You are going to read an extract from a novel in which a young woman called Caitlin talks about her life on an island. Choose the answer (A, B C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Caitlin’s island

We live on the island of Hale. It’s about four kilometres long and two kilometres wide at broadest point, and it’s joined to the mainland by a causeway called the Stand- a narrow road built across the mouth of the river which separates us from the rest of the country. Most of the time you wouldn’t know we’re on an island because the river mouth between us and the mainland is juts a vast stretch of tall grasses and brown mud. But when there’s a high tide and the water rises a half a metre or so above the road and nothing can pass until the tide goes out again a few hours later, then you know it’s an island.

We were on our way back from the mainland. My older brother, Dominic, had just finished his first year at university in a town 150 km away. Dominic’s train was due in at five and he’d asked for a lift back from the station. Now, Dad normally hates being disturbed when he’s writing (which is just about all the time), and he also hates having to go anywhere, but despite the typical sighs and moans – why can’t he get a taxi? what’s wrong with the bus? – I could tell by the sparkle in his eyes that he was really looking forward to seeing Dominic. 

So, anyway, Dad and I had driven to the mainland and picked up Dominic from the station. He had been talking non-stop from the moment he’d slung his rucksack in the boot and got in the car. University this, university that, writers, books, parties, people, money, gigs… And when I say talking, I don’t mean talking as in having a conversation, I mean talking as in jabbering like a mad thing. I didn’t like it… the way he spoke and waved his hands around as if he was some kind of intellectual or something. It was embarrassing. It made me feel uncomfortable – that kind of discomfort you feel when someone like you, someone close to you, suddenly starts acting like a complete idiot. And I didn’t like the way he was ignoring me, either. For all the attention I was getting I might as well not have been there. I felt a stranger in my own car.

As we approached the island on that Friday afternoon, the tide was low and the Stand welcomed us home, stretched out before us, clear and dry, beautiful hazy in the heat – a raised strip of grey concrete bound by white railings and a low footpath on either side, with rough cobbled banks leading down the water. Beyond the railings, the water was glinting with that wonderful silver light we sometimes get here in the late afternoon which lazes through to the early evening.

We were about halfway across when I saw the boy. My first thought was how odd it was to see someone walking on the Stand. You don’t often see people walking around here. Between Hale and Moulton (the nearest town about thirty kilometres away on the mainland), there’s nothing but small cottages, farmland, heathland and a couple of hills. (line 31) So islanders don’t walk because of that. If they’re going to Moulton they tend to take the bus. So the only pedestrians you’re likely to see around here are walkers of bird-watchers. But even from the distance I could tell that the figure ahead didn’t fit into either of these categories. I wasn’t sure how I knew, I just did.

As we drew closer, he became clearer. He was actually a young man rather than a boy. Although he was on the small side, he wasn’t as slight as I’d first thought. He wasn’t exactly muscular, but he was weedy-looking either. It’s hard to explain. There was a sense of strength about him, a graceful strength that showed in his balance, the way he held himself, the way he walked…

 

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Kombat Kate

James Stanton meets ‘Kombat Kate’ Waters, who trains theatre actors in how to ‘fight’ on stage.

There must be few occasions when it would be really rude to refuse an invitation to head-butt someone you’ve just met! But I’m in one of those right now. I’m in a rehearsal room in a theatre with a group of actors, facing up to stage fighting director Kate Waters. I’ve already dragged her around the room and slapped her on the arm. Now she wants me to head-butt her. But fear not, this is all strictly pretend!

‘Imagine there’s a tin can on my shoulder,’ she says. ‘Now try to knock it off.’ I lower my head as instructed, then lift it sharply, aiming for the imaginary can, hoping desperately that I don’t miscalculate the angle and end up doing damage to her face. To my amazement, I get it right. ‘That was good,’ says Waters. ‘Now maybe try it again without smiling.’

Waters, known in the industry as Kombat Kate, is showing me how actors fight each other without getting hurt, and that includes sword-fighting. (She inspires fierce devotion: when I tweet that I’m meeting Waters, one actress friend responds: ‘She’s amazing. She taught me how to be a secret service agent in two days.’)

Perhaps the most famous play Kate has worked on recently was called Noises Off. She taught the cast how to fall down stairs without breaking any bones. One of the fight scenes is fairly close, Kate tells me, to the one we’re trying out now. ‘I’ve just slowed it down a bit,’ she says tactfully, before inviting me to throw her against the wall. I obey, making sure I let go of her quickly, so she can control her own movement. Push your opponent too hard, and they will hit the wall for real. I watch her hit the wall before falling to the ground.
She’s fine, of course. ‘That’s my party trick,’ she says with a grin. ‘Works every time.’

 

Once the lesson is over Kate tells me how she became one of only two women on the official register of stage fight directors. Already a keen martial arts expert from childhood, Kate did drama at university, and one module of her course introduced her to stage combat. When she made enquiries about the possibility of teaching it as a career, she was told (line 22) about the register and the qualifications she’d need to be accepted onto it. It was no small order: as well as a certificate in advanced stage combat, she would need a black belt in karate and proficiency in fencing, a sport she’d never tried before.

But she rose to the challenge and taught the subject for several years at a drama college before going freelance and becoming a fight advisor for the theatrical world. The play she’s working on is Shakespeare’s Richard III. This involves a famous sword fight. With no instructions left by the great playwright other than –
Enter Richard and Richmond: they fight, Richard dies – the style and sequence of the fight is down to Kate and the actors.

‘I try to get as much information as possible about what a fight would have been like in a particular period,’ Kate explains. ‘But because what I’m eventually doing is telling a dramatic story, not all of it is useful. The scene has to be exciting and do something for the audience.’ (Line 30)

Ultimately, of course, a stage fight is all smoke and mirrors. In our lesson, Kate shows me how an actor will stand with his or her back to the audience ahead of a choreographed slap or punch. When the slap comes it makes contact not with skin but with air: the actor whacks his chest or leg to make the sound of the slap.

 
In the rehearsal room, I can’t resist asking Kate how she thinks she would fare in a real fight. Would she give her attacker a hard time? She laughs, ‘Oh, I’d be awful,’ she says. ‘I only know how to fake it.’ I can’t help thinking, however, that she’s just being rather modest.

A varied career

Chloe Kelling, a successful model and singer-songwriter, now has a new venture

I arrive for my interview with Chloe Kelling and I’m asked to wait in the garden. I hardly have time to start looking round at the carefully tended flowerbeds when Chloe appears. Every bit as tall and striking as I’d expected, Chloe emerges from the house wearing an oversized man’s jacket, a delicately patterned top and jeans. Chloe is known for her slightly quirky sense of fashion and, of course, she looks great as she makes her way towards me through the flowerbeds.

‘Let’s talk in my office,’ she says, leading the way not back to the house, but instead to an ancient caravan parked up next to it. As we climb inside the compact little van, the smell of fresh baking greets us. A tiny table is piled high with cupcakes, each iced in a different colour. Chloe’s been busy, and there’s a real sense of playing tea parties in a secret den! But what else should I have expected from a woman with such a varied and interesting career?

Chloe originally trained as a make-up artist, having left her home in the country at nineteen to try and make her name as a model in London, and soon got work in adverts and the fashion business. ‘I went to Japan to work for a short period, but felt very homesick at first,’ she recalls. ‘It was very demanding work and, though I met loads of nice people, it was too much to take in at nineteen. If I’d stayed longer, I might have settled in better.’

Alongside the modelling, Chloe was also beginning to make contacts in the music business. ‘I’d been the typical kid, singing with a hairbrush in front of the mirror, dreaming of being a star one day,’ she laughs. She joined a girl band which ‘broke up before we got anywhere’, before becoming the lead singer with the band Whoosh, which features on a best-selling clubbing album. Unusually though, Chloe also sings with two other bands, one based in Sweden and another in London, and each of these has a distinct style.

It was her work with Whoosh that originally led to Chloe’s link with Sweden. She was offered a song-writing job there with a team that was responsible for songs for some major stars, but gradually became more involved in writing music for her own band.

Although she now divides her time between London and Sweden, her first stay there turned out to be much longer than she’d bargained for. ‘The rooms are very tall over there and so people have these rather high beds that you climb up to,’ she explains. ‘I fell as I climbed up the ladder and cracked three ribs. Although the people at the hospital were very kind, I was stuck there for a while, which was very frustrating. Sneezing and laughing were so painful at first, let alone singing!’

It was while recovering from her injuries that Chloe hit upon the idea of staging what she calls vintage fairs. ‘It was snowing in Sweden and I wanted something nice to look forward to.’ Chloe had always loved vintage clothes, particularly from the 1950s, and decided to stage an event for others who shared her passion. The first fair was held in her home village and featured stalls selling all sorts of clothes and crafts dating back to the 1950s. It was a huge hit, with 300 people turning up.

‘When I had the idea of the first fair, it was only meant to be a one-off, but we had so many compliments, I decided to go ahead with more,’ says Chloe. ‘There’s something for all ages and people find old things have more character than stuff you buy in modern shops. It also fits perfectly with the idea of recycling.’ Looking round Chloe’s caravan, I can see what she means.

Dream Jobs

By Giovanni Marks

During our teens, all the pupils at my school had to have a meeting with a ‘careers advisor’ who only seemed to know about jobs at the local ship-building works. That was fine for some, but many of us would have liked to hear about a wider range of opportunities at that time. If only she had known about the jobs I’ve been researching for this article! It seems there are positions out there that are almost too good to be true.

Take, for example, the job with the title ‘Ice cream flavour advisor’ for ice cream manufacturer Frederick’s. Imagine making and tasting ice cream for a living! From the Fredrick’s website I learned that the people who do this job are all chefs and food scientists, and often go on what they call ‘taste hunts’ where they travel to other countries, trying new foods to get inspiration for new products. The website’s home page also states that ‘every ingredient deserves consideration’, meaning anything from peanuts to potatoes could make it into the next flavour advisor’s invention. I guess the one downside of this job could be tasting failed creations.

For those worried about the health implications of eating so much ice cream, then how about something more active? The perfect job for water sports lovers was advertised in 2015 by holiday company Travel Now. They needed a water slide tester! This involved getting into swimming gear and speeding down slides at various holiday centres around the world to check for any issues. The company was seeking applicants with strong written and verbal skills, experience in social media and a willingness to travel.

Another job that seems impossibly wonderful is one for those who dream of living on a remote island. As the caretaker of a private island in the Maldives, Simon Grainger gets to enjoy fabulous weather, fishing and boating as part of his job. However, he says that while it may sound more like an extended holiday than work, the responsibilities of the job can be very demanding. These include maintaining and repairing the island owners’ property and cleaning up after storms. On top of that, being by yourself on an island means that your social life suffers. Seeing friends involves an hour’s boat ride, which is never easy and sometimes impossible. Grainger warns anyone considering a job like his to be realistic about it. He explains you’ve got be very practical with good physical fitness, and happy in your own company. If you are this type of person, you’ll do the job well and
never want to go back to life on the mainland.

A fortune cookie is a moon-shaped biscuit given away in Chinese restaurants that contains a little piece of paper with a message on it. Millions of these are read every day, but few realise that people actually get paid to write the words of wisdom you find when you crack your cookie open. Daisy Cheng, president of New Asian Food in Los Angeles, used to be one such person. It wasn’t exactly her chosen career path, it was more of a role she fell into. When the company expanded and realised they needed to update their cookie messages, she was asked to do it because her English language skills were stronger than other employees’. She found it difficult to start with, but soon she was finding inspiration everywhere, from subway signs to newspapers.

As a writer myself, I would love to create messages for fortune cookies, but I would be delighted to do any one of these amazing jobs. Listen up careers advisors!

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The homes of the future viewed from today

Mark Finchley reviews TV series Tomorrow’s Homes

Having just watched the whole of Channel 8’s TV series Tomorrow’s Homes, I’ve been wondering about how anyone can predict the future of domestic life. You’d imagine that if you knew what architects and technology companies were developing now to make life easier, more exciting and more beautiful, you’d have a pretty good idea of what to expect in tomorrow’s homes. In reality, it’s more complicated, and just as much about what we’ll choose to hang on to from today’s – the things that are ‘future-proof’. In the 1950s, people thought that in the twenty-first century household tasks would be done by labour-saving devices or robots – with food pills for dinner. Yet people still wash up and cook, even though the technology exists that makes neither of these tasks necessary.

Tomorrow’s Homes, however, dared to make predictions which it turned into reality using an average home belonging to a family called the Forseys. Four miles of cable were installed in the house so that all the electrics, from lights to the fridge, could be controlled via the internet, and various other devices and gadgets were introduced in addition to this. The family were then filmed as they got used to their new home life. Programme presenter Harry Thwaites is also a consultant who spends his work life imagining the
future, so testing out his ideas for the programme was a fascinating experiment for him. His approach was to use technology that was not totally brand new, but had only
recently become more affordable. CCTV cameras for security have been around for years, for example, but they are no longer only an option for the mega-rich.

The Forsey family consists of a husband and wife with four children and two grandchildren. They appear to be very natural and ordinary on the programme, and it was always interesting to see how they reacted to the technology they were testing. One example that sticks in the mind is when Janine, the mother, enters her reconstructed, all-white home (after successfully unlocking her new front door by using her thumb print as a key), and she immediately bursts into tears – quite understandably it has to be said. A short while later, her husband Ben gets locked out because the skin on his thumb is too rough. As the series progresses, however, they slowly come to accept the technology, and even start to believe it could have some value in their lives.

I was keen to see during the show if anything emerged as potentially future-proof, and there were some great examples. To help Janine deal with various worries, she was provided with a mind-controlled relaxation tool. This was a kind of headband connected to a DVD, which, incredibly, she could control with her thoughts. When
she relaxed mentally, she made an image of the sun go down, as it would at night, on the DVD. When she had tried the gadget and achieved the sun set, she
was asked how effective the gadget had been. Janine commented, ‘Nothing can compare to a nice cup of tea and a good soap opera!’

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Student life and technology

By Debra Mallin, a business student at Greyfort University

Last Saturday, as my grandfather drove me and my sister home from a dinner to celebrate his birthday, he got frustrated at not being able to remember the name
of the singer of a song he’d just heard on the radio. Without a second thought, I grabbed my smartphone, searched for the song and found the name, Bob Dylan. For me and my friends, this is a completely natural course of action, but it totally astonished my grandfather, who didn’t understand how I had checked the information so quickly. My sister and I laughed and explained, but afterwards, it made me think about how much I depend on technology.

The list of the ways I use technology is endless: writing, planning, socialising, communicating and shopping, to name a few. When I reflected on its impact on my education, I saw that, for my fellow students and I, technology has been significant in many ways. Returning to the story of my grandfather and the smartphone, he had asked me more about how I used it and about university life. He said he thought we had an easy life compared to previous generations. My sister caught my eye and we exchanged a smile. But whereas she was thinking our grandfather was just being a typical 65-year old, I could see his point.

Not only are we lucky enough to have the same educational benefits as those of previous generations, we have so many more as well. We still have walk-in libraries available to us, and I can see why some students choose to find and use resources in these distraction-free locations. However, the only option for studying used to be sitting in these libraries with as many books from your reading list as you could find, yet now a single search for your chosen study topic online can immediately provide access to a huge range of resources. At universities, interaction between students and university staff is another area that has changed considerably with developments in technology. We can have face-to-face time with our tutors when we need it, and also communicate using our electronic gadgets from the comfort of our homes, or on the bus. The most popular means of doing this is via instant messaging or social media – email is often considered too slow, and it has become unacceptable for messages to be unanswered for any length of time. While this puts an extra strain on the university’s academic support team, who usually have to answer the queries as they come in, we students are greatly benefitted.

It’s important that we remember to appreciate how much the advances in technology have given us. Electronic devices such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops are now standard equipment in most classrooms and lecture halls, and why shouldn’t they be? The replacement of textbooks with tablets allows students the luxury of having up-to-date, interactive and even personalised learning materials, with the added benefit of them not costing the earth.

When we compare the student life of the past and that of the present day, it is tempting to focus on the obvious differences when it comes to technology. In actual fact, students are doing what they’ve always done: embracing the resources available and adapting them in ways which allow them to work more efficiently and to live more enjoyably. The pace of change in technology continuously gathers speed, so we have to value each innovation as it happens.

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Play to win

16-year-old Harry Moore writes about his hobby, tennis.

My parents have always loved tennis and they’re members of a tennis club. My older brother was really good at it and they supported him – taking him to lessons all the time. So I guess when I announced that I wanted to be a tennis champion when I grew up I just intended for them to notice me. My mother laughed. She knew I couldn’t possibly be serious, I was just a 4-year-old kid!

Later, I joined the club’s junior coaching group and eventually took part in my first proper contest, confident that my team would do well. We won, which was fantastic, but I wasn’t so successful. I didn’t even want to be in the team photo because I didn’t feel I deserved to be. When my coach asked what happened in my final match, I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe I’d lost – I knew I was the better player. But every time I attacked, the other player defended brilliantly. I couldn’t explain the result.

After that, I decided to listen more carefully to my coach because he had lots of tips. I realised that you need the right attitude to be a winner. On court I have a plan but sometimes the other guy will do something unexpected so I’ll change it. If I lose a point, I do my best to forget it and find a way to win the next one.

At tournaments, it’s impossible to avoid players who explode in anger. Lots of players can be negative – including myself sometimes. Once I got so angry that I nearly broke my racket! But my coach has helped me develop ways to control those feelings. After all, the judges have a hard job and you just have to accept their decisions.

My coach demands that I train in the gym to make sure I’m strong right to the end of a tournament. I’m getting good results: my shots are more accurate and I’m beginning to realise that with hard work there’s a chance that I could be a champion one day.

Read the following text and answer the questions below.

Water-skiing barefoot

by Dan Thomas

Have you ever been barefoot water-skiing? It’s just like normal water-skiing, being pulled along behind a boat at 40 mph – but without any skis! It sounds scary but it’s amazing! My cousin used to take me water-skiing, and that’s where I first learnt to stand up and balance. But I moved on to barefooting when I did it for a laugh with some mates. And I loved it!

Barefoot water-skiing is one of the most popular watersports there is – to watch, anyway! When someone jumps really high and then lands, it’s awesome. And you don’t need expensive stuff like boards, although a wetsuit’s a good idea. But catching your toes on things in the lake can hurt. I guess you can’t help getting water up your nose when you start learning, too, as you have to lie almost flat in the water before you pull yourself up – but it’s OK.

Now I’m experienced, I’ve learnt not to attempt new moves in rough water as it never goes well. Instead, I make sure I limit myself to skiing directly behind the boat, where the water’s calmer. I ask the boat drivers to warn me about big waves coming, although they can’t always see them.

Finding time to practise regularly is hard as I’m still at school – but then it’s not as if I’m into winning prizes and stuff. But if I want to learn a new move, I need to repeat it over and over, and that’s not easy in winter when it’s cold. Lots of skiers say they’ll continue during cold weather, but not many do. So I’m often the only one out on the lake!

 

El 21 de junio de 2016 la policía nacional efectuó varias actuaciones en el centro de Madrid, debido a determinados altercados producidos como consecuencia del enfrentamiento con armas blancas entre dos bandas callejeras. Como consecuencia de estos altercados, diversas personas resultaron detenidas debido a que algunos de ellos presentaban heridas de distinta consideración que hicieron necesario el traslado al hospital.

En el caso de P.H.G fue puesto en libertad tras haber estado detenido preventivamente durante 75 horas, en tanto que C.M.S y dos personas más fueron puestos a disposición judicial a las 24 horas.

Una vez en prisión, el subdirector de seguridad decide acordar la incomunicación de los detenidos, puesto que entiende que puede haber peligro para la instrucción de la causa ademas de ser un elemento perturbador del régimen ordinario, denegando todas las peticiones de los presos para ver o comunicar cualquier manera con sus familias y abogados, afirmando que se trata de una medida cautelar admitida por la normativa penitenciaria.

Conteste a las siguientes preguntas:

Con fecha 10 de enero de 2016, Teodoro, sin antecedentes penales, presentó demanda por despido contra la empresa «Ingenieria Machine S.L.», en la que reclamaba una condena a la demandada por importe de 5.374,30 euros más el 10% de interés legal. 

Durante el acto de la visita del juicio oral, celebrado el 16 de mayo de 2016, se presentó por la representación procesal del ahora acusado un documento supuestamente firmado el 7 de diciembre de 2015, por Fernando como legal representante de «Ingenieria Quipons S.L.» en que éste certificaría que las condiciones de trabajo de Teodoro eran: «Salario Neto 1.300 euros ampliables a 1.400 euros en 3 meses con 2 pagas extras. Contrato laboral fijo». Dicho documento había sido elaborado por el acusado, empleando para ello algún sistema informático adecuado.

El acusado confeccionó el referido documento con la finalidad de presentarlo en juicio y llevar a engaño al Juez de lo Social que conocía de la demanda por él presentada y así obtener una resolución que le reconociese las cantidades de dinero antes reflejadas.

Conteste a las siguientes preguntas: