Listen to the tape and fill in the gaps in the text using the words from the list.
There is a high rate of ... in our country. I think we need more ... . This way the crime rate will drop.
What would you do if you had three months to do whatever you ... ? Mitch McGregor spent his three months in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he taught English to ... street children. He told us all about his ... experience.
“Most of my friends were travelling the world during their ... holiday, but I wanted to do something ... ; I wanted to ... , but where and how? At the age of 20, I would say I’d had a ... childhood. My parents had put me through school, ... and ... me, and given me plenty of love and ... . So, after reading about the ... , the ... of Brazil, where thousands of ... children live in ... poverty and often don’t even reach the age of 18, I decided that I’d ... part of my summer helping these children in whatever way I could.
I set off for Rio de Janeiro where I would join a volunteer group that ... basic skills such as ... , ... , English, and business ... in a ... school in the heart of the favelas. The ... of these slums, which ... up the hillsides around and away from the ... city center, make up about one-fifth of the ... of Rio de Janeiro. Poverty leads to many broken homes and, if they experience ... at home or their families can’t look after them anymore, children end up on the streets. Those who can’t ... by ... , selling newspapers, or ... shoes, often turn to crime to survive. I was going to work in a school that gave those kids a ... education.
My first day at school was really ... . I’d never taught before, I only knew a few words of Portuguese and I just didn’t know what to ... . The ten children who ... up to my first English lesson were really ... and ... to learn. They only got one meal a day of just ... and ... and at night they slept under ... and in doorways, but these children saw learning English as a possible way out of their lives of ... and ... . As the days went by, I got used to the place. The roof of the little ... leaked when it rained and there wasn’t a ... or textbooks; still, the kids ... me and some of them made a lot of ... . During break times, we headed out into the ... yard to ... a ball around and I found out why Brazilians have a ... as the best football players! Then we cooked and ate together, but at the end of the day when they left to go back ... where? ... I often ... whether I would ever see them again.
The host family that I stayed with was ... . They ... me as an unofficial “Carioca”, which is the name for someone who was born and lives in Rio de Janeiro. It was the school, though, that made my time in Brazil truly ... . Even though I was the teacher, the street children taught me a lot more. I learned that no matter how bad ... are, there is always ... for the future. My time in Brazil was ... . If I hadn’t gone, I would have missed out on the experience of a ... . If I could do it all again, I’d jump on a plane right now!”