Reading Oxford Demo

Part 1:

Read Six short texts from a variety of sources, each with one 3-option multiple-choice question (a, b or c)

Read the text message and choose the correct answer

1) Why did John send Madeleine a text message?           

Read the advert and choose the correct answer.

2) What does the advert say?

Read the email and choose the correct answer

3) Why is Maria writing to Alice?

Read the note and choose the correct answer.

4) What does Michelle, Kenny and Jared say to  Jackie?

Read the notice and choose the correct answer.

5) What does the notice say?

Read the blog entry and choose the correct answer

6) What does the blogger say about perfectionism?

Part 2: Multiple matching

Read the information about «hot to stay fit, happy and healthy», and write the best answer for each person (A, B, C or D)

How to stay fit, happy and healthy

If you’ve been listening to the news you already know about our national obesity levels rising by the day. It has never been more important to adapt to a new situation and to get an adequate amount of exercise and sleep to keep yourself fit and healthy. Though it may feel like really hard work at first, once you adopt an exercise routine and start to maintain good health and keep fit, you’ll forget you ever did things differently.

Here are just four of the top adjustments to make:

A) Get more sleep!

Sleep is huge and almost a third of the US population doesn’t get near enough to staying physically and mentally healthy. If you are sleep deprived, try changing your habits in order to get a full eight hours every night.

B) Strive for a better diet

Look at your diet and what you’re eating now and make changes where you see fit. If you are susceptible to snacking, keep a piece of fruit or a few nuts at hand. The key is to eat small meals throughout the day. Reduce portion sizes, take out white bread and replace with whole grains and make sure each meal contains at least one portion of fruit and – or vegetables. Healthy food doesn’t have to reduce your protein intake , and you can get an abundance of low priced fruit and veggies, like apples, bananas, potatoes and peas.

C) Stop all those bad habits

Take a look at your current lifestyle and make a small list of everything you do that is not good for your health. This could be anything, from eating too much junk food or drinking too much caffeine, to smoking or drinking. Start the process of breaking these habits one by one. Some will be easy, while others may take months or maybe years to get rid of and eradicate completely from your life , but the sooner you start fighting, the better.

Some addictions (like smoking, drugs or alcohol) are incredibly bad not only to your health, but also to your pocketbook. If you smoke and or drink, start by cutting back on how many drinks you have, or cigarettes you smoke, in a day, and if necessary, seek medical advice and assistance to make further steps towards stopping completely.

D) Exercise, exercise, exercise

We all should be doing at least 30 minutes of exercise, 3 to 4 or more times a week, to maintain good health and keep fit. This can be pretty much anything that is physical, like walking, cycling, running, swimming to weightlifting, etc. This too does not have to be expensive, and you can get a great work out without joining any costly gyms. Most of these exercises are inexpensive, and just doing a cardiovascular exercise, like walking, jogging, or walking on a treadmill a few times a week will do your body (and heart) good.

Part 3: Gapped sentences

Six sentences are missing from this text. write the letter of the correct following sentences into each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. Number 0 is done for you as an example.

a) Such plans are well-intentioned, but it may not be beneficial to eliminate the use of single-use plastic altogether.

b)Some is burnt, but the majority goes to landfill.

c) Some hospitals and laboratories sort their plastic recycling, but it is more common for them to mix all their waste together and burn it.

d) Plastic never fully degrades by bacteria, so it must be gradually broken down into tiny pieces by the wind, sun or water.

e) Bans on single-use plastic items like cotton buds and drinking straws and charges for disposable coffee cups are also coming into place.

f)They are also very fragile and rarely reusable, unlike plastic.

g) The process requires cutting trees, the emission of greenhouse gases and the production of toxic chemical waste.

Is Banning Single Use Plastic the Right Option?

Around the world, people are realising the significant problems caused by plastic waste. In the last 65 years, we have become increasingly dependent on plastic. It’s easy to understand why: it’s cheap to produce, light – therefore easy and cheap to transport – and incredibly strong and durable. But it’s these advantages which also make it so harmful.

0)___D__ Plastic never fully degrades by bacteria, so it must be gradually broken down into tiny pieces by the wind, sun or water_____ The micro-plastics that result from these processes are harmful to the environment.

Part 4: Multiple-choice questions on a longer text

Read the article about penguins. For questions 1–4, choose the correct answer.

Learning from penguin poop

The unique features of penguin poop have allowed scientists to make a remarkable discovery. The faeces of Adelie penguins, which live along the Antarctic coast and its islands, have a unique colour. They are bright pink due to the penguins’ diet, which consists largely of pink creatures called krill. They eat so much of it that their plentiful poop stains the ground on which they live, as well as their own bodies. Moreover, they produce so much poop that the pink stains can be seen from space.

This attribute has been useful for scientists studying these birds, as it has allowed them to locate colonies of penguins using satellite images. It isn’t possible to see individual penguins in satellite photos, but the pink stains are easy to identify. Scientists can even estimate the size of the colony from the size of the pink area.

Researchers using this method were, until recently, reasonably certain that they knew the whereabouts of all the Adelie penguin colonies on the continent. However, a colleague at NASA then developed an algorithm which automatically detected these stains, rather than finding them by human eye. The computer programme identified many more pink patches that the researchers had previously overlooked, particularly in the Danger Islands.

Researcher Heather Lynch admitted that the researchers had probably missed these colonies because they never expected to find them there. As the name suggests, the Danger Islands are difficult to get to and are almost always covered in sea ice. They are so small that they don’t even appear on many maps of Antarctica. However, once the researchers were aware of the colonies, they completed a full survey. They discovered 1.5 million penguins in this small area, more than in the rest of Antarctica.

Although this seems a large number, research findings suggest that it is lower than previous years. By studying satellite images from the past, which date back to 1982, the team were able to deduce that penguin numbers peaked in the late 1990s, and have since declined by 10-20%. Krill fishing is one of the main causes for the population decline of penguins in Antarctica, but because the Danger Islands are normally surrounded by sea ice, there is less human activity here than in other parts of the continent.

This leads researchers to believe that the recent decline is due to other factors, such as climate change.

The scientists are now conducting research in the area to better understand the species and the long-term health of the colonies. One team, for example, is analysing the colour and content of the poop to investigate changes in the birds’ diet. This can show the extent to which penguins are affected by commercial fishing. Another is digging holes to learn more about the penguins’ past. By radiocarbon dating the bones and eggshells found in these holes, the team have discovered that the penguins have been inhabiting these islands since 2,800 years ago. By learning more about the penguin population of Antarctica, the team hopes to understand more about the impact of human activity on the natural world.

1) The article is mainly about…

2) What is NOT true about the faeces of Adelie penguins, according to the text?

3) Why didn’t the researchers find the colonies in the Danger Islands before?

4) According to the text, the number of Adelie penguins on the Danger Islands is…