Linguaskill Reading: test de práctica 1

Back to the office?

When offices closed during the pandemic, many companies (8) ?madecametookreached to the conclusion that their staff could work just as effectively from home. Since then, a large number of employers have (9) ?installedinventedintroducedproduced flexible arrangements, allowing employees to divide their week between the office and home. However, the change has not been popular (10) ?toforbywith everyone. Some workers say they miss the informal conversations that used to (11) ?dotakehavemake place in the office, while managers worry that new employees find it harder to learn from more experienced colleagues. As a result, some firms are now (12) ?requiringmakingdemandinginsisting staff to spend at least three days a week in the office.

My first climb

The first time I tried rock climbing, I was terrified. I had always been afraid (13) heights, and the wall looked impossibly high. My instructor, (14) had been climbing for twenty years, told me not to look down. To my surprise, I managed to reach the top (15) my first attempt. Since then, I have been climbing (16) often as I can, and I'm now thinking (17) joining a club.

The bookshop that saved a village

When Clara Moreno told her friends that she was leaving her job at a publishing company in Madrid to open a bookshop in a village of 600 people, most of them assumed she was joking. 'Bookshops were closing everywhere,' she says. 'Opening one in a place with no other shops at all seemed, to most people, like a very expensive way of losing money.'

Clara, however, had done her research. She had spent several summers in the village, where her grandparents lived, and had noticed two things. First, the village was full of visitors in summer – walkers, cyclists and families renting holiday homes – who had nowhere to buy something to read. Second, the people who lived there all year round had to drive forty minutes to the nearest town for almost everything, including books. 'I wasn't trying to compete with big bookshops,' she explains. 'I was trying to fill a gap.'

The first year was difficult. Clara underestimated how quiet the winter months would be, and at one point she seriously considered closing. What saved the shop, she says, was turning it into more than a place to buy books. She added a small café, started a children's reading club and began hosting talks by writers, some of whom she knew from her publishing days. Now the shop is often busier on a winter evening than it is during the day in summer.

Perhaps the most surprising effect has been on the village itself. A young couple have since opened a bakery across the street, and the local council has restored the old square in front of the shop. 'People used to say the village was dying,' says Jaime, who has lived there all his life. 'Now there's somewhere to meet again.' Clara is careful not to take too much credit. 'The shop didn't do it alone,' she says. 'But I think it showed people that it was worth trying.'

Email from the course coordinator

Dear students,

As some of you already know, the photography exhibition planned for the end of term will no longer take place in the main hall, which is being repainted. Instead, we have been offered space at the City Arts Centre, which is a fantastic opportunity: the centre receives hundreds of visitors a week, so your work will be seen by far more people than usual.

The only disadvantage is that the centre needs all the photographs by 2 June, a week earlier than we planned, so that they can be framed professionally. Please speak to your tutor if you think you will have difficulty meeting this deadline.

Best wishes, Mark Ellis

My year without new clothes

Last January, standing in front of a wardrobe so full that the door wouldn't close, I made a decision: for a whole year, I wouldn't buy a single new item of clothing. Second-hand was allowed, and so was repairing what I already had. Anything from a shop, however, was off limits.

(25) PárrafoABCDEF

The first few weeks were easier than I expected, mainly because it was winter and I had plenty of warm clothes. The real test came in March, when I was invited to a friend's wedding.

(26) PárrafoABCDEF

That experience changed the way I thought about the challenge. It no longer felt like a sacrifice, more like a game.

(27) PárrafoABCDEF

Not everything went smoothly, though.

(28) PárrafoABCDEF

By December, I had spent just €180 on clothes, all of it second-hand, compared with over €1,000 the year before.

(29) PárrafoABCDEF

I'm not planning to repeat the challenge exactly, but I doubt I'll ever go back to shopping the way I used to. And my wardrobe door finally closes.

Why you should talk to strangers

Most of us have been taught from childhood not to talk to strangers, and as adults we often go to great lengths to avoid it. On a train or in a waiting room, we put on headphones or look at our phones. (30) ?ABCDEFGH Yet research suggests that we may be missing out.

In one well-known series of experiments, commuters were asked either to start a conversation with the person next to them or to sit in silence. (31) ?ABCDEFGH Before the experiment, most participants had predicted the opposite: they expected the conversation to be awkward and the other person to be uninterested.

Why do we get it so wrong? Part of the answer seems to be that we underestimate how much other people want to talk. (32) ?ABCDEFGH In reality, the person sitting next to us is often just as curious – and just as nervous – as we are.

Of course, not every conversation will be a success. (33) ?ABCDEFGH But even short, simple exchanges – with a shop assistant or a neighbour – appear to make people feel more connected to their community.

So next time you find yourself waiting for a bus, consider putting your phone away. (34) ?ABCDEFGH You might be surprised by where it leads.

How I get to work