READING SECTION

Fire devastates Cutty Sark ship

The Cutty Sark ship, one of London's most popular tourist attractions, has been devastated
by a fire, which police think may have been started on purpose.

More than 40 firefighters were called to the 138-year-old tea clipper ship in Greenwich
early on Monday morning.

The ship had recently been closed to visitors so improvements costing £25 million could be
carried out.

A spokesman for the London fire service said the whole ship was affected by the massive
fire but nobody was hurt.

Police don't know what caused the fire yet, but said they were treating it as suspicious. That
means the fire may have been started on purpose rather than by accident.

Chris Livett, from the group which looks after the ship, said the fire was a significant
setback but they were determined to put the ship back together again.

He said the decks could not be saved but the damage didn't appear as bad as first
feared.

Half the planking, as well as all the old artefacts on board, escaped damage as they had
been removed while the refurbishment work was under way.
He added: "She's been through storms and hurricanes. She's been battling all her life. She's
not dead yet, far from it."

The Cutty Sark was used to carry tea around the world in the 19th century. It now sits at a
dry dock at Greenwich as a living museum.

EXERCISES

Ex 1. Are these statements True or False?

1 The police believe the fire started by chance. ____False__________

2 People couldn’t visit the ship because it had recently been sold for £25 million.
False
3 The fire only caused damage to the decks. ___TRUE_____
4 The police are not sure whether someone set fire to the ship deliberately.
______true___
5 According to one of the people who look after the ship, the fire caused a major
delay in their work. ____FALSE_______
6 Chris Livett is afraid the damage to the ship is worse than they had thought at
first. ____False________
7 The old artefacts were not destroyed because they had been taken away before
the fire started. _____True__________
8 The Cutty Sark has survived many difficult circumstances.
_____True__________

Joining a gym
Listen to the conversation about joining a gym to practise and improve your
listening skills.
COMPLETE THE TEXT WITH THE CORRECT WORDS

Receptionist: Hello, welcome to Shake it Off Fitness. How can I help you?

Customer: Yes, thanks. I've been meanned to come in and find some

information about here for some time. I was wondering if you could help me?

Receptionist: Sure, of course. What would you like to know?

Customer: I saw on the sign outside that you have the best budget member
ship in the city. Is that right?

Receptionist: You've got that right, yes. If you find a better rate, then we'll
match it. Also, we don't have any sign-up fees or cancellation fees.

Customer: Sorry, what was that last bit?

Receptionist: Cancellation fees. Some gyms charge you money if you leave

before a minimum number of months or something like that. We don't do that.

Customer: That's useful to know. Ummm, what times do you have?

Receptionist: We open at 5:00 AM and close at midnight.

Customer: Not 24 hours then, I see.

Receptionist: No. Almost, though! We tried doing the 24-hour thing, but

there really weren't a lot of people who wanted to do exercise at 2 in the
morning.
Customer: Makes sense. Another question: do you have trainers? Like, will
you do a personal of me?

Receptionist: Sure we do. As we say on our brochure, we can show you what

to do, how to do it and why you're doing it. Have you worked with a personal
trainer before?

Customer: Err, no. No, I haven't. No.

Receptionist: So, it's very easy. For your first visits we'll assign you one of
our expert personal trainers. He or she will design an exercise plan that's just
right for you and show you exactly what to do. We even include nutricional
advice in the plan.

Customer: Let me get this straight. All of this is included in the price?

Receptionist: Yes, it is. If you want to continue with your trainer after the
first few classes, we can talk about that. It does cost extra though. OK?

Customer: Yeah. Sounds ... great.

Receptionist: Do you have any other questions?

Customer: Hmmm, yeah. Um, OK. Why should I choose here of any of the
other gyms in the city?

Receptionist: What, you mean apart from our competitive rates and

personalised attention?

Customer: Yeah, I guess.

Receptionist: Listen, here's a free day pass. Why don't you drop by and see
for yourself? That way you can talk to other members, see the facilities and
our all those.

Customer: OK, I'll do that. Thanks very much!

Writing
Since I was a child, I like to do a lot of rough activities, because they release adrenaline
and make me relax.
I liked to practice football, in elementary school I played with my friends, in high school I
entered a tournament and in college I played Tochito
I also train Tekwondo since I was 9 years old, currently I am a black belt. I liked it a lot
because it gave me a lot of strength and flexibility, I could run very fast unlike now.
That's in the sports part, but there were other activities that I really liked. One of them was
drawing and coloring, I had a giant quarrel where I painted with watercolors it was very
relaxing, I usually did it when I finished my homework.