Level A1 Reading. Read the text below, then select the correct answer for each question.

David Edwards lives in a house in the city, but spends most weekends hiking in the countryside. His mum is a nurse who works in a large hospital and his Dad works in a High School teaching history and geography. David has two brothers and a sister. His sister is the youngest person in the family. In the evenings, most of the family like to watch television, but David prefers to listen to music. David’s girlfriend is named Anne.

Where does David live?

Which of  these is true?

David…

Level A2 Reading. Read the text below, then complete the sentences that follow by selecting the best ending for each sentence.

Rules and Regulations for Members Bringing Guests and Children to the Leisure Centre

Members’ Guests over 18.

Members are welcome to introduce guests to the club. Guests are required to register, pay the current guest fee and must be accompanied by a Member. Members must ensure that their guests are fully aware of the clubs Terms & Conditions and Rules & Regulations. Each Member can introduce the same person no more than 6 times per year as a guest. The owners take no responsibility for accidents, injuries, misadventure, theft or damage to personal belongings experienced by guests of the club.

Children

Members are allowed to bring their children to the leisure centre during certain hours. Children’s hours are Monday to Friday 10am – 12noon and 3pm – 5pm. At weekends and on national holidays children are allowed to use the centre between 12 noon – 4pm. A child is any individual under 16. All under 16’s should be supervised by an adult (over 18) when using the facilities during children’s hours. At age 17 all users must pay an adult membership fee. Children under the age of 12 are not allowed to use the steam room, hot spa or sauna.

Level B1 Reading. Read the movie reviews below, then match a statement to a movie.

Coming Soon – New Movies at Star Cinema for Next Month

Blakewater – November 4th
Horror meets sci-fi! Fans of both genres will be delighted by this intelligent and unique creation – is this really the fate of generations to come? The believable and enthralling plot is enhanced by excellent special effects and tremendous acting. Almost certainly a contender for nomination for a number of awards this year.

Tina and Bree – November 14th
Following the story of two first year university students leaving their home town and living away from their parents for the first time and settling into life on the university campus. Many genuinely funny moments that will bring back fond memories of university days.

The Adventures of Genie – November 7th
This animated adventure is the sequel to last summer’s hit A Canine Tale. The story continues to follow the travels of Genie the spaniel and the other creatures he meets on his journey. Excellent graphics and lots of laughs for all members of the family. A variety of stars provide voices for their animal characters.

Unimaginable – November 15th
Set in a different universe, this fantasy film – although having some great special effects – doesn’t bring anything new to the cinema screen that has not already been presented in several other films of this genre. For true fantasy movie fanatics only!

Between Two Points – November 10th
James Burgen’s real-life account of his journey across Antarctica reaches the cinema. This documentary-style motion picture is an education in itself and highlights the importance of environmental protection.

Family Planet – November 21st
Starring Jack Mason and Sue Caterham. An enjoyable remake of the 1960s hit The Jamesons, this is great family entertainment with elements that should appeal to all age groups. Overall a light-hearted look at family life with underlying messages of importance for us all.

The Strangest Summer – November 14th
Tim Brown and Jennifer Nelson once again team up in the roles of a couple destined for romance. Set in the 1960s, the film gives us a light-hearted and nostalgic trip back in time. An excellent supporting cast and sound-track will no doubt make this one of the month’s more popular offerings.

Bastion Creek – November 23rd
Not yet reviewed

Level B2 Reading. Read the text below, then complete the sentences that follow by selecting the best ending for each sentence.

Negotiating a pay rise

For many people, one of the hardest discussions they have with senior management is about a raise in pay. Employees often choose to look for a better paid position within another company rather than face their own boss, but that is a situation that can have a negative impact on the employee (who is seen to lack loyalty to the company) and the employer (who stands to lose a trained staff member who works well and has a good knowledge of the company). However, there are some salary negotiation tactics that might just help.

The most common error is, when finally gathering the courage to address the situation, many employees simply immediately accept whatever offer is first made. Research shows that younger job-seekers and female job-seekers often make this mistake – either from not completely understanding the negotiation process or from a dislike or discomfort with the idea of negotiating. There is, of course, the financial aspect of not receiving a higher compensation, but more importantly this can have a significant effect on motivation and morale and can eventually lead an employee who hastily accepted an inadequate offer to begin to resent both the job and the employer.

Another common error is rating your required raise based on a value you personally need or would like. Few employers care whether you have enough money to pay for your mortgage or other bills, so negotiations should be based on your value to the company, based on good research of similar companies. Also, if possible, the actual figure aimed for in the negotiation should not be revealed until the last possible moment, giving as much flexibility as possible. Immediately blurting out a figure it then becomes clear the company will not meet puts both the employer and employee in an uncomfortable position. As previously mentioned, one of the key factors in a successful salary negotiation is research and preparation. With the number and variety of salary resources available online — from salary.com and salaryexpert.com to professional associations – there should be no reason not to have an accurate market value in mind.

However, despite all the preparation and right attitude in the negotiation, there is another pitfall – declining an offer too quickly as it was lower than expected. A careful balance needs to be struck here; we have looked at the risks of accepting too quickly, but declining an offer can mean that the negotiation has nowhere to go. There are two points to consider at this juncture: a raise can also come in the form of other benefits such as better health cover, so if the money offered is low, think about discussing the perks of the job. The second point is that you have to be realistic – if the job market is low and the company is not having a particularly outstanding year, you may have to accept a lower offer. However, if this is the case, it is common to request a review of the salary at a time in the not-too-distant future.

The final point that is essential in any business negotiation is not to take any rejection or low offers personally. Employees should maintain a professional approach to their job, and a salary negotiation is no exception. If negotiations break down between you and the employer, move on graciously, thanking the employer again for the opportunity — because you never want to burn any bridges.

Are the following statements TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN? Write:

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

Level C1 Reading. Read the text below, then complete the sentences that follow using words from the text.

DWARF PLANET

The Discovery, Classification and Exploration of Pluto

A: Pluto was discovered in February, 1930, by the American Charles Tombaugh, a young self-taught astronomer working at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Tombaugh, then in his early twenties, detected the existence of the planet by examining anomalies in photographic plates with the aid of a special viewing apparatus known as a blink microscope.

B: The estimated mass of Pluto was steadily revised downwards in the decades following its discovery, and was not accurately calculated until 1978, the same year in which Charon, the largest of the planet’s five moons, was discovered by the United States Naval Observatory astronomer James Christy. While the original estimate of Pluto’s mass had been seven times that of Earth, Christy and his colleague, Robert Harrington, compared Charon’s orbital period and size with those of Pluto, estimating the planet’s mass to be approximately 0.2 per cent that of the earth.

C: However, in spite of having been regarded as the ninth planet in the solar system for more than fifty years, Pluto’s status and classification began to come into question towards the close of the twentieth century. While Pluto remains, at present, the largest of the known trans-Neptunian objects located in the Kuiper belt, the discovery in 2005 of a minor planet with a greater mass, Eris, in an outlying region of the Kuiper belt known as the scattered disc, prompted the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to create a formal definition of the term “planet” that excluded Pluto.

D: When the New Horizons interplanetary space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral in January, 2006, its primary mission was to voyage to Pluto, at that time the only remaining unexplored planet in the Solar System. However, in August of the same year, at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) held in the Czech Republic, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet on account of the fact that it did not meet one of the three formal conditions required to be classed as a planet. Today, there are five known bodies in the Solar System that have been recognised by the IAU as dwarf planets. In addition to Pluto, these are Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and Eris. At the same time, it has been estimated that there may be hundreds more as yet undiscovered and unclassified dwarf planets throughout the Solar System.

E: The high resolution images of Pluto made during the New Horizons close flyby of the planet and beamed back to Earth from across the Solar System have revealed a unique terrain. Far from being a flat, dead world, the rocky dwarf planet’s surface contains a multitude of varied, complex landscapes, ranging from oddly-textured ridges with the appearance of tree bark or dragon scales, ice cliffs, valleys and mountains and frozen lakes and oceans to heavily cratered and pitted plains.  While still awaiting official approval from the International Astronomical Union, names for a number of Pluto’s regions and topographical features have already been proposed by the New Horizons discovery team in consultation with the general public, including Tombaugh Regio, the Brass Knuckles, Tartarus Dorsa and Cthulhu Regio, the latter named after a fictional deity from the works of American author H.P. Lovecraft.

Complete the sentences below using TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Level C2 Reading. Read the text below, then complete the sentences that follow using words from the text.

The Nobel Prize

A: The Nobel Prize was first introduced in 1895, and now, over a century later, they are still highly respected awards. Presented to those individuals and organizations that make outstanding contributions in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine, they are named after Alfred Nobel, the man who initially pioneered the idea. Yet the Prizes had an unlikely start; Nobel’s contribution to science was actually the creation of dynamite. It was only when a French newspaper mistakenly believed Nobel had died, and subsequently printed an obituary referring to him as the ‘Merchant of Death’, that Nobel realised the full impact of the legacy he was leaving behind. He decided that after his death, a significant portion of his wealth should be devoted to seeking out and acknowledging those who had made ‘the greatest contribution to mankind’. However, it was not until 5 years after his death that the first prizes were handed out – complications with the will and disagreements among his surviving relatives meant that the process was set back.

B: Each recipient received – and still receives – a medal, a diploma and a monetary award. As of 2010, 817 individuals and 23 organizations had been awarded a Nobel Prize. Yet not every winner, referred to as a ‘laureate’, has actually accepted the award. In the 1930s, three German winners were not permitted by their government to accept the Nobel Prize, and the government of the Soviet Union pressured Boris Pasternak into declining his award in 1958. In 1964, Jean Paul Sartre, a French writer, also declined the award, although this was not politically motivated – he simply did not accept any official honour.

C: Of all the recipients of Nobel Prizes, only one organisation or person has been awarded the honour multiple times – the Red Cross (which has been awarded a Prize three times). Another interesting statistic is that less than 5 percent of Nobel prizes have been awarded to women, the first of whom was Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Also, since its inception, there have been two occasions where no winner was found for the prizes – in 1941 and 1942. This was largely due to the world war that was being waged at the time.

D: In 1969, having been running for nearly seventy years, a sixth area was introduced to the Nobel Prizes – economics. This was not a category defined in Nobel’s will, but was established by Sweden’s central bank in 1968 on the Bank’s 300th anniversary. Since this time, no categories have been added or removed from the prizegiving.

E: There are of course certain rules governing who can be selected for a Nobel prize. You cannot nominate yourself, nor can a person be nominated after their death. However, it is possible to award a prize to someone who is dead as long as they were alive during the nomination process. Each year, between 100 and 250 people are nominated.

F: Arguably the most well-known of the Nobel prizes is the Nobel Peace Prize. According to the terms of Nobel’s will, it is not the Swedish Academy of Science nor the Academy of Arts (both of which select the recipient for the other prizes); instead, the Peace Prize is awarded by 5 people selected by the Norwegian parliament. But it is not just these 5 people who are carefully chosen – even those who have the right to nominate others are selected from a narrow selection of candidates. Members of national assemblies and governments, as well as selected international governmental bodies, university professors of history, political science, philosophy, law and theology, university presidents and directors of peace research and international affairs institutes, as well as former recipients are among the privileged few.

G: For a nomination to be considered, only one acceptable nominator needs to suggest the name, but a shortlist of nominees, and the final recipient, is decided by the Nobel Institute, comprising of the 5 people selected by the Norwegian Parliament, as mentioned before.

H: Although there is always the aim of reaching a unanimous verdict amongst those judging, there are times when this has not always been the case. In fact, some of the judging panel have resigned following a final decision that they felt was not correct; since its inception, the Peace Prize nominees have included people like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini (although they were not awarded the prize). On the other side, there are certain people who are in many ways synonymous with the struggle for peace yet have not been recognised – Mahatma Gandhi, for example, was nominated 5 times but never actually won an award.

I: Unsurprisingly, there have been a number of controversial winners of the Nobel Peace prize over the last 100 years. In the 1940s, Cordell Hull won the Peace Prize for his efforts in putting together the United Nations, but this was in many respects overshadowed by allegations that he campaigned against allowing a boat of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi regime to seek asylum in America. Anti-Semitic allegations tarnished the prize awarded to John Forbes Nash, who was himself suffering from schizophrenia (a disease which is considered to have impacted on some of his more public comments). Rumours also surrounded Wangari Maathai, a scientist and the first African woman to receive the award, with some claiming that she had aimed certain aggressive remarks at non-African scientists. A claim was also publicly made against the successful nomination of Barack Obama, with the award being given for ‘outstanding international diplomatic efforts’ only 12 days after he took office, with many claiming that the nomination and award were politically motivated.

J: But regardless of the controversies, allegations and history of Nobel, there is no doubt that for many countries, and many people, the Nobel Prizes are a welcome recognition of efforts in a wide range of fields. The award ceremony has, in recent years, become something of a global media event. There is a ‘Peace Prize Concert’ which is broadcast to over 450 million households in over 150 countries.

Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND A NUMBER  from the text.