2000

All together now, "Dwieście lat, dwieście lat, niech żyje, żyje nam..." One hundred years old on August 4, the Queen Mother is, at the time of writing, still going strong. Here's a look at a woman whose life has spanned the most eventful century in history.

This is a grab bag of various slang words and expressions used by Americans in literature song and daily conversation.

AIR BAGS: the lungs. Fill your air bags well when we go for a walk in the woods. He is the best runner in the class but the his air bags are larger than most.

BETTER HALF: usually refers to one's wife, sometimes one's husband. This is my better half, Sally. I'd like to go with our group but my better half won't let me out of the house.

We would all recognize London' s famous Tower Bridge, some may have heard about Iron Bridge, but in general bridges are not obvious tourist attractions. They were built to serve a simple purpose - to join the opposite banks of a river. But despite their apparent simplicity, they can be highly complex, stunningly beautiful, wonderfully inspiring and definitely worth seeing.

Why does football breed hooliganism? Looking at the nature of the phenomenon we ask whether it can ever be eradicated.

All sorts of things have been said about her, but one thing everybody agrees upon is that she is unique. She's got an unusual voice, she is strangely beautiful and totally unpredictable. She is special, she is awesome - and her name is Björk.

The entire staff at The World of English would like to congratulate all those who passed their recent Matura exams. We hope our magazine was helpful, in some small way, to your success in passing the written and/or oral English examinations. We wish you all the very best and look forward to being a part of your continued educational pursuits... And now that Matura is history it' s time to think about your future educational goals.

Paper 1: Use of English

This paper consists of five parts, each very different, but all with the aim of testing your knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary and word formation.

Part 1

This is a multiple choice gap-fill exercise which involves knowing not only the meaning of words but also collocations and grammatical patterns. The extract below is the first paragraph of a typical part 1 text.

The London Tea Trade

"It was a fantastic experience!" was the general consensus of the eight students who participated in a cultural exchange to California and Nevada in the USA.

For two weeks, from February 24 to March 9, 2000, a group of Polish high-school students lived with American host families, provided by Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. They had the opportunity to experience the daily lives and culture of their families, as well as share their own Polish culture.

Venezuela surprises the baseball world at the 2000 Little League Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Overcoming obstacles, it seems, was nothing new for the Little League Baseball team from Maracaibo, Venezuela, representing the Latin American region at the 2000 Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. The team's flight to the United States was delayed more than 12 hours, so the team arrived late and tired in Williamsport for the start.