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Communication

CD1 Track 30

My mother tongue is Hungarian. It is spoken in Hungary and it is a minority language in the surrounding countries, especially Romania. It is not part of the same language family as European languages like English, French, German or Russian. It is a Uralic language, distantly related to Finnish and Estonian. Because Hungarian is not a widely spoken language, if you want to get on, you have to speak a foreign language. Unsurprisingly, the most popular second language among Hungarians is English, the global language. Like most of my friends, I am multilingual- as well as Hungarian, I am fluent in English and German. I can also get by in Italian and I did an evening course in Spanish a few years back, but I’m a bit rusty now. I seem to pick up languages quite easily, helped, I’m sure, by the fact that language teaching in Hungary is so good – it has to be, given that no-one speaks our language but us!

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Global warming

CD1 Track 14

Hurricanes have heavy rains and are therefore more likely to cause floods. Droughts occur when there is a lack of rainfall.

Hurricanes and typhoons are both violent storms that develop over water. If the storm develops in the Atlantic or Caribbean it is referred to as a hurricane. If it develops in the Pacific, it is known as a typhoon.

The largest glaciers in the world are found in the polar ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland. Glaciers are also found in mountains. A current is a steady flowing movement of air or water.

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The Good Student

Sue left her dormitory early that morning. She had even washed her uniform the night before. She wanted to look nice for the day.

Sue was committed to learning, and she had a talent for getting good grades. In fact, Sue didn’t sleep much. She composed a paper and found the perfect thesis about the importance of greenhouses. She also studied for her physics test. Sue was already tired.

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