In the future Kate wants to be

A) a teacher.

B) a doctor.

C) a nurse.

 

Kate believes that the most difficult subject for her at university will be

A) biology.

B) physics.

C) chemistry.

 

II. Reading

A. Hunting animals                                            E. The most popular pets

B. A nation of pet lovers                                    F. Measures to protect the animals

C. Different opinions about hunting                G. Hunting, but not only that

D. Dangerous relatives                                       H. Endangered animals

1. More than 50 percent of British families keep a pet and often more than one. The range of pets is impressive – from cats and dogs to exotic birds, snakes, and even spiders. The British treat their pets as members of the family and sometimes spoil them more than their own children. They buy their beloved pets fashionable clothes and accessories, take them to social events, arrange special pet parties and other entertainment for them and use their pet’s photo as a screensaver on the office computer.

 

2. Though you may find almost any pet in a British home, the majority of pet owners still prefer cats and dogs. There are different breeds but generally the most frequent choice for a British dog lover is a Labrador or Collie. As for cats, most of them are not registered as any particular breed, they are just domestic cats. According to the latest statistics, there are slightly more dogs in Britain than cats.

3. One of the reasons for dogs’ popularity is probably rooted in the long history of hunting – the activity has been practiced in the British Isles since prehistoric times. Dogs, hounds especially, have always been the hunters’ best companions. Hounds can smell wild animals over very long distances and are tireless when chasing them. Some noble British families, including the Royal Family, still keep large packs of hounds.

4. For centuries, hunting was a royal sport, however, nowadays it is losing its popularity with the British – they enthusiastically protect animals instead of hunting them. Whether to ban hunting or to permit it is a controversial issue for British society. Pro-hunting activists insist that hunting is a part of tradition and cannot be prohibited. Anti-hunting activists claim that hunting is cruel and unnecessary: it’s harmful to wildlife and should be banned.

 

5. Another argument used by animal defenders in the UK is that some species of wild animals are dramatically declining in number. That’s true, but it wouldn’t be completely fair to blame the hunters alone for that. On the top 10 endangered species list there is the water vole (some people call it a water rat), the red squirrel, the Scottish wild cat, and hedgehogs!

 

6. To some extent, hunters may be responsible for the decline of the water rat as its valuable fur is used in fashion industry. However, changing the hunting policy could not save the situation. The water rat is dying out because of the loss of the appropriate lands for living. Due to people’s industrial activity there are now fewer and fewer damp forests with clean rivers and springs.

 

7. The red squirrel population is falling and they may disappear completely because of … grey squirrels. The problem is grey squirrels, which are not native to the UK but were brought in from North America. The grey squirrels are carriers of a disease called “squirrel pox”, which is not really dangerous for them, but the red squirrels die from it.

 

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Reading 2 – True\ False\ Not Stated

Sea Life Sydney Aquarium

Sea Life Sydney Aquarium is located in Darling Harbour which is in the central part of Sydney and thousands of people visit it every year. It was opened in 1988 and since then has been upgraded several times – new sections with new inhabitants have been added, the old pools have been redesigned and new equipment has been installed. Now it’s one of the best equipped, the richest and the largest aquariums in the world – it contains six million litres of water! Sydney Aquarium is one of the top attractions in Sydney but not only that. It also provides experimental and research opportunities for zoologists and marine biologists of Australia and participates in different international programmes.

Currently, Sydney Aquarium exhibits about 13, 000 fish and animals of 700 different species. To make the excursion to the underwater world more informative, the aquarium is designed as 14 themed areas, each focused on a specific eco-community or on specific animals. The names of the areas usually give a good idea of what the tourist can expect to see there. The Tropical Bay of Rays, for example, exhibits a breathtaking collection of Australian rays – very large flat fish, whose graceful movements make them look like huge butterflies flying in the depths of the ocean. In the wild some species of rays can grow to seven metres and weigh more than 1300 kg.

Few people know that rays are close relatives of sharks. Anatomically, they are very similar and one of the exhibits in the aquarium, the White-spotted Guitarfish, is a good proof of that – this fish is a link between rays and sharks and it looks like both of them.

To watch sharks, tourists go to the Shark Valley area. Actually, the aquarium can boast the largest collection of them in the world. Walking through the glass underwater tunnels the visitors come face-to-face with Grey Nurse, Bamboo, Lemon, and Reef sharks – some of them are more than three metres long. Visitors can also witness how these huge and dangerous creatures are hand-fed by the fearless sea-life keepers.

Sydney Aquarium is one of only two places in the world where sharks are not only kept but bred too (the other one is Manly Sea Life Sanctuary)! Sadly, some species of sharks have been hunted to near extinction. To prevent the complete disappearance of the breathtaking creatures, Sydney Aquarium actively participates in conservation programmes, that is, they do a lot to protect and increase the population of endangered marine animals. Tourists are amazed to see a real shark nursery there! Shark eggs are kept in special containers and the lucky visitors can watch when the young sharks appear from the eggs. Sometime after, the small fish go to another section to grow.

When the sharks are large enough, they are let out in the ocean.

One of the most famous and the cutest inhabitants of Sydney Aquarium is the Little Penguin. It’s the smallest species of penguins and the most joyful one. In the wild they enjoy playing and riding the waves, that’s why the aquarium has special equipment to generate waves in their pool. The penguins seem to feel quite happy with their life in the aquarium and their population there is rising. Every year, so many new chicks are born that some are sent to other zoos and aquariums around Australia. Little penguins choose a partner for breeding and parenting and always stay with the same penguin. In the wild, they raise their chicks on the land. The little penguins seem to have a remarkable memory: when they leave a beach for the first time as chicks, they somehow take a visual imprint of it - a kind of photo in their mind. As the years go by, they always return to exactly the same beach to breed, even though they might not have been back for a long time.

 

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