08,05,2026 cc

 

  

https://gemini.google.com/share/dcd4a8163b0b  

https://test-english.com/exams/b2-first/b2-first-fce-exam-1-reading-and-use-of-english/6/

07.05.2026

 

https://test-english.com/exams/b2-first/b2-first-fce-exam-1-reading-and-use-of-english/4/

 

 

 

  

 

Cesarean sections are a common way to give birth today, accounting for nearly one-third of births in the U.S.

But where on earth did the name “cesarean section” come from?

References to removing babies from their mothers’ abdomens reportedly date back to ancient texts and folklore from Greece, Rome, China, Egypt, India and beyond. Initially, this kind of procedure was an attempt to save the baby when the pregnant mother was either dead or dying ― or a means of separating them for religious burial purposes when neither survived.

30.04.2026

he Mystery of Ancient Inks

In recent years, researchers have been fascinated by the discovery of ancient inks used in manuscripts and artworks. These inks, some of which are over 2000 years old, have turned 1 __ in various archaeological sites around the world. 

1Gap 1

A.about

B.up

C.on

D.over

The composition of these inks often 2 __ clues about the methods and materials used by ancient civilizations.  

Gap 2

A.gives

B.keeps

C.carries

D.brings

One particular ink found in an Egyptian tomb was made using a mixture of soot and gum. It had been blended with a unique metal, which 3 __ that it was used for special documents or ceremonial purposes.

3Gap 3

A.advises

B.tells

C.points

D.suggest

 

“The complexity of the ink’s composition is truly 4 __,” says Dr. Emily Carson, a chemist specializing in historical artifacts. “It shows a high level of skill and knowledge of materials.” 

Gap 4

A.remarkable

B.surprising

C.shocking

D.unbelievable

These ancient inks have 5 __ interest among historians and chemists alike. 

5Gap 5

A.produced

B.created

C.sparked

D.generated

They provide 6 __ not only into the writing practices of the past but also into the cultural and trade connections of the time. 

6Gap 6

A.insights

B.views

C.visions

D.glimpses

In some cases, the ink’s resilience through the centuries is a 7 __ of the advanced techniques used in its creation. 

7Gap 7

A.verification

B.vision

C.light

D.sign

Interestingly, the ability of these inks to withstand the test of time has puzzled many researchers. 8 __ exposure to harsh environments, many of these inks have remained remarkably intact, preserving the history written with them.

Gap 8

A.Regardless

B.Besides

C.Despite

D.

On account of  

 

https://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/common-mistakes/cm015-common-mistakes.htm

1 (EN):

Have you ever noticed how the human mind tends to gravitate toward worst-case scenarios, even when there’s little evidence to support them? It’s as if negativity has a stronger pull than reason.

2 (RU):

Да, и самое странное — это происходит почти автоматически. Даже когда всё объективно нормально, мы почему-то ожидаем худшего.

3 (EN):

Perhaps it’s rooted in evolution. Our ancestors had to anticipate danger to survive, so the mind became wired to detect threats—even where there are none.

4 (RU):

Логично, но в современном мире это часто играет против нас. Мы ведь уже не живём в постоянной физической опасности, а тревога осталась.

5 (EN):

Exactly. What once served as a survival mechanism may now manifest as chronic overthinking or anxiety, distorting our perception of reality.

6 (RU):

И получается, что мы сами создаём себе проблемы, прокручивая негативные сценарии, которые могут никогда не случиться.

7 (EN):

But do you think it’s only biology? Could it also be shaped by upbringing, environment, or even the constant exposure to negative information?

8 (RU):

Конечно. Новости, социальные сети — всё это усиливает ощущение, что мир опасен и нестабилен. Это как постоянное подпитывание страха.

9 (EN):

So maybe the real question is not why negativity exists, but why we so rarely challenge it. Why do we accept pessimistic thoughts as truth instead of questioning them?

10 (RU):

Наверное, потому что негатив кажется более «реалистичным». Но может быть, стоит задуматься: а не является ли это просто привычкой мышления, которую можно изменить?

  

17.04.2026

 

https://ihhp.com/free-eq-quiz/  

    A: Be honest—what actually matters more for success: EQ or raw brainpower?

  

    B: Если бы пришлось поставить, я бы сказал(а), что выигрывает эмоциональный интеллект. Умные люди всё равно часто проваливаются в общении

A: That’s a bold claim. So you’re saying charisma beats calculus?

   

B: Не «важнее», а просто лучше выживает в реальных жизненных ситуациях

A: Tell that to someone solving quantum physics while ignoring basic human feelings.

 

 B: Да, но такой человек может получить Нобелевскую премию и всё равно провалить разговор за ужином

A: Fair point… but the emotionally intelligent guy might win the dinner—and the job offer.

   

 B: Именно. IQ открывает двери, но EQ решает, пустят ли тебя внутрь.

A: So basically: brains get you hired, but vibes get you promoted?

 

 B: Вот теперь ты понимаешь. Добро пожаловать в эмоционально интеллектуальную сторону хаоса.

  

16.04.2026

 

      

1

 

     

1.

Based on the video, how is the core concept of 'integrated advertising' best defined?

2.

According to the video, what major change did the internet and social networks bring to consumer behavior?

3.

What distinguishes a 'Big Idea' from a standard marketing message in the context of integrated advertising?

4.

The video mentions that a successful 'Big Idea' allows a brand to gain 'earned media.' What does this mean?

5.

Which of the following describes the relationship between media tools in an integrated campaign?

6.

What is the specific role assigned to the advertising agency in a modern integrated campaign?

https://ielts-up.com/reading/academic-reading-sample-11.1.html

  

The animal that regrows its head

In a windowless lab at the University of Galway in Ireland, there’s a fish tank containing an extraordinary creature. Perched on blue cocktail sticks like lollipops, rows of seashells are coated in a strange “living hair”, buffeted by gently flowing seawater. This colony of tiny marine animals – known as “snail fur” – was harvested in Irish rockpools off the backs of hermit crabs, and is related to jellyfish, corals and sea anemones.

Each no bigger than a baby’s eyelash, they are called Hydractinia, and up close resemble a tree, each with a foot, a trunk and a tentacled head used for catching tasty passing detritus. They also have a superpower: when grazing fish frequently bite off those tentacle heads, they re-sprout to their former hirsute glory within a week.It’s this talent that has captured the attention of Uri Frank and colleagues at Galway’s Regenerative Medicine Institute. Along with a growing number of researchers, he claims that the tissue regeneration seen in creatures like Hydractinia could be an ancient power possessed by most animals, including humans – it’s just dormant. So, how does this “snail fur” regrow itself? And could it hold the key to tissue regeneration in human beings too?

Many animals can regenerate body parts, from starfish to salamanders. But primitive snail fur is unusual, not least because its abilities are so extreme.

Marshalling stem cells

The key to Hydractinia’s regenerative talent is the fact that it retains its embryonic stem cells for life. This means that any wound healing process doesn’t just produce a scab and a scar but a whole new body part as it would in an embryo, even a head.

At a gathering of developmental biologists earlier this year, Frank showed a video of the creature’s head-budding process in action, embryonic stem cells that had been genetically altered to glow green rushing to the neck end of a headless Hydractinia. Attendees were agog. As one tweeted: “Uri Frank shows timelapse movie of Hydractinia stem cells physically moving across to head (wound site) – Wow!”

Since recording that video the Galway team have been working to understand how Hydractinia rebuilds its severed body and hope to publish their findings shortly in a scientific journal. While they’re keeping schtum about the details, the paper will focus on how the creature marshalls its stem cells to regrow its head – for example, how stem cells know the head’s missing – and where exactly the embryonic stem cells come from.

Studying Hydractinia has also led Frank and colleagues to ask a bigger question: why can only a few animals regenerate while most can’t? A salamander can regrow a lost tail but closely related frogs can’t regrow a lost limb. And if a tiny marine creature can regrow its own head, why can’t humans even regrow their adult teeth? After all, says Frank, it’s not as if human and Hydractinia stem cell systems are so very different.

Ancient ancestor

Key stem cell processes are ancient and common to many animal species. For instance, the complex “Wnt” signalling system, which controls stem cells in developing embryos and, when uncontrolled, causes cancer, is very similar in all animals, including Hydractinia and people. It’s one of a handful of complex stem cell systems, each involving hundreds of elements, which have remained the same since Hydractinia branched off the evolutionary tree that eventually led to us around 600 million years ago.

Over the past decade or so, researchers have started to believe that stem cells first evolved in a creature even more ancient than Hydractinia, whose soft body has long since dissolved in ancient seabeds. In this as-yet-unknown creature, the power of regeneration may have first evolved, says Frank, endowing all later animals with a basic toolkit for regrowing lost body parts – one which mainly lies dormant in present-day life.

“It’s maybe not such a crazy idea. Stem cell systems are enormously complex and 600 million years may not be long enough to reinvent another system from scratch. So it’s more likely to believe that our stem cell system and Hydractinia’s stem cell system were actually inherited from a common ancestor,” says Frank. “And if you think about it, Hydractinia can grow a new head and, although we cannot as adults, we can do that as embryos when we make our own head. So it is possible that this ability to do so is switched off in human adults and in Hydractinia it’s not.”

This theory ties in with a study published last year in the journal Nature, about two varieties of an ancient form of flatworm, the planarian. This worm has been studied for over a century because of its amazing regenerative powers. Slice them up into tiny pieces and some planarian worms can regrow their bodies from even the tiniest tailpiece. Others need most of their body intact to regrow a head. Until now, that is.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute tested the idea that all planarian flatworms have the same regenerative superpowers but that in some it’s switched off early in development. They were right. With a relatively simple tweak to the stem cell system of a developing embryo they turned a creature that in nature couldn’t regrow a head out of a tiny tailpiece, into one that could.

In Galway, Frank hopes his research will help to explain the apparently miraculous results from planarian experiments and unravel other mysteries, too. Why, for instance, do planarians easily grow new tails when Hydractinia struggles to regrow its foot? One idea is that body symmetry - front/back or left-right as in planarians and humans but not snail fur – may dictate where stem cells in the body can migrate to.

In theory, it’s possible that humans may harbour the same dormant regenerative superpowers as snail fur and flatworms, however far they seem from humans. At the most basic cellular level there are striking similarities. Studying them could teach us how to regrow damaged or lost body parts too. “While there’s no market for regrowing human heads,” says Frank, “wouldn’t it be great if we could repair spinal cords, damaged hearts, damaged kidneys, hands and any other organs we might lose?”

The flatworm studies imply this might not be quite as unthinkable as once thought. The Victorian father of regenerative science, Thomas Hunt Morgan carried out flatworm experiments showed their amazing powers to regrow a whole body from a stump in 1901. But he abandoned the study, writing: “We will never understand the phenomena of development and regeneration.”

Clearly, there are many mysteries of regeneration still to be revealed, yet now it seems that a tiny creature living in a fish tank in Galway and its ilk could help us unlock the bizarre process of regrowing body parts sooner than we thought.

Do the following statements agree with the information in the IELTS reading text?

In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE                          if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE                        if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN                if there is no information on this

1. "Snail fur" is related to jellyfish, corals and sea anemones.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         

2. Judging by the picture, Hydractinia can regrow its head in a day.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         

3. Uri Frank thinks that even humans can possess regenerating powers.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN          

4. Snail fur is similar to salamnders and starfish.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         

5. Healing in Hydractinia produces new body part.            TRUE           FALSE           NOT GIVEN         

Questions 6-9

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 6-9 on your answer sheet.

6. Which of the following DIDN'T happen at a gathering of developmental biologists?

1.  Uri Frank showed a video of Hydractinia regenerating its head.
2.  Some stem sells of the creature were glowing green.
3.  Attendants were astonished by the show.
4.  Research conference afterwards took place.

7. The Galway team will focus on what in their future paper?

1.  How Hydractinia manages to regrow its head.
2.  How stem cells know that the head is missing.
3.  Where the stem cells come from.
4.  All of the above.

8. According to Frank Uri and his team

1.  human and Hydractinia stem cells are similar.
2.  most organisms can regenerate themselves.
3.  frogs can regrow lost limbs.
4.  salamander and frogs are not closely related.

 

Questions 9-13

Complete the sentences below.

Write ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

 

9. “Wnt” signalling system can cause  if uncontrolled.

10. Human and Hydractinia stem cells might actually be from a common  .

11. The thing that dictates where stem cells in the body can migrate tomight be body .

12. Humans might possibly harbour the same  regenerative superpowers as snail fur and flatworms.

13.Thomas Hunt Morgan said that we will never understand the  of development and regeneration.