Section I
Task 1
Kira: Let’s review for our English reading test on the first half of The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer.
Leo: OK, Kira. Let’s see how much we know. Bret Harte wrote The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer, didn’t he?
Kira: No, he didn’t. Mark Twain wrote it. He was a famous American writer.
Leo: Oh, right. He wrote a lot of books, didn’t he?
Kira: Yes, he did.
Leo: OK. Let’s see . . . So far in the book, Tom and his brother Sid have lived with
their Aunt Polly for a long time, haven’t they?
Kira: Yes, they have. Next question: Tom and Sid have always been very different,
haven’t they?
Leo: Yes, they have. Sid has been a good boy, but Tom has often behaved badly.
Kira: But Tom has always liked school, hasn’t he?
Leo: No, he hasn’t. He’s never liked school.
Kira: Oh, yes, I forgot. Anyway, so far Tom has really liked adventures, hasn’t he?
Leo: Yes, he has. Wait! I have one more question for you. We’ll get a good grade on
the test, won’t we?
Kira: Well . . .
Task 2
The Great Wall of China is the longest man-made structure ever built. It was built
to protect one of the Chinese kingdoms. Much of what exists of the wall today was
built during the Ming Dynasty in the late 1400s, although parts of the wall are much
older and go back to around 200 B.C. The wall is about 35 feet high, or 11 meters, and
a stone roadway runs along the top of it. The main part of the wall stretches for about
2,000 miles, that is, about 3,400 kilometers.
Task 3
The Pyramids were built more than 4,000 years ago by the Egyptians. The most
famous ones are on the west bank of the River Nile, outside of Cairo. They served as
burial places for the Egyptian kings. After a king’s death, his body was turned into
what is called a “mummy.” This preserved it. The king’s mummy was placed inside
the pyramid, together with treasures and the king’s belongings.
Section II
Task 1
Steve: My name is Steve, we're here at Fish Club which is based in Battersea in South
London. It's a fish and chips restaurant. Fish and chips started here in the UK about a
hundred and fifty years ago, in the East End of London and originally you used to not
eat the batter at all. It was cooked in oil and you used to peel the batter off and just eat
the moist fish in the middle.
So to make fish and chips we take really fresh fish, we'd paner it in some flour,
seasoned flour and then into a batter which is a beer batter we make here, which is
made with beer, flour, yeast, salt and pepper. Once it's gone into the batter we then
plunge it into very hot oil for round about five or six minutes where the batter will
become crisp and the fish will cook inside. The chips to accompany this, we twice fry
here at Fish Club, by once cooking them in a cool oil, round about a hundred and
twenty degrees for twenty-five minutes before letting them cool and then cook them a
second time to make them very crisp and hot, in around a hundred and ninety degrees
for a minute or two.
A classic accompaniment to a fish and chips are things like ketchup, vinegar,
tartar sauce—which, tartar sauce is a mayonnaise-based sauce with tarragon, parsley,
shallots, and capers, and cornichons inside. You can also have pickled onions or
pickled eggs, which are both pickled in spiced vinegar. What makes our restaurant a
little different to classic fish and chips shops, is we cook all of our fish to order, and
we also grill, fry, bake, steam and roast, alongside the classic battered, deep-fried fish
and chips.
To find a good fish and chips shop here in the UK, I think you want to look for
somewhere that's frying to order, have got really fresh fish, and chefs that know what
they're doing.
So to keep a check on the sustainability of fish, everyday we're speaking to our
fishermen and also different governing bodies, i.e. the MSC which is the Marine
Steward Council who will be monitoring stocks around the UK constantly, and
keeping us updated with what we should be eating and what we shouldn't. So here at
Fish Club, we're trying to bridge the gap between a classic fish and chips shop where
you just take your fish and chips home, to a fish restaurant, where it can sometimes be
a little bit stuffy. You can come into us, you can have your fish and chips, you can sit
down at one of our tables, or if you want to choose something slightly more
adventurous, our staff are here to give your some advice and knowledge on what to
choose.
Task 2
Peter: My name is Peter Dore-Smith. I’m originally from Melbourne, Australia and
I’m the owner of “Kaffeine.”
“Kaffeine” is an independent artisanal espresso bar and it's been open for just
over a year; we’re based in central London—just two minutes from Oxford Circus,
and we’re based on a concept that's been in Australia and New Zealand for the last
fifteen or twenty years—and that is a place that offers excellent quality food, fantastic
coffee, and great service in a small hospitable place.
“Kaffeine” is different to other cafés in London, because of the quality of the
produce that we offer, the standard of service that we provide, the décor and the
design of the interior, and the professionalism and the expertise that goes into
providing all that product, and that passion that goes into it.
I would say that our most popular drink is the “flat white,” and that's a certain
way of making the coffee that originated, again, in Australia and New Zealand and
has now come over to London. It's our most popular drink. I would say our signature
drink, the one we're most proud of is a “double ristretto” and we put a lot of effort into
that. It’s a bit more specialist, and people who come in—if we want to treat somebody
we'll give them a “double ristretto”—that’s more of our signature.
Within “Kaffeine” I only employ people who are baristas to work behind the
espresso machine, who have at least three to four years‟ experience, and they need to
have that experience because we’re very specialist about what we do, and they need to
be able to come in and work here and have that experience behind them to be able to
cope with the demand.
Here at “Kaffeine” we use what’s called the “Syneso-synchro” machine. There’s
only twelve of them in the UK. It's designed by a man in Seattle and it‟s known as one
of the world’s best coffee machines. It's something that baristas aspire to work on, and
we have people coming here to visit our café to see the machine in action and to have
coffee made on that machine. Again, in London at this time, I think there’s a lot of
people that are moving away from the chains and are moving away from the major
operators and finding independents. They want to go back to the independent style of
making coffee, making food, and supporting those independents. And there’s a growth
of that within the UK at the moment, led by people like Jamie Oliver and Gordon
Ramsey, promoting individual producers. That’s a fantastic way to be and hopefully
we’re part of that movement as well.
Section III
Voice-over: St. Paul's Cathedral is one of London's most recognizable sights.
It's situated on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London and on the
North side of the River Thames, near the Millennium Bridge.
Many tourists come to see this landmark.
One of the most famous weddings at St. Paul's was Prince Charles and Lady
Diana in 1981.
The Cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the original Cathedral
was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, a fire that swept through the city in 1666.
The dome of St. Paul's is one of the largest in the world.
The whispering gallery inside the dome is famous for its acoustics: even if you
whisper quietly on one side of the dome someone can hear it clearly right over on the
other side. St. Paul's was targeted by bombs during World War II but survived mostly
intact.
It became a symbol of survival for Londoners during the Blitz.
About two million people visit the Cathedral every year.
As well as being a tourist attraction, St. Paul's Cathedral today is still a busy
working church.
