Reading 3

What do you know about piranhas?

1. Are they mammals or fish?
2. Are they big or small?
3. Are they friendly or dangerous?

Piranhas are a very special type of fish. They are usually

small, about 5 to 10 centimetres long. Their natural habitat is the Amazon
River. People think piranhas are always aggressive and eat everything
they find, but this is not true. The Amazon Indians hunt piranhas for
They can be dangerous and food. They usually cook them with vegetables
have lots of sharp teeth, so and eat them with their fingers. They also use
you mustn’t put your fingers the piranhas for other things. They use the
near a piranha’s mouth. They sharp teeth to cut hair and the scales to make
can transform a chicken paint and to decorate their faces. Piranhas are
into a skeleton in two and useful because they clean the water of the
a half minutes! But not all dead animals in the rivers. Some people love
piranhas are carnivorous. piranhas and don’t think they are dangerous.
Some species don’t eat meat. They go swimming with them but we don’t
They are herbivorous and eat recommend it!
aquatic plants.

Read the first paragraph. True or false? 3. They use the scales to … .
a. make food.
1. Piranhas are not very big.
b. make paint.
2. Piranhas live in oceans and seas. c. make clothes.
3. Piranhas are always aggressive. 4. Piranhas keep the river water … .
4. Piranhas eat very quickly. a. warm.
5. All piranhas are carnivorous. b. clean.
c. cold.
Read the second paragraph. Choose the 5. Some people … .
correct option. a. play with piranhas.
b. swim with piranhas.
1. The Amazon Indians … . c. talk to piranhas.
a. hunt and sell piranhas.
b. buy and eat piranhas. Copy and complete the chart about
c. hunt and eat piranhas. the piranha.
2. They use the teeth to … .
a. cut hair. The piranha
b. brush hair. Habitat … Size …
c. dry hair. Food … Uses …
 Reading and Writing 3
An ideal school day

> Read

1 Read the text and find …

a four school subjects
Art,
b four verbs for daily routines
get up,
c five times of day
11.00,

Parents are not very happy about a revolutionary project in Newcastle in the north of England, but
the local kids love it.
This is the idea: secondary school, for children from 11 to 18, doesn’t start until eleven o’clock, which means
the children don’t get up at a normal time like half past seven. They get up at ten o’clock! The first class of
the day is always a subject in which you don’t write much, like Art or Music, because most people don’t
like writing when they first get to school. Then the children have subJects like Maths or French before they
have lunch at twenty to three.
Darrel, who is 13, says: ‘I think the idea is great! I don’t go to bed until two o’clock in the morning, so I can
watch all the late films on television!’
His mother, Laura, doesn’t agree. ‘I think it’s a terrible idea,’ she says.

2 R
 ead the article again and answer these > Write
questions.
3 What is your ideal school day? Include at least
1 Where is the project?
five school subjects and choose the times.
In Newcastle. Write about 60 words.
2 What do the children think about it? I get up at half past nine and I watch TV for half
an hour. School starts at ...
3 What happens at ten o’clock?

4 What is the first class if it isn’t Art?

5 What time do they have lunch?

6 How old is Darrel?

7 What does Darrel do before he goes to
bed?



8 Does his mother like the plan?

Extra Practice 1  © Pearson