(use of english: pt 3 word formation)
Singapore has been ranked as having the highest-achieving schools. The (0) globe rankings, are based on the Pisa tests taken by 15-year-olds in more than 70 countries. Singapore has replaced Shanghai - there had been debate over whether Shanghai was (1) represent of school standards across China.
transform the blue words into the appropriate form write your answers in the boxes
0. 1.
read on
OECD education (2) direct Andreas Schleicher chief said that Asian countries such as Singapore managed to achieve excellence without wide differences between children from wealthy and disadvantaged families. But the UK has failed to make any (3) substance improvement - despite education ministers in England making the Pisa rankings an important measurement of progress.
2.3.
Mr Schleicher highlighted concerns about the impact of a (4) short in teachers - saying that an education system could never exceed the quality of its teachers. So why is Singapore so (5) success at education? Singapore only became an independent country in 1965. From being among the world's poorest, with a mix of ethnicities, religions and languages, it has overtaken the (6)wealth countries in Europe, North America and Asia to become the number one in education.
4.5.6.
All teachers are trained at the National Institute of Education, and Prof Sing Kong Lee, vice-president of Nanyang Technology University, said this single route (7) sure quality control and that all new teachers could "confidence go through to the classroom".
This had to be a (8) consist, long-term approach, sustained over decades, said Prof Lee.
Education was an "eco-system", he said, and "you can't change one part in isolation".
bbc12/12/16 By Sean Coughlan
7.8.
pisa topping
taking the nick?
(reading and use of english pt 2) write your answers in the boxes
A 20-year-old Spanish law student who apparently passed himself 0. as a spy and gatecrashed the King's coronation is waiting to find 1. if he will be prosecuted. Francisco Nicolas Gomez Iglesias, dubbed "Little Nicolas", 2. thought to have fooled dozens of Spain's elite by impersonating various government officials, such as a secret service agent and an adviser to the deputy prime minister. read on
Mr Gomez was arrested in October 3. suspicion of fraud, forgery and impersonating government officials but was bailed while police investigated the case. According to Spanish publication El Confidencial, Mr Gomez has been studying at one of Madrid's top universities but was also lunching with business executives and politicians, even joining 4. in the VIP box at Real Madrid's stadium.
Mercedes Perez, the judge overseeing the investigation, wrote in a report that she could not understand 5. "a young man of 20, using only his own word, could have access to government conferences, places and events 6. his behaviour causing any alarm". Her report was also quoted as saying he received thousands of pounds from a businessman in return 7. arranging a property deal while claiming to be a government adviser.
Mr Gomez has claimed he received text messages from King Juan Carlos, telling Spanish channel Telecinco: "The day of his abdication, I sent him a message and he replied '8. a million, JC'."
A Facebook page dedicated to him has more than 37,000 fans.
Dec 1, 2014 sky news
how i became a UN interpreter
(reading and use of english 2015: pt 6)
I got a first in my French and Russian degree, but it was only when I went back to Russia to teach English after graduating that my skills really improved. I was out there on my own in a flat, and when things went wrong as they inevitably did, I had to call the workmen to sort it out. There were no other native English people to call on, so I was properly immersed. 1.
choose from A-H, there is one extra.
A It was a blast – you learn lots about the world.
B My husband came out to Geneva with me to look after her at that point.
C It's always intense and it's often stressful, because these are communications that matter to people's lives so you have to get it right
D I passed first time, which I wasn't expecting.
E Working as an interpreter can sound like a glamorous life.
F I never know what's next, and that's the fun of it.
G I had to make friends, get stuck in and get over the embarrassment of making mistakes.
After nine months my Russian was probably as good as it's ever been, and once I'd come home, it wasn't long before I saw that GCHQ were looking for linguists. The bare bones of it is that material will come in, either written or as audio, and you have to translate and transcribe it. (2).
I'd taken a year out to do a masters in interpreting at the university of Bath, and then I did the UN interpreting test. It's renowned for being incredibly tough. (3).
There aren't many of us interpreting from Russian to English, and I work from French as well. Interpreters work in pairs, doing half an hour before swapping over. (4).
My working life four years on is, well, complicated! I have an 18-month-old daughter, and I started back at work when she was five months old. (5).
Fortunately it's well paid, and I aim to work 10 days in a month. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are a lot of single interpreters, but for our family it works well – I like the flexibility of being freelance, I love the stimulation of the work and I like being able to have time at home with my daughter. Luckily, I've never liked planning too far ahead: in this job, my language skills have taken me to Bali, Nairobi, Vienna, around Europe, and I may soon be off to Copenhagen and Moscow. (6)
by Helen Reynolds-Brown. Helen is a Russian and French interpreter, and works for the UN and other international organisations the guardian
