A2 KET Test #42 - Reading & Writing

Mary

Mary helps an old lady who lives next door. Every Saturday morning, she visits the woman and finds out what she needs. Then Mary walks to the large supermarket, where she buys food and milk for her. She never goes with her school friends, but her older sister always comes to help carry the heavy bags. They don't have to catch a bus because the shop is very near. Mary loves listening to the old lady's interesting stories.

Liu

On Wednesday afternoons, Liu travels to the town library to help. Her older brother is usually busy, so she always goes there alone. Because it is quite far from her house, she catches the bus after school. When she arrives, Liu spends an hour reading funny books to groups of little kids. She enjoys working with them, but she doesn't want to become a teacher in the future! Instead, she hopes to study science at university.

Helen

Helen loves basketball, so she helps at a local sports club on Friday evenings. She doesn't go there with her sister or brother. Instead, a classmate often joins her to plan fun ball games for children under ten. Because the kids have lots of energy, they never want to sit down and look at books! Helen gives everyone some cold drinks, but she doesn't buy any food for them. When she finishes school, she hopes to work as a sports coach.

15-year-old Elena Costa has an unusual hobby. She keeps bees on her family’s apple farm in Portugal. She began by watching her grandfather’s workers look after their bees. When she was ten, she tried to do it herself for the first time. ‘It wasn’t easy,’ she says, ‘but the workers told me what I was doing wrong, and that helped me to slowly get better.’

Elena’s bees need many flowers, but she does not have to plant them. Her parents grow apples in a big garden, and the flowers on the apple trees give the bees all the food they need. Last year, a neighbour gave Elena one more box of bees to keep, but the bees there do not make honey yet.

Elena and her family put their honey in small bottles and sell it at the local market. Recently they won a prize at the honey fair for one of their honeys. ‘It has been great for helping people find out about us,’ says Elena. ‘Last month we started selling honey in Spain. People there read about our prize in a food magazine. Soon we are going to put some pictures in the newspaper, too.’

Elena’s next idea is to put some videos about bees online. ‘One of my favourite things is showing people how the bees work. Our honey is also lovely with bread and cheese. I hope a shop in a big city might want some one day.’ But right now Elena is still at school. ‘Keeping bees is fun and winning a prize is great, but getting good marks matters more for now.’

Blue whales are the largest animals that have ever lived in the world. They live far away in the 19.1highdeepthick ocean, so it is difficult to see one. Everything about this creature is huge, with a 19.2hairhearthand the size of a car! Even though they are large, they only eat very small sea creatures. A baby whale can drink about two hundred litres of milk every single day. It grows very 19.3easilyquicklyexactly, and can get about ninety kilogrammes heavier each day.

Although they live under the sea, blue whales must come to the 19.4topfronthead of the water to fill their bodies with fresh air. When communicating, their powerful songs can 19.5singlistentravel through the sea for thousands of kilometres.

In the past, people caught these giant animals, but countries now work together to keep them safe. Because of this hard work, whale numbers are slowly 19.6goingmovingcoming up again today.