I Britain, there are many reality shows on TV. You may have read about Trust Me, I'm a Teenager in which young people help families to solve their problems. Big Brother, in which a group of sirangers live in a house together, is another example. ‘A programme that millions of people enjoy is ma Celebrity, Get Me Out of Hore. It started in 2002 and since then there has been show every year. In I'm a Celebrity, Get Mo Out of Here a group of famous people go to live in the Australian rainforest. They live in simple ‘accommodation and each day they complete activities to win food. It is difficult to survive in the rainforest: it is very hot and there are c lot ‘of unusual - and sometimes dangerous - animals, snakes ‘and insects. The celebrities quickly forget obout the comeras and the audience soon sees what they are really like: kind, lazy, moody, aggressive, helpful or arrogant. Each day, the audience chooses one person to leave the camp. The winner is the person left after two weeks, The first winner was Tony Blackbur, a fiftynineyear. old radio disc jockey and the second one was Phil Tufnell, a sportsman who used to play cricket for the English team.THE MANCHESTER PROJECT Summer holiday elub for 12-16 vear olds, ‘Volunteer: Dave Carter Age: 18 Hi! I'm Dave Carter. This summer I'm here in Manchester as 4 volunteer with the Manchester Project. The project organises a summer holiday club for teenagers. I don't get any pay but T get free food and accommodation. Manchester is an exciting city, It is situated in the north-west of England on the River Irwell. It has a population of around 444,000 people and of course it is famous for its two Football clubs. I don't come from Manchester. I come from Bath, I live with my parents in a flat in the centre of the eity. Bath is a very old ‘ty situated in the south-west of England on the River Avon, Ithas a population of around 85,000 people. It is famous for its beautiful buildings and its Roman baths, There are also some interesting museums in Bath. | like the Museum of (Costume where there are clothes from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century, ‘The Manchester Project is hard work but I like it. Our rooms. are a bit basic. There's one thing } don’t like - we can't put any posters up in our rooms! I've gota lot of posters on my bedroom wall at home - they're all of my favourite team - Manchester d. Qwor newsletter 1Example ictter 3 Hamilton Street London, NWE 7GE March 6th Dear Alison, Thanks very much for your letter, I'm sarry | haven't bees in touch for ages, but I've had te work really hard at school ~ the exams are in two weeks time and I'm really nervous. this time. It was so nice to hear from you and I'm glad your | party went so well. | did have 2 weekend off from studying last month - Dad insisted | take a break and we all went up into the mountains and did some walking together Very heatthy! ‘But apart from that | haven't done much except work and sleep, "m getting very boring, I'm realty looking forward to seeing you in the holidays. Good luck with your exams! Give my love to your parents, Love from, Andrea.———— Possible answers One Sunday afternoon fast! winter, in early February, | think, | decided to go with a friend of mine, Antonia, fer a bike ride. We decided ta ride imta town ond go to the skating rink, It was very cold. There was stiff seme snow an the ground ond fats of feieles from the roofs. We could see our breath in the air We were cycling along a country lane when we saw some children playing ona frozen pond, They were only about seven or eight years old ond they were kicking @ football about on the ice They kepe sliding about and joughing when they fell aver Suddenty we feard 3 shout. To que herror one of the bays, J think he wos the youngest, had failen theough the ice! He had gore too far Fram the edge of the pond and the ice was thin and broke under him. We immediately rushed over to help but it was too dangerous te walk across the ice. The little boy was trying to climb out of the water and shouting for help. My friend and | ran to borrow a ladder from a garden near the pond. | put the ladder on the lee and crawied very slowly ond carefully across it towards the boy ‘He hod stopped trying ta move now and was just holding the edge of the ice and crying. | caught holg of his hand and Finally managed to pull him out of the icy water, Luckily the boy wasn't hurt, just very frightened, His parents tuened up about ten minutes later, When ‘they saw him, standing dy the pand shivering and deleping with fcy wares, they were shocked and very angry with hil | felt a bit sorry for the boy. He had certainly learnt a lesson - the hard way!Example text ‘Mobile phones for teenagers: yes or na? In recent years, mobile phones have become one of the most common accessories, Everybody has them, But do we really need them? ‘There are many points we can make in their favour. One of the advantages of having 2 mobile phone is that you ean use ft to stop people worrying about you. On Friday, for ccxample, I missed my last bus home, but! was ale to get aa Hift from @ friend's father. | was going to be half an hour late getting hame and I knew my parents would worry. However, | had my mobile phone with me and | phones! ‘them, Asa result they were nol worried - or angry What's More, you can use your mobile to get neip, as my sister did when her ble had = puncture, miles from anywhere. She just called home and my father rescued ber, Mobile Phones are not only useful in serious ways, but can also add to our enjoyment of our spare time: we ean phone our frien any time, anywhere. We are never out of touch, Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages too. In my Gpinian, one of the most irritating things in the world is sitting next to someone an a bus or train when they are having @ long, loud conversation, which is usually nat about anything Important. | recently heard someone phone a friend she was on her way to meet and | am sure she told her everything she was going to say! Contrary to. what people think, same mobile phones can still be very expensive. You have to choose carefully. Consequently, uriless your parents ea for the phone, you may find you are spending all your allowance on it. Although there are disadvantages ta mobile phones, in my ‘opinion, the advantages are more important, Provided that ‘you are careful which one you choose, snd careful how ‘you use it, your mobile phone can be one of your best friends.Example text Axperson todmire A person I admire very much is my grandmather. She is my mother's mather, and since my grandfather died last year ‘she has lived with my parents, She is about sixty-five but | he fooks much younger - one Of the first things you notice about ner is how smooth and unwrinkled her skin is. She is quite tall with short, curly grey hait: She never has it Permes, it curls naturally. She wsed to wear it fong but | ‘hink it suits her better short: Her hair is really thick and | shiny. She hes a very nice voice, it’s soft ana quite low but very clear and musical, mayoe because she is Welsh. Her voiee js one of her most striking features She is almays good fun to be with, she makes lots af jokes and makes us all laugh. She has had a seally hard life but she is ahways cheerful and seems as if she is happy | think that is the reason | admire her sa much, She drives a car so she often takes us out for the day in the holidays and she knows the kind of places we like to go. She newer takes us anywhere boring Another reason | admire her is because she always does. What she likes. She doesn't care what other people think. | Uke that. | shall always remember the time when she was so angry about a new road being buift that she joined the rotesters and sat in 3 tree house for three days, She was in all the papers ana we were really proud of her10> Read the letter. 10 High Street Gordontown Gordon GR21BT Dear Chris, Thanks very much for your letter asking me to write to you. | like writing letters and U've already got a pen friend, Harry, in Canada and one in Finland, called Anya. Yim going to Finland for a holiday next summer and I'm going to stay with Anya in Helsinki, We've written to cach other for four years but we've never met. Like you, I'm fifteen years old. I've got two younger brothers. They're twins and they're nine years old, We usually get on well but sometimes they really annoy me. My father works in a bank and my mother a housewife. My grandmother also lives with us. We have an old house with a big garden, Please tell me something about your family and where you live. 1go toa high school in the next town, It is a large, modern school. Lessons start at 8.30 a.m. and finish at 3.30 pom. My favourite subjects are Geography and Maths. 1 hate Biology! We've _got exams next month and I'm not looking forward to them! 1 belong to the school drama club. We meet on Fridays after school. What is your school lke? What are your favourite subjects? In my free time | go sailing, My father has a small yacht and we often spend the weekend on the boat. | alse like swimming and watching horror films. What are your hobbies? Well, that's enough for now. Please write soon. Love from Kim12> Read the article. Should every child have a computer at home as soon as they start school? Schools are using computers more and more today. When children start primary school at the age of four or five, there will be computers in their class and they will quickly learn how to use them. The question js, should parents buy their children their own home computer as soon as they start school? If parents decide to do this, the children can practise their computer skils at home. This will help them learn faster at schoo! and consequently they will do better What's more, young children really enjoy using computers and can spend hours happily playing | with them, Another reason | for buying a computer for your child early on is that young children learn to use them more easily than older children. But there are arguments against this. Although children use computers in their primary classrooms, it is not necessary for parents to buy them their own computers. Young children need to be active and play outside. If they spend too long in front of a computer, it can be harmful. Not only can it damage their eyes, but they also fail to learn how to get on with other children. What's more, a computer doesnot become really important for school work until children are much older: It is true that young children of four or five lear to use computers quickly and enjoy using them but other things are more important at that age. Perhaps the conclusion is that parents do not need to buy a computer for their young child, as there are more important things. However. if there is already a computer at home, the child can be allowed to use it for short periods only,10> Read the newspaper report. Police in Manchester are looking for a man who it is thought stole money from the bank where he worked. Robin Curtis had worked in the bank in North Street for ten years since he left school. Last Friday he did not turn up for work The same day, the bank manager discovered that £50,000 was missing from the safe. Mr Curtis lives alone in a flat in the city centre. His neighbours have not seen him since last Thursday. Several of them remember seeing him that evening. He was driving a new Mercedes car and he seemed in a hurry. They describe Mr Curtis as a quiet, serious man who seemed rather shy. Mr Curtis is twenty-seven. He is of medium height, slim, with short brown hair. He has a long, thin face, blue eyes and is clean-shaven. He wears a pair of silver glasses for reading but doesn’t wear them all the time. When he was last seen by his neighbours driving away in the Mercedes, he was wearing. a pair of blue jeans, white T-shirt and a black leather jacket. Mr Curtis did not say anything to his colleagues at the bank or his neighbours about going away. They are all worried in case he has had an accident or is ill. None of them can believe that he would steal money from the bank. The police say that at present they are not accusing Mr Curtis of stealing the money. However, they would like to interview him as soon as possible in order to make sure that he is safe. Mr Curtis used to live in Devon when he was a boy and the police think he may have gone back to that area. The police would like anyone who has seen Mr Curtis since Thursday to contact them immediately, either by ringing 0111- 683-362 or by calling their local police station.ly Read the report. Holiday Reports No. 57: The Avon Camping Site Introduction ‘As requested, | visited the Avon Camping Site, which was opened two years ago and is advertised as an ideal camping site for families. | interviewed fifty families who were staying at the camp during the week of August 3rd. As a result, | have some general points to make and a few recommendations. 1 The facilities On the whole, the facilities are very good. There is plenty of space and no one felt that the site was crowded. There is a good range of sports for all ages from the children’s play area for the under-fives to the tennis courts, football pitch and Olympic-size swimming pool. There are seven different cafeterias and five excellent shops where the campers can buy everything they need, from toothpaste to tomatoes. The people | interviewed were very pleased with the facilities. However, some felt that the shops should be open later in the evening. At present the shops close at 9 p.m. 2 Ease of access The camping site is situated in beautiful countryside near the river and about fifteen minutes from the motorway. It is well signposted and on arrival there are no problems finding your own space and registering at the Reception Office. 3 Prices Everybody thought the prices in the shops and restaurants were very reasonable, The Texan Restaurant was especially popular with children. Most people felt that the entry prices to the swimming pool were a little expensive, especially for a whole family and suggested that there should be a special family entry ticket of £7. Conclusion To sum up, this is an excellent family camping site, with plenty to do whatever the weather. My recommendations are that: 1 the shops should remain open later in the evening. 2 the swimming pool offers a family entry ticket of £7.Dear Jeanette How are you? | hope everything is OK, WW Friday night, 20 I'm rot doing my homework. fm drinking tea and writing thie letter in my bedroom. Mum and Dad are watching TV downstairs, in the strting room, but my little brother, Tory, i6 with me. He's playing a computer game and listening to music, It's very noisy! He's going to have oupper and go Le bed in a few minutes, thark goodness, Claire, my sister; isn't at home, She's at the skating rink with her friends. She can't skate very well, but she has a good time. Do you remember my big brother, Michael? He remembers youl He's making a sandwich in the kitchen — he’s always hungry. He's gcing 0 go to a club with his friends tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to tidy my room (roring!). Then f'm goirig to go shopping with Claire. She wants a rew pair of jeans Write e0on Love LouiseThis helicopter is flying above the streets of a big city. It is sending traffic reports to the radio station. Look at the pictures. What is the reporter saying? Here are some words which may help you: | get stuck heavy traffic light traffic a trafficjam © a hold-up bumper to bumper ‘on accident a collision to collide with an ambulance There is.o hold-up at Hunter's Bridge. AtOck Tree Rouncabout _ a = hbRead this letter to Uncle Bob. | Dear Uncle Bob, 1am having a few problems at the moment because J have just moved to the city from a small village. Can you help me? My new school is very big. At break time there are lots of children in the playground and it is very noisy. Sometimes | feel quite frightened. The other children in my class seem nice but I don’t have any friends yet. I feel lonely sometimes. My teachers are friendly but the work we do is very difficult. Sometimes I can’t do it at all. In our village we lived in a house but now we have @ flat. I used to play in the garden but we don’t have a garden now and sometimes | am quite bored. I would like to have a pet but my mum says I can't have a dog or a cat would like to go back to our village but we can’t do that because of my dad’s job. I feel so sad here. What can | do? Lavra. How can Laura make her life happier at school and at home?Look at the pictures and write the story. The words below mi my Geman) Dai # | jay help you. You are very kind boys. You can have three wishes, ens The brothers went home (TwishThada (Twi ish the chicken leg ‘Once upon a time flash change bright would stick to your nose! brothers Bill and Ben magician hungry three wishes! wood poor angry __ stick, stuck, stuck The three wishes7) Read this. | ‘in Japan a space ship has been designed which will take tourists, not astronauts, into space. The space ship is called Kanko Maru. It is about 30 metres long and can carry fifty passengers. It can take off and land at any eirport. What will these travellers do in space? They will orbit the Earth and look down on the cold North and South Poles, the hot tropical jungles and, at night, the lights of the world’s biggest cities, They will look at the moon and the stars. Travellers will spend one or two nights at a space hotel, which will orbit the Earth From there they will go on trips to the moon, Some people have said that they want to get married in space. Flights on Kenko Maru will be very expensive but many Japanese people have said they would like to be space | tourists. The builders of Kanko Maru hope that by the | year 2010 fifty Japanese will \ have bought their tickets and set off on the most exciting journey of their lives (adapted from The Guardian 11.2.97)is EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT UFO in the trees 1 It was fifty years ago but remember it as if it was yesterday I was at the top of the stairs when I heard the crash. It sounded like an explosion on the next block. My wife and Iran out into the street. We went towards the apple orchard behind Mr Grey's home and there we found pieces of debris all over the place. It was bad enough that two of the trees were destroyed but what we saw next made our blood run cold. 2 There were two bodies lying next to each other in the mess. They were obviously hurt and the older ‘man’ let leg was half cut off. But there was no blood. And inside the leg you could see lots of tubes, like thick ‘us. Later they brought two new trees and planted them in Mr Grey's orchard where the broken ones had been. They wanted it to look as though nothing had happened. But let's face it, humans are not full of hundreds of macaroni tubes with no blood. And that piece of metal was not any metal I could name. Since then we've got over our fear of more “UFOs” crashing into our back garden, But we've always wondered macaroni The other man showed signs offlife but made no sound. Someone 20 ran and called an ambulance. Others tried to talk to the injured men. I picked up a piece of metal. Ie was light asa feather and dark brown, I tried to bend it but it kept its shape. My wife 25 picked up some plastic staff which had no colour, like glass, but was in odd shapes, like parts of large balls. 3. The army came and took away the men and made us give them the 30 broken pieces of metal and plastic. ‘They told us it was a special craft from the airbase in the next state that had crashed. They said it was all very hush hnush but they trusted us. No one was 35 allowed to talk about it~ not them, not what had really happened. 4 And now, after fifty years, the 50 army's records ofthat crash have been released, sat last we can talk about it. ‘They admit the aircraft was not one of ‘ours. They admit the metal is not one they know. But as far as they are 55 ‘concerned the man with the macaroni legs was still a human pilot. And yet those of us who saw him and tried to talk to him know he was not. Why dont they tell us the truth?THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London A Thisis the story ofa great dog, Buck, who is stolen from his rich owner in San Francisco and taken to Alaska to work as a sledge dog. B_ Jack London wrote this book at the beginning of this century. He grew up in San Francisco, a poor young man who wanted to be rich. He had an independent spirit and found working for other people very hard. He wrote short stories and articles and did other jobs to earn enough money to live on. He was one of the men who joined the gold rush to Alaska in 1897. C__ Life was hard in that arctic climate. Men depended on their strength and their dogs. The dogs were the ‘engine’ that pulled men and luggage on sledges even in the worst weather. They were the only way to get around. D_ This story tells us how Buck was kidnapped and sold, how he was trained by hard men who were sometimes so cruel that they beat him until he could not stand, how he was taken by ship to the far north and how he became lead dog pulling loads for the men who were searching for gold. Near the end of the story aman called John Carpenter rescues Buck from a crazy owner and Buck comes to love him more than anyone else in his life. After John is killed Buck answers the Call of the Wild and becomes no man’s dog, living with the wolves of that great empty land. E__ Itis a wonderful adventure story full of action and interesting characters. It does not take long to read (it is less than 100 pages) and is not expensive. The publishers recommend it to anyone over ten years old.17, Lee High Street London SWI5 7@T. Dear Steve, | was talking to mum on the phone yesterday and she eaid you were thinking of “trying for university in UK, too. Studying in another country can be much more difficult than studying at home, so | thought you might find my ideas useful. You should go through all the books there are on what courses exist and what the universities are like. | can send you things like the UCAS Handbook and the Guide to Applying to University in the UK. If you want to get the best from them you need to give yourself a couple of days reading ‘time. In two days or so you ought to get to know what's in them and then you can decide exactly what you want to do and plan how to do it. if | were you, | would think first what job | want to do most: for instance, maybe you want to be an agricutturalist. Then | would work hard at echool on the subjects needed for that choice, eg. the eciences and geography. IF you don't know what you want yet, then keep working on what you are best at. But the really difficult thing is living in another country. Managing a bank account, learning to drive, signing a contract for the room you live in are all things that will be new to you. And if you have done them before, it will have been at home where such things are done differently. So my strongest advice is to come over to the UK for a holiday soon and see how everything works. Unless you do that, you won't feel eecure that you are making the right choice. if you come and stay a few days with me you will get.a much better idea of what it’s like. Let me know what you decide. Give my love to mum and dad. Robert ROUTE2 Read this film review Neranda Man Most of us do not think of the totally empty spaces of Siberia as being particularly exciting, but in this film such strange happenings occur on and around Lake Neranda in northern Siberia that we can sit through two and three-quarter hours of views of it and not notice the time. Sam Marlin’s ice- blue eyes and Michelle Lang’s increasingly weird behaviour, as they lead the team of scientific experts towards the unknown, add to the drama. The scientists are trying to find the ‘doorway to another world’ which they believe was found in the 1930s by a man who escaped from one of the communist prison camps. They set off from the warmth of St Petersburg by plane and end up walking dlong the freezing valley of a river running out of Lake Neranda. They are searching for a mysterious waterfall that never freezes, behind which they will find the doorway. There are eight of them and they walk in pairs, each pair with their sled of supplies pulled by dogs. We see the last sled attacked by wolves. We see the two women dealing with altitude sickness and one of the men with frostbite. We see Sam hearing a voice beside him as he walks alone behind the sled. He eventually replies to the voice’s questions and it turns out they are all apparently hearing the voices. The voices are affectionate and even funny. They make some great jokes about the members of the team. Only Ms Lang is left out of this comradeship — until she sees spooky footprints in the snow appearing beside Sam as he trudges along ... Are these the voices of people (Neranda men?) from another world, or are they the ‘phantom travellers’ who are said to accompany lonely explorers? You will learn a lot about Lake Neranda as well as the answer to that question if you go to see the film. You might also find that you are a changed person, even if the change is only in your opinion about the excitement possible in the great ‘emptiness’ that is Siberia.Read this passage about a famous character ‘There are very few descriptions of the problems of adolescents in English Literature. Those years of change, of learning about yourself and of strange longings and needs are not often focused on by great writers, perhaps because they are so confusing. One writer who had the courage, however, was Rudyard Kipling. He wrote thetwo ‘Jungle Books’ in the 19th century. In them, his stories of the Indian boy, Mowgli, who was lost in the jungle as a baby, show us the boy, the adolescent and, finally, the man. Most of us have only seen the Walt Disney version of the early adventures, when Mowgli was a happy-go-lucky child, taken care of by his wolf ‘parents’ and the snake, the bear and the panther, With their help he survived until he could take care of himself. He learned self-discipline and to obey the Law of the Jungle from them and this stood him in good stead as he got older. When he was about eleven and entering adolescence a conflict arose in the wolf pack. Some wolves, friends of Sheer Khan, the cowardly tiger, wanted Mowgli to go back to men. He agreed to leave and went to a village where he found his real mother, He stayed there and looked after the village cows. His strength was growing and he frightened the villagers with his jungle ways. He and his wolf brothers made the cows run mad and kill Sheer Khan. He skinned the tiger and laid the skin on Council Rock for every animal to see, and so fear Mowgli. The villagers were so afraid that they imprisoned his mother. He set her free and arranged with the elephants and other animals to ‘Let the jungle in’ to the village. ‘The houses and fields were destroyed and within six months there was only untamed jungle there.After that Mowgli lived with his four wolf brothers and his three friends in the jungle. He grew taller and stronger but sometimes had unexplainable urges. Feelings of extreme anger might change to total elation and last for minutes or days. He did incredible things like save ‘his’ wolves from a pack of wild dogs and he gave himself the title of Master of the Jungle. The year he was seventeen he fell into a deep state of sadness. He thought he was ill, but it was just that he had grown up. Although he and his animal friends promised never to forget each other, he had become an adult. Now he was even more frightening to other men, being both very tall and very muscular, and yet he wanted to cry like a baby. And so he went back to live with his mother in the villages of Men. Here the story ends and we are left to imagine his worries and emotional unease among the men he found so stupid — and perhaps his future visits to his jungle friends to run free with them in the spring. ‘The joy and pain of those adolescent years of change are very clearly and caringly described in these stories. Maybe that is why they are still so popular.Read this brochure advertising holidays for teenagers ADVENTURE IS WAI HOLBRO TING FOR YOU aT OK PARK a) Ga A ee YY Have you ever swooped down ikea bird from the hills into the valley? _Have you ever sped down a rushing river in a canoe? __Have you experienced the thrills and spills of a sailing race? Would you like to? Or would you rather put on a show in 18th century costume? Or take part in your own rock concert? Or ride a horse along the beach? _ Or spend a night in the mountains under the stars?It was winter and my cat, Rigoletto, didn’t normally go out much. | had noticed, however, that every night for the last two weeks, he left my bed when he thought I was asleep and only came back a few minutes before | woke up. Determined to find out more, one night | decided to follow him.| waited until he had left the bedroom and then got up quietly and started looking for him. He was nowhere to be found! By four in the morning, was exhausted and fell asleep. When | woke up three hours later, Rigoletto was standing on the bedside table, staring into my eyes. Relieved, | stroked him on the back, got up and went to the kitchen to make some coffee. When | went into the kitchen, a lovely black and white cat was waiting for me! Rigoletto, who had followed me, looked at her and then at me,as if to ask for my approval, and when I smiled they both started purring. Finally, | understood the mystery of his disappearance!THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM BILBAO Introduction The aim of this report is to describe the Guggenheim Museum in the city of Bilbao, in northern Spain. It is considered one of the wonders of the modern world and should not be missed by visitors to Bilbao. H Background information The museum was designed by the American architect, Frank Gehry, and is considered his masterpiece. It consists of a large architectural composition surrounded by a collection of interconnected blocks. It was opened on Sunday, 17 October 1997, and its presence has transformed Bilbao into a popular tourist centre What to see Apart from admiring the building itself, it is definitely | worth visiting the Museum’s collections of American and European art of the 20th century. The works i exhibited tell the history of art in our century and are; a must for every visitor. : Advice to visitors The Museum can be visited every day 9:00-19:30. Visitors are advised to allow a whole day for their visit, as the Museum occupies an area of 24,000 square metres.The Misery of Fame Carlos Valero must be the most famous man alive! Wouldn't you love to be in his shoes? And yet, he’s not as happy as you might have expected ... Being as famous as he is, Carlos can afford to go anywhere; he is never asked to pay for his food, drinks, flights or even taxi fares. Big companies consider it good publicity to have customers like him and taxi drivers are honoured to give him lifts. But there is also a downside: he has no personal life. Wherever he goes, the media cover it. His family and friends are constantly pestered for interviews. ‘There is not a moment of peace in my life; he says. Like every married couple, Carlos and his wife occasionally have rows. But unlike most other couples, they see the gist of their argument reported ‘on the eight o'clock news! Neighbours have called the TV channels before the quarrel has even started! So would he rather be an ordinary man than the superstar he is? ‘Maybe | would be happier that way; says Carlos.BUS TRAVEL Introduction ‘The aim of this report is to describe the advantages and disadvantages of bus travel in the city. Buses are used by the majority of the population for transport within the city, so an examination of the bus situation should be of great interest. Why bus travel? Firstly, bus travel is the most inexpensive form of transport, Bus tickets are still almost half the price of train Uckets, and only a fraction of a taxi fare for equivalent distances, Moreover, many people preter travelling by bus, rather than by train, because it is convenient for all areas of the city, In addition, there is no need to worry about parking as there is when travelling by car. The problems of bus travel On the other hand, the bus service is often unreliable and nota good choice if your main concern is punctuality, Furthermore, buses can be very crowded during the rush hour and, for this reason, rather i uncomfortable and not always clean Conclusion ‘Lo sum up, the main advantage of bus travel is the low cost; however, this seems to come at a priceSample composition Although a lot of people complain about the stress of living in the 20th Century, in my View the advantages of the modern world outweigh its disadvantages. Firstly, the technological advances of our century mean that we Can Communicate and work morc €asily by using Computers and the Internet. In addition, technology has provided solutions for travelling and tvansportation of goods, entertainment and protection from natural disasters. In a word, it has made our lives easier. Mor€over, a lot of progress has ben made in medicine, resulting in fewer deaths from diseases and accidents and longer life expectancy. On the other hand, the Earth is being polluted and its resources ave bing Exhausted at an alarming vate, and if people do not do something to Control this Situation soon, the human vace itself is in danger of extinction. To sum up, I think life today is casicv than in the past, but new problems have ocen created which require our immediate attention.Sample letter Dear Mrs Boyce, T saw your advertisement in the Youny Times and would Ike to apply Sor the job of receptionist at the Sunny Beach Hotel T believe T would be a suitable candidate For the Following reasons Fest of all, even thovgh I am still only seventeen years old, T have @ good working knowledye of English T cbtamed the Furst Certificate with grade A in December anc am currently studying Sor the Proficiency exam Iam also a very socuble and enjoy working with people Tn terms of experience, although T have never travelled abroad, my uncle owns @ hotel im Pome and T have worked there aS an assistant receptionst fer two summers. Most of the guests were English, so T used my language skills a let and discovered that T enjoy working, with tourists T am available to work. aster the end of Mav, when my school examinations Finish T look Sorward to hearing from you, Yours sincerely,