B1+ Name:

Class:
2ND EDITION Pre-First
for Schools

UNIT 8: SKILLS TEST A

DICTATION 3 You hear a girl talking about a class survey on sports.

She says that tennis was
You are going to listen to a recording about the importance A the boys’ second best sport to play.
of maths. Listen to the whole recording once. Then you will B the girls’ favourite sport to watch.
hear the recording again with pauses for you to write down C the favourite sport overall.
what you hear. Make sure you spell the words correctly.
4 You hear two students talking about climbing a mountain.
 What is said about the trip?
 A Going up was harder than coming down.
B The path was difficult to follow.

C The heat was a problem.
 5 You hear two students talking about their class visit to
a space museum.

They agree that
 A the space machine was too popular.
B the ‘Journey through Space’ was effective.

C more students wanted to try on the spacesuit.
 6 You hear a boy talking about a presentation he had to give.
 Just after finishing it, how did he feel?
A confident that it had been a big success

B aware that one thing had spoiled it
 C happy that it was all over
7 You hear a boy talking about selling his old skateboard.

How much did he sell it for?
 A ten euros
 B twenty euros
C fifty euros

8 You hear two students talking about a Maths website.
 What do they disagree on about the site?
A whether it is useful or not
10 B whether the speaker goes too fast
C whether it was designed for younger people
9 You hear a girl and a boy talking about a singing competition.
LISTENING What is the girl doing?
A encouraging him to take part
You are going to listen to people talking in ten different
B advising him to practise
situations. For questions 1–10, choose the answer (A, B or C)
which fits best according to what you hear. C telling him to be more realistic
1 You hear a girl talking about losing her handbag. 10 You hear a girl and boy discussing security cameras.
Where did she leave it? What is the girl’s attitude?
A in a café A happy to be persuaded she’s wrong
B at the train station B disappointed by the boy’s argument
C in a clothes shop C annoyed by some people’s point of view
2 You hear a boy telling a girl about a Maths day at their school. 10
Which part was the least successful, in his opinion?
A the experiments that were carried out
B the groupwork that was done
C the video that was shown

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 B1+ Name:
Class:
2ND EDITION Pre-First
for Schools

UNIT 8: SKILLS TEST A

READING
Task 1
Read the article and choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
11 When talking about maths in life, Bertillon suggests that
A adults and children use maths a little differently. C shopping is a good way for children to practise their maths.
B maths doesn’t always have to involve numbers. D mathematical solutions seem easy when you understand
them.
12 What does Bertillon say about our modern-day obsession with numbers?
A It is shared by people from all over the world. C It is not related to mathematical ability.
B It is not something we should be proud of. D It is quite a recent development.
13 In the fifth paragraph, the references to laptops and schools are both examples of
A the importance we put on size. C people using numbers in a way that isn’t useful.
B things we are obsessed with in society. D mathematics failing to solve human problems.
14 What point does Bertillon make in the sixth paragraph?
A Internet tools are only useful for certain tasks. C Experts learn to work with numbers.
B Many people get confused by numbers. D Quantity doesn’t mean quality.
15 In the seventh paragraph, Bertillon says that in Maths classes, some teachers
A give students the wrong message. C struggle to explain things in an easy way.
B encourage students to experiment. D relate their lessons to real-life situations.

10

Task 2
Read the article again and answer the questions in your own words.
16 What does Bertillon say is a much-used example of people using maths in daily life?

17 Which parts of the body did early humans first try to count?

18 What does Bertillon say about strict maths teachers?

19 What did Bertillon like about understanding maths when he was at school?

20 What is the writer intending to do with her article?

Total: 50

Photocopiable © Pearson Education Limited 2018

 B1+ Name:
Class:
2ND EDITION Pre-First
for Schools

UNIT 8: SKILLS TEST A

Maths and numbers in life

Journalist Juliana Hurst meets Professor Pierre Bertillon
1 Professor Pierre Bertillon is the presenter of a new we sometimes give students a number to represent
programme on maths in society, and I’m meeting him how good they are at a subject … the same thing
today at his base in the University of Paris. Bertillon is goes on in workplaces, but reducing everyone and
as fantastically enthusiastic to talk maths to me as he everything to a number is not helpful behaviour.’
appears on screen. 6 ‘But,’ I put to the Professor, ‘surely when you’re doing
2 ‘Maths is all around us,’ he tells me. We don’t think some research for a school project, say, you want to
about it, but all of us are using maths most of the get the best information available, so numbers help
time, in fact – when we work out prices if we’re you … when you use a search engine it comes up
shopping, for example. That’s an obvious thing … with the most popular websites first.’ He shakes his
a very standard example. But what we maybe don’t head. ‘Ah, but just because a website has the most
think of is the maths involved when, say, we’re just hits, it doesn’t mean it’s the best … in fact, it may
thinking and trying to solve a problem in our life… not be accurate or reliable at all. So you have to use
and that includes young children … we’re analysing your judgment to work out who the real experts are –
and calculating and trying to think logically … it’s all it’s becoming a vital skill in life these days.’
a form of maths in a wide sense of the word.’ 7 I tell him about my own experience of Maths at
3 ‘As we talk here together, OK, you’re not doing school, and my own nervousness with the subject.
mathematical sums directly, but you’re aware of your He agrees with me that some people can be turned
age and how much money you have, so you see the away from Maths for life because of things going
society you and I live in is obsessed with numbers. wrong for them at school – and regards this as a great
But this isn’t true of all cultures. There are hunter- pity. ‘Yes, Maths more than any subject must be
gatherers in Amazonia who only use terms similar taught in a sympathetic way, because it’s easy to just
to ‘a few’ and ‘some’. And historically speaking, it’s get into a situation where you accept that “Oh, Maths
people like you and me who are the unusual ones. isn’t for me … I just don’t get it.” And maybe the
For most of our species’ 200,000-year lifespan, there teacher kind of agrees, and you get the idea that you
was no way of accurately representing quantities.’ haven’t got a mathematical brain, and then you’re

4 Bertillon continues: ‘In most cultures, numbers missing so much!’

themselves have been present historically. To put 8 So what about the personality of the teacher, then?
it very basically, our distant ancestors noticed that Can this really shape a person’s view of maths and
they had the same number of fingers on each hand, numbers later in life? Bertillon tells me he doesn’t
and that they had more fingers than hands, so they think that a strict teacher is necessarily a bad thing,
developed a way of counting these and similar things. but he does agree with me that teachers are more
Scientists agree that this was a result of us of walking important in Maths than with other subjects. He
upright on two legs … if we’d been on all fours we continues: ‘When I was in school, I realised that if
wouldn’t have noticed!’ you understood the basic method in Mathematics,
then you didn’t have to remember facts like in other
5 So are we right to be so greatly concerned about
subjects such as History or Biology. In those subjects,
numbers? ‘Well, what happens is that we want to put
you had to learn a huge number of names and dates,
numbers to everything, whether or not that actually
matters. So, for example, if we’re buying a new laptop but not with Maths.’
we think too much about how many gigabytes it has, 9 So now my article is finished. As a journalist, I will
and we might buy such and such a product because of course put it online in the form of a blog. Then I
it has more of these than another, even though we will keep track of how many people have liked and
don’t really need so many. The trouble comes when commented on it, and if only a few have done so,
we rely on numbers to tell us everything. In schools, I will be upset. The bigger the number the better!

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