TEXT 1: WAR LETTERS

1 Sharon Taylor has no firsthand memories of her father. The World War II fighter pilot was shot down over Germany in April
2 1.945, when Taylor was three weeks old. The war ended less than a month later, and the letters that the 22-year-old pilot had
3 exchanged with his wife Mary since they were high school sweethearts stopped coming. Taylor's father was eventually listed as
4 killed in action, although his body was never recovered.
5 One day, when Taylor was seven years old, she was sipping a hot chocolate while her paternal grandmother shared stories
6 about their fallen hero, crying as she remembered her son. "Nana, I'm going to find him and bring him home." It was a promise
7 Taylor, now a 77-year-old author and retired professor, would keep. In 2.006 she concluded a multi-decade mission to recover her
8 father's remains and bring them home. She did it guided by clues that she had put together from her parents' wartime letters —
9 along with help from historians, eyewitnesses, and an excavation team.
10 Now, through a sound and light show at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, she's bringing to new generations
11 her parents' experience and a larger story of war casualties and their families. Taylor shares her story widely, raising awareness
12 of soldiers who never returned from war and emphasizing the importance of recovery efforts. An estimated 81,000 American
13 soldiers' bodies remain missing, and she wants people to know there are ongoing efforts to locate them.
14 Taylor will never know exactly what her father's final moments were like. But as she previews the Expressions of America
15 exhibition in New Orleans, she somehow feels that he has come home at last.

1. Taylor's parents…
(a) started writing each other during the war.
(b) were in love when they were teenagers.
(c) stopped writing each other during the war.
(d) first met when they were in their twenties.

2. Taylor's search for her father…
(a) was kept secret from her grandmother.
(b) led to the discovery of a number of war letters.
(c) was carried out by other pilots.
(d) is something she believes is worth being made public.

3. Taylor cannot remember her father well.
(Justify your answer with the precise words or phrases from the text, or use your own words.)

4. Her mission was accomplished without any assistance.
(Justify your answer with the precise words or phrases from the text, or use your own words.)

5. Taylor is campaigning to start a search for thousands of missing soldiers.
(Justify your answer with the precise words or phrases from the text, or use your own words.)

6. The retired professor eventually discovered the precise details of her father's death.
(Justify your answer with the precise words or phrases from the text, or use your own words.)

7. FIND IN THE TEXT:

7.1. ONE SYNONYM FOR: "lover" (noun)
7.2. ONE SYNONYM FOR: "consciousness" (noun)

8. FIND IN THE TEXT:

8.1. ONE WORD MEANING: "a piece of evidence that leads one toward the solution of a problem"
8.2. ONE WORD MEANING: "a person who has seen something happen"

TEXT 2: IS WORLD HERITAGE IN DANGER?

1 In 2.016 the city government of Vienna announced that a public-private partnership would build a new ice-skating rink just
2 outside the city's century-old concert hall.
3 Anyone visiting the place where Beethoven and Mozart met will notice two things immediately. First, the core of Vienna is an
4 architectural fantasy of baroque palaces, immaculate courtyards, and a neo-Gothic city hall. Second, Austrians love winter sports,
5 and ice-skating is as typically Viennese as symphonies and sausages. Therefore, the idea of a permanent ice rink would not have
6 been expected to cause controversy. However, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decreed that the rink would undermine
7 the "outstanding universal value" of central Vienna.
8 Since 2.001, Vienna's city center has been a World Heritage site, that is, one of the organization's 1,154 unique landmarks
9 around the globe. Since announcing its objection to the rink, the World Heritage Committee has kept Vienna on its "in danger" list,
10 joining fifty other sites, from the ancient villages of Syria to Everglades National Park in Florida. If the city fails to address the
11 committee's concerns satisfactorily, it risks being permanently "de-listed" as a UNESCO landmark.
12 UNESCO has recently had to confront a newer enemy: climate change. Here the organisation's resources to tackle the problem
13 are limited too. Last year, UNESCO was forced to threaten Australia with placing its legendary Great Barrier Reef on the "in danger"
14 list if its government did not work hard enough to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
15 Even though the World Heritage program may be imperfect and at times powerless, it remains relevant because of its main
16 philosophy: the world's diverse treasures require protection, since they cannot protect themselves.

9. According to the text, the Viennese…
(a) are against the city council's plans.
(b) are very fond of ice-skating.
(c) don't care about UNESCO's warning.
(d) are worried about climate change.

10. According to the text, …
(a) both Vienna's and Australia's sites are environmentally threatened.
(b) Vienna's council has just given up on the rink project.
(c) Vienna's status as a World Heritage site is at risk.
(d) fifty sites have already lost their World Heritage status.

11. It was believed that the Viennese would support the ice-skating rink project.
(Justify your answer with the precise words or phrases from the text, or use your own words.)

12. Vienna needn't abandon the rink project to keep its World Heritage status.
(Justify your answer with the precise words or phrases from the text, or use your own words.)

13. UNESCO has lately begun to address the impact of environmental issues.
(Justify your answer with the precise words or phrases from the text, or use your own words.)

14. The UNESCO program cannot always achieve its goals.
(Justify your answer with the precise words or phrases from the text, or use your own words.)

15. FIND IN THE TEXT:

15.1. ONE OPPOSITE FOR: "approval" (noun)
15.2. ONE OPPOSITE FOR: "succeed" (verb)

16. FIND IN THE TEXT:

16.1. ONE WORD MEANING: "to state one's intention to take hostile action against someone"
16.2. ONE WORD MEANING: "something considered especially valuable, like a precious possession"

17. FILL IN THE GAPS WITH A CORRECT FORM OF THE VERB IN BRACKETS:

17.1. "You should… him more nicely when he visited you. Now he's upset." (treat)
17.2. "By the time we get married next summer, we… for two years." (be engaged)

18. FILL IN THE GAPS WITH THE CORRECT OPTION:

18.1. "Can I… your charger? My phone battery has died." lend / own / borrow / let
18.2. "He escaped by digging a hole… the wall." through / out / thorough / around

19. TURN THIS SENTENCE INTO THE ACTIVE VOICE: "The rumour was being spread by all the media outlets."

20. TURN THIS SENTENCE INTO THE PASSIVE VOICE: "We ask students to mute their phones while in class."

21. GIVE A QUESTION FOR THE UNDERLINED WORDS: "Cecilia is pretty, short and has big blue eyes."

22. JOIN THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES USING A RELATIVE. MAKE CHANGES IF NECESSARY: "This is the hospital. Your sister was born here."

23. REWRITE THE NEXT SENTENCE WITHOUT CHANGING ITS MEANING. BEGIN AS INDICATED: "It wasn't necessary for you to work late last night." You needn't…

24. COMPLETE THIS CONDITIONAL SENTENCE: "If I had known you were busy, …"

25. REWRITE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE WITHOUT CHANGING ITS MEANING. BEGIN AS INDICATED: "When did they buy their new sports car?" How long...?

26. THERE ARE TWO MISTAKES IN THIS SENTENCE. FIND THE MISTAKES AND REWRITE THE SENTENCE CORRECTLY: "Can you please put all this books in the shelf above?"

27. TURN THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE INTO DIRECT SPEECH: "The manager told me to discuss my idea with the senior clerk."

28. USE THE WORDS IN THE BOXES TO MAKE A MEANINGFUL SENTENCE. USE ALL AND ONLY THE WORDS IN THE BOXES WITHOUT CHANGING THEIR FORM:

back · it · to · time · home · think · is · I · go

29. WRITE A COMPOSITION OF AT LEAST 120 WORDS ABOUT ONE OF THE TOPICS PROPOSED AND FOCUS ON IT. CHOOSE ONE TOPIC ONLY:

29.1. Helping others is important in today's world. Discuss.
29.2. If you travelled to a new city on holiday, what would you like to do? Give reasons.