How about some good news for a change? You turn on the TV or you open a newspaper and you hear or read about people cheating people, people robbing people and people killing people. Here is a phrase we often hear among friends and neighbours: “You can’t trust anybody anymore.” And my father says: “Doctors and politicians and businessmen; they are all trying to take advantage of you.” However, is this really true?

A friend of mine called Steven Smith wanted to know the truth behind this theory and tested it in New York City with taxi drivers. Steven pretended to be a foreigner who knew very little English. He got into several taxis around New York City to see how many drivers would cheat him. His friends predicted in advance that most taxi drivers would make him pay more money than necessary, just because they would think he was a foreigner.

In the end, only one driver out of forty cheated him. The rest took him directly to his destination and charged him correctly. Several refused to take him when his destination was only a block or two away and they even got out of their taxis to show him how near he was. What is also funny is that several of them warned him that New York City was full of thieves and that he should be careful.

On TV you hear news of corrupted policemen, corrupted politicians or corrupted businessmen. But be careful! They are news because they are the exceptions. The evidence suggests that you can trust a lot more people than you think.

PART ONE: READING COMPREHENSION

1. Answer the following questions according to the information in the text.

1. What five professions or jobs are mentioned in the text?

2. What theory did Stephen Smith want to test in New York City?

3. Why did some taxi drivers refuse to take Stephen Smith to his destination?

4. Which of the following sentences (a, b or c) summarises the text best?
a) According to the results of Stephen Smith’s test, few taxi drivers in New York City are good people.
b) According to the results of Stephen Smith’s test, most people are good even if we see a lot of crime on TV.
c) According to the results of Stephen Smith’s test, people who appear on TV are better than what we may think.

  PART TWO: WRITING
Choose ONE. Write about either 1 or 2.

Option A: Two friends are making plans for next summer. One of them is optimistic and
always in a good mood; the other one is pessimistic and always feels depressed.
Write down a conversation between them talking about those summer plans.

Option B: Despite the world’s problems many good things happen everyday. Write an article for a newspaper that describes some good things that happened yesterday somewhere in the world.

3. Vocabulary

Explain next words in English, write the phonetics and also an example: to cheat, to warn, to trust.