"Sunflowers"
When Polly left school, she had no idea what she wanted to do. A friend of hers, who was a year older, and whose name was Josephine, was at art college, and she persuaded Polly to join her there.
Polly's father worked in a factory, and her mother worked in a shop. They were saving their money to buy their own house, and they had hoped that Polly would start earning too as soon as she left school, so when she told them that she wanted to go to art college, she expected to have an objection. But in fact they had none.
«You'll have to find some kind of a job to pay for your college,» Polly's mother warned her. «Your father and I will be very happy to keep you at home, but we have no money for your college course, and none for paints and all the other things you'll need.»
«Thank you very much,» Polly answered. «I'm really very grateful to you both. And there's no problem about getting a job; the head of the art college has offered me one in their library.»
After a few months, Polly's parents really felt very proud that their daughter was going to college, especially when she brought home some of the things she had painted, for which she had received high praise from her teachers.
Polly sometimes went to museums to see paintings by famous artists, and one day she said to her parents, «Why don't you come to a museum with me one day? Then I can tell you all about the paintings, and you can see the kinds of things I'm trying to do myself.»
Polly's mother was free on Thursday afternoons and on Saturdays, but her father sometimes had to work on those days. They waited until Saturday when he didn't have to work, and then they all went off to the museum that Polly had chosen.
She showed her parents some famous paintings, and then they came to one that they recognized.
«This,» Polly said, pointing to it, «is Van Gogh's "Sunflowers".» «What a cheek!» her father answered. «He's copied the picture we've had in our hall for the last ten years!»
Questions:
1.What is the text about?
2.Where did Polly study after leaving school?
3.Why did Polly have to find a job?
4.Why did Polly’s parents feel proud of their daughter?
5.What did Polly’s parents see in the museum?
II. The text and say if people can help fish, birds, animals. Why is environmental protection one of the main problems of today?
HOW DO THE FISH LIVE IN A FROZEN POND?
We know that ice is lighter than water, and therefore it floats. So what we call a frozen pond is a pond the surface of which is frozen. Skaters understand it quite well. They always want to know how thick the ice on the pond is, because they know that there is water under it.
When we speak about fish living in a frozen pond, we mean fish living in water, which has a layer of frozen water above it.
The most serious problem for the fish is not the coldness of the water in which it lives, but how that water can get enough air for the fish. When a pond is not frozen, oxygen from the air is passing into the surface of the water as soon as it is used by the fish in the pond.
When a pond is frozen, this process is almost stopped. Of course the water can get a little oxygen at the edge of the ice, or through air-boles.
And you may be sure that if the water in the pond does not get enough oxygen for the fish, the fish dies.
Билет № 8
I.Read the text and answer the questions.
A journey by Tube
Tom was looking forward to his first journey by Tube, as the underground railway in London is called. He had heard a great deal about it from his friends who had already been to England. They all advised him not to travel alone the first time. But Tom is the kind of person who never listens to anyone's advice. It is not surprising, therefore, that his first journey by Tube was not a great success.
Tom entered the station just after five o'clock in the afternoon. This is a bad time to travel in London, both by bus and train, because crowds of people go home from work at this hour. He had to join a long queue of people who were waiting for tickets. When at last his turn came, he had some difficulty in making the man understand the name of the station he wanted to go to. The people in the queue behind him began to grumble impatiently at the delay. However, he got the right ticket in the end and found the right platform. This was packed with people. He did not manage to get on the first train, but he was able to move nearer the edge of the platform and was in a better position to get on the next one. When this came in, Tom was pushed forward on to the train by the people behind him. The doors closed and the train moved off before he was able to get his breath back. He was unable to see the names of the stations where the train stopped, but he had counted the number of stops so that he knew exactly where to get off. His station was the sixth along the line.
When the train reached the sixth station, Tom got off, happy that his journey had been so easy. But he was alarmed to see that he had got off at a station that he had never heard of! He did not know what to do. He explained his difficulty to a man who was standing on the platform. With a look of amusement on his face the man told Tom that he had travelled on a train going in the wrong direction.
Questions:
1.Name the main character of the story?
2.Where did the action take place?
3.What kind of person is Tom?
4.Why is five to o’clock in the afternoon a bad time to travel in London?
5.What did Tom do to know where to get off?
II. Read the text and say why people like to travel? What is travelling for them? Where and how do they usually travel?
