Cambridge English Empower B1 READING PLUS
Unit 12 Twice as amazing
1 SPEAKING 3 SPEAKING
a Work in pairs. Do you think the sentences below a Ask and answer the questions with a partner.
are true or false? 1 Do you know any twins? Do they look identical? Do they have
1 There are about 500 million twins in the world. similar personalities?
2 Twins always have the same appearance and the same 2 Would you like to have a twin? Why / Why not?
personality. 3 Do you know anyone who looks similar to their brother or
3 Twins sometimes grow up in different places, but have the sister? Do you know any siblings who have very similar
same lives (e.g. job, free-time activities). personalities?
4 People do research into twins to understand personality 4 Do you think the environment or genes is a bigger influence
better. on personality? Talk about people you know.
5 There is a twins’ festival every year in the USA.
2 READING
a Read the magazine article on page 2 about twins. Were
your answers to 1a correct?
b Look at the article again. Find the highlighted
adjectives in the text and match them to definitions
1–7 below.
1 quiet, not comfortable being with other people
2 a relaxed person, who doesn’t get annoyed easily
3 when you know someone well and like them
4 someone who enjoys meeting other people
5 usually nervous and worried
6 looking exactly the same
7 a quiet person who doesn’t laugh very much
BETTER READING:
UNDERSTANDING PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE
It can help you to understand a text better if you understand
the organisation of a paragraph. Sometimes, paragraphs
are organised like this: the general idea > more detailed
information
1 Look at paragraph 5 in the article.
a Underline the general idea like this.
b Underline more information like this.
c Read the article again more carefully. Which twins do
sentences 1–6 refer to? Write C (for Chris and Julian),
A (for Ahmed and Mohammed), M (for Melissa and
Joyce) F (for Fred and Jack), or J (for Jim and Jim).
1 They have different talents.
2 People thought they were one person.
3 They lived in different places when they were young. (x2)
4 They do the same romantic thing for their wives.
5 They like exactly the same food.
6 No one can understand when they speak to each other.
Cambridge English Empower B1 © Cambridge University Press PHOTOCOPIABLE 1
Unit 12
Twice as There are identical twins who grew up apart, but met
Amazing
later in life. Joyce grew up in Florida, but her sister
Melissa grew up in California. They never knew about
each other. But they both became nurses and were
artists in their free time. And they were both always
very anxious and shy people. When they met at the
age of 50, Joyce told Melissa she’d always known she
had a twin sister.
Welcome to the amazing world of twins. There are The most famous example of identical twins is
about 250 million in the world. Some do maths tests probably the Jim twins. They were adopted by
for each other, and others even marry people with different parents at birth, and brought up hundreds of
the same names. We went to the Twins Day Festival kilometres apart. 39 years later, they met each other
in Twinsburg, Ohio, to find out more about some of for the first time, and discovered they had a lot in
their lives. common.
Fred and Jack have come to the festival for years. Both men were six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds.
They look the same. They both have long red beards. As young men, they’d both married women named
But they are different in other ways. Fred is good at Linda, and then divorced them. Their second wives
maths, and Jack has always been a good cook. Their were both named Betty. They named their sons James
parents wanted them to be individuals, so they went to Alan and James Allan. And they both left love notes
different schools. around the house for their wives.
Fred said people had always confused them. One day, Scientists are doing a lot of research at the festival.
Jack had a maths test, and he sent his brother instead. In one tent, twins Ahmed and Mohammed have just
‘He got an A!’ Jack said. About ten years ago, Fred finished trying different dishes from around the world.
prepared the food at a big private party. He asked Researcher John Halifax says, ‘they appear to have
his brother to help, and asked him to wear the same the same taste.’ He believes twins can answer a lot of
clothes. The guests were amazed! Fred said everyone questions. ‘We are doing research into the biggest of
believed he was doing the job of two men! all – about personality. What is more important, genes
They spend every day together. ‘We’re very close,’ or the environment, nature or nurture?’
Fred said. ‘We’re both quite easy-going and sociable, Halifax said twins would always surprise us. ‘I met two
though Jack is more serious than I am. We had a week brothers, Chris and Julian, this morning who have
apart last year. I had to stay in hospital. Afterwards, their own language. They seem to have their own
Jack said it had been the longest week of his life.’ special vocabulary and grammar. They’re amazing.’
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