Unit 1

Unit 1: Practice for the Exam
A.COMPLETE THE PARAGRAPH WITH THE VERBS IN PARENTHESES. USE ONE SIMPLE PRESENT AND ONE PRESENT CONTINUOUS VERB IN EACH SENTENCE.
I _________________________ (1. use) my cell phone a lot, and I’ll often text my friends when I _______________________________ (2. take) a break at work. I tend to call people up right after work too. In fact, I ________________________________________ (3.nearly always talk) to someone on the phone – but I ______________________________ (4. often meet) my friends face-to-face, too. And of course I ___________ ____________________________(5. never use) my cell when I _____________________________ (6.drive)! I _____________________________(7. tend to) catch up with my sister while we ________________________ (8. work out) at the gym together. She __________________________ (9. not talk) on her cell as much as I do, but she ___________________________ (10.use) her laptop a lot these days to email her friends abroad.  Click here to see the answers
B.MATCH THE DESCRIPTIONS ON THE LEFT WITH THE ADJECTIVES ON THE RIGHT. WRITE THE LETTERS ON THE LINES. THERE IS ONE ADJECTIVE THAT YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE.
1. Mary is always happy to listen to other people’s opinions and discuss different ideas. ______ 2. Sissy looks a bit unusual because of the clothes she wears, and she doesn’t live the way most other people do. ______ 3. Jerry’s very smart and always gets good grades. ______ 4. Kevin gets angry easily and shouts at people a lot. ______ 5. People have to be careful about what they say to Rudy in case he gets upset. ______ 6. Luke thinks he’s better than everyone else – it’s very annoying! ______ 7. Laura loves chatting to people – in fact, she never stops! ______ 8. Jody loves chatting to people – in fact, she never stops! ______		a)   sensitive b)   thoughtful c)   arrogant d)   open-minded e)   self-confident f)     intelligent g)   eccentric h)   aggressive i)     talkative Click here to see the answers
C.COMPLETE THE PARAGRAPH. CHOOSE THE CORRECT VERB FROM THE BOX. THERE IS ONE VERB THAT YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE.
accused           denied      obtained   promoted regretted  rejected    withheld
When Lee was at college, he got a part-time job in an advertising agency. Lee’s employers (1) _____________ fairness in the workplace, but when a negative comment about the agency was posted on the Internet, his boss (2) ____________________ Lee of writing it because he was a student and much younger than the other employees. Lee (3) ________________it, and luckily it turned out that a colleague’s child had posted the comment as a joke. Lee’s boss apologized and told him that she (4) ___________________ what she had said. She told him she would give him a better job, but Lee (5) ___________________ the offer. As soon as he (6) __________________  his degree, he left and took a job somewhere else.
Withheld: refuse to give (something that is due to or is desired by another).                 E.g. The name of the dead man is being withheld                 Synonyms: hold back, keep back, refuse to give, retain, hold on to, hide
D.   COMPLETE THE CONVERSATION WITH QUESTIONS FROM THE BOX. THERE IS ONE QUESTION THAT YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE.
-But do you know what it was about?     -So you think it’s a bad idea?     -Why do you say that?                              -But do you think that’s OK? -So you think they’ll manage it OK?
Kevin: I think Kim is just so two-faced! Sissy: ______________________________________________________ Kevin: Well, she told me she didn’t like Lisa, but I just saw them talking together! Sissy: ____________________________ They’re doing a class project together. Kevin: Really? That should be interesting. Their teacher made a big mistake! Sissy: __________________________________________ Kevin: Yeah, don’t you? Sissy: No, actually. People need to get along with all sort of different colleagues at work, so it’s good practice for them both. Kevin: ____________________________________________________ Sissy: Well I’m not sure, but I think they should try. Kevin: Yeah, maybe...
Reading 1
READ THE ARTCICLE. THEN READ THE STATEMENTS AND WRITE “T” FOR TRUE, “F” FOR FALSE, OR “NG” IF THE INFORMATION IS NOT GIVEN.
CAN SOCIAL-NETWORKINGSITES EVER REFLECT REA LIFE?
Social-networking sites can be a great way for us to connect with as many people as we want. However, it is important to remember that they have their limitations. They allow us to manage our online relationships, but most of us do not manage our real-life ones in quite the same way. Such sites tend to assume that all friends are equally important, and that they can be arranged into separable groups, whereas in real life, things are different: We have family members who are friends, and family members who are not; we like some of the people we work with, but dislike others. The fact is that our real-life relationships are far more complex than most social software is able to reflect. It may be our own fault - managing lists of friends is not always a comfortable or easy thing to do. And concern over privacy means we can be unwilling to allow sites to analyze our communication patterns in ways that could be useful to us. For example, our social networking sites could alert us if we are emailing a colleague or classmate more than we used to. They could ask us questions like “Is this person now becoming a close friend or are you working on an assignment together? It is of course possible that worries about privacy are not actually the problem, but that these sites simply base the way they allow us to organize our relationships on what other sites have done before.
1. Social networking sites don’t allow us to manage our relationships the same way we do in real life. _______ 2. Social networking sites are a good way to get back in touch with old friends. _________ 3. Social networking sites distinguish well between good friends and the rest. ___________ 4. Our social network relationships are more complicated than our real-life relationships. ___________ 5.  It might be useful if we allowed social networking sites to analyse our communication patterns. _________
SPEAKING QUIZ
Questions and topics to discuss. Ask these questions. Answer your partner’s questions. 1. Would you say that you’re a self-confident person? Why (not)? 2. How would you describe your personality?/ (the personality of someone in your family) 3. How often do you keep in touch with your friends? (check your email) 4. What’s something you constantly do online? 5. Do you know anyone who’s laid-back? How does he/she behave? 6. How do you tend to keep touch with your friends who live nearby? Who do you usually send text messages to? Why? (family members who don’t live with you) 7. Do you know anyone who never (or hardly ever) sends text messages? Why doesn’t he/she send them? 8. How would you feel if a good friend wished you a happy birthday online but didn’t call you? 9. How would you feel if a friend posted a photo of you online? 10. What would you do if you lost touch with a good friend? 11. What would you do if an old friend got in touch with you on a social networking site?
WRITING
A.Read People’s opinions about online friendships
Are online friendships important?
Jacob	I don’t think online friendships are that important. I mean, it’s hard to be real friends when you don’t see each other or talk on the phone.
Sally	I don’t have a lot in common with friends from school, but I have a lot in common with people I meet online.
Rita	I don’t even know a lot of the people on my social networking page. It’s a waste of time reading their posts! They aren’t true friends.
Tina	My online friends are an important part of my life. I’m constantly making new friends online, and I think online friendships are wonderful.
B.    Write a one-paragraph script for an online debate about the importance of online friendships. Use ideas from Part A and /or your own ideas.
Make sure that you: Ø Explain some points in favour of online friendships. Ø Explain some points against online friendships. Ø Come to a conclusion that gives your opinion. Ø Use expressions such as however, while, whereas, but, and on the other hand. You can find a sample answer here:                                  http://highintermediate-jl.blogspot.com/p/writing.html
This was a student’s comment (be careful there are some mistakes): Nowadays, Internet has become the most useful place for people to communicate. Also, you can meet people here, but it can be dangerous. People should pay attention about having online friendships, because sometimes it could be dangerous.  Having online friendships can be useful, you could learn more about your “friends” and his her country and culture. Also, sometimes they could help you via Internet. For example, your English skills are not so good, but you have an online friend that speak English perfectly, so you can ask him for help. However, sometimes having online friendships could be dangerous. To give you an example, imagine that you think that the person you are chatting with is not like you think he is, maybe he is completely different than you though. Also, maybe he she only wants to get your personal information, so they can use it to hurt or rob you. For this reasons, I think having online friendships can be useful, but you have to be careful. Also, you should have real friendships too, don’t have only online friends.