According to the text, meetings

are an essential part of the working day.

are not attended by people working from home.

are the best way to solve a problem.

are a waste of time.

Question №2
According to the text, working from home is a good option for people

who like driving.

who live a long way from their office.

who live close to their office.

who work early in the morning.

Question №3
What does 'surreptitiously' in paragraph 4 line 7 mean?

Secretly

Slowly

All the time

Stupidly

Question №4
Why is working from home good for companies?

Home workers always produce good work.

It stops employees having long coffee breaks.

It keeps employees happy in their job.

They do not need such large offices.

Question №5
Most people who work from home abroad

only work in the European Union.

work only for one company.

do not have a permanent contract.

usually have a permanent contract.

Question №6
According to the text, what is the problem about working from home abroad?

It is bad for the environment.

You cannot visit the office often enough.

There are not enough flights.

The cost of fuel is too high.

Question №7
How do home workers feel about not working with other people?

They prefer it.

They miss the other people.

They do not think about it very much.

They love it.

Question №8
The writer's purpose is

to show that working from home is the best option.

to show that working in an office is the best option.

to criticise working from home.

to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of working from home.

На прохождение теста осталось 40 минут
Reading. Task 2. Прочитайте статью. Семь предложений были убраны из текста. Выберите какое из предложений, данных после текста (1-8) соответствует каждому пропуску (1-7). Впечатайте номер пропуска (1-7) в рамку для ответа после каждого предложения. Одно из предложений лишнее.

Question №9
City Planning

Very many cities grow organically. (1) From small groups of people living together, over time giant cities grew with populations of millions. However, many of the world's most famous cities were created when a leader or a government simply decided that their nation needed a new capital.

Madrid is one royal example of this process. King Philip II of Spain decided that he needed a new, central location for his government and so he chose a small town near Toledo, which became the giant Spanish capital of today. The king chose Madrid despite the fact that it lacked a major river, which had historically been an essential part of city planning.

One of the reasons why Philip decided on Madrid was that it was a neutral location. (2) Similar reasons lead to the construction of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. This city was built in 1908 so as to resolve the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. Both of these cities felt that they should be the nation's capital.

Another king who built his own capital was Czar Peter the Great of Russia, who founded Saint Petersburg in 1703 on land which he had just conquered from Sweden. (3) The building work developed quickly and within nine years, Peter moved the capital of Russia there from its former location in Moscow.

This extraordinary central planning has a twentieth-century echo in the construction of Brasilia, which began fifty years ago. Brasilia was envisaged as a new capital in the centre of the country, and construction was placed under the control of the outstanding architect Oscar Niemeyer. He designed a modern city with futuristic architecture and giant roads. The overall planning of the city was so precise that they even decided details such as the colours of bus drivers' uniforms. It was an extraordinary project, but its success has led to great pressure on the new capital of Brazil. (4) A city which was designed for half a million is now home to four times that number.

In North America, a similar fate was waiting for Washington D.C. When the newly born United States of America decided to build a completely new capital for their country, they turned to the French architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant. Astonishingly, L'Enfant predicted the growth of the USA. He designed Washington to be the capital of a country of fifty states with several million citizens. (5) Indeed, its population did reach 800,000 in the 1960s, justifying L'Enfant's plans.

Predictions had always played a powerful role in the growth of new cities. Many ancient societies believed that their cities had been ordered by their Gods. In Mexico, the Aztec legends recall how they began construction of the great city TenochtitlГЎn. The people had been wandering around with no permanent home. Then one day they saw an eagle sitting on a cactus and eating a snake. (6) TenochtitlГЎn still survives today, although it is now known as Mexico City.

The planning and building of new urban areas is truly astonishing, but these should not be seen as entirely unusual events. (7) So there have been many other examples of architects starting work on a new town or urban area. Nevertheless, it is remarkable how many ambitious leaders and peoples have created whole cities based on a single extraordinary plan.

(1) Many people have been attracted there for work and the population has exploded.

(2) If he had chosen an existing city, the other powerful cities would have been angry that they had been overlooked.

(3) Throughout history cities have had to be modernised, extended or rebuilt after disasters like fires and earthquakes.

(4) People often started living together because there was good land for growing food, a pleasant climate and a river to provide water.

(5) This was an incredible idea when the nation was a group of only thirteen colonies.

(6) Immediately, work began on creating a perfectly planned city with well-organised streets and squares.

(7) They believed this was a message from the Gods and built their city on the spot.

(8) The people complained about the bad weather and terrible fogs which these new cities suffered from.

На прохождение теста осталось 40 минут
Reading. Task 3. Прочитайте четыре текста (1-4) о людях, живущих в Австралии. Для каждого из вопросов, данных после текста (1-15) выберите, о ком идёт речь в вопросе. Напишите цифру (1-4), соответствующую выбранному тексту в рамке для ответа под вопросом.

Question №10
Living Down Under

For many people life in Australia seems like a dream. We spoke to four people who moved to Australia to hear their stories.

(1) Tony George

I came to Australia in 1960 from Belfast in Northern Ireland. In those days, the Australian government subsidised your journey. You got a special ten-pound ticket on a ship to come out here. They did this because the population was just too small. I was eighteen, unemployed and I didn't know what to do with my life so I came out here. I've never looked back.

When I arrived in Australia, I moved out to a town near Perth and I worked for thirty years as a policeman. There's a lot of land out here and I built my own home. It's a lovely little place with a veranda and gorgeous views of the coast. People back home seem to think that I live surrounded by venomous snakes, hungry crocodiles and deadly spiders, but I'm sorry to say all of that is just a myth.

(2) Claudia Paisley

Am I an emigrant? I really don't know. I was barely a year old when I came here. We're originally from a small town in southern Germany, but I've never been there. I even find it difficult speaking German these days because I use it so little. And now of course, if you look at my name, you'd never know I'm from Germany, because I married Ben last year, and he was from Scotland originally.

I loved growing up here in Tasmania in the mountains. The climate was wonderful and I spent all my childhood outdoors. All my happiest memories are of family holidays when my father would drive for hours to get to the beach. We would spend hours swimming in the sea and playing tennis. I remember we always had to be careful though because there were sharks in the water. My mother was terrified of them.

(3) Kaatje Van der Knaap

I've been here nine months and I am in love with Australia! Luckily, as a Dutch citizen, I can get a Working Holiday Visa which allows me to work over here. It's great but it's only temporary and worst of all, I have to change jobs every three months. My first job was working in a vineyard and that was really hard work in the hot sun. I got quite sunburnt early on and I was really surprised when my boss shouted at me because of it! People here are really frightened of skin problems from the sun and now I am too.

I have been travelling all around the country while I've been here and for me, this place is paradise. I remember going to Cairns and the Coral Sea and I had never seen such a beautiful place. I now live in the desert, in the Outback and I miss that but I'm sure I'll go back there on my next job.

(4) Rick Tanner

I came out here twenty years ago. I had finished college in the USA and I wanted to explore the world. I picked Australia first because it was big, and interesting and far away from the United States. Unfortunately, I picked too well because I abandoned my intended world tour and stayed here.

One day, early on in my trip, I was on a long train journey across the country and I met Valerie. We travelled around together and within a month she became my wife. It was a little crazy but we're still together now and living in Alice Springs, the centre of the country.

I do like it out here but I do sometimes wish I were back in the States. The hardest time is Thanksgiving when I think of all my brothers and sisters having a huge family dinner together. I miss the roast turkey! I also love baseball but here people are more interested in it. They prefer cricket. I've been out here nearly two decades, and I still don't understand that.