I. Read the text and answer the questions.

Letters in the Mail

( After E. Caldwell)

Nobody in the whole town of Stillwater likes to get letters more than Ray Buffin. However Ray received fewer letters than anybody else. It had been like that almost all his life.

Once, many years before , he had written a letter to a young girl in town. He had written to tell her how beautiful and lovely she was and how much he loved her. He added the letter by asking her to marry him, but he had received no answer.

Two of the younger men in town, Guy Hodge and Ralph Barnhill, decided to play a joke on Ray. They would send him a letter signed by girl. When he received it, someone would ask him if it was a love letter , and someone else would take it from him and read it to everyone who wanted to listen. They asked Grace Brooks, the switch operator at the telephone company to write the letter . Grace was a pretty girl although not very young any more.

The men did not know that it was Grace who had received the love letter from Ray a long time ago. At that time she had no thoughts about marrying any man. That was why she had not answered Ray. In recent years she was sorry she hadn’t . “I’ll write the letter tonight. I think I know what to say”, said Grace. And she did.

What was the surprise of Ralph, Guy and other people who came to see Ray get the letter, when they saw that after reading it he ran to the telephone exchange. When Guy and Ralph followed him they found Ray and Grace together .

Questions:

1. What is the text about?

2. What did Ray write in his letter to a young girl?

3. What did Ralph and Guy decide to do?

4. Whom did they ask to help them?

5. Why were Ralph and Guy surprised when they ran into the telephone company?

II. Read the text and speak about the relations Sarah had with her parents. Speak about your family relations.

Dear Aunt Agony,

The problems with my parents started when I was sixteen. I wanted to get a Saturday job but my parents ordered me to stay at home and study for my exams. I was always compared to everyone else. Their double standards infuriated me so much that I did whatever I could to provoke them. I purposely dyed my hair white blond and plastered my face in make-up before I went to school. However, all I managed to achieve was mass arguments before I went anywhere.

It was rule in the house that I was only allowed out once during the week and on Saturday till 10 p.m. Every time I attempted to go out in the evening, my parents asked me who I was going out with and where we were going. They even insisted on my giving them my friend's telephone number in case they needed to contact me. I always argued about the last bit; I felt that if I gave them the number they'd use it to check up on me. It never for one moment crossed my mind that they were just worried about me…

Sarah

Билет 17.

I. Read the text and answer the questions.

Fighting Smoking Addiction.

The World Health Organization reports that 3.5 million people die every year from tobacco related diseases. Half of these deaths occur in industrial countries. Anti-smoking campaigns have been started in most developed countries — banning tobacco advertising in the mass media, increasing cigarette taxes and requiring health warnings on cigarette packages.

Statistics show that it's the youngest women who are increasingly taking up the habit.

Now almost one in three girls of school-leaving age are smokers. Teenage girls who smoke believe cigarettes help keep them slim, make them look grown-up and control stress, health experts say. Health experts are puzzled as to why the anti-tobacco message is not reaching them. Dr. Anne Charlton said «We do not really know why they keep taking up smoking when everyone is giving up.» Teenage girls are twice as likely to start smoking if one of their parents is a smoker. They probably have a best friend who smokes and parents who do not disapprove of their taking up the habit. They are more likely to leave school at 16.

Dr. Charlton said: «The rates are less among those who go to university. The smokers are usually the ones who do not do well at school and show few signs of wanting to. They mistakenly believe it helps to keep their weight down, although they have no weight problem in the first place».

One of the most effective methods of getting girls to stop smoking is to point out how much they smell, says Dr. Charlon. Others stop when a boyfriend insists he does not like it.

Questions:

1. What are the World Health Organisation's statistics on smoking related diseases?

2. What measures do anti-smoking campaigns include?

3. What puzzles health experts about teenage smoking?

4. What category of girls smoke less?

5. How do girls explain the reason of their smoking addiction?

II. Read the text and speak about Mark Twain’s hobby. Say if you like fishing. Speak about your hobby.

‘ONE MORE FUNNY STORY’.

One of Mark Twain's hobbies was fishing. He went fishing whenever he had a chance, even in the closed season, when fishing was not allowed anywhere in lakes and rivers. Like all fishermen, he sometimes invented stories about the number of fish he caught.

One hot day during the closed season, Mark Twain was fishing. A man noticed Mark Twain and began to watch him. At last he asked: "Have you caught many fish?"

"Not yet", Mark Twain answered. "I have only just begun. But yesterday I caught thirty great big fish here". "You were very lucky", the man said. "Do you know who I am?"

"No", Mark Twain said.

"I'm the fishing inspector here. Do you know that this is the closed season?"

Mark Twain thought quickly. He understood how foolish he had been. «Do you know who I am?» he asked aloud.

"No, of course not», answered the inspector." "I am the biggest liar on the Mississippi", Mark Twain said.

Билет 18.