English Plus Student’s Book 1 Reading texts
Unit 1 My interests (page 10)
Alexia
I love pop music and I’ve got a lot of CDs. My friends are mad about Black Eyed Peas, but I can’t stand hip hop. I really like sport, especially volleyball and tennis, but
I hate cycling. One of my interests is art, but I’m not very good at it!
Sarah
I’m interested in sport, especially football. I’m a Manchester City fan and I’ve got photos and posters of the team. I’m not mad about books, but my friend Lily and I love watching TV. Lily has got a TV in her room. One of my interests is photography. I haven’t got a very good camera, but my photos are really good.
David
I’m into skateboarding and swimming. I’m good at martial arts, especially taekwondo. My friend Steve likes taekwondo too, but he hasn’t got a green belt. We’ve got a computer at home, but I don’t really like computer games. I prefer chatting on the internet. I like books, especially books about animals. I really like animals, but we haven’t got a pet.
Unit 2 City in the sky (page 20)
Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is different from other cities. It is a city of glass skyscrapers in the desert. One of these is the incredible Burj Khalifa skyscraper. It is 828 metres high and has got more than 160 floors. You can see it from about 100 kilometres away! The temperature in the desert is sometimes 50°C, but it’s cool inside this modern building.
This amazing skyscraper is large enough for 25,000 people. It has got a luxury hotel, offices, restaurants, swimming pools, libraries, a gym and 900 expensive flats. From the visitor area on the 124th floor, the cars in the streets below are tiny. The tower has got 57
very fast lifts, but there are also lots of stairs if you’ve got lots of energy!
In the Burj Khalifa area there are parks and a large lake. There is a big shopping centre next to the tower.
This enormous building has got over 1,200 luxury shops. The city of Dubai is a fantastic place, but only if you are very rich and you like shopping.
Unit 3 London: the world in one city (page 30)
London is a very cosmopolitan city. There are people from nearly every nation, culture and religion in the world. In fact, thirty per cent of London’s population of 7.5 million come from outside Britain. That’s about two million people from 179 different countries. Jacek and Ogechi are two of those people.
Jacek
My parents are from Poland and we live in London. My sister Ania and I go to a school with students from twenty-five different countries. There are classes here in French, German, Spanish and Mandarin and I do French. My sister studies Mandarin, with Mrs Li Wei. Mrs Wei is a new teacher from Beijing. She doesn’t speak English fluently and my sister sometimes helps her with new words.
Ogechi
I live in a part of London where there are families of a lot of different nationalities. In my street, there are Polish and Chinese shops and an Indian restaurant. My family is from Nigeria in West Africa. My best friend Leyla is from a Turkish family, but they don’t speak Turkish at home. We often play music at her house. I like Turkish music because it’s different from our music.
Unit 4 Danger! Humans! (page 40)
Which is more dangerous: a shark, a chair or a per son?
When an animal attacks a person, there are always stories about it on TV and in the newspapers. But people are usually more dangerous than animals. Every year, we kill approximately 100 million sharks, but sharks only attack three or four people, and crocodiles six or seven. More people die in accidents with chairs!
Animals aren’t really a problem for people, but we are a problem for animals. We eat millions of tonnes of fish and meat every year. But people don’t kill animals just for food. They also hunt them for fur or for fun. While you’re reading this, people are hunting whales
in the Arctic, tigers in Asia and elephants in Africa.
At the moment, animals are becoming extinct in every part of the world. The ‘red list’ of animals in danger includes insects, frogs, chameleons, fish and bigger animals, like bears and whales. We aren’t killing all these animals directly, but they are dying and becoming extinct because of human actions. Our pollution and construction is changing the climate and animals’ habitats, and time is running out for some animals. It’s important to change our actions now and save the animals!
Unit 5 Living at school (page 50)
1 Can you describe your typical day?
Yes. We get up at 6.45 and have breakfast at 7.45. Classes are from 8.30 until 3.15, with an
hour for lunch at 12.30. After classes we’ve got activities from 3.45 to 5.30 and then dinner is at 5.45. We do our homework at 7.30 and bedtime is at 10.30.
2 What activities do you do?
I do football twice a week. I can play the violin and I’m in the school orchestra. We practise three times a week.
3 Have you got any free time?
We haven’t got much free time in the week. We have a break before homework when we can relax, chat with friends or watch TV. Sunday afternoon is also free.
4 What do you do at the weekend?
There are classes on Saturday mornings, then sports and free-time activities in the afternoon. Sometimes we can go to the swimming pool on Sundays.
5 Is the food OK?
It isn’t bad. You can choose your food. There’s a cafeteria with salads, pizzas, sandwiches and different ‘specials’ every day.
6 What do you like about boarding?
I like sharing a room with my two best friends. Also, we’ve got everything here at school – tennis courts, a gym, computers and sports fields. That’s great.
7 Are you ever homesick?
Sometimes, but people here are friendly and we’re really busy. I can’t live at home because
my parents work abroad. I see them three times a year in the holidays.
Unit 6 Sorry? What’s your name (page 60)
1 What? No surname?
First names were important in England in the 11th century. The population was small and
most people lived in villages. Surnames or family names weren’t necessary because there weren’t many people. When the French King William I invaded England in 1066, he wasn’t happy with this. In his opinion, people needed surnames.
2 The English choose their surnames
In those days, there were different ways to choose a surname: some people used their job
(Baker, Cook), some used places (Hill, Wood), and some used their nickname (Short, Brown) or the name of a parent (Johnson = son of John).
3 First names of the past
These old surnames are common in modern Britain, but many first names are different. There is nothing new about naming a child after a famous person, but the type of celebrity is different today. In the past, the names of kings, queens, scientists, artists or writers were fashionable. For example, when Victoria was Queen of England in the 19th century, her name was very popular.
4 Fans and stars
Many British parents today name their children after pop stars, sports stars or film stars
like Kylie, Keira, Brad and Wayne. They do this because they are fans of these celebrities. One football fan named his baby after the Manchester United team. His son has got a first name and ten middle names!
5 Is it a baby or a car?
Other parents want their children to have original first names and they sometimes choose
the brand names of products. One year there were 298 Armanis, 49 Canons, 5 Jaguars, 1 Xerox and 353 girls named Lexus.
Unit 7 Game on! (page 70)
Big numbers!
Video games and consoles are big business. Today, companies sell more than 100 million games a year. A team of designers took three years to make the Wii console. In its first six months in Europe, people bought 6 million of them. Companies sold the first games in the 1970s and one of the first big video heroes was Mario in the 1980s. Super Mario World was the world’s number one game in the 1990s and 20 million people bought it.
War and peace
In the early years, many people thought that video games were boys’ toys because companies sold most of their games to men. The designers created a lot of violent action games and women didn’t like them. They preferred creative games. Then in 2000, games creator Will Wright made the SIMS game. In the SIMS game, players designed houses and built towns. It soon became the number one game of all time with both men and women.
Too much?
Today, video games are popular with all ages and there’s a lot of choice. But games can cause health problems, especially when people play for hours. Many children prefer video
games to sport and they become overweight. But there are some positive things, too. Video games are good for your imagination and memory. And they are also great entertainment. So enjoy playing video games, but remember to do other activities too!
Unit 8 An adventure story (page 80)
My brother Peter and I were on a jungle wildlife holiday with six other people and Juan our guide. It was an amazing experience and we saw lots of monkeys, crocodiles and huge snakes. But one morning Peter and I did a very stupid thing. We wanted to take photos of monkeys. We got up early and walked into the jungle. We didn’t have to go far before we heard some monkeys. We were excited and we followed the monkeys for about ten minutes. Suddenly, Peter stopped. He was worried. “I’m not going to walk further,” he said. “We’ll get lost. I’m going back.” We looked around us. There were trees everywhere. The campsite wasn’t far, but we had no idea which direction to take. “I think we are already lost,” Peter said. “How are we going to get back? Nobody knows where we are. They’ll never find us.” Then it started to rain. Luckily, I had a waterproof coat. We sat on our rucksacks with the coat over our heads. There were loads of mosquitoes and we had no insect repellent. We were scared and miserable. After two hours, we heard a noise. It was Juan and he was angry. “You’re very lucky,” he said. But we were very happy. “We’re never going to follow monkeys again,” we promised. Juan laughed, “Come on. Let’s go back to camp.”
English Plus Student’s Book 1 Reading Texts © Oxford University Press
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