Reading Test [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

READING TEST DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOKLET PART 1 Questions 1 – 5  Read two texts and answer the questions.  For questions 1 – 5, write the correct letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet. Example 0 Babbage was a famous

Answer A B C D

researcher. scientific author. programmer. mathematician.

D

Text 1 Ada Lovelace was the daughter of the poet, Lord Byron. She was taught by Mary Somerville, a well-known researcher and scientific author. She introduced Ada Lovelace to Charles Babbage in June 1833. Babbage was an English mathematician. He was the first who had the idea for a programmable computer. In 1842 and 1843, Ada translated the book of an Italian mathematician, Luigi Menabrea, on Babbage's Analytical Engine. This machine was an important step in the history of computers. It was the design of a mechanical general-purpose computer. Babbage worked on it for many years until he died in 1871. But, because of financial and political difficulties, the engine was never built. The design of the machine was very modern; and only in a hundred of years the first generalpurpose computers were invented. When Ada translated the article, she added a number of notes which described a method for calculating numbers with the Analytical Engine. Later it was recognized by historians as the world's first computer program. She also saw possibilities in it that Babbage hadn't: she realised that the machine could compose music. The computer programming language 'Ada', used in some aviation and military programs, is named after her.

1

Who is considered to be an inventor of a modern computer?

A B C D

Charles Babbage Luigi Menabrea Mary Somerville Ada Lovelace

2

The engine was never completed because

A B

of a very complicated design. of a lack of funding and governmental support. of Babbage’s death.

C

D

a number of notes were missing.

Text 2

When people think of water buffaloes, they often imagine wild and dangerous animals. But unless they are hurt or angered, water buffaloes are probably the gentlest farm animals in the world. Despite their frightening appearance, they are much like household pets. Unlike cattle, they are quiet and have a natural fondness for humans. Water buffaloes are so patient and mild tempered that there is no need to restrain them during milking. Because of the animal’s calm nature, water buffaloes almost never have their horns removed. In contrast, most dairy cattle are dehorned when they are young to prevent them from injuring one another when they mature. Another common myth is that water buffaloes can be raised only near water. Though they love to roll in muddy water, water buffaloes live and reproduce normally in situations where there is not enough water to do this. However, several researchers report that water buffaloes who roll in muddy water do not need to be treated with insecticides because the mud coating that forms on their skin protects them from insects and parasites. Another false belief about water buffaloes is that they can live only in tropical areas. Actually, buffaloes are able to exist in a wide range of climates. Although they are most common in the tropics, water buffaloes were used to pull snowplows in parts of Europe many years ago.

3

According to the author, water buffaloes are

A B C D

often dangerous and wild. can be easily hurt. better household pets than cattle. may attack when angry.

4

Rolling in the dirty water helps buffaloes to

A B C D

reproduce normally. replenish water supply. protect themselves from insects. wash off insecticides.

5

Water buffaloes

A B C D

used to be common around the world. live only in tropical areas. can live in different environments. are most common in snow areas of Europe.

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PART 2 Questions 6 – 10    

The people below want to visit California. On the next page there are eight places in California. Match the person (numbers 6–10) with the place (letters A–H) they would enjoy most. For each of these numbers write the correct letter on your answer sheet.

Example

0 Hello! I am Oliver from Canada. I love ferry rides. They're so much fun. I also like visiting places with an interesting and unusual history.

Answer F

6

Hello! My name is Tice Gusman. I am from a small village in the Netherlands. I plan to visit California next month. And as far as I like photography which is my hobby, I want to go to the place with wonderful views to take photos for my future photo-exhibition.

7

Hi! My name is Johan Ronnestam. I am from the suburbs of Stockholm. I am a snowboard professional. I really want to go on some exciting rides. I have just taken up surfing too so I would like to learn more about that.

8

Hello! My name is Barbara Kruger. My hobby is watching movies and I am a big movie fan. That is why during my visit I’d love to have my photo taken with all my favourite film stars!

9

Hello! My name is Veronica Woods. I love to travel. First of all, I enjoy a change, any kind of change. Secondly, when I am on holiday, two things are most important for me: great shopping and great food. I want to combine these two things during my trip.

10

Hello! My name is Gabriel Scar. Music is my life. That’s why I’m writing songs myself, to show to the world what I feel inside. I’m trying to realize my dream of recording my own songs.

SANTA CRUZ A

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE E

Go to the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, which is in a lighthouse, and see classic boards including one eaten by a shark – the surfer survived! Next stop, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for a ride on the Giant Dipper rollercoaster. Museum has photographs, surfboards, and other interesting artifacts tracing over 100 years of surfing history in Santa Cruz. The museum shop specializes in great surfing books and surfing related items.

Connecting San Francisco and Marin Country, this is the largest suspension bridge in the world and one of the most famous California landmarks. Pedestrians including wheelchair users and bicyclists can go on the sidewalks of the bridge during daylight hours. As you cross the 4200-foot bridge below the famous orange towers, you’ll enjoy awesome views of the entire Bay Area.

SAN FRANCISCO

ALCATRAZ ISLAND

B

F Fisherman’s Wharf is a historic marketplace on the seafront with trendy restaurants, shops and street performers. Visit Ghirardelli Square, home to the amazing Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop, and Pier 39, a lovely market place with shops, restaurants and music. From here you can take a cruise round the Bay.

Alcatraz Island offers a close-up look at the site of the built fort on the West Coast. Rich in history, once a high-security prison, Alcatraz Island is one of the Bay Area’s most interesting tourist attractions. Take the ferry from Pier 41 and visit the dark cell blocks that were home to America’s most wanted criminals.

DISNEYLAND C

HOLLYWOOD G

Enter a magical kingdom where you can sail with pirates, explore exotic jungles, meet fairy-tale princesses, dive under the ocean and rocket through the stars—all in the same day! Disneyland Park has hundreds of rides such as Space Mountain, Indiana Jones Adventure, Matterhorn and Pirates of the Caribbean. A day in Disneyland is a day you will never forget!

You can stand in the footprints of Johnny Depp at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and then meet his strangely accurate wax model, along with Hugh Jackman, Lance Armstrong, and Brad and Angelina, all at Madame Tussauds Hollywood. Discover how films are made at the working movies studio at Universal Studios Hollywood, where there are also exciting park rides and shows.

VENICE BEACH

LOS ANGELES

D

H The World famous Venice Beach Boardwalk is not to be missed. If you are visiting the Los Angeles area, you owe it to yourself to come to Southern California’s number one visitor attraction. This is where skateboarding started, so you must visit the famous skate park right on the beach. Also watch the bodybuilders at Muscle Beach Gym, which is where Arnold

Have you ever wanted to record yourself? Now you can at the fascinating Grammy Museum. You can also learn how to dance like Michael Jackson, and find out about the links between blues and rap. The GRAMMY Museum explores and celebrates the enduring legacies of all forms of music; the creative process; the art and technology of the recording

Schwarzenegger started his career. Come and see for yourself!

process; and the history of the GRAMMY Awards, the premier recognition of recorded music accomplishment.

PART 3 Questions 11 – 15  Look at the statements below about the epidemiological situation in Chile.  Read the article to decide if each statement is true (T) or false (F).  If it is true, write T on your answer sheet.  If it is false, write F on your answer sheet. Example 0

The article is about the epidemiological situation in Chile.

Answer T

11 12

The country’s public health system is not effective in detecting AIDS. About 50 percent of infected patients’ notification failures can be proved.

13 14

Alvaro Erazo criticized the functioning of the epidemiological security system. The groups dealing with AIDS in Chile stated that 40,000 people weren't informed about the disease. The government stated that HIV-positive people were going to be informed in a confidential way.

15

Chile's health minister said that the country's public health system had failed to notify at least 512 people that they were infected with HIV, and that private-sector services did not inform an additional 1,364 that they were carrying the virus, which causes AIDS. Speaking to lawmakers in Santiago, the health minister, Alvaro Erazo, said that in about half of the cases there was no evidence that anyone tried to reach the patients. "There is no justification for that," Erazo told members of Chile's Congress. The health minister's admission came just weeks after his predecessor, Maria Soledad Barria, was forced to resign after revelations that a hospital in Iquique, in the north, had failed to notify dozens of patients that they were HIV-positive. Erazo stated that some of the notification problems resulted from a lack of coordination between the National AIDS Commission and the Health Ministry, and that epidemiological security "was not functioning". The Central Metropolitan Health Service in Santiago, the capital, said that it would open an investigation into the causes of the 107 cases of patients' not being notified under its jurisdiction. It expected to have results in two weeks. Two groups dealing with AIDS in Chile, Asosida, a coalition of nongovernmental groups, and Vivo Positive, said in a joint statement that the notifications scandal was "the worst health crisis that the country has been through in the last several years." The groups added that the negligence had been "a flagrant violation of human rights and of the right to life". Cecilia Sepulveda, the dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Chile, estimated that about 40,000 people in Chile do not know that they are infected with HIV. Meanwhile, the government said it was making an intense effort to locate and inform the patients of their status. Erazo vowed it would be done in as confidential a manner as possible. But that did not appear to be happening in every case. A 28-year-old man in Puerto Montt, a city south of the capital, told Radio Cooperative in Santiago that two health officials came to his workplace in an ambulance two weeks ago and, in the presence of his boss, told him he was HIVpositive. The following day, he said, his boss told him not to return to work.

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PART 4 Questions 16 – 20

 

Read the text and questions below. For each question (16 – 20), write the correct letter – A, B, C or D – on your answer sheet.

Example 0 The Gulf Conflict began with a conflict between

Answer A Iran and Iraq. B Iraq and Kuwait. C Iran and Saudi Arabia. D Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

A

Let us look at the background history for Gulf Conflict. Although we tend to call the 1990/91 conflict the Gulf War this was not the first Gulf war in this region. From 1980 to 1988 Iraqi fought a bloody war against its neighbour Iran. In 1980 Iraqi invaded over a border dispute over the ownership of the Shatt Al Arab waterway which borders the two countries. For years Iraqi steadily lost ground against the numerically superior but technologically inferior Iranians. In the 1988 the Iraqis changed tactics and by using chemical weapons, massive artillery bombardments and the Republican Guard it made rapid advances rolling back the Iranians until when the War ended they had gained 500 miles of territory. The Waterway was so clogged with silt and debris it was now useless. The war left Iraq with over $80 billion worth of debts mainly to Kuwait. It was these tactics of chemical and artillery bombardment, which the Coalition forces were expecting during the later Gulf war, and these debts, which were the seeds of that future conflict. By 1990 Iraq was in severe financial difficulties the price of oil was low and Iraq relied on this as its main source of income. It accused Kuwait of overproducing and flooding the market with cheap oil. Kuwait agreed to lower production but this failed to pacify Sadamm Hussain. He had a second grievance with Kuwait that of the Rumalia oil field in northern Kuwait. The Iraqis owed half this oil field and wanted the rest of it, so they accused the Kuwaitis of stealing oil from the Iraqi half of the oil field. With the Western powers focused on Europe and the end of the Cold War few paid much attention to the Iraqis threats to Kuwait. Even when conflict looked likely it was thought that if they did invade it would be for limited objectives such as the oil field. The only intelligence agency to predict the invasion was the CIA and then it was on the day before the Iraqis invaded. On 2nd Aug 1990 100,000 Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait spearhead by 3 divisions of the Republican Guard. It was well organized with Heli-bourne and Amphibious assaults, with Special Forces landing at key sites and ground controllers disguised as civilians going on ahead to direct Armour. The resistance was quickly crushed. Saddam Hussein then made his first big mistake, his forces stopped at the Saudi Arabian border. He had 130,000 men 1,200 tanks and 800 guns against only 72,000 Arabians, if he had invaded it would have provoked a stronger international response but with Arabian airfields and ports in his hands it would have made any liberation very difficult indeed. Maybe he was unable to support his forces logistically? Maybe he feared retaliation? No one knows, but this was to be possibly his only chance to win the War. By December 1990 it was clear the Iraqis were digging in, and foolishly throughout the following Coalition build up Saddam Hussein left their forces in Saudi Arabia unmolested.

16

In the beginning of the Iraqi-Iranian conflict

A B C D

Iranians had an advantage. the military tactics had been changing. Iranians used NBC’s. Iran lost a lot of territory.

17

According to the text, what caused the Gulf War A 1990-91? B C D

The aggression from coalition forces. US interest in cheap oil. Iraq’s international debts. Changing of international prices on oil.

18

In 1990 before the war

A B C D

Kuwait lowered oil prices. Iraq accused Kuwait in stealing the oil. Iraq overproduced Kuwait in oil. Kuwait invaded Saudi Arabia.

19

Before the war western countries

A underestimated Iraq’s intentions in the region. B paid no attention to intelligence warnings. C created coalition to invade Kuwait. D closely observed Iraqi preparation for the invasion.

20

According to the text, Iraqi leader made a mistake A when he gave the order to attack Coalition forces. B failed to invade Saudi Arabia. C neglected international response for an invasion. D Failed to support his forces logistically.

THIS IS THE END OF THE READING TEST.