Reading Practice 3

Part 1

In this task, you have to complete a sentence by choosing the correct word from
three options A, B or C. An example has been done for you.

Hello Gary,

I (0) hope you are OK. I need to (1) _______ you a favour. Please can you (2) ________
some tea from the shop? I forgot to (3) ______ to the shop before work. Make sure
you don’t (4) _______ or we will have none for tomorrow!

See you at (5) _______ past nine tonight!

Love,
Jessica

0. hope love see

1. remind want ask
2. get sell draw
3. drive go remember
4. lie forget give
5. forty-five o’clock half

17
Part 2

In this part, you have to order the sentences so that they make a complete, coherent
text. Both texts start with option A.

Text 1

A. English has 11 basic colour words: red, yellow, pink, green, orange, purple, blue,
black, white, brown, and grey.
B. Of course, we describe colours with other words, too.
C. Also, we may say something is coffee-coloured or lime green, etc.
D. If we want to describe a colour more exactly, we often use ‘light’ or ‘dark’, for
example light blue.
E. Some don’t have lighter or darker tones, like lilac, for example, because this is the
name of a plant.
F. However, in Russian, light blue and dark blue are different colours with
completely different names.

Text 2

A. We spent a week at Jade’s Hostel in Cornwall and really enjoyed ourselves.

B. Overall, it was amazing but it would be perfect if it were a bit closer to the
beach!
C. The beds are not great and if you need everything to be very comfortable,
maybe this is not the best place for you.
D. When we arrived at the hostel, we saw it was so quiet, right in the middle of a
beautiful forest, with lots of guests relaxing and preparing for treks.
E. We met lots of them at the hostel café. Jade is always friendly and makes sure
her guests are happy.
F. Jade’s likeable husband, Jamie, picked us up at the station, which was good
because there’s no public transport near the hostel.

18
Part 3

To complete this task, you need to match four people’s opinions (Person A-D) to
seven questions. Read their comments and answer the questions (1-7).

A beginner in winter sports

Person A

As a skateboarder, I assumed I’d be pretty good at snowboarding; I have great balance

and I’m used to moving at speed downhill. It was therefore discouraging to discover
that this gave me no advantage over the others in my beginners’ class in the Italian
mountains. I spent a lot of time sitting in the snow! After two long days, I finally
managed to stay upright and get down a short, gently sloping run, much to my delight.
Is snowboarding something I’d do again? Definitely – though I’d probably make sure
my technique is better before booking myself another winter holiday.

Person B

Having been useless at roller-skating as a kid, I didn’t expect to do any better at ice
skating. When my friend bought me a lesson as a gift, I didn’t exactly jump up and
down in excitement. In fact, I initially refused to go anywhere near the ice rink for fear
of embarrassing myself in front of spectators. Fortunately, the rink was almost empty,
and once the skates were on, there was no going back. My instructor was encouraging,
and my confidence was given a huge boost when I realised I was actually doing OK. I
doubt I’ll take it any further, but it was more fun than I expected.

Person C

Living in Sweden, you’d think I’d have tried every winter sport there is, but there was
one I hadn’t even considered before last winter: Nordic skiing. I’d avoided it for the
same reason I avoid walking in the mountains: I’d rather glide easily down a hill than
push myself up one! One cold January morning, I joined a Nordic skiing group knowing
there were a few kilometres ahead of me. The technique isn’t too tricky, but you
certainly need strong muscles. The views were spectacular and the company was very
pleasant, but I’ve never felt so relieved to see the end point come into sight in my life!

19
Person D

Skiing’s always looked exciting to me but living in London, there wasn’t much
opportunity to give it a go. Then I went on a winter holiday and my dream became a
reality. At first, I hated it: the boots felt tight and the minute I got the skis on, my legs
slid in different directions. Against advice, I went up the ski lift on my own. The
beginner slope looked almost flat until I reached the top and basically fell off the lift.
From the top it looked much steeper. I couldn’t go back, so I managed to keep the skis
straight for the first few metres and then collapsed on the snow. After a while, I
started to get the hang of it. It’s difficult – but I’m definitely going back next year.

Which person… Answer

1. says they did not want to be watched?
2. says they were bad at a similar sport before trying it?
3. says that knowing a similar sport did not help them?
4. says they could not do the activity where they live?
5. says you need to be fit to do this activity?
6. says they should have listened to other people?
7. says it took them a few days to get used to the activity?

20
Part 4

To complete the task, you need to match 7 headings (titles) to the correct paragraphs
in the text. Choose from the list (A-H) and match it to a paragraph (1-7).

1.

People have been saying that papers were going to die out for the last 50 years. First, it
was TV that was supposed to kill it, but it did not really have an effect on it. It’s true
that the sale of newspapers began to decrease slowly in the 1950’s and a few even
went out of business. Having said that, there were other newspapers that prospered
and various new ones started to grow in popularity, selling millions of copies a day.
Therefore, we have proof that those who thought television would destroy the
newspaper industry were wrong.

2.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the newspaper’s new and coming
adversary: the internet. It is safe to say that this is something that the industry has
never had to face before. There is not a single daily or weekend national newspaper is
currently selling more copies than in 2016. In some cases, the amount of papers sold
has dropped dramatically. The internet, of course, is not the only reason for this. Most
of the natural markets and sectors that these papers were aimed at, especially for
industrial workers, were already declining from the end of the last century and this has
picked up speed since the beginning of this one.

3.

The internet was the death sentence to those papers that were already struggling to
survive, up to such a point that it even started affecting the very healthy and lucrative
ones. The consequence of this has been an overwhelming and general attempt to
make as many savings in the sector as possible. So, is it time for editors, publishers,
and journalists to finally abandon ship? Some say that the decline in physical sales is
not important to the reader anyway.

21
4.

Although the sales are going down, many of us, especially those lucky enough to be
under 30, have simply changed the newspaper for an electronic device. If we add up
the readers that are online to those that still go to the newsagent’s every morning,
there may easily be as many, if not more, people reading the national press as there
were at the beginning of the millennium. With sales seemingly staying strong, editors
have confirmed that they will maintain true to their idea of having a wide variety of
publications, so as to give plenty of opportunities to writers.

5.

Additionally, the world’s most successful media boss recently came out and
commented to the press that the newspaper industry could become, in a matter of
years, more popular than ever. Adding that “the format we use might change, in one
way or another, but our overall goal is always going to be the same and because of
that, we’re looking at a larger possible audience than before”. This sounds sensible,
and as a writer myself, I hope he’s right. That said, I cannot help but think that he is
doing what all bosses do: be very optimistic about results.

6.

The main problem is that no one really knows how to make the money the newspapers
generate per purchase in a digital form yet. Let me explain this a little better, An online
reader of a newspaper is worth around 10 pence per month to the publisher, whereas
someone who buys the same news in its physical form at a newsagent’s every day,
generates up to 30 or even 40 times more income. Also, the hard copies of
newspapers are still more well known, meaning that they attract more advertising
companies than the internet versions. At this moment in time, around 95% of
newspapers get 50% of their income from selling their newspapers on a daily basis. In
other words, digital newspapers are living off their newsprint parents.

22
7.

Newsprint is still, for now at least, where the money is. It seems logical therefore that,
as more and more switch to reading online short and catchy articles, instead of buy a
full paper copy, the amount and quality of what they read will eventually go down as
well. The proof of this is evident in how newspapers have cut back on reporters in the
last 10 years. When it comes down to it, if you buy a newspaper from your local
newsagent’s, you are supporting expensive, creative, and ambitious journalism; it
seems now that if you read the same newspaper online, you are no longer doing this.

Headings Answer
A. An ambitious future
B. The death of newspapers?
C. Show me the money!
D. Eco-advertising
E. Paying for true journalism
F. The newcomer to news
G. Age is important
H. The final nail in the coffin.

23