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V. AI2
APTIS TEST ADVANCED – READING
Name:
Date: Score:

You have 60 minutes to complete this test.

Part 1
You are going to read four people's opinions on how to get a pay raise. You need to read all
their opinions and then choose who said what for 7 questions.

Person A
I always knew that to be completed satisfied with my house I would have to renovate it completely. I
finally landed upon a house I was more or less happy with mid April; I could tell it had the base
ingredients that I needed to make the perfect home. I immediately set about making the necessary
changes. However it wasn't just the house that I transformed, but my own furniture too. New bed
sheets, sofa covers, pillows, curtains… I was drowning in material swatches that week as I needed
to be able to lay them against the existing fabric to see how they compared. As for the decor, I'm a
fan of a contemporary look, all clean lines and minimalism. A pale background with pops of colour is
my go to style; my last house was even featured in a home decor magazine!

Person B
We were very lucky to come across our dream home in such a short amount of time, it even came in
under budget! However it quickly became apparent why that was. The last occupants had left at
short notice, supposedly due to unforeseen family circumstances, but as soon as I heard the racket
next door I had a strong hunch why they shot off in a such a hurry. It's incredible how some people
can be so uncaring about others, it really put me on edge and I began to doubt our decision. Another
thing I was doubting over was what to do with the interior of the house. Ive always gone for a more
rustic feel, in fact its very on trend at the moment, however my wife prefers bright and airy. Luckily
with the cash left over from our budget, we can afford to incorporate both!

Person C
I was in love as soon as I stepped foot through the door. The house was a barn conversion with
original fittings such as the magnificent original oak beam that extended right the way through the
kitchen. Of course it needed a lot doing to it and we were prepared for a project. The first immediate
thing were the rickety stairs - pretty precarious when you have a toddler on the loose! I also loved
the fact that we we were literally in the middle of nowhere with the nearest person being the estate
agent who lived further down the road and who in fact invited us over for dinner to welcome us!
Moving up north away from our family and friends, I had been anxious that I wouldn't meet anyone
or that the people would be very different, so this was an appreciated gesture!

Person D
Having always lived in flats, getting a house for the first time felt like an enormous step. In a block of
flats you are always surrounded by people; one step out of your front door and you bump into one of
your neighbours! This is probably why I felt a bit creeped out when we first moved into the house
which, as well as not having neighbours on the other side of a wall, was detached so even more of a
contrast! I kept imagining dark figures melting off the walls and I insisted that my boyfriend install a
state-of-the-art alarm system. He was pretty miffed at having to shell out our savings on something
so excessive just to try and curb my paranoia but I pestered until he gave in!

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Person
____ 1. Prefers a modern look.
____ 2. Their house was dangerous when they moved in.
____ 3. The paid less than they expected.
____ 4. Was scared of the house.
____ 5. They have been recognized for their decorating skills.
____ 6. Was worried about the neighbours.
____ 7. Wanted to live in a rural place.

Part 2
Read the text below. Match the headings to the paragraphs. There are three more heading
than you need.

0. Ask people to name the most famous historical woman of science and their answer will likely be:
Madame Marie Curie. Push further and ask what she did, and they might say it was something
related to radioactivity. (She actually discovered the radioisotopes radium and polonium.) Some
might also know that she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. (She actually won two.) But few
will know she was also a major hero of World War I. In fact, a visitor to her Paris laboratory in
October of 1917 – 100 years ago this month – would not have found either her or her radium on the
premises. Her radium was in hiding and she was at war.

1. For Curie, the war started in early 1914, as German troops headed toward her hometown of
Paris. She knew her scientific research needed to be put on hold. So she gathered her entire stock
of radium, put it in a lead-lined container, transported it by train to Bordeaux – 375 miles away from
Paris – and left it in a safety deposit box at a local bank. She then returned to Paris, confident that
she would reclaim her radium after France had won the war.

2. With the subject of her life‟s work hidden far away, she now needed something else to do. Rather
than flee the turmoil, she decided to join in the fight. But just how could a middle-aged woman do
that? She decided to redirect her scientific skills toward the war effort; not to make weapons, but to
save lives. She found the best way she could do this would be to invent the first “radiological car” – a
vehicle containing an X-ray machine and photographic darkroom equipment – which could be driven
right up to the battlefield where army surgeons could use X-rays to guide their surgeries. Previously
X-ray machines only existed in city hospitals, far from the battlefield; by inventing a portable device
she was able to provide much greater efficiency in the treatment of battle wounds and the detection
of, for example, bullets in the body.

3. One major obstacle was the need for electrical power to produce the X-rays. Curie solved that
problem by incorporating a dynamo – a type of electrical generator – into the car‟s design. The
petroleum-powered car engine could thus provide the required electricity. Frustrated by delays in
getting funding from the French military, Curie approached the Union of Women of France. This
philanthropic organization gave her the money needed to produce the first car, which ended up
playing an important role in treating the wounded at the Battle of Marne in 1914 – a major Allied
victory that kept the Germans from entering Paris.

4. More radiological cars were needed. So Curie exploited her scientific clout to ask wealthy
Parisian women to donate vehicles. Soon she had 20, which she outfitted with X-ray equipment. But
the cars were useless without trained X-ray operators, so Curie started to train women volunteers.
She recruited 20 women for the first training course, which she taught along with her daughter Irene,
a future Nobel Prize winner herself. The curriculum included theoretical instruction about the physics
of electricity and X-rays as well as practical lessons in anatomy and photographic processing. When
that group had finished its training, it left for the front, and Curie then trained more women. In the
end, a total of 150 women received X-ray training from Curie.

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5. Curie oversaw the construction of 200 radiological rooms at various fixed field hospitals behind
the battle lines. Not content just to send out her trainees to the battlefront, Curie herself had her own
“little Curie” – as the radiological cars were nicknamed – that she took to the front. This required her
to learn to drive, change flat tires and even master some rudimentary auto mechanics, like cleaning
carburetors. And she also had to deal with car accidents. When her driver careened into a ditch and
overturned the vehicle, they righted the car, fixed the damaged equipment as best they could and
got back to work.

6. Although few, if any, of the women X-ray workers were injured as a consequence of combat, they
were not without their casualties. Many suffered burns from overexposure to X-rays. Curie knew that
such high exposures posed future health risks, such as cancer in later life. Curie survived the war
but was concerned that her intense X-ray work would ultimately cause her demise. Many assumed
that the blood disorder she contracted later was the result of her decades of radium work – it‟s well-
established that internalized radium is lethal. But Curie was dismissive of that idea. She had always
protected herself from ingesting any radium. Rather, she attributed her illness to the high X-ray
exposures she had received during the war. (We will likely never know whether the wartime X-rays
contributed to her death in 1934, but a sampling of her remains in 1995 showed her body was
indeed free of radium).

7. As science‟s first woman celebrity, Marie Curie can hardly be called an unsung hero. But the
common depiction of her as a one-dimensional person, slaving away in her laboratory with the
single-minded purpose of advancing science for science‟s sake, is far from the truth. Marie Curie
was a multidimensional person, who worked doggedly as both a scientist and a humanitarian. She
was a strong patriot of her adopted homeland, having immigrated to France from Poland. And she
leveraged her scientific fame for the benefit of her country‟s war effort – using the winnings from her
second Nobel Prize to buy war bonds and even trying to melt down her Nobel medals to convert
them to cash to buy more. She didn‟t allow her gender to hamper her in a male-dominated world.
Instead, she mobilized a small army of women in an effort to reduce human suffering and win World
War I. Through her efforts, it is estimated that the total number of wounded soldiers receiving X-ray
exams during the war exceeded one million.

Headings

____ A A well-known historical figure

____ B A well-trained team
____ C Aware of the risks
____ D Financial difficulties
____ E Fundraising for France
____ F Life‟s work interrupted
____ G New skills for everyone
____ H Practical issues
0 I The name rings a bell
____ J Two sides to every story

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Part 3
You have to fill in the gaps with the right words and phrases given below.

In 1982, a British insurance broker named Doug Milne set out in search of new markets. His
speciality was kidnapping and ransom insurance, known in the industry as K&R. Kidnapping and
ransom insurance was created in the 1930s, but it wasn‟t until the 60s that it (1) catch on, following
a spate of kidnappings in Europe by groups such as Eta in Spain, the Red Army Faction in Germany
and the Red Brigades in Italy. The appeal was simple: in the event of a kidnapping, the insurance
would provide reimbursement for ransom payment.
There were caveats to prevent fraud and to ensure that the existence of the policy did not actually
increase the risk of kidnapping. (2) the policy had to be kept secret. In fact, it could be voided if its
existence became public. The concern was that if the kidnappers knew of the policy, they would
demand more money.
The second principle is that the policy will only reimburse the ransom once it is paid. The insurance
company (3) money. In order to raise the cash, the victim‟s family will probably have to liquidate
assets – mortgage the house, sell stocks, pool money from other relatives. This process makes the
negotiations credible by dragging them out. This is not just about minimising the payout by the
insurance company. Quickly making good on a large ransom (4) the expectations of future
kidnappers. It can make hostage-taking more lucrative and more common.
When K&R insurance first came on the market, the policyholders were left on their own to negotiate
with the kidnappers. But in the mid-1970s, an insurance broker named Julian Radcliffe came up with
an idea that would (5) the industry. Radcliffe convinced their company to set up a subsidiary
focused on hostage response. The subsidiary would hire security experts – mostly former military
and police – to handle negotiations. The cost of hiring the consultant was included in the policy and
borne by the insurance company.

1. a) began to really b) finished to c) was modified to

2. a) In the same way b) However c) The first was that
3. a) gives them some b) saves part of the c) never fronts any
4. a) raises b) confuses c) controls
5. a) distract b) revolutionise c) destroy

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Part 4
Here you have two short texts. You have to fill in the gaps with the appropriate phrase. You
cannot use any option twice and there are extra options. Write the numbers in the gaps.

Text 1
Mark Zuckerberg got interested in programming in elementary school. He was taught Atari BASIC
Programming by his father, and when Mark was about 12, he used Atari BASIC to create a
messenger, which he called “ZuckNet.” It made all the computers connected to each other and
allowed him to transfer messages between the house and dental office. His father installed the
messenger on his computer in his dentist office, and the receptionist could inform him when a new
patient arrived. Mark also enjoyed developing games and communication tools and as he said he
was doing it (1). His father, Edward Zuckerberg, even hired a computer tutor David Newman, who
gave his son some private lessons.

Also whilst at high school, Mark wrote an artificially intelligent media player Synapse for MP3-
playlists that carefully studied the preferences of a user and was able to generate playlists
„guessing‟ which tracks a user wanted to listen to. Microsoft and AOL got an unusual interest in
Synapse media player and wanted to acquire it. However, the young talent rejected the offer of
the IT giants and then politely rejected their invitation to cooperate. (2), Mark Zuckerberg refused
dozens, maybe even hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a job at one of the top IT-corporations.

Soon Mark Zuckerberg studied at the Academy of Phillips Exeter, an exclusive preparatory school in
New Hampshire. He showed good results there in science and literature, receiving a degree in
classics. He also showed a great talent in fencing and even became the school captain of the
fencing team. Yet Mark Zuckerberg stayed fascinated by coding and wanted to work on the
development of new software.

In 2002, after graduating from Phillips Exeter, Zuckerberg entered Harvard University. By his second
year in the Ivy League, he had (3) as a software developer on campus. It was then when he wrote a
program CourseMatch, which helped students choose their subjects on the basis of lists of courses
from other users.

Text 2
It was at Harvard, where he enrolled in 2002, that things really started to come together. After
becoming interested in computer programming, he tried a handful of attempts to create networking
software for the college population (including one that saw him reprimanded for hacking into the
official student database). Then he came up with The Facebook - a website that allowed users to
share information and keep in touch with friends; a virtual meeting place.

In a fortnight, half of the student body had signed up, and before long there were Facebooks at
colleges all over the north-eastern United States.

Things galloped onwards and he quickly moved to California, inspired by another Harvard dropout,
Bill Gates, and the Ivy League college's policy of allowing students to take (4).

Friends and acquaintances say he remains down to earth and slightly awkward, in the fashion
typical of technologists. Yet underneath the shyness, there is a confidence that has many in awe.

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"I sense that he doesn't get impressed by new surroundings," says Jeff Jarvis, the blogger and
Guardian columnist, who has met Zuckerberg several times. "Some people think it's hubristic, but I
think it's just him being himself."

His (5) have brought attention from media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch, but Zuckerberg remains
adamant that Facebook is a software company and not a media operation (although he does say
that it is the biggest publisher of news in the world, thanks to the way it publishes the actions of all
its members). This (6) rivals such as Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, the co-founders of
Murdoch's MySpace website, who specifically set out to create a site that would be attractive to
advertisers. Still, it doesn't stop old media bosses looking for advice when they meet him.

1. a) just for fun b) on a temporary c) to improve d) to make money

basis
2. a) In no way b) Just like that c) One of the ways d) Under no
circumstances
3. a) gained a reputation b) gained anonymity c) hired someone d) lost interest

4. a) an increased b) indefinite leave c) many exams d) no holidays

workload
5. a) arrogance and b) confidence and c) confidence and d) social skills and
success social skills success success
6. a) makes him the b) puts him behind c) sets him apart from d) turns him into
same as

* This is the end of the test.

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