LEVEL: A1

1. Fill in the blanks with the correct forms of the verb “to be”:

a. She …………… at home.

b. I …………… a doctor.
c. They ……….. at the cinema.
d. Ann ……. my sister.
e. You ………… my friend.

2. Make sentences from the following words:

a. large, room, our, dining, is

b. is, the, plate, on, there, a, table
c. kitchen, our, modern, very, is
d. is, flower, there, a, window, my, at
e. this, bedroom, your, is?

3. Answer the following questions:

a. What is your name?

b. How are you?
c. When is your birthday?
d. What’s the date today?
e. What is your favourite actor?
f. What’s your telephone number (write it in letters)?
g. What time do you go to work?

LEVEL: A2

1. Fill in with the correct forms of the verb “to be” and with the missing pronouns.

a. ………….. these your books? No, …………

b. ……….. you English? No, …………….
c. ……………. they young? Yes, ………..
d. ………… she a teacher? No, ………
e. ………….it your bag? No, I………
2. These sentences are wrong. Correct them:

a. Its very late. Let’s go home.

b. He’s new shoes are very modern.
c. They is at home.
d. You needs a new shirt.
e. Where are my red pen?

3. Make sentences from the following words:

a. carpet, what, your, colour, is?
b. under, why, table, books, are, the, your?
c. TV, watch, we, living, the, in, room

4. Mr. Jones is overweight. The doctor is telling him what he must do and what he
mustn’t do. Fill in with the correct forms of “can” and “must”:

Doctor: You ………….eat a lot of vegetables. You ……………eat sweets. You

……………take a lot of exercise.
Mr. Jones: …….. I drink coffee?
Doctor: Yes, you …………, but you ………take any sugar in it.
Mr. Jones: ………….I eat bread?
Doctor: Yes, but you …………..eat more than two slices everyday. And you ……..drink
wine or beer.

5. Join the parts to make sentences. Then arrange the sentences in a text. Give it a title.

1. My grandparents live a. lots of flowers in the garden.

2. It has b. are clean and white.
3. The doors and windows c. garden in front of the house.
4. There is a nice d. only four rooms.
5. Grandpa loves e. in a small house.
6. In summer there are f. working in the garden.

6. Write a paragraph about you. Use the hints below:

age, appearance, job, hobbies
LEVEL: B1

1. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the flowing verbs to make a paragraph:
carve, receive, celebrate, carry, be, go, call, say, leave, throw, soap, play, put

HALLOWEEN
celebrate
At the end of October, American children ……………a strange holiday, Halloween. It
…………..scary,
be but funny. They ……………a
carve pumpkin and put…………a candle inside.
call
It is a kind of lamp and they ………………it “Jack o’lantern”. They ……………….it carry
when they ………………..from
go say
door to door and ……………………. “Trick or treat!”.
They ………………scary costumes of witches, goblins, vampires, bats. If they
……………..candy,
receive they……………………….
leave If not, they ……………………a
play trick:
throw
they …………………….the windows or …………………….the garbage in the garden.
soap

Explain what they are:

a. Halloween ………………………………………………………………………
b. Halloween symbols ……………………………………………………………..
c. Halloween costumes ……………………………………………………………….
d. “Trick or treat” ……………………………………………………………………..

2. Circle the correct word:

a. The boys/ boy’s parents are at home.

b. John drink’s/ drinks a lot of milk.
c. I like the childrens/ children’s toys.
d. Dads/ Dad’s help their children a lot.
e. Dads/ Dad’s favourite food is pizza.
f. Mothers/ Mother’s Day is in March.
g. Mothers/ Mother’s love their children very much.
h. At school we read and right/ write.
i. Would you like some more soap/ soup?
j. I love the see/ sea.
k. The sun/son is shining brightly.

3. Complete the sentences with a suitable preposition: for, from, into, before, with, of,
off, through, between, on, over.

a. for
Please, wait ………………..me!
b. with
Willy came …………. us.
c. The boy dived ………the
into water.
d. from
Sheila sent me a letter ………….Paris.
e. The chair is ……………the
between desk and the bed.
f. The train left …………time.
on
 g. We’ll leave ………..dinner.
before
h. The vase fell …………the
off table.
i. We went ………….the
through woods.
j. over
Bob jumped …………….the fence.

4. Complete the text with suitable prepositions and solve the tasks:

THE POSTAGE STAMP

More ……………a
of hundred years ago, a bookseller ……………..Dundee
from turned his
inventive mind …………the problem ……..sending letters cheaply and efficiently.
into of
……….that
On for
time, there were no postage stamps. The recipient ………….the letter had
……..pay it according …………the distance. James Chalmers considered the possibility
to to
……….making
of the sender pay. The simple idea ………..attaching
of a paper sticker
…………..the letter occurred …………..James.
to by
The Postmaster General, the famous Rowland Hill, was most impressed ……………this
by
simple suggestion. He had some stickers made ………black
with and white and marked “one
penny” and others ………… red and white marked “two pence”. The Queen’s head was
with
stamped ……….them.
by On
…………this way the first postage stamps were issued
……….the public.
for

Fill in with the correct information:

a. Postage stamps are used ……………
b. A recipient is the person who ……………..
c. A sticker is ………………………..

5. Complete the following dialogues with one more question and answer:
A: Why are you crying?
B: My brother has just had an accident.
A:
B:

A: Where were you going at 7 p.m. last night?

B: There was no bread left and Mum sent me to buy some.
A:
B:

6. Write a paragraph about one of your parents. Use the hints below:
age, appearance, personality, job, hobbies, habits

7. Write a short story using these key words. Give it a title: Tom, bike, fell, ditch, dirty,
box, jewels, police station, owner, phone call, reward, new bike
LEVEL: B2

READING COMPREHENSION

I. You are going to read an article written by a Technology reporter, Iain Mackenzie, BBC
News. For questions 1-10, choose from the paragraphs A-G. They may be chosen more than
once.

Tributes for Apple 'visionary' Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was a uniquely recognisable, charismatic and idiosyncratic leader. Here are
some of the traits that made him the world's most talked about chief executive.

A Steve Jobs was not a fan of market research. He famously said "You can't just ask
customers what they want then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built,
they'll want something new." Instead, he relied on his own instinct for refining existing
technologies, developing new products and packaging them in a way that people would
want to use. Before the iPod appeared in 2001, there was relatively little interest in MP3
music players. Those products that did exist were chunky, often fiddly to use, and were
largely bought by early adopter tech enthusiasts. So appealing were gadgets such as the
iPod, iPhone and iPad that the public quickly engaged with them. That was due, in no
small part, to Steve Jobs' ability as a salesman - explaining his products simply in a way
that everyone could understand.

B Steve Jobs knew how to work a crowd. He could build excitement around technologies which,
sometimes, were neither new nor world changing. When the iPad 2 launched, a large part of his
presentation was dedicated to the device's "smart cover" - a square of vinyl with magnetic hinges.
Yet it garnered significant media coverage. Even seasoned journalists were not immune, with
many finding that it took them several hours recovery time to fully make sense of the
announcements. The phenomenon was named the "reality distortion field". No other Apple
executive has, as yet, demonstrated Steve Jobs' ability to generate it.

C For the past decade, Steve Jobs almost always wore the same outfit. From top to bottom, it was
a black St. Croix mock turtleneck sweater, blue Levi 501 jeans, and New Balance 991 trainers.
The items may reflect his minimalist tastes, or perhaps his flair for personal as well as corporate
branding. Mr Jobs does not appear to have spoken publicly about his choice of clothing, although
he is said to have told friends that he did not care about his appearance. This was not always the
case. During the 1980s he would regularly make public appearances in flashy Italian suits, and
was even known to wear a colourful bow tie. His distinctive appearance was often parodied by
comedians.

D Apple is so secretive that little is known about its internal design processes, however
stories do leak out, and most of those tell of Steve Jobs' fanatical attention to detail.
Google executive Vic Gundotra tells of the time that his company was partnering with
Apple to put Google Maps on the iPhone. Mr Gundotra received a personal call from
Steve Jobs on a weekend, expressing displeasure that the second letter "o" was the wrong
shade of yellow. While British designer Jonathan Ive is responsible for the overall look
and feel of products such as the iMac, iPod and iPhone, many of the company's patents
bear both his and Steve Jobs' names.

E Steve Jobs was undoubtedly a product of 1960s and 1970s counter-culture California.
As a young man, he travelled to India to stay in an ashram. Eastern philosophy would
continue to be a part of his life, and he remained a Buddhist for the rest of his life. Mr
Jobs also admitted taking LSD around the same time. He called the experience "one of
the two or three most important things I have done in my life," according to John
Markoff's book "What the dormouse said: How the sixties counterculture shaped the
personal computer industry". Money appeared to matter little to Steve Jobs. He told the
Wall Street Journal: "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me… Going
to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful… that's what matters to me."

F Steve Jobs' music tastes were well known from his product launches. Singles and albums
would regularly flash across the screen of new Macs or iPhones. The Beatles and Bob Dylan were
two of his favourite artists. Getting the rights to sell the fab four's music through iTunes became a
long running saga which was eventually resolved in November 2010. Mr Jobs' top 10 albums,
listed on the Apple social music service Ping, also included Kind of Blue by Miles
Davis, American Beauty by The Grateful Dead and Who's Next by The Who. He had a more
personal connection to one particular musical icon, having briefly dated Dylan's ex-girlfriend,
singer Joan Baez.

G Sometimes you have to save the best for last. Steve Jobs regularly did that when
launching products. Having unveiled a raft of new gadgets, just as guests were getting
ready to leave, he would utter the now famous words "One more thing..."When he did so,
there was always a mischievous smile. It was part of his genius as a showman. One more
things have included the Powerbook G4, iPod touch and Facetime video calling. Steve
Jobs' successor, Tim Cook opted not to do a one more thing at the launch of the iPhone
4S in October 2011.It is unclear if the tradition will continue after Steve Jobs, meaning
we may have seen the last ever one more thing.

Which paragraph contains the information about

the care Steve Jobs used to take of every single element?
of the projects he was involved in? 1 ...…
what a brilliant presenter Steve Jobs was? 2 …… 3 …… 4 ……
a woman Steve Jobs used to go out with
for a short period of time? 5 ……
the change in Steve’s taste? 6 ……
the policy that should be applied while considering
buyers’ needs? 7 ……
an important guiding principle in Steve’s life? 8 ……
the facts that influenced Steve Jobs in his early years? 9 ……
the habit Steve Jobs used to have in the 2000s? 10 ……
II. You are going to read an article about the consequences of Katrina storm in New
Orleans. For questions 1-10, decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
Circle the right answer.

Katrina’s storm surges revealed just how inadequate New Orleans’ flood defences were. The
water simply bulldozed levees, whose designers had taken no account of extreme storms – they
were built to withstand Category 2 hurricanes at the worst –and had often used poor materials.
New Orleans has two types of levee. Its earliest earthen levees were built in the 18th century,
while more recent concrete and steel floodwalls form part of a scheme authorized by Congress
after hurricane Betsy swamped parts of the city in 1965. The system was expected to take 13
years to complete at a cost of $85 million. But when Katrina hit, the project was still not finished
and had cost $738 million. To make matters worse, the foundations of many of the levees were
far too weak; the soil under the embankments was unstable, and the steel sheets reinforcing them
were driven in too shallowly. Some levees did hold up, especially along the Mississippi, but these
are giants – 90 m wide at the base,30 m wide at the top and rising 7.6 m above sea level.
Another problem was shipping canals, including the Mississippi River- Gulf Outlet (MR-GO).
Built to provide an express route for ships between New Orleans and the Gulf, this also acts as an
express route for storm surges.
‘The federal powers had designed an excellent storm-surge delivery system, to bring a mass of
water with tremendous load right into the middle of New Orleans,’ commented Ivor van Heerden
of Louisiana State University. This is what happened on August 29, 2005when a 5 m surge tore
up the MR-GO and was funneled into levees. At 6.30 am, it pushed over the funnel’s levees,
feeding into other canals. At 7.45 am, a stretch of levee along one canal collapsed and water
exploded into the city.
The devastation caused by Katrina alerted other places vulnerable to storm surges to the potential
dangers they were in. Residents of northern California, for example, looked at deteriorating
levees along the Sacramento River, where a collapse would flood the Central Valley and foul the
state’s water supplies. Cities facing similar dangers include Miami, Rotterdam, London and
Shanghai.
An effective strategy against surges include systems of dams, improved pumps for removing
water and even raising parts of cities above flood level – as it was done in Galvestone, Texas,
after a hurricane smashed through in 1900. Another defence, increasingly favoured by experts, is
the restoration of coastal wetlands. These are a highly effective protection against storm surges,
acting like sponges to soak up the incoming water. However, it is an expensive and long-term
option. To keep out rising seas, engineers are prepared to sacrifice dry land to the sea – a measure
that would once have been unthinkable.

1 The water defence system in New Orleans was not able to hold up a Category2 storm T / F
2 Concrete and steel floodwalls were damaged by Hurricane Betsy in 1965. T / F
3 The expected cost of concrete and steel levees authorized by Congress was $738mln. T / F
4 The steel reinforcement was not placed deep enough to stop extreme storms. T / F
5 The foundations of all levees along the Mississippi were far too weak. T / F
6 Due to the Mississippi River – Gulf Outlet the surge was held up quickly. T / F
7 Ivor van Heerden blamed the authorities for the design of the MR – GO. T / F
8 The levee along the Sacramento river collapsed and water flooded the Central Valley. T / F
9 Some areas of Galvestone were restored at the higher level after the disaster in 1900. T / F
10 Engineers have always favoured the idea of wetlands. T / F

GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

I. Underline the correct word in each sentence:

a. I simply/ simple cannot understand.

b. She said “Yes” automatic/ automatically.
c. It is raining hard/ hardly.
d. Mary is a very well/ good singer.
e. She swims very good/ well.
f. The children laughed happy/ happily.
g. The cat ran away quick/ quickly.

II. Complete sentences 1-10 with the words given. The words are given in the correct
form. Each sentence should be completed with a different word. You do not need to
use all the words given.
Debris, combat, boundaries, stern, probes, resist, hilt, mast, wheel, resistance, defend, laser,
outboard, influence, oars

1 A lightsaber consists of a polished metal …………… which projects a blade of light about 1.33
metres long.
2 The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of
whom can use them for close …………… .
3 The lightsaber's blade cuts through most substances without …………… .
4 Passive communicators do not defend their own personal …………… .
5 Passive communicators are also typically not likely to risk trying to …………… anyone else.
6 Assertive people are willing to …………… themselves against aggressive people.
7 The skiff is a typically small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and a flat
…………… .
8 The skiff could be powered by sails as well as …………… .
9 The skiff can be also efficiently powered by …………… motors.
10 Thousands of unused satellites and satellite fragments orbit the Earth as space
…………… .

III. Choose the correct option to replace the word or phrase in italics with a phrasal.

1 Hanna started to like Paul as soon as she met him.

a) took up
b) took to
c) took off

2 I can’t stand the way she pretends to be intelligent and skilful in front of the other students .
a) shows off
b) shows up
c) shows out

3 The manager was ill so they had to cancel the meeting.

a) call off
b) put off
c) get off

4 A lot of women decide not to accept promotion in order to give more time to their children.
a) turn up
b) turn down
c) turn away

5 We have always respected Mr Pattison. He has been a great teacher.

a) looked up to
b) looked down on
c) looked up on

IV. Choose the best option to complete each gap in sentences 1-15. Circle a, b or c.

1 When he came to school nobody was there. They…………………………. home.

a) had gone
b) went
c) were going

2 Look at the street! It …………………… repaired. They are putting a new asphalt surface.
a) is
b) has been
c) is being

3 If he ………………… so much yesterday he wouldn’t have had stomachache.

a) didn’t eat
b) ate
c) hadn’t eaten

4 You ………………………. your keys in the office yesterday. I saw you had them there.
a) must have left
b) have to leave
c) mustn’t leave

5 We ………………………… the lock repaired and now we can enter the room.
a) have just had
b) are able to have
c) haven’t got

6 He is thought ……………………….. a lot last year. He could afford to buy a new car.
a) to earn
b) to have earned
c) that he earned

7 It is a pity I can’t speak Spanish. I wish I…………. .

a) can speak Spanish
b) could speak Spanish
c) couldn’t speak Spanish

8 “Yes, it was me. I took your pen,” said Tom. Tom admitted……………… the pen.
a) to take
b) to have taken
c) to taking

9 I remember………………… she was older, but she was only 23 then.

a) to think
b) thinking
c) have thought

10 I tried ………………… an aspirin for my headache but it didn’t help.

a) to take
b) taking
c) being taken

11 This is my neighbour……………. sister left for Australia last winter.

a) which
b) who
c) whose

12 Despite ………………………. he went on climbing the mountain.

a) being tired
b) of being tired
c) to be tired

13 Please, take warm clothes in case……………… .

a) it got cold
b) it gets cold
c) it doesn’t get cold

14 I wish you …………….. because I have had enough of it.

a) don’t sing
b) would stop singing
c) must stop to sing

15 When I was a child I ………………. football with my friends. Now, I don’t have time for it.
a) used to playing
b) was used to play
c) used to play

V. Choose the word which best fits each space in the text below.  
 
Scotland  
Scotland is the north part of the island of Great Britain. The Atlantic Ocean is on the 
west and the  North Sea on the east. Some people (1) .................. Scotland speak a 
different language called Gaelic. There are (2).................. five million people in Scotland, 
and Edinburgh is (3) .................. most famous city.  Scotland has many mountains; the 
highest one is called ‘Ben Nevis’. In the south of Scotland, there are a lot of sheep. A 
long time ago, there (4).................. many forests, but now there are only a 
(5)................... . Scotland is only a small country, but it is quite beautiful. 
1 A on B in C at  
2 A about B between C among  
3 A his B your C its  
4 A is B were C was  
5 A few B little C lot

WRITING

I. Write a paragraph (7-9 rows) beginning with the following sentence:

My strange things happened to me yesterday.

II. Write about this invention using the given words:

The ballpoint pen – Hungarian journalist, Laslo Biro, ink in his pen quickly drying, need
to take notes, 1937
B2 ANSWERS

V.
1. B
2. A
3. C
4. B
5. A