on the bottom. The Montgolfier brothers had great hopes when they made the first manned flight. They thought balloons would take off as a viable means of commercial flight. Instead, they have remained the province of sport, adventure and enjoyment. Yet they still retain the essential characteristics which make them so attractive.
С. Many people still think that to get the chance to go to space you have got to try to become an astronaut. Unfortunately, the chances of succeeding are tiny, simply because there are so few astronauts and there is no prospect of a lot more being employed. However, you need not despair because you will be able to go as a visitor. But the first thing you should do is to save up because the demand is expected to be strong and prices will be high.
D. The natural cautiousness is usual in herons. They prefer to spend the day in areas where they can hunt for fish in peace. They seldom allow close approach and are quick to take to the air when they sense humans are about. Such nervousness is understandable, given that they have suffered from persecution from fish farmers.
E. Crop circles are large circular patterns which have been turning up mysteriously in cornfields all over southern England, and in other parts of the world, since the 1980s. Many people believe they could not have been done by human beings – they say only visitors from outer space could have created such circles. Although scientists are trying to solve this mystery, the scientific explanation has not been found yet.
F. Teachers are used to asking students to turn off their mobile phones but soon they could be a major classroom aid for teaching and learning. Three schools in the Richmond area are taking part in an innovative project in which students will use their mobile phones. Students can use the phones to get access to learning materials as more phones nowadays have links to the Internet.
G. Every year, large crowds of people gather at Cooper’s Hill to watch the Cheese Rolling Championship. A group of brave people roll a large cheese down the hill, and then run down after it. In theory, competitors must catch the cheese, but as it can reach speeds up to 70 miles an hour, this rarely happens. Cheese Rolling has been going on for hundreds of years and nobody knows for sure when it first started.
11. Прочитайте текст и заполните пропуски A—F частями предложений, обозначенными цифрами 1—7. Одна из частей в списке 1—7 лишняя. Занесите цифры, обозначающие соответствующие части предложений, в таблицу.
Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanic eruptions are among the Earth’s most powerful and destructive forces. However, they are also creative forces. The Earth’s first oceans and atmosphere formed from the gases given off by volcanoes. In turn, the oceans and the atmosphere created the environment ___ (A). Volcanoes have also shaped the Earth’s landscape. Many of our mountains, islands, and plains have been built by volcanic eruptions.
The Earth’s crust is broken into plates ___ (B). There are 16 major plates. These rigid plates float on a softer layer of rock in the Earth’s mantle. As the plates move about they push together or pull apart. Most volcanoes are located near the edges of plates.
Deep within the Earth it is so hot that some rocks slowly melt and become a thick flowing substance called magma. ___ (C), magma rises and collects in magma chambers. Eventually some of the magma pushes through vents and fissures in the Earth’s surface. A volcanic eruption occurs! Magma that has erupted is called lava.
Some volcanic eruptions are explosive and others are not. How explosive an eruption is depends on how runny or sticky the magma is. If magma is thin and runny, gases can escape easily from it. ___ (D), it flows out of the volcano. Lava flows rarely kill people, because they move slowly enough for people to get out of their way. Lava flows, however, can cause considerable destruction to buildings in their path.
If magma is thick and sticky, gases cannot escape easily. Pressure builds up ___ (E). In this type of eruption, the magma blasts into the air and breaks apart into pieces called tephra. Tephra can range in size from tiny particles of ash to house-size boulders.
Explosive volcanic eruptions can be dangerous and deadly. They can blast out clouds of hot tephra from the side or top of a volcano. These fiery clouds race down mountainsides destroying almost everything in their path. Ash erupted into the sky falls back to Earth like powdery snow, but snow ___ (F). If thick enough, blankets of ash can suffocate plants, animals, and humans. When hot volcanic materials mix with water from streams or melted snow and ice, mudflows form. Mudflows have buried entire communities located near erupting volcanoes.
1. that resemble a jigsaw puzzle
2. when plates push together
3. until the gases escape violently and explode
4. that made life possible on our planet
5. because it is lighter than the solid rock around it
6. that doesn’t melt
7. when this type of magma erupts
Прочитайте текст и выполните задания 12—18. В каждом задании запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Kayak Adventure
It started with a casual phone call in the spring of 2005. A good friend, Mike Crenshaw, finally got a permit from the National Park Service to lead a private party of 16 boaters down the Colorado River. He had a slot open for Willie. Was he interested?
«It was the chance of a lifetime,» Stewart says. He had been waiting years for this trip to happen. «How could I refuse?»
But before they shoved off, he had a couple of things to take care of. He had to get a white-water kayak, learn how to use it, and get a prosthesis to replace his missing arm.
The trip was still about four months off and Stewart figured he had time to master the needed skills for white-water kayaking. He spent hours practising in the university pool and in a creek down the road from his house. Over and over, he flipped himself upside down so he could work on his Eskimo roll in which he uses his paddle and a little hip action to flip himself upright. Finally, figuring he was ready, Stewart headed for the Grand Canyon.
Even with all his training, he was barely prepared for the adventure. At the first significant rapids, a middling run of white water called Badger Creek, Stewart was thrown out of his boat. He recalls how demoralized he felt as he swam to shore. Farther downriver at a place called House Rock, he was knocked over four times. He made it through mostly because he’d mastered one good move: the Eskimo roll.
At another set of rapids, Horn Creek, he got sucked into a violent implosion of water that held him in a swirling maelstrom for several terrifying seconds. At the next, Hance, which was full of rocks, Stewart says, «I was upside down, backward – basically, I was bounced down the river like a rubber ball.» He was figuratively, and literally, in over his head.
Stewart decided that to even pretend he knew what he was doing would be pure suicide. From then on, he followed more experienced paddlers through the thundering waters and relied on his Eskimo roll for emergencies. Up until now, even after his injury, Stewart had