Zadanie 1
One
All you need to do to measure your heartbeat is install an application like Instant Heart Rate. You place your fingertip on the camera and in 10 seconds, you will have a report right on your screen. No need to invest in any expensive gadgets. You may be interested how your smartphone can actually measure your heartbeat. It's really a cool solution. The rear camera can estimate beats per minute based on the colour changes in your fingertip. Every time your heartbeats, the amount of blood that reaches the little blood vessels increases and a fingertip becomes kind of redder. This is detected by the camera. It's not hundred per cent accurate, but you may rely on it for your personal purposes.
Two
Do you know what sprit level is? It's normally a glass tube filled with alcohol, and containing an air bubble. It can help you in aligning pictures and shelves with great precision. Now, you can just download an app and there you are: a spirit level in your phone. On the screen, you can see a picture of a traditional device and use it to see if the position of an object is level. It's completely free to install.
Three
When I go to restaurants with my cousin Jake, and the TV is too loud, he uses his phone to turn it down or mute it altogether. I’ve seen him doing this in waiting rooms, stores and even other people’s homes. He says nobody has ever asked him to stop doing it or even seemed suspicious about the change. All he does is download a required app and use it. He does it in no time. I mean he’s so good at it.
Four
This app allows you to identify automatically the species of the mushroom from a picture. Take a photo or upload directly from your gallery. You get an answer almost instantly! It's for people who love mushrooming and eating mushrooms, which means it's for me. I love walking in the forest and collecting mushrooms. Every time I'm not certain about a mushroom, I use the app to identify it. When I get the results I double check them in my atlas of mushrooms. The app also gives you a list of the most common edible mushrooms.
Five
With this app, you can tune your guitar, ukulele and bass. It really works great as a tuner. There’s more to this app: it will identify any song in seconds. It’ll identify what you're hearing on the radio, in a store, or anywhere else you hear a song. If you like a song, you just turn the app on and after a few seconds you can see the title on the screen. It also gives you the music genre and plenty of useful links connected to this particular song you want to find out about.
Zadanie 2
IT SOUNDS LIKE WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A WONDERFUL VACATION
Mia: Oh, how cool there are only two weeks left in this semester. Do you have any holiday plans?
Emma: As a matter of fact, I've got too many plans, and I can't make up my mind. I’d love to do so many different things.
Mia: Well, I may be able to help you decide. Come on, what are your plans? Tell me.
Emma: Okay, listen, Plan A: I go back to Greece and spend some time with my parents, and also visit my grandparents. They’re great. Plan B: I go to Hong Kong and Thailand and travel in those countries for a few weeks.
Mia: Wait, wait, wait, my dear Emma. How much money do you plan to spend on your big adventure? Be realistic. We don't make that much money. Where are you going to get enough money to travel in Asia?
Emma: I don’t know, but you're right. My parents would send me the money if I begged them, but I'm really too old now to ask them for any extra money except in an emergency. They’re good enough for me, and they give me enough money.
Mia: Then what's your plan C?
Emma: Well, my plan C is still top secret. I can't tell you now.
Mia: Top secret? Right, you don't have to tell me, but maybe you can spend some time with me in my hometown Kinsale near Cork. It’s a pretty historical fishing town, spectacular views of the harbour. We’ve got an arts festival in the summer. You’ll love it.
Emma: Mia, you're always so kind. Actually, visiting you in Kinsale is part of my plan C.
Mia: See, after you stay in Kinsale, we can visit Olivia in Lismore, and then the three of us can visit Emily in Dublin. What do you think?
Emma: Right, it's very much like my plan C, but I was thinking of doing it the other way around, namely visit Emily first and then go to Olivia.
Mia: You know what? Let's discuss our ideas with Olivia and Emily tonight. Then we’ll decide together.
Emma: Wow! It sounds like we're going to have a wonderful vacation.
Zadanie 3
Text one
Many across the globe were shocked by the news that Queen Elizabeth II had passed away on September 8th. The whole world is now in a state of mourning and unrest, as we are watching the end of a memorable reign. She surely helped shape Great Britain as we know it today. She entered the military, and at the young age of 13, gave her first royal address on the BBC's Children's Hour talking about the concerns of the war and encouraging people in the country to start growing their own food. The campaign was called Dig for Victory. At 19 years old, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Services, where she was a mechanic and a driver. The Queen helped rebuild Windsor Castle after the fire and started paying income taxes after 1992. In 2011, she visited Ireland and laid a wreath down and had a moment of silence honours the lives lost for Irish independence in Dublin's Garden of Remembrance.
Text two
Interviewer: Jeremy, you observe the Queen and the royal family. I’d like to ask you a few questions. Queen Elizabeth was a very popular monarch. How would you describe her life in general?
Jeremy: Look, the great problems of the queen and the monarchy in her lifetime have been all about love and marriage, and sex. That’s one thing. Another thing is, to use a metaphor, she lived in palace with glass walls. Everyone could look in and see every moment of weakness. She was often exposed and ridiculed.
Interviewer: She has many moments to be proud of, I believe.
Jeremy: But of course. The queen put family before duty, a truly selfless figure. We could now be witnessing the end of the monarchy as we know it. She worked hard as a princess and we all thought this was going to go on for a very long time. After all, the king was quite young. There might have been 40 more years as princess. The princess and her husband prince Philip were then on that commonwealth tour in Kenya when they heard a ghastly rumour going around that the king had died. It was on the 6th of February 1952.
Interviewer: It was then than she realized that her private life was gone, wasn’t it?
Jeremy: Oh, yeah, very much so. I think what changed for the queen at the moment that she succeeded her father was the sense that she was on her own. She was well prepared, though. As princess and queen she was always guided by her sense of duty.
Interviewer: What about Prince Phillip?
Jeremy: You see, one of the extraordinary things about the queen is that she fell in love and married just about the first man she met, and she remained in love with that person for the rest of her life. She was very lucky to have had support from him for all those years. To tell you the truth, her parents were a little anxious about this whole situation. what parent wouldn't be anxious about a daughter who wants to marry the very first man she's fallen in love with.
Interviewer: What was their marriage like after the coronation?
Jeremy: She really had very little time to be with her children, so Prince Philip sort of became the house husband, and he was the one that looked after the children. Actually, not physically looked after them, but he had daily contact with them. When she became queen, they would see her perhaps for half an hour in the morning. Then she would go off for a week, maybe a month. You know she really sacrificed her family. Duty came first.
Interviewer: What are some of the dark moments in her reign?
Jeremy: Tragedy struck in 1966 in the small mining village of Aberfan, South Wales. 144 people died, including 116 children. The Queen waited eight days to visit the village and pay her respects. It was later reported that the monarch thought of the time she waited before visiting Aberfan as one of the biggest regrets of her reign.
Interviewer: How did she really take Diana and Charles’s divorce and later her death?
Jeremy: Prince Charles and Princess Diana decided to separate after the ‘Camillagate’ scandal. The affair between the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker-Bowles was revealed. After Diana, Princess of Wales passed away after being severely injured in a car crash in 1997, grief was widespread. The Queen was holidaying at Balmoral with both of Diana's sons, Prince Harry and Prince William at the time. For five days, the family stayed at Balmoral making no statements. The Queen's silence after the tragedy led to backlash from the public. Also, she didn’t decide to fly a flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. I think she never fully recovered after that tragedy.
Interviewer: Thank you Jeremy for your insights.
Jeremy: My pleasure.
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