Examination Card №20

I. Reading
Chocolate is a delicious sweet loved by almost everybody.

The history of chocolate started at least 4000 years ago. The Aztecs, who lived in America, treated cacao drink as a gift of their gods.

Christopher Columbus was probably the first to take cacao beans from the New World to Europe in about 1502. In 1519 the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez visited Mexican emperor Montezuma and took some cacao as a gift for the King of Spain. Soon people began to drink chocolate with chili peppers but the taste of cocoa was too bitter so they added sugar to this cacao drink. By the end of 17th century rich people in Europe were drinking chocolate. In 1828 Dutch chocolate makers learnt how to press the fat from cacao beans.

Nowadays chocolate is a popular holiday gift for Christmas, birthdays and St. Valentine's Day. Chocolate eggs are sometimes given at Easter.

II. Writing
From: Olena
To: Margaret
Subject: Congratulations

Dear Margaret,
I was delighted to hear you have become the national winner of the International Visitor Programme! Congratulations! A more deserving or talented person could not have been selected for the possibility. I have always believed you can succeed! What does the programme include? Do you know the list of participants?
Please, let me know the dates of your arrival to Ukraine. What hotel are you going to stay at? I hope we'll be able to meet there.
Send me your arrival details.
Kind regards,
Olena

III. Speaking
All over the world people love reading. The habit of reading is one of the greatest resources of mankind. It is not surprising, because when you are reading a story or a fairy tale, you always become a part of adventure. You can visit a far away country, travel into space, learn the secrets of underwater life. You are not lonely. You can travel into the past with the main characters of historic novels. You can become a witness of great inventions with the heroes of science fiction stories. You can also have fun with people who live in comic books.

Everyone should begin collecting a private library in youth. One should have one's own bookshelves, which should not have doors, glass windows, or keys; they should be free and accessible to the hand as well as to the eye. Books are for use, not for show. You should own no book that you are afraid to mark up, or afraid to place on the table, wide open and face down. A good reason for marking favourite passages in books is that this practice enables you to remember more easily the significant sayings, and to refer to them quickly when needed.

Books are of the people, by the people, for the people. If you asked me about the childhood book that influenced me most, I would say that was the Bible. My granny used to retell me different stories from it teaching me about moral values, and thus developing my personality. At present I like reading for both educational value and for pleasure. My favourite book is "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. Today "The Alchemist" is a favourite book of the rich and the poor in 117 countries of the world. The book teaches the readers that to achieve your destiny is the only real duty of the person. All people while they are still young know the destiny... But eventually mysterious force begins to convince them that to achieve an embodiment of their destiny is impossible. On this planet there is one great truth: when you really wish something, you will achieve it; in fact such desire had arisen in the soul of the Universe. And it also is your applicability on the Earth. I am not sure that I would like to travel around the world in the search of happiness as the main character does, but I would try to find it closer home by giving the warmth of my heart to my nearest and dearest.

Books are our friends. They are "the treasure house of information", as the saying goes. Modern and classical authors tell us a great number of amazing facts about the surrounding world. They teach us how to get on with our friends. That's why every time we have a question - we can read a book, and it will help us solve the problem you have faced.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-21