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Part 1
Read the text and answer questions 1–14.
Read the text below and answer Questions 1—6.
Free wireless connection in great outdoor locations
With summer fading, the more time spent outdoors the better and work doesn’t have to keep you from enjoying the day! From entire downtown stores to tiny cafes, many locations now offer free, wireless internet connection.
Here’s a guide to hot spots here where you can connect up, email friends or get some work done while enjoying a coffee, a drink or meal outdoors.
A Fairview Park
Make a park bench your office, and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature in the middle of the city. Pack a picnic and soak up the sun. As an extra attraction, lunchtime concerts run between noon and 2 pm every Tuesday and Thursday.
B Dragon’s Tail
Shake off jet lag while munching on homemade chicken fingers and sipping one of the 14 special drinks. Only four blocks from the airport, the patio, restaurant and lounge are all wired.
C Southport Landing
Pull your boat right up to this neighbourhood favourite on the river. Great seafood, reasonably priced. Only 5 minutes from downtown, this is the place for a long lunch. With wireless access on the 100-seat patio you’ll get a spot even on the sunniest days.
D One World Café and Language Centre
Get online at the gazebo while deciding which ethnic dish to try. Wood oven pizzas are a speciality. Take an English or Spanish lessons for dessert while sipping on fair trade coffee.
E Harvest Moon
Farm fresh organic salads and homemade soup are as delightful as the street side tables. Like the Internet, this café never closes, freeing you up to set your own business hours. Don’t forget the organic pastries and fair trade espresso for dessert. Check out the poetry and special events nights.
Read the text below and answer Questions 7—14.
Using LP Gas Safely Around the Home
Liquified Petroleum Gas (LP Gas) — also known as bottled gas — is widely used in the home for cooking, room and water heating. It may also be used on a range of leisure appliances, such as camping equipment, barbecues or caravans.
LP Gas is propane gas, stored in cylinders under pressure as a liquid, and then used as a gas when connected to domestic and portable appliances. It is not the same as Automotive LP Gas (known as Autogas) which is used in specially converted cars. Autogas is a mixture of propane and butane, and therefore must not be used in domestic or portable outdoor appliances.
LP Gas is clean burning, heavier than air and non toxic. In its natural state LP Gas is odourless. So that gas leaks can be detected, a chemical is added which gives it very distinctive smell.
Domestic and portable outdoor LP Gas appliances are designed only for use with propane gas.
LP Gas is not the same as natural gas — gas which is piped to your house by a gas company. LP Gas must never be used in natural gas appliances or vice versa. Operating an appliance on the wrong type of gas can be hazardous. LP gas contains much more energy than natural gas and such presents a fire risk if connected to the wrong appliance.
Identification plates on LP Gas (propane) appliances have red writing on silver. Natural gas appliances have black writing on silver. Always check the ID plate to make sure the appliance uses LP Gas.
If You Smell Gas Indoors
You should never use a naked flame to try and find a gas leak.
It may not be a gas leak – people sometimes accidentally leave gas cooker burners turned on and unlit, and this may be the cause of the gas smell. Also, check that any heaters have been properly lit. Turn the burner off and wait until you can no longer smell the gas before trying to use a gas appliance.
Open doors and windows. Don’t operate power or light switches, don’t turn electrical appliances on or off, and don’t use your telephone, as they might spark and create a fire. In particular, don’t use a fan to provide ventilation.
If burners haven’t accidentally been left on, leave the premises and turn the gas supply off at the cylinder. If safe to do so, switch off the power at the fuse box so that electrical appliances can’t operate and generate a spark.
Call a licensed gas fitter from a neighbour’s telephone or use a cell phone outside — it may be unsafe to use your house phone. Don’t go back into the house until the gas is turned off at the cylinder and the smell of gas is cleared.
Part 2
Read the text and answer questions 15–27.
Read the text below and answer Questions 15—20.
The benefits of having a business mentor
Introduction
If you’re starting your own business, you probably need a mentor. This is a business person who volunteers to give their time to help somebody else with their work — particularly somebody who is new to business. They have a wealth of experience they are willing to share, perhaps from setting up and running their own company. The mentor’s role is to support, develop, stimulate and challenge. However, business mentors won’t solve your problems for you or tell you what to do: they will talk things over with you, rather than acting as consultants. Many people setting up their first business have found that a mentor can have a very positive effect on its success.
Why business mentoring is important
If you have a gap in your knowledge or experience, then mentoring could work very well for you. For example, you may have a great concept for a business but need a bit of assistance to turn it into a successful venture.
A mentor can provide you with a number of benefits, such as:
A business mentor can also help you to:
Face-to-face business mentoring
If you decide that face-to-face business mentoring is right for you, mentor and mentee should decide in advance on the nature of the relationship.
You will need to agree on the degree of involvement that suits you both. Some mentors and mentees work extremely closely, keeping in touch with each other most weeks or even most days. In the majority of cases, however, a mentor will provide help every few weeks or months. In either case, they might meet, speak on the phone, or exchange emails.
You should also agree on a level of structure to suit you both. Mentoring can be a very formal process with regular meetings which follow a specific agenda and work towards a specific set of goals. It can also be quite a casual arrangement, where the mentee calls on the mentor as and when problems or questions arise.
Read the text below and answer Questions 21-27.
A Planning Process for Middle-Sized Projects
Any business project — such as reducing energy costs, or improving efficiency — needs to be planned, and time spent planning will save far more time later on. The typical stages in this planning process are explained below.
• Your first task is to spot what needs to be done. Examine your firm’s current position, perhaps making a formal analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. Then think about how you might improve that position: what opportunities are there for achieving this?
• The next step is to decide precisely what the aim of your plan is. This is best expressed in a simple single sentence, to ensure that it is clear and sharp in your mind. Doing this helps you to avoid wasting effort on irrelevant side issues.
• Next you should work out how to do it. It is tempting just to grasp the first idea that comes to mind, but it is better to consider a wide range of options: this way, you may come up with less obvious but better solutions.
• Once you have explored the options available to you, the selection of which option to use is the next step. If you have the time and resources, you might decide to evaluate all options, carrying out some planning, such as costing, for each. Normally you will not have this luxury.
• You already have a broad idea of what your project will consist of. Now is the time to work out the full details, identifying the most efficient and effective method of carrying it out, including answering the questions of ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘when’.
• The next stage is to review your plan and decide whether it will work satisfactorily. This evaluation enables you to change to another option that might be more successful, or to accept that no plan is needed.
• Once you have finished your plan and decided that it will work satisfactorily, it is time for implementation. Your plan will cover how this is to be done.
• Once you have achieved a plan, you can close the project. At this point it is often worth assessing the project to see whether there are any lessons that you can learn
Part 3
Read the text and answer questions 28–40.
Recipe for Long life
There is a place where 100-year-olds live in their own homes and tend their own gardens and where the three leading killers in western culture (heart disease, stroke and cancer) occur with the lowest frequency in the world. People maintain a healthy weight without dieting throughout life. This place is the Japanese island-state of Okinawa, home to the healthiest people on Earth. A 25-year research project, the Okinawan Centenarian Study, found that there are more than 400 people aged 100 or older in a population of 1.3 million. In the United States there are only 65-130 centenarians in a comparably sized sample, most of whom can no longer live alone.
How have the Okinawans managed to do all this? Simple: their lifestyle habits are extremely healthy. First, they eat a plant-based diet high in unrefined carbohydrates. This gives them protection against heart disease, cancer, stroke and weight gain. Even if you are not an Okinawan and don’t live anywhere near a peaceful tropical island, there is something you can still do: adopt some of the Okinawans’ habits, especially their dietary habits. The evidence presented in the Okinawa Centenarian Study reveals that what you eat as well as how you live and think has a huge impact on your health, weight, energy, stress level expectancy. Here’s how to eat like an Okinawan.
Nutrition research consistently shows that a high-carbohydrate, plant-based diet is best for long-term health and weight maintenance. Aim for eight to 10 servings of whole grains a day. Westerners eat mostly refined grains: bleached flour products such as white bread, cookies and cakes, and white rice, which have little or no fiber. Whole grains (brown rice, whole-wheat bread for example) are unrefined carbohydrates which contain lots of fiber. Unrefined carbohydrates do not cause obesity. Instead, they provide essential fuel for the brain, central nervous system and muscles, plus nutrients that decrease risk for heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Their fiber content helps you feel full and carries waste products through your digestive tract more quickly, so whole grains can help you lose weight. If a grain is white, the chances are it’s refined and no longer a “whole” grain, which tends to be oval-shaped and ranges in color from light to dark brown. Grains you should add to your diet include brown and wild rice, barley, oats, kasha, quinoa, bulgur and buckwheat.
Vegetables are a major source of antioxidants, which reduce cell damage from free radicals responsible for the aging process. Plants contain antioxidants in abundance, but some more than others. The elder Okinawans eat a lot of carrots, cabbage, onions, sweet potatoes, sweet peppers and bean sprouts. Fruits are fine as well, but no more than 4 servings. A diet full of vegetables and fruit will keep you looking younger and living longer. It doesn’t matter which ones you choose, just make sure you eat a variety of vegetables and fruits.
Flavonoids, plant compounds found in soy products, flaxseed and tea, to name a few sources, are powerful antioxidants. Theoretically, they provide a weak form of estrogen where the body needs it and block the body’s own estrogen in locations where estrogen may feed a cancer. The importance of flavonoids is only beginning to take hold in the medical research community. A high blood level of flavonoids can be maintained by eating 2-4 servings of these products a day. Other flavonoid-rich foods readily available include onions, snow peas, green beans, cranberry juice, and apple sauce.
Aim for three servings of calcium-rich foods daily. Calcium strengthens bones and prevents osteoporosis; Good vegetarian sources are green leafy vegetables and tofu. Dairy products are also excellent sources of calcium, but consume them in moderation. Surprisingly, osteoporosis rates are lower in societies where people eat few, if any, dairy products. The type of saturated fat in whole-fat dairy products is one of the worst offenders for making cholesterol in the body. So, go for low-fat varieties, preferably two dairy servings a day and try one of the vegetarian sources as your third calcium serving.
Unless you’re eating fish or flax several times a week, you’re probably not getting enough omega-3 fatty acids, which are critical for maintaining optimal performance of the brain, cardiovascular system and immune system. You can get adequate amounts by eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids several times a week. These are generally the darker-fleshed fish like salmon, tuna and mackerel. If you’re a vegetarian, you can get omega-3s from walnuts. If you’re a meat eater, you should try to make the switch to fish. The omega-3s in fish can help prevent clots from forming in coronary arteries and elsewhere.
Use 1-2 tablespoons of monounsaturated vegetable oils daily. The problem is not how much fat you eat, but what kind. The highly rated Mediterranean diet is high in fat but low in health risks because the fat in that diet is monounsaturated, the heart-healthy, good-for-you fat. “Bad” fats, the kind that clog arteries are saturated fat, derived mostly from animal sources like red meat and dairy plus trans fats, found in margarine, french fries, chips and cookies. Olive, canola and flaxseed oil which reduce the bad and boost the good cholesterol are all high in monounsaturated fats, as are avocados and almonds. Canola is the Okinawans’ oil of choice.
Up to seven servings a week of high-protein meats, poultry and eggs are fine, just don’t eat red meat every day; three times a week is plenty… and choose lean cuts. Eating sweets is fine too; just keep them to about three servings a week. Women should have no more than one alcoholic beverage a day, men two. Red wine is best as it contains compounds thought to protect against heart disease and osteoporosis. Drink enough water so that your urine is clear, whether it takes eight glasses a day or 12. If you’re physically active, you’ll need even more.
Okinawans eat foods that are high in unrefined carbohydrates and fiber, but they tend to stop eating before they are full. They call their secret ‘hara hachi bu’, which loosely translates to ‘eat until you are eight parts full (out of ten).’ Simply put, leave a little room at the end of each meal. In addition to eating healthily, Okinawans feel exercise is a way of life. They take up martial arts and traditional dance when young and continue these activities throughout their lives; most also garden and walk. Okinawans have a deep respect for nature and believe they have an obligation to help others. These relationships with nature and community are powerful: research shows that they help extend life and lower disease risk. These are concepts that we can and should integrate into our daily lives to maintain our physical, emotional and spiritual health.