Разноуровневые тексты с заданиями
материал по английскому языку на тему

Global traffic jam

1. How long does it take you to get to school in the morning? In some big cities it can take ages to go anywhere and millions of people spend hours sitting in traffic jams. For example, in Peru the traffic is so bad during the rush hour that it is quicker to walk than to go by bus or car.

2 .The problem with walking to school is that you have to breathe, but in many countries the air is not exactly clean. In some cities the pollution caused by cars is so dangerous that people wear masks in the street.

3. There are very few cities with no cars. Venice is one of these and people get around on foot or by boat, by water buses or water taxis. It is more expensive to go by gondola and not very fast, but much more romantic!

4 .In many places public transport also gets very crowded in rush hours. In Tokyo there are special workers to push people into the underground trains. But if you go by underground you can avoid traffic jams and public transport causes less pollution.

5. Perhaps the best way of getting around is by getting on your bike. It can be more dangerous but a lot of big cities have special bicycle lanes. Going by bike does not cause any pollution and it’s good for your health.

Give each paragraph a title:

Traffic jam      Pollution danger           No cars        Public transport     On your bike!

Say true or false:

1. Traffic jams are bad during the rush hour
2. The air in the cities is clean
3. There are no cities with no cars
4. In Venice you can go by gondola
5. Public transport doesn’t cause pollution
6. It’s not dangerous to go by bike

Answer the questions:

What is the situation in Peru?

Do people wear masks? Why?

Do you think it’s healthier to live in Venice?

What about public transport? How often do you use it? Is it dangerous? Is it healthy?

What is the best way to get anywhere?

Can we use bicycles in Moscow?

How long does it take you to get to school?

What transport do you use?

Healthy Food

Eating is fun, especially when you are hungry. Most people have a favourite food. Some people enjoy eating sweet things like cakes, chocolates and ice cream. Other people enjoy savoury foods like cheese and meet. Enjoying eating is our body’s way of making sure that is gets the things it needs to work properly.

Food helps us to keep warm, talk, run and do all the other things we do. It helps us to grow and stay healthy.

Vitamins also help us to be healthy. Scientists name vitamins after the alphabet. All of them are very important, for example: vitamin C keeps our skin and gums healthy. It is found in fresh fruit and green vegetables, such as oranges, blackcurrants, lettuce. Brussels sprouts and spinach also contain a lot of vitamin C.

Vitamin D helps our bones to grow strong and hard, and we are able to make it for ourselves if our skin gets enough sunlight. But we can also get vitamin D if we eat fish, milk, butter, cheese and margarine. Some people buy pills and tablets containing vitamins. But most of us get more than enough of them from our food.

1. Read the text and match the headings with the paragraphs.

1. The vitamin to make your hard.
2. Tastes differ.
3. You can’t live without food.
4. Vitamins and the ABC.

2. Are the sentences true (T) or false (F)?

1. When we enjoy eating our body gets everything to work well. ______
2. To get vitamins you need to buy pills. ______
3. Vitamin C is important for our skin. ______
4. You can get vitamin D only when eating special food. ______

The only way to travel is on foot.

The past years of man have been labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like “Paleolithic Man, “Neolithic Man” sum up the whole periods. When the time comes to name the twentieth century man, the anthropologists will surely choose the label “Legless Man”.  Histories of the time will go something like this: “In the 2oth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses, trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of their extraordinary way of life. In those days, people thought nothing of travelling hundreds of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn’t use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks”.

The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed t see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird’s eye view of the world – or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. As for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the word of the old song: “I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea”. People nowadays say “I’ve been there” meaning that they drove through the place at 100 miles an hour on the way to some other place.

When travelling at high speeds you live in the future. The desire to get somewhere makes you want to move on. The traveler on foot lives constantly in the present. For him travelling and arriving is one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of the journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. But this is the reward for all true travelers.

1. Travelling at high speeds is a means, not an end.
2. Air travel is exciting and presents one with an unusual view of the world.
3. Sea travel in a modern ship is a wonderful holiday: one never gets tired of the view of the sea.
4. 20th century methods of travelling are practical.
5. It is foolish to climb the mountain if you can get еще he top by a cable railway or in a car.
6. Travelling on foot is exhausting and gets you nowhere.
7. If we depended on our legs alone we would be isolated from the world.
8. A good long walk is a fine pastime, but why call it “a travel”?

Stress: What is it?

Although we all talk about stress, it often isn't clear what stress is really about. Many people consider stress to be something that happens to them, an event such as an injury or a promotion. Others think that stress is what happens to our bodies, minds and behaviours in response to an event (e.g. heart pounding, anxiety, or nail biting). While stress does involve events and our response to them, these are not the most important factors. Our thoughts about the situations in which we find ourselves a re the critical factor.

When something happens to us, we automatically evaluate the situation mentally. We decide if it is threatening to us, how we need to deal with the situation, and what skills we can use. If we decide that the demands of the situation outweigh the skills we have, then we label the situation as "stressful" and react with the classic "stress response". If we decide that our coping skills outweigh the demands of the situation, then we don't see it as "stressful".

Everyone sees situations differently and has different coping skills. For this reason, no two people will respond exactly the same way to a given situation.

Additionally, not all situations that are labeled "stressful" are negative. The birth of a child, being promoted or moving to a new home may not be perceived as threatening. However, we may feel that situations are "stressful" because we don't feel fully prepared to deal with them.

Some situations in life are stress-provoking, but it is our thoughts about situations that determine whether they are a problem to us.

How we perceive a stress-provoking event and how we react to it determines its impact on our health. We may be motivated and invigorated by the events in our lives, or we may see some as "stressful" and respond in a manner that may have a negative effect on our physical, mental and social well-being. If we always respond in a negative way our health and happiness may suffer. By understanding ourselves and our reactions to stress-provoking situations, we can learn to handle stress more effectively. We hope that this booklet will help you to build better coping skills for managing stress.

1. What is the main idea of this text?
2. Make some questions.
3. Make short summery.

I think that …

I agree with …

Besides (кроме того) …

I’ve learnt some interesting things. For example, …

At the end of my summery I want to tell you…