Pedal your way to a free meal

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos C. Madrid

A Danish hotel is offering a free meal to any guest who is able to produce electricity for the hotel on an exercise bike attached to a generator. The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen says the idea is not only to encourage people to get fit, but also reduce their carbon footprint and save electricity and money. Guests will have to produce at least 10 watt-hours of electricity - roughly 15 minutes of cycling for someone of average fitness. The bicycles will have iPhones attached to the handlebars measuring how much clean energy is being generated for the hotel. This energy is stored in a battery and then fed back into the hotel’s main power supply.

The plan will be launched for the first time on 19 April and run for a year, the hotel says. Guests staying at this Crowne Plaza Hotel will be given meal tickets worth 26€ once they have produced 10 watt-hours of electricity. A hotel spokeswoman said: "Many of our visitors are business people who enjoy going to the gym. The free meal offer applies just to paying guests, not passers-by.”

Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world. 36% of Copenhagen’s residents commute on two wheels to work each day, one of the highest percentages in the world. "Since Copenhagen is strongly associated with cycling, we felt the bicycle would work well as a symbol of the hotel's green profile. If successful, the electric bicycle meal programme will be extended to all Crowne Plaza hotels in the UK,” affirmed the hotel spokeswoman.

RESPUESTAS

I. READING COMPREHENSION

1.- Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Copy the evidence from the text. No

marks are given for only TRUE or FALSE.

a) The cycle-for-a-meal offer has been tested in other hotels.

• FALSE. The plan will be launched for the first time on 19 April and run for a year, (the hotel says).

b) If the hotel’s bicycle scheme works, it will expand to the Crowne Plaza hotels all

over the world.

• FALSE. If successful, the electric bicycle meal programme will be extended to all Crowne Plaza hotels in the UK, (affirmed the hotel spokeswoman.)

2.- In your own words and based on the ideas in the text, answer the following questions.

Do not copy from the text.

a) What are the objectives of the Crowne Plaza Hotel’s free meal offer? Mention two.

• ...to help people get in good shape / to reduce pollution / to use less electricity and spend less money.

b) How does the hotel bicycle initiative work? Give at least three characteristics.

• Guests get a free meal if they ride one of the hotel bikes and produce a certain amount of electricity / they get a 26 € ticket to buy a meal / only hotel guests who pay can participate / iPhones control the amount of energy produced / the energy produced is used by the hotel.

II. USE OF ENGLISH

3.- Find the words in the text that mean:

• a) decrease (paragraph 1): reduce
• b) more or less (paragraph 1): roughly
• c) only (paragraph 2): just
• d) because (paragraph 3): since

4.- Complete the following sentences. Use the appropriate form of the word in brackets when given.

• a) While the offer lasts, guests are invited, will be invited (invite) to jump on a bicycle and if they produce, have produced (produce) enough electricity, they are given, will be given (give) a free meal.
• b) The free meal programme began (begin) last April.
• c) I stopped driving (drive) to work last year. I now find it easier (easy) to cycle to work than to go by car.
• d) The Crowne Plaza Hotel is against wasting, the waste of (waste) energy.

III. WRITING

5.- Write about 100 to 150 words on the following topic.

• What can you do at school or at home to improve the environment?  

+EXÁMENES RESUELTOS