TOPIC 1 🡺 My life

READING 1.1 🡺 Meet Ben

STRATEGY: SCANNING

Exercise 1: Read the following text.

Exercise 2: Circle true or false for each statement.
Exercise 3: For each false statement, write the correct information.

My name is Ben and I come from Australia. I am 24 years old and I live in a small town near Sydney
called Branton. I don't have a job now, but normally I clean shop windows. I am not married but I
live with my very beautiful girlfriend, Maria, in a nice house in Branton. We don't have any
children - maybe next year. My girlfriend is an actress, but she isn't very famous. She acts in a
small theater in our town. At the weekend, we like to go swimming in a big lake near our house. I
normally get up at eight o'clock, but on Thursday I get up at six o'clock because that is the day
when I go running in the park. I like living in Branton because it's not too big. There are some
historical buildings in the center of the town and near Branton, there is a river where I go fishing
sometimes when I want to relax.
1. Ben comes from Australia but lives in America. TRUE / FALSE

2. Ben has a job as a window cleaner. TRUE / FALSE

3. Ben isn't married. TRUE / FALSE

4. Ben and Maria are having a baby next year. TRUE / FALSE

5. Ben's girlfriend works in a local theater. TRUE / FALSE

6. Ben gets up early once a week to do some sport. TRUE / FALSE

7. Ben thinks that Branton is too small. TRUE / FALSE

8. Ben goes swimming in a river near Branton. TRUE / FALSE

TOPIC 2: EDUCATION
READING 1.2 🡺 Homework: how useful is it?
STRATEGY: INFERRING

Exercise 1: Answer the following questions.

1. What comes to your mind when you hear ‘homework’?
2. How much homework do teachers usually leave you?
3. Do you do your homework?
Exercise 2: Read the article. Then, check what can be inferred.

Homework is an established part of school life in most countries around the world. However, there
is still considerable debate among teachers about whether homework has a significant educational
value. On the one side are those who claim that it takes too much time away from other more
useful activities. On the other are those who see homework as reinforcing school lessons so that
concepts will not be forgotten. What is often neglected in this debate is the role of parental
involvement and whether or not the child’s home provides support for effective homework.
Parents in low-income families often don’t have the time to make homework a priority or aren’t
able to afford a computer or additional books. Whatever money they have goes on the basic
necessities of life – accommodation, food, clothing and heating. However, the idea that only
middle-class parents support their children’s education is quite obviously wrong. Not all well-to-do
parents give the support they should, and some parents living in the most impoverished
circumstances imaginable find the time and energy to involve themselves in their children’s
homework.

_____ Homework is assigned all around the world.

_____ Homework is not important at all.
_____ You can do more relevant things than homework.
_____ Children’s home and parents do not influence effective homework.
_____ Only low-class parents do not support their children to do their homework.

Exercise 3: Read the article. Then, check what can be inferred.

Do you think homework is useful? How?