Reading and Use of English · Part 1
The oldest leather shoe in the world
Archaeologists (0) report that a perfectly preserved 5,500-year-old shoe has been discovered in a cave in Armenia in south-west Asia. It is (1) to be the oldest leather shoe ever found.
The shoe was made of a single piece of leather, stitched at the front and back, and was shaped to fit the wearer’s foot. It had been (2) with grasses, either for warmth or to make sure it kept its shape. “The shoe is relatively small but we can’t say for (3) whether it was worn by a man or a woman,” says Dr Ron Pinhasi, an archaeologist on the research (4). “We thought at first that it was about 600–700 years old because it was in such good shape.”
Shoes of this type from later periods have turned (5) in archaeological excavations in various places in Europe, and shoes of a very similar design were still being used on the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland as (6) as the 1950s. It’s (7) a style which (8) popular for thousands of years.
Reading and Use of English · Part 2
From black pepper to chilli pepper
In the 15th century, Europeans knew nothing of the chilli pepper, but they held black pepper in high regard and had used it in cooking (0) since Greek and Roman times. Ships travelling east brought the black pepper from the Spice Islands in South East Asia but this (9) a long time.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was asked to find a shorter route to the Spice Islands, going westwards (10) than eastwards, and so he set (11) from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus didn’t succeed (12) finding the Spice Islands but he (13) manage to reach the Americas.
There he (14) across another pepper: the chilli, which had been used in cooking in South America for thousands of years. Soon (15) Columbus’s voyage, large quantities of chillies were being shipped back to Spain from the Caribbean. Later, people realised that chillies would actually grow in southern Europe and it wasn’t long before fresh chillies were (16) sale in European markets.
Reading and Use of English · Part 3
Family bike fun
National Bike Week was celebrated last week in a (0) memorable way with a Family Fun Day in Larkside Park. The event (17) to be highly successful with over five hundred people attending.
Larkside Cycling Club brought along a (18) of different bikes to demonstrate the (19) that family members of all ages can get from group cycling. Basic cycling (20) was taught using conventional bikes. There were also some rather (21) bikes on display. One-wheelers, five-wheelers and even one which could carry up to six (22) were used for fun.
The club also gave information on how cycling can help to reduce (23) damage. They also provided (24) as to how people could substitute the bike for the car for daily journeys.
Words: PROOF · VARY · ENJOY · SAFE · USUAL · RIDE · ENVIRONMENT · SUGGEST
Reading and Use of English · Part 4
Key word transformations
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. Use between two and five words, including the word given.
Reading and Use of English · Part 5
Kombat Kate
James Stanton meets “Kombat Kate” Waters, who trains theatre actors in how to “fight” on stage. There must be few occasions when it would be really rude to refuse an invitation to head-butt someone you’ve just met, but I’m in one of those right now. I’m in a rehearsal room in a theatre with a group of actors, facing up to stage fighting director Kate Waters. I’ve already dragged her around the room and slapped her on the arm. Now she wants me to head-butt her. But fear not, this is all strictly pretend.
“Imagine there’s a tin can on my shoulder,” she says. “Now try to knock it off.” I lower my head as instructed, then lift it sharply, aiming for the imaginary can, hoping desperately that I don’t miscalculate the angle and end up doing damage to her face. To my amazement, I get it right. “That was good,” says Waters. “Now maybe try it again without smiling.”
Waters is showing me how actors fight each other without getting hurt, including sword-fighting. Perhaps the most famous play Kate has worked on recently was Noises Off. She taught the cast how to fall down stairs without breaking any bones. One of the fight scenes is fairly close to the one we’re trying out now. “I’ve just slowed it down a bit,” she says tactfully, before inviting me to throw her against the wall.
Once the lesson is over Kate tells me how she became one of only two women on the official register of stage fight directors. Already a keen martial arts expert from childhood, Kate did drama at university, and one module of her course introduced her to stage combat. She was told she would need a certificate in advanced stage combat, a black belt in karate and proficiency in fencing, a sport she had never tried before.
She later became a fight advisor for the theatrical world. The play she is working on is Shakespeare’s Richard III, which involves a famous sword fight. With no instructions left by Shakespeare other than “Enter Richard and Richmond: they fight, Richard dies”, the style and sequence of the fight is down to Kate and the actors.
Kate explains that she researches fights from a particular period, but because she is telling a dramatic story, not all the information is useful. The scene has to be exciting and do something for the audience. Ultimately, a stage fight is all smoke and mirrors.
Reading and Use of English · Part 6
How the recycling symbol was created
Gary Anderson designed a symbol which we see everywhere nowadays. I studied engineering at the University of Southern California at a time when there was a lot of emphasis in the United States on training young people to be engineers. That said, I eventually switched to architecture. I just couldn’t get a grasp on electronics and architecture seemed more concrete to me.
It was around that time that I saw a poster advertising a design competition being run by the Container Corporation of America. The idea was to create a symbol to represent recycled paper. One of my college requirements had been a graphic design course so I thought I’d give it a go. It didn’t take me long to come up with my design: only a day or two. But I already had arrows and angles in my mind because on my course I’d done a presentation on recycling waste water. 37
The problem with the design I’d done earlier was that it seemed flat, two-dimensional. So when I sat down to enter the competition, I thought back to a field trip in elementary school to a newspaper office where we’d been shown how paper was fed over rollers as it was printed. 38 The three arrows in it look like strips of folded-over paper. I drew them in pencil, and then traced over everything in black ink.
I think I found out I’d won the competition in a letter. Was I excited? Well, yes of course – but not that excited. 39 There was a monetary prize, though for the life of me I can’t remember how much it was.
When I finished my studies, I decided to go into urban planning and I moved to Los Angeles. It seems funny, but I really played down the fact that I’d won this competition. 40 I remember seeing it once on a leaflet which had been produced on recycled paper, but then it disappeared.
A while after graduating, I flew to Amsterdam for a holiday. When I walked off the plane, I saw my symbol. It was on a big recycling bin, bigger than a beach ball. I was really taken aback. 41 Since then, I’ve got more qualifications and worked for quite a few different firms.
I feel much prouder of the recycling symbol now than I used to, probably because it’s so widely seen. Maybe this design has been more important to me than I’d thought. There’s more to me than the recycling symbol. 42
A Still, I’d hate to think that my life’s work is defined by it. · B I used what I’d seen to create the image. · C I’m no expert on recycling but I can certainly see its value. · D I hadn’t thought about it for years and there it was right in my face. · E I realise that seems ridiculous for something that’s been so successful. · F Also, nothing much happened to the symbol for a while. · G I guess at that point in my life I had an exaggerated sense of my own importance.
Reading and Use of English · Part 7
Walking on waves
A My journey to the sea began when I was tiny. My mum, who used to surf then, would sit me on one of her old boards and push me into little waves. We both soon realised I had an unstoppable appetite for the waves. Soon after that we moved to a house almost on the beach. I could literally walk out of the garden into the sea. Living by the sea is something you never take for granted if you surf.
B Being the only girl in the water when I was learning to surf never bothered me because I’d always been trying to keep up with an elder brother who was exceptionally good at sports. I was a tiny little thing, itching to better my surfing by checking out other surfers and looking for new moves. I was surfing four times a day in summer and throughout winter as the sea became wild.
C Things started to get competitive as I got older and stronger. I was tackling more challenging waves and gaining confidence, and it was rewarding to see myself improving. The boys started to notice me and didn’t always know how to cope with it. Convincing them that I could hold my own in the waves wasn’t going to happen overnight.
D Over time, mutual respect blossomed between me and the guys who spent all their time in the waves with me. When I started pulling off some good moves, they began giving me credit. They knew I wasn’t messing about. Competition surfing can be extremely frustrating, since you can never guarantee waves at a certain time on a certain day, and there is a lot of hanging around.
E Now I’ve set up a surf school and I’ve got a whole new perspective. When you start teaching something, everything you’ve been doing instinctively without really noticing has to be passed on. It’s been fantastic introducing so many people to the sport, and it’s even better when you see their big grins when they stand up for the first time and ride a wave into the shore.
