Reading Practice Test 2 [C2]

Part 1

– 8 questions –

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).

0 A. descriptive B. imaginary C. fabled D. legendary

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ADVENTURE TRAVEL

Wilfred Thesinger, the (0) …D… explorer once said, ‘We live our lives second-hand’. Sadly, his words are true for far too many of us, as we (1) ………. in front of the television, (2) ………. in ‘reality’ television, living our adventures through the words and pictures of others. But it does not have to be that way – there are more opportunities than ever for taking a break from our increasingly sanitised lives and exploring not only some exotic (3) ………. of the globe, but also our own abilities and ambitions. The kind of first-hand experience whose loss Thesinger laments is still available for anyone willing to forsake the beaten (4) ………. , and put their mind to (5) ………. into the less explored regions of this (6) …………planet.

The (7) ………. in travel in recent years has been towards what is known as adventure travel. But adventure doesn’t have to involve physical exertion; be it haggling over a souvenir in Peru, or getting lost in the labyrinthine passages of a Moroccan souk, it all (8) ………. .

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Part 2

– 8 questions –

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

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My new friend’s a robot

Part 3

– 8 questions –

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 space in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).

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POWER NAPS

Part 4

-6 questions-

For questions 25 – 30, complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given.

Do not change the word given. You must use between three and eight words, including the word given. Here is an example (0)

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Part 5

-6 questions-

You are going to read an extract from a novel. For questions 31 – 36, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

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Lucy gets a new job on a newspaper

It was a precarious period for her where her own fortunes were concerned. She had to rely on freelance work for six months after the quality weekly magazine folded. The regular salary cheque had always seemed derisively small, but now it was like lost riches. Doggedly, she wrote letters and telephoned and peppered editors with unsolicited articles and suggestions. Sometimes she struck lucky and got a commission. She wrote a profile of a woman politician who appreciated her fair-minded approach and tipped her off about a local government row in a complacent cathedral town. Lucy went there, investigated, talked to people and wrote a piece exposing a rich cauldron of corruption which was snapped up by a national daily newspaper. This in turn led to a commission to investigate the controversial siting of a theme park in the north of England. Her article was noticed by the features editor in search of something sharp and bracing on the heritage industry in general. She was getting a name for abrasive comment, for spotting an issue and homing in upon it. Anxiously, she scoured the press for hints of impending issues. In this trade, she saw, you needed not so much to be abreast of things as ahead of them, lying in wait for circumstance, ready to pounce.

But an article sold every week or two did not pay the bills. She began to contemplate, bleakly, a return to the treadmill of proofreading and copy-editing. And then one day she walked into the offices of the national daily which had taken her cauldron of corruption piece and whose features editor had since looked kindly upon her. Having handed over a speculative piece on the latest educational theories she’d written, she fell into conversation with an acquaintance and learned that one of the paper’s regular columnists had fallen foul of the editor and departed in a cloud of dust. The column, traditionally addressed to matters of the moment and written so as to provoke attention and controversy, was untethered, so to speak. Lucy made the necessary phone call before her nerve went.

She was asked to submit a piece as a trial run which they published. ‘Great,’ they said. ‘We’ll let you know,’ they said. ‘Soon,’ they assured her, ‘really very soon.’ She chewed her nails for a fortnight; a seasoned hack was given a trial run after her; she read his contribution which, she saw with absolute clarity, was succinct, incisive and original. Or just possibly anodyne, banal and plodding.

And then, the phone call came. She’d have a weekly column with her own by-line and her photograph, postage-stamp size, next to it. There’d be a salary cheque, and perhaps fame and success to follow that. Thinking more pragmatically, she realised that the job presented her with not only a wonderful opportunity but also the inevitable pressure of keeping up with the twists and turns of events to which she must supply a perceptive commentary.

‘A start,’ she said to her mother, Maureen, and Bruce, her step-father. ‘It’s a start anyway, but they could fire me at any moment.’

‘Just let them try,’ said Maureen belligerently. ‘I think you’re better with your hair a bit shorter. Or maybe that’s not a very flattering picture. I think you’re very clever. You did some lovely essays at school. I wonder if I’ve still got any of them somewhere.’

‘Just let them try,’ said Maureen belligerently. ‘I think you’re better with your hair a bit shorter. Or maybe that’s not a very flattering picture. I think you’re very clever. You did some lovely essays at school. I wonder if I’ve still got any of them somewhere.’

And so it began, that time during which she was so feverishly hitched to the affairs of public life that in retrospect it was to seem as though she hurtled from day to day with the onward rush of the news, denied any of the lethargy of individual existence.

31. After losing her job, how did Lucy feel about the salary she used to earn?

32. Lucy thinks the secret of success as a freelance journalist is to…………………

33. What made Lucy decide to apply for a job on the national daily?

34. It is suggested that Lucy’s mother Maureen……………………..

35. On reflection, how did Lucy account for the fact that she got the job?

36. The impression given of the editor is that he is………………………………

Part 6

-7 questions-

You are going to read an extract from an article. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A – H the one which fits each gap (37 – 43). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

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A

To add to our woes, there was no wood nearby with which to make a fire and it was a long, slow wait for the rice to boil over smouldering dried cowpats. But we didn’t dwell on our loss, accepting it in typically Malagasy fashion as the work of fate.

B

Cloud hung over us all day and we used our plastic sheets as raincoats, for the drizzle was unremitting. This was perhaps the toughest bit of droving: being wet all day, sleeping in damp bedding. Even the cattle seemed depressed as they bowed their heads into the rain. But the constant rain did not dampen my enthusiasm for the droving life.

C

Children clamber on the fences and point out their favourites, learning to spot strengths and weaknesses; cattle barons stand quietly eyeing up the steers and making silent calculations. We sold ours to a buyer from Antananarivo, who took them on to supply the capital’s meat markets. Not wishing to take that route, Vonjy and I joined another group of drovers taking a herd of smaller cattle to the western highlands.

D

We hit it off immediately, and after 20 minutes talking cattle, we took a truck to the isolated market town of Ambatomainty, where we joined some of his family, who were going to buy cattle to drive east into the highlands.

E

Surrounded by curious children, we exchanged little formal speeches of farewell, reflecting on our time together, the companionship and laughter, the meals shared and the happy memories we would keep in spite of the distance that would now separate us. With a plaintive song, the drovers wished us goodbye and we left them to their trading.

F

On one occasion, a politician was giving a speech in the main street when a long-distance drive passed through. The listeners’ attention switched immediately to admiring the cattle and greeting the drovers; young men in rice fields downed spades and ran to the roadside; the schoolmaster let the children out of class and the boys whooped with glee and ran alongside. The politician’s promises fell on deaf ears.

G

The drovers knew better than to work these smaller steers too hard, and if we came across a river, we often set up camp before sunset. With the cattle grazing nearby, we slept soundly in our makeshift tents, the full moon shining brightly above.

H

Ours were ultimately destined for Antananarivo, the Malagasy capital, where they would fetch roughly twice what we had paid for them. Joining up with other herds for safety, we drove them for days under a blazing sun. I’d imagined we would stop in the early evening to set up camp, but such was our hurry to make market day in Tsiroanomandidy that we often kept going well after sunset.

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Part 7

-10 questions-

You are going to read an extract from a book on photography. For questions 44 – 53, choose from the sections (A – E). The sections may be chosen more than once.

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Photography

A historical background

A

Over the past one and a half centuries, photography has been used to record all aspects of human life and activity. During this relatively short history, the medium has expanded its capabilities in the recording of time and space, thus allowing human vision to be able to view the fleeting moment or to visualise both the vast and the minuscule. It has brought us images from remote areas of the world, distant parts of the solar system, as well as the social complexities and crises of modern life. Indeed, the photographic medium has provided one of the most important and influential means of capturing the essence of our being alive. Nonetheless, the recording of events by means of the visual image has a much longer history. The earliest creations of pictorial recording go as far back as the Upper Palaeolithic period of about 35,000 years ago and, although we cannot be sure of the exact purposes of the early cave paintings, pictorial images seem to be inextricably linked to human culture as we understand it.

B

Throughout the history of visual representation, questions have been raised concerning the supposed accuracy (or otherwise) of visual images, as well as their status in society. Ideas and debates concerning how we see the world and the status of its pictorial representations have been central political, philosophical and psychological issues from the time of Ancient Greece to the present-day technical revolution of the new media communications. Vision and representation have pursued interdependent trajectories, counter-influencing each other throughout history. The popular notion that ‘seeing is believing’ had always afforded special status to the visual image. So when the technology was invented, in the form of photography, the social and cultural impact was immense. Not only did it hold out the promise of providing a record of vision, but it had the capacity to make such representation enduring.

C

In the mid-nineteenth century, the invention of photography appeared to offer the promise of ‘automatically’ providing an accurate visual record.
It was seen not only as the culmination of visual representation but, quite simply, the camera was regarded as a machine that could provide a fixed image. And this image was considered to be a very close approximation to that which we actually see. Because of the camera’s perceived realism in its ability to replicate visual perception, it was assumed that all peoples would ‘naturally’ be able to understand photographs. This gave rise to the question of whether photography constituted a ‘universal language’. For example, a photograph of the heavens, whether it showed the sun and moon or the constellations, would immediately be understood in any part of the world. In the face of the rapid increase in global communications, we do need at least to ask to what extent the photographic image can penetrate through cultural differences in understanding.

D

There are other questions that arise concerning the role of photography in society that have aimed to determine whether the camera operates as a mute, passive recorder of what is happening or whether it possesses the voice and power to instigate social change. We may further speculate whether the camera provides images that have a truly educational function or if it operates primarily as a source of amusement. In provoking such issues, the photographic debate reflects polarised arguments that traditionally have characterised much intellectual thought.

E

The last 170 years have witnessed an ever-increasing influence of the visual image, culminating in the global primacy of television. For
photography, the new prospects and uncertainties posed by digital storage and manipulation, and the transmission of images via the internet present new challenges. It has even been suggested that we now inhabit the ‘post-photographic era’ – where technological and cultural change have devalued photography to such an extent that events have taken us beyond the photograph’s use and value as a medium of communication. Furthermore, perhaps we should be asking if the advent of digital imagery means that photography, initially born from painting, has turned full circle and has now returned to emulating painting – its progenitor.