Exam practice: Reading Unit 8

Open comprehension
1 Read the text in exercise 3 quickly. Find
My happy place
these numbers:
a a year (x2)
This week I’m thinking about
b a number of people social media …
c a number of minutes (x2) Do you sometimes feel sad,
stressed or jealous after
using social media? Yes, me
too! A recent survey asked
2 Read the sentences. Correct the personality more than 5,000 people from
adjectives in bold. Generation Z – people born
1 My maths teacher is nice but she never laughs. She’s between 1997 and 2012 – how Hi! I’m Millie.
very cheerful. serious they felt about using social media and technology. Almost
half of them said it is not good for their physical and
2 My brother never buys me a birthday present. He’s mental health. Young people were most concerned about
so generous! this in Spain (59%), Australia (55%) and France (53%).
3 My friend is good at looking after children. He’s very
I also read about an app that records how people use
irresponsible. other apps. It found that people who spend less time
4 My mother works 10 hours a day. She’s really lazy. on social media apps are happier about using them.
5 My favourite actor always says bad things about Apparently, if you spend more than about 25 minutes on
people. He’s kind, but very funny! a social media app, you will probably feel unhappy about
it. Yes, I think that’s true! I feel best if I stop looking at
6 My sister doesn’t talk much when there are a lot of social media after about 15 minutes.
people. She’s confident.
I read another article that said people often have different
Exam tip personalities for different social media platforms. That’s
strange, but I think it’s true too. On one platform, which
In open comprehension reading activities, there are
only my friends use, I post a lot of funny photos with
a lot of possible correct answers. Your answer must my friends. On another platform, which my parents and
include the information that the question asks for. grandparents use, I’m more serious. I sometimes post
Remember to use the correct spelling and to say I’ve finished writing a story or I’ve done well in
punctuation. You can find the spelling of some of an exam. People on that platform probably think I’m
the words in the text, but remember not to copy the hard-working and responsible!
sentences from the text. Here’s what I think.
What you see on
social media isn’t
3 Answer the following questions in your own words always real, so we
according to the information given in the text. Do shouldn’t feel jealous
not copy from the text. about other people’s
lives. What do you
1 How does social media sometimes make Millie feel? think? Let me know in
the comments!
2 What does Millie tell us about young people in Spain?

4 Read the text again and find words that have
3 What happens if you spend less time on social these meanings.
media apps, according to Millie?
a a set of questions to find out about what

people do or think about something
4 Why does Millie post more serious things on one (paragraph 1) 
social media platform?
b to keep information (paragraph 2)

c I’ve read/heard that … (paragraph 2)
5 Why does Millie say we shouldn’t feel jealous about
d a type of website or app (paragraph 3)
what we see on social media?

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Exam practice: Reading Unit 8

A2 Key Part 5
1 Look at the gaps in the text in exercise 3. What is
this task mainly testing?
a your vocabulary: the words you know on a topic, for
example, words for feelings
b your grammar: if you use the correct forms of the 6 re a e
word, and if the word is right in the sentence

2 Look at the photos then write the missing letters

to complete the feelings.

7 su i e

1 ti e

8 wo ie

Exam tip
Key Part 5 tests how well you understand
2 e i e grammatical forms and the relationships between
words, phrases, clauses and sentences.
Note that the missing words may be conjunctions,
adverbs, prepositions and auxiliary verbs. Some
common fixed phrases and phrasal verbs may also
be tested.

3 For each question, write the correct answer. Write

3 d i a oi e one word for each gap.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Yesterday (1) the worst day ever! I

was really excited because I had a ticket to see Cat
4 i e e e Burns – she’s (2) favourite singer and
songwriter. The concert was in a theatre in the city
centre so I went (3) bus. Unfortunately,
the bus had a problem and it stopped. At first, I wasn’t
worried (4) I was early for the concert.
But after an hour, I was very stressed! I decided to get
off the bus and walk (5) the concert.
The theatre was further away than I thought. I had to
walk (6) an hour so I was tired. When I
5 s e e arrived at the theatre, the concert was finished! I was so
disappointed. 
I hope your day was better (7) mine!

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