ĆWICZENIA – L2 048 Czytanie

Read the text and circle T for True or F for False.

Arnhem

Holding her two-year-old son, Bertje Voskuil sat in terrified silence among the wounded
soldiers hiding in the cellar. Up above, violent fighting raged from room to room. Suddenly, a trapdoor
opened and a grenade came flying down. Bertje grabbed her boy, Henri, and waited for the worst.
At the very same moment, Private Albert Willingham of the Parachute Regiment performed an act
of supreme courage and threw himself on top of them, taking the full deadly blast.
Bertje never forgot Albert Willingham. Nor did Henri. Even now, over 70 years later, Henri
Voskuil still gives thanks for Albert, the Paratrooper who died trying to save him. Last week Henri was
among several thousand of his neighbours at a ceremony so moving that it always makes the old
soldiers cry. For when it comes to commemorating those who sacrificed their lives, there is nowhere
quite like Arnhem.
This Dutch town has never forgotten its debt to the 10,000 British and Polish soldiers who
came from the sky in one of the great heroic failures of the Second World War.
In September 1944, after liberating Paris, the Allies were waiting on the Belgian-Dutch border.
According to the new plan codenamed Operation Market Garden, the Allies were to make a fast move
through the Netherlands going around the Germans’ defensive “Siegfried Line”, then turn east to
advance on Berlin. Airborne troops would clear the way, capturing and holding bridges for the ground
forces to pass over. It was an ambitious plan – too ambitious, feared Lt General Frederick Browning,
who said that Arnhem, the northernmost bridge the Allies were required to capture and defend, was
“a bridge too far”.
Through a combination of poor planning and bad luck – the Germans had just parked a strong
SS unit in the area – the lightly-armed Allied troops ended up surrounded by overwhelming enemy
forces. Of the 10,000 men who landed at Arnhem, just under 2,400 would survive a vicious nine-day
battle. The rest were killed or taken prisoner.
The Dutch people also paid a high price. After the British withdrew, the Germans punished the
civilian population by forcing them out of their homes. As a result many civilians died of starvation and
cold.
The Allied soldiers felt that they had brought nothing but death and destruction to these
civilians. So they were afraid to return for the first anniversary, in September 1945, but they were
welcomed as both friends and heroes. They also found that local children had volunteered to tend each
and every one of the 1,759 graves in the Commonwealth cemetery in the village of Oosterbeek.
One can only imagine what it meant to the families of the fallen soldiers to know that someone
far away was tending their boy’s grave. The legend of the ‘flower children of Arnhem’ was born. And
it continues to this day as successive generations of schoolchildren all volunteer to take part in the
commemorations, and look after the graves. This is the magic of Arnhem.

1. Albert Willingham died trying to protect civilians. T F
2. People from Arnhem still commemorate the soldiers who died there. T F
3. The aim of the Operation Market Garden was to destroy the “Siegfried Line”. T F
4. Lt General Frederick Browning thought the plan was too ambitious. T F
5. 2,400 soldiers were killed during the battle of Arnhem. T F
6. The Allied veterans were excited to go to the first anniversary celebrations T F
7. The ‘flower children of Arnhem’ look after the graves of allied soldiers. T F

źródło: CKEJO MON © 2019

Read the texts and choose the best answer A, B or C.

Leo Tolstoy

In 1828, baby Leo was born in the rich Tolstoy family in Russia. He grew up to write two of the
greatest books in the history of literature. He also inspired a social reform which made a great impact
on the world.
Tolstoy was an unsettled young man. He left university as he found his studies useless. Later he
joined the army but could not stand violence so he gave up the military too. He decided to take up
writing as a career and soon became quite successful. When he published his two famous novels, War
and Peace and Anna Karenina, they were called masterpieces. In them, Tolstoy offered a new special
kind of writing. He described events and characters in such a convincing and realistic way that they
blurred the line between imaginary and real life. In Tolstoy’s novels, it was not great world rulers that
moved history, but common people. His work has been called “not art, but a piece of real life.”
After publishing Anna Karenina, instead of enjoying its success, Tolstoy had a mid-life crisis. He
kept on repeating that he would kill himself if he did not find the meaning of life again. He gave up his
family fortune to live a simple life in the countryside among peasants. There Tolstoy found the peace of
mind turning to God and Christian faith. He began propagating universal love and passive resistance to
evil. Many years later Mahatma Gandhi adopted his message in his campaign to free India. The black
people’s leader in America, Martin Luther King, did the same in his fight against racial discrimination.
The effects of passive resistance are still felt today. Tolstoy was a gifted writer, but it was his
revolutionary ideas that changed the world.

1. The author says Tolstoy’s books were special because they …
a) showed the power of great rulers
b) had realistic plots and characters
c) described real historical events

2. Tolstoy thought of killing himself because …
a) he had lost his family fortune
b) his novel had been a failure
c) he had lost the sense of life

3. We learn from the text that …
a) Tolstoy’s ideas were an inspiration for others
b) Tolstoy propagated foreign ideas in his country
c) Tolstoy doubted the idea of passive resistance

The Gurkhas

The Gurkhas, well-known soldiers in the British army, come from the Himalayan country,
Nepal. It is a rugged and inhospitable region with hard living conditions. They have made the young
Nepalese very tough and strong, which causes that the British willingly recruit them into their army.
An average Gurkha is small and broad-chested with an average height of 5’4″. Before his recruitment,
he works hard in the fields and raises cattle in his village. He is usually illiterate and unfamiliar with
the modern life. To him, service in the Gurkha Regiment means a higher standard of living, a chance to
travel and a prestigious career. That’s why many young Nepalese men dream of becoming Gurkha
soldiers.
However, the selection process is challenging. At the recruiting centre in Nepal, retired Gurkha
officers select only the most suitable candidates. The first recruitment stage is the medical check-up. At
this stage, many youths may discover for the first time that they have some abnormalities, like a
punctured ear drum or a certain disease. A slight difference in their chest measurements and weight
can disqualify them as candidates for Gurkha soldiers. For instance, one Nepalese youth ate eight
bananas and drank two liters of water before being weighed. He passed the weight test but finally was
rejected because he did not meet the minimum chest width requirement. The next stage after the
medical examination is a series of tests which check candidates’ physical fitness and mental abilities.
Many Nepalese men try to go through the selection process but very few succeed.
Only the best Nepalese youths go on special training. In hard conditions they train the most
challenging fighting scenarios to become those famous Gurkhas, who later fight bravely in the British
Army’s battles. However, it is not their training or excellent combat skills that have made the Gurkhas
legendary. It is their determination to defeat the enemy at all costs. It is better to die than surrender,
their motto reads.
One episode in World War I shows it perfectly. At Givenchy, France, a team of Gurkha troops
had to cut the enemy’s wire obstacle and create a gap for the attacking force. While crawling to the
wires, the Gurkhas were spotted and fired on by the Germans. The first two were killed. So, another
pair moved forward to replace them. They were killed too. The Gurkhas did not stop until the wires
were cut. Gurkhas troops also fought in the Falklands War between Britain and Argentina. It was
reported that the enemy in some locations there surrendered without a fight. The very presence of the
fearsome Gurkhas in the battlefield made them feel frightened of any confrontation.

4. The British recruit the young Nepalese because of …
a) their height
b) their strength
c) their hard work

5. One Nepalese youth was rejected during the selection process because …
a) his mental abilities were limited
b) his body build was unsuitable
c) his body weight was too low

6. The text says that the Gurkhas are legendary because of …
a) their excellent fighting skills
b) their hard combat training
c) their determination to win

7. The author writes about the Falklands War to show that the Gurkhas …
a) fight in many different places
b) cause fear among enemy soldiers
c) always try to complete their tasks

źródło: CKEJO MON © 2019

In this task six phrases have been removed from the text and placed at the bottom. An extra phrase has
been included. You must decide which phrase goes into which gap and write the letter in the box below
the sentences.

Command Structure

NATO plans to introduce a new bigger command structure. Its supreme commanders say that it will
help the alliance to deal with the current serious security challenges, … (1) ... , which has become the priority
today. Defense ministers have agreed to change the alliance’s command structure at their meeting in
November. This includes creating two new commands. The first one, which is for the Atlantic, aims at
securing sea lines of communication between North America and Europe while
… (2) … . Its purpose is to improve the pact’s forces’ military mobility on it.
The document which showed the necessity for the change was the NATO internal report … (3) … . Its
authors pointed to it as the key factor weakening the alliance’s combat and defence capabilities. Other
concerns voiced by them was NATO’s insufficient ability to rapidly move troops and equipment around
mainland Europe. It worries NATO eastern members, particularly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea from
Ukraine in 2014.
The need for the change is also spelled out by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. He
emphasizes that the command structure was reduced at the end of the Cold War … (4) … . However, now,
instead of concentrating on expeditionary operations worldwide, there must be more focus on the alliance’s
presence in Europe.
Without a doubt, the new larger command structure will be an improvement. However, it cannot be
introduced without the support of civilian authorities … (5) … to overcome administrative problems.
Moreover, to improve military mobility in Europe NATO commanders need guarantee that roads, bridges
and rail networks will be able to take large military vehicles and heavy equipment.
NATO has become the most successful military alliance in the world … (6) … and react to them fast.
“To win tomorrow’s war, we have to prepare today, and this is what was behind the reorganization,” said
Gen. Denis Mercier, one of the NATO’s supreme allied commanders.

… A … which described the drawbacks of the existing reduced structure
… B … because at that time tensions went down
… C … because it is able to face current challenges
… D … such as the threat posed by Russia
… E … because of its unexpected inability to notice the problem
… F … the other one focuses mainly on the European continent
… G … as their cooperation is needed

źródło: CKEJO MON © 2019