Idioma Avanzado Intensivo
M. Silvana Di Silvestre
Documentación e Información
Trabajo 5
Reading Comprehension
Stonehenge is a Neolithic and
Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English
It is composed of earthworks
surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and is one of the most
famous prehistoric sites in the world.
Archaeologists think that the
standing stones were erected between 2500 BC and 2000 BC although the
surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase
of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC.
The site and its surroundings
were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in
Questions
Now, answer the questions
about the text.
1.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
2. It is about
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
3. Archaeologists think that
the stones were erected 4000 years ago.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
4. One part of the monument
was built around 3100 BC.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are a
British rock and roll band who rose to prominence during the mid-1960s.
The band was named after a
song by Muddy Waters, a leading exponent of hard-rocking blues. In their music,
The Rolling Stones were the embodiment of the idea of importing blues style
into popular music.
Their first recordings were
covers or imitations of rhythm and blues music, but they soon greatly extended
the reach of their lyrics and playing, but rarely, if ever, lost their basic
blues feel.
The band came into being in
1961 when former school friends Jagger and Richards met Brian Jones. They named
themselves after a song by Muddy Waters, a popular choice of name —at least two
other bands are believed to have called themselves The Rolling Stones before
the Jagger/Richards/Jones band was formed. The original lineup included Mick
Jagger (vocals), Brian Jones (guitar), Keith Richards (guitar), Ian Stewart
(piano), Charlie Watts (drums) and Dick Taylor (bass).
By the time of their first
album release Ian Stewart was "officially" not part of the band,
though he continued to record and perform with them. United by their shared
interest in rhythm and blues music the group rehearsed extensively, playing in
public only occasionally at Crawdaddy Club in
The band rapidly gained a
reputation in
The choice of material on
their first record, a self-titled EP, reflected their live shows. Similarly,
the album The Rolling Stones (England's Newest Hitmakers) which appeared in
April 1964 featured versions of such classics as "Route 66"
(originally recorded by Nat King Cole), "Mona" (Bo Diddley) and
"Carol" (Chuck Berry).
Questions
Now, answer the questions
about the text.
1. Their first recordings were based on blues
music.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
2. The band was created in
- 1960.
- 1961.
- We don't know.
3. Keith Richards had learned
to play the guitar from the recordings of Chuck Berry.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
4. The group used to rehearse
a lot.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
5. They occasionally played
in public in
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper is a
pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer (or killers) active in the
largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of
The legends surrounding the
Ripper murders have become a complex muddle of genuine historical research,
freewheeling conspiracy theory and dubious folklore. The lack of a confirmed
identity for the killer has allowed subsequent authors, historians and mostly
amateur sleuths—dubbed Ripperologists—to point their fingers at a wide variety
of candidates. Newspapers, whose circulation had been growing during this era,
bestowed widespread and enduring notoriety on the killer due to the savagery of
the murders and the failure of police to effect a capture, with the Ripper
sometimes escaping discovery by mere minutes.
Victims were women earning
income as casual prostitutes. Typical Ripper murders were perpetrated in a
public or semi-public place; the victim's throat was cut, after which the
cadaver was subjected to abdominal and sometimes other mutilations such as
those found in lust murder. Many now believe that the victims were first
strangled in order to silence them. Due to the nature of the wounds on some presumed
Ripper victims, several of whom had internal organs removed, it has been
proposed that the killer had a degree of surgical or medical skill, or was
perhaps a butcher, although this point, like most of the beliefs about the
killer and facts in the case, is in dispute.
Questions
Now, answer the questions
about the text.
1. The murders were committed
in 1888.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
2. The name was taken from a
letter received by the Central News Agency.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
3. The killer was never
identified.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
4. The killer may have had
medical skills.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
5. The killer may have been a
butcher.
- True.
- False.
- We don't know.
The American Pepper
"Mummy! Mummy!" shouted
little Murna racing from the front door through to the kitchen. "There's a
parcel. The postman's brought a parcel!"
Her mother, Savni, looked at her in
surprise. She had no idea who could have sent them a parcel. Maybe it was a
mistake. She hurried to the door to find out. Sure enough, the postman was
there, holding a parcel about the size of a small brick.
"From
It was true. In the top right-hand corner
of the brown paper parcel were three strange-looking stamps, showing a man's
head. The package was addressed to Savni, in big, clear black letters.
"Well, I suppose it must be from
Great-Aunt Pasni," said Savni to herself, as the postman went on his way
down the street, whistling. "Although it must be twenty years since we
heard anything from her. I thought she would have been dead by now."
Savni's husband Jornas and
her son Arinas were just coming in from the garden, where Murna had run to tell
them about the parcel. "Well, open it then!" said Arinas impatiently.
"Let's see what's inside!"
Setting the parcel down in the middle of
the table, Savni carefully began to tear open the paper. Inside, there was a
large silver container with a hinged lid, which was taped shut. There was also
a letter.
"What is it? What is it?"
demanded Murna impatiently. "Is it a present?"
"I have no idea," said Savni in
confusion. "I think it must be from Great-Aunt Pasni. She went to
"Well, open the pot, anyway,"
said Jornas. "Let's see what's inside."
Cautiously, Savni pulled the tape from
the neck of the silver pot, and opened the lid. Four heads touched over the top
of the container, as their owners stared down inside.
"Strange," said Arinas.
"All I see is powder." The pot was about one-third full of a kind of
light-grey powder.
"What is it?" asked Murna,
mystified.
"We don't know, darling," said
Savni, stroking her daughter's hair. "What do you think?" Murna
stared again into the pot.
"I think its coffee," she
announced, finally. "American coffee."
"It's the wrong colour for coffee,
darling," said Jornas thoughtfully. "But maybe she's on the right
track. It must be some kind of food." Murna, by now, had her nose right
down into the pot. Suddenly, she lifted her head and sneezed loudly.
"Id god up by doze," she
explained.
"That's it!" said Arinas.
"It must be pepper! Let me try some." Dipping a finger into the
powder, he licked it. "Yes," he said, "it's pepper all right.
Mild, but quite tasty. It's American pepper."
"All right," said Savni, "we'll
try it on the stew tonight. We'll
have American-style
stew!"
That evening, the whole family agreed
that the American pepper had added a special extra taste to their usual evening
stew. They were delighted with it. By the end of the week, there was only a
teaspoonful of the grey powder
left in the silver container.
Then Savni called a halt.
"We're saving the last bit for
Sunday. Dr. Haret is coming to dinner, and we'll let him have some as a special
treat. Then it will be finished."
The following Sunday, the whole family
put on their best clothes, ready for dinner with Dr. Haret. He was the local
doctor, and he had become a friend of the family many years before, when he had
saved Arinas's life after an accident. Once every couple of months, Savni
invited the doctor for dinner, and they all looked forward to his entertaining
stories of his youth at the university in the capital.
During dinner, Savni explained to the
doctor about the mysterious American pepper, the last of which she had put in
the stew they were eating, and the letter they could not read.
"Well, give it to me, give it to
me!" said the doctor briskly. "I speak English! I can translate it
for you."
Savni brought the letter, and
the family waited, fascinated, as the doctor began to translate.
"Dear Savni: you don't know me, but
I am the son of your old Great-Aunt Pasni. She never talked much to us about
the old country, but in her final illness earlier this year, she told us that
after her death, she wanted her ashes to be sent back home to you, so that you
could scatter them on the hills of the country where she was born. My mother
died two weeks ago, and her funeral and cremation took place last week. I am
sending her ashes to you in a silver casket. Please do as she asked, and spread
them over the ground near where she was born. Your cousin, George Leary."
(MDH 1995 -- from a common urban legend)
Multiple-Choice Questions
Choose the
answer you think is correct.
1. Where does this story take
place?
a)
America
b)
Arinas
c)
India
d) Thetextdoesn'tsay
2. How was the parcel
wrapped?
a) in brownpaper
b) in silverpaper
c) in greypaper
d) in tape
3. WhowasSavni?
a) a littlegirl
b) theGreat-Aunt
c) the mother of the family
d) the son of the family
4. Why don't the family read
the letter?
a) They are too impatient to
look in the container.
b) It is addressed to the
doctor.
c) Itis in English.
d) Itismissing.
5. What does Murna think is
in the pot?
a) dust
b) ashes
c) coffee
d) pepper
6. Why does Arinas think that
the powder is pepper?
a) Ittastesvery hot.
b) ItmakesMurnasneeze.
c) It is written on the pot.
d) Thelettersays so.
7. What does the family do
with the powder?
a) They keep it to give to the
doctor.
b) They send it back to
c) They make drinks with it.
d) They put it on their food.
8. Why does Savni save the
last bit of the powder?
a) as a souvenir
b) for Dr. Haret
c) to analyseit
d) to spread it on the hills
9. How does Dr. Haret solve
the mystery?
a) He analyses the powder.
b) He recognizes the powder.
c) He is a friend of Pasni.
d) He translatestheletter.
10. What was really in the
pot?
a) coffee
b) Great-Aunt Pasni
c) dust
d) special
American pepper
The Hitchhiker
As Andrea turned off the motorway onto the
road to Brockbourne, the small village in which she lived, it was four o'clock
in the afternoon, but already the sun was falling behind the hills. At this
time in December, it would be completely dark by five o'clock. Andrea shivered.
The interior of the car was not cold, but the trees bending in the harsh wind
and the patches of yesterday's snow still heaped in the fields made her feel
chilly inside. It was another ten miles to the cottage where she lived with her
husband Michael, and the dim light and wintry weather made her feel a little
lonely. She would have liked to listen to the radio, but it had been stolen
from her car when it was parked outside her office in
She was just coming out of the little
When she did get in, Andrea could see that
she was not, in fact, so little. Broad and fat, the old lady had some
difficulty climbing in through the car door, with her big bag, and when she had
got in, she more than filled the seat next to Andrea. She wore a long, shabby
old dress, and she had a yellow hat pulled down low over her eyes. Panting
noisily from her effort, she pushed her big brown canvas shopping bag down onto
the floor under her feet, and said in a voice which was almost a whisper, "Thank
you dearie -- I'm just going to Brockbourne."
"Do you live there?" asked
Andrea, thinking that she had never seen the old lady in the village in the
four years she had lived there herself.
"No, dearie," answered the
passenger, in her soft voice, "I'm just going to visit a friend. He was
supposed to meet me back there at Mickley, but his car won't start, so I
decided to hitchhike -- there isn't a bus until seven, and I didn't want to
wait. I knew some kind soul would give me a lift."
Something in the way the lady spoke, and the
way she never turned her head, but stared continuously into the darkness ahead
from under her old yellow hat, made Andrea uneasy about this strange
hitchhiker. She didn't know why, but she felt instinctively that there was
something wrong, something odd, something....dangerous. But how could an old
lady be dangerous? it was absurd.
Careful not to turn her head, Andrea
looked sideways at her passenger. She studied the hat, the dirty collar of the
dress, the shapeless body, the arms with their thick black hairs....
Thick black hairs?
Hairy arms? Andrea's blood
froze.
This wasn't a woman. It was a man.
At first, she didn't know what to do.
Then suddenly, an idea came into her racing, terrified brain. Swinging the
wheel suddenly, she threw the car into a skid, and brought it to a halt.
"My God!" she shouted, "A
child! Did you see the child? I think I hit her!"
The "old lady" was clearly
shaken by the sudden skid. "I didn't see anything dearie," she said.
"I don't think you hit anything."
"I'm sure it was a child!"
insisted Andrea. "Could you just get out and have a look? Just see if
there's anything on the road?" She held her breath. Would her plan work?
It did. The passenger slowly opened the
car door, leaving her bag inside, and climbed out to investigate. As soon as
she was out of the vehicle, Andrea gunned the engine and accelerated madly
away. The car door swung shut as she rounded a bend, and soon she had put a
good three miles between herself and the awful hitchhiker.
It was only then that she thought about
the bag lying on the floor in front of her. Maybe the bag would provide some
information about the real identity about the old woman who was not an old
woman. Pulling into the side of the road, Andrea lifted the heavy bag onto her
lap and opened it curiously.
It contained only one item -- a small hand
axe, with a razor-sharp blade. The axe, and the inside of the bag, were covered
with the dark red stains of dried blood.
Andrea began to scream.
(MDH 1994 -- From a common urban legend)
Multiple-Choice Questions
Choose on the
answer you think is correct.
1. Where did Andrea work?
a) Brockbourne
b) Mickley
c)
d) thetextdoesn'tsay
2. How was Andrea feeling as
she drove home?
a) happy
b) afraid
c) lonely
d) hot
3. Why didn't she listen to
the radio?
a) The radio had been stolen from her car.
b) She liked peace and quiet.
c) The radio was broken.
d) There was a strike at the
radio station.
4. Why did she stop to give
the old lady a ride?
a) It was a cold evening.
b) Andrea felt lonely.
c) She felt sorry for the lady.
d) Alloftheabove.
5. Where did the lady want to
go?
a) Brockbourne
b) Mickley
c)
d) Thetextdoesn'tsay
6. What made Andrea afraid
when she looked at the old lady?
a) Shehad a moustache.
b) She had a hard voice like
a man.
c) She had a shopping bag.
d) She had hairy arms.
7. Why did Andrea suddenly
stop the car?
a) She thought she had hit a
child in the road.
b) She skidded on some ice in
the road.
c) She wanted to trick the passenger into
getting out.
d) She was so afraid that she
couldn't concentrate, and she nearly had a crash.
8. What did Andrea do when
the "old lady" got out?
a) waited for her
b) drove away quickly
c) opened her bag
d) switched off the engine
9. Why did Andrea look in the
old lady's bag?
a) She wanted to steal what
was in it.
b) She wanted to find her
address so that she could send the bag back to her.
c) She wanted to borrow the
old lady's tools.
d) She wanted to find out who the strange
passenger was.
10. What was the "old
lady" probably going to do to Andrea?
a) nothing
b) kill her
c) give her anaxe
d) visit her in Brockbourne