English Language Proficiency Test for the Bulgarian Armed ...
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THE SEYCHELLES
The Seychelles are a group of islands in the Indian Ocean. Most of the islands are rocky. The others are coral and flat, without clean water, which makes human life there very difficult. The major islands are Mahe, Praslin and La Digue. About 90% of the Seyshellians live on Mahe.
The temperature throughout the year varies from 24°C to 30°C. The coolest months are July and August. From May to November it is the most pleasant time of the year. The hot months are from December to April. March and April are the hottest months.
There are a lot of interesting places everywhere. Moreto is a modern city with malls, business centers and hotels. The Handura Islands are with beautiful coral reefs surrounding them. In Talo Area you can see one of the smallest active volcanoes in the world which attracts many professional photographers. Boracava Island, with its white sand beach, is the most popular tourist destination in the country.
THE ÅLAND ISLANDS
The Aland Islands form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea. It is the smallest province of Finland. The islands consist of the main island Fasta Aland and an archipelago to the east. Fasta Aland is separated from the coast of Sweden by forty kilometres of open water to the west. The only land border of the Aland Islands is strangely-shaped. It is located on the island of Market, which it shares with Sweden.
The Aland archipelago consists of nearly 300 islands, 80 of which are populated. The islands occupy a total area of 1,512 square kilometres. Ninety per cent of the population lives on Fasta Aland, which is also the site of the capital town of Mariehamn. Fasta Aland is the largest island in the archipelago, extending over 1,010 square kilometres. The only official language of the Aland Islands is Swedish, but 5% of the Alandic people speak Finnish. However, most of the inhabitants speak the official language.
THE BED-AND-BREAKFAST TOUR
Spend ten romantic days enjoying the green fields and small forests of southern England. You will have the chance to explore the counties of Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, and Essex, to enjoy their castles and coastline, their charming bed and breakfast inns, museums and cathedrals. Spend lazy days watching the clouds or spend active days hiking the glorious hills. These fields were home to Thomas Hardy. From these ports many ships started journeys that shaped world history. There are many bed and breakfast places, ranging from quiet farmhouses to impressive castles. Our tour begins August 15. Call or fax us today for more information 1-800-222-XXXX.
AREA 51
On the 15th of August the US Air Force confirmed the existence of the Nellis Range Complex, also known as Area 51. It is near the Groom Dry Lake in the state of Nevada. There are a lot of activities and operations in the complex. Some of these activities, past and present, are still classified and cannot be discussed. The range is not used for training of personnel, but for testing military technologies and systems which are important for the security of the United States.
You will not find it on any geological or aeronautical maps. It is like a place in the Twilight Zone, but flights to it leave Las Vegas' McCarran Airport every day. Some people say there are alien aircraft in Area 51 and engineers use them to create new aircraft and weapons.They also say that the military use it for genetic testing or other secret plans. People say that it's just a very secret aircraft development site. No matter, what it is, Area 51 remains covered in mystery.
ANNA SZEWCYZK
Anna Szewcyzk, perhaps the most popular broadcaster in the news media today, won the 1998 Broadcasting Award. She got her start in journalism as an editor at the Hollsville County Times in Missouri. When the newspaper went out of business, a colleague persuaded her to enter the field of broadcasting. She moved to Oregon to begin a master's degree in broadcast journalism at Atlas University. Following graduation, she was able to continue her career as a local newscaster with WPSU-TV in Seattle, Washington, and rapidly advanced to national television. Noted for her quick wit and in-depth commentary, her name has since become synonymous with Good Day, America! Accepting the award at the National Convention of Broadcast Journalism held in Chicago, Ms. Szewcyzk remarked, "I am so honored by this award that I'm at a total loss for words!" Who would ever have believed it?
OFFICE MEMO
Date: May 16, 2014
To: Megan Fallerman
From: Steven Roberts
Subject: Staff Meeting
Please be prepared for our upcoming staff meeting – I expect you to give a presentation on the monthly sales figures.The presentation should include accurate accounting of all the money that the company has spent to achieve the current monthly sales. In addition, be ready to discuss possible reasons for fluctuations as well as possible trends in future customer spending. Thank you.
EXPLOSION IN SAN FRANCISCO
A natural gas pipeline exploded in a suburban San Francisco area, killing 7 people and burning down 40 homes. The explosion, which was heard throughout a residential area near San Francisco's International airport, was originally suspected as an airplane crash. Many local residents reported hearing sounds of a jet engine failing. Others thought that the fire was due to an earthquake or a bomb. Investigators learned later that part of the gas line that exploded was classified as "likely to fail" and was scheduled to be replaced next year. Reports also suggest that people smelled gas in the area in the days leading up to the failure. The fire chief in San Bruno described the scene as a "moon landscape". The explosion left a giant crater in the street where a large piece of the pipe landed.
NEWS REPORTS
Report 1
Argentina is going to make a formal complaint to the United Nations about British "militarisation" around the Falkland Islands, the Argentinean president announced at a meeting of MPs.Tensions between the two countries have been increasing in recent weeks. The UK Foreign Office later issued a statement that said: "The people of the Falkland Islands are British out of choice. They are free to determine their own future and there will be no negotiations with Argentina over sovereignty unless the islanders wish it."
Report 2
An Australian company has designed a device called “Shark Shield”, which can be attached to the back of a surfboat, or worn by a swimmer. It produces an electrical signal that is harmless to a shark but makes it feel extremely unpleasant, so the animal turns away from the device. Despite the maker’s claims, however, some experts say it could never offer 100% protection, as animals are unpredictable.
Report 3
Cynics argue that the term “shelf-life” has been invented by pharmaceutical companies to make us buy fresh medicines. In reality, government regulators demand extensive testing to find out how long the compounds retain their potency. The testing showed that, when kept at room temperature, the molecules which make up the drugs degrade just like foodstuffs – and can, in some antibiotics at least, even turn toxic. That is why “shelf-life” is a must.
Report 4
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted a survey recently and, much to its disappointment, found that only 13% of its personnel speak a foreign language. The new head of the CIA expected such results and insists that this should change. This lack of foreign language ability was astonishing for the general public but not for foreign intelligence agencies, like Britain's MI-6 or Israeli Mossad, whose units’ personnel speak two or more languages.
Report 5
One of the first announcements made by Libya's National Transitional Council after the fall of Tripoli was a promise for proper treatment to all those wounded in the fight against former leader Muammar Gaddafi. After the flight of foreign workers the country's hospitals quickly got overcrowded. Soon the National Transitional Council reported that it would set aside 400 million US dollars to fund medical care for wounded fighters in overseas hospitals. As a result, it established a Global Health Program which covered the cost of treatment in several countries, using insurance companies. Libyans immediately began showing up at hospitals in Tunisia, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and some European countries. Four months later, that Program was closed. With no central supervision, it turned out many officials misused the funds.
WORLD WAR ONE MEDICAL INNOVATIONS
Between 1914 and 1918, the world’s most powerful industrial nations faced each other on the battlefield of World War One (WWI). The new weapons of the modern age – shells, trench mortars and machine guns – were used on millions of men, resulting in injuries never seen before in war. Almost 25 million soldiers were either killed or wounded.
Medical teams were put under incredible pressure as they struggled to save lives. But war was the mother of invention. A series of medical innovations was developed during WWI, that resulted in the saving of thousands of lives not only in that conflict, but in other wars ever since.
Blood was transferred directly from one person to another. But it was a US Army doctor, CPT Oswald Robertson, who realised the need to store blood before casualties arrived. He established the first blood bank on the Western Front in 1917. Blood was kept on ice for up to 28 days and then transported to field hospitals for use in life-saving surgery where it was needed most.
Blood is now routinely used in hospitals throughout the world, with blood banks that can be used when required. In the military, the Medical Emergency Response Team is able to give wounded soldiers blood on the ground, helping to prevent deaths from shock. Developments in wound shock treatment in WWI have helped shape much of modern practise.
LOCKHEED A-12 AIRCRAFT
The development of the Lockheed A-12 aircraft was part of Oxcart project established by the US Air Force and the CIA in August 1959. The first Lockheed A-12 test aircraft arrived at Groom Lake Test Centre, Nevada, on 28 February, 1962. It had secretly been delivered on trucks from Burbank, California the day before. It was assembled at Groom Lake Test Centre, Nevada and made its maiden flight on 26 April 1962. The Lockheed A-12 aircraft cruised at 2000 miles per hour, but because the plane was a secret project it was kept out of official speed competitions.
It consisted of more than 90% titanium and required special fuel in order to fly at extreme speeds and heights. The fuel was made to stand extremely high temperatures. It would not ignite even if someone threw a match into a barrel full of it.
The Lockheed A-12 aircraft was used as a spy plane and it helped locating a US ship captured by North Korea.
BEACH BUMMING
(from The National Geographic Magazine)
The bigger the beach, the more tourists’ towels to fit on it – and the more money, in turn, for local business. That calculation can be complicated by erosion. Unwilling to build seawalls that, among other things, prevent beach-goers from enjoying the waves, cities in Hawaii and North Carolina periodically renourish their beaches. The process involves dredging millions of cubic yards of sand offshore and depositing it on land.
More cities are investing in the method, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Yet considering constant wave motion, the replenishment is often only temporary. Portions of the shore in Virginia Beach, Virginia, have been rebuilt 49 times since 1951. Last fall the San Diego area fortified five miles of its coast at a cost of $28 million. Project managers say they’ll need to do it again in about five years.
MARITIME PATROL
Maritime patrol is a job that consists of many hours in the air looking for whatever, among not much. Boring as hell for humans, but ideal work for robots. One thing that makes UAVs[1] for maritime patrol possible, or at least practical, is cheaper and more capable sensors. The most effective UAVs use synthetic aperture radar that works with onboard software to provide automatic detection, classification and tracking of what is down there.
Human operators ashore, or on a ship, or in an aircraft, are alerted if they have to double check with video cameras on the UAV. For this kind of work, one of the most important things is reliability. You don't want to lose these UAVs over open water. The Herons usually patrol for about 35 hours at a time, cruising at about 200 kilometers an hour. The Andaman chain is nearly 500 kilometers long, so UAVs can patrol it, and adjacent waters, rather easily. India has become a pioneer in UAV use for maritime reconnaissance, and their experience will be observed closely by other naval powers.
VEILED DEMOCRACY
(from The New York Times)
The West doesn't know quite what to think of Turkey's Islamic-oriented ruling party: does it envision a liberal, European future for Turkey or an Islamist one? A vote this week on the seemingly minor issue of whether head scarves should be allowed at universities will help us begin to answer that question. The ban on women covering their heads on campus has long been a thorn in the side of the Justice and Development Party. The rule has the perverse effect of keeping devoutly religious women out of higher education and is a relic of the aggressive secularism enforced by the modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Unfortunately, it can be repealed only by a constitutional amendment. Such an amendment was expected to be proposed a few weeks ago as part of a comprehensive overhaul of Turkey's state-centered, ethnically narrow Constitution. The description of the package of draft amendments that was leaked to the press would put Turkey on a decidedly liberal constitutional course.
Reports said that it would vest sovereignty in the people, not the state, and acknowledge that the category "Turkish" in reality encompasses people of all ethnicities — implicitly including Kurds, whose separate identity has long been suppressed. The new Constitution would give parents increased control over their children's education, allowing them to pull out of state-mandated religious instruction. In this context, lifting the head-scarf ban could be seen as just another step toward the religious liberty that liberal Western states claim to prize.
READERS’ OPINIONS
HARD TIMES FOR RETIREES
Re ''Adjusting to Reality,'' by Alicia H. Munnell and Andrew G. Biggs (The New York Times, March 8), opposing a proposed onetime $250 payment to Social Security recipients to make up for the lack of a cost-of-living adjustment this year.
The article demonstrates the inadequacy of using textbook economics to discuss the actual experiences of real people. By arguing – despite the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression – that ''retirees did all right over the last few years,'' the authors demonstrate a lack of understanding of the negative impact of decimated retirement savings on older Americans.
We would encourage them to talk with our members, who tell us that, even with low inflation, retirees can't afford to pay for increasing health costs or for their prescription drugs. Many spend close to a third of their income on health care every year, which means they sometimes can't afford other necessities. Retirees lost equity in their homes and have less time for their retirement accounts to recover.
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is urging Congress to help by providing these seniors with $250 in emergency relief to make ends meet. And by spending the money, they'll help stimulate the economy. It's the right – and smart – thing to do.
Tom Nelson
Chief Operating Officer, AARP
THE EARLY RELEASE OF PRISONERS
''Safety Is Issue as Budget Cuts Free Prisoners'' (The New York Times, March 5) sounds a false alarm about the risks of parole and early-release programs.
New York and New Jersey are among several states that have dramatically reduced their prison populations and still crime rates have fallen. The United States is the incarceration capital of the world, yet more than half of those behind bars are there for low-level drug offenses and other nonviolent crimes. Even among people who are returned to prison on parole violations, more than 50 percent are sent back for technical violations like missing a meeting or failing a drug test. The economic crisis is a reckoning day for states that have pursued bad policies for too long. Fear-mongering led to this incarceration binge, and it should not be allowed to stand in the way of sound reforms.
Legislators and law enforcement officials who are untangling this mess by looking for smart policies that keep us safe should be applauded, not scapegoated.
Leonard E. Noisette
Director, Criminal Justice Fund
HOME HEALTH WORKERS
In “Lilly and Evelyn” (editorial in The New York Times, Jan. 29), you focus on the unfair treatment of home care workers, who provide daily support and care to millions of older Americans and people with disabilities.
The fastest-growing occupation in the nation, home care will employ nearly 2.5 million workers by 2018. Yet these workers are also among the most poorly paid, earning on average less than $10 an hour. Though they provide essential health care services for our family members, one in three home care workers is herself without health insurance.
It is long past time for President Obama to instruct the Labor Department to provide home care aides minimal work force protections through the Fair Labor Standards Act — and to direct available stimulus dollars to help the home care industry increase the pay and benefits for these essential caregivers.
Jake Pine,
New York
BLEAK EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS
(from The Journal, issue 16; January 11th, 2014)
UK Government Ministers are engaged in talks with major white-collar employers in order to help bolster the employment prospects of the 350,000 students who will graduate from British universities this summer. Under plans being drawn up by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), large businesses alongside public sector institutions, are to be encouraged to offer short-term paid internships to new graduates. It is understood that Microsoft and Barclays have already signed up to the provisionally-titled National Internship Scheme.
The government fears that many of the 350,000 graduates will add to the rapidly growing levels of unemployment in the UK. According to the Telegraph, universities are reporting that many firms, in particular investment banks, are cancelling their recruitment drives across university campuses, while others are limiting themselves solely to the so-called elite institutions. The Bank of England economist David Blanchflower has predicted that of the 3 million people expected to be out of work by the end of the year, a third will be between 18 and 25. Blanchflower warned in The Guardian that “a spell of unemployment when you're young has a very different effect than when you're older.” The effect, he says, is more akin to a “permanent scar” than a “temporary blemish” that can have a long-term damaging effect on the young.
FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
(from The Guardian, Aug 2013)
In 1983 senior civil servants drafted a message they envisaged the Queen might have to deliver to the nation on the eve of all-out nuclear war with Russia. The extraordinary speech forms part of a chilling 320-page war games scenario – codenamed Wintex-Cimex 83 – which was drawn up by top intelligence, defense and Home Office staff. It is revealed in a cache of secret documents released on Thursday by the National Archives, which evokes the shadow of nuclear armageddon that hung over Britain 30 years ago.
The briefing adds that the doctrine of "no first use of nuclear weapons" – one that was not accepted by NATO – was known as NOFUN. The war planners produced a scenario in which a bellicose new USSR leadership had taken control and launched attacks on West Germany, Scandinavia, Italy and Turkey. Chemical and nuclear strikes would be next. The scenario imagined half a million people heading for the hills of Wales to escape bombings in which thousands had already died. Violent anti-war protests convulsed London and military bases in Scotland, while alcohol sales across the country rocketed and hospital medicine stores were looted.
Defense chiefs had concluded that NATO would have to launch a nuclear strike first or face defeat by the overwhelming force of the USSR, codenamed Orange. As the imagined war unravels, the officials realize they may have made some serious strategic errors, not least in possessing large numbers of short-range nuclear weapons that, if used on the battlefield, would leave NATO worse off than the enemy. The scenario concludes with escalating chaos in the west and NATO taking the "solemn decision" to launch the first nuclear weapons against eastern bloc countries to "remind" Moscow that NATO will continue to resist.
There is panic, particularly in Scotland, where civilians expect a retaliatory nuclear strike, but the exercise ends on a bleakly hopeful note with Orange, its allies devastated by NATO nuclear attacks, offering to open peace negotiations. The Queen's address signs off: "As we strive together to fight off this new evil, let us pray for our country and men of goodwill wherever they may be. God bless you all."
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[1] UAV is an acronym for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, which is an aircraft with no pilot on board.
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