TEXT 1

Read the text and understand the meaning

The data shows the main sources of income for students in America from 2010-2015. A clear
rising trend can be observed for students’ loans and student earnings over the 5-year
period, whereas parental contribution and grant aid have both dropped. Student total
income rose overall by over US$2000; from US$9,153 in 2010/11 to US$11,563 in 2014/15.

Student bank loans in 2010/11 comprised only 6% of total student income and student
earnings were only 10% in 2010/11. By 2014/15, student loans had increased dramatically to
29% of total income and student earnings from jobs had similarly experienced a significant
rise to 30% over the same period.

In contrast, in 2010/11, grants were the main source of student income (52%) and this
drastically fell over the 5-year period to a mere 16% in 2015. Parental contribution suffered
a less dramatic decline, but saw a reduction from 32% in 2010 to 25% in 2015.

In conclusion, the figures indicate that students have taken on more responsibility in
paying for their education and the government and parents play less of a financially
supportive role.

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1
TEXT 2

Answer the questions below and check your friend’s answers!

1. Have you ever been to Hong Kong?

2. If no, do you plan to visit Hong Kong someday? Why or why not?
3. What is in your mind when you hear Hong Kong?

Task 2
Look at the words below! Find meaning and its class of words. Number 1 is done for
you!

considerably

approximately
dramatically

increasingly
roughly
respectively

clearly
currently

1. Clearly (adverb) = without doubt or obviously

2. _______________________________________
3. _______________________________________
4. _______________________________________
5. _______________________________________
6. _______________________________________
7. _______________________________________
8. _______________________________________

2
Read the following graph and its description!

The graph shows the number of travelers fromvarious parts of the world entering
Hong Kong for the years from2002 to 2009.It can clearly be seen that there has been a
large increase in the number of Mainland Chinese visitors, while figuresfor visitors from
Asia as well as other areas of the world have only shown a slightgrowth.
The numbers of Mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong have risen considerably over
this time period.In 2002 there were nearly 7 million Mainland Chinese visitors, similar to
the figure for other parts of Asia and just over doublethat for non-Asian travelers. This
number limbed to approximately 8 million in2003, then rose dramatically by 4 million to
just over 12 million only one year later. Since 2004 there has been a steady increase, with
around 18 million Mainland Chinese travelers visiting Hong Kong in 2009. This is more than
doublethe number for that yearof other visitors from Asia, and around four times the
figures for non-Asian visitors.
The figuresfor travelers from other parts of the world show similar trends: first a
dip of roughly one-third the total number ofvisitors from 2002 to 2003, then slow growth
until 2007 followed by a leveling out. Overall, the numbers of Asian tourists rose by 1 million
from just under 7 million in 2002 to roughly 8 million seven years later, while the
corresponding figures for visitors from non-Asian parts ofthe world were roughly 3 million
and 4.5 million respectively.
To sum up, in recent years Hong Konghas become an increasingly popular
destination for visitors, especially peoplefrommainland China who currently outnumber
those fromall other parts of the world combined.

3
Answer the following questions based on the information from the passage!
1. Where do the travellers mostly come from?

2. What country/area is it with the least significant increase in visitors?

3. What do you think the reason why the visitors increased very significantly in 2003 –
2004? You may search additional information in internet and work in pairs.

4. What does paragraph 3 discuss about?

5. What made Hong Kong become a popular destination for visitors?