Cambridge IELTS 4 General Training Reading Test A

Restaurant Advertisements

A — CHANGTOM Thai Restaurant and Hotel
Traditional Thai cuisine served in a converted country house set in 40 acres of woodland outside the city. We use only fresh local produce. Full licence and small function room available. Luxury ensuite accommodation available on site. Ample parking. Closed on Sundays.

B — JACK'S Traditional and American Restaurant
Classic American burgers, steaks, fish and chips and vegetarian options, plus a children's menu. Licensed bar. Weddings and party bookings welcome. Takeaway service available. Open lunchtimes Tuesday to Saturday and evenings Wednesday to Saturday. Closed Sundays and Mondays.

C — MOGHUL EXPRESS Indian Takeaway
Fine Indian food for you to enjoy at home. Open seven days a week including public holidays, from 5 pm until late. Home delivery within a 4-mile radius for a small extra charge. Good parking at the shop front. Telephone orders welcome.

D — THE MARINA RESTAURANT
International cuisine at local prices. A constantly changing menu of home-produced fresh food. Business lunches, anniversaries, weddings and all special occasions catered for. Snacks, light meals, lunches and dinners. Full bar and extensive wine list. Open every day from morning to late evening. Large video-scanned car park opposite.

E — PEKING HOUSE Restaurant and Takeaway
High-class Chinese food prepared by experienced chefs in our ultra-modern kitchen. Open every evening, seven days a week. Free delivery and ample car park. Telephone orders welcome. A chef's speciality dish is available every night.

Arts and Cultural Activities

A — RICHMOND EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE
Learn to act introduces people to a broad range of acting techniques. Specially geared to those with little or no acting experience. The atmosphere is relaxed and unthreatening, and great emphasis is placed on developing the confidence and abilities of people who may initially be a little apprehensive.

B — WORLD CULTURE DAY
Brazilian street percussion workshop from 2.30 to 4.30 — samba rhythms with the taste of carnival. Whether you are an experienced musician or a complete beginner, you will be creating complex exotic rhythms in no time. Later, from 3.45 to 4.45, an African storytelling session with narration, poetry and proverbs from Ghana and Nigeria. Suitable for all the family.

C — SCOTTISH DANCING
It's fun. It's good exercise. We have classes for dancers of all abilities, and previous experience is not essential. All you need to bring is a pair of soft shoes and enthusiasm. Classes are held in a number of places at different times. A warm welcome is guaranteed.

D — THE RENAISSANCE SINGERS
New singers are invited to join our choir, formed in 1993, to perform a wide variety of music in Cambridge. We meet every Wednesday evening from 7.30 to 9.30 pm, and this term we are rehearsing for a special concert with audience participation on Saturday 1st December. An ability to sight-read and previous experience in choral singing is desirable, though not essential.

E — DRAWING WITH COLOUR
An intensive workshop for beginners. Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th October. This unusual workshop offers instruction in effective ways to draw in colour. Activities will include study of light and shade, and ways to express mood and emotion in colour. The small class (12 students) assures maximum attention for each student. Professional quality materials are included in the fee.

Student Life at Canterbury College

Most courses at Canterbury College only take up four days of the week, leaving one day free for independent study. The atmosphere at the College is that of an adult environment where a relationship of mutual respect is encouraged between students and tutors.

Canterbury is a student city with several institutes of Further and Higher Education. The city centre is just a five-minute walk from the College, easily accessible in lunch or study breaks. The College has developed strong international links over the years and, as a result, some students have the opportunity of visiting and working in a European country during their studies.

Students' Union and SRC. All students are automatically members of the Canterbury College Students' Union (CCSU) and can attend meetings. The Union is very active and is run by an Executive Committee elected by students in the Autumn Term. The President is elected every Summer Term to provide continuity for the next academic year. Representatives from each area of study form the Student Representative Council (SRC), which allows every student a say in Union affairs. The CCSU also belongs to the National Union of Students, which represents student interests nationally, and it arranges and supports entertainments, sporting activities and trips.

Learning Resources Centre (LRC). The Carey Learning Resources Centre provides easy access to a wide range of printed and audiovisual learning materials. There is ample space for quiet independent study and areas for group work. Resources include books, journals, audio and video cassettes and CD-ROMs. Inter-library loans are available locally and nationally via the British Library. All students are encouraged to use the Open Access Information Technology Centre on the first floor.

Bookshop. A branch of Waterstone's bookshops is located on campus, where you can buy stationery, drawing equipment, artists' materials and books, as well as other useful items.

Children's Centre. The College Children's Centre has places for under-5s with some subsidised places available to students. Places are limited, so apply early to reserve a place.

Refectory. Provides refreshments between 08.30 and 19.00 with hot meals served three times a day. Healthy eating options are available.

Coffee Shop. Open during normal College hours, serving light snacks and drinks. Proceeds go to the Students' Union.

Crypt Restaurant. A training restaurant offering good quality cuisine in pleasant surroundings. Meals are very reasonably priced. Reservations can be made by telephone.

Chapel View Restaurant. Another training restaurant, set up as a quick-service facility offering a selection of snacks and main courses at a modest price.

Canterbury College: List of Courses

COURSE A — This course enables students to experience performing arts and the media at a basic level. It gives them the experience to decide if they wish to pursue an interest in this field and develops their potential and adaptability for working in a performance company in either a performing or a technical role.

COURSE B — Provides a thorough grounding in business-related skills and a comprehensive knowledge of business practice. For students with a business studies background who can manage a heavy workload that contains a greater degree of academic study.

COURSE C — Provides progression to a range of higher levels. Units include maintaining employment standards, salon management duties, providing facial massage and skin care, instruction on make-up, lash and brow treatments, artificial nail structures and ear piercing.

COURSE D — Designed to develop skills used in leisure operations. Covers preparing for and conducting physical activities, maintenance of facility areas, building relationships with participants and colleagues, handling sports equipment and health and safety issues.

COURSE E — Gives a foundation for a career in caring for children, the elderly or people with special needs. Core units are Numeracy, Communication and Information Technology. Work placements are an important part of the course.

COURSE F — Provides a foundation in graphic and visual communication skills. Students complete units in picture composition and photographic processing alongside elements of graphic design, and gain hands-on experience of desktop publishing and presentations.

COURSE G — Provides an introduction to the construction industry. Units include Heat, Light and Sound, Introduction to the Urban Environment, Communication Processes and Techniques, and Properties of Materials. All students complete vocational assignments integrated with work experience.

COURSE H — The qualifications and skills developed give a good basis for employment in office work. In addition to word processing, the course covers spreadsheets, computerised accounting, databases and desktop publishing. All students develop confidence, and receive advice on job search skills, presentation techniques and personal appearance.

The History of Early Cinema

The history of cinema in its first thirty years is one of major and, to this day, unparalleled expansion and growth. Beginning as something unusual in a handful of big cities — New York, London, Paris and Berlin — the new medium quickly found its way across the world. As audiences grew, so did the places where films were shown, finishing up with the 'great picture palaces' of the 1920s. Meanwhile, films themselves developed from short 'attractions' only a couple of minutes long into the full-length feature that has dominated screens ever since.

Although French, German, American and British pioneers have all been credited with the invention of cinema, the British and Germans played a relatively small role in its worldwide exploitation. It was above all the French, followed closely by the Americans, who were the most passionate exporters of the new invention, helping to start cinema in China, Japan, Latin America and Russia. In terms of artistic development, it was again the French and the Americans who took the lead, though before the First World War Italy, Denmark and Russia also played a part.

In the end, it was the United States that became, and remained, the largest single market for films. By protecting their own market and pursuing a vigorous export policy, the Americans achieved a dominant position on the world market by the start of the First World War. The centre of film-making had moved westwards to Hollywood, and it was films from the new Hollywood studios that flooded the world's film markets after the war. Faced with total Hollywood domination, few film industries proved competitive. The Italian industry, which had pioneered the feature film with spectacular works like Quo Vadis? (1913) and Cabiria (1914), almost collapsed. In Scandinavia the Swedish cinema had a brief period of glory. Even the French cinema found itself in a difficult position. In Europe, only Germany proved industrially capable, while in the new Soviet Union and in Japan cinema developed in conditions of commercial isolation.

Hollywood took the lead artistically as well as industrially. Hollywood films appealed because they had better-constructed narratives, their special effects were more impressive, and the star system added a new dimension to screen acting. If Hollywood did not have enough of its own resources, it had a great deal of money to buy up artists and technical innovations from Europe to ensure its continued dominance over present or future competition.

The rest of the world survived partly by learning from Hollywood and partly because audiences continued to exist for a product which corresponded to needs Hollywood could not supply. As well as popular audiences, there were also increasing audiences for films that were artistically more adventurous.

None of this would have happened without technology, and cinema is unique as an art form. Early cinema programmes were a mixture of items, combining comic sketches, free-standing narratives, serial episodes and the occasional trick or animated film. With the arrival of the feature-length narrative as the main attraction, other types of film became less important. The making of cartoons became a separate branch of film-making, generally practised outside the major studios, and the same was true of serials. Together with newsreels, they tended to be shown as short items leading to the feature.

From early cinema, it was only American slapstick comedy that successfully developed in both short and feature format. However, during this 'Silent Film' era, animation, comedy, serials and dramatic features continued to thrive, along with factual films or documentaries. It was also at this time that the avant-garde film first achieved commercial success, thanks almost exclusively to the French and the occasional German film.

Of the countries which developed and maintained distinctive national cinemas in the silent period, the most important were France, Germany and the Soviet Union. The French displayed the most continuity despite war and post-war economic uncertainties. The German cinema, relatively insignificant in the pre-war years, exploded onto the world scene after 1919, though both France and Germany were influenced by the Soviets after the 1917 Revolution. Other countries whose cinemas changed dramatically include Britain, Italy, the Scandinavian countries — particularly Denmark — and Japan, where a cinema developed based primarily on traditional theatrical forms.