Test 15

Task 1. READING

Read the text below. Mach choices (A - H) to (1 – 5). There are three choices you do not need to use.

Poverty

Now that begging is an acceptable career option, it is worth considering a few tips. Place yourself somewhere the public aren’t to miss you, say, outside a West End theatre or at the foot of some tube station steps. Consider the use of props — a child; good, a baby even better, though you would be surprised at the well of compassion you plumb when you have some flea-bitten mongrel at your side. Signs are fine. Knock out ones that say, “Please give generously — No home, no job, o shame’ or ‘Dog on a rope to support”. Take eye contact and be persistent, friendly — don’t be too specific. Ask the beggars for “loose change”, rather than money for a cup of coffee or money to catch the bus to the Job Centre. Everybody knows you are going to piss it away.

mongrel-a stray dog

(1)________

You can always sing a little song or do a little dance, but a true beggar frowns on these gimmicks. Busking is begging with music (give me money because I am entertaining you) just as mugging is begging with menace (give me money or I will fill your face in). But begging purists want you to give them money because — what? Because you are better off than they are? Because life has dealt them a bad hand?

(2)________

Well, I don’t buy it. I don’t believe that the people begging are the unluckiest people in town. They are merely the people with the least pride, dignity, self-respect — all the intangibles that hold the human spirit together. It’s strange, but I don’t recall ever seeing a black beggar in London, or a Hong Kong Chinese beggar or an Indian beggar. I must have seen hundreds, thousands of beggars in this town, and they have all been white trash. But when you look at the sick-making state of the white working class — all the men turning into fat idiots at 20, all the girls turning into their mothers a year later — what possible hope could there be for the next rung down on the caste system? If the people with jobs have the aesthetic beauty and intellectual ability of a cow pat, what chance is there for the people without a job? Though of course, by now begging is the newest profession.

rung – level

a cowpat is a pile of faeces from a cow.

(3)________

I used to give, I used to give generously. These people disgusted me, but still I gave. I was appalled, but I felt sorry for them — and they knew it! Oh, they could spot old muggings a mile off! It was feeding frenzy time at the zoo when I came down the road! I was a soft touch — I thought it was the correct emotional response. In a way, my concern has simply been exhausted. So sorry, no change' There’s just too many of them. But it goes beyond mere compassion fatigue. I think I have grown to truly hate them.

(4)________

I hate the way they make a beautiful city ugly, the way they shuffle about in a lager haze firs , thing in the morning — booze is a bigger factor than bad luck in the begging world. I hate it that my son came home one day saying he had given his tube fare to a man who really needed it.

(5)________

I wish he could grow up thinking all men are brothers. But it is hard to think of a man as your brother when he has a brain addled by alcohol, snot on his chin and a dog on a rope. Then every man feels like an only child.

addled - unable to think clearly, bad egg

A	Beggars belong to a working class
B	It’s difficult to like beggars
C	My feelings about beggars
D	Music and begging
E	Beggars and the city
F	When the first beggars appeared
G	Poverty and theatre

Task 2. READING

Read the text below. For questions (6 – 10) choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D).

Secret message to ourselves

Late one night more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor ran into a problem that seemed impossible to solve. He was trying to design a sewing machine, but he couldn’t think of a way to get the thread to run smoothly around the needle.

He was exhausted and finally went to bed. However he was so worried that he slept very badly. He had a nightmare in which he dreamt that he had been captured by a tribe of terrible savages. Their king threatened to kill and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he tried to do so, he ran into the same problem as before. The king was so angry that he ordered his soldiers to kill him immediately. Suddenly, the inventor noticed something. The soldiers were all carrying spears, and in the tip of each one of them, there was a hole that looked just like an eye.

The inventor woke up and realized that he had just found the solution to the problem. Instead of trying to make the thread run around the needle, he should make it run through a small ‘eye’ or hole in the tip.

The inventor’s name was Elias Howe, and this simple idea enabled him to design and build the first really successful sewing machine. He was not the only famous person to find solutions to difficult problems in this way. Thomas Edison, who invented the electric light bulb, said that his best ideas came to him in his dreams. So did Albert Einstein, the great mathematician and physicist. The novelist Charlotte Bronte also got inspiration from her dreams when writing Jane Eyre. Igor Stravinsky, the great composer, said that he ‘slept’ on his problems, and when he woke up they were solved.

Few people understand the meaning of dreams. In order to do so, you have to understand what happens when you sleep. When you are awake, you notice all sorts of things and get lots of ideas without realizing it. When you are asleep, the unconscious part of your brain is active and it begins to ‘digest’ this information mentally. Sometimes it is that part of the brain that notices something important that the conscious part of your brain didn’t. The unconscious part of your mind, however, has its own logic and language. This is why the strange images in our dreams are sometimes called ‘secret messages to ourselves’.

6.	What was the inventor’s problem?______________________
	A		He was so tired he couldn’t think.
	B		He wasn’t using the right kind of thread.
	C		He hadn’t designed the needle correctly.
	D		The needle was in the wrong place.
7.	The idea for the solution came from something. ________________________
	A		the king said in the dream.
	B		the inventor noticed about the soldiers’ weapons.
	C		the inventor saw after he woke up.
	D		he saw in the eyes of one of the soldiers.
8.	Albert Einstein is mentioned because he. ______________________________
	A		was a great physicist and mathematician.
	B		got inspiration from Howe and Edison.
	C		also had strange dreams.
	D		got many good ideas from his dreams.
9.	Dreams are sometimes called ‘secret messages to ourselves’ because. ______________________
	A		it is better if other people don’t understand them.
	B		they often tell us important things through strange images.
	C		we have them when we are asleep and never understand their real meaning.
	D		our brains notice things other people don’t want us to notice.
10.	What do you think is the general ‘message’ of the whole story?__________________________
	A		Only inventors, artists and scientists can understand what their dreams are trying to say.
	B		If you work too hard and too late, you may have terrible nightmares.
	C		Elias Howe wasn’t the only person who solved problems when he was asleep.
	D		Howe was the first person we know who solved a problem while he was asleep.

Task 3. READING

Read the text below. For (11—16) choose T if the statement is true according to the text or F if it is false.

Words and feelings

People use both words and gestures to express their feelings. Can you be sure you really know what these words and gestures mean? After all, they can be interpreted in many different ways.

It is true that a smile means more or less the same thing in any language, even though the things that make people smile may be very different. Laughter and crying also have universal meanings. It is equally true that there are many similarities in the ways in which humans and animals show their feelings. Dogs and tigers, for instance, show their teeth in the same way we do when they are angry.

Fear and surprise are other emotions that are often shown in much the same way all over the world. A phrase like ‘he went pale and began to tremble’ suggests that the man was either afraid or had just had a nasty shock in any language. In the same way, “Her mouth fell open and she stared at me”, also suggests that something has just happened or been said which the woman did not expect.

Nevertheless, even surprise is not always easy to recognize. In Chinese, this emotion can be described... in a phrase like ‘they stretched out their tongues’. In a language like English, however, sticking out your tongue usually has a different meaning. It suggests disgust as if you had just tasted something unpleasant or seen something horrible. Even in the same culture, people differ in their ability to interpret and express feelings. Experiments in the United States have shown that women there are usually better than men at recognizing fear, anger, love and hate in people’s faces. The same studies suggest that body language — the way we suggest our feelings in our physical movements and posture — is another problem. Older people in North America seem to find it easier to interpret than younger people.

In another famous experiment, there was clear evidence that the most difficult feeling of all to interpret is physical pain. University students were shown part of a film in which a woman in China was suffering while giving birth to a baby. They could see only her face. She later died. However, more than ninety per cent of the audience believed she was experiencing great physical pleasure.

Psychologists such as E. G. Beier have also shown that some people often give completely wrong impression of how they feel. For example, they try to show affection but actually communicate dislike. When they try to show interest, it seems to others that they are indifferent. This can happen even among close friends or members of the same family. In other words, what you think you communicate through words and body language may be the exact opposite of what other people actually understand.

11.	People use words to express feelings
12.	Smile means the same thing in any language
13.	Laughter depends on nationality
14.	Women are more emotional than men
15.	People can understand your emotions easily
16.	Sometimes body language can is difficult to

Task 4. READING

Read the text below. Match choices (A—F) to (17—20). There are two choices you do not need to use.

Close calls

As the New Year is nearly upon us, we look back at some of the stories and interviews that made the headlines this year. Here are some of the stories about people who can count themselves lucky to be alive.

(17)________

Quick thinking by two Park Rangers in the Rocky Mountains saved the lives of two Canadian teenagers. Timothy Beck and Marc Dubois were driving near the Fraser River when they saw the two girls and realized they were in trouble. Mr Beck said ‘The river was flowing incredibly fast because of the rain and melting snow; we were about to tell them to get out when their canoe crashed into a rock and broke up. We knew we had to work quickly to save them, because they couldn’t last long in such freezing water.’ Mr Dubois ran downstream and climbed over some rocks. He caught the first girl as she was being swept past, and Mr Beck took care of her on the river bank. The second girl was further over, so Mr Dubois had to swim across to her. Mr Beck added ‘Marc was super-human the way he got her out of the raging water as if she weighed nothing. She was under the water, and all we could see was her fingers poking out. But Marc managed to get her before it was too late.’ The men drove straight to the nearest hospital, where the girls made a quick recovery. The men said they were delighted at being able to help with yesterday’s rescue. Mr Dubois has rescued several people in the past. ‘It is always a fantastic feeling. In this case we were lucky to be on the spot when the accident happened. It was a job well done.’

(18)________

The Eiger is one of the most dangerous and feared mountains in the Alps, and last week it nearly claimed another victim. Johann Bauer and Klaus Schumann were near the peak when a rock came loose and Klaus fell over 100 metres and crashed into the side of the mountain. “I feared the worst,” explained Johann. “I called out, but there was no reply. Then, a few minutes later, Klaus shouted that he was OK, but thought he had broken his arm. He was still tied to the rope, and he managed to find a ledge to sit on. But it was clear that I would have to go and get help. Then I saw that my rope had been badly cut, and I realized that I would have to try and get to the top on my own and try to find an easier way down. I have never liked free-style climbing, but I didn’t have any choice. In the end, I managed to get to the top after about three hours, but I have never been so terrified in my life.”

After the rescue, Klaus said “When Johann said he was going to climb without his equipment, I didn’t think he had a chance — it’s like going up a wall. But I am full of admiration for what he did. When the rescue party arrived, I was shaking because I had lost a lot of blood. There’s no doubt that he saved my life.”

(19)________

Eva Larsen had seen plenty of snow in her native country of Norway, but she’d never seen quite so much of it before. Eva, 28, was trapped on Wednesday afternoon for more than 2 hours after a pile of snow dropped onto the car from a roof three floors above.

At 3:30 p. m. on Wednesday, Eva and her husband Sven had just come back from a shopping trip. Her husband was in a bad mood because he had missed most of an important football match on TV, and he went straight inside to see the end. Eva was just about to get out of the car when the avalanche occurred. ‘I couldn’t believe it. All of a sudden I was buried under a mountain of snow. I couldn’t get the doors open, and there was no point shouting, so I had to wait.’ In the end, she had to wait longer than she had expected. Sven waited until the end of the match, and then came out to see what had happened to his wife. ‘At first I was very worried, because I thought someone had stolen the car. I couldn’t see it anywhere. But then I realized what had happened and began to dig the snow away. I knew Eva would be all right. We had had the heater on, and I knew snow would help to keep the warmth in. And there was plenty to eat, because we’d been to the supermarket.’

(20)________

Sir David Attenborough has spent a lifetime filming animals. This can be dangerous. Sir David recalls ‘I was flying to East Africa in the old days to meet Joy Adamson and Elsa, the famous lioness from the film Born Free. When I met up with Joy Adamson, she was terribly upset. ‘Oh David, it’s the end of the world. Elsa is dying. She has been attacked by a strange lioness and she has run away. ’

I was exhausted after my long journey and decided I wasn’t going to worry about the lioness, and I certainly wasn’t going to look for her late at night. All I wanted was some sleep and I finally got out a camp-bed and fell asleep in my tent. When I woke up, there was a terrible weight on my chest and a frightful smell of bad breath! It was Elsa — and she was sitting on me. She had long hair around her chin, and I could see those yellow teeth. I thought I was about to be her breakfast. And then Joy came around the corner and said ‘Ah Elsa, my darling,’ and ran over to hug the lioness. Never mind me, who was about to be her “darling’s” breakfast!’ And then Elsa got up and went off. It was quite an awakening: “I can tell you!”

Which story or stories mention someone who:

	A		got uncomfortably close to a dangerous animal?
	B		was seriously injured?
	C		was delighted to have rescued someone?
	D		expected to be eaten?
	E		decided to be very calm and strong?
	F		was too interested in something else?

Task 5. READING

Read the text below. Fill in the each gap with the one word which best fits each space (21—26).

Hot-air Balloons

Traveling by hot-air balloon may not be as fast as riding a bicycle, but it is certainly more fun. Professional balloonist can charge (21)________ to $100 for an evening flight and a glass of champagne. There is never any shortage of customers (22)________ this exciting and romantic trip. The average balloon caries a pilot, a navigator and three or four passengers (23)________ stand in an under hanging basket.

The view (24)________ the balloon is breathtaking. However, (25)________ who are afraid of heights may find it difficult to get (26)________ to traveling at 3,000 feat.

#	A	B	C	D
21	down	up	at	in
22	to	from	with	for
23	which	then	who	why
24	from	out	over	to
25	these	those	that	this
26	asked	frightened	told	used

Task 6. READING

Read the text below. For each of the empty space (27—33) choose the correct answer (A, B, C, D).
Because so (27)________ water moves through the desert soil to carry nutrients away, desert soils are naturally fertile. Crops are grown on desert lands with water provided (28) ________ irrigation from rivers or wells. Such transformations of deserts are not without problems. Evaporation of the irrigation water results in the accumulation of salt on the surface (29)________, eventually rendering it useless for further crop (30)________. By tapping reservoirs of fossil (31)________ deep beneath the desert, humans are, in effect, mining water. Once this water is gone, it is irreplaceable. Burning and overgrazing of semiarid lands on the periphery of deserts can irreversibly damage the plants that concentrate moisture and hold the soil (32)________, thus enabling deserts to encroach on arable land. This encroachment, a serious world problem, is called desertification. A 1984 report of a desertification study made for the United Nations stated that 35 percent of the earth’s land surface was at least threatened by (33)________ processes.

#	A	B	C	D
27	little	more	much	many
28	for	by	in	with
29	soil	water	sand	air
30	making	performing	producing	production
31	river	ocean	water	sea
32	between	together	apart	with
33	such	so	as	not as

Task 7. READING

Read the text below. For each of the empty space (34-46) choose the correct answer (A, B, C, D).Europe has a long (34)________ of excellence in literature, (35)________, sculpture, (36)________, music, and (37)________. In the late 20th century Paris, Rome, London, Madrid, and Moscow were (38)________ famous as (39)________ centres, but many other cities also supported important (40)________, musical and (41)________ groups, and other cultural institutions. Most European countries (42)________ highly developed mass-communications media, such as radio, television, and motion pictures. European nations had excellent educational systems, and the literacy rate (43)________ high in most countries.

Some of the (44)________ oldest and finest universities are in Europe, (45)________ the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford in England, the Universities of Paris in France, the University of Heidelberg in Germany, Charles University in the Czech Republic, the University of Bologna in Italy, and Moscow (46)________ University in Russia.

#	A	B	C	D
34	tradition	traditions	traditional	traditionally
35	to paint	painting	painter	paints
36	architected	architect	architecture	architectures
37	dance	dancing	to dance	danced
38	particular	particularly	in particular	particle
39	culture	cultures	cultured	cultural
40	museums	museum’s	museum	museums’
41	theatre	theatrical	theatres	theatrics
42	to have	had	having	has
43	is	are	were	was
44	world’s	worlds	world	worlds’
45	included	including	to include	includes
46	state	stating	State	States

WRITING

You are a worker at the supermarket. Your manager has asked you to write a report about supermarket “Caravan” suggesting ways to make it more popular with customers.

Write your report in 100 words.