By Ajarn Helen Jandamit
Photos courtesy of AFP
University Tips is here to help you prepare for the English exams and tests that are coming your way. It gives you practise answering questions similar to those you may have at school and also on the University Entrance Examination.
Read the following story from the Bangkok Post. Then, answer the questions that follow.
A pair of Taipei postboxes battered by the deadly Typhoon Soudelor at the beginning of August have become an unlikely attraction, drawing thousands of visitors and even serving as the backdrop to a wedding photo shoot.
CUTE BOXES
The two iron mailboxes, one green and the other red, were bent out of shape by a billboard ripped from a nearby building by strong winds, and now stand as if leaning to the right.
"The mailboxes drew thousands of visitors over the past three days," Tu Li-teng said on August 10. He is an official from Chunghwa Post Co., which owns the boxes.
"On August 9 alone, we estimated that around 4,000 people came. We've had to send three people over every day to help maintain order and traffic" he added.
A 20-year-old woman, who identified herself as Mimi, waited in a long line for photos.
"The two boxes are really cute,” she said. “We saw them on the Internet, so we decided to have some photos taken with them."
POSITIVE SIDE
A bride and groom were also waiting their turn to pose with the postboxes.
"I've never seen such thing during a career of more than 30 years," a postman, who was helping to manage the queue, said. "This could be the only happy event I could think of that’s come from the typhoon."
Typhoon Soudelor was considered this year's most powerful storm. It uprooted trees, brought down electricity poles and knocked out power to a record 4.3 million households, leaving eight dead and four missing.
Exercises
Section 1
Read the story and answer the following multiple-choice questions.
1. What was the name of the Typhoon that affected Taipei?
a. Mimi.
b. Tu Li-teng.
c. Soudelor.
2. Why are the mailboxes leaning to the right?
a. They were ripped from a nearby building.
b. They knocked out power to a record 4.3 million households.
c. They were bent out of shape by a falling billboard.
3. Who owns the bent mailboxes?
a. Tu Li-teng.
b. Chunghwa Post Co.
c. A postman.
4. How many households were without power due to the typhoon?
a. 4.3 million households.
b. 8.
c. 4.
5. How many people visited the two post boxes on August 9?
a. 4,000 people.
b. 4.3 million people.
c. 30 people.
6. Why were a bride and a groom waiting near the mailboxes?
a. They were waiting to get married.
b. They were waiting for the power to be reconnected.
c. They were waiting to have their photo taken with the mailboxes.
7. How old is Mimi?
a. 20 years old.
b. More than 30 years old.
c. The story does not say.
8. What are the mailboxes made of?
a. Silver.
b. Iron.
c. Stone.
Section 2
Read the story and decide whether the following statements are true or false.
9. The two mailboxes were painted yellow and purple.
…………………………………………………
10. Tu Li-teng is an official from Chunghwa Post Co.
…………………………………………………
11. Eight people died and four were missing as a result of Typhoon Soudelor.
…………………………………………………
12. The typhoon brought down electricity poles.
…………………………………………………
Section 3
Read each of the following sentences and underline the grammatically correct words in each from the choices given.
13. They were waiting for theirs/ their/them turn to take a photo with the mailboxes.
14. The heavy rain and strong winds brought through/over/down electricity poles.
15. The mailboxes draw/draws/drew many visitors in the past three days.
Section 4
Fill in the blanks in the following passage with the correct words from the choices given.
The only difference between a hurricane, a cyclone …..16….. a typhoon is the location where the storm …..17….. Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are all the same …..18….. phenomenon. We just use different names for these …..19….. in different places.
16.
a. plus
b. with
c. and
17.
a. occurs
b. occur
c. occurring
18.
a. weather
b. whether
c. washer
19.
a. storm
b. storms
c. stormed
Section 5
Specify whether each of the following words is used in the story as a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective or adverb.
20. poles ……………….
21. herself ……………….
22. really ……………….
23. cute ……………….
24. identified ……………….
Vocabulary
- postbox (n): a public box that you put letters into when you send them
uproot (v): to pull a tree or plant out of the ground
