The History of Man

How long has man been on earth? Let us travel 5,000 years into the past. We are in the days before man ____1_______ to write.	LEARN
Recorded history _____________2___________ yet.	NOT BEGIN
Let us go ___3________ into the past to 8,000 years ago. We are in a world without cities or towns, houses or roads.	FAR
Yet there are people, about five million of them, ____4_______ on all five continents.	LIVE
They have cows and horses and they ___5_______the land.	FARM
To find the ___6_______ man we must go many hundreds of thousands of years into the past.	ONE
The ___7______ true human being, Homo sapiens, appeared in Europe more than 50,000 years ago.	EARLY
We can be proud of the progress the man ___8________ since then.	MAKE

TEXT 4

You are going to read a magazine article about John Prince, a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. Seven sentences have been removed from the article. Choose the most suitable sentence from the list A-H for each part (1-6) of the article. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning.

Career success in the arts

John Prince, famous dancer and choreographer, gives advice on how to succeed in a career in the arts.

"So all in all I'm really happy to be a dancer!" I asked John how he got started and what requirements there are. "Well, to be a professional dancer it's useful to have had acting lessons or some background in drama. If you want to succeed in musical theatre you have to have a good singing voice as well. When you approach an agent you should take a portfolio with your CV, your statistics sheet and some good photos and reviews of past performances. You'll need dance clothes, ballet shoes, tap shoes, and even roller skates depending on what kind of show you are going to go for."

0 H

"Of course, you need to be extremely fit if you want to be a professional dancer. I dance or move about for about six hours a day. There are great health benefits to being a dancer. I can eat a lot of pasta without gaining weight because dancing increases your metabolism so much."

1

John has a very busy schedule in the next few months. He took time out to speak to me today from the making of a pop video to promote N-ergy's latest record. "I choreographed the dance routine for the boys and they only had 2 days in which to learn it! I am going to be working on a video for another well known band - but that's top secret. Next month I'll be touring Spain in a production of a musical that was written by a friend of mine, Michaela Evans.

2

As for the future, I've come to realise that I would never be content to be just a chorus dancer - I'm too much of an individual for that. Like all artists I'd love to become a household name by writing and choreographing my own musicals."

John was born in Jamaica to a Jamaican father and a Scottish mother but the family emigrated to England 20 years ago. "I have a little sister I adore, who is also training to be a dancer." How does it feel to have someone else following in your footsteps?

3

Has he much more to learn, I wondered. "I've spent an incredible amount of my life training to get where I am. I went to college for two years in England, I trained for six months in Paris and about eight months in America. But you never really stop training or learning your art."

4

So, would you say it's been plain sailing? "I feel I've been lucky to a degree; many people hit problems breaking into the arts. It can be a vicious circle really. You can't become a member of Equity, which is the actors' and dancers' union, without good contracts and you can't get good contracts without being a member of Equity. My advice to people who want to get into the arts would be to go out into the world, and try everything else first.

5

What has a dance career done for you as a person? "Thanks to dancing, I've visited and performed in 23 countries so far. This has opened my eyes to the world, and I've been able to understand issues like racism and inequality from a wider perspective.

6

A It's fine, but I try not to give out too much advice as it gets irritating!

B And if nothing you like comes out of it, then come back and be an actor or dancer.

C Without a strict daily timetable like this you find yourself wasting too much time.

D After that it's back to England to start a new term of dance classes.

E Hopefully this has enabled me to become a better and more tolerant person as a result.

F When it comes to coping with stress, I find that exercise helps me to cope with my problems, so I stay in good shape mentally as well.

G Like any profession where you're always travelling, you tend to acquire something new almost every day.

H Being fully equipped with all this stuff beforehand makes it easier when you go for auditions.

TEXT 5

Read the text and look at the questions that follow it. In this reading comprehension, the questions are true or false.