Test Reading VR8-LR03

Guy Fawkes Night

Guy Fawkes Night, 5th November, was always fun for me as a child. My brother and I collected wood for a big fire in our garden and after that we spent a lot of time building the fire. My father bought us fireworks but he always looked after them. We weren’t allowed to touch them.

In the evening, when it was dark, we lit the fire in the garden. My mother put potatoes in aluminium foil and then put them into the fire. We had a lot of fun watching our fireworks in the garden and in the sky, and our neighbours‘ ones, too. When the fire was not so hot and we could get near it, my mother or father got the potatoes out of it. Then we could eat them. We usually put butter and salt on them.

After the fireworks and the potatoes we had to go to bed. Sometimes when we woke up the next day, the fire was still burning. Then my brother and I put water on it, we were the firemen!

A different place, a different school

Tina’s parents travel a lot around the world because of their jobs. When she was young, her parents took her with them. They usually lived in nice houses or flats in big cities but going to school was a problem. Tina spoke English but when her parents moved to Peru, for example, Spanish was the language in schools there. Tina had to go to an international school in these places. Finding an international school was not a big problem in large cities. But Tina’s mum sometimes had to drive forty-five minutes to take her to the school every day. Tina never had good friends because she always had to make new ones. Sometimes this was difficult when Tina knew her parents were only staying in the city for twelve months, for example.

When Tina was thirteen years old she asked her parents if she could go to a boarding school in England. They said yes. At a boarding school, the pupils have normal lessons with many after-school activities to do. They live at the school, too. Young children usually share a bedroom with another person but older pupils have their own rooms.

At first Tina missed her parents but she soon made some good friends. She saw her parents in the holidays. She just flew to where they were.

Storm chasers

Some Americans have a very unusual interest – they look for tornados and watch them. Tornados are sometimes known as twisters because the storms travel very quickly, dance across the land and twist up into the sky.

Tornados happen in many different places in America but the Great Plains from Oklahoma to North Dakota are the best place to be for many storm chasers. The storm chasers like this area because it is flat. This means that they do not have to be near a tornado to watch it. They can be many miles away. The tornados in the Great Plains usually happen during May or June.

Storm chasers are well prepared. They study weather information carefully so they know when and where to go. Many of them drive hundreds and even thousands of miles to get to an area where they think a tornado will happen.

Not everyone likes the storm chasers. It is a dangerous hobby and there are risks. But their hobby does give other people a lot of information about the tornados. The storm chasers take photos and videos and collect other facts about each storm they watch and they send their information to universities and weather centres. Because of today’s computer technology this in­for­mation can be sent while the storm is happening. This has many advantages; for example, weather centres can warn other places about the storms.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a very important day for Americans – as important as Christmas is to you. They celebrate it every year on the fourth Thursday in November. But what is Thanksgiving and what happens on that day?

A group of people called the Puritans had many problems in Britain because of their religion. They wanted to start new lives away from these problems. A group of them paid for a boat to take them to America. In America they could have a new life. They became known as the Pil­grim Fathers. The journey was very long and hard but only one person died on the boat. When they arrived in America in December 1620, they had no houses, they had almost no food and no farms to grow anything.

That winter was very bad and the Pilgrims were not prepared for it. The Native Americans, the Indians, helped them to farm and taught them how to hunt – catching animals and fish to eat. The Indians saved the Pilgrims‘ lives – but half of them had died in that first winter.

At the end of the first year in America the Pilgrims had grown enough food for themselves. The leader of the Pilgrims wanted to thank God and the Indians for their help and so they had a special festival – Thanksgiving.

Today Thanksgiving is a family day and people usually eat a big meal of turkey, potatoes and pumpkin together.

The English Channel is the name of the sea between the south coast of England and France. The shortest place across it is from Dover, in England, to Calais, in France. Here it is 34 kilometres from one country to the other.

The water is very cold, about 11 to 16 degrees Celsius. The tides are very strong and fast, and the weather can change at any time so that a nice sea can quickly become a very stormy one.

The first person who swam across the English Channel was Captain Matthew Webb in 1875. It took him 21 hours and 45 minutes. He swam from Dover to Calais.

Lots of people have swum the Channel since Captain Webb did it. In 1929, the first woman swam it. The fastest crossing was in 2012. That person swam the 34 kilometres in 6 hours and 55 minutes.

The tides and the cold are always a problem for swimmers. But, today, rubbish in the sea, boats and ferries cause extra problems for them.

You don’t just jump into the sea to swim the Channel. To swim the Channel you need to be very strong and, of course, a very good swimmer. You need many people to help you and you also have to get permission from both countries.