Part 6

You are going to read an article about a language. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (37-42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. 

I’m the last speaker of my language

I come from Chile and I’ve always been interested in my country’s history and culture. It all started when I was about eight and I started to learn about the country’s indigenous inhabitants. When I first found out about the native people of Patagonia, in the far south, I had no idea that my mother’s family was from there and that her grandfather had been a Selk’nam. The last speaker of Selk’nam died in 1974. I really wanted to learn Selk’nam, so relatives on my father’s side who live in Punta Arenas, the southernmost town in mainland Chile, sent me dictionaries. 37 __. But I had no idea what these sounded like.

Then, when I was about eleven, I saw a television programme about the Yagan people who lived on the island of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America. The programme interviewed two sisters, Cristina and Ursula Calderon, and said they were the only two speakers of their language left. 38 __. Only later did I discover that the two languages are quite different; that the two peoples couldn’t communicate with each other.

One day, my mother told me that although she was born in the capital, Santiago, her grandfather was a Selk’nam from the north of Tierra del Fuego. Nobody had ever told me anything about this before. When I asked why, she said that when she was young she had been teased for looking different, and so she had just kept quiet about it.

When I was thirteen, I went to the south for the first time on my own to meet Cristina Calderon. 39 __. I discovered that there used to be four thousand Selk’nam in Tierra del Fuego. They were hunters of wild cats and foxes. The Yagan lived further south and travelled by canoe all the way down to Cape Horn, but the Selk’nam moved on foot.

Settlers from the north arrived in the nineteenth century and introduced diseases like measles and typhoid, which affected the local people very badly. Now, there’s no way back. I got hold of some recordings of a Selk’nam shaman from the 1960s and started to study them. 40 __. Gradually, however, I begin to understand how the words sounded and began to reproduce them.

The Selk’nam express themselves using lots of prefixes and suffixes, and the sounds are guttural, nasal and tonal. 41 __. For example, it has lots of different words for the weather. The hardest thing in Selk’nam, however, is the verbs – they all sound a bit the same. There are some English loanwords, such as ‘bread’ and ‘money’. Others are descriptive: ‘read’ translates as ‘playing with words’ and ‘drum’ as ‘vibrating leather’. Then there are words for modern things – for ‘telephone’, you have to say ‘speak from afar’, and ‘car’ is ‘go on four wheels’. I speak the language well now. Cristina’s husband spoke Selk’nam and apparently I sound just like him.

Because music is something that reaches lots of people, I started composing traditional songs in Selk’nam and formed a band with two friends. This meant that they had to learn some words, too. 42 __. I need to teach my language to more people because if something happened to me, it would die out all over again.

A. I felt a sudden desire to learn that one too.
B. It was slow because I had no one to talk to.
C. Yagan is quite different, however, because it has more vocabulary.
D. This meant that I was able to start learning words, verbs and expressions.
E. This was good because I didn’t want to be the only one.
F. These turned out to be rather hard for me to pronounce, however.
G. The trip seemed the best way to find out about my roots.

Part 7

You are going to read an article about groups run by volunteers in their local community. For questions 43 – 52, choose from the sections (A – D). The people may be chosen more than once.

Which of the groups …

43. has a name that might give people a wrong idea of its activities? __
44. wants to respond to feedback from users of a service it provides? __
45. has put the results of its work on show to the public? __
46. has found it hard to finance its activities? __
47. offers advice to beginners in an activity? __
48. provides a pick-up service for its users? __
49. plans to start selling things to make money? __
50. would use the prize money to publicise its activities? __
51. noticed that something that was still useful was going to waste? __
52. provides a service for people all over the country? __

Future-Friendly Awards

A CycleStreets
You’re keen to get on your bike, but you’re not so keen on bumping over poor roads, sweating up hills or riding between all the large trucks on the main roads. Where can you go? The answer is to ask www.cydestreets.net, a journey-planning website for cyclists. ‘We aim to give newcomers the confidence to start cycling — with all its environmental and health benefits – and to improve routes for those who already cycle,’ says spokesperson Martin Lucas-Smith. The not-for-profit group is based in Cambridge, but routes are available in all regions nationwide. Cyclists can get involved, too, by contributing photographs and reporting obstructions or other issues. ‘We’ve done years of unpaid work and winning this award would help us make some major improvements, which the cyclists who contact us have been asking for,’ says Martin.

В Sefton Green Gym
If you visit Sefton Green Gym in Liverpool, don’t go expecting to see weights or rowing machines — this ‘gym’ just has rows of lovingly tended organic fruit and vegetables. The gym was set up to help local people improve their skills, make new friends and enjoy the health benefits of gardening. Members range from young people with learning difficulties to elderly people with health problems. ‘My dad went along after a serious illness to get fit and make new friends,’ says Joanne Woods. ‘He’s worked hard to raise funds but with limited success, and the gym faces closure if we don’t get any more.’ The award would help the gym to expand by installing eco-friendly solar heating, as well as advertising for new members and extending its links with the community.

C The Project Group
The Project Group, from the small town of Oswestry, helps people with health problems and learning disabilities to build their self-esteem through creativity. Last year, the group has focused on using recycled materials, including making vases from waste paper and pictures from recycled glass. Last year, it helped stage an exhibition of sculptures entirely created from rubbish such as crisp packets, plastic bags and old shoes. It has also created posters for the local Wildlife Trust, and helped other community groups. ‘The whole organisation is user-led, and our artwork can now be admired in many public buildings and spaces in our region,’ says spokeswoman Jo Davis. ‘We also hope to use the award to develop a retail range of recycled products to help fund our activities.’

D Cleanstream Carpets
Every year, an astonishing three-and-a-half million carpet tiles are thrown away in South Wales and southwest England. Recognising that many tiles could be reused, a group of volunteers formed Cleanstrcam Carpets to collect and supply them at affordable prices to local organisations and community groups. Volunteers collect and grade tiles before selling them from Cleanstream’s premises near Rhondda. Satisfied customers range from local schools to a community furniture bank in Bedfordshire, and the tiles have even been used to build refuges for endangered animals such as great crested newts. ‘Our unique selling point is the guarantee that the product is diverted from landfill,’ says one volunteer. ‘Winning the award would give us encouragement to explore other ways of using other recycled material.

Click to download this FCE Reading and Use of English worksheet in PDF