Grammar review - Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e ...

Università Ca' Foscari - Venezia
Facoltà di Scienze MM. FF. NN.
Informatica (Via Torino, Mestre) Lingua Inglese (idoneità) 2007 -2008 English for Information Technology
Reading Comprehension
Grammar and exercises
Common irregular verbs
Practice Exam paper Prof. Victor Rupik B.Eng., MBA Cologne and antiseptic: Russia's killer drinks
Level 1 Elementary
Fill the gaps using these key words from the text. life expectancy birth rate death rate lifestyle compare
household products diet suicide aftershave tragedy 1. ____________ are things you use at home, such as perfumes, cleaning
liquids and shampoos.
2. A person's ____________ is the food that he or she normally eats.
3. A ____________ is a very sad situation.
4. The ____________ is the official number of births each year in a
particular country.
5. Your ____________ is the way you live your life.
6. A person's ____________ is the number of years they will probably live.
7. The ____________ is the official number of deaths each year in a
particular country.
8. ____________ is a liquid with a nice smell that a man puts on his face
after shaving.
9. If you ____________ two things, you think about the ways in which they
are the same or different.
10. ____________ means killing yourself. Key words
Find the information
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible. 1. What percentage of murders in Russia are linked to alcohol?
2. What percentage of suicides in Russia are linked to alcohol?
3. How much pure alcohol does the average Russian drink each year?
4. How much alcohol do some household products contain?
5. What is the life expectancy for men in Russia?
6. What is the life expectancy for women in Russia? Cologne and antiseptic: Russia's killer drinks
Sarah Boseley, health editor, and Luke Harding in Moscow
June 15, 2007 A new medical study about alcoholism reports that almost half the men of
working age who die in Russia die as a result of alcohol. The report says
that large numbers of Russian men die young not just because they drink a
lot of vodka but because they also drink household products containing
alcohol, such as perfume, aftershave and medicines. Some products contain
95% alcohol.
An international group of scientists looked at one city in the Ural
mountains. They wanted to discover the effects of drinking in Russia. They
chose the city of Izhevsk because it is a typical industrial city where
life is the same as in other large cities in Russia and where the death
rate is the same as the Russian average. The scientists wanted to find out
why life expectancy in Russia is so low: in 2004 it was 59 years for men
and 72 for women. As a result of the low life expectancy and a low birth
rate, the population of Russia is falling by 700,000 a year.
Alcohol has always been an important factor in death and disease in Russia.
Changes in the death rate which are linked to changes in lifestyle and
politics support this fact. Life expectancy increased during the mid-1980s
when President Gorbachev tried to stop people in Russia drinking so much
alcohol. After the end of communism the death rate in Russia increased in
the early 1990s. This was probably because of alcohol.
One study found that Russians, and people in other countries of the former
Soviet Union, drank more than anybody else in the world - about 15.2 litres
of pure alcohol per person each year for people over 15 years of age. They
also drank more dangerously and often drank for two days or more without
stopping.
The scientists examined the medical records and interviewed the families of
1,750 men who had died in Izhevsk from 2003-05. They compared these men
with 1,750 who were still alive. They found that problem drinkers and
people who drank alcohol from products like perfume and aftershave often
died younger than those who did not have a drinking problem.
The scientists say that men who lost their jobs because of drinking had
very little money and often drank household products containing pure
alcohol. In the group of men who were still alive, 47% who drank household
products containing alcohol were out of work compared with 13% who drank
only vodka and beer. In total, 43% of deaths of men aged 25 to 54 in
Izhevsk were because of alcohol. This is probably because they drank
household products with very high levels of alcohol.
Another report says that people who get their alcohol from household
products often live in poor housing and have bad diets, and this could also
lead to an early death. The report also says that many people also drink
illegally produced alcoholic drinks.
The Russian government agrees that alcoholism is a huge problem and calls
it a "national tragedy". With Vladimir Putin as president, the Russian
economy has grown very quickly since 2000 but people are still drinking a
lot of alcohol. Russian alcoholics - drinking perfume, aftershave and cheap
local alcohol - face great dangers. In winter they fall through ice or
freeze to death in the snow.
According to 2005 figures, Russia has 2,348,567 registered alcoholics, and
alcohol is linked to 72% of murders and 42% of suicides. The World Health
Organisation says Russia is one of the most alcoholic countries in the
world.
© Guardian News & Media 2007 Comprehension check
Match the beginnings and endings to make sentences about the text. 1. Many men in Russia die young because...
2. Many people drink household products containing alcohol because...
3. Household products containing alcohol are dangerous because...
4. The population of Russia is falling because...
5. Winter is a dangerous time for alcoholics in Russia because...
6. Life expectancy increased during the mid-1980s because... a. ... President Gorbachev tried to stop people drinking alcohol.
b. ... life expectancy is very low and the birth rate is low.
c. ... they drink household products containing alcohol.
d. ... they contain a very high percentage of alcohol.
e. ... they may fall through ice or freeze to death in the snow.
f. ... they are poor. Vocabulary 1: Chunks
Rearrange these words to make short phrases from the text. Check your
answers in the text. 1. age working of men
2. a alcohol result as of
3. anybody more in than the else world
4. of work out
5. national a tragedy
6. the death in freeze snow to
7. of a number men large Complete the table.
past simple
1. grow
2. find
3. choose
4. fall
5. lose
6. drink
7. try
8. lead Answers
1. household products 2. diet 3. tragedy 4. birth rate 5. lifestyle 6. life
expectancy 7. death rate 8. aftershave
9. compare 10. suicide 1. 72% 2. 42% 3. 15.2 litres 4. 95% 5. 59 6. 72 1. c 2. f 3. d 4. b 5. e 6. a 1. men of working age
2. as a result of alcohol
3. more than anybody else in the world
4. out of work
5. a national tragedy
6. freeze to death in the snow
7. a large number of men
8. an important factor
past simple
1. grow grew
2. find found
3. choose chose
4. fall fell
5. lose lost
6. drink drank
7. try tried
8. lead led
World Heart Federation obesity warning Summary: The World Heart Federation is warning that obesity will overtake
tobacco smoking as the biggest cause of heart disease unless the current
trend of unhealthy lifestyles stops. At least a billion people across the
globe are now extremely overweight, putting a massive strain on the world
wide healthcare systems. Obesity, which can cause heart disease, strokes and diabetes is on
the increase across the globe. According to the World Heart Federation, an
estimated twenty-two million children under five years old are now severely
overweight. Nearly one in three children in the United States between the
ages of five and fourteen is obese, compared to one in six, thirty years
ago. But obesity is not a condition which solely affects the Western World.
Increasingly, low and middle income countries are suffering from the
condition, often due to a change in their diets, as they substitute fibre
intake for a much higher consumption of saturated fats and sugar. In
Beijing, for example, one in five children of school age is now obese. The World Heart Federation says obesity can also be blamed for spiralling
health costs. The US spends almost a tenth of its national healthcare
budget on overweight patients, and in Western countries as much as two
point eight percent of the total sick care costs is attributable to
obesity. The Federation warns that unless the world's population acts now
to eat a healthier diet and to take more exercise, obesity will rapidly
overtake smoking as the leading lifestyle risk factor for heart disease and
strokes. BBC News Match these words from the text to their meanings 1 on the increase
2 condition
3 low and middle income countries
4 substitute
5 fibre intake
6 higher consumption of saturated fats
7 spiralling
8 attributable to
9 overtake
10 lifestyle risk factor a growing
b likely to be caused by
c something people choose to do which can badly affect their health
d poorer countries
e eating of more fats
f the amount of fibre they eat
g medical problem
h here, become a bigger problem than...
i here, increasing rapidly
j you use it instead of the other thing
Health crisis looms as life expectancy soars 1 Pre-reading
Match the words and expressions with the definitions 1. life expectancy a. the age at which you stop working
2. retirement age b all the people who live in a city or
country
3. a report c. to rise, to get bigger
4. population d. the number of years people live
5. to increase