NATIONAL

CERTIFICATION
TEST
FORMAT
Topics for today
PART 1: Purposes of the exam

Common European Framework of

PART 2:
Reference

PART 3: Abilities to test

PART 4: Reading
 PURPOSES

-Measure abilities
- Provide a certification
 COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF
REFERENCE

IT IS AN INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD FOR DESCRIBING
LANGUAGE ABILITY ON A SIX
POINT SCALE FROM A1 TO C2
 A1-A2

-New learners
-English for simple situations
 B1

-Intermediate level
-Mastered the basics
-Language skills
 B2

-Enough to live and work abroad

 C1

-Professional life
Abilities to test

Reading and writing

Listening

Speaking
READING
ANG
WRITING
READING IN What does
COMPREHENSION
EXAMNS actually means?
We need to be able
to:
Is it ok to write in beetwen our
reading?
Research shows that students who took
notes by hand tended to retain significantly
more information than those who used
computers. Writing by hand tended to
summarise the points more
 WHAT NOT TO DO:

Copying what others have said is

not note-taking and is only
appropriate when you want to
directly quote an author
How can you
improve your
reading skills?
READING
TIPS FOR
EXAMS
WHAT DO YOU DO TO
IMPROVE YOUR
READING SKILLS?
WHAT IS THE LAST BOOK
YOU READ?
READING
AND
WRITING
EXERCISES
 Exercise 1
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]

Subject: My family

Dear Yoko

American. He’s tall and a little fat! He’s got short brown hair
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Let me tell you about my family. I live with my mum, my dad and my big sister. We live in California. My mum’s name is Carmen. She’s Mexican and she speaks English and Spanish. She’s a Spanish teacher. She’s short and slim, she’s got long, brown hair and brown eyes. My dad’s name is David. He’s

and blue eyes. He works in a bank. My sister Shania is 14 and she loves listening to music. She listens to
music all the time! She’s got long brown hair and green eyes, like me. I’ve got long hair too. We’ve got a
pet dog, Brandy. He’s black and white and very friendly.
Write soon and tell me about your family.
Love
Kelly
Fill the gaps with the correct word for the text
book
long big short brown Spanish pet

1. I live with my mum, my dad and my __________ sister.

2. My mum’s a __________ teacher.
3. She’s got __________, brown hair and __________ eyes.
4. My dad’s got __________, brown hair.
5. We’ve got a __________ dog.
 Exercise 2
Artist Peter Fuller talks about his hobby
There’s a popular idea that artists are not supposed to be into sport, but mountain biking is a huge part of my life. It gets me out of my studio, and into the countryside. But more importantly, racing along as fast as you can leaves you no time to worry about anything that’s going on in your life. You’re too busy concentrating on not crashing. The only things you pay attention to are the pain in your legs and the rocks on the path in front of you.

I’m in my sixties now, but I started cycling when I was a kid. In the summer my friends and I would ride our bikes into the woods and see who was brave enough to go down steep hills or do big jumps. The bikes we had then weren’t built for that, and often broke, so I used to draw pictures of bikes with big thick tyres that would be strong enough for what we were doing. They looked just like modern mountain bikes. However, it wasn’t until many years later that someone actually invented one. By the 1980s, they were everywhere.

At that time, I was into skateboarding. I did that for a decade until falling off on to hard surfaces started to hurt too much. Mountain biking seemed a fairly safe way to keep fit, so I took that up instead. I made a lot of friends, and got involved in racing, which gave me a reason to train hard. I wanted to find out just how fit and fast I could get, which turned out to be fairly quick. I even won a couple of local races.

In the end I stopped racing, mainly because I knew what it could mean to my career if I had a bad

crash. But I still like to do a three-hour mountain bike ride every week. And if I’m out cycling in the

hills and see a rider ahead, I have to beat them to the top. As I go past, I imagine how surprised they

would be if they knew how old I am. SUSTAINABLE PUBLISHING

 Choose the right option
1.Peter enjoys mountain biking because

a) it gives him the opportunity to enjoy the views.

b) he can use the time to plan his work.
c) he is able to stop thinking about his problems.
d) it helps him to concentrate better.

2.What does Peter say about cycling during his childhood?

a) He is sorry he didn’t take more care of his bike.

b) His friends always had better quality bikes than he did.
c) His bike wasn’t suitable for the activities he was doing.
d) He was more interested in designing bikes than riding them.
 Choose the right option
3.Peter says he returned to cycling after several years.

a) because he had become unfit.

b) so that he could enter races.

c) in order to meet new people.

d) to replace an activity he had given up.

4. How does Peter feel about cycling now?

a) He is proud that he is still so fast.
b) He is keen to do less now that he is older.
c) He regrets the fact that he can no longer compete.
d) He wishes more people were involved in the sport.
 Choose the right option
5. What would be a good introduction to this article?

a) For Peter Fuller, nothing matters more than mountain biking, not even his career. Here, in his own words,
he tells us why.

b) Artist Peter Fuller takes mountain biking pretty seriously. Here he describes how it all began and what he
gets out of it.

c) In this article, Peter Fuller explains how he became an artist only as a result of his interest in mountain
biking.

d) After discovering mountain biking late in life, Peter Fuller gave up art for a while to concentrate on
getting as good as possible.
 Exercise 3
The Coconut Tree
The coconut tree is thought to be one of the most valuable trees in the world. It is mostly found by the sea where there is a hot and wet (51) ________. The coconuts often fall into the sea and float on the water until they (52) ________another beach, where more trees then

begin to grow.

Holiday makers often see the coconut tree as no more than an attractive sun umbrella that provides (53) ________. However, this amazing tree has hundreds of (54) ________ and more are still being discovered.

People have made houses, boats and baskets from the coconut tree’s wood and leaves for centuries.
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Even today, if you take a (55) ________in your cupboards, you will find coconut oil in products as (56) ________as medicine and desserts.
Choose the correct answer

1. 2. 3.
a) temperature a) reach a) cloud
b) condition b) go b) shade
c) climate c) travel c) dark
d) weather
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d) arrive d) cold
4. 5. 6.
a) uses a) scene a) opposite
b) jobs b) sight b) separate
c) roles c) look c) strange
d) things d) view d) different
 Exercise 4
A first time for everybody
Joe stepped onto the airplane and was met by one of the cabin crew who showed him to his seat. This was his first flight, and he was feeling quite nervous. His hands were (66) ________ lightly and he was breathing deeply. He walked along the (67) ________ of the plane and found his seat. Joe had spent a lot of time on planning his holiday, given this was the first time he had been

abroad. Sitting next to him was an 8-year-old-boy who also (68) ________ to be quite nervous. Joe knew he was quite good with children, so he decided to try to calm the boy. After (69) ________ with the boy for a few minutes, Joe produced some chocolate and gave it to him. The (70) ________ then became quite cheerful as he explained that he loved chocolate so much.

The man and the boy found that they (71) ________ well together as they chatted for the whole flight. Joe discovered that they were on the same return flight the following week, which pleased them both. When they (72) ________ at the terminal, Joe commented about what a very good flight he'd had. The young boy agreed, saying that he was looking forward to (73) ________ Joe again

on the return flight.

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Choose the correct answer
1. 2. 3. 4.
a) moving a) corridor a) was a) conversing
b) trembling b) aisle b) appeared b) discussing
c) jumping c) path c) sat c) debating
d) rattling
SUSTAINABLE PUBLISHING d) lane d) showed d) negotiating
5. 6. 7. 8.
a) young a) got on a) took of a) bumping into
b) youths b) were b) left b) catching up with
c) juvenile c) go to c) disembarked c) getting on with
d) youngster d) got so d) boarded d) keeping up with
 Exercise 5
William Perkin

William Perkin was born in London in 1838. As a child he had many hobbies, including model
making and photography. But it was the (35) __________ of chemistry that really interested him. At
the age of 15, he went to college to study it. While he was there, he was (36) __________ to make a
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medicine from coal. This didn’t go well, but when he was working on the problem, he found a cheap
37) __________ to make the colour purple. At that (38) __________ it was very expensive to make
clothes in different colours. William knew he could make a business out of his new colour. Helped
by his father and brother, William (39) __________ his own factory to make the colour. It sold well,
and soon purple clothes (40) __________ very popular in England and the rest of the world.
Choose the correct answer

1. 2. 3.
a) class a) thinking a) way
b) subject b) trying b) path
c) course c) deciding c) plan
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4. 5. 6.
a) day a) brought a) began
b) time b) turned b) arrived
c) hour c) opened c) became
 Exercise 6
Studying black bears
After years studying North America’s black bears in the (0) …….. way, wildlife biologist Luke

Robertson felt no closer to understanding the creatures. He realised that he had to (1) …….. their

trust. Abandoning scientific detachment, he took the daring step of forming relationships with the

animals, bringing them food to gain their acceptance.

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The (2) …….. this has given him into their behaviour has allowed him to dispel certain myths about

bears. (3) …….. to popular belief, he contends that bears do not (4) …….. as much for fruit as

previously supposed. He also (5) …….. claims that they are ferocious. He says that people should

not be (6) …….. by behaviour such as swatting paws on the ground, as this is a defensive, rather than

an aggressive, act.

However, Robertson is no sentimentalist. After devoting years of his life to the bears, he is under no

(7) …….. about their feelings for him. It is clear that their interest in him does not (8) …….. beyond the

food he brings.
Choose the correct answer

1. 2. 3. 4.
a) catch a) perception a) opposite a) care
b) win b) awareness b) opposed b) bother
c) achieve c) insight c) contrary c) desire
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d) recieve d) vision d) contradictory d) hope
5. 6. 7. 8.
a) concludes a) misguided a) error a) expand
b) disputes b) misled b) doubt b) spread
c) reasons c) misdirected c) illusion c) widen
d) argues d) misinformed d) impression d) extend
 Exercise 7
Introduction to a book about the history of colour
This book examines how the ever-changing role of colour in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, clothing, painting and popular culture. Colour is a natural phenomenon, of course, but it is also a complex cultural construct that resists generalization and, indeed, analysis itself. No doubt this is why serious works devoted to colour are rare, and rarer still are those that aim to study it in historical context. Many authors search for the universal or archetypal truths they imagine reside in colour, but for the historian, such truths do not exist.

Colour is first and foremost a social phenomenon. There is no transcultural truth to colour perception, despite what many books based on poorly grasped neurobiology or – even worse – on pseudoesoteric pop psychology would have us believe. Such books unfortunately clutter the bibliography on the subject, and even do it harm.

The silence of historians on the subject of colour, or more particularly their difficulty in conceiving colour as a subject separate from other historical phenomena, is the result of three different sets of problems. The first concerns documentation and preservation. We see the colours transmitted to us by the past as time has altered them and not as they were originally. Moreover, we see them under light conditions that often are entirely different from those known by past societies. And finally, over the decades we have developed the habit of looking at objects from the past in black-and-white photographs and, despite the current diffusion of colour photography, our ways of thinking about and reacting to these objects seem to have remained more or less black and white.

The second set of problems concerns methodology. As soon as the historian seeks to study colour, he must grapple with a host of factors all at once: physics, chemistry, materials, and techniques of production, as well as iconography, ideology, and the symbolic meanings that colours convey. How to make sense of all of these elements? How can one establish an analytical model facilitating the study of images and coloured objects? No researcher, no method, has yet been able to resolve these problems, because among the numerous facts pertaining to colour, a researcher tends to select those facts that support his study and to conveniently forget those that contradict it. This is clearly a poor way to conduct research. And it is made worse by the temptation to apply to the objects and images of a given historical period information found in texts of that period. The proper method – at least in the first phase of analysis – is to proceed as do palaeontologists (who must study cave

paintings without the aid of texts): by extrapolating from the images and the objects themselves a logic and a system based on various concrete factors such as the rate of occurrence of particular objects and motifs, their distribution and disposition. In short, one undertakes the internal structural analysis with which any study of an image or coloured object should begin.

The third set of problems is philosophical: it is wrong to project our own conceptions and definitions of colour onto the images, objects and monuments of past centuries. Our judgements and values are not those of previous societies (and no doubt they will change again in the future). For the writer-historian looking at the definitions and taxonomy of colour, the danger of anachronism is very real. For example, the spectrum with its natural order of colours was unknown before the seventeenth century, while the notion of primary and secondary colours did not become common until the nineteenth century. These are not eternal notions but stages in the ever-changing history of knowledge.

I have reflected on such issues at greater length in my previous work, so while the present book does address certain of them, for the most part it is devoted to other topics. Nor is it concerned only with the history of colour in images and artworks – in any case that area still has many gaps to be filled. Rather, the aim of this book is to examine all kinds of objects in order to consider the different facets of the history of colour and to show how far beyond the artistic sphere this history reaches. The history of painting is one thing; that of colour is another,

much larger, question. Most studies devoted to the history of colour err in considering only the pictorial, artistic

or scientific realms. But the lessons to be learned from colour and its real interest lie elsewhere

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 Choose the right option
1.What problem regarding colour does the writer explain in the first paragraph?
a) Our view of colour is strongly affected by changing fashion
b) Analysis is complicated by the bewildering number of natural colours.
c) Colours can have different associations in different parts of the world.
d) Certain popular books have dismissed colour as insignificant.

2.What is the first reason the writer gives for the lack of academic work on the history of colour?
a) There are problems of reliability associated with the artefacts available.
b) Historians have seen colour as being outside their field of expertise.
c) Colour has been rather looked down upon as a fit subject for academic study.
d) Very little documentation exists for historians to use.
 Choose the right option
3.The writer suggests that the priority when conducting historical research on colour is to
a) ignore the interpretations of other modern day historians.
b) focus one’s interest as far back as the prehistoric era.
c) find some way of organising the mass of available data.
d) relate pictures to information from other sources.

4.In the fourth paragraph, the writer says that the historian writing about colour should be careful
a) not to analyse in an old-fashioned way.
b) when making basic distinctions between key ideas.
c) not to make unwise predictions.
d) when using certain terms and concepts.
 Choose the right option
5.In the fifth paragraph, the writer says there needs to be further research done on
a) the history of colour in relation to objects in the world around us.
b) the concerns he has raised in an earlier publication.
c) the many ways in which artists have used colour over the years.
d) the relationship between artistic works and the history of colour.

6.An idea recurring in the text is that people who have studied colour have
a) failed to keep up with scientific developments.
b) not understood its global significance.
c) found it difficult to be fully objective.
d) been muddled about their basic aims.
 Exercise 8
Whats is genealogy?
Genealogy is a branch of history. It concerns family history, 1______ than the national or world history
studied at school. It doesn't merely involve drawing a family tree, however - tracing your family history
can also 2______ in learning about your roots and your indentity. The internet enables millions of people
worldwide to 3______ information about their family history, without great 4______.
PeopleSUSTAINABLE
who research their family history often 5______ that it's fascinating hobby which 6______ a lot
PUBLISHING

about where they come from and whether they hace a famous ancestors. According to a survey involving
900 people who had researched their family history, the chances of discovering a celebrity in your past are
one in ten. The survey also concluded that the 7______ back you follow your family line, the more likely
you are to find a relation who was much wealthier than you are. However, the vast majority of people who
8______ in the survey discovered they were better off than their ancestors
Choose the correct answer

1. 2. 3. 4.
a) instead a) cause a) accomplish a) fee
b) rather b) mean b) access b) price
c) except c) result c) aproach c) charge
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d) sooner d) lead d) admit d) expense
5. 6. 7. 8.
a) describe a) reveals a) older a) attended
b) define b) opens b) greater b) participated
c) remark c) begins c) higher c) included
d) regard d) arises d) further d) associated