Testen Sie Ihre Englisch-Kenntnisse
Für die Sprachkurse „Morning Conversation Group" und „Practice Your English Courses" benötigen Sie das Level B1.Wenn Ihnen die folgenden Texte keine Schwierigkeiten bereiten, dann können Sie problemlos an den Kursen teilnehmen.
Text 1:
Living your life the cooperative way
Britain has lots of cooperative
supermarkets. I'm not saying that all these supermarkets are helpful; I'm
simply saying that that's what a lot of them are called. People often do their
shopping at their local "co-op", and all these little shops are part of the
"cooperative group". [...]
The co-op is different in other ways, too. It says it has more "fair-trade" products; that not so many pesticides are used in growing its fruit and vegetables; and that the plastic bags it gives you are biodegradable (biologisch abbaubar).
There's also a cooperative bank. Is that possible? Can banks be cooperative? Well, the co-op actually sends out brochures with advice on how to spend less money - and that certainly isn't normal. Banks usually try to give you credit cards to make you spend even more money.[...]
(Text taken from: Spotlight, Oct. 2008; available at our library)
Text 2:
Should every company have a dress code?
Studies have shown that when people wear casual clothes at work, their attitude becomes more casual, their work becomes sloppy (schlampig), and their behavior becomes unprofessional. The workplace is not the place to express yourself through appearance. It's not the place for wild clothes, tattoos, or piercings. It's the place to work hard and look professional. [...]
I believe every company should have a dress code. A good dress code tells people what they should and should not wear. It says no to stiletto heels, no to flip-flops, and open-toe shoes, no to Capri pants, and no to bare legs and wild hairdos (Frisuren). It doesn't allow nose or tongue piercings and asks that tattoos to be covered up. [...]
(Text taken from: Business Spotlight, Sept.-Oct. 2008; available at our library)
Text 3:
2 convicted killers executed in Okla., Ala.
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - A man convicted of battering ( zu Tode prügeln) his girlfriend's 8-year-old son and stuffing the body in a freezer was put to death Thursday in Oklahoma, while a man in Alabama was executed for fatally stabbing a mother of six.
Donald Lee Gilson, 48, proclaimed his innocence in the death of Shane Coffman before he was injected in Oklahoma with a lethal combination of drugs.
"I'm an innocent man but ... I get to go to heaven and I'll see Shane tonight," he said in his final statement. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m.
Gilson's parents, sister, a friend and a pastor witnessed the execution, and about a dozen members of the victim's family watched from behind a one-way glass.
He became the second person to be executed this year in Oklahoma.
In 1998, Gilson was convicted of first-degree murder in Shane's death in 1995. An autopsy showed fractures to the boy's skull, his collarbone, shoulder blades, ribs, legs and spine and a tooth missing from his jaw.
Court records indicate that four other children who lived with Gilson and girlfriend Bertha Jean Coffman in a mobile home in Cleveland County showed abuse, and two of the children were emaciated (abgemagert, ausgezehrt). One of the children told investigators that Gilson beat the boy with a board and then placed him in a bathtub as punishment for going to the bathroom on a rug. [...]
(Text taken from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-15-executions_N.htm; 'USA Today' and other English language newspapers are available at our library)
Wenn Sie an unserem "English Language Course for Advanced Students" teilnehmen möchten, sollten Sie das Level B2 plus sicher beherrschen und auch schon C1-Texte verstehen können. Haben Sie mit den folgenden Texten keine Verständnisprobleme, sind Sie in diesem Kurs richtig.
Text 1 (B2 plus):
Our old friends are also our very best friends
I have a little book on my desk with the simple title Friends. It's a collection of quotations about friendship - some beautiful, some sentimental, some humorous. Sometimes I pick up the book and read a few of the quotations. Each one reminds me of how special my friends are - each in his or her own way. Take Sally, for example: "There are some friends you know you will have for the rest of your life. You're welded together (zusammengeschweißt) by love, trust, respect or loss - or simple embarrassment."
In the early 1970s, Sally and I were young, carefree, and working in Washington, DC. One evening - most likely under the influence of the cheap wine we used to drink - we decided we should give up our jobs and go to Europe. Surprisingly, when we awoke the next day, we still liked the idea. So we told our bosses the news and bought rucksacks, hiking boots, and plane tickets for early September. [...]
(Text taken from: Spotlight, May 2009; available at our library)
Text 2 (C 1):
British workers for British jobs?
This is a question of fair treatment, not just for British workers. Nobody should be excluded from contracts because of their nationality. Yet this was the problem of British workers during the industrial action early this year at Total's Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire. It had given a building contract to an Italian firm, which chose to use Italian and Portuguese workers exclusively. This goes against EU anti-discrimination law. It's not logical to say that only Italian or Portuguese workers could do these jobs. [...]
Making sure that British workers have equal access to jobs in their own country has other advantages. It means improving vocational skills development (Entwicklung fachlicher Qualifikationen) in the UK.
For years, we have been telling government about problems regarding the movement of workers. It gives us absolutely no satisfaction now to say, "We told you so", because it's our members that are suffering. [...]
(Text taken from: Business Spotlight, May-June 2009: available at our library)
Text 3 (C - level):
The co-op is different in other ways, too. It says it has more "fair-trade" products; that not so many pesticides are used in growing its fruit and vegetables; and that the plastic bags it gives you are biodegradable (biologisch abbaubar).
There's also a cooperative bank. Is that possible? Can banks be cooperative? Well, the co-op actually sends out brochures with advice on how to spend less money - and that certainly isn't normal. Banks usually try to give you credit cards to make you spend even more money.[...]
(Text taken from: Spotlight, Oct. 2008; available at our library)
Text 2:
Should every company have a dress code?
Studies have shown that when people wear casual clothes at work, their attitude becomes more casual, their work becomes sloppy (schlampig), and their behavior becomes unprofessional. The workplace is not the place to express yourself through appearance. It's not the place for wild clothes, tattoos, or piercings. It's the place to work hard and look professional. [...]
I believe every company should have a dress code. A good dress code tells people what they should and should not wear. It says no to stiletto heels, no to flip-flops, and open-toe shoes, no to Capri pants, and no to bare legs and wild hairdos (Frisuren). It doesn't allow nose or tongue piercings and asks that tattoos to be covered up. [...]
(Text taken from: Business Spotlight, Sept.-Oct. 2008; available at our library)
Text 3:
2 convicted killers executed in Okla., Ala.
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - A man convicted of battering ( zu Tode prügeln) his girlfriend's 8-year-old son and stuffing the body in a freezer was put to death Thursday in Oklahoma, while a man in Alabama was executed for fatally stabbing a mother of six.
Donald Lee Gilson, 48, proclaimed his innocence in the death of Shane Coffman before he was injected in Oklahoma with a lethal combination of drugs.
"I'm an innocent man but ... I get to go to heaven and I'll see Shane tonight," he said in his final statement. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m.
Gilson's parents, sister, a friend and a pastor witnessed the execution, and about a dozen members of the victim's family watched from behind a one-way glass.
He became the second person to be executed this year in Oklahoma.
In 1998, Gilson was convicted of first-degree murder in Shane's death in 1995. An autopsy showed fractures to the boy's skull, his collarbone, shoulder blades, ribs, legs and spine and a tooth missing from his jaw.
Court records indicate that four other children who lived with Gilson and girlfriend Bertha Jean Coffman in a mobile home in Cleveland County showed abuse, and two of the children were emaciated (abgemagert, ausgezehrt). One of the children told investigators that Gilson beat the boy with a board and then placed him in a bathtub as punishment for going to the bathroom on a rug. [...]
(Text taken from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-15-executions_N.htm; 'USA Today' and other English language newspapers are available at our library)
Wenn Sie an unserem "English Language Course for Advanced Students" teilnehmen möchten, sollten Sie das Level B2 plus sicher beherrschen und auch schon C1-Texte verstehen können. Haben Sie mit den folgenden Texten keine Verständnisprobleme, sind Sie in diesem Kurs richtig.
Text 1 (B2 plus):
Our old friends are also our very best friends
I have a little book on my desk with the simple title Friends. It's a collection of quotations about friendship - some beautiful, some sentimental, some humorous. Sometimes I pick up the book and read a few of the quotations. Each one reminds me of how special my friends are - each in his or her own way. Take Sally, for example: "There are some friends you know you will have for the rest of your life. You're welded together (zusammengeschweißt) by love, trust, respect or loss - or simple embarrassment."
In the early 1970s, Sally and I were young, carefree, and working in Washington, DC. One evening - most likely under the influence of the cheap wine we used to drink - we decided we should give up our jobs and go to Europe. Surprisingly, when we awoke the next day, we still liked the idea. So we told our bosses the news and bought rucksacks, hiking boots, and plane tickets for early September. [...]
(Text taken from: Spotlight, May 2009; available at our library)
Text 2 (C 1):
British workers for British jobs?
This is a question of fair treatment, not just for British workers. Nobody should be excluded from contracts because of their nationality. Yet this was the problem of British workers during the industrial action early this year at Total's Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire. It had given a building contract to an Italian firm, which chose to use Italian and Portuguese workers exclusively. This goes against EU anti-discrimination law. It's not logical to say that only Italian or Portuguese workers could do these jobs. [...]
Making sure that British workers have equal access to jobs in their own country has other advantages. It means improving vocational skills development (Entwicklung fachlicher Qualifikationen) in the UK.
For years, we have been telling government about problems regarding the movement of workers. It gives us absolutely no satisfaction now to say, "We told you so", because it's our members that are suffering. [...]
(Text taken from: Business Spotlight, May-June 2009: available at our library)
Text 3 (C - level):
How to fix a party
The Republicans could learn a lot from the Democrats
THE Grand Old Party is getting
less grand by the day. It failed to return a single congressman from New
England in 2008. Republicanism is about as popular as celibacy among
18-30-year-olds. A recent Wall Street Journal-NBC poll revealed that in the party's
heartland, the South, there are more self-identified Democrats than
Republicans.
So far the party has shown few signs that it knows how to reverse its slide into irrelevance. Should Republicans shout louder? Apologise for recent mistakes? Launch a listening tour? The only thing that the party's various factions seem to have in common is an obsession with junk food. Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, launched his "listening tour" in a pizza joint. Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina and one of the party's most outspoken traditionalists, argues that Chick-fil-A would never allow its franchisees to cook their chicken any way they like; so why should the Republican Party allow its elected officials to promote big government?
Here is a modest suggestion for the Republicans: why not learn from the Democratic Party? The Democrats have had much more experience of defeat than the Republicans. They saw a two-to-one advantage in party identification in 1952 disappear by 2002. They were locked out of the White House for 20 of the 28 years between 1980 and 2008. As recently as 2003 a Democratic senator from Georgia, Zell Miller, denounced his party as "a national party no more". But today the Democrats are contemplating power without end.
The first lesson from the Democrats is to create a "vital centre"-one that is a source of ideas rather than split-the-difference compromises. The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) has been challenging old-fashioned liberalism since 1985. DLC-affiliated politicians have been designing centrist ideas in conservative America for almost as long: Kathleen Sebelius, Barack Obama's health secretary, Janet Napolitano, the head of his Department of Homeland Security, and Hillary Clinton, his secretary of state, cut their political teeth in Kansas, Arizona and Arkansas respectively. At the same time, Mr Obama has made a huge fuss about embracing anybody and everybody.
(Text taken from: The Economist, May 14th 2009, http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13649168&source=hptextfeature; the magazine is also available in our library)
So far the party has shown few signs that it knows how to reverse its slide into irrelevance. Should Republicans shout louder? Apologise for recent mistakes? Launch a listening tour? The only thing that the party's various factions seem to have in common is an obsession with junk food. Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, launched his "listening tour" in a pizza joint. Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina and one of the party's most outspoken traditionalists, argues that Chick-fil-A would never allow its franchisees to cook their chicken any way they like; so why should the Republican Party allow its elected officials to promote big government?
Here is a modest suggestion for the Republicans: why not learn from the Democratic Party? The Democrats have had much more experience of defeat than the Republicans. They saw a two-to-one advantage in party identification in 1952 disappear by 2002. They were locked out of the White House for 20 of the 28 years between 1980 and 2008. As recently as 2003 a Democratic senator from Georgia, Zell Miller, denounced his party as "a national party no more". But today the Democrats are contemplating power without end.
The first lesson from the Democrats is to create a "vital centre"-one that is a source of ideas rather than split-the-difference compromises. The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) has been challenging old-fashioned liberalism since 1985. DLC-affiliated politicians have been designing centrist ideas in conservative America for almost as long: Kathleen Sebelius, Barack Obama's health secretary, Janet Napolitano, the head of his Department of Homeland Security, and Hillary Clinton, his secretary of state, cut their political teeth in Kansas, Arizona and Arkansas respectively. At the same time, Mr Obama has made a huge fuss about embracing anybody and everybody.
(Text taken from: The Economist, May 14th 2009, http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13649168&source=hptextfeature; the magazine is also available in our library)