Oxford Test of English Reading: test de práctica 1

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Leo

Hi Marta, I've just read the article about the new climbing wall at the sports centre that you sent me. It looks great, but I'm not sure about the beginners' course on Saturdays – I already play basketball then. Apparently, they also run sessions on Thursday evenings. Could you find out whether there are still places? You know the staff there better than I do! Leo

Notice

Notice to all library users

From Monday 3 March, the second floor will be closed while new heating is installed. The work is expected to last three weeks.

During this time, the quiet study area will move to the ground floor, next to the children's section, so please be aware that it may be noisier than usual. Books normally kept on the second floor can still be requested at the main desk and will be ready to collect within 24 hours. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Email

From: Claire · Subject: Friday lunch

Hi Sam,

Thanks for offering to organise the team lunch on Friday. Just a couple of things before you book anywhere. Remember that Priya doesn't eat meat, and Jonas will be joining us late because of a client meeting, so somewhere close to the office would be ideal. The budget is the same as last time, so nothing too expensive. Could you send everyone the details by Wednesday?

Thanks, Claire

Note

Dani

Hi Dani, the plumber is coming tomorrow between 10 and 12 to look at the kitchen tap. I've got an exam in the morning, so I won't be here. You said you're working from home – could you let him in? He'll need to turn the water off for about an hour, so you might want to fill a jug before he arrives. I've left the money for him in the drawer by the fridge. Noor

Blog

My year of new things

I'd been putting off learning to swim properly for years – I could just about stay afloat, but that was it. Last month, I finally signed up for adult lessons at my local pool. I expected to feel embarrassed among people who already knew what they were doing, but everyone in the group was at the same level, and the instructor was incredibly patient. I'm not fast yet, but I actually look forward to Tuesdays now.

Review

The Green Fork ★★★☆☆

I'd heard great things about this new vegetarian café, and the food certainly lived up to its reputation: my mushroom pie was delicious and the portions are generous. Unfortunately, the experience was let down by the wait. It took forty minutes for our main courses to arrive, and the staff seemed too busy to explain why. I'd go back for the food, but I'd avoid lunchtime at weekends.

Summer volunteering

Fix it, don't bin it

Repair cafés are giving broken objects – and their owners – a second chance.

On the first Saturday of every month, a community hall in the centre of Bristol fills with an unusual collection of objects: lamps that won't switch on, jackets with broken zips, toasters, bicycles and, on one memorable occasion, an accordion. Some people have carried their broken possessions across the city in shopping bags; others have simply walked round the corner. Their owners have come to the local repair café, where volunteers with a talent for fixing things will try to bring them back to life – for free. (1) ?ABCDEFG Instead, owners sit next to the volunteer and are encouraged to help with the repair themselves.

The idea is not new. Repair cafés first appeared in the Netherlands more than fifteen years ago, and the movement has since spread to many other countries. (2) ?ABCDEFG Many of the volunteers are retired electricians, engineers or tailors who spent their working lives fixing things and are delighted to find that their skills are still in demand. 'People assume that when something breaks, it's the end of its life,' says Geoff, a former television engineer who has volunteered in Bristol for six years. 'Usually it's something tiny – a loose wire or a fuse – that takes five minutes to sort out.' He still remembers the first thing he fixed there: a clock that had belonged to a visitor's grandfather. 'She cried when it started ticking again.'

Not every repair is a success, of course. Geoff estimates that about two thirds of the items brought to him leave in working order. Clothes and bicycles are usually the easiest to fix. (3) ?ABCDEFG Some manufacturers glue their products together so they cannot be opened without being damaged, while others refuse to sell spare parts to anyone except their own technicians. 'That's incredibly frustrating,' Geoff says. 'You can see exactly what's wrong, but there's no way to get at it.'

This is beginning to change, partly thanks to pressure from campaigners. In recent years, the European Union has introduced rules that require manufacturers to make certain products easier to repair and to keep spare parts available for longer. (4) ?ABCDEFG For many volunteers, however, the most important change is not in the law but in people's attitudes.

Louise, who runs the Bristol café, has noticed a shift. 'When we started, most people came because they couldn't afford a new kettle or a new coat,' she says. 'Now more and more come because they simply don't want to throw things away.' (5) ?ABCDEFG Younger visitors in particular often arrive with a phone or a laptop, and many of them leave having learned how to do the repair themselves next time. 'That's what I love most,' Louise says. 'We're not just fixing objects, we're passing on knowledge.'

There is also a social side that nobody expected. While they wait, visitors chat over tea and cake, and some have become regulars even when they have nothing to fix. (6) ?ABCDEFG 'Some of our older visitors live alone,' Louise explains. 'For them, this is as much about company as about getting their radio working again.' It seems that in mending things, repair cafés are also mending something less visible: the connections between neighbours.

Why I switched off my map app

I used to be proud of never getting lost. With a phone in my hand, I could find my way to a friend's new flat, a restaurant in a city I'd never visited or a meeting on an industrial estate without a moment's thought. Then, one evening last winter, my battery died on the way to a concert, and I realised I had no idea where I was – in my own city, in a neighbourhood I had walked through dozens of times. I wasn't lost because the streets were unfamiliar. I was lost because I had never actually looked at them.

It turns out I'm not alone. Researchers who study navigation have found that people who follow step-by-step directions tend to remember far less about a route than those who work it out for themselves. Some studies suggest that the parts of the brain involved in building a mental map are less active when we simply follow instructions. I'm wary of reading too much into this – the research is still fairly new, and some of the headlines it has produced ('Sat navs are shrinking our brains!') go much further than the scientists themselves would. But the basic idea makes sense: a skill you never use is a skill you gradually lose.

So I set myself a challenge: for one month, I would only use the map app when I was genuinely stuck. The first week was frustrating. I took wrong turnings, arrived late for two appointments and had to ask strangers for directions, which I found surprisingly embarrassing. By the third week, however, something had changed. I had started noticing landmarks – a blue door, a bakery on a corner, the way one street sloped down towards the river – and I could picture how different parts of the city connected. I even discovered a park ten minutes from my flat that I had somehow never seen.

I haven't deleted the app – I'm not about to drive across an unfamiliar country without it. But I now use it the way I'd use a paper map: to check where I'm going before I set off, rather than as a voice that tells me when to turn. It takes a little longer, and occasionally I still go the wrong way. That seems a small price to pay for actually knowing the place where I live.