Real-life help from a fairy tale

A.          

Tower Bridge, which is over a hundred years old, has become a symbol of London. It is the only bridge on the Thames that can be raised and lowered to allow ships to pass. The Tower drawbridges have been raised more than half a million times since it was built. Nowadays it takes only 90 seconds for the heavy drawbridges to be raised with electric motors. It is considered that watching the Tower Bridge opening brings good luck.

B.           

Portobello Market is among the most famous London street markets. It has been a market since the 1800s but became famous for its antiques in the 1950s. On Saturdays the place is crowded with Londoners and tourists. There are numerous stalls offering vintage and designer clothes, books, music and loads of antiques. It is a place where everyone can find something really unique.

C.           

Waterloo Bridge is a foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London. It was opened in 1817, on the second anniversary of the famous battle. A century later, in the early 1940s, the famous Bridge needed to be rebuilt. It was during World War II, and most men were away fighting. So the bridge was rebuilt mainly by women. The new Waterloo Bridge was opened in 1945 and got a second name, the ‘Ladies Bridge’.

D.          

Wembley Stadium is a football stadium located in Wembley Park, London. The stadium is the home not only to football. It also hosts concerts, rugby games and American football games. There is Wembley Market not far from the stadium. Unlike many London street markets this one is situated in an open space. A visit here is a good option for football fans to find club T-shirts, boots or accessories.

E.           

23 and 24 Leinster Gardens in Paddington (just opposite Hyde Park) are fake houses built to hide the Tube line running underneath. The windows are painted on, there are no letter boxes, and behind the facade there is a railway. The first London underground trains were steam trains so they needed ventilation. Underground lines were planned with tunnels and open air sections so the trains could let out their steam and smoke, and that is what the house facades are hiding.

F.           

Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is situated at Russell Square, London, owns the copyright to Peter Pan, a story written by J.M. Barrie. The author had no children himself and gifted the rights to his famous literary pieces to the hospital in 1929. The hospital receives royalties from all films, cartoons and performances of Peter Pan. All the money is used to run the hospital.

G.          

Cleopatra's Needle, the obelisk on the Thames Embankment, was brought to London in 1819 from Alexandria, the royal city of Cleopatra. Underneath Cleopatra’s Needle there’s a time capsule from 1778 that’s said to contain copies of the Bible in several languages, a portrait of Queen Victoria, a set of British coins, cigars, a razor, a map of London, copies of 10 daily newspapers, and pictures of 12 best looking English women of the day.

 

Чтение 62.

Прочитайте тексты и установите соответствие между текстами и их заголовками: к каждому тексту, обозначенному буквами A–G, подберите соответствующий заголовок, обозначенный цифрами 1–8. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании есть один лишний заголовок.

 

Forbidden to bring in

Environmentally friendly

Linguistically diverse

What animal was it?

Only for the lucky ones

For all tastes

Having much in common

A wet and hot place

A.          

There are only three city-states in the world. One of them is Singapore, a small country in South East Asia. It can be named a modern equivalent to the Italian medieval Venice. Both cities are built on islands and became wealthy by trade. Like medieval Venice, Singapore is an independent city-state and is governed by a small group of powerful politicians and businessmen.

B.           

The Malay word for the country, ‘Singapura’, means Lion City. Modern Singapore is full of numerous lion statues. According to legend, the founder of Singapore named his kingdom Lion City because he saw a lion on the island and decided that it was a sign of good luck. However, zoologists doubt that he could see a lion because there is no evidence that lions have ever lived there. More likely, he saw a tiger or another kind of big cat, native to the area.

C.           

From an extremely humid but sunny morning to a gloomy and rainy afternoon, and then to a cloudy, starless night sky; Singapore is predictable in its unpredictable climate. A week of terrible heat follows a week of non-stop rainfall. In general, tourists think February is the best month to visit the country. The citizens of Singapore disagree. They think that any time is good – you just have to accept the hot and rainy weather.

D.          

Singapore has three main communities. The largest group is the Chinese, then come the Malays and the smallest group is the Indians. But there are four official languages in the country – Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English. Although English is the language of government, television and universities, the national anthem Majulah Singapura is actually sung in Malay.

E.           

Singapore is considered to be one of the healthiest places in the world. One of the reasons is the tasty and healthy national cuisine of the city-state. The citizens have a vast choice that includes Chinese shark fin soup, traditional Indian food, Indonesian fried noodles and English tea with a dessert. It is worth saying that regardless of the level of the restaurant and the price, the food is always fresh and of a high quality.

F.           

Unlike in most countries, citizens of Singapore cannot just buy a car. The island is densely populated and the government tries to regulate the number of cars on the road. To own a car, a citizen must enter his or her name in a lottery that is drawn twice a month. If the citizen wins the lottery, he or she is granted a Certificate which allows them to own a car for 10 years. Then it is necessary to pay a registration fee, which is 140% of the value of the car.

G.          

When you are in Singapore you can’t buy chewing gum anywhere. It is illegal to import or sell gum in the country. The sale of gum was prohibited in 1992 after gum was used to shut down the SMRT, the country's public transportation system. The gum was stuck on the sensor doors and the system was paralyzed. The punishment for importing gum into the country is a year in prison and a big fine.

 

Чтение 63.

 

Прочитайте тексты и установите соответствие между текстами и их заголовками: к каждому тексту, обозначенному буквами A–G, подберите соответствующий заголовок, обозначенный цифрами 1–8. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании есть один лишний заголовок.

 

Multilingual society

Useful from roots to leaves