Ice-cream farm

Part 1.- For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Ice-cream farm

 

Deep in the heart of beautiful Irish countryside (0)_C) lies_ Willow Farm café. Its proprietor is Marth Lindsay, wife of farmer Dereck who has a heard of 100 cows. It is an extremely popular (1)______ for tourists with young families because of the wonderful ice cream it sells. There are 20 regular flavours, but the number one bestseller is Willows Own, a unique vanilla-based recipe whose contents are a (2)________ guarded secret! Everyone tries it (3)________ for its rich, creamy, natural taste – one that mass-produced ice cream cannot (4)________. The café also sells teas and cakes to (5)_______ for the tastes of older customers.

The ice cream is made using only natural ingredients from the farm, including milk, eggs, and even strawberries or apples, which give each product its (6)________ flavour.

 

The café is hard to (7)_________ to, but Martha reckons this is all part of the attraction for visitors. Certainly, it is well worth the (8)_______ as the views of the surrounding countryside are stunning.

 

0

A.      sits

B.      rests

C.     lies

D.     falls

1.-

A. visit

B. objective

C. intention

D. destination

2.-

A. narrowly

B. precisely

C. closely

D. thoroughly

 

3.-

A. praises

B. compliments

C. thanks

D. congratulations

4.-

A. balance

B. match

C. compare

D. measure

 

5.-

A. supply

B. offer

C. deliver

D. cater

6.-

A. divided

B. disconnected

C. distinct

D. dissimilar

 

7.-

A. arrive

B. come

C. reach

D. get

8.-

A. effort

B. task

C. feat

D. act

The ability to use both hands

Part 2.- For questions 9-16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

 

The ability to use both hands

 

If asked, most people (0) WOULD  say that most individuals are right-handed, some are left-handed and a few are ‘ambidextrous’ – they can use both hands equally well. In fact, the truth (9)________ the matter is somewhat more complicated. For one thing, the true scientific definition of ‘ambidextrous’ is (10)_________ able to write equally well with other hand, and only 1% of people fall into (11)_______ category.

 

Certainly, some people are very strongly right or left dominant when it (12)_________ to using their hands legs. But many people are (13)________ entirely individual mix, for example, someone might be a right-hander for playing tennis but a left-footer in football.

 

Of course top sportspeople sometimes try to train themselves (14)_________ be equally capable with both sides of the body. The (15)_______ can be said of people in other professions. A carpenter or mechanic who can learn to use tools with his weaker hand will find things much easier and is far (16)_______ likely to suffer from repetitive strain injuries.

Jobs in the future

Part 3.- For questions 17-24, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Jobs in the future

In twenty years’ time, which jobs will people still be doing, and which is it (0)_REASONABLE (REASON) to assume will have gone forever? Today’s young people should give that question careful (17)________(CONSIDER) before choosing a career. Clearly there will continue to be a need for staff in (18)_________(EXIST) professions such as (19)________(POLITICS) and lawyers.

There will of course be no (20)_________(SHORT) of jobs in science and technology, particularly for individuals able to (21)__________(SPECIAL) in newer fields such as biotechnology and microbiology.

On the other hand, the already rapid (22)__________(LOSE) of jobs to robots will speed up even further, as they replace workers not only in manufacturing but also in the (23)________(CONSTRUCT) industry. And as robots learn how to stack shelves, take over at check-outs or send us our online shopping, it won’t be long before most supermarket jobs have (24)_______(APPEAR), too.

Working as a news TV producer

Part 6.- You are going to read an article in which a television news producer talks about his work. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (37-42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

Working as a TV news producer

Rob Cole has produced TV news for decades now, working on anything from international celebrities to global conflicts. He shares the benefits of this considerable experience in the industry.

Rob’s time behind the cameras has coincided with huge changes in the way news is reported – from a time when everyone bought local newspapers through the birth of 24-hour rolling news, and now the Internet. But what is the work like on a day-to-day basis?

 

Rob’s always worked in foreign news, so his focus is obviously on news from around the world. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of that. Rob comes in early, having checked his phone, social media, and listened to as many news programmes as he could. 37.-_____ Running the foreign section is like a never-ending contest – constantly trying to get his journalists’ news presented ahead of the TV station’s other sections.

 

Once you have a story it’s then a matter of making sure that wherever the journalist is, the report comes into the building – through satellite, Internet, or other routes – and it is ready to run on air on time. 38.-____ There’s nothing like getting a note from the producer at another network congratulating on a job well done. The low points, on the other hand, are much less pleasant: ‘I’ve had colleagues badly injured.’

So how can you become a news producer? Says Rob: ‘We get loads of applications. 39.-_____ Don’t be put off; people in this business admire people who don’t give up easily, for obvious reasons.’

 

You need to be keen to learn and, of course, take a real interest in current affairs. ‘You have to be obsessed with news, constantly following it. Even if you’re a creative producer, doing graphics, you still have to care about what’s going on in the world. Also, some people think about going into the media just because it sounds exciting. That would be a mistake; you have to really want to do the job. Luck’s involved too, of course. 40.-______’.

 

In some ways, Rob’s job should remain fairly constant for the next few years. ‘They will always need someone to make decisions and take responsibility for newsgathering. However, what will change is the way in which news is delivered. When I started in TV, the crew used to consist of a reporter, a producer, a camera operator, a sound person, and sometimes even a separate lighting person. 41.-____ Now there’s just the reporter and a multitasking camera operator who also edits and supplies the written material – if you’re lucky!’

 

‘Before long there will be a crew of just one,  shooting all their own material on a smartphone, then editing and voicing that material, before sending it to head office, where it ends up going straight on air. 42.-_____ Actually, this has already started to happen. The technology will just get quicker and quicker and smaller and smaller.’

 

A) You might write to just the right person at the right time.

B) Turning the device around and pressing the live app button also enables live broadcasting into the same programme.

C) They would be loaded down with equipment and some of them would be linked by cable.

D) With this information, before any stories actually come in, he then decides on the news priorities of the day.

E) In those days it was possible to start a career in news without even going to university: you went straight into training on a local paper.

F) Making sure it does so matters, especially given the friendly competition with other TV networks: ‘beating the other networks

G) I always endeavour to reply, but from my down experience too many people don’t get back to you, so it’s best to keep trying.

My university

Part 7.- You are going to read an article in which six students talk about their university. For questions 43-52, choose from the students (A-F). The students may be chosen more than once.

 

Which student…

is studying at university that was not their first choice? 43.-____

has found it easier to make friends at university than they had expected? 44.-_____

wishes they had more time to take part in social activities? 45.-_____

chose their university partly because a relative had recommended it? 46.-_____

complains about the travelling time from their accommodation to the city centre? 47.-_____

wants to continue studying at the same university after they graduate? 48.-_____

praises the approach to teaching at their present university? 49.-_____

 

decided to study at the university because of its location? 50.-_____

sought the opinions of current students before choosing a university? 51.-_____

is finding student life less expensive than they had expected? 52.-_____

 

My university

Six first-year students say what life is like at their universities.

A) Zehra Erdogan

There’s a club here for just about every sport or social activity you can think of and they’re a great way to get to know other students. I’d wondered whether I might feel lonely here with my family so far away, but I needn’t have worried. There’s a group of us who get on really well, and two are already talking about doing research here once they’ve finished their first degrees. That’s my aim too.

B) Ben Robertson

I had to take out a loan to cover my costs as a student here, but I quickly found there were all kinds of expenses I hadn’t thought of such as the cost of getting into town and back from the student village, where I live. The buses aren’t cheap and it takes ages to get there, too, but I didn’t check that when I chose the university. That’s something I could have done quite easily online, but unfortunately I didn’t. Actually, the main reason I came here was to be with my friends, who applied at the same time as I did.

C) Anika Mishra

I found it relatively easy to settle in here, just as I thought I would, really. I’d done some research on the various places offering the course I wanted to do, and what I found particularly helpful were the outline comments by people actually studying in each one. Actually, this one had always appealed to me as my aunt did a research degree here and said it was a good place to live and study, though unlike her I think I’ll move onto another university once I’ve graduated.

D) Lotte Peeters

Before I came here, people had been telling me I’d find it hard to live on my government grant, but that hasn’t really been the case because during my free time I’m nearly always in the halls of residence with the other students. There’s so much to do there that it doesn’t matter that they’re quite a long way from the university, which is right in the centre of town. In fact, I can’t do half the things I’d like to do because I’m a medical student and I’m just too busy studying to join any more societies or clubs.

 

E) Pablo Flores

Universities of different parts of the world tend to be quite similar in some ways, such as the international mix of students, the atmosphere and even the buildings, but something I like about studying here is that you spend a lot of your time in seminars with a tutor. So, nearly a year on, I’m actually quite relieved I had my application rejected by the top university on my list: if I’d gone there I would have spent all day taking notes in lectures. The only downside is that the cost of living is quite a bit higher in this country.

F) Maxim Kuznetsov

As I have family and friends living in several nearby countries, I needed to be somewhere close to an airport offering budget flights. So studying here looked ideal and though I’ve noticed prices are quite high in the city, there’s plenty to do on campus and I rarely need to go there. Actually, the only time I do that is when some of my old friends come to visit me, and on those occasions we take the train. There’s a good service into town, and I can get a discount by using my student card.

Checking your mobile phone

Part 1.- For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

 

Checking your mobile phone

How often do you check your phone? For many of us, our phone is an essential (0) D.  part  of everyday life, but apparently we are spending an increasing amount of time checking it for information without being (1)_______ of doing so.

 

Research in Helsinki shows that phone checking (2)_____ lasts less than 30 seconds so each occasion, and usually (3)_______ of opening a single application such as social media. The study also found many users check their mobiles throughout the (4)______ day, and that what they check is often (5)_____ with particular contexts. For instance, when travelling to work or college, people tend to check their email; if they are bored, they get a quick (6)______ on the latest news.

Checking this frequently can easily become a habit, which some say can (7)______ us from more important things. Others, though, believe that being able to (8)______ so much new information so quickly makes life far more interesting.

 

0.-

A) branch

B) item

C) piece

D) part

 

1.- 

A) sensitive

B) cautious

C) sensible

D) conscious

2.- 

A) virtually

B) typically

C) widely

D) suitably

3.- 

A) consists

B) composes

C) involves

D) includes

 

4.-

A) composes

B) total

C) normal

D) entire

5.- 

A) attached

B) assumed

C) associated

D) accompanied

6.- 

A) update

B) revision

C) review

D) upgrade

 

7.- 

A) disturb

B) distract

C) disrupt

D) distribute

8.- 

A) capture

B) import

C) obtain

D) seize

Waiting at the diner

Part 2.- For questions 9-16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

 

Waiting at the diner

 

After fifteen minutes waiting for her order (0)__TO__ come, Sylvie began to regret her decision to stop at the diner. She’d been led to a seat at the back with a view of a small lake. At least that would pass the time pleasantly, she thought, watching the ducks and texting a message to Alan. She told him it was something of an exaggeration to call (9)_______ a lake – more like a pond, really, and the deleted the message for being far (10)________ trivial and chatty.

 

She’d come in at half past four, hoping to have a quick coffee and a cake and (11)_______ on her way again, but already the diner was starting to fill (12)________ with travelling families looking (13)______ they were settling for an early meal. The waitress looked stressed and kept her head down, so despite several attempts, Sylvie was (14)______ to make eye contact with her. (15)_________ this rate, Sylvie risked being late for her appointment with Alan, (16)________ already been on the road since the early morning.

Too many emails

Part 3.- For questions 17-24, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Too many emails

 

Some years ago, there were (0)_PREDICTIONS (PREDICT) that email would soon be replaced as the most common means of online communication by social (17)_________(WORK) sites. Since then, however, the number of emails sent has increased (18)__________(STEADY), to the point that the volume received on a daily basis has become (19)_______(STRESSING) for many people.

For some users, the situation has become so (20)_______(BEAR) that they regularly delete all the emails they receive without even bothering to read them, which is rather (21)_________ (RISK) to say the least. A less extreme measure is to install software that sorts incoming mail into different categories. By doing this, promotions from (22)_________(COMMERCE) organisations, for instance, go into a separate folder from messages arriving from friends or emplyers. (23)_____(ABLE) us to see which emails are more important than others. Not all of us, though may be son keen to let software make such (24)_______(DECIDE) for us.

Daniel Radcliffe

 Part 5.- You are going to read an article about the actor Daniel Radcliffe, who played the role of Harry Potter in the films. For questions 31-36, choose the answer (A, B, C, or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

 

Daniel Radcliffe

 

I first meet Daniel Radcliffe at the offices of his agent, just before he takes to the stage for an evening performance of The Cripple Of Inishmaan. He’s wearing tight jeans, no glasses, and is a super ball of energy. He is extraordinarily polite, slim, well turned out. If you’d never seen him before, you might assume he was a children’s television presenter. But at the age of just 24 he has 16 movies behind him, eight of them Harry Potter blockbusters It feels as if he’s been with us forever. The funny thing is, apart from the facial hair, he doesn’t really look any different from the schoolboy wizard who made his screen debut in 2001.

 

Yet over the past half-dozen years, it seems he has done everything he could to distinguish himself from Harry in the parts he has chosen to play. Radcliffe disagrees with this, saying ‘I pick films based on scripts and director and parts. I’m not interested in making films I’ve seen before. There’s nothing more exciting to me when I read a script than originally. That’s all it’s governed by, there’s no master plan to distance myself from Potter.’

.

He says he doesn’t want to sound ungrateful. ‘I know that Potter is going to be with me for the rest of my life, so to try to stop people talking about that any more is stupid. It’s just a fact of your life, so you can’t get annoyed by it. You have to accept the fact that you were involved in this incredibly cool thing and though you might not always be happy with the work you did on it, the opportunity it has given you to make a career for yourself is amazing.’

 

Was he aware how much Harry would change his life when he was offered the part? ‘No, I knew I was signing on for the first two, that four books had come out. Warner, the film company, genuinely didn’t know at that stage if they were going to make more than one film. If it flopped, then they were certainly weren’t going to put up all that money again.’ Did he ever consider exercising his opt-out clause? ‘By the third film, I thought, if there’s a time to get out, it’s now; there’s still enough time for another actor come in and establish himself. For a while, I thought, if I do all of them, will I be able to move on to other stuff or should I start doing other stuff now? But in the end I decided I was having way too much fun. And actually there aren’t many great parts out there for teenage boys, certainly not as good as Harry Potter.’

 

 

Nowadays, of course, he is incredibly wealthy. I ask whether he sometimes worries people might socialize with him purely because of that. He laughs, and says people are going to be sadly disappointed if they befriend him for his lavish spending. ‘Anyone who is my friend knows that I don’t spend money. So they can hang around with me as much as they like and they still aren’t going to get anything. Haha!’ But, he says, he has never had a problem with working out who to trust.

‘I’m a fairly good judge of character, and I have a small but very close circle of friends, I’m not looking to recruit new friends, though I’m actually very open with people. I had a similar conversation with myself when I was about 17 the first time somebody had really betrayed that trust, and I said to myself you have two options: you either become totally insular and shut down and not let anybody into your life ever, or you can continue to be open and amiable when you meet people, and trusting, and occasionally get hurt. And I do think that is the best way.’

31.- What do we learn about Daniel in the first paragraph?

A) He is now working in TV programmes for children.

B) His appearance has changed considerably since his childhood.

C) He is currently acting in the theatre.

D) He is amused by the way he looked in his early films.

 

32.- What does Daniel say about his current work?

A) He likes to make changes to the film scripts he is given.

B) He sometimes has to accept roles he would rather reject.

C) He finds it difficult to play foles that are not Harry.

D) He denies he chooses roles as unlike Harry as possible.

 

33.- What does Daniel appear to be criticising in the third paragraph?

A) Some of his actig in the Harry Potter films.

B) The overall quality of the Harry Potter films.

C) The effect of playing Harry Potter on his career.

D) Attempts to talk to him about Harry Potter.

 

34.- When Daniel was first asked to play Harry Potter…

A) he thought the first film would be made on a low budget.

B) he thought that only two Harry Potter books would be published.

C) he had no idea how many films in the series there would be.

D) he only wanted to be in the first film in the series.

35.- Why did Daniel eventually decide to be in every film?

A) He thought nobody else could play the role of Harry

B) He was enjoying making the films so much.

C) He never considered doing any other kind of work.

D) He knew it would eventually lead to different roles.

 

36.- How does Daniel feel about friendship?

A) He believes he knows how to choose friends well.

B) He would like to have more friends than he has now.

C) He finds it difficult to trust people these days.

D) He likes to be generous to those he is close to.

The Queen of Kalahari

Part 6.- You are going to read an article about a famous diamond bought by a jewellery company. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (37-42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

 

The Queen of Kalahari

Sara Royce-Greensill tells the story of a famous diamond.

Among the many photographs on the walls of the Swiss headquarters of the jewellery company Chopard, one stands out an image of a 342-carat rough diamond. The stone was discovered in Botwana’s Karowe Mine two years ago. Of all the many colossal roughs discovered at Karowe, Chopard’s co-president Caroline Scheufele believes hers is the purest. ‘I was really lucky to put my his on this one. It’s no the biggest but the others don’t have the same purity,’ she says.

Scheufele first saw the stone in Botswana in September 2015. ‘Our partner at the mine called me and said, “We’ve found something you should not let pass,”’ she recalls, handling an exact replica of the rough, made from crystal. 37.-______ Indeed it’s falt along one side which, she says, hints that it was once twice as large, and a similarly sized sibling (the King of Kalahari) may still be found.

 

‘It was an emotional moment when I opened the package,’ she says a moment that is recreated in a dramatic 50-minute documentary film charting the discovery of the stone. 38.-_____ There were various possibilities. ‘We could have cut big 80-carat stones from it and maybe made a pair of drop earrings,’ Scheufele muses. ‘Somebody else would have done that, but Chopard is all abour creativity. I didn’t just want one piece, I wanted a whole set.’

 

After naming her newly acquired stone the Queen of Kalahari, she started figuring out the best possible combination of stones that would work commercially. 39.-_____ After a nerve-racking few months with expert polishers in Belgium, Scheufele had all the ingredients for ‘the most prestigious se of jewllerey ever to emerge from Chopard’s High Jewellery workshop’ – a six-piiece set entitled the Gardens of Kalahari.

 

40.-____ Two rings, a necklace, a bracelet, a pair of earrings and a secret watch all shine a brilliante pure white. Among the 23 stones cut from the Queen of Kalahari, five are above 20 carats. Each represents a different flower. While the dry Kalahari desert may never see such species in bloom, the botanical theme reflects Scheufele’s passion for gardening and the fact that ‘nature gave us this stone’,

 

The collection’s versatility is remarkable. ‘I’ve always wanted to do a whole set that you can play with, detach, wear in different ways for different occasions,,’ Scheufele says. ‘If I’m not mistaken there are 17 different possibilities.’ 41.-_____

 

I can barely begin to comprehend the painstaking work involved in shaping that beautiful rough into these exquisite jewels. In total, it took over 3,200 hours to create the Gardens of Kalahari. 42.-_____ This varied from melting the gold, through sketching the pieces, to settng and polishing each diamond. It is a remarkable achievement.

 

A) She used computer modelling to assist her, which indicated it was possible to cut 23 diamonds of various shapes and sizes, all of them in the highest grade of clarity.

B) When worn in this way, it makes a definite statement.

C) Almost every pair of hands in Chopard’s workshop touched the product at the same point.

D) There was no doubt about whether she’d buy the stone – the only question was, what to do with it once it was in her possession.

E) For example, the necklace can be worn as a simple choker built up with further rows of petal-shaped diamonds, or adorned with a detachable flower, and one, two or three pendants.

F) About the size of a tennis ball, it fills the palm of the hand, with a mixture of jagged edges and cool smooth planes.

G) Although I had seen sketches of each individual piece, nothing quite prepared me for the impact of the jewels, presented in a velvet-lined case.

The first days of television

 Part 7.- You are going to read an article about the first days of television. For questions 43-52, choose from the sections (A-E). The section may be chose more than once.

In which section does the writer mention…

a change of heart about the poor quality of programmes? 43.-____

a concern about how the theatre and cinema might be affected by TV? 44.-_____

a diificulty involved for the markers of one programme? 45.-___

the idea that a break between programmes could be good for the listener? 46.-____

an experimental version of TV which predated the official beginning? 47.-____

wtitten evidence of someone’s dislike of a programma they’d seen? 48.-____

a published complaint about the interest value of a programme? 49.-____

a practical problem for certain people who appeared on TV? 50.-____

a programme that featured ordinary people doing unusual things? 51.-____

TV being presented as something mysterious and unexplainable? 52.-____

 

The first days of television

A.- At 3pm on 2 November 1936, BBC television officially began. Mr RC Norman, the BBC chairman, gave a speech that introduced those watching a new word: ‘viewers’. A musical start, Adele Dixon, then sang a song, ‘Television, to you’, composed for the occasion, which gave thanks for the ‘mighty maze of mystic, magic rays’ that ‘bring a new wonder to you.’ The BBC’s director-general, John Reith, attended that evening’s broadcast, a single programme called Television Comes to London. In his diary he wrote that is was a ‘ridiculous affair’ and that he ‘left early’.

 

Recently, the BBCA channel remembered the occasion in a programme called Television’s Opening Night: How the Box Was Born. The first broadcast was recreated using the original technology. This was quite a challenge as no recording exists, of course – all television then was live and died on the air as it was broadcast.

 

…

B.- John Logie Baird had first demonstrated television 1925, but the BBC was lukewarm about his invention. The BBC yearbook for 1930 reflected the official view. ‘If this power is ever brought to mechanical perfection,’ it wrote of television, ‘there is little reason… that anyone but a few should go in person to any place of entertainment again.’ The BBC had trialled the new television service it was developing for two weeks in autum 1936, in order to sell some of the new television sets at the Radiolympia show. But it was the launch on 9 November that gave us television that we would recognise today: broadcast two hours a day, at 3pm and 9pm, except Sundays.

 

C.- As time went on many more programmes were developed. L Marsland Gander, one of the first television critics, wrote in his newspaper: ‘I find that next Saturday a Mr JT Baily is to demonstrate on the television screen how to repair a broken window… Probably at some future time, when we have television

 

All day long, it will be legitimate to cater for minority of potential window repairers.  Out of two hours, however, the allocation of 30 minutes to such a subject seems disproportionate.’ From the start, television had more of what we’d now call lifestyle programmes than radio cookery, and gardening, for example, Gander wasn’t alone in finding the content generally mundane and banal. He did concede later that the first edition of Picture Page, on that opening night of 2 November, had filled him ‘with an enthusiasm for a new artform that has never waned’.

D.- On Picture Page there was a series of quick-fire interviews with everyone from a bagpiper in Trafalgar Square to a London cab driver who’d driven someone to the far north of Scotland, Picture Page epitomised a key advantage that felevision had over radio: informality. Radio talk at this time was often scripted, and delivered in an extremely formal tone. On television, the announcers could not read from a script if they wanted to look at the viewer, and could not see much in the glare of the lights anyway, so they had to speak more spontaneously and learn to sound natural.

 

E.- Even so, Reith never changed his position, and said later that the arrival of television influenced his decision to leave the BBC in 1938. On his last day, the corporation presented him a rather tactless leaving present a television set. He barely looked at it. Were Reith alive today, what would he make of BBC television now? Mostly he would be appalled by the sheer abundance of it, the way it fills every hour of the day. This was a man, after all, who decreed that there be a few minutes’ silence in between radio programmes to allow people to switch off.