.
Can we control our dreams?
Strange as it seems, the answer is yes – and it could help us solve our problems.
Do we have any influence over the often strange, wandering, night-time journeys in our mind? Could we learn to dream
differently, getting rid of repeated nightmares or finding answers to the problems that we cannot solve in daylight hours?
Strange though it may seem, the answer is yes. Research suggests that, using practical and psychological techniques, we can
influence our dreams and use them to draw on the vast, largely unused resource of our unconscious mind.
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Deirdre Barrett, an assistant clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, is convinced we all have the power
to manage our dreams. ‘If you want to dream about a particular subject,’ she says, ‘focus on it once you are in bed. (1)
………… You can also place an object or photo that represents the desired dream on your bedside table,’ Barrett says.
Another key factor in using one’s dreams creatively is to avoid jumping out of bed the moment you wake up. (2)…………
‘If you don’t recall a dream immediately, lie still and see if a thought or image comes to mind,’ Barrett says. ‘Sometimes a
whole dream will come flooding back.’
The point of this second strategy is to make use of the information presented by our unconscious as we sleep. It’s hard to put
an exact figure on the ratio of our unconscious to conscious mind, but psychologists estimate it to be nine to one. We may
believe that thinking is our best problem-solving strategy, but the power of our conscious mind is relatively tiny. (3)
………… So letting the unconscious mind work on it may be healthier and more productive.
Barrett put this to the test in a week-long study with college students; she asked them to use dreaming as a way of finding
ways of dealing with a particular problem. (4)………… ‘If we’re stuck on a problem, it’s our waking, logical way of
thinking that’s stuck,’ Barrett says. ‘The dream’s power lies in the fact that it’s a different manner of thought – it adds to and
develops what we’ve already done while awake.’
English Language Course
Most of us enjoy the rich, pleasantly strange experience of dreaming (and we all dream – some people just don’t remember
it). But no one enjoys nightmares that keep coming back, or the kind of unpleasant dreams from which you wake
sweating. (5)………… ‘It’s very common for them to have nightmares about being chased by a monster,’ says Delphi Ellis,
a counsellor and dream expert. ‘This often happens as they get older and become aware of their place in the huge world.’
‘As an adult, troubling or frightening dreams are often an indication of diff cult issues from the past,’ Ellis says. (6)
………… They and all other kinds of dream are an incredibly valuable resource, which most of us simply ignore. So learn
to listen to them, even the horrible ones – they’re always trying to tell you something.’
A It’s one in which you know you’re dreaming as the dream is occurring – the kind of ‘dream within a dream’ that film
characters sometimes have.
B Even more anxiety-causing, if you’re a parent, are the scary ones that have such an effect on your kids.
C Doing so means you’ll lose half of what your dream contained as the day’s distractions take over your thoughts.
D About half of them dreamt about it and one-quarter of them solved it.
E Since dreaming is so visual, form a picture in your mind of something related to that topic as you fall asleep.
F The more you ignore dreams like those, the more your unconscious turns up the volume – so a nightmare is that message
on full volume.
G Also, when this consists of going over and over negative or worrying issues in our minds, it is strongly linked with
stress, depression and anxiety.
The ultimate green home: the WWF’s new headquarters.
Sandwiched between an incredibly ugly shopping centre and a busy main road, the environmentalist Sir David
Attenborough, no less, is planting a tree and declaring: ‘Today is a historic day.’ He really means it.
Maybe our children’s future will be an overheated, desert-like world, but if it’s not, it will probably look a lot like this. The
new, highly environmentally friendly home of the World Wide Fund for Nature, a hemispherical glass tube standing above a
council car park, was officially opened today, watched by a small but enthusiastic crowd. (1)…………
Known as the ‘Living Planet Centre’, it has jumping panda animations that greet visitors to its WWF Experience, where
schoolchildren can interact with Ocean, River, Forest and Wildlife Zones. Since the mid-20th century, many of the ideas
behind humanity’s attempts to protect animals and the natural world have been started by the WWF. (2)…………
‘The World Wide Fund for Nature is one of the great hopes for the world,’ Sir David Attenborough said. ‘This building
enshrines that, and advertises it to the world.’ The concrete is all recycled, as is the carpet and even most of the computer
equipment, and there are many solar energy panels. (3)………… In addition, new habitats and plant species have been
installed around the gardens, while indoors a home has been found for three tall trees.
The sense of total calm inside, from the high curved ceilings to the plants and trees, is all the more remarkable for the
building’s urban location. It has been built between a canal and a small area of woods listed as a Site of Special Scientific
Interest. (4)………… The contrast gives us an idea of what might just be possible in the future.
English Language Course
The WWF was set up in 1961. The organisation originally fought to protect individual species, such as the Arabian oryx,
from extinction. Eventually, the focus moved from individual species to ecosystems: all the living things in one area and the
way they affect each other. Sir David, who is an ambassador for the WWF, said: ‘Now, it’s not just individual ecosystems.
Now the change is to a global approach. (5)………… That is because the planet is one vast ecosystem. The WWF has been
the leader in changing everyone’s attitudes towards nature.’
Sir David is clear about the task ahead, and more importantly, unlike many environmentalists, he believes it is not too late to
make a difference. ‘You can’t turn the clock back, of course. (6)………… But we can slow down the rate at which the
numbers are increasing, we can cut down the carbon we put in the atmosphere,’ he said. ‘It’s never happened before that the
whole world has come together and made a decision. To go as far as we have done to reduce carbon is an impressive
achievement. But you cannot have unlimited growth in a limited situation. You can’t expand infinitely in a finite planet.
A Even so, it remains in an ugly corner of a fairly unattractive town centre.
B So even if you aren’t particularly concerned about the environment, as energy costs rise you’ll want to save money on
fuel bills.
C Other such features include extensive glass to increase natural light, natural ventilation, rainwater in the toilets, and heat
pumps that bring warm air up from 200 metres below.
D It is hoped their new home will be a living example of that.
E That means you can’t put back forests that are gone, not for a century, and the population size is not going to shrink.
F If you want to do something, you have to persuade people of the world not to pollute.
G If humanity is to survive, they must have been thinking, it will do so living in buildings of this kind.
Working as a TV news producer
Rob Cole has produced TV news for decades now, working on anything from international celebrities to global conflicts. He
shares the benefit of his considerable experience in the industry
Rob’s time behind the cameras has coincided with huge changes in the way news is reported – from a time when everyone
bought local newspapers, through the birth of 24-hour rolling news, and now the Internet. But what is the work like on a
day-to-day basis?
Rob’s always worked in foreign news, so his focus is obviously on news from around the world. As you can imagine, there’s
a lot of that. Rob comes in early, having checked his phone, social media, and listened to as many news programmes as he
could. (1)………… Running the foreign section is like a never-ending contest – constantly trying to get his journalists’ news
presented ahead of the TV station’s other sections.
Once you have a story it’s then a matter of making sure that wherever the journalist is, the report comes into the building –
through satellite, Internet or other routes – and it is ready to run on air on time. (2)………… There’s nothing like getting a
note from the producer at another network congratulating on a job well done. The low points, on the other hand, are much
less pleasant: ‘I’ve had colleagues badly injured.’
So how can you become a news producer? Says Rob: ‘We get loads of applications. (3)………… Don’t be put off; people in
this business admire people who don’t give up easily, for obvious reasons.’
You need to be keen to learn and, of course, take a real interest in current affairs. ‘You have to be obsessed with news,
constantly following it. Even if you’re a creative producer, doing graphics, you still have to care about what’s going on in
the world. Also, some people think about going into the media just because it sounds exciting. That would be a mistake; you
have to really want to do the job. Luck’s involved too, of course. (4)…………’.
In some ways, Rob’s job should remain fairly constant for the next few years. ‘They will always need someone to make
decisions and take responsibility for newsgathering. However, what will change is the way in which news is delivered.
When I started in TV, the crew used to consist of a reporter, producer, a camera operator, a sound person, and sometimes
even a separate lighting person. (5)………… Now there’s just the reporter and a multitasking camera operator who also
edits and supplies the written material – if you’re lucky!’
‘Before long there will be a crew of just one, shooting all their own material on a smartphone, then editing and voicing that
material, before sending it to head office, where it ends up going straight on air. (6)………… Actually, this has already
started to happen. The technology will just get quicker and quicker and smaller and smaller.’
A You might write to just the right person at the right time.
B Turning the device around and pressing the live app button also enables live broadcasting into the same programme.
C They would be loaded down with equipment and some of them would be linked by cable.
D With this information, before any stories actually come in, he then decides on the news priorities of the day.
E In those days it was possible to start a career in news without even going to university: you went straight into training on
a local paper.
F Making sure it does so matters, especially given the friendly competition with other TV networks: ‘beating the other
networks’ is a real highlight.
G I always endeavour to reply, but from my own experience too many people don’t get back to you, so it’s best to keep
trying.
Answer
Has one of the mysteries of the ancient pyramids been solved?
A painting in a 3000-year-old tomb suggests how the Ancient Egyptians may have transported the heavy stones used to build
the pyramids.
Ever since the discovery of the first pyramid, scientists have wondered how ancient Egyptians built these monumental
structures that are visible even from space.
There are a number of theories about the construction techniques they used. (1)………… Egyptologists had always
wondered how workers were able to move the giant limestone blocks. These weigh as much as 2.5 tons each, and the stone
quarries from which they were cut were often located hundreds of kilometres away from the pyramid sites.
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Dragging them on basic wooden sledges, similar to those people use to slide down snow-covered slopes in winter, was the
obvious answer. (2)………… It now turns out that the workers probably did have some assistance – from ordinary water!
What is even more amazing is that the answer to the Egyptologists’ puzzle has been staring them in the face for many years,
in a wall painting in the tomb of an ancient Egyptian king, or pharaoh.
The artwork, which depicts a pharaoh being pulled along by a large team of workers, has one significant detail that had so
far been misinterpreted – a man pouring water in front of the sledge the pharaoh is being dragged upon. Egyptologists had
always thought that the man was performing some kind of religious ritual. However, some scientists now believe that the
water was being poured for a totally different reason. (3)…………
This revelation was made by researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the Foundation for Fundamental Research
on Matter. The scientists arrived at this conclusion after conducting extensive testing in their laboratory, by sliding a
weighted tray across both dry sand and sand that had been mixed with varying amounts of water. In dry sand, heaps formed
in front of the tray as it was dragged along. (4)…………
However, as the researchers added water, the sand hardened, which helped reduce both the force needed to pull the tray and
the friction against it. That’s because the water helps form tiny water bridges, known as capillary bridges, between the sand
particles, causing them to stick together. (5)………… The force required to pull the sledge would have been reduced by as
much as 50% as the sand became stiffer, which meant that half as many workers were needed to move the heavy stones.
There was a tipping point, though. After the moisture exceeded a certain amount, the stiffness started to decrease and the
capillary bridges melted away, causing the sand to clump up around the tray once again. According to the researchers, the
perfect balance appears to be when the volume of the water is between 2 – 5% of the volume of sand. (6)………… And so
another step has been taken towards understanding the incredible feat achieved by these ancient engineers. Now if we could
only find a painting that would tell us how the workers erected these impressive structures without access to modern
mechanics, that would be amazing!
English Language Course
A However, to do so would have required superhuman strength against the friction of the desert sand.
B This allowed them to work out exactly how much of it had been used every time.
C This slowed it down dramatically.
D One question, however, had been left unanswered.
E The pyramid builders seem to have realised that this was the correct proportion.
F The effect of this turns out to be significant.
G It was to help the sledge move more easily across the sand.
Inline Skating
The popularity of inline skating is growing all the time.
No doubt about it, inline skating is one of the world’s most popular street sports. Different people call it different things.
Rollerblade was the original American skate manufacturer and that’s why many call it rollerblading. Others shorten this to
blading, while still others prefer inline skating (because the wheels on each skate are in line).
(1)………… Inline skating has taken the concept of self-propelled wheels into a new dimension which allows skaters of the
most basic ability to move with grace, speed and style, and feel good about doing it. A huge attraction is that you can do it
anywhere where there is a smooth, hard surface and if you’re really keen, you can even do it off-road too.
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But the very popularity of the sport everywhere has created something of a problem. The ‘Ban all Skaters’ group, made up
of opponents of the sport, has never been far behind. (2)………… No matter– people will keep on skating wherever they
can.
So the difficulty lies in changing the attitude of established local authorities, which are so often dominated by older people
who have no concept of the joy of inline skating, don’t want anything to do with it, and simply dismiss the sport as a branch
of the current youth culture they can do without.
We know they are wrong. (3)………… It is a sport which offers everyone a brilliant way to get up off the couch, whizz
around outside, have fun, get fit, get involved, develop skills and learn team-work.
In time, all skaters will be allowed to go about their business and co-exist in harmony with other users of tarmac. (4)
………… So skaters should take care not to adopt a selfish attitude to others, because annoying other people might
eventually lead to a situation where the skaters’ own enjoyment or freedom of movement is curtailed.
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Kids as young as five or six can learn to skate well. (5)………… And in between those two extremesskating is no less
important as a way for those intheir teen years to avoid the trap of urban boredom,which can create problems in
contemporary society.
To qualify as an inline skater, you just have to get through the basics of pushing off, turning and stopping – all easy
techniques which most people can learn to handle in half a dozen sessions. (6)………… Next you can learn to skate faster,
turn tighter, stop faster, skate through slalom cones (just use tin cans) forwards and maybe backwards. Then you can learn
how to go up and down hills and perhaps some clever tricks as well.
A Inline skating is not just about kids whose wishes can be ignored.
B Once up and running, it’s all about consolidating what’s been learned, enjoying the feel of your wheels and getting
better.
C They all add up to the great new world of inlining.
D What’s more, with all the right padding and protection, adults can start to skate safely at an age when they are collecting
their pensions.
E In some areas it has been successful in implementing notorious and strict skating prohibitions, such as the closure of
most of London’s parks to skaters.
F The name doesn’t really matter; it’s the impact it has had that is important.
G Indeed, it’s all about the right to enjoy life’s little – and not so little – pleasures.
Puffins in peril
Scientist Mike Harris explains that the puffin seems about to join the list of seabirds whose numbers are declining.
It’s a grey day in early April on the Isle of May off the east coast of Scotland. Far out to sea a small dot appears on the
horizon. It rapidly increases in size, suddenly turning into a puffin that lands with a splash on the water. This bird probably
hasn’t seen land for five months, but now it’s returning to its colony for the breeding season.
The first puffin is soon joined by others and together they bob on the sea. Newly returned birds are nervous but, as the days
pass, they gain confidence and begin reclaiming the underground nesting burrows they made the previous year by tunnelling
into the soft earth on the top of the cliffs. (1)………… They have to hurry because it takes three months to rear a chick and
all the birds must leave by early August to spend time feeding intensively before the winter.
I visit the island every April, eager to see how many of the adult puffins we have caught and attached identification rings to
have returned. (2)………… With a team of helpers I counted every occupied burrow on the island – something we
undertake every five years.
The island’s puffin population had been increasing every year for the previous 40 years, and so we anticipated at least
100,000 pairs. To our dismay we found just 42,000. (3)………… Experts from other research programmes have concluded
it must be connected to where puffins spend the winter months.
Last spring we also caught and weighed some returning adults and found they were significantly lighter than the birds we
caught 10 years ago. (4)………… Puffins are long-lived and can cope with a few poor productive seasons, but not with such
a large loss of adults.
In early August, the puffin colonies empty rather abruptly. Virtually all puffins leave within a week, though a few adults
remain to feed a late chick. (5)………… I have always believed, though, that few of them venture far from the North Sea.
Now, however, the development of instruments known as geolocators, small enough to be fitted around a puffin’s leg, is
enabling us to test this idea.
We fitted these units to some puffins two years ago and caught the birds again last year to download the data. Some did
remain within the North Sea, but others went much further. For someone who has spent years watching puffins for only part
of their lives, this new technology is providing some fascinating information. (6)………… This would still leave us with the
question of what they eat in winter and whether there are sufficient quantities of prey available.
The good news is that we now have an idea of the areas our puffins go to in winter, and we can check whether conditions
there might have altered due to climate change or overfishing. Maybe we can then take some steps to help them. Hopefully
it is just a local problem, because there are in fact still plenty of puffins to see around the Scottish coast.
A We weren’t the only ones to wonder why this might be happening.
B From this moment on, we know remarkably little about where these birds end up and what could possibly be affecting
them there.
C But we should also take into account that if a young puffin survives the winter, it will come back the following July.
D Other devices will also hopefully tell us how much time puffins spend diving for food.
E This was further evidence that something unusual is happening at sea before they return to the colony.
F Puffins are always among the earliest seabirds to lay eggs.
G Last year there was an additional task.
Just because I’ve been on holiday doesn’t mean I have to be happy
‘Holiday hangover’, ‘back-to-work blues’, ‘post-travel depression’ – it’s a well-known condition, and I’m suffering from it.
My cat. My tortoise. My friends. My bed. The list reads the same every time, but I still write it. I write it on the last day of
every holiday, to convince myself that going home isn’t so bad. Then I feel utterly miserable. There are plenty of things I’m
not great at – driving, maths, returning library books on time – but the thing I’m worst at is coming back to work after a
holiday.
It’s an extreme case of being selfishly miserable. To have had a lovely sunshine break and then return to the office, where
everyone has been working hard without restaurant lunches or morning swims, with a face like thunder is terribly bad
manners. (1)………… Given the number of names for it – ‘holiday hangover’, ‘back-to-work blues’, ‘post-travel
depression’ – it’s a well-known condition.
In a recent survey conducted by a travel website, 82 per cent of the 1,254 people asked experienced post-holiday misery. (2)
………… Probably just before they logged on to a job vacancy website or started fantasising about retraining for work in
the countryside.
Even if you manage to avoid end-of-holiday panic, and you feel refreshed, relaxed and ready to face the world of work,
you’re guaranteed to walk into stress, conflict and injustice. (3)………… Or the surprise departmental reorganisation that
took place while you were away.
Still, it could be worse. Over three-quarters of people questioned said that their holiday depression lasted for a month. (4)
………… Perhaps they should have saved their cash and not bothered going.
After years of practice, I’ve come up with a few things that help. A bit. The first is the list mentioned above. (5)…………
Unlike some people I know, I can’t just roll off an intercontinental flight and roll in to the office. The third is concentrating
on getting through the first day back at work without running away, making a grand plan for a new life or spending (too
much) time on my own tearfully looking at my holiday photos saying to myself: ‘I can’t believe this is my life.’
I feel sorry for my poor colleagues having to look at my long face today, but at least by having my break now I’m getting
my bad mood in early. (6)………… Then I can support them in their hour (month?) of need. I might even lend them one of
my pets.
A By September, on the other hand, when the schools go back and the main summer-holiday season is over, I’ll be back to
normal.
B The most content, with both their home and working life, appear to be those who stay at home all summer.
C For instance, that highly important task you left with a colleague that’s been ignored and later caused your email inbox
to turn toxic.
D At least, though, I’m not the only fed-up wage slave to feel like this.
E The next one is making sure I have a day off everything between getting home and going to work.
F Also, over two-thirds of them answered the next question, ‘Are you usually glad to be home after a holiday abroad?’
with a – presumably unhappy sounding – ‘No’.
G Longer by at least a fortnight, I’d guess, than the holiday they’d taken.