A2 Reading Practice Test 4

Last July, Elif visited her grandmother in Malatya. The town is famous for its apricots, and Grandma has three big trees in her garden. This year Elif wanted to learn how to make apricot jam. First, they picked the fruit early in the morning because it was not so hot. Then they washed it and cut every apricot in half. Grandma put the fruit in a large pot with sugar and a little lemon juice. Elif had to stir it for an hour. Her arm was very tired! At last the jam was ready. They put it in clean jars. Elif took two jars home to Istanbul, and she ate the jam on bread every morning.

Paper is made from trees, so we need to use it carefully. When we recycle paper, we save trees and we also use less water and energy. How does it work? First, people put old paper in a special bin. A truck takes it to a factory. There, machines mix the paper with water and make a soft grey mix. Workers take out plastic and other things. Next, big machines press the mix flat and dry it. At the end, there is a new roll of paper. Paper can be recycled about five to seven times. After that, it is too weak to use again. So we should also use less paper, for example by writing on both sides.

Sofia came to a new school in Toronto in September. She was from Brazil, and her English was not very good. On the first day, nobody talked to her at lunch, so she sat alone and felt sad. The next day, a girl named Amy came and sat next to her. "Hi, I'm Amy. Do you like football?" she asked. Sofia smiled. "Yes! I love it!" They talked about their favourite teams for the whole lunch break. Amy spoke slowly and used easy words. After that, they sat together every day. Amy even learned some words in Portuguese, and Sofia taught her to say "obrigada". Soon Sofia had a lot of new friends, and she wasn't sad any more.