Volunteers needed

Holiday time does not have to mean being idle and bored. It’s a chance to gain new experiences outside your classroom. Sports events, scientific expeditions, wildlife adventures - everything is possible if you have the will to do it. This information is for those who would like to participate in ecological projects and to learn more about nature and wildlife.

The ‘My Future’ organisation was started recently. Our aim is to protect the unique places in our country - their ecosystems, animals, and plants. In the future, we are planning to take part in international projects too.

Currently ‘My Future’ is undertaking a project to save threatened wetland species across the country and we are looking for brave and smart students who would like to offer us their help. It is going to be our first experience of accepting teenagers on to our projects and we hope it will be a success.

At the moment, we have twenty vacancies for school students aged 16 and over. The jobs focus on taking care of the injured and abandoned animals, assisting wildlife vets, animal and bird watching, and taking part in the promotional and educational events of the organisation.

All the first-time volunteers will be supervised by our veterans. There are environmental specialists from all over the world who have been working with us for years. They will teach you how to use our environmental equipment for water and soil sampling and how to treat the polluted water and soil. Needless to say, all our volunteers are provided with free clothes and boots appropriate for working around lakes, bogs and other wetlands.

All the volunteers are also provided with food and drinking water. Sleeping in tents in wetland is not very comfortable or safe, so our volunteers are accommodated in local inns, carefully selected by our managers according to our hygiene and safety standards. Free doctor’s services are available at any time as well as transportation to the city hospital in case of emergency. There are no special health requirements for candidates, except that everyone should be vaccinated against the few (not many!) infections you may come across in the wetlands.

It’s worth mentioning that, by joining the team, you’ll enjoy a multilingual and multicultural working environment. If you cannot boast a very good command of English, do not worry - three quarters of our volunteers speak English as a foreign language and we never experience any problems because of this!

For any further information, visit our website. There you can also fill in an application form to become a ‘My Future’ volunteer.

20

The main aim of the organisation ‘My Future’ is to entertain young people.

1) True 2) False 3) Not stated

Ответ:

21

School students have never taken part in ‘My Future’ projects before.

1) True 2) False 3) Not stated

Ответ:

22

At present, ‘My Future’ focuses on projects in its own country.

1) True 2) False 3) Not stated

Ответ:

23

The volunteers will have to pay for their clothes and equipment.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

Ответ:

24	The volunteers will be staying in tents. 1) True 2) False 3) Not stated

Ответ:

25

Vaccination is obligatory for all the volunteers taking part in the project.

1) True

2) False

3) Not stated

Ответ:

26	Most volunteers’ mother tongue is English. 1) True 2) False 3) Not stated

Ответ:

27

All candidates will be interviewed before accepting them on to the project.

1) True 2) False 3) Not stated

Ответ:

28	Прочитайте тексты и установите соответствие между текстами А–G и заголовками 1–8. Запишите свои ответы в таблицу. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании есть один лишний заголовок.

1. Residents of the North Pole 5. Hunting strategies 2. Born to live in cold weather 6. Home upbringing for bears 3. Life is getting harder 7. Changes in population 4. Sometimes they are similar to us 8. Good food is important

1. Polar bears started to evolve from brown bears about 5 million years ago.

Unlike bears living on land, they are white in colour and their fur is very thick. It helps them to survive on sea ice and swim in cold waters. Polar bears are really big – adult males normally weigh from 350 to 550 kg. Females are smaller. The bears’ large paws distribute their weight when they move on thin ice, and their tails are short to conserve heat.

2. Polar bears occupy one of the planet's coldest environments, the Arctic. They prefer northern areas like Canada, Greenland, Alaska, Russia and Norway. Scientists have identified 19 populations of polar bears spread across four different regions of the Arctic. Although many children’s books show polar bears and penguins together, the two are found at different poles.

3. These Arctic giants have no natural enemies. Their diet is based on seals. Other sources of food for polar bears are Arctic plants, and also geese, bird eggs and fish. They can eat a wide range of foods but only marine mammals, like seals and beluga whales, are able to provide them with all the necessary proteins and vitamins to survive in the icy environment.

4. Bears catch seals from ice platforms. They usually wait for seals near their breathing holes – the openings in the ice the seals use to breathe. In autumn, seals cut out breathing holes in the ice and keep them through the winter and polar bears locate the holes with their powerful sense of smell. Polar bears can also attack seals sleeping on the ice.

5. Polar bears spend lots of time hunting seals on sea ice or from large drifting blocks of ice. However, due to global warming sea ice is melting. As a result, bears have to hunt in the water, which is less successful and very risky. Polar bears are good swimmers but they cannot swim long distances and often drown. They don’t have enough food to gain enough fat and their newborn cubs are weaker than they used to be.

6. Normally, a female bear builds a den (a tunnel in the ice with two rooms) where she gives birth to two cubs. They are born very small, only about half a kilo, but they grow quickly on their mother’s rich milk. For about two years, cubs depend totally on their mothers for food and for survival skills – the mothers teach them how to hunt and survive in the harsh realities of life.

7. Native people, who have lived side by side with polar bears for centuries, say that in many ways bears are like humans. When they are not busy hunting, they play, mock fight or chase each other. Their nose-to-nose greeting usually means some request, for example, a request for food. Some scientists claim they have watched polar bears sharing their food and even performing some eating rituals like greeting their host and saying thank you after a meal.

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Заголовок

Прочитайте текст. Определите, какие из приведённых утверждений 29–36 соответствуют содержанию текста (1 – True), какие не соответствуют (2 – False) и о чём в тексте не сказано, то есть на основании текста нельзя дать ни положительного, ни отрицательного ответа (3 – Not stated).