Aptis Reading

Hi Marta,
Thanks for your message. I'm so (1)hueco 1 to hear you got the job! The office is near my flat, so we can (2)hueco 2 lunch together on Fridays. My brother can (3)hueco 3 you with the move – he has a big van. The weather here is quite (4)hueco 4 now, so bring a warm coat. Call me (5)hueco 5 you arrive at the station.
Love,
Jess

Getting a card for the city library is quick and free.

• With this card, you can borrow up to ten books at a time.
• First, fill in the short form that you can find on the library's website.
• After that, they will take your photo and print your card while you wait.
• When you have completed it, print it out and take it to any library branch.
• There, a member of staff will check the form and ask to see a document with your address.

Paula Reyes started working at the hotel as a receptionist twelve years ago.

• Her new language skills soon caught the attention of the manager.
• He asked her to look after the group bookings from abroad.
• She did this job so well that she was promoted to assistant manager two years later.
• Today she runs the hotel and still remembers her first day at the front desk.
• In those days she spoke very little English, so she took evening classes.

Four people write about working from home.

• A
  Daniel
  I now work from home three days a week, and the biggest difference is the time I save. I used to spend almost two hours a day on the train, and now I use that time to go for a run or cook a proper meal. I still start at nine and finish at half past five, exactly as I did in the office, because I need a clear routine. The only thing I really miss is chatting with colleagues over a coffee.
• B
  Sara
  My employer only asks us to come in two days a week, but I go to the office every day. My flat is small, my children are noisy after school, and I find it almost impossible to concentrate at the kitchen table. When I worked at home, I also found it hard to stop working in the evening. In the office I can close my laptop at six and leave work behind.
• C
  Tomás
  As a freelance designer, I have always worked from home, so I find the current debate a little strange. In my view, companies should simply let each employee choose where they are most productive. I would warn people about one thing, though: it can get lonely. That is why I now rent a desk in a shared office twice a week, just to be around other people.
• D
  Elena
  I manage a team of twelve, and I am happy for experienced staff to work from home whenever they like. With new employees, it is different. In their first months they learn so much just by sitting next to colleagues, hearing how they deal with problems and asking quick questions. That kind of learning is much slower on a video call.

(1)hueco 1 When the town council of Brockfield announced that it would switch off half of its streetlights between midnight and five in the morning, few people outside the town paid much attention. The reason was simple. Over two winters, the cost of the electricity needed to light the town's streets had almost doubled, and the council was looking for savings that would not mean closing the swimming pool or reducing the number of buses. Turning off lamps on quiet residential roads during the hours when almost everyone was asleep seemed, on paper at least, an obvious solution. Officials calculated that the change would save enough each year to pay for two extra classroom assistants in local schools.

(2)hueco 2 Not everyone saw it that way. Within a week of the announcement, a petition against the plan had collected more than two thousand signatures. Many of those who signed were older residents who were afraid of tripping on uneven pavements in the dark, while others feared that empty, unlit streets would attract burglars. The council responded by organising a series of public meetings in schools and community centres, where officials listened to complaints and promised to review the scheme after its first year. Some shift workers, such as nurses who come home late from the hospital, also wrote to the local newspaper to explain why they were worried.

(3)hueco 3 When that review was published, the figures surprised many people. According to the local police, the number of crimes reported at night had not increased in the areas where the lights were turned off. In some streets, burglaries had even fallen slightly. Researchers who studied the data were careful, however. They pointed out that crime rates change for many reasons, and that two years is a short period on which to base firm conclusions. Their advice was to continue collecting information before deciding that darkness makes no difference. They also noted that some residents had fitted their own security lights, which may have affected the results.

(4)hueco 4 One group that clearly benefited was the town's wildlife. A local ecologist, who has counted insects in Brockfield's parks for over a decade, noticed that moths had returned to streets where they had almost disappeared. Bats, which hunt these insects, followed soon afterwards. Bright artificial light can confuse animals that are active at night, and it can also disturb birds, which sometimes start singing in the middle of the night under a lamp. Darker streets, she explained, allow natural patterns to return. Several residents have also reported seeing hedgehogs and foxes in their gardens more often.

(5)hueco 5 The darker skies also brought a benefit that nobody had planned. Members of the local astronomy club discovered that, for the first time in years, they could see the Milky Way from the edge of town. Word spread online, and soon small groups of stargazers were arriving at weekends with telescopes and cameras. Two bed-and-breakfasts now offer special night-sky packages, and the owner of one of them says that winter, which used to be her quietest season, is now almost as busy as the summer. The town's tourist office has even started printing a small map that shows the darkest places to watch the sky.

(6)hueco 6 Not every street, of course, can simply be left in darkness. On busier roads and around the railway station, the council has started testing a different approach: lamps fitted with motion sensors. These lights stay dim most of the night but become brighter for a few minutes when a person or a car passes. The system uses far less energy than ordinary lamps, but it is expensive to install, and the council admits that it can only afford to replace a few streets each year. People living on one of the test streets say they hardly notice the difference, because the light is always bright when they walk home.

(7)hueco 7 Brockfield's experience is now being studied by other towns facing the same rising bills. Its officials are happy to share what they have learnt, and their main message is that there is no single answer that suits every place. A road near a hospital needs different treatment from a quiet lane on the edge of a village. Above all, they say, councils should talk to residents before changing anything, because people accept a difficult decision much more easily when they feel they have been listened to. They also recommend starting with a trial in a few streets rather than changing the whole town at once.