Reading practice passages:

Passage one:
Nicky Hart argues that the increasing divorce rate can be seen as a 'product of
conflict between the changing economic system and its social and ideological
superstructure (notably the family)'. In advanced capitalist industrial societies, there
is an increasing demand for cheap female wage labor. ives are encouraged to take
up paid employment not only because of the demand for their services, but also
because the capitalist controlled media has raised 'material aspirations' ! the demand
for goods that families desire. "hese material aspirations can only be satisfied by
both spouses working as wage earners. However, conflict results from the
contradiction between female wage labor and the normative e#pectations which
surround married life. 'orking wives' are still e#pected to be primarily responsible
for housework and raising children. In addition, they are still e#pected, to some
degree, to play a subservient role to the male head of the household. "hese
normative e#pectations contradict the wife's role as a wage earner, since she is now
sharing the economic burden with her husband. $onflict between the spouses can
result from this contradiction, and conflict can lead to marital breakdown.
Passage two:
If a couple decides to divorce, a number of ma%or transitions of lifestyle and outlook
have to be made. & series of interviews which 'obert eiss carried out with divorced
men and women in the () showed a definite 'tra%ectory of divorce' (eiss, *+,-).
omen suffer from a divorce far more than men on an economic level, but the
process of psychological and social ad%ustment seems similar for both se#es. In the
ma%ority of instances eiss studied, the respect and liking a couple may have felt for
one another disappears some while before they separate. &t the same time, a sense
of being bound emotionally to the other person persists. "hus even though a couple
may row bitterly %ust before parting, they tend to e#perience what eiss calls
separation distress. "he sudden absence of the spouse creates feelings of an#iety
and panic. & minority of individuals however have an opposite e#perience ! a feeling
of euphoria in response to being free and able to deal with their lives on their own.
Passage Three:
&s laws and procedures regulating divorce have altered, the divorce rate has tended
to increase by leaps and bounds. with each new piece of legislation making divorce
more readily available, the rate has risen rapidly for a time before leveling off. "oday
there is one divorce in /ritain for every three marriages. (In the ()& the rate is one
in two.) 0any people have suggested that the higher divorce rates reflect an
underlying increase in marital instability. the problem with this argument is that we
have no way of knowing how many 'unstable' or 'unhappy' marriages e#isted before
legislation made it possible to dissolve them in a public (and recordable) form. )ome
commentators have gone further, and argued that more permissive divorce laws in
themselves cause marital breakdown. /ut we can certainly be skeptical of such a
view, suggesting as it does that happily married couples can suddenly be persuaded
to abandon their relationship, propelled by the attraction of a new divorce law. &
more plausible e#planation for rises in the divorce rate after the passage of a law is
that unhappily married couples were for the first time given access to a legal solution
to pre!e#istent marital problems. in other words, changes in divorce laws are less
likely to cause martial breakdown than to provide new types of solution where
breakdown has already occurred.
Passage four:
Halloween is one of the most famous holidays in the (.)., and it is on 1ctober 2*.
3eople carve pumpkins and make funny faces on them. "hese are called 45ack!1!
6anterns.4 1n 1ctober 2*, children wear a special costume such as a witch, ghost, or
clown. "hey go to many houses and they knock on the door saying, 4"rick or "reat74
It means that if people don't give them a treat, they will play some kind of trick on
the household. )o, usually people give candy to them.
I carved my first Halloween pumpkin at my 8riendship 8amily's house. 8irst, I cut
open the top of the pumpkin and pulled the seeds out. It was not good for me
because it was sticky and smelled bad. I had never carved a pumpkin, so it was
interesting for me. Ne#t, I carved the eyes and the mouth. I wanted to make a face
like a pirate. hen I finished making the face, I put a candle inside. It was very
beautiful, so I was happy.
I had a good e#perience because I learned one new idea about &merican culture by
taking part in it. I think Halloween is an interesting &merican holiday which involves
all family members and neighbors too7
Passage Five:
"ime is very important in our lives. It organi9es our everyday moments. However,
time never had any importance in my life until I received a watch from my father
that organi9ed my life and made me more responsible.
It came from :enmark to the (.&.;. %ewelry shop in a gray bo#. It weighs < o9. It's
round in the center with two silver bands that go around my wrist. &nd all of it is
made of silver. "his ob%ect tells me the importance of time in my life.
I received this gift on a gray!sky day. I had to go to the airport at +=>> &0 to pick up
my (ncle &li and take him to my father's house. However, I was late because I was
hanging out with my friends. 6ater on that day, around **=>> &0, I remembered my
uncle, but I was very late for him. He had left the airport and taken a ta#i to my
father's house.
I got to my father's house at ?=>> 30 on the same day and looked at my angry
father's face. I felt ashamed of myself at that moment. &fter I said hi to my angry
father and tired uncle, my father asked me to sit ne#t to him where he handed me
this watch which was a gift from him. "hen he said, 4;ssa did you have fun with your
friends today@4 I answered, 4Aes father, and I'm sorry about not picking up my (ncle
&li.4 He said, 4hat you did was not very nice and you should be sorry for your
actions.4 I was ashamed and said, 48ather I'll never do it again. I promise.4 He said,
4I hope today you learned something important, and this watch will be a reminder for
you.4 He told me to take this watch and use it as an organi9er of my life.
I learned a very important lesson from my father= to respect time and never be late
to get someone. "his watch is important to me, not because of its price, but because
of the lesson that I learned from it.
Passage Six:
"hree years ago on the last day of 5anuary, I had a big problem. I can't forget this
day forever. "he story began when my uncle, my cousin, and I went to the desert.
0y uncle was the oldest at ,? years old, but he was still strong. 0y cousin at that
time was *> years old, and I was ?B years old. &ll of us liked hunting. (sually we
went hunting on the weekend, especially in winter, because winter is the hunting
season.
1n the ?Bth of 5anuary, we decided to go hunting. &ll things were ready in the car, a
'ange 'over with four!wheel drive. e began on "hursday afternoon, and it took us
three hours by car. e reached the place we were looking for at B=*B 3.0. 8irst, we
fi#ed the tent, then we made coffee and had a few minutes of rest. &fter that, we left
to go on the hunt. e hunted using a falcon. 1ften, we hunt birds and rabbits. e
spent two hours without finding anything. e decided to go back to the camp. 1n
our way back, my cousin saw a rabbit. He cried, 4'abbit77 'abbit7 Cuick74 I took the
falcon's head cover and flung it off aggressively. hen the rabbit saw the falcon, it
ran fast, but my falcon was a professional hunter. He flew up and came down to trick
the rabbit. &fter two minutes, the rabbit was caught. e took it and went back to the
camp where we started to cook our dinner. e ate the delicious food, drank &rabic
coffee, and sat around the fire talking until *>=2> 3.0. "hen we went to bed.
e left camp the ne#t day at , o'clock in the morning. e went north and found two
kinds of birds and caught them. However, we faced trouble at *>=>>&.0. because the
car got stuck in the sand7 e spent about three hours trying to pull out the car
without any progress. 8inally, we decided to walk. I talked with my uncle about how
hard it is for an old man or a young boy to walk more than D> km. in the desert. He
agreed with me. )o I took a bottle of water with me and started to walk south alone.
I knew the way well, but it was a long way in the sand. I walked more than four
hours without stopping. I felt tired and thirsty. I drank all the water which was in the
bottle. I stopped to rest, sleeping around two hours.
hen I got up, darkness had covered the area. 4hat should I do@4 I asked myself. I
continued to walk south. I was worried about my uncle and cousin, and they were
worried about me also. )uddenly, I met a /edouin man who was riding his camel. He
took me to his house. hen I had had enough rest, I asked him to take me to the
road and he did. &fter that, I found a car which took me to the city to get help. I had
one day to get back to my uncle and cousin. hen I got back to them, they were so
happy because I had gotten help and they were able to see me again.
;ventually, I learned a lesson from this story, which was that the desert is very
dangerous. Ne#t time, when we go hunting, we must go in groups with two or more
cars. If we go together, we can keep each other safe. e know the desert is
dangerous, but we will never Euit hunting.
Passage Seven:
6anguage is a way to communicate with each other. e started to learn language
when we were born. However, people are used to speaking their native language, so
immigrants are having many problems between the first generation and the second
generation because they don't have the same native language. &lso, the second
generation is losing their identity. ;specially in &merica, there are many immigrants
that came from different countries to succeed in the )tates. /ecause they suffer in
lots of areas such as getting a %ob and trying to speak ;nglish, they want their
children to speak ;nglish, not only at school, but also at home in order to be more
successful. /ecause of this situation, their children are losing their ethnic identity
and, even more, they are ignoring their parents whose ;nglish is not very good.
8or e#ample, my aunt, who has been living in $hicago for fifteen years, has three
children and they were all born in the )tates. "he eighteen year old daughter speaks
;nglish as a native language and she speaks Forean very well too. )he has no
problems talking with her parents, but she still doesn't understand Forean %okes, and
there are sometimes misunderstandings. "he second daughter is fourteen years old,
and she doesn't want to speak Forean. 0y aunt often gets upset with her because
she is very &mericani9ed and they cannot understand each other. ;ven when my
aunt punishes her, this daughter does not understand what my aunt is talking about.
I felt sympathy for my aunt whenever my fourteen year old cousin said, 40om, what
is your problem@4 "he third child is a twelve year old son. He speaks ;nglish to his
parents and my aunt speaks Forean to him as she does to the second daughter. He
also has a problem communicating with his parents. 0y aunt is trying to teach him to
speak both languages very well, but it is very hard for him because he speaks
;nglish all day and does not understand why he should learn to speak Forean.
I think most immigrants are trying to preserve their native language in their new
country, but this doesn't help very much in getting a good %ob. 0y aunt didn't teach
Forean to her children in order to help them succeed in the (.).. she did so,
hopefully, to help them establish a Forean identity. "hough the second generation is
born in the new country, they often get confused about their identity because they
look different from others, and also, if they visit their parent's country, they will
probably feel different from other people there too. 0y cousins told me that when
they visited Forea a few years ago, they felt different from other Foreans. "hey could
even feel it %ust strolling around the street because they wore different clothes and
walked differently.
e must reali9e that language is important and valuable for many reasons.
Immigrants should make an effort not to be ignored by their children and to make
their children understand their heritage by teaching them the parents' language. "his
is very important, not only for the harmony of the family, but also in helping the
second generation establishes their identity.
Passage Eight:
Have you ever thought that within a single afternoon you could lose your sense of
security@ Have you ever taken into consideration changing completely the way you
look at the world around you@ "hat happened to me, and I'm still paying for the
conseEuences of somebody else's action. "he feeling of security and serenity, that
everyone should have, is often taken away with brutality for the price of a few
dollars. (nfortunately, this happens over and over throughout the world, and it is
hard for the victims of criminal actions to recover from their deep wounds.
It was %ust a day like any other, if possible, even better because it was a )aturday,
the end of the working week, and one of the first nice and sunny days of 'ome's
spring. 0y best friend and I were in the shop that she owns. It was the middle of the
afternoon. we were both pretty happy and making plans for the weekend, and the
atmosphere was e#tremely rela#ed, almost la9y. )uddenly a man entered in the
shop. e knew, somehow, that he didn't look like one of our usual customers, but we
welcomed him politely anyway. ithout any hesitation he pulled something out of his
coat that we did not recogni9e immediately, but when he ordered us to go into the
back with him, there was no doubt that this 4something4 was a gun. e were so
scared that we could barely understand what was going on. 0y heart was beating so
franticly, that I thought everyone could hear it. )uddenly, while watching the entire
scene in astonishment, a shiver ran down my spine. I had that kind of feeling like
when you are not sure if you're dreaming or not. In the beginning, I thought it was a
stupid %oke by a similarly stupid friend of ours, but it took me half a second to reali9e
that it was cruel reality. I still shudder at the thought of it. He seemed to me so calm
and so used to this kind of action. 4:on't you dare say a single word and come with
me in the storage4 he said. It was almost a whisper, a few simple words uttered
nastily. He gave us precise orders and while doing this, he offended us and kept
reminding us that he could shoot at any time. He looked for the money in the
register, from our wallets, then he asked for our %ewelry and we gave him all he
wanted. He was imperturbable while bringing his 4%ob4 to conclusion. &t that point,
he was supposed to leave. instead, he seemed not to have any intention to do so.
)uddenly I remember his face becoming soaked in sweat. 0y friend and I had no
chance to talk to each other and e#change our thoughts, but I'm sure we had the
same horrible feeling. 8ortunately, after a few interminable minutes he left.
Aou can never know where you can feel safe. growing up you learn that gradually.
hen you are a child, you feel safe with your parents in your home or wherever you
are not alone. "hen you begin to understand the news and you learn that horrible
things are happening 4out there4, but you still keep thinking that those events are
%ust other people's worries, not yours. "errible things happen only to the people you
read about in the newspaper, but you will soon start to e#plore the world on your
own and little, insignificant, nasty things begin to happen to you too. Aou see a car
accident, you look at ambulances, someone is mean to you and, somehow, you know
that this is as the world goes. "hen your conscience starts to make you reali9e that
you are a person like any other. )o why couldn't bad things happen to you@ Aou are
afraid that something could happen and, depending on your optimistic or pessimistic
mood, you can deal or not with this thought.
I think that from the precise moment the guy walked out of the shop, I completely
changed my way of relating to the world. )omeone could say that I am
e#aggerating, and maybe they are right, but this is how I feel. I always look around
to see which kinds of people are possibly following me. Now I usually double!check
everything= if I've locked myself in the car or in the house. I think about how to
dress if I have to go out alone or in a particular part of the town. I am always careful
not to wear any %ewelry. henever an unknown guy is getting too close or is trying
to get information from me, I tighten up. I know that it is wrong, that not everyone
is looking to attack me again. &fter all, I consider myself lucky, since nothing really
bad happened to me or to my friend, but what affects me is the thought of what
could have happened. e could have died or he could have beaten or raped us7 I
know that I have to work on it because since that day I haven't felt safe anymore,
hat I don't know is where to start. Now I am sure only of one fact, that I blame
this guy, not for having taken my %ewelry, but for having deprived me of my
innocence.
Passage Nine:
"o sing a song has been deeply related to human life from ancient times. 3eople
en%oy singing songs to babies and they en%oy listening to them. In recent years,
there has been a boom in 4karaoke4 in 5apan. Faraoke includes disk players with
voice mi#ing facilities and are used to provide musical accompaniment for solos or
singalongs. "he 4kara4 of kara!oke means empty, while the 4oke4 is a 5apanese
abbreviation of the ;nglish word, 4orchestra.4 "hese two words coming together
mean an orchestra without a vocalist. Faraoke systems are widespread in many
countries nowadays. I think 4karaoke bars4 are well known by &mericans, so they
imagine karaoke bars when they hear 4karaoke,4 but actually we have few karaoke
bars in 5apan. hat we call 4karaoke bo#4 is more popular in 5apan.
Aou can see many buildings, which say 4karaoke bo#4 here and there in 5apan. "he
karaoke bo# consists of a lot of isolated rooms on several floors and each of those
rooms has a karaoke set in it. Aou can go there with friends or with your family to
en%oy singing. No strangers can see you or listen to you singing. 0any people, no
matter what their age or gender, go there often to en%oy singing out loud, to seek
relief from daily stress or %ust for fun. ;veryone can be a singer for that moment.
"o relish karaoke is not difficult at all. &ll you have to do is find some friends to go
with you and then you will be ready to have fun. &fter that, maybe you want to go to
)hin%uku, one of the metropolitan parts of 5apan, to find your karaoke bo#. )hin%uku
is a place where mainly fashionably dressed youths gather. "here are huge shopping
malls, video centers, various kinds of restaurants, movie theaters and many kinds of
amusement around the )hin%uku station. It is very crowded, especially on weekends,
and you can hardly walk through the area. Aou also see tons of karaoke bo#es there.
/ut don't worry if you don't know where to go because people who work at those
karaoke bo#es are on the street, too, and they will come up to you and talk to you.
)ince all karaoke staff want to have as many customers as they can, they introduce
you to the kinds of service they have in e#aggerated and cheerful voices, or they
offer you a discount to visit their karaoke bo#. "hey usually wear uniforms with
bright colors and are very trustworthy, so that you can decide on a place to visit
without having difficulties. Generally they charge you one or two dollars per person,
per hour if it's daytime and they show you the way and get a room for you.
&ll Faraoke bo#es are set up in a similar way. "he room has some couches, two
microphones, remote controls for the air conditioner, karaoke set, menus for snacks
and drinks, thick song books on a table, and a big "H with karaoke system %ust for
you and your company. "he room also has a telephone that is connected to the
reception desk. therefore, you can order some food or drinks from that phone. "hey
will also call you when your time is up.
&fter you have settled into the room and gotten something to eat or drink, you are
all ready to sing. Aou look up one of the songbooks and choose a song you wish to
sing. Aou can look up the songs in two different ways. 1ne side of the book has the
titles of the songs, names of singers and five or si#!digit code numbers following
them. "he other side of the book starts with singers' names, titles and numbers, )o
that you can look up songs either by the singer's name or title of the song. &fter you
choose a song to sing, enter the code numbers of the song into the remote control
by pushing the buttons on it to send information to the karaoke set. )oon your music
will start. "he remote control also has a section to change the key or tempo of the
songs. If you feel the key of the song is too high or low for you, or too fast or slow,
you can ad%ust them as you want. &lso, if you want to have harmony, you can. )ome
karaoke sets even have a voice change system. Aou can change your voice from a
woman's to a man's, and a man's to a woman's. "his is very interesting. hen you
finish singing, you can search for the ne#t song while another person is singing. "his
is how it goes, but the important thing here is you should listen to other people
singing at the same time. (sually people like to have audiences, and you want them
to listen to you while you are singing, too. Aou can feel like a real singer if you have
someone to listen to you, and that's what people like when doing karaoke.
)ince you will have your own room and there will be no unfamiliar people watching
you, you will feel more comfortable singing in a karaoke bo# than singing in front of
many people, like in karaoke bars. Aou can spend the time in a more rela#ed
atmosphere, which is more en%oyable. Aou can sing a duet with your friend if you
want, and you can dance if you like, but this doesn't mean that you can do whatever
you want or misbehave in the room. "here are several rules to protect your personal
rights and to ensure that you en%oy yourselves comfortably. Aou should not go look
into other rooms. Aou can't smoke or drink if you are under twenty. "hough there are
no specific people who patrol the bo#es because they don't want to make their
customers feel nervous, it is important to follow these rules for everyone to have a
good time.
1nce you have e#perienced karaoke, you might want to go again and again, though
some people would not like singing in front of people even if they were friends or
family. /ut in my opinion, you can still have a lot of fun there, even if you don't sing.
e make %okes and we talk as if we were at home. I personally like karaoke very
much. I like singing and I have so much fun every time I go. I think we are seeking a
way to e#press ourselves to people whom we like, and we want to say, 46isten to me7
I am here74 Faraoke allows us to e#press who we are and what we like. I encourage
you to try it once in your life. 6et's go sing7 It is so e#citing. Aou can be a singer7