READING AND LISTENING PRACTICE

Listen to five experienced writers giving advice to young people about writing a book. Match speakers 1–5 with their advice. There is one advice that you don’t need. Listen again. For questions 6–10, decide if the statements about the speakers are true or false. Speaker 1 Stay focused on your writing Speaker 2 Make sure your meaning is clear Speaker 3 Do plenty of research Speaker 4 Write something original Speaker 5 Keep a daily diary 6. Speaker 1 had an office with a view of a mountain TRUE FALSE 7. Speaker 2 advises against using too many long sentences. TRUE FALSE 8. Speaker 3 has a friend who was able to help with her latest book. TRUE FALSE 9. Speaker 4 has been interested in reading since his early childhood TRUE FALSE 10. Speaker 5 says that many new writers write in the style of other authors. TRUE FALSE Choose the correct answer to complete the mini-dialogues.1 A I heard yesterday that Oliver has won the lottery. B ................................................! Are you absolutely sure? You’re incredible You’re not going to believe this You’re joking 2 A I think your first idea would be better. It’s cheaper, too. B ................................................ I’ll book the tickets tomorrow. That’s settled, then You must admit that It’s perfectly all right 3. A How exactly do I make the tomato sauce? B First you fry the onions in some oil. ....................... you chop them up small. You do it like this Let me show you Make sure 4 A Well, I think I’ve explained everything I wanted to, so ........................... by inviting you to ask any questions that you may have. could we move on now I’d like to finish the first point I’d like to talk about 5 A Watching that film was a complete waste of time! B .............................................................. ! A I’m so glad we agree about it! No way I’m not sure about that My thoughts exactly Read the text about very large cities, called megacities. Then choose the correct answer to complete the sentences. Cities of the futureThe word ‘megacity’ was first used as far back as the early 1960s by French geographer Jean Gottman to describe the north-eastern United States. The term is used more widely now to mean an area with more than 10,000,000 people living closely together. A megacity can be a single area, or several areas together that make one huge area known as a ‘megalopolis’. As of March 2013, there were twenty-eight megacities in the world. When cities started to become too busy, people who could afford it moved out into the suburbs on the edge of the city. When the suburbs started attracting too many people, they moved further out into villages and the countryside. It was important to be close enough to the city to travel in every day for work, though. That’s why the countryside became more popular – London, for example, lost 15% of its population between 1950 and 1970, and Detroit in the USA lost 47%. However, movement away from cities does not mean the end of the city. Cities continue to spread, and in time these may grow into megacities with millions of people. According to one list, the majority of the world’s greatest megacities are to be found in Asia. The largest of these is the Tokyo-Yokohama area, home to 37,000,000 people, followed by the Indian capital Delhi, Seoul-Incheon in South Korea, Shanghai in China, and Mumbai, also in India.In the ancient world, Rome with its 1,000,000 people was a megacity for its time. And although London was one of the world’s first modern cities to have a million or more people, it is not currently high up on the list of megacities. In fact, the only western megacities are now New York City, Los Angeles, Moscow and Paris. The fastest-growing cities in the last ten years have all been in the developing world and this trend looks likely to continue. It is expected that by the year 2030, 60% of the world’s population will be living in megacities.Megacities everywhere have several things in common, which are mainly the problems they all experience. Among these are high traffic levels resulting in pollution, housing problems, and various social problems such as unemployment. Often the only housing that many people can afford is badly planned or of poor quality. However, all these problems are partly created by weak governments who don’t prepare for increased population before the people arrive.As megacities are likely to become more common, it seems that governments should try to plan for rising urban populations before it actually happens. But perhaps this is easier said than done. The word ‘megacity’ was used for the first time … to describe the world’s most crowded cities by an American to describe a place in Europe to describe places with fewer than 10,000,000 people by a European to describe a place in the United States Areas on the edge of the city became popular because … people there had less money villages became too expensive cities were getting too full the countryside was almost empty The writer says that … Tokyo has been the world’s biggest megacity for some time the world’s biggest megacities are mostly in one continent London will soon be on the list of the world’s megacities the world’s smaller cities are growing too quickly According to the writer, megacities of the future will… possibly include Rome not include London only be commonin Western countries hold most of the world’s people Which of these problems in megacities does the writer NOT mention? bad housing people without jobs crime too many cars