Text A - Leaving home. Going away to university is always a tricky time, both for the students who are leaving home and their parents who are staying behind. We got advice on how to cope from a student daughter and her dad. A daughter's advice to parents, by Kerry Price. My parents drove me to uni at the beginning of the first term. That was great, but then they hung around, so it was hard to chat to the people in the rooms near mine. It's best if you leave us to unpack ourselves. Don't ask us to come home during term time. There's a lot going on at weekends, there just isn't time. Get another interest or a pet if you feel lonely without us. Don't make us feel guilty about leaving home! It is quite interesting to hear about your experiences at uni, but remember that it was a LONG time ago so don't go on about it so much. Things have changed a lot. Now we have a lot more debt and it'll be harder to find a job in the future. Please don't check up on us or our friends on Facebook. I know it's a public site, but we have the right to some privacy. Don't change anything in our bedrooms. We have only half left home - we'll be back in the holidays, so please don't touch anything. We'd still like to come on family holidays with you. Don't forget to include us just because we're not there all the time. A father's advice to students, by Stuart Price. Don't complain so much about how much work you have to do. We work a lot too. You're an adult now, get used to it. Put up with the fact that we refused to get a dog while you were at home, then suddenly bought one as soon as you moved out. We miss you! Just because you're at university studying very complex subjects, it doesn't mean that you're more intelligent than everybody else. Don't treat your family as if they were stupid; we're really not. Let us come and visit you now and again. We promise to try not to embarrass you in front of your friends. We just want to see you for a short time and take you out for a meal. Don't waste so much time on Facebook. You need time for all that work you have to do, remember? We might make a few changes to your room, so deal with it. It's great to have a guest room at last, but we won't change things too much, promise. Don't forget to call home from time to time and don't get annoyed if we phone you. It's not pestering. If we didn't call, you wouldn't know that we care. Choose the correct answer a, b or c (3 points, 0.5 each): 1. When children leave home to go to university, it's ___. a. the moment they've been waiting for; b. a difficult experience; c. more difficult for parents than for children. 2. Kerry says when students first go to uni, parents should ___. a. give their children a lift and then stay a while; b. give them a lift and then leave; c. help them unpack their things. 3. Kerry thinks students should ___. a. do everything they can to avoid upsetting lonely parents; b. go home regularly while everyone gets used to the change; c. not feel bad about spending weekends in their university town. 4. Kerry thinks Facebook is ___. a. a good way to send private messages to family; b. a space that parents should keep away from; c. great for parents as long as you're careful with your privacy settings. 5. Stuart thinks students sometimes ___. a. look down on people who are not studying; b. ask for help with their work too much; c. forget that their parents were young once. 6. Stuart says parents would like to ___. a. stay for at least one night when they visit; b. meet their son or daughter's university friends; c. visit every so often and go to a restaurant together.

2A. Answer these questions in no more than 5 words. (1 point, 0.25 each). a. Why was it hard for Kerry to chat with the people in the rooms near hers? b. What should parents get if they feel lonely without their children? c. What does Stuart think university students waste too much time on? d. What does Stuart promise not to do in his daughter's room?

3A. Find a word in the text for each of these definitions. (1 point, 0.25 each). a) Difficult to deal with and needs careful attention or skill. b) Remove things from a suitcase, bag, or box. c) Something that is owed to someone else, or the state of owing something. d) Cause someone to feel nervous, worried, or uncomfortable.

Text B - The World of Parkour. In 1.902, a volcano in the Caribbean island of Martinique blew up. A French naval officer on the scene, Lt. George Hebert managed to coordinate the rescue of over 700 people, both indigenous and European. He noticed, as he did so, how people moved, some well, some badly, around the obstacles in their path, and how this affected their chances of survival. Hebert had travelled widely and was well aware of skills many indigenous people exhibited in being able to traverse the natural environment. From these experiences, Hebert developed a training discipline which he called 'the natural method' in which climbing, jumping and running techniques were used to negotiate obstacles. His method was adopted by the French military and became the basis for all their training. In time, it became known as parcours du combatant - the path of the warrior. Raymond Belle was a practitioner of parcour in Vietnam in the 1950s. He had great athletic ability, and the skills and agility he had learnt through parcour earned him a reputation as an agile and elite soldier. In later life, he returned to France and passed on his skills to his son, David, who combined what he had learnt from his father with his own knowledge of martial arts and gymnastics, and in time, the sport of parkour was born. Parkour involves a range of 'moves', although none are official. They involve vaulting, jumping and landing accurately on small and narrow features, catching ledges, traversing high wall and landing with a rolling impact to absorb impacts. Belle formed a group of traceus called the Yamikasi, meaning 'strong man, strong spirit', that included his friend, Sebastian Foucan. In time, the two of them started to follow different paths. Belle concentrated on the art of getting from place to place in the most efficient way possible, while Foucan developed his own style which involved more self expression. This he termed freerunning. From the late 1990s, the art and sport of parkour spread worldwide. Both Belle and Foucan gave interviews and appeared on television. In 2.003, filmmaker Mike Christie made the film Jump London, and urban freerunning, or freeflow, began to dominate the London scene. But it was the arrival of YouTube in 2.005 that really brought freerunning to a global audience. People around the world began to post their videos online, making freerunning a mainstream sport, and in 2.007, the first major freerunning and parkour competition was held in Vienna. Since parkour values freedom, there are few facilities dedicated to the practice. Traceurs use both rural and urban areas, typically parks, offices and abandoned buildings. Traceurs generally respect the environment they practice in, and since part of their philosophy is 'leave no trace', there have been few concerns over damage to property. However, law enforcement and fire and rescue teams argue that freerunners are risking their lives needlessly, especially when they practice at height. However, practitioners argue that injuries are rare, because they rely on their own hands and feet rather than things out of their immediate control, such as ice and wheels, as is the case with skiing and race-driving. Choose the correct answer a, b or c (3 points, 0.5 each): 1. George Hebert developed parcour du combatant because... a) he saw native people doing it in Martinique; b) he saw how it could save lives; c) he saw how the French were poor at negotiating obstacles. 2. The natural method... a) was replaced by Hebert's new discipline; b) was taught to Hebert by indigenous people; c) was widely practiced by the French military. 3. Raymond Belle... a) was trained by George Hebert; b) gave the discipline its new name; c) was a notable practitioner of the natural method. 4. David Belle... a) brought in moves from other disciplines; b) also learnt parcour while in the French military; c) learnt parcour from his father in Vietnam. 5. What brought parkour and freerunning to an international audience? a) TV appearances and interviews; b) a British documentary; c) a video sharing website. 6. Parkour and freerunning practitioners... a) require a lot of equipment; b) rely on their own bodies; c) avoid taking risks.

2B. Answer these questions in no more than 5 words. (1 point, 0.25 each). a. How many people were rescued after a volcano in the Caribbean island of Martinique blew up? b. What techniques were used in 'the natural method'? c. What does the Yamikasi mean? d. What is the philosophy of traceurs?

3B. Find a word in the text for each of these definitions. (1 point, 0.25 each). a) Naturally existing in a place or country rather than arriving from another place. b) The air, water, and land in or on which people, animals, and plants live. c) Jumping over something by first putting your hands on it or by using a pole. d) Harm or injury.

PART 2 - USE OF ENGLISH (2 POINTS). 4. CHOOSE FOUR OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS AND REPHRASE THEM SO THAT THEIR MEANING IS AS SIMILAR TO THE ORIGINAL AS POSSIBLE (0.5 EACH). a. My parents drove me to uni at the beginning of the first term. I... b. Kerry is more intelligent than everybody else. Nobody is... c. Raymond Belle was a practitioner of parcour in Vietnam in the 1950s. He had great athletic ability. Raymond Belle was... d. 'Dad, please don't check up on us or our friends on Facebook,' said Kerry. Kerry asked... e. We might make a few changes in your room, so do not complain. Do not complain... f. Parkour involves a range of 'moves'. They include vaulting, jumping and landing accurately on small and narrow features. Parkour involves... g. In 2.003, filmmaker Mike Christie made the film Jump London. In 2.003, the film... h. 'Injuries are rare, because they rely on their own hands and feet,' said practitioners. Practitioners said...

PART 3 - WRITING (2 POINTS). 5. CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS AND WRITE A 150 WORD LONG TEXT. a) Write an opinion article about leaving home. Do not forget to mention when and why you plan to leave your parents' home, where you plan to move, etc. b) Have you ever practised extreme sports? Do not forget to mention the name of the sport, the equipment you need to practise it, how often you do it, etc.