THE CORPORATION FOR FINANCING AND

PROMOTING TECHNOLOGY

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ENGLISH TEST

Time allowed: 60 minutes

50 questions

PART ONE

You are going to read a magazine article about friendship. Choose from the list A-H the sentence which best summarizes each part (1-6) of the article. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Mark your answer on the separate answer sheet.

A Relationships with best friends provide more than just fun.

B Friendships with best friends develop naturally.

C Relationships with best friends continue for longer than other relationships.

D Relationships with best friends can become strained.

E It is easy to overcome problems in relationships between best friends.

F It’s a shame to go through life without a best friend.

G Best friends value their relationship with each other.

H People sometimes neglect their relationship with best friend.

The  joy of best  friends

we may complain and worry about love and romance, but how many of us spend time and effort on the one relationship that can make the difference between a rich and happy life and feeling lonely and depressed- the relationship we have with our best friend?

A relationship with a best friend may not match the highs and lows of a love affair, but in most cases it is a far more solid and reliable commiment, which will outlast even the most passionate romance. Debbie and Sally have been best friends since school. As teenagers they went shopping together on Saturday mornings and then sat in cafes all afternoon, giggling about the idiotic behaviour of the boys at school. Now in their early thirties, they talk on the phone two or three times a week and meet once a fortnight to catch up on each other’s lives. While boyfriends have come and gone, their friendship has outlasted them all.

‘Sally knows me better than anyone else,’ says Debbie. ‘When I get fed up and everything looks hopeless, she sits and listens when I tell her what’s getting me down. When we’ve had a good chat, or spent hours laughing, I go home feeling on top of the world.’ Sally feels the same. ‘A couple of years ago, Debbie was thinking of going to Australia to work. I was devastated. It made me realise how important our friendship is. I remember thinking that if she had decided to go, it would have been like losing my right arm.

While a night out with your closest friend might be the best guarantee of a good time, there is a serious side to all of this. Having a best friend to turn to and confide in can have positive effect on your emotional health. In fact, your best friend can prevent you from developing serious psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety, and if you do find yourself depressed, he or she can be the major force that enables you to get over it.

But best friendships aren’t all sweetness and light. As the old saying goes, ‘there’s a thin line between love and hate’, and the person you care about the most can also be the one who can hurt you most deeply. Jealousy and competition are major sources of difficulty. Two friends who have been close for years, sharing a similar lifstyle, can find their relationship threatened if one suddenly has a change in fortune.

Best friendships evolve with time- you cannot go out and pick your best friend. We become friends with someone usually because we spend more time with them than with anyone else, and because we can confide in them intimately.

Best friends have usually known each other for years and stuck together through good and bad times. If you haven’t got one, perhaps you are being too distant with people, or focusing too much on work or love affairs. That’s a sad loss, because a best friend gives the best relationship many people ever have.

PART TWO

For questions 7-21 read the text below and then choose the best answers. Put the letter you choose for each question in the correct box on your answer sheet. The exercise begins with an example (0).

The Body Clock

Scientists used to believe that our 24-hour cycle of sleeping and waking was (0)… entirely by external factors. The most notable of these, they thought, were the rising and (7)… of the sun. But they have now (8)… that there is a daily rhythm to a (9)… range of biological functions- including temperature, digestion and mental (10)… – which are regulated internally by a special time-keeping mechanism within the brain.

The main function of this ‘body clock’ is to anticipate and (11)… for external changes so that, for example, our body temperature starts to rise (12)… dawn, gearing us up for the day, and begins to (13)… in the early evening, winding us down for sleep.

Some people’s body clocks (14)… poorer time than others, which can greatly disturb their lives and even (15)… their health. Insomnia, depression, fatigue, poor work performance and even accidents can all be (16)… or aggravated by inaccurate body clocks.

(17)… severe problems can result from the difficulties of (18)… to different time zones and working by night instead of day. Shift workers are known to run a higher-than-average (19)… of having a number of health problems and the disruption of (20)… body rhythms is one possible (21) … for this.

0          A conducted              B steered                    C governed                D managed

7          A descending B diving C plunging D setting

8          A established B fixed C settled D assured

9          A wide B various C far D grand

10        A operation B activity C process D occupation

11        A dispose B scheme C steady D prepare

12        A beside B approximately C around D nearly

13        A fall B reduce C lessen D subtract

14        A keep B hold C support D preserve

14        A decline B spoil C injure D threaten

16        A put                          B formed C caused D made

17        A Parallel B Equally C Alike D Compared

18        A altering B adjusting C fitting D suiting

19        A risk B danger C threat D hazard

20        A common B conditional C normal D used

21        A explanation B solution C account D source

PART THREE

Read the following passage and choose the best answers to the questions 22-34

It was the Victorians who were really obsessed with travel. They lived at a time when travel really did harden the body and improve the spirit. It took a rare breed of men to trudge through some malaria-infested swamp in a pith helmet after the native bearers had drunk all the whisky, stolen the rations and run off with the compass.

Since then, travelers have thought of themselves as faintly noble and they look down on mere tourists who stay in comfortable hotels and ride in air-conditioned buses. To travelers it is a mark of pride to suffer as much as possible. They get a perverse joy from spending all day squatting over a sordid cesspit.

Paul Theroux, a best-selling travel writer is one of the people caught up in the myth: “The nearest thing to writing a novel is traveling in a strange country.” Travel, he declares, is a creative act. It isn’t. It may be fun. It may be interesting, but travelers get no insight into eternal truths.

Travellers learn a lot about shopping (good in Singapore, bad in China). They learn how to avoid the young boys that follow you everywhere begging (look at them with a condescending smile). They discover how to find apension in Spain or what sort of Mexican food to sample. In doing so they find out very little about Orientals, Spaniards or Mexicans. A knowledge of Indian railway time tables and hotel prices is not the same as understanding Indian culture. Travellers acquire useless  skills, such as how to make trivial conversation with new acquaintances- discussing cameras or makes of car is a sure-fire way of provoking long and boring discussions. Many people use travel as an idiotic form of escapism. Oxford graduates, who would not be remotely interested in getting to know British working-class people on council estates, find it uplifting to go sightseeing among the poor of the Third World.

The worst travelers are the long-term ones- often people with personal problems who are keen, not so much to see the world, as to avoid returning home. As a rule, the only people who travel for more than a year are simpletons, social inadequates, or New Zealanders.

Travel can sometimes close the mind altogether. I once hitched a lift with a van-load of Aborigines. They had already picked up a hitch-hiker who had been traveling round the world for four years. He had no fixed home and no fixed job and didn’t care what his next destination was.

I-          Which adjective best sums up the mood of the passage?

22. A  hilarious               B  disparaging             C  superficial               D  argumentative

Choose the best answer to the questions below.

23. Those of us who are best adventurous in our attitude towards traveling should feel

A  guilty

B  reassured

C  self-satisfied

D  resentful

24. To the Victorians travel was something

A  addictive

B  commonplace

C  to be avoided

D  compulsory

25. Modern travelers have a tendency to regard themselves as

A  scapegoats

B  casualties

C  tormentors

D  martyrs

26. The knowledge travelers have of the world is

A  imperative

B  inaccurate

C  insufficient

D  invaluable

27. The writer dismisses the motives of many travelers as being

A  paradoxical

B  unadventurous

C  inexplicable

D  uninteresting

28. The hitch-hiker’s main interest is

A  the beauty spots of the world

B somewhere to sleep

C  the length of time he had been traveling

D  the desire to put down roots somewhere

III- These words appear in the article. They are all used in a negative sense. Read them again and then use them to complete the sentences below.

A. idiotic               B. obsessed                 C. infested                  D. perverse

E. sordid                     F. condescending                    G. trivial

1. The government spokeman addressed the press in a very superior, _____ tone.
2. Robbing the rich to help the poor always seemed _____ logic to me.
3. Politicians are invariably _____ with their own self-importance.
4. The orphaned children were squatting on the floor of one of the most _____ -looking buildings I have ever seen.
5. Pulling the alarm for a joke was a particularly _____ thing to do.
6. I once shared a flat which had a cockroach-_____ kitchen.
7. Please don’t bother me with _____ matters when I am about to make one of the most important decisions of my life!

PART FOUR

You are going to read a series of interviews in a magazine, in which people talk about what they like and dislike about London. For questions 36-50, choose from the people A-F. Some of the people may be chosen more than once. When more than one answer is required, these may be given in any order. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Which of the people A-F

Tell me about it …

BEN SHARRATT took to the streets of London to ask what people love and hate about it

A  Beverley, 25

I love the street life. In Camden, the area where I work, there are a lot of people doing their own thing, selling things they’ve made themselves. In the summer it’s really lively and people are out until late. But new regulations mean that many street traders aren’t allowed to go there any more. It’s pretty sad. It annoys me, because they are doing nothing wrong, just trying to make a living. It’s a real shame because that’s what Camden’s all about.

The biggest improvement you could make to London would be to ban people wearing sunglasses on the Underground! It really annoys me.

B  Miranda, 22

Rent is really expensive here. I’m paying £70 a week, which in relation to my wage is a lot. Before this I was living more centrally and paying £80 a week, which wasn’t worth it at all. The more central the part you live in, the more you pay. That’s normal in any place, but especially so here. In London you get practically half the salary you would get in Australia, where I come from, while still paying the same rent.

It’s a beautiful city with lots of galleries and shops . But the standard of living is much higher in Australia.

C  Bernice, 20

You can’t beat London’s parks. The rest of the city is a bit too busy, especially the centre of town. Hyde Park is my favourite; it’s a nice, big, green space.

The worst thing is all the traffic and fumes on the roads. I wouldn’t ride a bike in central London, I’m not that brave. I’m for having more pedestrian- only streets; it would be safer, cleaner and quieter.

D  Jane, 29

There’s too much litter and dirt on the streets. It’s like the whole city needs to be washed from top to bottom. London’s got a lot of life, but to tell you the truth, if I never came here again it wouldn’t really bother me. When I was younger, I thought it was great. I did all the clubs and everything, but now I’m hitting 30, that’s all over. When I come up by car for an evening out, I spend the wholetime worrying about whether I’ve parked where I shouldn’t.

E  Cassandra, 34

The educational opportunities are excellent. You can study anything that you are interested in and there are so many facilities like clubs, museums and exhibitions. In the city where I used to live, there was a total lack of things like that. The transport system is pretty bad, though. It means, if I go out late, I have to go somewhere where it won’t be too expensive in a taxi.

A four-day working week would do a lot to improve life in London for everyone.

F  Sarah, 25

It’s nice to be in the park in the middle of all the chaos and just spend lunch time sitting and talking it easy. Or at an open-air swimming pool- anything to get away from the rush. At my previous job in another town, there was no where you could go to get away from it all.

I only travel into London each day for the money and my career. When I’m commuting, my brain just switchs off until I get into town and into work.