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Professional English Test
There are 5 sections in this test, Listening, Reading, Use of English, Writing and Speaking.
The instructions for each section will be given after you start the test.
The overall time for the test is 2 hours 20 minutes.
The test is timed. You must try to complete each section within the time allocated, as the timer will automatically take you to the next part.
Before you start the test, please enter your name and email address. This is so that when you finish the test, the marks can be automatically emailed to you. Please note that your name and email address goes into our confidential database for ease of reference. None of your details are passed on to any third party.
Opportunities for voluntary work in Southoe village
Part 1 Reading
1 You are going to read an article about a trip to the Arctic. For questions 1 – 8 on the next page, chose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
Arctic Passion
Cruising over the pack-ice with our heavy snowmobiles, my guide, Arne, and I looked out across the dazzling expanse of snow. We had come to the tiny, remote island of Svalbard, northeast of Greenland, to photograph polar bears, but now we were exhausted with searching. The day had been particularly frustrating, as every bear we’d approached had run away from us. Fed up and hungry, we decided to abandon our search beside one of the many tall, blue icebergs.
As always, a good meal was followed by an intense desire to sleep, and we decided to give in to it, even though the temperature was down to – 30o C. Sleeping at the same time would be unwise with our furry friends around, so we decided to take it in turns. As Arne slept, I scanned the snow with my binoculars, looking for anything moving. An hour passed. I was just about to wake my companion, when I noticed a dot on the horizon. I wiped the lens, but it was still there. I began to make out the typical mayonnaise colour and the striding walk – it was a polar bear, and it was coming our way.
I awoke Arne instantly and he confirmed that it was a bear and that it was indeed heading in our direction. For the next thirty minutes, the bear continued on its direct course towards us, which was strange because the wind was blowing our scent straight towards him, so he must have been aware of our presence.
When he was a couple of hundred metres away, I decided to lie down in the snow so as to get a better photograph. ‘You realise you look like a seal like that, don’t you?’ warned Arne, for once sounding a bit worried. Seals are what polar bears like to have for dinner. Onwards the bear came, and by now I could hear the crunching of his feet on the ice. It struck me that this was a big bear, travelling at some speed. I turned to speak to Arne and saw him pulling a gun from his bag. Polar bears are incredibly unpredictable animals, and to be in their environment without protection is foolish. But Arne had strict instructions from me to use the gun to frighten the bear away, and then only if necessary.
By now the animal was only 25 metres away and the atmosphere had changed. Arne sat up on the snowmobile calmly awaiting the bear’s next move, while I struggled to change the film in my camera with my cold, shaking hands. Then, just as I was thinking that there was no escape, as I tensed myself for the inevitable attack, the bear veered off to one side and then went straight past us. ‘Look!’ whispered Arne. ‘Behind us!’ I turned and saw a second creamy head with two black eyes peering around the corner of an iceberg a few hundred metres behind us. A female bear. Our friend’s goal had clearly been in his sight the whole time, and we were the only thing between him and his beloved.
2 You are going to read some information about the history of sports. For questions 9 – 22, chose from the sports (A-D). Some of the sports may be chosen more than once. When more than one answer is required, these may be given in any order. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Sport A
From the deep blue waters of Waikiki Beach to the cold grey Atlantic of Cornwell, surfers have a strange bond with the sea. They are part of a tradition that stretches back to the people of the Pacific Islands, who prayed to the gods for the best waves. From the beginning of the sixteenth century Hawaiian legends and songs describe surfing as an obsession making surfers forget everything, including work and family.
In 1911 America discovered surfing. The journalist and novelist Jack London wrote about surfing in his book The Shark Hunt. Soon the craze swept through California and beyond, and surfing has never looked back. Generations of surfers now think of Hawaii as the Mecca for their sport.
Sport B
Four thousand years ago, an Egyptian sculptor carved a picture on a wall of two women hitting a ball back and forth from hand to hand. Is this the ancestor of tennis?
Tennis was bought to northern Europe from Greece in 500 AD. It became so popular between the twelfth and fourteenth century that every town in France had its own court. But this was a very different game from the one we see at Wimbledon today.
At first the game was played bare-handed with a feather ball fitted with dog’s hair. Later rougher materials like sand and chalk were used, but these caused injuries to the players’ hands. This led to the use of protective gloves which got bigger and bigger as time went on until it was necessary to cut out the centres and replace them with tight ropes. Gradually these gloves evolved into rackets.
Sport C
Football is a very old sport, but it was no laughing matter in the early days. Two villages would battle to kick a ball made from a pig’s intestine to a goal. The goals were things like trees or buildings and could be as much as five miles apart. The game, which was sometimes extremely violent, could go on from sunrise to sunset.
A more controlled form of the game began to be played in England’s public schools in the early nineteenth century. Each school played a different version of the game and the rules varied widely. In 1863 a Football Association was established and the members met to decide on the rules. It took five meetings before they could all agree.
Sport D
No one really knows where the game of golf was first played. The Romans played a game with bent wooden sticks and a leather ball stuffed with feathers, but the details of the game are not known.
In the fifteenth century, golf first appeared in the written history of Scotland. In 1457 the Scottish parliament got very upset about the number of people playing golf instead of training for the army and the game was banned. By 1503 even the King had started playing again. Mary, Queen of Scots, is supposed to have been the first woman golfer. People say she played a few rounds of golf just after her husband was murdered.
Part 2 Use of English
1 For questions 1-15, read the text below and then decide which word best fits each space. Put the letter you choose for each question in the correct box on the answer sheet. The exercise begins with an example (0).
2 For Questions 16-30, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space. There is an example at the beginning (0).
PLASTICS
2 For Questions 16-30, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Part 3 : Writing
Choose ONE of the following to answer in 150-250 words.
Please write your answer on the following page.
