Eindexamen Engels vmbo-kb 2022, tijdvak 1: vragen en antwoorden

Wedding present

A driver is being hunted by police after he was caught out taking a selfie at the wheel by the reflection in his sunglasses. The unnamed man tweeted the picture of himself beaming from the driver seat, completely unaware of what can be seen in his sunglasses. Using the name ‘Geordie Aviator’ on Twitter, he wrote: ‘Last night as a single man. Married man as of tomorrow. Scary times.’ An officer from Northumbria Police who spotted the selfie responded to his tweet with: ‘It is people like this who end up destroying people’s lives through their own stupidity. Please get in touch and we’ll send you your wedding present: a £200 fine.’

metro.co.uk, 2017

$20 million Porsche flops in auction

A 1939 Porsche “Type 64” that was expected to sell for over $20 million flopped on the auction block Saturday night. Sotheby’s auctioneer started the bidding at $13 million, but the giant screen display in the auction room showed the first bid as $30 million. The next bid was $14 million, but the screen showed $40 million

• an error that continued all the way up to $17 million, while the screen showed $70 million. The crowd was shouting and cheering because they thought the Porsche was selling for a record- shattering price. But then the auctioneer stopped the bids and announced that the screen showing $70 million was wrong and that the leading bid was actually $17 million. “I’m saying 17, not 70,” said the auctioneer, Maarten ten Holder. There were no more bids after that. Since $17 million was below the reserve price
• or minimum required by the seller
• Sotheby’s cancelled the sale. People in the audience said that because Ten Holder is Dutch, his “17 million” sounded like “70 million” and that was the reason the screen operator and the audience misheard him. Whatever the reason, the sale debacle was an embarrassing and costly mistake for Sotheby’s.

Robert Frank, 2019

Home Mysteriously Cleaned While Owner At Work

1 A man from Boston came home from work and realized someone had been in his house while he was away. He wasn’t robbed, and he even ended up 6 . “You could smell the cleaning chemicals,” said homeowner Nate Roman. “I could tell something was wrong so I started looking around the house, and I found that my bathrooms had been cleaned.” Police told WBZ-TV the man called them on May 16 to report a breaking and entering. He said he returned home the night before and noticed that someone had been in his house. But nothing was missing. In fact, it looked great. Several rooms in the house were cleaned and a bag of trash was left on the back step. “I will say the bathrooms were very well done, my son’s room has never looked better, it is now back to its original state,” Roman said. There were no signs of damage or that anyone had broken in. Police spoke with his neighbors and no one saw anything suspicious, so there are no suspects. “It was a tense couple of days, just worried,” Roman said. “Just cause someone was in the house. It’s like I’ve been waiting to open a cabinet and find some creepy thing.”

2 Roman thinks a housekeeping service may have gone to the wrong house by mistake, because he left the backdoor open. It was the toilet paper roses that left no doubt. “It was really the roses that really got me thinking that some professional cleaner had accidentally stumbled into my house,” Roman said. “If I was going to judge the quality of a toilet paper rose I would call this high quality.” There was one room that didn’t get cleaned. “The one thing they didn’t do was clean the kitchen which was a little disappointing,” Roman said.

boston.cbslocal.com, 2019

We’re Trying …

We’re trying to recycle more, but in the UK, people are still confused about how to reduce their plastic consumption and shop more sustainably, according to new research. Nearly half (48.5%) of Brits would like to significantly reduce their plastic consumption but don’t know how to do more. And a whopping 65% felt that they had been bombarded with too much information about the negative effects of plastic but not given enough guidance on how to reduce it…

myweekly.co.uk

Brandon Evertz

Brandon Evertz, left, with his father Richard Evertz.

1 Brandon Evertz is proof you don’t need a university degree to become successful. At just 23, the founder of social video review platform Big Review TV is thought to be the youngest chief executive of an Australian public company. “When I was in school I always had a massive passion for the internet and video,” Brandon said. “I knew I wanted to do something in business involving those elements. I’m dyslexic so in the process a lot of my learning was through video tutorials, and I noticed that a lot of my friends did the same thing.”

2 According to Brandon, the business idea came while on a campervan trip around Australia with his dad Richard, himself an entrepreneur. “I didn’t have a business idea, but had a feeling the future was going to be predominately video-driven,” he said. “It took about six months before the concept came along. I was reading a review on a review site

• it was like a light bulb moment. I said, ‘What about a video review site?’ It wasn’t in the market at all.” With the loan of $500 from his dad, Brandon Evertz created a proof-of-concept of the site, and Big Review TV was born. “That really sent us on a journey,” he said.

3 According to its most recent annual report, 2017 was the first year where Big Review TV made some money. Today, the site hosts more than 30,000 videos, operates in seven countries including the US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada, and creates videos for thousands of small, medium and large businesses through its subscription service. “We charge you $50 a week for 10 months. In the early days it was just small and medium businesses and we didn’t really earn any money, but now we’re creating videos for larger companies all the way down to fish-and- chip shops. What we found is every single business needs video content,” Brandon said.

4 With the purchase of technology platform Tipsly, Big Review TV is officially launching in the US where the Australian start-up will go up against the likes of Facebook and Snapchat in social media video. Brandon said he hoped his story would inspire others and show that a university degree wasn’t the only way to success. “It just depends on what route people want to take,” he said. “I hope this can help people see you don’t have to do university. Just because you haven’t gone to university doesn’t mean you’re not smart.”

news.com.au, 2017

Roadtrip

1 SYDNEY, Australia — Police officers near the Australian mining town of Broken Hill stopped a sport utility vehicle Saturday that was being driven by a 12-year-old boy who had been on the road in the middle of nowhere, driving alone, for 800 miles. And he was only a third of the way to his chosen destination on the other side of this vast nation.

2 The police said the boy, who has not been identified in the media, took the family car and started driving on Friday from his home in Kendall, a small town about 220 miles northeast of Sydney. A quick reminder: the boy is 12. And while it’s common for young people in Australia and all over the world to drive tractors or other vehicles at young ages, this boy managed to drive on major roads for an entire day without being found out or being harmed. The police said they stopped him at 11 a.m. Saturday, which means he spent a night driving alone on the road.

3 The distance traveled doesn’t look like much on a map, particularly given Australia’s size, but the 800 miles that he drove

• again, alone, as a 12- year-old
• is about the equivalent of making the long and annoying drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles, back and forth, with a few dozen more miles thrown in for rest stops and food. Or, for our non-American readers, it’s like driving from Paris to Prague, deciding that’s not far enough, then deciding to head for Vienna.

4 Road trips in Australia are a little different than road trips in many other places. The police said the boy had clear and specific plans. But to complete his intended journey, he would have had to drive through the Nullarbor Plain, a flat, desolate, hot and largely empty stretch in the south that is about four times the size of Belgium. Those who have made the drive warn people to pack extra gasoline and car parts in addition to ample food and water. This is necessary because gas stations are so far apart from each other. The tourism board advises that people take six days just to get across the Nullarbor.

5 It should be noted that the boy is safe. He was released into the care of his parents on Sunday, and the police said they hoped to speak with the boy and his parents on Monday. An investigation into the incident is continuing, and the police have not said much beyond that. “It’s not something that occurs every day. So it’s pretty 17 ,” a spokeswoman for the police said in an interview Monday.

nytimes.com, 2017

Melling Manor in Lancashire

Two-pound lottery ticket

1 An 18th-century country home worth £800,000 was the prize at a raffle. Marie Segar, a finance worker, learned on Tuesday that she was the new owner of the house, after purchasing the winning ticket for just £2. Segar will also get the title of Lady of Melling, which was sold off in a lottery alongside the property. She joked that she would be changing the name on her bank card to Lady Marie because of that.

2 The six-bedroom semi-detached Melling Manor in Lancashire was raffled off by Dunstan Low, who was struggling to sell it on the open market. Low, 37, bought the Georgian six-bedroom property in 2014, where he lived with his wife Natasha and their two children. Low received no offers for its asking price of £800,000, so came up with the idea of selling enough £2 tickets to recoup his money. The draw attracted entries from as far as China, Russia and Mauritius by those hoping to win the mansion, which has a ballroom, cinema room, wood-burning stove, parking for six cars and far-reaching views of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.

3 When he called Marie Segar to inform her of the good news, she accused him of “winding her up” and she just couldn’t believe it. She also got the title of Lady of Melling, which was given to the raffle as a prize by its previous owner, St John’s Hospice. Low said he has raised almost £900,000 from the raffle and that Segar had actually purchased 20 tickets.

4 Graphic designer Low said he has been flooded with offers from people around the world asking him to raffle their properties for them. He added: “I have no regrets at all about the way we did this

• I wouldn’t change a thing. It was stressful but it has been an amazing experience. I want to congratulate Marie on her win and I really hope that she enjoys the house.”

The Guardian, 2017

Friendly Cat

1 There’s no doubt that this sweet cat, named Rex Manning (or just Rex for short), simply adores his owner, Emily Crane

• but he still has plenty of love left to go around. Crane recently found that out in the most unexpected way. Not long after rescuing Rex as a kitten eight years ago, Crane came to learn that his charms were truly uncontainable. While some cats can be shy around new people, Rex was the exact opposite
• seeking out affection from anyone. “He loves getting petted, especially when it comes with nice, behind the ear scratches,” Crane told The Dodo.

2 Crane and her friends have always tried their best to keep Rex happy

• but the cat came to suspect that the world outside could offer him even more. “At a rather young age, he started begging to go outside,” Crane said. “I would let him out the back door and watch from my upstairs kitchen window.” Slowly but surely, Crane began to give Rex more and more freedom to explore the neighborhood
• liberty he’d take full advantage of. In his wanderings, Rex would make acquaintance with most everyone he’d meet, sometimes even preceding Crane with neighborly introductions. “I think a lot of people around here are excited to see a friendly kitty,” Crane said.

3 The other day, however, Crane learned that Rex was doing more than merely paying visits to folks passing by outside. Seeing Rex return home from one of his adventures, Crane noticed something affixed to his collar: a note. “He pranced inside with it, like he knew that he had a delivery to make,” Crane said. Indeed, the cat hardly had the look of an unwitting courier

• even though the note revealed quite a secret. Rex, as it turns out, had been two-timing Crane and their home’s perfectly fine bathroom.

4 “Hello!” the note begins. “This is your neighbor in the red house! We just wanted to let you know that Rex has developed a weird love for our bathtub and will sneak into our home to sit in it! All of us in the house are 100% okay with this because we all love Rex very much. We just want to let you know in case you were wondering where he was one of these days … he’s probably in our bathtub. From nr 3, The Red House.” Crane, to her credit, hardly felt rejected. “I seriously could not stop laughing when I found the note,” she said. “It was adorable.”

5 Crane has yet to meet the neighbors who sent the note, but she attached a return letter to Rex’s collar thanking them for their hospitality. Rex deserves nothing less. “He is definitely a character!” Crane told The Dodo. Crane and Rex live in a close-knit community, and the sweet kitty is obviously pretty savvy, so she’s comfortable letting him explore and be himself

• a fact that’s clearly appreciated by folks in the neighborhood. “I love how friendly Rex is with people,” Crane said. “If they are interested, I can tell it makes their day to give a handsome, social kitty cat a cuddle.”

thedodo.com, 2019

Filipino trees

1 A new Filipino regulation would require all graduating elementary school, high school and college students to plant at least 10 trees before they can graduate. The law, which has been passed by the country’s lower parliamentary House of Representatives, formalises a tradition of planting trees before graduation. Those supporting the law say the legislation could result in as many as 525 billion trees planted in a generation if it is followed properly. It has not yet been considered by the upper parliamentary chamber, which must approve it before it can be signed into law by the president.

2 “With over 12 million students graduating from elementary and nearly five million students graduating from high school and almost 500,000 graduating from college each year, this initiative will ensure that at least

175 million new trees would be planted each year if it is properly implemented,” politician Gary Alejano wrote on the law’s explanatory note. He added that even with the survival rate of only 10 percent, it would mean an additional 525 million trees would be available for the youth to enjoy in the future.

standard.co.uk, 2019

Chocolate

Having a good sense of taste is as important to Cadbury, a world-famous chocolate brand, as legs are to a top footballer. The company has had one of their scientists’ taste buds insured for 1 million pounds. The scientist works as part of a 300-strong team of inventors in the innovation kitchen in Birmingham. The company says that her expert taste buds are essential for making sure that all of Cadbury’s new creations meet its highest standards. The terms of the insurance state that she is not allowed to take up sword swallowing, eat fugu fish, or the hottest of chili peppers. None of these sound more appealing than getting paid to taste chocolate!

9M Learn English, 2016

Massive dinosaur grave yard found near Sterkspruit

1 Geologists from Witwatersrand, Birmingham and Oxford universities have confirmed a massive discovery of different species of dinosaur fossils in Qhemerha village outside the small town of Sterkspruit, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This has attracted international scientists and researchers who want to experience what they called the dinosaur bone bed. A team of experts has spent more than a week tracing dinosaur fossils. A number of different dinosaur species remains have been discovered. Many villagers believe this discovery will put the Eastern Cape and South Africa on the world map.

2 Oxford University Professor, Roger Benson, detailing the discovery of extinct dinosaurs in Sterkspruit, says, “200 million years ago when these animals lived, this rock was mud and the animal lay down in the mud and then it was buried by more mud. This is why most of the bones are lying in one place. Later on, more mud would come and the mud started to turn into rock. As a result of that, we have a fossil dinosaur captured in hard rock.”

3 It’s not often that entire skeletons are found; normally partial remains are discovered, making the Qhemerha bone bed unique and of world importance. Jonah Choiniere, a paleontologist from Wits University, says the discovery of dinosaur fossils in one place is the first of its kind in the world. “In a bone bed which is a dinosaur graveyard

• a place where lots of animals died together and were preserved
• and this is very 33 .”

4 Paleontology Master’s student from Wits University, Cebisa Mdekeza, says the discovery of dinosaur fossils in this part of the world is interesting for scientists and geologists. “This discovery means a lot to anyone who is interested in dinosaurs because it is very rare. In fact, for most of us, it’s our first time to find a specimen like this. Usually you will find one piece of leg, a bone or a hand bone but here, you have most of the skeleton. So, it is very important.” sabcnews.com, 2018

Gumby the dog

1 On March 5, Kay Hyman, the Director of the Charleston Animal Society (CAS) posted a photo of notorious escape artist Gumby on her Facebook page. The 7-year-old dog is pictured lying contentedly on a feathery pillow. His angelic white face has become famous to the staff and their social media followers

• and for good reason. Gumby’s most recent arrival back at CAS was his ELEVENTH return to the shelter!

2 Gumby has been adopted out 7 times, voluntarily given back to the Animal Society 8 times, and picked up as a stray 3 times. The dedicated staff tried everything imaginable to place Gumby in a forever home

• from working with rescue groups to pairing him up with a female hound as a package deal to training sessions with the shelter’s behavior team. But each time he was adopted, somehow he found his way back to the shelter. Finally, they realized Gumby was trying to tell them something. As far as he is concerned, the CAS was home.

3 After so many failed attempts, the folks at CAS were done placing Gumby for adoption. They realized that he seldom tried to escape while in their care and adored the staff members who doted on him as well. They noticed something else about Gumby’s behaviour at the shelter. He seemed to have a natural ability to read the emotions of other dogs. New arrivals dealing with fear and anxiety seemed comforted by the hound. Gumby knows just how to adjust his own behaviour in a way that settles fearful dogs and soothes reactive dogs. So now Gumby is earning his keep by assisting the staff and the behavior team. He is their beloved go- to dog for behavioral demonstrations and for acclimating new pups

• a true “Ambassa-Dog”!

barkpost.com, 2016

A lucky find

A young man has turned down a reward for finding a wallet that contained €2,000 in cash on a street in Rome, and returned it to its owner. The 23- year-old Mossan Rasal from Bangladesh reported it directly to the police after spotting the item on the pavement in the Italian capital on Friday. It was then arranged for the owner to collect the wallet from Rasal. When he was shown gratitude for his honesty, he said: “I did not do anything exceptional. That money wasn't mine. I didn't know the amount because I didn't count it,” Rasal told BBC. “It was about being honest, as my family taught me to be,” he added. The wallet also carried several credit cards, a driver's license and personal identification papers, police said. Rasal runs a small stall in central Rome and has been living in the city for seven years. He said that he is pleased that the owner of the wallet, a local businessman, now visits his stall and has become a regular customer.

BBC.com, 2019

Peanut butter for your pets

A new type of peanut butter (and other nut butters) is being sold with less sugar, but it now includes xylitol as a sweetener. That is what is used in sugarless gum and it can be deadly to dogs. Many people use peanut butter as a dog snack, or to fill a dog’s toy like a Kong, or to disguise medications. If they now use the type with xylitol, it could be very dangerous.

Worth sharing for anyone with a dog.

Toys4Paws.com, 2018

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