A HUNDRED BILLION HAMBURGERS

Once upon a time, a businessman named Ray Kroc discovered a restaurant owned by two brothers. The restaurant served just four things: hamburgers, French fries, milk shakes and coca cola. But it was clean and inexpensive, and the service was quick. Mr Kroc liked it so much that he paid the brothers so that he could use their idea and their name: McDonald’s.

Beef, big business and fast service were the ingredients when Mr Kroc opened his first McDonald’s in 1955. Four years later there were 100 of them. Kroc knew Americans liked success. So he put signs saying how many millions of McDonald’s hamburgers people had bought. In just four years, the number was one hundred million. Now, there are more than 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants from Dallas to Paris and from Moscow to Beijing.

Anyone who wants to open a McDonald’s must first work in one for a week. Then they do a nine-month training programme in the restaurants and at ‘McDonald’s University’ in Chicago. There they learn the McDonald’s philosophy: quality control, service and cheap prices. McDonald’s has strict rules: Hamburgers must be served before they are ten minutes old, and French fries, seven.

McDonald’s has never stopped looking for new methods to attract customers, from drive-in windows to birthday parties. Chicken, fish, salad and, in some place, pizza are now on the menu. Their international popularity shows they have found the recipe for success.

2. Говорение.

Билет № 24

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THOMOAS ALVA EDISON

Thomas Alva Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light. However, the electric light was not his only invention. He also invented the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and over 1,200 other things.

Surprisingly, he attended school for only two months. His mother, a former teacher, taught him a few things, but Thomas was mostly self-educated. His natural curiosity led him to start experimenting at a young age with electrical and mechanical things at home.

When he was 12 years old, he got his first job. He became a newsboy on a train that ran between Port Huron and Detroit. He set up a laboratory in a baggage care of the train so that he could continue his experiments in his spare time. Unfortunately, his first work experience did not end well. Thomas was fired when he accidentally set fire to the floor of the baggage car.

Thomas then worked for five years as a telegraph operator, but he continued to spend much of his time on the job conducting experiments. Thomas Edison was totally deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other, but thought of his deafness as a blessing in many ways. It kept conversations short, so that he could have more time for work. He called himself a "two-shift man" because he worked 16 out of every 24 hours. Sometimes he worked so intensively that his wife had to remind him to sleep and eat.

Thomas Edison died at the age of 84 on October 18, 1931. He left numerous inventions that improved the quality of life all over the world.

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Билет № 25

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PART-TIME JOBS FOR TEENAGERS

Part-time jobs for American students are very popular and usually begin during their high school days. Besides working in fast food restaurants and small cafeterias, a very popular job for a teenager in America is baby sitting. This has its greatest appeal among teenage girls and a good baby sitter can earn quite a bit if she is reliable, responsible and mature.

It is not necessarily an easy job and requires both social skills and general competence. Such a job often involves working on Friday and Saturday nights when many married couples like to spend the night going to a movie or the theatre.

Other part-time jobs which are popular especially among young boys is managing a paper route or mowing the lawns of people in one's neighbourhood. These jobs also require a sense of responsibility and can be a source of good income for a high school student. Young boys who run paper routes are required to get up early in the morning to deliver the daily news regardless of the weather. This job has no holidays and requires the newspaper to be delivered every day without exception. In America there are no newspaper holidays.

Part-time jobs for high schools students in America are often seen as an opportunity to teach young people about work responsibility and respect for others. The young people learn how to become part of the adult world and to share in the making of society.

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XI класс

Билет № 1

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Long-long ago in the Crimean village there were problems with water. So, the men dug seven wells that started to give some water to the local people.

Once, a German man was chosen as the head of the village. He was a wise man and he offered the people to take water free. So everybody was happy to get as much water as they needed.

That man had seven sons. The youngest, whose name was Fritz was the healthiest and strongest in the family. In his childhood he noticed that when some water was taken from the wells, it splashed on the ground. So he didn’t like that and once said to his father, “When I grow up, I’ll ask the village dwellers to pay for the water from the wells. They splash too much water on the ground”. “On, no!” said his father, “water is the most precious thing in this land. It should be free.”

A few years passed. The old German died. Then his six sons died of some disease one by one, and Fritz was made head of the village. He immediately made his wish come true. He said to the villagers that from that day they should pay for the water from the wells. All the wells were locked and Fritz kept the keys to the wells.

One day the village dwellers decided to rebel against Fritz because he told them they wouldn’t have any water for one day.

An old soldier came to the village. He was tired and thirsty and asked for some pure water. Fritz didn’t let him drink because the soldier had no money to pay for it. The soldier begged Fritz to help him. But it was all in vain. When the soldier was dying, he cursed Fritz.

After his death one of the wells was open but the water disappeared from it. When Fritz’s servant opened the other six wells and found no water there, he told it to his master. Fritz was furious. Thus he was punished for his cruelty.

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Билет № 2

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THE BRIDGE

Peter's parents died when he was a child of 5. He was brought up by his grandmother who took great care of the child and did her best to make him happy. But the boy was very shy and timid.

One day he took his bicycle and went for a ride. Suddenly he saw another cyclist in the distance. Soon he could see that the cyclist was a young girl. As soon as the girl noticed Peter she increased her speed as she didn't want Peter to catch up with her. Suddenly Peter remembered that a few yards ahead of them there was no road as the bridge across the river was under repairs. Peter realised that the girl would run a terrible risk in case she tried to cross the bridge. He cried out to her to stop, but it was too late. The girl had reached the bridge and at once Peter saw her lose balance and fall into the water together with her bicycle. When Peter rode up he saw the girl holding on to a board standing in the water. Without a moment's hesitation he jumped into the water as he wanted to help the girl. The current under the bridge was very strong and Peter had to swim against it. At last he swam up to the board and saw the girl's frightened eyes looking at him with hope. "Can you swim?" asked Peter but the girl shook her head.

Peter ordered the girl to hold on to his neck and they both started for the bank. It was very difficult for Peter to swim with such a burden and at moments it seemed to him that he could not stand the strain and that they both would be drowned. When they reached the bank, Peter was so tired that he could hardly breathe. When he came to himself he saw the girl looking at him with admiration.

"You are a real hero", she said. "You are the bravest boy I've ever met", and she smiled. And it was at that moment that Peter felt a great confidence in him­self. He was afraid of nothing now, he was able to overcome any difficulty.

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Билет №3

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