Developing English Language Skills /
English Language Framework Level 4
January 2016
Written Examination
This paper contains sections on Language in Use, Reading and
Writing.
You may complete the sections in any order.
Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
The maximum mark for this paper is 100.
Any reference material brought into the examination room must be
handed to the invigilator before the start of the examination.
All answers must be written in the answer booklet provided. Do NOT
write on this paper.
Section A – Language in Use
Answer ALL questions
Marks
Question 1
Narrative tenses
Put the verb in brackets into the correct tense.
Example:
When we ________ (arrive) at the station, the train had already left.
When we arrived at the station, the train had already left.
a)
I ________ (learn) French for two years so far, but I still can’t speak it very well.
1
b) At 9 o’clock last night, I _________ (enjoy) a lovely dinner.
1
c)
1
Yesterday, I overslept because I ________ (stay) out late the night before.
d) I could tell by his red face that he _________ (run).
1
e)
I _______ (leave) school when I was 18 years old.
1
f)
I was surprised to see him because I thought he ______ (be) on holiday.
1
Total 6 Marks
Question 2
Vocabulary – travel
Complete the sentences by putting ONE (1) word in each gap.
Example:
You need to ________ in your luggage when you get to the airport.
You need to check in your luggage when you get to the airport.
a)
Would you like an aisle seat or a ________ seat?
1
b) It was such a long journey that I suffered from jet ______.
1
c)
1
Our flight was ________ by three hours.
d) We had to fasten our _____ belts before take off.
1
e)
We couldn’t get a _______ flight, so we have to change in London.
1
f)
The cabin _________ were very polite and made us feel welcome on board.
1
Total 6 Marks
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Question 3
Grammar – active and passive voice
Fill the gaps in the second sentences so that they mean the same as the first. Write
NO MORE THAN THREE (3) words in each gap.
Example:
They are painting our house at the moment.
Our house ____________ at the moment.
Our house is being painted at the moment.
a)
The police can arrest you for driving without a licence.
You ____________ for driving without a licence.
1
b) A meeting will be held tomorrow to discuss the matter.
They __________ a meeting tomorrow to discuss the matter.
1
c)
1
They are going to close the local cinema.
The local cinema is going _____________.
d) If the prize isn’t won this week, it will go into next week’s draw.
If no-one ________ the prize this week, it will go into next week’s draw.
1
e)
People say that the president is going to resign.
It _________ that the president is going to resign.
1
f)
Somebody has stolen my bike.
My bike ____________.
1
Total 6 Marks
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Question 4
Vocabulary – mind
Complete the sentences below by adding ONE (1) word to each gap.
Example:
You need to hurry and make _____ your mind.
You need to hurry and make up your mind.
a)
I’ve ________ my mind. I don’t want to go out anymore.
1
b) You are very quiet. I think there’s something _______ your mind.
c)
1
My mind went completely ________ in the interview. I couldn’t think of anything
to say.
d) I lost the match. _______ mind. There’s always next year.
1
1
e)
That’s a personal question. You should mind your own _______.
1
f)
I am trying to think of an answer, but nothing comes _______ mind.
1
Total 6 Marks
Question 5
Grammar – word forms
Complete the sentences by writing the adjective form of the nouns in brackets.
Example:
There is a very _______ (power) engine in this car.
There is a very powerful engine in this car.
a)
I was feeling quite ________ (nerve) before the performance.
1
b) These animals can be very ________ (aggression) if provoked.
1
c)
1
There is a _________ (psychology) aspect to competing in any sport.
d) I am very ________ (enthusiasm) about this new project.
1
e)
We are trying to implement a more ________ (efficiency) system.
1
f)
This is a ________ (hope) situation, I’m afraid.
1
Total 6 Marks
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Question 6
Pronunciation – syllable stress
For each word write the number of the syllable which is stressed. If the stress is on
the first syllable, write ‘1’, if the stress is on the second syllable write ‘2’, and so on.
Example:
impressive
2
a)
unhealthy
1
b) exaggeration
1
c)
1
unnecessary
d) importantly
1
e)
contemplate
1
f)
opportunity
1
Total 6 Marks
Question 7
Vocabulary – phrasal verbs
In each sentence, there is ONE (1) unnecessary word. Write that word.
Example:
You will pick it up the language fairly quickly when you go there.
it
a)
I hope you get up over it soon and feel ready to come back to work.
1
b) I am trying to deal out with a few issues at the moment.
1
c)
1
I get along well to with my sister.
d) I am tired so I am going to lie over down for a while.
1
e)
Can you pick me up from at the station this evening?
1
f)
I think we all need to sleep in on it and come back tomorrow.
1
Total 6 Marks
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Question 8
Grammar – conditionals
Complete the sentences below by putting the verbs into the correct form and adding
NO MORE THAN THREE (3) words to each gap.
Example:
If I _________ (study) more, I ________ (pass) my exams, but unfortunately I failed.
If I had studied more, I would have passed my exams, but unfortunately I failed.
a)
We _________ (play) football later if it _________ (be) sunny.
2
b) If I _______ (be) you, I ________ (not go) out wearing those shoes.
2
c)
2
I ________ (not go) out if I _______ (know) that the restaurant was closed. I had
a wasted journey.
Total 6 Marks
Question 9
Vocabulary – business
Complete the sentences by adding ONE (1) word to each gap. The first letter is
given.
Example:
We have carried out some m______ research recently.
We have carried out some market research recently.
a)
We are going to launch our new p______ next week.
1
b) I have got a meeting at h______ office tomorrow.
1
c)
1
We pride ourselves on our great customer s______.
d) We made a loss last year, but hopefully we’ll make a p______ this year.
1
e)
Our company is being taken o_______ by another company.
1
f)
It was not a successful business and so it closed d_______.
1
Total 6 Marks
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Question 10
Grammar – articles
Complete the sentences by writing ‘a’, ‘an’ or ‘the’ in each gap. Write ‘0’ if you think
there should be nothing in the gap.
Example:
_____ president is making a speech on TV.
The president is making a speech on TV.
a)
I like music from _____ 1980s.
1
b) Do you have to wear _____ uniform at your school?
1
c)
1
I want to study in ______ UK.
d) There are lot of shops on ______ Oxford street.
1
e)
I go to the gym twice _____ week.
1
f)
Can you come back in half ______ hour?
1
Total 6 Marks
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Developing English Language Skills / ELF Level 4
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Section B – Reading
Answer ALL questions
Case Study 1
A speedaholic
Read the text and answer the questions below.
1
John Earl is 25 and addicted to speed – an intoxicating combination of high-powered
engines, testosterone and youth. ‘It’s not the speed exactly,’ he says. ‘It’s the adrenaline.
It’s the buzz you get when you go fast.’
2
But if you regularly drive at 120mph (190kph) on a public road, sooner or later you’re going
to get caught, and today John is one of a dozen speeders attending a new programme
designed to cure them of their need for speed. It is similar to programmes used to treat
other types of addicts. At the beginning of the course the participants are asked to
introduce themselves and admit that they have a problem. ‘Hello, my name’s John, and
I’m a speedaholic.’
3
The speedaholics course is for serious and habitual offenders, and is offered as an
alternative to getting points on your licence. ‘It is based on research into the attitudes of
young drivers and bikers,’ says Chris Burgess, a psychology lecturer at Exeter University,
who created the programme. There are courses for both car drivers and motorcyclists.
‘There is an element of addiction in this sort of behaviour,’ says Burgess. ‘It’s sensationseeking, it’s taking risks, looking for that buzz, but ignoring the potentially fatal
consequences. They all have the feeling that although other people get injured and even
die, ‘it’s not going to happen to me’.
4
Today’s course, which is for motorcyclists, is led by Inspector Robin Derges, a police
officer who is a senior investigator of road deaths and a keen biker himself. After
introducing themselves, the speeders are asked to explain why they were stopped and to
give details of any accidents they’ve had. They range in age from 18 to mid-forties and
most were caught doing at least 20mph (36kph) over the speed limit. Derges gets straight
to the point. ‘Motorcyclists make up just 1% of all the vehicles on the road, but 33% of all
deaths and serious injuries happen to motorcyclists. Unless something changes, if we
meet up here in a year’s time, one of you will be dead.’
5
Says Derges ‘We want to give them a sense of their own vulnerability, their human
limitations, and to help them make a realistic assessment of the risks involved. It’s not
about stopping people from enjoying riding, it’s about preventing deaths.’ Towards the end
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of the day he asks the class to write down their worst experience on the road, their
potential risk areas, and what they need to remember to keep themselves alive. ‘The
problem is that people get on their bikes and suddenly think they’re professional racers,’
says John.
6
Standing in the car park at the end of the course, the bikers seem to have taken
everything they have heard very seriously. John admits ‘It’s certainly made me more
aware. I know I sometimes behave like an idiot. But that’s not to say I won’t forget all
about it in a few weeks’ time.’ Burgess knows this, so before leaving, each of them is given
a metal key ring engraved with a cross-section of a head inside a helmet. It is to remind
them of a part of the course that explained what can happen to the brain in a collision.
‘The idea is that they will see the key ring when they are riding and it will make them think
twice,’ says Burgess.
(Adapted from English File Upper Intermediate Page 40)
Question 1
Match the numbers of paragraphs 1 to 6 with the headings (a) to (h) below. You will not
need TWO (2) headings.
a)
A programme grounded in evidence
b) How to get a licence
c)
Hooked on velocity
d) Learning to ride a motorbike
e)
The aims of the course
f)
What happens in a class
g) Having an effect
h) A new course
Total 6 Marks
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Question 2
Read the following sentences and write true if the view is expressed in the text, false if the
opposite view is expressed in the text and not given if the information is not given in the
text.
a)
The course is based on ones used to help other people with similar problems.
1
b) If someone is caught driving fast, they have to go on the course.
1
c)
1
Many speedaholics think they are going to die.
d) Robin Derges likes to ride motorbikes.
1
e)
1
John drove more slowly after attending the course.
Total 5 Marks
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Case Study 2
Extreme interviews
Read the text and answer the question below.
What sort of dinosaur are you? If you answered Tyrannosaurus rex, then the bad news is
that you probably won’t get the job you’re applying for.
Welcome to the strange world of ‘extreme interviewing’, the latest trend from America in
which interviewers throw bizarre questions at candidates to see how they react.
It may seem like a game, but extreme interviewing is deadly serious. The idea is to see
how quickly job-seekers think on their feet and, at a time when 25% of recent graduates
are unemployed, it offers employers a new way of separating the brilliant candidates from
the merely very good.
This new approach to selecting candidates comes from Silicon Valley in California —
where else? Google, famous for its demanding interview process, asked a recent
candidate: ‘You are stranded on a desert island. You have 60 seconds to choose people
of 10 professions to come with you. Who do you choose? Go!’
One of the early pioneers of extreme interviewing was Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple,
who could be famously cruel with job seekers. Faced once with a candidate he considered
boring, Jobs suddenly pretended to be a chicken, flapping his arms and making clucking
noises round the unfortunate applicant, waiting to see what he would do. In fact, the secret
to extreme interviewing is neither in the question nor the answer. It is in the candidate’s
reaction.
David Moyle, a headhunter with the recruitment agency Eximius Group in London, who
admits to using the dinosaur question when selecting candidates, said: ‘Essentially,
that kind of interviewing is used by us to give someone an opportunity to show they are
smart and not easily flustered.’
‘Most candidates actually get something out of it, it’s not about trying to crush them. We
are trying to give them an opportunity to show their personality, rather than just showing
how they perform in an interview.’
Of course, getting the job is just the start. In the modern business world, survival will
depend on what sort of dinosaur you really are.
(Adapted from English File Upper Intermediate Page 6)
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Question
Complete the sentences below by filling each gap with ONE (1) or TWO (2) words, a year
or a number from the text.
a)
The questions asked in extreme interviews are _________.
1
b) Extreme interviewing aims at discovering the __________.
1
c)
1
Steve Jobs was well known for being ________ to interviewees.
d) An interviewee’s ________ to unusual questioning is the most important aspect.
1
e)
1
Extreme interviewing allows candidates to demonstrate their _________.
Total 5 Marks
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Case Study 3
Music for an alien
Read the text and answer the question below.
‘I can hear music for the first time ever,’ wrote Austin Chapman, a 23-year-old film-maker
from California. ‘What should I listen to?’
Austin, you see, was born profoundly deaf. For his whole life, music has been a mystery. ‘I
had seen people make a fool of themselves, singing or moving wildly on the dance floor,’
he says. ‘I had also seen people moved to tears by a song, which was probably the
hardest thing for me to understand.’ Then, just a few weeks ago, his parents suggested
that he try a newly developed hearing aid that they had heard about. He went to the
doctor’s with no great expectations. But when the doctor switched on the hearing aid, he
was stunned. ‘I sat in the doctor’s office, frozen as a cacophony of sounds attacked me.
The whir of the computer, the hum of the air conditioning, the clacking of the keyboard, the
sound of my friend’s voice.’ Austin could hear. And for the first time ever the world of music
was open to him.
It didn’t take him long to decide what to do: he was going to listen to music non-stop. Later
that day, he heard his first piece, Mozart’s beautiful Lacrimosa, in a friend’s car. He wept.
So did everybody else in the car. His friends went on to play him the Rolling Stones,
Michael Jackson, Sigur Rós, Radiohead, Elvis, and Pink Floyd. But Austin knew that there
was a vast universe of music to explore, so he decided to seek further help. He described
his situation on the internet and so far, he’s received more than 14,000 suggestions. As a
strategy, he has decided to follow the advice of someone who posted this message on the
site: ‘This is like introducing an alien to the music of Earth. Once you’ve tired of classical,
you could start with music from the fifties and progress through each decade. That way
you can really see the growth of modern music.’
Austin adopted that system, but chose to start much earlier, with a piece by Guillaume de
Machaut called Agnus Dei, from the 14th century. Currently, he’s listening to four or
five hours of music a day. As he had never heard music before Austin isn’t influenced by
nostalgia and, via the internet, he can listen to just about anything ever composed.
Consequently his experience may help us to understand more about musical taste. So
what has he been listening to? It seems that no one genre dominates (although he says
he’s not very keen on country music – too depressing). His favourite piece – for now – is
Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. He’s also keen on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Frank
Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon. But so far he has not listened to the most recommended
band, the Beatles. ‘I’m waiting for a special occasion,’ he says.
Austin is also learning how to hear. When we met at a café in West Hollywood, we took a
table far from the street to avoid the background noise of traffic. The ability to ignore
unwanted noise is something that will take him time. This may help explain why Austin
says that ‘silence is still my favourite sound. When I turn my hearing aid off, my thoughts
become clearer; it’s absolutely peaceful.’
(Adapted from English File Upper Intermediate Page 55)
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Question
Read the following sentences and write true if the sentence is true and false if the
sentence is false.
a)
Austin was excited when he was on his way to the doctor’s.
1
b) The first thing Austin heard was music.
1
c)
1
One suggestion was to listen to music in chronological order.
d) Austin still enjoys not being able to hear.
1
Total 4 Marks
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Developing English Language Skills / ELF Level 4
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Section C – Writing
You must answer this question
Read the question below and write an answer of between 200 and 250 words.
Aeroplanes allow us to fly almost anywhere in the world in a short time. What are some of
the advantages and disadvantages of air travel?
Total 20 Marks
End of paper
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