Exam practice

• a.It shows the Kathmandu–Terai/Madhesh Fast Track, the expressway being built from Khokana in Lalitpur to Nijgadh in Bara, with its bridges and tunnels.
• b.Yes. The Government of Nepal has listed it as a project of national pride: a project so important for the whole country that it gets priority in every year’s budget. It will bring the capital and the Terai within about an hour of each other, cut the cost of moving goods and people, and link the capital to the planned Nijgadh International Airport.

Across: 1. FACILITATE 4. ACCUMULATE 8. CALAMITIES 9. VULNERABLE
Down: 2. TRANSPORTATION 3. CONSTRAINTS 4. ACCOMMODATE 5. CONGESTION 6. INNOVATIVE 7. DEFICIT
By clue: weak and without protection VULNERABLE; less than what is needed DEFICIT; to provide with a space ACCOMMODATE; events that cause great harm CALAMITIES; using new methods INNOVATIVE; things that limit CONSTRAINTS; to make a process easier FACILITATE; being crowded CONGESTION; movement of goods TRANSPORTATION; to collect gradually ACCUMULATE.

It is a mega highway project of strategic importance, one of Nepal’s projects of national pride: a 72.5 km expressway from Khokana, Lalitpur, to Nijgadh, Bara, with 87 bridges and three twin tunnels.

It makes the journey between Kathmandu and the Terai much shorter, so every vehicle travels fewer kilometers and burns less petrol and diesel. The article says the saving could be worth billions of rupees.

Yes. It gives tourists who enter Nepal across the southern border a quick, viable route to Kathmandu, including tourists from countries beyond India. It will also link the capital to the planned Nijgadh International Airport.

Its high bridges and twin tunnels use technology that is new to Nepal. The Nepali engineers and workers who build them learn this technology on the job, so the country gains people with high skills for future projects.

It puts them within about an hour of Kathmandu, so they can reach its hospitals, schools and colleges, jobs and markets easily, and go home the same day. Cheaper transport lowers the price of goods, local traders get new markets, and in a disaster such as a flood or earthquake, food, water and medicine can reach them quickly.

During construction, blasting rock, quarrying and dumping soil fill the air with dust, and forests are cut along the route, so air pollution builds up and the land is degraded. Animals lose part of their habitat, and cutting into steep hills can loosen slopes and start landslides in the monsoon.
Once the road is open, there may be good effects too: a much shorter route burns less fuel, so less smoke and carbon dioxide come from each journey. To keep the harm small, the builders can plant trees to replace those cut, protect slopes with walls and grass, control dust by spraying water, and leave safe crossings for wild animals.

• a.The river is sure to be polluted. The fish are likely to die if this goes on. The plastic might block the drains downstream in the monsoon.
• b.The girl is likely to fall. The glass might fall and break. She could hurt herself badly.
• c.The car might hit her. The driver will probably brake hard. She is sure to get a terrible fright, and the dog may follow her into the road.

• a.A: When will the SEE schedule come out? B: It’s sure to be published this week. C: It might come out today, on the board’s website.
• b.A: Bhote is lost! B: He can’t have gone far; he’s old. C: He may have followed the children to school.
• c.A: Grishma isn’t at home. B: She must be at the library; it’s Saturday. C: She might be at her aunt’s.
• d.A: Look at Poonam’s bags! B: She must be going on a long trip. C: She’s likely to need help at the bus park.
• e.A: Tina doesn’t speak Nepali. B: She must be new to Nepal. C: She may be a volunteer at the school.
• f.A: Chhoisang is preparing for IELTS. B: She is probably planning to study abroad. C: She’s sure to do well; her English is excellent.
• g.A: The police have cleared the road. B: An important guest must be coming. C: There might have been an accident.
• h.A: Why is the dog barking? B: Someone must be at the gate. C: It could be a cat on the wall.

a – ii (an arrangement, very soon), b – iv (in progress at a future time), c – v (finished by a time), d – iii (a plan), e – i (a prediction, opinion).

• a.will start (a future fact; the present simple starts is also right for a timetable)
• b.will be carrying (in progress when you see me)
• c.won’t leave (a promise)
• d.won’t have finished (by the end of the week)
• e.is going to invite (has decided: a plan made before)
• f.Will the receptionist remember (a question about the future)
• g.are you going to do (a plan; are you doing is also right)
• h.am not going to work (a plan; am not working is also right; won’t be working too)
• i.will burn (what certainly happens if…)
• j.will be flying (in progress at that future time)

Visit the site, or ask the ward office, a teacher or the people working there. Note: what it is, where, who is building it and paying for it, when it started and should finish, how far it has got, who will benefit, and what the problems are.

A Report on the Drinking Water Project in Ward No. 6
Submitted to: the Principal, Shree Jana Jyoti Secondary School
Prepared by: Asmita Thapa, Grade 10
Date: 20 Mangsir 2083

Introduction
A drinking water project is being built in Ward No. 6 of our municipality. It will bring water from a spring in the hills above the village to about 300 households through a 4 km pipeline and two storage tanks. The ward office and the users’ committee are paying for it together, and the work began in Shrawan. I visited the site twice and talked to the committee’s chairperson and to two workers.

Progress so far
The intake at the spring and the larger tank are finished. About half of the pipeline has been laid. The committee hopes the water will be reaching every tap by Chaitra.

Benefits

• Women and girls will no longer have to walk an hour a day to fetch water.
• Clean water will reduce diarrhea and other water-borne diseases.
• Students will have more time to study, and the school will get a tap of its own.
• Thirty local people have found work on the project.

Problems

• Work stopped for six weeks in the monsoon because of a landslide on the pipeline route.
• Some households have not yet paid their share.
• There is a dispute about where the second tank should go.

Conclusion and recommendations
The project will change daily life in the ward. To finish it on time, the committee should collect the remaining money soon, protect the pipe where the landslide happened, and agree on the tank’s site at an open meeting. Users should also be trained to look after the taps and pipes once the work is done.
(A made-up project, for practice.)

• a.It shows London at dawn seen from Westminster Bridge over the River Thames, with the Houses of Parliament and other buildings along the river.
• b.It looks calm and golden: the sky is clear and bright, the river is smooth, and the city seems quiet and still, as if it hasn’t woken up yet.

• a.doth: old form of does (doth wear = wears)
• b.majesty: impressive beauty and grandeur that makes you feel respect
• c.domes: rounded roofs, like half a ball, on top of buildings
• d.glittering: shining brightly with many small flashes of light
• e.splendor: great, brilliant beauty or brightness
• f.glideth: old form of glides: moves smoothly, quietly and without effort
• g.mighty: very great, large and powerful

a. Westminster Bridge b. the most beautiful scene c. the morning’s beauty d. magnificence e. the countryside f. the bustling city g. happily asleep
(Straightforward is not needed.)

According to its title, on 3 September 1802. (In fact Wordsworth crossed the bridge on 31 July 1802, as his sister’s journal shows; in an exam, the title’s date is the expected answer.)

Anyone who could pass by such a touching, majestic sight without stopping to look at it.

He says the city wears the beauty of the morning like a garment. It is silent and bare; the ships, towers, domes, theaters and temples lie open to the fields and the sky, bright and glittering in the smokeless air, and the rising sun bathes everything in its first splendor.

The garment is the beauty of the morning, the early light that covers the city like clothing. The city of London is wearing it.

He is deeply moved and amazed: he has never seen or felt such a deep calm, and he cries out “Dear God!”. He feels peace, wonder and joy.

They stand for nature and the countryside, which Wordsworth loved and usually found most beautiful. By saying that the sun never shone more beautifully on any valley, rock or hill than on the city, he shows how extraordinary the city looks that morning: even more beautiful than nature.

He makes London seem grand, beautiful and peaceful, like a calm sleeping giant. He does it with a simile (it wears the morning like a garment), a list of its landmarks shining in the light, personification (the river glides at its own will, the houses sleep, its mighty heart lies still) and comparison with nature. He chooses the one moment when the usually busy, smoky city is clean and still.

The beauty and calm of a great city at dawn: when it is quiet, clean and open to the sky, even a crowded city can be as beautiful as nature, and can fill us with peace and wonder.

Bhaktapur also looks different at dawn. Before the shops open, the brick streets around Taumadhi are almost empty. The roofs of the Nyatapola temple catch the first sunlight, pigeons sit on its steps, and smoke rises from a few kitchens. Far to the north, the snow peaks turn pink, then gold. Only the bells of the morning puja and a few people carrying offerings break the silence. By eight o’clock the motorbikes and the market will have filled the square with noise, but for an hour it feels as calm as Wordsworth’s London.

• a.North America, Central America and South America: the two American continents.
• b.A highway that runs down both continents from the far north of Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina: the Pan-American Highway, which links 14 countries.

• a.Around 48,000 kilometers (30,000 miles), from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina.
• b.14 countries.
• c.Between Central and South America (in Panama and Colombia).
• d.Because the route is interrupted by the Darién Gap, about 160 km wide, where there is no road.

• a.roads (stretching from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina)
• b.longest motorable road (according to Guinness World Records)
• c.Argentina (Buenos Aires)
• d.climate zones (and many varied landscapes, from Arctic tundra to tropical jungles)

The 14 countries, from north to south: Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina. (The audio names the United States before Canada.)
A way to remember them: the north (Canada, USA, Mexico); the five small Central American countries in order (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica), then Panama; down the west coast of South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile) and across to Argentina.

• a.this Dashain (by this Dashain would mean “before Dashain”)
• b.will be having (the good time will be going on during the visit)
• c.will start (a fact of the school calendar, not the writer’s plan)
• d.will be trekking (in progress at this time next week)
• e.am going to practice (a plan; British practise)
• f.On (a day, not “by” a day: the trip happens on that day)
• g.will have explored (by then: finished before that time)
• h.will have got (by the time we get back; American English also says will have gotten)

• a.By 12 o’clock, we will have finished (our practice).
• b.I will answer the phone. (I’ll get it.: a decision now)
• c.Will you come? (or Are you coming?)
• d.Do you think it is going to rain? (a sign: the clouds)
• e.the children will have been staying alone at home for two hours.
• f.At 7 o’clock, we will be waiting at the airport.

Child Club, Shree Bhanu Secondary School
Suryabinayak-4, Bhaktapur
Date: 15 Mangsir 2083

NOTICE

This is to inform all the students that the Child Club is organizing a Book Donation Drive from 22 to 26 Mangsir to collect storybooks and textbooks for the community school in Ward No. 9, which lost its library in the monsoon flood.

Students are requested to bring old books in good condition to the collection table near the school office between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The class that donates the most books will be awarded a prize at the morning assembly on 28 Mangsir.

Let us share the joy of reading!

Sujan Shrestha
Secretary, Child Club

“My neighbour’s favourite colour is grey; she analysed the catalogue at the theatre and practised her lines.”
(Grey is British and gray American; practised is the British verb.)

b, c, e, a, f, d

• a.is going to crash (a sign you see now)
• b.will have completed (by the end of Poush)
• c.will be sitting (in progress at that time)
• d.will have been teaching (how long, up to 2027)
• e.will bring (I’ll bring: a decision and an offer now)
• f.leaves (a timetable)

a. is building b. will finish c. will have been crossing d. is going to cut e. will be playing f. sure to

• a.The people of Ward No. 3 themselves, with their own hands.
• b.2 km.
• c.The municipality.
• d.Before, a sick person was carried for three hours on a stretcher; now a jeep reaches the highway in twenty minutes.
• e.They are going to plant trees along the road, to stop the slopes from sliding.

(This is a made-up practice text, not a real news report.)

Headline, byline and place; then the lead (what, where, when, who opened it); then details (how long it is, how long it took, what it cost), what people said, and what it will change; end with what will happen next.

New bridge joins two villages at last
By a staff reporter
Sindhuli, 12 Falgun. A 120-meter suspension bridge over the Kamala River was opened yesterday by the chairperson of the rural municipality, ending a long wait for the people of two villages.
Until now, villagers had to wade across the river or walk two hours to the nearest bridge. In the monsoon, children often missed school for weeks.
The bridge took eight months to build and cost about Rs. 1.5 crore, shared by the municipality and the federal government.
“My children will be going to school on time even in Shrawan,” said a mother of three.
Traders say they are going to take vegetables to the market in Sindhuli Bazaar every day now. Officials say that by next year, a road will have reached the bridge from the highway.
(A made-up report, for practice.)