TEST 4 -TASK ONE

TEXT 1
As the daughter of an Academy Award-winning actor, Angelina Jolie was not a stranger to the film
industry. She studied at a drama school, where she played in several stage productions. She worked as a
professional model in London, New York and Los Angeles, and also appeared in music videos. Angelina
has won an Oscar. In addition, she has 89 nominations for acting.
In 2000, Jolie was asked to star in the movie Lara Croft. At first, she was not interested, but then she
decided that the athletic training required for the role was intriguing. The Croft character was based on a
popular video game. Lara Croft was a female combination between Indiana Jones and James Bond. When
the film was released, critics were not impressed with the final product, but it won almost 300 million
dollars in sales.
One of the places where the movie Lara Croft was shot was Cambodia. There Jolie was impressed by
the natural beauty, culture and poverty of the country. She considered this an eye opening experience,
and she began her humanitarian campaigns giving one third of her salary to charity.

TEXT 2
Boxing Day is a national holiday in the UK and Ireland. It is celebrated on 26th December, the day after
Christmas. Here are two stories about where this holiday comes from.
A ‘Christmas Box’ in Britain is a name for a Christmas present. In the past Boxing Day was a non-
working day for servants when they received a ‘Christmas Box’ from their masters. The servants also
went home to give ‘Christmas Boxes’ to their families.
Another story tells us that on Christmas day special boxes were placed in churches to collect money for
the poor people and they were opened the next day.
Boxing Day was made an official holiday in England and Wales in the middle of the 19 th century by
Queen Victoria.
Nowadays Boxing Day is a time to spend with family or friends. Traditionally, people exchange small
gifts, and have a slice of traditional Christmas cake or a light meal. Boxing Day is not connected with
the sport of boxing but there are all kinds of public sports events on this day such as football matches
and horse racing.

TEXT 3
The kiwi is a national symbol and icon of New Zealand. The name of the bird comes from the language
of Maor, and it means a “hidden bird”. The association between the kiwi birds and New Zealand is so
strong that often the word kiwi is used to refer to the people of New Zealand. The kiwi appeared as a
symbol for the first time in the middle of the 19th century, when it was pictured on New Zealand military
badges.
During the First World War “Kiwi” was used as a nickname for New Zealand soldiers. Nowadays the
use of the word has spread, so that it applies to all New Zealanders.
Kiwis are one of the most ancient and unique birds in the world. The kiwi is the only bird, which does
not have a tail. In comparison with other birds, it has a very good sense of smell, but not so well developed
vision.

TEXT 4
The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 as the entrance to the World’s Fair in Paris. It was named after the
French engineer Gustav Eiffel who designed it. The Tower is the tallest structure in Paris. It is also the
most-visited paid monument in the world.
The Tower stands 320 metres high and has three levels for visitors. They can buy tickets to climb the
Tower by lift only to the first and second level. Of course, visitors can reach all the three levels by stairs.
One has to buy tickets for the stairs, too. There are restaurants only at the first and second level. The
Eiffel Tower has become the most famous symbol of both Paris and France.
However, not all people like the Tower. A well-known journalist visited Paris and spent a lot of time
eating and writing in one of its restauransts. One day a friend said that he must be very impressed with
the Eiffel Tower because he spent so much time there.
"Impressed!?" the journalist replied. "I remain here because it's the only place in Paris where I can avoid
seeing this ugly thing!"

TEXT 5
There was a man who loved money more than anything, and just before he died, he said to his wife,
"Now listen, when I die, I want you to take all my money and place it in the casket with me. I want to
take my money to the afterlife."
Well, one day he died. He was lying in the casket and his wife was sitting there in black next to her
closest friend. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket,
the wife said "Wait just a minute!"
She had a shoe box with her, she came over with the box and placed it in the casket. Then the undertakers
locked the casket and rolled it down in the earth. Her friend said, "I hope you weren't crazy enough to
put all that money in the casket."
"Yes, I did," the wife said, "I promised. I'm a good Christian, I can't lie. I promised him that I was going
to put that money in the casket with him."
"You mean to tell me you put every cent of his money in the casket with him?"
"I sure did. I put all his money into my bank account and I wrote him a check."

TEST 4 -TASK TWO

On 25 October 1881 a little boy was born in Malaga, Spain. It was a difficult birth and to help him
breathe, cigar smoke was blown into his nose! But despite being the youngest ever smoker, this baby
grew up to be one of the 20th century’s greatest painters – Pablo Picasso.
Picasso showed his truly exeptional talent from a very young age. He learned to draw before he could
talk. He was the only son in the family and very good-looking, so he was thoroughly spoilt. He hated
school and often refused to go unless his doting parents allowed him to take one of his father’s pet pigeons
with him!
Apart from pigeons, his great love was art, and when in 1891 his father, who was an amateur artist, got
a job as a drawing teacher at a college, Pablo went with him to the college. He often watched his father
paint and sometimes was allowed to help. One evening his father was painting a picture of their pigeons
when he had to leave the room. He returned to find that Pablo had completed the picture, and it was so
amazingly beautiful that he gave his son his own palette and brushes and never painted again. Pablo was
just 13.
From then onwards there was no stopping him. Many people realized that he was a genius but he
disappointed those who wanted him to become a traditional painter. He was always breaking rules of
artistic tradition and shocked the public with his strange and powerful pictures. He is probably best
known for his “Cubist” pictures, which used only simple geometric shapes.
Pablo created over 6000 paintings, drawings and sculptures. Today a “Picasso” costs several million
pounds. Once, when the French Minister of Culture was visiting Picasso, the artist accidentally split some
paint on the Minister’s trousers, Picasso apologized and wanted to pay for them to be cleaned, but the
Minister said, “Non! Please, Monsieur Picasso, just sign my trousers!”
Picasso died of heart failure during an attack of influenza in 1973.