Reading and Use of English: Practice Exam Answers (26th May 2016)

 

Hi everyone. 

Unfortunately, I'm not able to make it into school for the rest of the week, and so tonight's final CPE class will have to be cancelled. 

I have some copies of the Reading and Use of English exams that some of you did last week with me at home, while I've left some at work, so I thought the best thing to do would be to publish the activities, along with the answers, here on the blog. Below are the full texts for Parts 1 and 2 (Use of English), along with the correct answer for each question. For Parts 3 and 4, follow the links below, where you'll find the relevant tasks from last week's exam, as well as many other similar tasks that I'd advise you work through.

I'm in the process of locating and putting together answer sheets for Parts 5, 6 and 7 of last week's exam (the reading parts), so keep an eye on the blog over the next day or two.

I'm also going to put together a check-list for each writing genre that you might find in the writing section of the exam - again, all of this should be on the blog very soon! 

Reading and use of English: Part One

Photography at its most daring

Photographers who have (0) WORKED so close to volcanoes that their clothes started to burn, come within stroking (1) DISTANCE of tigers in the wild, or dived under the sea ice freezing cold water have (2) JOINED forces for an exhibition, (3) BILLED as displaying images from the harshest places on Earth.

Polar bears and seals were (4) CAPTURED on camera by a photographer who grew up in the Arctic and trained as a (5) MARINE biologist. He dives under the sea ice to swim with his subjects, once offending a leopard seal by (6) REFUSING the penguin she tried to feed him with. Another exhibitor has recorded not only tigers but also chimpanzees that had never before encountered human beings. The volcano enthusiasts work in fireproof suits, always at risk of becoming so (7) TRANSFIXED by the beauty of the eruptions that they venture too close. There are invisible pockets of gas as well as flames, all of which contribute to the (8) PERILS of being an extreme photographer.

Reading and Use of English: Part Two

Altering the modern mind

A recently published book claims that the (0) AMOUNT of time we spend on the Internet is changing the very structure of our brains. Its thesis is simple enough: not only that the modern world's relentless informational overload is killing our capacity (9) FOR reflection, contemplation and patience, but that our online habits are also altering the way our brains are wired.

In the book, the author looks (10) BACK on such human inventions as the map and the clock and the (11) EXTENT to which they influenced our essential models of thought. He argues that the Internet's multiplicity of stimuli and mass of information have (12) GIVEN rise to hurried and distracted thinking. Without putting too fine a point on it, the author concludes that our ability to learn (13) ANYTHING at all worthwhile has become superficial. Surprisingly very (14) LITTLE research has looked into the Internet's effects on the brain, but further research is (15) IN hand and is investigating whether deep-thinking processes really are in (16) DANGER of disappearing.

Reading and Use of English: Part Three

Reading and Use of English: Part Four