Form 9. Listening comprehension. Variant 2. The Second Semester.

Listen to the text and complete the sentences with the missing words.

Cardiff is the capital city of Wales, Europe’s youngest capital and one of the fast- est-growing cities and tourist destinations in Britain. In Cardiff you’ll find lots of world-class sporting and entertainment places that must be visited. Besides there are excellent shops, varied restaurants and plenty of art, history and culture, which make Cardiff an ideal holi- day place. When you visit Cardiff, you’ll find the «big 3» sights — Cardiff Castle, the Mil- lennium Stadium and the National Museum all close to each other in the city centre. Wales is the land of castles, and Cardiff it- self is home to a huge number of castles and historic sites. Cardiff’s history dates back to Roman times, and Cardiff Castle, located right at the heart of the city, is well worth a visit. As with most of Wales, Cardiff has many nice cafés and restaurants that offer traditional Brit- ish food as well as local dishes — Welsh lamb and beef, fresh seafood and organic vegetables.

1) Wales’ capital city is called         .

2) Cardiff is a nice place to visit as there are excellent shops, varied restaurants and plenty of art, history and         .

3) The «big 3» sights of Cardiff are Cardiff Castle, the Millennium Stadium and the National        .

4) Cardiff Castle is situated right at the       of the city.

5) Cardiff has many nice cafés and restaurants that offer traditional British      .

Listen to the text. Mark the following statements as true or false.

Anna: «I come from the region of North- ern Ireland that is very industrial and urbanised — lots of factories and a lot of pollution as an effect. It’s not possible to overcome such harmand destruction by human activity. But there are also some places in our country that are protected because there are lots of rare plants and animals living there. These are called national parks and I consider them as a good solution in our times. There is also a place called the «green lungs of Northern Ireland» where you can find very large areas of forests.

In my opinion it’s really important to show people the necessity to change their lifestyle and rescue our planet. A simple example is buying things in plastic bottles that cannot be recycled. I think that showing people a new style of life could be rather effective and would be a good addition to showing them how the environment would look without us destroying it».

1) Northern Ireland is a very polluted country.       [False, True]

2) Anna doesn’t believe that human activity affects the environment.       [True, False]

3) She thinks that national parks can be helpful in environmental protection.       [False, True]

4) According to Anna's opinion, people need to know how they can change their lifestyle in order to save our planet.       [True, False]

5) She says that everybody should buy things in plastic bottles.       [False, True]

Listen to the text. Read and choose the correct answer.

Marie Curie was one of the greatest scientists ever. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and discovered the chemical elements radium and polonium. Curie is the only person who won two Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris.

Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland. Her father was a Maths and Physics teacher. He had a big influence on Marie’s early education. From an early age Marie was an exceptional student with an amazing memory. She often went without food and sleep to study. Her brilliant mind led her to Paris to study and start her research.

She met her future husband Pierre Curie at the university. He considered Marie to be a genius and wanted to work with her. They got married and spent most of their time together in their laboratory studying radioactive materials. Their research led to the discovery of radium, for which they were honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

Pierre was killed in 1906 and Marie was devastated and extremely lonely. She threw herself even deeper into her work and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. She spent the 1920s raising funds for more research into radium. In 1934 she died from a condition caused by de- cades of exposure to radiation. Before that no one knew how deadly radium could be.

1) What is the best title for this text?  

A The Discoveries in Physics.

B Marie’s Family Life.

C Marie Curie: the Great Scientist.

D Marie Curie: the Early Years

2) Marie Curie…  

A was one of the greatest mathematicians.

B studied radioactivity.

C created radium.

D was the first female professor at the University of Warsaw.

3) Curie won…  

A the Nobel Prize in Biology.

B two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry.

C two Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.

D no Nobel Prizes.

4) Who influenced Marie’s early education?  

A Her Maths teacher.

B Her father.

C Pierre Curie.

D The works of Albert Einstein.

5) Marie and her husband…  

A studied radioactive materials together.

B met at school.

C were French.

D died in the same year.