Advanced Level Exam Paper 'B'

LOS CURSOS DE INGLES GRATIS PREFERIDOS POR LOS HISPANOHABLANTES

 

TIME ALLOWED (PARTS I AND II): 3 hours 15 minutes

SECTION B
Use of English

1.

Read the article below and choose the alternative which best fits each space. 

I'M ON A HEALTHY DIET, AND I'LL STICK TO IT IF IT KILLS ME 

I am in a state of intense neurotic anxiety since it appears that everything I have eaten for the past 43 years  1 me. Although I have not yet succumbed to heart attack, cancer or terminal indigestion, it is plainly only a matter of time. I woke up the other night in a cold sweat. I had dreamed  my own funeral. As my cortege passed solemnly along Kentish Town Road, my plain pine coffin borne to its final resting place, I distinctly heard the undertaker confide to his assistant: "It was the bacon sandwiches that killed him."
Will I 
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this happen? I will not. I have resolved to change utterly my diet, bringing it into strict conformity with government advice. I have therefore given  4 the following: Mars bars, sausages, fried eggs, Big Macs, butter, cheese, beer, wine, sugar, tea, coffee, milk pastries, doughnuts, pepperoni pizza, salt-beef sandwiches with mustard and Sunday roasts.
It is true that these foods, from all the basic food groups, have nourished and sustained me these many years. From now on, however, I am going to eat only those foods which have been officially sanctioned by government officials as safe to eat. I will satisfy my hunger with bean sprouts, honey, bean curd, garlic, alfalfa, prunes and three egg-sized potatoes a day. I may thus be granted, if not immortality, then 
a modest extension, and I shall not, grow to need a cardiologist on full-time standby.
The preparations for my new regimen have been rigorous. I spent much of Thursday afternoon 
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the metropolis for egg-sized potatoes. Taking an egg from my refrigerator, for I shall have  further use for it except as a guide to potato size, I  8  my way to the local supermarket. Turning my back on the steaks and the chocolate cakes flown in from America, I was determined  9  twenty-one appropriately sized potatoes – rations for a week.
What the Government does not tell you is that potatoes, and eggs are dimensionally dissimilar. Well, perhaps an ostrich egg and a King Edward potato are proportionally related, but a size 2 egg bears no relation to any potato variety on offer.
Necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to buy normal potatoes and to mash them into egg-sized portions. This is where I ran 
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my first difficulty. After boiling the one large potato that I meant  11 into three egg-sized modules, I reached for the masher and ground away. Then I turned to the fridge for the butter and milk and a terrible realization dawned that these were banned.
Frantic, I tried to form the potato crumble into egg-sized helpings - without success. Margarine was out: linked by a Harvard professor to thousands of heart-attack deaths via its high content of fatty acids. Perhaps a little olive oil (officially approved) would work: I added it to the mash. Now it was all slimy, but it stuck together and though its taste is perhaps to be acquired, as I ate it I felt immediately stronger. My heart beat with renewed vigour.
Next to the oily fish for the day. Sardines were my choice. Unfortunately, opening the tin, I also opened a two-inch gash in my hand and although this has subsequently become infected, the doctor assures me that if I take the penicillin, I 
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to be able to regain the use of it within a couple of weeks.
I thought I 
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end my meal with an apple, but the fruiterer was selling only French varieties and naturally I was  14 to buy any, since it is well known that the French treat their apples with a substance which has been found to cause cancer in mice.
Since starting my new diet I am sure I am on the road to a healthier, more fulfilling and longer life. And not a day passes that I do not give thanks to the government, without whose valued advice I would surely already be
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.

2.

Rewrite the following sentences using the beginning provided. 
BOTH SENTENCES should have THE SAME MEANING.

1.

I think the government should stop pulling old buildings down.

In my opinion it's time  .

2.

"You'd better get a bike as using public transport is quite complicated," he said.

I was advised  .

3.

I suppose he was in the garden, mowing the lawn when he hurt himself.

He must  .

4.

It seems that she has lost her way.

She seems   .

5.

As he is an engineer, he has a great deal of experience with machines.

Being  .

6.

They were exhausted because they had been playing tennis.

If  .

7.

In order to be fit, get up earlier and take some exercise.

Try  .

8.

I don't care how clever he is, he can still make mistakes like everyone else.

No matter  .

9.

It really makes me feel quite uncomfortable to be in a room where everybody is shouting.

I can't stand  .

10.

Although some organisations try very hard to protect some species, they are not always successful.

In spite 
.

 

 

3.

Put the verbs in brackets in the correct tense. USE MODALS IF NECESSARY. 

When Jackson and I first met a couple of years back, on foot safari in hills near the Masai Mara, he was working as a tracker. He gave me a spear-throwing lesson, showed me buffalo tracks and toothbrush bushes, and told me a long campfire tale about little children lost in the forest. If I hadn't taken this particular safari tour, I (never/hear)  of him. In the course of one of our walks, he had expressed the conviction that every man (have)  a wife and - as if anxious (prove)  his case - invited me to his wedding. I said I (not miss)  it for the whole world.
These rash statements have a habit of (catch)  up on you. I was almost half a world away, in England, when the invitation finally arrived. Jackson, by now, (work)  in Narok, a fastgrowing settlement on the Nairobi road that (one day/be)  Maisaland's first metropolis. But he had maintained close links with his former employer, the independent safari operator, Ron Beaton. Ron suggested I (stay)  at his farm, and accompany him to the festivities. I chose the most useful wedding present I could think of, packed my bags and flew down to Nairobi, wondering what on earth to wear on the big day. I thought I had some idea of what to expect, although nothing is certain in Africa. Jackson's family belongs to the Ndorobo, a tribe who used to (be)  hunters, but have now resettled near Masailand, making themselves useful in small ways , such as by collecting wild honey. Their former way of life (remember)  only by anthropologists.
For Jackson's wedding, I imagined a trip to a remote upland village, there to meet young women dressed top-to-toe in bright beads. We would, no doubt, soon be dancing round a huge fire while whole cows were roasted on spits. The realities of modern-day Kenya quickly dispelled this fantasy.

SECTION C
Writing

You must do BOTH exercise 1 and exercise 2.

1.

Write a composition of about 150 words beginning:
A few days after the interview I received a letter ...

2.

You must write about 150 words on ONE of the following topics:

a) 96% of dangerous drivers are men.
b) Holidays are much more than a good sun-tan.
d) International sporting events do more harm than good.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS TO SECTIONS "A" AND "B".

 

HOW TO SELF-EVALUATE THIS EXAM: 
Section A - Exercise 1a: Score 1.5 (one and a half) points for each correct answer.
Section A - Exercise 1b: Score 5 (five) points for each correct answer.
Section A - Exercise 2: Score 1.5 (one and a half) points for each correct answer.
Section B - Exercise 1: Score 1 (one) point for each correct answer.
Section B - Exercise 2: Score 2 (two) points for each correct answer.
Section B - Exercise 3: Score 2 (two) points for each correct answer.

FINAL SCORE FOR SECTIONS "A" AND "B"
Check your final score with this list: 90-100 points: A or Excellent; 80-89 points: B or Very Good; 70-79 points: C or Fair; 69 or below: Need to review grammar. 

 

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