TO STUDY IN GREAT BRITAIN? NO PROBLEM

Studying abroad is a really good experience. However, sometimes it is very difficult to get necessary funds to pay for tuition, living accommodations, etc. One way to get money while studying is to apply for a job. If you would like to study and work at the same time in Great Britain, you should be aware of some pertinent rules and regulations.

A lot of students dream of obtaining a degree from an overseas university and, in particular, of one from Great Britain. This country, famous for its traditions and unique education system, seems an optional location. Moreover, it is possible to study there for free! In this article you will find out how to obtain financial assistance such as grants and scholarships to pay for tuition and living expenses in Great Britain.

Getting financial assistance necessarily involves an assessment of your academic progress, educational background and work experience. However, it is also a matter of time. As a rule, students must start preparing the neces­sary documents at least a year before their intended study. This time is spent filling out the applications, sending them to the appropriate bodies, having them assessed and, finally, receiving the results. Most financial assistance programmes have deadlines, so the earlier you start the better.

Financial assistance programmes come in two broad categories. The first covers full funding for tuition fees, accommodation, and maintenance; while the second covers only partial expenses associate with education and living. The latter category mostly consists of individual universities' grants and schol­arships, so it is best to consult each university regarding their own financial assistance programmes.

To cross the border you'd need a foreign passport, which may be acquired upon making a personal petition (or through legal representatives) to the passport service of the internal security bodies, in residence. (A person receiving a passport is not to be younger than eighteen, or sixteen if the person lives abroad permanently).

The process of getting funds for education takes time, so you will need to be patient. Good luck!

2. Говорение.

Билет №4

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

RACHEL

Every evening she came out of the dark and stepped into the bright light of the street like a frightened child far from home. I knew that she had never been at the end of the alley before eight o'clock, and yet there were evenings when I ran there two hours early and waited until she came. During all those months I had known her, she had been late only two or three times, and then it was only ten or fifteen minutes past eight when she came.

Rachel had never told me where she lived, and she would never let me walk home with her. Where the alley began was the door through which she came at eight, and the door which closed behind her at ten. When I had asked her to let me walk with her, she always said that her father did not allow her to be with boys and that if he saw us together he would either beat her pitilessly or make her leave home.

Rachel had told me that almost every time I saw her, as if she wanted me to understand some sort of danger that lay in the darkness of the alley. I knew there was no physical danger, because around the corner was our house and I knew the district as anyone else. And besides during the day I usually walked through the alley to our back gate on my way home, because it was the short­est way when I was late for supper. But after dark the alley was Rachel's, and I had never gone home that way at night as I feared to see her or hear of her. I had promised her from the beginning that I would never follow her to find out where she lived, and that I would never try to discover her real name.

I knew Rachel and her family were poor, because she had been wearing the same dress for nearly a year. It was a worn but clean dress of blue cotton, and I knew she washed it every day. Each evening when I saw her, I was worried because I knew that the cloth would not last for long. I wanted to offer to buy her a dress with the few dollars I had in my bank, but I was afraid even to suggest such a thing to her. I was sure that it would mean the end of my seeing her.

After Erskine Caldwell

2. Говорение.

Билет №5

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

ADVENTURES ON THE RIVER

(From "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K- Jerome)We decline to drink the river.

We found ourselves short of water at Hambledon Lock; so we took our jar and went up to the lock-keeper's house to beg for some. George was our spokesman. He put on a winning smile, and said:

"Oh, please could you spare us a little water?" "Certainly," replied the old gentleman; "take as much as you want, and leave the rest." "Thank you so much," murmured George, looking about him, "Where — where do you keep it?" "It's always in the same place, my boy," was the stolid reply: "just behind you." "I don't see it," said George, turning round.

"Why, bless us, where're your eyes?" was the man's comment, as he twisted George round and pointed up and down the stream. "There's enough of it to see, ain't there?" "Oh!" exclaimed George, grasping the idea; "but we can't drink the river, you know!'!

"No, but you can drink someof it," replied the old fellow. "It's what I'vedrunk for the last fifteen years."

George told him that his appearance, after the course, did not seem a sufficiently good advertisement for the brand and that he would prefer it out of a pump.

We got some from a cottage a little higher up. I dare say thatwas only river water if we had known. But we did not know, so it was all right. What the eye does not see, the stomach does not get upset over.

2. Говорение.

Билет №6

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

DARYL HANNAH

The pretty mermaid looked up from the golden sand and the world fell in love with her. The film was Splash, and the mermaid was the famous actress, Daryl Hannah, who has also starred in such films as Roxanne and Blade Runner.

Daryl is tall and slender. She has got long blond hair, large blue eyes and stunning features. She looks fantastic in expensive clothes, but she prefers casual clothes which show off her natural beauty.

She is more than just another pretty face, however. She is a complicated person whose character has many sides. She is often in the public eye, but she is actually a very shy person who dislikes the crowds and noise of Hollywood parties. Her shyness is a problem which she is trying to overcome with her friends' help. She is not the sort of person who expects help without giving anything back, however. Daryl is an extremely caring person, and she says that she forgets her own problems when she is helping others. She is also a romantic who believes in true love, so she wants to find someone very special before she starts a family.

Daryl's lifestyle is quite simple. When she is not working, her favourite activities are gardening, playing the piano and making pottery, all of which reveal the creative side of her character.

Daryl may prefer to sit in the shadows at parties, but when it comes to her beliefs she is not afraid to speak her mind. She has strong views on the environment. She believes that our modern lifestyle is destroying the environment. For this reason, she is currently looking for a place in the countryside where she can build an environmentally-friendly house. She says that she feels most relaxed when she is close to nature.

Underneath the success, shyness and simple lifestyle are Daryl's very strong views on life. As she says, "Find out what is important to you - and don't be afraid to leave it!"

It is a pleasure to meet an actress who remains down-to-earth and sincere in a world where fame and success can often harm one's character.

2. Говорение.

Билет №7

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

KING LEAR

Once upon a time there lived an old king of Britain. His name was Lear. He had three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. One day King Lear called his daughters and said to them: "I am very old and tired. I cannot be the king of Britain any more. I want to divide the country into three parts and give one part to each of you. Each of you will be the queen of her part of the country. But first you must tell me how much you love me. Then I shall know which of you must get the better part."

Goneril and Regan were not good daughters. They did not love their father. But they were very greedy. They wanted to become queens very much. They were glad to hear that their father wanted to divide his country into three parts. They only thought how to get the larger and better part of the country. So Goneril said:

"Dear Father, I love you very much. I love you more than my eyes, more than my beauty, more than my life. No child loves his father more than I love you."

Regan said the same, but in different words.

King Lear was very glad. Then he asked his youngest daughter Cordelia to speak. She was his favourite daughter.

Cordelia knew that her sisters were bad daughters. She loved her father very much, but she did not want to repeat the words of her sisters. So she said nothing. Only when King Lear told her angrily that she must speak, she said:

"I don't understand why my sisters say that they love you more than anything else. They are married. Don't they love their husbands? You are my father, and of course I love you. But when I marry, I shall love my husband, too."

King Lear did not like Cordelia's words. He shouted at her and said that he did not want to have such a daughter. He divided the country between Goneril and Regan and gave Cordelia nothing.

2. Говорение.

Билет №8

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

THE PRICE OF FAME

Have you ever dreamed of being rich and famous? You might change your mind if you considered all the disadvantages of being famous.

For one thing, celebrities have to look perfect all the time. There's always a photographer ready to take an unflattering picture of a famous person.

Celebrities also sacrifice their private lives. They are followed by the paparazzi wherever they go. Their personal problems, divorces, or family tragedies all end up as front-page news.

They worry constantly about their reputation. Actors may lose their popularity, singers may lose their voices, athletes may be injured.

Do you think it's fair? The rich and famous worry about money too. Sometimes they don't know what to do with it.

It's difficult for famous people to know who to trust. Ex-lovers may sell their stories to the newspapers. Their accountants or impresarios may be secretly cheating them. The paparazzi sell photos of the rich and famous to the popular press. And paparazzi can make a fortune on those pictures. But for the celebrities these photos are an invasion of privacy.

Do you think a special law should be introduced to protect the celebrities?

Famous people can never be sure whether people like them for themselves or because they are famous. It's difficult for them to make true friends.

Furthermore, celebrities are in constant danger of the wrong kind of attention. Threatening letters and even physical attacks from crazy fans are not unusual things in their lives. So many of them suffer nervous breakdowns or drug and alcohol problems.

Many celebrities say that their lives are far from being happy. As Fred Alan once said, ."A celebrity is someone who works hard all his life to be known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized".

2. Говорение.

Билет №9

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

Choosing the right time to sleep, the correct moment to make decisions, the best hour to eat — and even go into the hospi­tal — could be your key to perfect health.

Centuries after man discovered the rhythms of the planets and the cycles of crops, scientists have learned that we too live by precise rhythms that govern the ebb and flow of everything from our basic bodily functions to mental skills. Man is a pri­soner of time.

But it's not just the experts who are switching on the way of our bodies work. The increasing number of people study the state of their bio-rhythms before making their daily plans. Prince Charles consults a chart which tells him when he will be at his peak on a physical, emotional, and intellectual level. Boxer Frank Bruno is another who charts his bio-rhythms to plan for big fights.

Leading experts say every aspect of human biology is influ­enced by daily rhythms. Sleep, blood pressure, hormone levels, and heartbeat all follow their own clocks, which may bear only slight relation to our man-made 24-hour cycle.

Research shows that in laboratory experiments when social signals and, most crucially, light indicators such as dawn are taken away, people lose touch with the 24-hour clock and slee­ping patterns change. Temperature and heartbeat cycles lengthen and settle into "days" lasting about 25 hours.

In the real world, light and dark keep adjusting clocks to the 24-hour days. But the best indicator of performance is body temperature. As it falls from a 10 p.m. high at 37.2 degrees Cel­sius to a pre-dawn low of 36.1 degrees Celsius, mental functions fall too. This is a key reason why shift work can cause so many problems — both for workers and their organizations.

2. Говорение.

Билет №10

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

EARLY INDIAN LITERATURE

Indian literature begins with the orally transmitted myths, legends, tales, and lyrics (always songs) of American Indian cultures. There was no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived.

Tribes maintained their own religions — worshipping gods, animals, plants, or sacred persons. These tribal variations enter into the oral literature as well.

Still, it is possible to make a few generalizations. Indian stories, for example, glow with reverence for nature as a spiritual as well as physical mother. Nature is alive and endowed with spiritual forces; main characters may be animals or plants, often totems associated with a tribe, group, or individual.

The Mexican tribes revered, a god of the Toltecs and Aztecs, and some tales of a high god or culture were told elsewhere. However, there are no long, standardized religious cycles about one supreme divinity. The closest equivalents to Old World spiritual narratives are often accounts of shamans' initiations and voyages. These tricksters are treated with varying degrees of respect. In one tale they may act like heroes, while in another they may seem selfish or foolish.

Examples of almost every oral genre can be found in American Indian literature: lyrics, chants, myths, fairy tales, humorous anecdotes, proverbs, epics, and legendary histories. Accounts of migrations and ancestors abound, as do vision or healing songs and tricksters' tales. Certain creation stories are particularly popular.

The songs or poetry, like the narratives, range from the sacred to the light and humorous. There are lullabies, war chants, love songs, and special songs for children's games, gambling various chores, magic, or dance ceremonials. Generally the songs are repetitive. Short poem songs given in dreams sometimes have the clean imagery and mood associated with Japanese haiku or Eastern- influenced imagistic poetry.

2. Говорение.

Билет №11

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

THE ENGLISH AND THE WEATHER

The weather in England explains much about the English. The umbrella is carried even if it does not rain, for good luck with the weather. The well-dressed man-about-town in England always carries his umbrella tightly rolled. If it rains he takes a taxi in which he finds his refuge¹, with his umbrella still tightly rolled. To many English people the word "weather" means "good weather". Seaside landladies say, during a season of rain: "Not having much weather, are we?"

The weather in England, wet, dry, hot, cold, tropical or arctic, is the conversational topic for all classes of English society. The weather has given a start for many of the largest English manufacturing business. Apart from umbrellas, there is an increasing demand for burberries, plastic coverings, gumboots etc.

The uncertainty of the weather has made the English patient, enduring and wary. Because of its geographical position in a deep river valley London is occasionally enveloped by unusually thick fog. The worst of these fogs began on the 4th of December, 1952 and there was a similar one in December, 1962. The streets near the centre of London were jammed with buses crawling along at two miles per hour. People who usually travelled by road decided to take the underground. People caught in the fog literally felt their way with one hand along the walls of buildings, holding the other out before them to avoid colliding with other people.

At Covent Garden Theatre a performance of La Traviata had to be abandoned after the first act because so much fog had penetrated into the building that the audience could no longer see the singers clearly. It was a terrible fog that caused the death of some 4,000 people in London.

As a matter of fact, this "deadly" kind of fog is called by Londoners "smog". It is the kind of fog you get only in towns — particularly in the industrial areas. It is a mixture of smoke and fog together, and it is dangerous and deadly espe­cially for people who are suffering from any kind of respiratory troubles. In the big towns and cities you get very much smoke, it is more concentrated because it doesn't come from household chimneys only, but from all the factories too. Even ordinary fog is pretty nasty.

2. Говорение.

Билет №12

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

Millions of people tune into the weather forecast each evening on television. Most of them imagine that the presenter does little more than arriving at the studio a few minutes before the broadcast, reading the weather, and then going home.

In fact, this image is far from the truth. The two-minute bulletin which we all rely on when we need to know tomorrow's weather is the result of a hard day's work by the presenter, who is actually a highly-qualified meteorologist.

Every morning after arriving at the TV studios, the first task of the day is to collect the latest data from the National Meteorological Office. This office provides up-to-the- minute information about weather conditions throughout the day, both in Britain and around the world. The information is very detailed and includes predictions, satellite and radar pictures, as well as more technical data. After gathering all the relevant material from this office, the forecaster has to translate the scientific terminology and maps into images and words which viewers can easily understand.

The final broadcast is then carefully planned. It is prepared in the same way as other programmes. The presenter decides what to say and in what order to say it. Next a "story board" is drawn up which lays out the script word for word. What makes a weather forecast more complicated than other programmes are the maps and electronic images which are required. The computer has to be programmed so that the pictures appear in the correct order during the bulletin.

2. Говорение.

Билет №13

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

For thousands of years comets have been a mystery to a man. They travel across the sky very fast and have a bright 'tail' of burning gas. The comet Tempel 1 has an orbit far outside the orbit of the furthest planet in our solar system, Pluto. It has been there for 4.6 billion years, 133 million kilometres from Earth. Last week a little American spacecraft crashed into Tempel 1. The spacecraft had a camera and it took a photograph of the comet every minute before it finally crashed into its surface.

The space mission to Tempel 1 cost $335 million and was called Deep Impact. The spacecraft was travelling at 37,000 kilometres per hour when it hit the comet and the crash completely destroyed the spacecraft. But before it hit the comet, the spacecraft took some amazing photographs. The last one was a close-up picture which the spacecraft took just 3 seconds before it crashed into the comet.

"Right now we have lost one spacecraft," said a delighted NASA engineer. Deep Impact was like an American Independence Day fireworks display. It took many years to plan and ended in an enormous explosion.

Comets like Halley's Comet which visit the Earth frequently are not so interesting for scientists. But comets like Tempel are so distant that they could hold the secrets of the planets, the Earth's oceans and even of the original organic chemistry from which life developed. "If you are thinking of comets as possible sources of organic material, then you are looking for the organic elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen," said John Zarnecki of the Open University.

Taken from "NASA Gladly Loses a Spacecraft" by Tim Radford, The Guardian Weekly, 2005.

2. Говорение.

Билет №14

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

MY MEALS ON WHEELS

Looking back on things now, perhaps my being a 'van-vendor' or a mobile canteen owner was meant to be.I've pretty much always been on the road. My father's work involved moving around a lot, so by the time I was fifteen, I had been to six different schools! When I was at college studying Hospitality, I began to work part-time for a programme called 'Meals On Wheels'.

I was a volunteer who drove a van stocked with prepared food. I handed out the food to various elderly or ill people who couldn't prepare meals for themselves. The meals were really good. All well prepared, with hygiene and nutrition taking priority, and people even had choices of vegetarian, diabetic or particular types of ethnic cuisine.

I had to stop working there when I got a full-time job for a catering business. I learnt many tricks of the food trade there as well, but my goal was to become my own boss. I didn't have enough money to open up a restaurant though, and I was still young and unsure of exactly what I wanted to do.

A trip to Japan was the inspiration for my current mobile food business. I loved trying the variety of foods at the 'yatai' or street stalls. One of the owners told me that 'yatai' actually means 'a cart with a roof', and I even saw some of these traditional food pushcarts being towed around. What I also saw were the modern equivalents, large vans that had been converted into mobile kitchens with a large serving window in their side. Customers would line up by the dozens to buy their range of offerings.

2. Говорение.

Билет №15

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

REACH FOR THE STARS

What is success? It could be many things and often means different things to different people.For example, money, fame, academic achievement, overcoming a physical disability or discovering the secrets of the universe. A person who has achieved any of these could be considered successful, so if one person has accomplished all of them, what word would you use to describe him? Well, there are two actually - Stephen Hawking.

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist. This means that he works on the basic laws that rule the universe. He has made some remarkable discoveries and has published his findings in books and magazines. Stephen has received numerous awards and medals and is a member of many Royal Societies. He is highly educated and has twelve honourary degrees. He even holds the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics which previously belonged to Isaac Newton. All this by someone who has motor neuron disease, is confined to a wheelchair and can't speak without the aid of a computer!

When talking about his illness, Stephen describes it as little more than an inconvenience. Recently, when asked if he would still have been involved in Physics if he hadn't been disabled, he simply said that the only difference would be that he would have worked more withnumbers and equations.

When we consider how one man has excelled in all areas of life despite being- severely disabled, we learn that we can overcome almost any difficulty to achieve our goals.

Success is within our reach, we just have to go for it!

2. Говорение.

Билет №16

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

THE DEVOTED FRIEND

Once upon a time there was a young man whose , name was Hans. He had a very kind heart. He lived alone in a little house. He had a lovely garden where he worked every day. His garden was the best in the village and there were a lot of beautiful flowers in it. Little Hans had a devoted friend, big Hugh the Miller. Indeed the rich Miller was so devoted to little Hans, that he always picked some flowers or took some fruit when he was passing Hans's garden. "Real friends must have everything in common," the Miller used to say, and little Hans smiled and felt very proud that he had a friend with such noble ideas.

Sometimes the neighbours were surprised that the rich Miller never gave little Hans anything, but Hans never thought about these things. He worked and worked in his garden. In spring, summer and autumn he was very happy. But in winter he had no flowers or fruit to sell at the market, and he was often very hungry and cold. He was also very lonely, because the Miller never came to visit him in winter.

"There is no good in my going to see little Hans in winter," the Miller used to say to his Wife, "because when people are in trouble, you must leave them alone. That is my idea about friendship, and I am sure I am right. So I shall wait till spring comes, and then I shall go to see him, and he will give me a large basket of flowers, and that will make him happy."

The Miller's Wife sat in her comfortable arm-chair near the fire. "It is very pleasant," she said, "to hear how you talk about friendship."

"But can't we invite little Hans to our house?" said the Miller's son. "If poor Hans is in trouble, I will give him half my supper and show him my white rabbits."

"What a silly boy you are!" cried the Miller. "If Hans comes here and sees our warm fire and our good supper, he may get envious, and envy is a terrible thing. Besides, maybe he will ask me to give him some flour, and I cannot do that! Flour is one thing and friendship is another."

"How well you talk," said the Miller's Wife.

2. Говорение.

Билет №17

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

MY MALADIES

There were four of us — George, and William Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room and talking about how bad we were — bad from a medical point of view, I mean, of course.

We were all feeling unwell, and we were quite nervous about it. Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of giddiness come over him at times, that he hardly knew what he was doing; and then George said that he had fits of giddiness too, and hardly knew what he was doing. As for me, it was my liver that was out of order, I knew it was my liver that was out of order, because I had just been reading a patent liver-pill advertisement, in which were detailed the various symptoms by which a man could tell when his liver was out of order. I had them all.

I remember going to the British Museum library one day to read up the treatment for some slight ailment — hay fever, I think it was. I took the book and read all about it; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves and began to study diseases, generally. I forgot which was the first, but before I had glanced half down the list of "premonitory symptoms",

I was sure that I had got it.

I sat for a while frozen with horror; and then in despair, I again turned over the pages.

I саmе to typhoid fever — read the symptoms — discovered that I had typhoid fever; turned up St. Vitus's Dance — found, as I expected, that I had that too — began to get interested in my case, so started alphabetically and learned that I was sickening for it, and that the acute stage would start in about a fortnight. Bright's disease,1 was glad to find, I had only in a modified form and, as for that, I might live for years. Cholera I had, with severe complications; and diphtheria I seemed to have been born with. I looked through the twenty-six letters, and the only malady I had not got was housemaid's knee.

After "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome

2. Говорение.

Билет №18

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

As soon as it was over, Dorian Gray rushed behind the scenes into the greenroom. When he entered the room, Sibyl Vane looked at him, and an expression of infinite joy came over her. "How badly I acted tonight, Dorian!" she cried. "Horribly!" he answered, gazing at her in amazement. "Horribly! It was dreadful. Are you ill? You have no idea what I suffered."

"Dorian," she answered, "you should have understood. But you understand now, don't you?" "Understand what?" he asked, angrily. "Why I was so bad tonight. Why I shall always be bad. Why I shall never act well again."

"Dorian," she cried, "before I knew you, acting was the one reality of my life. It was only in the theatre that I lived. You taught me what reality really is. Tonight, for the first time in my life, I saw through the silliness of the empty theatre in which I had always played. You had made me understand what love really is. Even if I could do it, it would be an offence for me to play at being in love. You have made me see that."

He threw himself down on the sofa and turned away his face. "You have killed my love," he muttered. "You used to stir my imagination. Now you don't even stir my curiosity. I loved you because you were marvellous, because you had genius and intellect. You are nothing to me now. I will never see you again. Without your art you are nothing."

The girl grew white and trembled. "You are not serious, Dorian?" she murmured. "You are acting." "Acting! I leave that to you. You do it so well," he answered bitterly. [...] "I am going," he said at last in his calm clear voice. "I don't wish to be unkind, but I can't see you again." He turned and left the room. In a few moments he was out of the theatre.

By Oscar Wilde

Билет №19

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

MIND YOUR MANNERS

Do you ever speak with your mouth full of food? Do you forget to cover your mouth with your hand when you sneeze? If you are guilty of these 'crimes', then perhaps you should en­rol on an Etiquette and Social Skills course. This is not just an ordinary course, it's a course inmanners. You will have lessons in good manners and how to behave in social situations.

The person who teaches these lessons is Maggie O'Farrill at the Petite Protocol School, and her students are aged between six and twelve years old. She thinks this is the best time to teach kids. "At this age they are very easy," O'Farrill says.

"When they get older, it's harder for them to break bad habits. Children at this age wantto be polite. You can see that they're trying."

Maggie instructs the children to speak properly on the phone and walk correctly. These classes have become popular because parents want well-behaved children but they are too busy to teach manners at home.

So, what do the children actually think of this course? The classes have proved to be popular with most of the children, and their teachers at school have noticed that the youngsters are treating each other with more respect. They also feel the skills theyhavelearnt will be useful to them in the future. Danny, aged nine, commented, "If I get invited to the White House, I know I won't spill anything on the President."

Maggie O'Farrill herself believes that such skills can be life-changing. "We'll have children growing up who value manners. Maybe we'll see a change in direction for the better in society." That, however, remains to be seen. Only time will tell.

2. Говорение.

Билет №20

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

THE CRISIS

On the desk of Peter McDermott was a fresh pile of mail and memos. Peter looked through them all, deciding that there was nothing that could not be left until tomorrow. Beneath the memos was a folder which he opened. It was the proposed master catering plan which the sous-chef, Andre' Lemieux, had given him yesterday. Peter began studying the plan this morning.

Glancing at his watch, he decided to continue his reading before making an evening tour of the hotel. He spread the precisely hand-written pages and carefully drawn charts before him.

As he read on, his admiration for the young sous-chef grew. The presentation looked masterly, revealing a broad grasp both of the hotel's problems and the potentialities of its restaurant business. Peter became angry, that the chef de cuisine, M. Hebrand, had — according to Lemieux — dismissed the proposals entirely.

A telephone call brought the information that, this evening, the chef de cuisine was absent because of continued illness, and that the sous-chef, M. Lemieux, was in charge. Peter said that he was coming down to the kitchen now.

Andre' Lemieux was waiting at the door from the main dining-room. "Come in, monsieur! You are welcome". Entering the noisy, steaming kitchen, the young sous-chef shouted close to Peter's ear. "You find us near the peak of work".

In contrast to the comparative quietness of yesterday afternoon, the atmosphere now, in early evening, was hellish. With a full shift on duty, chefs in starched whites, their assistant cooks and juniors were everywhere. Around them, through waves of steam of heat, sweating kitchen helpers noisily pushed trays, pans and cauldrons, while others thrust trolleys carelessly, all turning away from each other as well as hurrying waiters and waitresses, with serving trays held high. On steam tables the day's dinner menu dishes were being portioned and served for delivery to dining-rooms. Special orders — from a la carte menus and for room service — were being prepared by fast-moving cooks whose arms and hands seemed everywhere at once.

A "Hotel" by Arthur Hailey

Билет №21

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

DID SHERLOCK HOLMES EXIST?

One evening, about the turn of the last century, several guests sat around a dinner table discussing famous murders and unsolved crimes. One of the guests, Dr Joseph Bell, a famous Edinburgh surgeon and university professor, surprised the others with his unusual deductive abilities.

"The trouble with most people", he said, "is that they see, but do not observe. Any really good detective ought to be able to tell, before a stranger has sat down, his occupation, habits, and past history through rapid observation and deduction. Glance at a man and you find his nationality written on his face, his means of living on his hands, and the rest of the story in his gait¹, manners, tattoo marks, and clothes".

One of the guests remarked, "Why, Dr Bell might almost be Sherlock Hol­mes". "My dear sir, I am Sherlock Holmes", Dr Bell said. Dr Bell was not joking. He was, indeed, the original Sherlock Holmes, the prototype for the famous Conan Doyle's creation. As you might know, Arthur Conan Doyle studied to be a doctor at the University of Edinburgh. While at University, Doyle was greatly influenced by Joseph Bell, one of his professors.

Dr Bell was famous for his keen² powers of observation³ and deduction. He could diagnose⁴ a patient's disease just by observing him.

Dr Bell's lectures always filled the hall. The students admired him and thought him a magician. Bell never failed to surprise them.

Dr Bell's detecting genius was known to the police. He worked hand in hand with Sir Henry Littlejohn, Edinburgh police surgeon, and helped to solve sev­eral complicated crimes. When Arthur Conan Doyle decided to write his first detective story he remembered Dr Bell. He called him Sherlock Holmes.

2. Говорение.

Билет №22

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

A FUR JACKET

One day Hortense, walking along Baltimore Street near its junction with Fifteenth Street — the smartest portion of the shopping section of the city — at the noon hour — with Doris, another shop-girl in her department store, saw in the window of one of the smaller and less exclusive fur stores of the city, a fur jacket of beaver that to her was exactly what she needed to strengthen mightily her very limited personal wardrobe. It was not such an expensive coat, worth possibly a hundred dollars — but fashioned in such an individual way as to make her imagine that, once invested with it, her physical charm would show more than it even had.

Moved by this thought, she paused and exclaimed: "Oh, isn't that j ust classiest darlingest little coat you ever saw! Oh, look at those sleeves, Doris". She took her friend by the arm. "Look at thecollar. And the lining! And those pockets! Oh, dear!" She was trembling with intensity of her approval and delight. "Oh, isn't that just too sweet for words?¹ And the very kind of coat I've been thinking of since I don't know when!" she exclaimed. "Oh, if I could only have it".

She clapped her hands admiringly, while Isadore Rubinstein, the elderly son of the proprietor, who was standing somewhat out of the range of her gaze² at the moment, noted the gesture and her enthusiasm and decided immediately that the coat must be worth at least twenty-five or fifty dollars more to her, any how, in case she asked for it. The firm had been offering it at one hundred. He thought to himself about the probable trading value of such a coat. What would such a poor, vain and pretty girl pay for this coat?

Meanwhile, however, Hortense, having stared as long as her lunch-hour would permit, had gone away still dreaming how she would look in such a coat. But she had not stopped to ask the price. The next day, feeling that she must look at it once more, she returned, only this time alone, and yet with no idea of being able to purchase it herself. But seeing the coat once more, she finally came in.

After "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser

2. Говорение.

Билет №23

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

Julie Lewis from Oregon, in the United States, is wearing an expensive-looking pair of boots. They are durable yet fashionable. To look at them you would never know that they were made entirely of recycled materials. Julie owns her own shoemaking company and has achieved a long-term ambition to turn waste into something useful. The shoes are made from all sorts of otherwise useless materials, including textile scraps, rubber from tyres, and plastic bags. Julie knows that she cannot solve the world's environmental problems single-handed, but nevertheless she feels she is doing good at a local level.

Recycling has become extremely popular in the US, particularly in recent years when the number of recycling schemes has increased by 500 percent. 65 percent of aluminium cans are recycled plus a quarter of paper and 20 percent of glass. The enthusiasm for re­using materials has come from the realisation that Americans produce far more waste per person than most Europeans; a total of 200 million tons a year. This is twice as much peris capita as Germany, for example, and it would be enough to fill a line of dustbin lorries stretching eight times around the world.

America even exports its waste. Taiwan buys used paper to make more paper and Japan uses American scrap metal and makes it into new cars, which it then sells back to the US. Two thirds of the remaining waste is buried in landfill sites. Disposal of waste poses a major problem. Landfill sites can cause pollution of water supplies. And as sites fill up, new ones need to be found. Some rubbish is burnt but this pollutes the atmosphere. The obvious answer, then, is to recycle more. Recycling is already big business - Julie Lewis being a per­fect example. Her company has already attracted millions of dollars worth of investment. Recycled products are no longer seen as poor quality goods but as desirable alternatives.

2. Говорение.

Билет №24

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

Half a mile from home, at the far edge of the woods where the land was highest, a great pine tree stood. The top of this ancient tree towered above all the others and made it visible for miles and miles. Sylvia had always believed that whoever climbed to the top of it could see the ocean. Now she thought of the tree with a new excitement. Why, if she climbed at dawn, would she not be able to see the whole world, and discover where the white heron flew, and find its hidden nest?

What an adventure! As she lay awake in her bed, she thought of the glory and triumph of telling everyone the secret of where the heron hid. Sylvia knew her mother and her guest were fast asleep, so she crept out of the house and followed the path through the woods. The air was filled with the sleepy songs of half-awakened birds.

There was a huge tree, seeming to sleep in the fading moonlight. Sylvia bravely began to climb, the blood racing through her veins, her bare hands and feet gripping the bark. First she had to climb the oak tree that grew alongside. Sylvia felt her way easily. She had often climbed there before, and knew that higher up one of the oak's upper branches rubbed against the pine trunk. When she reached it, the way was harder than she had thought. The sharp twigs scratched her, and the sticky pine sap made her little fingers clumsy and stiff.