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Reading and Writing Test
Reading and Writing Test
……………………
TEST
I. READING:
A. Read the text. Choose A,B or C: Big Ben
When you visit London, one of the first things you will see is Big Ben, the famous
clock which is more than a hundred years old. If the Houses of Parliament had not been
burnt down in 1834, the great clock would never have been erected. Big Ben takes its name
from Sir Benjamin Hall who was responsible for the making of the clock when the new
Houses Of Parliament were built. Sir Benjamin was a very tall man, and since no one could
think of a name for the high tower, for fun, the clock got the name of Big Ben.
The minute hands on the four faces of the clock are about four metres long. They
jump forward 17 centimetres every half minute. However, Big Ben is not only of immense
size, but is extremely accurate as well. The clock is checked twice every day by Greenwich
Observatory.
One can hear the sound of Big Ben all over the world on the radio. The first
broadcast of this sound was on December 31st, 1923.
Big Ben is hardly ever wrong. Most people in Britain put their watches right at ten
o’clock in the morning when they hear its sound on the radio.
1. The faces of the famous clock face the four directions of the world.
A. True. B. False C. No information in the text.
2. The small hand of Big Ben is 17 cm long.
A. True. B. False. C. No information in the text.
3. The hands of the clock move forward every minute.
A. True. B. False C. No information in the text.
4. Greenwich Observatory maintains the accuracy of the clock.
A. True. B. False C. No information in the text.
5. The beginning of the transmission of Big Ben’s sound was widely advertised.
A. True. B. False C.No information in the text.
B. Look at the sign in each question and choose the best explanation:
WE NO LONGER ACCEPT
Closed for lunch
CREDIT CARDS
Back at 3 Sorry for the inconvenience
1. … 2. …
a) You can come back for lunch at 3 a) They are going to accept credit cards
o’clock. soon.
b) They will have lunch at 3 o’clock. b) They will only accept credit cards.
c) The shop will close after 3 o’clock. c) They used to accept credit cards.
a) The shop will open at 3 o’clock.
1
d) They are sorry that the credit cards d) Push the key into the door
are very long. immediately.
III. WRITING:
Imagine you are on a holiday with your family in Nesebar. Write a postcard to your English
pen-friend.
“Hi Bob,
…great. We’re having a fantastic……here.
Today it’s….
Every day we……
Right now we are……
We all love it here!
See you….
…”
Good morning, passengers of flight 17 bound for Caracas with stops in Atlanta
and Miami. The departure gate has been changed to 30 B. Also there will be a
slight departure delay due to bad weather outside. Right now the ground crew is
deicing the wings in preparation for departure. It also looks like the flight is slightly
overbooked so we offer complimentary roundtrip tickets to a few passengers who
are willing to take a later flight. We should be boarding around a quarter to the
hour. Thank you for your patience.
5
Answers
LISTENING: 1C 2B 3A 4A
READING
A/
1C 2B 3B 4A 5C
B/
1A 2C 3B 4B 5A 6D
Multiple Choice
1D 18B 35A
2C 19B 36A
3C 20A 37C
4C 21C 38D
5C 22C 39A
6B 23D 40A
7B 24B 41B
8C 25A 42D
9B 26D 43B
10C 27D 44C
11D 28A 45B
12B 29A 46D
13C 30D 47C
14D 31D 48C
15D 32C 49B
16D 33B 50C
17C 34C