Vocabulary and Comprehension Exercises

Exercise 1. (Text 1) Answer the questions.

1. Why were radio and television programmes all over the world interrupted on Audust 16, 1977?

2. Whay was President Carter asked to do?

3. How many albums of Elvis Presley were sold in 1978?

4. What family did Elvis Presley come from?

5. What job did he get when he left school in 1953?

6. What record made him popular? When did it happen?

How many copies of the song were sold?

7. What did critics write about his voice?

8. Were his concerts attended by many people?

9. What was he like on stage?

10. What did older people think of Elvis Presley?

11. When did Elvis have to join the army?

12. Who became his wife in 1967?

13. When did he die?

14. What house is visited by half a million people every year?

Exercise 2. (Text 2) Answer the questions.

1. What did the Millenium Dome robbers want?

2. Why didn’t they think that the police would catch them?

3. Why did the British government build the Millennium Dome?

4. What was one of the most popular exhibitions in the Dome?

5. What did the gang of five men try to do?

6. Where were police officers when the robbers attacked?

7. Was the police operation organized by Scotland Yard amazing? Why?

8. How did the police know what the robbers planned to do?

9. Did the police guess how the robbers planned to escape?

10. What sentences did the robbers receive at the trial?

11. Why will the robbers go down in history?

Exercise 3. (Text 3) Answer the following questions.

1. Where did the merchant live?

2. Why did he send his servant to market?

3. Who was the servant jostled by in the market-place.

4. What did he see when he turned?

5. What did Death do?

6. What did the servant ask his master for?

7. What was the servant going to do?

8. What town was the servant going to?

9. Did the merchant lend him his horse?

10. Why did Death make a threatening gesture?

11. Why was Death astonished to see the servant in Bagdad?

Exercise 4. (Text 4 Dialogue) Answer the questions.

1. How do the smugglers escape?

2. What ship are the smugglers talking about?

3. How far is the ship?

4. Which is faster: the speedboat or the hovercraft?

5. Are the smugglers caught?

Exercise 5. Dictation-translation.

A. B.

Когда умер Элвис Пресли 16 августа 1977 года, радио- и телепрограммы во всем мире были прерваны, чтобы сообщить о его смерти. На его похороны пришло 80 тысяч человек. Элвис не посещал уроков музыки, но с раннего детства его окружала музыка. В 1953 году Элвис записал на студии две песни в качестве подарка своей маме на день рождения. Людей сводил с ума новый и динамичный ритм этой песни. Голос Элвиса Пресли был настоящим открытием. Критики писали, что он был горловым, вибрирующим, лихорадочным и густым, как сироп. Пресли невольно стал бунтовщиком, с него началась культурная и сексуальная революции. Элвис был королем рок-н-ролла и все знают, что он навсегда останется королем рок-н-ролла. Да здравствует Элвис! Грабители выставочного зала «Миллениум Доум» хотели войти в историю. Они никогда не думали, что полиция их поймает, так как они тщательно спланировали преступление. Британское правительство построило выставочный зал «Миллениум Доум», чтобы отметить 2000 год. Попытка кражи алмазов из выставочного зала «Миллениум Доум» в Лондоне была необычным преступлением.