Burton created a Kickstarter campaign to revive the children's television show Reading Rainbow and make it available online and in classrooms. The campaign was extremely successful, reaching its $1 million goal in just 12 hours and ultimately raising $1.5 million. Burton believes reviving Reading Rainbow is important to encourage children's literacy skills and combat declining rates of reading among youth.

1. Unit 5 The magic of reading
LISTENING 15 Minutes
A. You will hear three short conversations. For each conversation, put a tick () in the box
below the correct picture.
1. Which book will the boy buy?
2. Which book will the girl borrow at the library?
B. You will hear a conversation between a girl, Diana, and her best friend, Dan, about a
book they have just finished reading and the conference they went to. Decide if the
statements are right (R) or wrong (W).
1. Dan was expecting to enjoy the book.
2. Diana and Dan agree that the book was about the city of New York.
3. Diana feels the conference was boring because it was too long.
4. Dan was upset about how some of the audience behaved during the conference.
5. Dan was disappointed with the way the professor gave his talk.
(Adapted from: Cambridge Tests)
Name: __________________________________________Class: ______ No.: ______
Date: __________________________________________ Mark: _________________
Enc. Educação: _________________________ Teacher: ________________________
Test A

2. READING COMPREHENSION 20 Minutes
Read the text carefully.
THE KICKSTARTER
CAMPAIGN TO REVIVE
‘READING RAINBOW’
By Eileen Shim, News.Mic
“Butterfly in the sky. I can go twice as high. Take a look. It’s in a book.
A Reading Rainbow.”
For 26 years, this song meant something special to American kids. The PBS TV
programme Reading Rainbow, hosted by the actor LeVar Burton, introduced children
to books and motivated them to read and learn. Thanks to crowdfunding, the show is
back to stay like many other things in the ‘80s and the ‘90s.
On Wednesday morning, Burton created a Kickstarter to bring Reading Rainbow to
a new audience. While he had already launched a tablet app for the programme two
years ago, his new goal was to put the programme on the Web for families, build a
special version for classrooms and make all this free for schools in need. “I believe that
every child has a right, and a need, to be literate. We have a responsibility to prepare
our children… and right now, the numbers show that we, as a society, are neglecting
this particular responsibility,” he wrote on the Kickstarter page. And people agreed. In
just 12 hours, around 23,000 Reading Rainbow fans decided to pitch in, far surpassing
Burton’s initial goal of $1 million. By the end of the day, the Kickstarter had already
raised $1.5 million, with 34 days left to go.
Burton makes it clear that Reading Rainbow encourages children to love and
explore books. But reading as a hobby has been steadily declining over the years.
According to a recent report by Common Sense Media, “the percentage of 9-year-olds
reading for pleasure once or more per week had dropped based on recent government
studies. There has been an even larger decrease among older children.” And this has a
real impact on literacy and language proficiency. According to the National Education
Association report, “children who are read to at home have a substantial advantage
over children who are not.”
There is a real demand for an engaging programme that can challenge children to
read on their own and develop their literacy skills, and Burton believes that Reading
Rainbow can fill that need. “You take advantage of where kids are. Back in the ‘80s that
was in front of the television set,” Burton told the Verge. “Today, they use the web
which means you have to too. Universal access is really what this effort is all about.”
Adapted from: http://mic.com
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3. A. Match each headline to the corresponding paragraph in the text.
1. A fundraising campaign.
2. The reduced number of children that read.
3. A television programme for kids.
4. The need to encourage children to read, and develop their literacy skills.
B. Say whether these statements are right (R) or wrong (W) according to the text.
1. Reading Rainbow was an American children’s television series that aired on PBS
Kids and encouraged children to read.
2. This TV programme has been re-launched thanks to money raised by a website.
3. Thanks to the Kickstarter Campaign Burton wants his programme to be available
for schools for a very low price.
4. The Kickstarter Campaign to Revive ‘Reading Rainbow’ succeeded in reaching its
goal in just a day.
5. Nowadays more children read as a hobby.
C. Find words in the text that have the same meaning as the words below.
1. inspired (paragraph 1): ___________________________
2. published; made public (paragraph 2): _______________
3. ignoring (paragraph 2): ___________________________
4. pastime (paragraph 3): ___________________________
5. abilities (paragraph 4): ___________________________
D. Answer these questions about the text.
1. Why is LeVar Burton creating a special version of the Reading Rainbow for
classrooms?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
2. According to recent reports why is it important to read?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
3. Why does Burton think that this generation needs his app more than the previous
generation?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

4. GRAMMAR 10 Minutes
A. Read the sentences and choose the best verb for each space.
1. Burton ________ the children that it is important to read. ((a) said / (b) told / (c) asked)
2. Burton ________ creating a book club at our school. ((a) said / (b) asked / (c) suggested)
3. Can you ________ me where the library is, please? ((a) say / (b) tell / (c) ask)
4. He ________ that he would join us after school. ((a) said / (b) suggested / (c) told)
5. Jane ________ me she would be late for school today. ((a) said / (b) suggested / (c) told)
B. Rewrite the second sentence so that it means the same as the first one. Write no more
than four words.
1. Burton asked the children if they enjoyed the book.
“________________________ the book?” Burton asked the children.
2. Burton said: “If I were you, I would visit the local library.”
Burton suggested________________________ library.
3. Anne said that she had never read a detective story.
Anne said, “I ________________________a detective story.”
4. “Don’t use your mobile phones in class!”
Our teacher ordered us ________________________our mobile phones in class.
5. “Do you like reading science fiction books?” Sarah asked Burton.
Sarah wanted to know ________________________ science fiction books.
C. Write the following sentences in the reported speech.
1. “You can discuss this problem with me,” Burton said to Mathew.
Burton told________________________
2. “Where does Burton live?” John asked me.
John asked me________________________
3. “Listen to the story Burton is reading,” Mrs Peterson told her daughter.
Mrs Peterson told her daughter________________________
4. “I met Burton at a children’s library last year,” Jack told us.
________________________________________________________________________
5. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Burton told the children.
________________________________________________________________________
WRITING 35 Minutes
A. Burton posted a comment on his blog. Write a short comment of 35 to 45 words.

5. B. Now write a short story with the following title:
“The happiest day of my life”
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
Don’t forget to:
• Introduce characters
and setting
• Start the action
• Use adjectives
• Link events using
connectors (when, then,
suddenly, later…)
• Conclude your story