Task 1
Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You have found some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read this text to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then be ready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it.
Despite her clear success as an author, Agatha Christie often claimed herself to be the “slow one in the family,” and always found writing and spelling very difficult. As a child Christie was homeschooled, and wasn’t expected to learn how to read until she was eight years old – but five-year-old Christie taught herself how to read years before it was expected of her. Christie and her mother were also avid storytellers, and Christie later wrote in her autobiography that she began her interest in becoming an author at eleven years old, when she started to put her stories to words and publish them in the local newspaper.
Living with learning disabilities didn’t stop her from becoming the best-selling novelist. Her books have been translated into more than 100 languages. Over the course of her life, she wrote 66 crime novels, six other novels, 24 plays, and more than 150 short stories.
Task 2
Study the advertisement.
Discover the thrill of sailing!
You are considering taking a basic sailing course and now you’d like to get more information. In 1.5 minutes you are to ask four direct questions to find out about the following:
- location
- beginner course duration
- types of boats used for training
- group sizes for training
You have 20 seconds to ask each question.
Task 3
You are going to give an interview. You have to answer five questions. Give full answers to the questions (2–3 sentences). Remember that you have 40 seconds to answer each question.
Tapescript for Task 3
Interviewer: Hello everybody! It’s Teenagers Round the World Channel. Our guest today is a teenager from Russia and we are going to discuss travel experiences. We’d like to know our guest’s point of view on this issue. Please answer five questions. So, let’s get started.
Interviewer: When you were a child, how often did you travel with your family? What was the farthest place you visited?
Student: _________________________
Interviewer: What are some common travel problems? Have you or your family ever faced any of them?
Student: _________________________
Interviewer: Would you like to become a space traveller? Why or why not?
Student: _________________________
Interviewer: Have you ever tried virtual travel experiences from home? What is your attitude to this type of travel exploration?
Student: _________________________
Interviewer: In the future, would you rather travel with your family or friends? Why?
Student: _________________________
Interviewer: Thank you very much for your interview.
Task 4
Imagine that you and your friend are doing a school project “Jobs that define the modern world”. You have found some photos to illustrate it but for technical reasons you cannot send them now. Leave a voice message to your friend explaining your choice of the photos and sharing some ideas about the project. In 2.5 minutes be ready to:
- explain the choice of the illustrations for the project by briefly describing them and noting the differences;
- mention the advantages (1–2) of the two jobs;
- mention the disadvantages (1–2) of the two jobs;
- express your opinion on the subject of the project – which of these jobs you’d prefer and why.
You will speak for not more than 3 minutes (12–15 sentences). You have to talk continuously.
