Simplify your life SUGGESTED KEY a 1

Simplify your life SUGGESTED KEY

a. 1. different opinions l a) When they have money and free time, they don’t know what to do and they buy a lot of things. (20) l b) People usually start buying more things when they have more money and they can spend their free time with these objects. (21) l c) People start buying because they don’t know what to do in their free time when they have money. (18) l d) As people earn more money they waste more in order to spend their free time. (15) l e) People start buying more when their wages increase. That way they fill up their free time. (16)

l b. 1 The idea of having a lot and enjoying it little can be found in one of the books of the Bible. l It’s false. On lines 7 -8: “S. B Linder, in his devastating book, “The Harried Leisure Class, ” described the futility of pursuing more”. l b. 2 We try to find satisfaction by selling all the things at home that we do not need anymore. l It’s false. On lines 8 -9: “people bought more things to occupy their leisure time. But, ironically, the more things they bought, the less they valued any one of them”.

l c. Choose a, b or c in each question below. Only one choice is correct. (1 point as a whole: 0. 5 points each) c. 1. Linder wrote his book: a) ten years ago; b) twenty years ago; c) more than two decades ago. c. 2. We can make our life happier if we: a) get rid of useless things; b) buy more things; c) sell things we do not need.

2. - Complete the following tasks according to the instructions (2 points as a whole: 0. 5 each a) Write a question for which the underlined word is the answer: “Satisfaction lies with less, not with more. ” What lies with less, not with more? (when asking about the suggest NO AUXILIARY VERB IS USED, UNLESS THERE IS ONE IN THE SENTENCE) b) Put into the passive: “Linder challenges us to experiment with him. ” We are challenged to experiment with Linder We are challenged by Linder to experiment with him c) Transform into reported speech: “This activity will somehow provide the satisfaction we so desperately seek. ” Begin with: “At that time, experts doubted…” if/whether that activity would somehow provide the satisfaction we so desperately sought. (here we means everybody, including experts themselves) d) Combine into one sentence containing a relative clause: “Years ago, a cigarette commercial asked an interesting question. It described our modern way of living. ” Years ago, a cigarette commercial which described our modern way of living asked an interesting question. THERE ALSO SOME MORE POSSIBILITIES

Find words in the text with the following meaning (a and b) and synonyms for each of the words below (c, d and e). (1 as a whole: 0. 2 each answer) a) highly excited with strong emotion: frantic b) to follow in an effort to overtake or capture: pursue c) destructive: devastating d) uselessness: futility e) precise: accurate

Consumerism is taking place everywhere and it has come to invade our everyday modern lives. Besides, it has even got to the point of affecting the way we live and doubtless, it controls our personal and social lives. Wherever we go and whatever we do, consumerism is praised as the answer to all our problems, a kind of escape from some of the harsh realities of our society; in short : self-satisfaction. Consumerism is in supermarkets , in food , in shopping malls , in the music we listen to, all over the planet. . . ; it may even be argued that life would be rather dull and monotonous without it. In my opinion, it is hard to avoid buying things nowadays; therefore, it is up to the individual to decide whether consumerism is harmful or beneficial to us. (134 words)