Вариант 7

You are going to read a newspaper article on education. Read the text and answer the questions that follow. Decide whether each statement is True or False and provide your arguments drawn from the text to justify your choice. The proof should be given in your own words.

Juliette and I met seven years ago through the foreign exchange organised by our schools. We started as pen friends – the old-fashioned ink and paper kind. The letters we wrote introduced us to each other – and a new language.

I wrote in French, she wrote in English – with drawings scattered like commas throughout. Reading back through our letters gives an accurate account of what was on the curriculum at the time. “What do you like to do in your spare time?” “Tell me about your local area” and later (when I hit A-levels) “What do you think about nuclear power?”

When we eventually met in person I felt like we were already friends. Our bond was sealed by singing loudly to Kaiser Chiefs – her on air guitar, me on air drums – in her house in France. There are some things that transcend language.

I stayed with her family in Laval, and she came to Dorset to visit me. Over the years we stayed in touch and went back and forth to visit each other.

Attending her school helped me get to grips with French. I remember how proud I felt on the few occasions I knew the answers to questions during her classes.

As we got older going out gave me a quick dunk into a sea of new language. I remember talking to a police officer in French after my passport had been stolen in a bar. The passport was found, and so was a new confidence in my ability to solve problems in French.

Juliette’s friends teased me for my English accent (they still do). Spending time with them introduced me to verlang – the slang that swaps the beginning and end of words – very annoying for anyone only just getting to grips with a language, but something I now know to listen out for.

Juliette has become part of my family. My mum calls her “my French daughter” and I’m pretty sure my friends like her more than they like me.

My French is a little shaky since finishing my A-levels. Thanks to the French university system Juliette has been able to keep up language learning alongside her business degree; her English now puts my faltering French to shame. I visited her recently in Paris, where she now lives. Juliette has always been far more elegant than me, and now her English is just as sophisticated as the chic outfits she wears.

Like all best friends, Juliette and I speak in a language of our own – we get each other even when we’re using incorrect tenses or words that aren’t words.

But I am determined to improve my language. I want to be able to speak to her in her native language as easily as I do in English. I want to communicate fluently with her friends and family. It gives me a reason for learning French that makes unknotting irregular verbs seem worthwhile.

When I left school I wrote to my French teacher to thank him for organising the school’s exchange. I was pleased to hear recently that the French exchange at my old school is still running – and now has nearly 100 students involved.

Apps and online courses are the latest trend, making pen pals and post feel like the leg warmers of language learning – dated. But we shouldn’t overlook this unique method of discovering languages.

It was through the foreign exchange and many letters that I met my best friend, and found a reason for learning a language.

1-5. Choose whether the statements are True (T) or False (F) and, to justify your choice, provide your proof from the text in your own words.

Example : (0) The statement is true because the narrator has never read a single book in the original and has not demonstrated any interest in the subject.