1.

BRAND FANS
One look at the logo on your T‐shirt and people know that you ‘just do it’. The three stripes onyour trainers
tell everyone that ‘impossible is nothing’ for you. But those signs send another message to the world:
you’re a brand fan.
In the past, advertising focused on product quality, but advertisers discovered that people don’t discuss what
their sports gear is made of. They talk about Nadal’s victories and Ronaldo’s goals: in otherwords,
experiences. As a result, some companies stopped making products and started creating experiences.
Today, factories in the developing world make the products, while the companies make sure that consumers
associate their brands with success. This involves using marketing techniques that appeal to their biggest
customers: teenagers.
Today’s teenagers are relatively wealthy and, consequently, companies work hard to attract their custom
through the internet and by sponsoring special events. There are Facebook pages to visit,and events such as
pop concerts that provide the ‘lifestyle experiences’ the company wants customers to associate their brand
with. In fact, companies want teenagers to see their brands as celebrities, notas products.
But a celebrity image can have negative consequences for a brand. News about brands, good or bad, is now
celebrity news, not business news. When some companies were discovered using workers in sweatshops, it
was headline news. As a result, if companies want people to love their brands, theywill have to behave
ethically. Otherwise, their fans might stop feeling proud of wearing their logos and take their custom
elsewhere.

1) Find in the text ...

a) A synonym for ‘symbol’.

b) A synonym for ‘rich’.

2) Answer the following two questions:

a) What do the logos you wear clearly tell people? Explain your answer.
b) What did advertisers discover about people’s conversations? Explain your answer.

3) Imagine one of your friends has failed his/her English exam and has to re-take it. He/she worked hard
and is very upset with the mark. Advise him/her how to improve for the next time.

4) Rewrite the following sentence in indirect style (reported speech).

a) “Do you think it will rain this afternoon?” she asked me.

Combine the following two sentences using a relative clause.

b) That is a famous house. It dates back to the 16th century.

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 2. A LICENCE TO SELL
Modern films and TV shows often feel like long advertisements thanks to product placement. This advertising
technique involves using a product in a film or TV programme as if it were part of the story. Product
placement owes its success to the invention of the video recorder, as owners fast‐forwarded when adverts
appeared in the middle of recorded programmes. Video recorders were a problem for advertisers; product
placement was the solution.
Today, advertisers receive scripts from producers and then look for products that fit ‘naturally’ with the
story. For example, a studio making a film about a teenager at university might ask for clothes, a laptop
computer and a mobile phone for her. The camera could easily focus on all of these objects without
greatly damaging the story. The problems begin when nobody worries about thestory.
Ian Fleming, who wrote the James Bond novels, gave his hero a ‘licence to kill’. Many people say the Bond films
have given him a new licence: a licence to sell. When Bond isn’t using the latestmobile phones, GPS devices
or handheld tablets, he is driving sports cars and flying with airlines that haveall been placed in the films for
enormous amounts of money. Companies paid $45 million for their products to appear in the last Bond film.
Many Bond fans think there is too much productplacement and not enough plot.
It seems that product placement is here to stay. Nevertheless, many critics feel that if TV programmes and films
just become vehicles for advertising, audiences will soon look for alternative forms of entertainment.

1. Find in the text ...

b) A synonym for ‘a story’.
c) A synonym for ‘a commercial’.

2Answer the following two questions:

c) What does product placement do to a lot of films and TV shows?

Why did TV viewers’ habits change as far as watching adverts is
concerned?

3) Imagine a student from England is coming to spend a term at your school. Tell him/her about
your school and advise him/her about what to bring.

4) Rewrite the following sentence in the passive

a) Sara definitely didn’t write that essay.
That essay………………………………………….

Complete the sentence using a conditional clause.

b) I want to buy a new mobile but I haven’t got enough

money. If………………………………………………

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 3. THE HOT ISSUE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
In the past ten years, warmer‐than‐average temperatures have been recorded around the globe, and scientists
warn that temperatures may soar by 1.8 – 4° C before the close of the century. It is believed that this recent
climate change has been caused by human activity, and especially by the emission of greenhouse gases.

So why should we be worried? In northern European countries, having warmer summers even seems quite
appealing! However, nearer the equator, the hot weather is making deserts expand, and putting natural
resources under tremendous pressure. In Spain, it is thought that nearly a third of the country may become
dry, arid land, and six percent of Spanish soil has already been lost to desert. Inpoor countries,
desertification can be disastrous. With increasing shortages of water and farming land, the pre‐existing
problems of drought, famine and disease are rapidly worsening. In parts of Africa, global warming is already
costing lives.

Climate change is affecting the coldest parts of the world, too, melting the ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. This is
already having a negative impact on local animal populations, such as polar bears,
and it is not yet known what the wider repercussions might be. One alarming theory suggests that rising
sea levels may lead to more tidal waves and tsunamis, and could result in severe flooding inmany countries.
The icy temperature of the water could also wreak havoc: other scientists have predicted that it could cool
the warm ocean currents, and paradoxically cause the UK and the USA to experience global warming as a
deep freeze.

One thing is certain. If we do not act now, the earth will continue to heat up, perhaps irreversibly. We must
take better care of our planet – before it’s too late.

1) Find in the text ...

d) A synonym for ‘consequences’.
e) A synonym for ‘worrying’.

2) Answer the following two questions:

a) According to the text, why is global warming a particular problem in Africa? Explain your answer.
b) Why does the writer think we should be worried about what’s happening at the north and south
poles? Explain your answer.

3 Imagine one of your friends uses a car to drive two kilometres to work every day. Advisehim/her to
stop doing so and give him/her a good reason for it.

4 Rewrite the following sentence in indirect style (reported speech).

a) “Are you going to attend the conference on climate change tomorrow?” he asked me.
Rewrite the following sentence in the active voice. (1 point)
b) This recent change has been caused by human activity.

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 4. CELEBRITY NEWS

In her quest to meet the rich and famous, Emma has bribed security guards, donned disguises, and
even climbed through windows! But she does not think of herself as a criminal. “I’m just doing my
job.
Ionly get paid for good stories, so I have to take extreme measures if I want to earn a decent
income!” Emma Worth writes for a famous gossip magazine. She is one of a growing number of
journalists who are using their professional skills to hunt and capture the so‐called ‘glitterati’
unawares, each hoping to score an exclusive, and preferably shocking, scoop.

Gossip‐mongering is nothing new. Indeed, sensationalist stories about the royal family (the glitterati
of their time) were published only a century after the invention of the printing press – in 1453!
However, in recent years, our celebrity obsession seems to have escalated. Last year, Heat and
Closer, thetwo best‐selling UK gossip magazines, sold over a million copies every week, and new
celebrity websites and TV programmes pop up every month. Even the traditionally more ‘serious’
press are turning to celebrities to boost sales. For example, the broadsheet newspaper The
Telegraph now has aregular gossip column called ‘The Spy’.

But many people are critical of celebrity gossip hunters like Emma. Some stars complain that they
are being denied a basic right to privacy, and even that their lives have been ruined by press
intrusion.
And, according to one highly‐regarded news reporter, “Our fascination for gossip means that
there isless media coverage of vitally important issues, such as politics and the environment. I
didn’t join the profession to write kiss‐and‐tell stories. We need to stop taking this trivia so
seriously!”

1) Find in the text ...

f) A synonym for ‘increase’.
g) A synonym for ‘damaged’.

2) Answer the following two questions:

a) According to the text, how does the media today compare to that in the sixteenth century? Explain
your answer.
b) According to the writer, what are the main criticisms of celebrity gossip? Explain your answer.

3) Imagine that you are a gossip hunter who has just seen a celebrity in a restaurant. Apologizefor
disturbing him/her and ask for permission to interview him/her.

4) Combine the following two sentences using a relative clause.

a) That’s the famous celebrity. The famous celebrity’s daughter has just married a prince.
Rewrite the following sentence using a modal verb. Begin, “I should...”
b) I wish I hadn’t photographed the pop star.