Unit 12 Rules and Regulations

Unit 12 Page 110 READING exercise 6 HARD TIMES TO BE A KID 'I'm not allowed to stay out late.' 'Why do I have to do my homework before I can watch TV?' 'My parents never let me go to parties.' 'Why is it just Mum and Dad who make the rules? Life's just not fair.' Do these complaints sound familiar? Well, if you think your life is hard, you might like to think about kids in ancient times. For some of them, life was really hard. If you were born in Ancient Greece, you weren't even thought to be a real person until you'd been alive for five days. That's right – for five days after you were born, your parents were allowed to get rid of you. If they decided they didn't want you, they'd just leave you outside somewhere to die. Of course, you might get lucky and someone else might pick you up, but then you'd spend the rest of your life as their slave. However, if your parents decided that they wanted you as part of the family, then there was a special ceremony to welcome you. Only the boys were allowed to go to school. Greek girls stayed at home, where their mothers taught them skills like cooking and weaving – things that would help them find a husband. At the age of seven, some boys were sent away to very strict military schools, where they were taught how to become soldiers. Life was pretty hard at these schools. For example, the kids were often hungry. The teachers didn't let them have much food – for a reason. They wanted the boys to learn how to survive for themselves by stealing food. But if they got caught, they were punished. Aztec children in Mesoamerica also had a difficult life in ancient times. If they broke any rules, they could expect some pretty nasty punishments. On the plus side, Aztecs really believed in the importance of schooling. In the home, children learned practical skills: fathers taught their sons how to fish and farm while mothers taught their daughters home-making skills. Girls and boys also went to school (although the adults didn't let them go to the same schools). Kids went to schools called telpochcalli. They had lessons about history, religion and music. The boys also had lessons in how to fight. If the children were from a more important family, they went to a calmecac, where they learned how to read and write, too, At both schools children had to be on their best behaviour. They knew all about the punishments for behaving badly, and life was hard enough anyway.

Page 113 LISTENING exercise 10 and 11 I want to talk to you today about my favourite game – chess. It's a game which was invented around 1,500 years ago in India. My father taught me to play when I was a little girl and I have loved it ever since. So, how do you play it? Well, chess is a strategy game for two people. It is played on a square board with 64 squares – half of them black and half white. Each person has 16 pieces to play with. They each have eight pawns, a king, a queen, two rooks, two knights and two bishops. The aim of the game is to take the other player's pieces and to take the king. So first of all, let's talk about the most important rules for chess: The pawn is the weakest piece. It can move forward two squares on its first move. After that, it is only allowed to move forward one square at a time. It can only take a piece one square diagonally in front of it. The rook, the one that looks like a castle, can move forwards, backwards and sideways, as many squares as you like. The bishop can move as far as you like, too, but it can only move diagonally. The knight moves in a different way. It can move two squares in one direction and one square in another direction, in an L shape. It is the only piece that can move over another piece. The queen is the most powerful piece. She can move in lots of different ways. She can move forwards, backwards, sideways and diagonally, and she is allowed to move as many squares as she likes. And finally, the king. He is the most important piece but he can't move very far. He can only move one square, in any direction. When a king is attacked, it is called check. When he can't escape, it's called checkmate and that ends the game. Before you start, you have to decide who is black and who is white. The player with the black pieces lets the player with the white pieces move first. There are some other rules to make the game more interesting. This is my favourite one. If a pawn reaches the other side of the board, you can make it into a queen, a rook, a knight or a bishop. Of course, it is best to make it a queen. So who is the winner? Well, the winner is the first player to take the other player's king and says 'checkmate'. Some games can last for hours and some games can be over very quickly. It depends how good the players are. If you want to be a better player, you have to play a lot of games.

Page 114 READING exercise 1 Small is beautiful. So every week we invite our readers to send us their (very) short stories. Each story must be exactly 50 words, not a word more, not a word less – just like this introduction. (Words like 'didn't' count as one word.) And then we publish all our favourites! Here are the best from last week's topic: Changing the Rules 'Want to play in the school football team?' the sign said. 'Come along at four o'clock!' So I went. 'But you're a girl!' a boy said. 'Girls can't play in the school team!' 'There's no rule,' I said. And I played. Now there's a rule – everyone can play in the school team. It was the last biscuit. Both of us wanted it. 'Let's toss a coin,' my brother said. 'Heads I win, tails you lose.' He tossed the coin. 'Tails – you lose' and he ate the last biscuit. If I had listened to his rules more carefully, maybe the biscuit would have been mine. I hate cabbage. When I was a small boy, my father made me eat it at lunch. 'The rule is: eat everything on your plate,' he said. I ate it and then I was sick. When I'm a father, my rule will be: 'If you don't like it, you can leave it.' 'They're my rules,' Kevin said. 'If you don't like them, find someone else to play with.' When he went to bed later that evening, Kevin felt sad. Playing ball on his own hadn't been much fun. If his rules hadn't been so unpopular, he wouldn't have spent the afternoon on his own. In 1823, William Webb Ellis was playing football in his PE lesson. He picked up the ball and ran towards the goal. Everyone was shocked. 'You can't do that!' they shouted. 'I can,' he said as he put the ball in the goal. 'I've invented a new game. It's called rugby.' Page 115 PRONUNCIATION exercise 1 Shh! Listen! Someone's talking in the next room. Yes, and at this hour the castle should be empty. We should investigate. Or, erm, should we write a report? I can't answer that. All I know is that we mustn't stay here another minute! Page 115 PRONUNCIATION exercise 3 Shh! Listen! Someone's talking in the next room. Yes, and at this hour the castle should be empty. We should investigate. Or, erm, should we write a report? I can't answer that. All I know is that we mustn't stay here another minute!

Page 116 Culture exercise 2 STRANGE laws from around the world Laws are important – they help us to live together in a friendly, happy and peaceful way. However, there are a number of laws from various countries around the world that seem really strange. Many of them are rather old, but have never been changed. We've selected some of the strangest for you here. 1 It is against the law to jump the queue in the ticket hall in the underground metro system in ____. A NewYork, US B Paris, France C London, UK 2 If you climb a tree in ____, you are breaking the law. A Beijing, China B Oshawa, Canada C Tokyo, Japan 3 You can't take a pet lion to the cinema in ____ – if you have one! A Amsterdam, the Netherlands B Baltimore, US C Madrid, Spain 4 If you don't walk your dog at least three times a day in_____ , you will get a fine. A Turin, Italy B Berlin, Germany C Geneva, Switzerland 5 If you tie an elephant to a parking meter in ____, you have to pay a parking fee. A Amsterdam, the Netherlands B Madrid, Spain C Florida, US 6 If you go to the toilet at night in _____, you must remember that it is illegal to flush the toilet after 10 pm. A Thailand B The Netherlands C Switzerland 7 If you are a taxi driver in ______ , and you play the radio while driving a customer, you have to pay royalties to the musicians you listen to during the journey. A Italy B Greece C Finland 8 If you own a donkey in _____, you must not keep it in the bathtub. A Georgia, US B Istanbul, Turkey C London, UK

Page 118 B1 Preliminary for Schools LISTENING Part 4 exercise 2 You will hear a girl called Lucy talking on a TV programme about a competition she won. For each question, choose the correct answer. Now, if you were watching the news yesterday evening, you probably noticed a new face in our team. 12-year-old Lucy Harmon won a competition to read the weather forecast for the day. She now joins us to tell us all about the experience. . Lucy, welcome. Thank you. First of all, tell us, what did you have to do to enter the competition? Um, I had to write a short letter to the producers saying why I wanted to read the weather on TV, and then I had to make a short video of me reading a news story. Then I uploaded it and about two months later I got a phone call saying I had won, and they wanted me to go to the studio the next Friday. I couldn't believe it. So what happened on the big day? Well, I got to the studio at about three o'clock. I met the producer and all the news team. They were really nice. Then I practised reading the weather a few times, for quite a while, just to get used to the cameras. The producer gave me some advice, and then suddenly it was time to go live on air. At four o'clock? No, it was actually at five. And I was happy for the extra time to practise! Someone else did the four o'clock news and weather. It was good to watch them as it helped me to prepare more. And how did you feel? It was such a good experience, and I was too excited to be worried. It was so much fun. I just loved it. No nerves at all. So, what kind of forecast did you have to do? Well, it had nearly everything: sun, rain, clouds, strong winds. Everything that makes British weather so interesting. The only thing it didn't have was snow, but then I suppose it's not that time of year. But you wouldn't believe it if you looked out of the window. No. So what did you think of the day? Do you want to be a weather forecaster now? It was great. I've always wanted to be a teacher, since I was a little girl, but I think that's changed now. I'm not sure I want to forecast the weather, but I would like to be some kind of TV presenter. Well, Lucy, I think there's every chance of that. Your performance yesterday was wonderful. Thank you.