№1 Read the texts (1-5) from English newspapers and match them with the titles (a-f). There is one title you don't have to use.
New Sports Cars
Parts for the Young Actor
Problems of the Black Continent
Politicians
Climatic Problems of the World
Political History of the World
1. Jared Leto plays Hephaistion, Alexander the Great’s closest friend and trusted
soldier in this Oliver Stone film. The role was first offered to Brad Pitt, who had already appeared on our screens in Troy, another ancient history blockbuster. Leto stars with Colin Farrell as Alexander, Anthony Hopkins as Ptolemy and Angelina Jolie who plays the part of Olympias, Alexander’s mother.
2. Kevina is 14. Her parents, aunts and uncles were killed by AIDS, so she must
look after her four younger brothers, three younger sisters and her blind 84-year-old grandmother. They have no food, money or home. In the near future Africa will have 40 million parentless children — all because of AIDS.
3. Most scientists agree that global warming is real. In the last century the average temperature went up about 0.6 degrees Celsius (about 1 degree Fahrenheit) around the world. They say the higher temperatures are a result of an atmospheric growth of carbon dioxide.
4. Lance Armstrong has always loved swimming and running, but he seemed to
be born to race bikes. Sometimes he rode so far from home at weekends, his mum and dad had to drive to look for him. He became good enough to ride with the US Olympic training team during his last years at school.
5. The UK and US have had a special relationship for two centuries. Fighting together in World War II cemented their friendship. “What I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples means a special relationship
between the two countries,” said Winston Churchill in 1946, just after the end of World War II.
№ 2 Match the parts of the sentences in two columns to get complete phrases.
1. When I returned to my native city, I noticed that...
a) Bill was not.
2. The room for the Christmas party...
b) the last chapter is still being written.
3. Last Saturday I was invited to your party but...
c) a new theatre was being built in its main square.
4. I haven’t posted the letters yet, ...
d) Mr Jackson is being interviewed
in the room next door.
5. — Has the reporter come?
— Yes, ...
e) is being decorated
6. — Has Alec Fox finished the book
yet?
— No, ...
f) they are being translated and will be sent tomorrow.
№ 3 Read the text. Use the appropriate forms of the words on the right to complete it.
№ 4 Choose the right form of the verbs to complete the sentences
Some new documentaries (have/had) been lately shown on Channel 4.
Dick remembered that those short stories (have/had) been read on the radio by some popular actors.
When we entered the room, the television (has/had) been turned on and my parents were watching the news.
Thanks to television Walt Disney’s cartoons (have/had) been spread all over the world.
When I came to Troitsk last year, I visited the new library that (has/had) been built there.
The Harry Potter films (have/had) been broadcast in all European countries.
The teacher told us that those problems (have/had) never been discussed.
Very few new species of animals (have/had) been lately discovered.
Unfortunately our car (has/had) not been washed and we had to drive to town in the dirty car.
Alice said that all invitation cards (have/had) been written.
№ 5 Say the same using the passive voice
Example: They show a lot of thrillers on TV nowadays.
A lot of thrillers are shown on TV nowadays.
John Logie Baird made the first television of old cars, bicycle parts, lenses and other things.
Baird demonstrated the first TV in 1925.
They opened the first television service in Britain in 1936.
They first used colour television in the United States in 1956.
In the early days of television few people bought television sets because they were expensive.
They soon developed new technologies and built a lot of TV stations.
The BBC World Service shows programmes in the TV Times, a popular weekly magazine.
