Practice progression test 2: Insert

(1 hour 10 minutes)

Disclaimer: Please note that this practice progression test has not been produced by Cambridge International Examinations and it
should not be assumed that Cambridge progression tests will follow this exact pattern.

Section A: Reading – Fiction

Read this passage from The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna and then answer the
questions in the question paper.
Vatanen moves to Lapland to find work, with a hare as a companion, and is tormented by an
unwelcome visitor.

The thieving raven

Before the snow set in, Vatanen took the bus to Posio in South Lapland. There he
took a forest-thinning job near the highway that crosses the deserted forest tracts
north of Lake Simojärvi. It was between the Kemijoki and Simojoki rivers, a desolate
watershed, but the work brought money in, and the main thing was that the hare
5 didn’t have to live in a built-up area.
Vatanen established camp in a clump of red pines on a marsh islet at the edge of
an extensive swamp. He lived in a lean-to canvas bivouac reinforced with a covering
of spruce branches. Twice a week he went to Lake Simojärvi for food. The conditions
here, near the Arctic Circle, were very primitive. The work was heavy, but Vatanen
10 liked that: he knew he was getting stronger, and he wasn’t weighed down by the
thought of having to do this work till the end of his life.
He spoke aloud to the hare, and the hare listened religiously, without
comprehending a word. Vatanen poked the camp-fire in front of his lean-to, watched
the winter coming on, and at night slept with his ears pricked like a wild animal.
15 Right at the start, in this deserted and sleety marshland, he met a setback. While he
was still fixing up his frugal camp, the most villainous bird in the forest was settling
in too – a raven.
Scrawny, it flew several circuits with sleet-drenched wings, then, noticing no
harassment, settled on a tree near Vatanen and shook off the sleet like a rheumaticky
20 dog. It was a most melancholy sight. Vatanen looked at the bird and felt a profound
compassion for it. Everything showed that the poor, ill-shaped fowl had not been
having a very cheerful time of it recently: utterly wretched it was.
Next evening, coming back tired from the forest and getting ready to make
his supper, Vatanen had a surprise. His knapsack, which had been lying open on
25 the bivouac branches, had been plundered. A considerable amount of food had
disappeared from it: half a kilo of butter, practically a whole tin of meat, and many
slices of crispbread. Obviously the culprit was that miserable flap-winged fowl that
had aroused his sympathy the day before. It had clearly torn open the packaging
with its bony beak, spilled the contents around and then spirited some off to a cache
30 known only to itself.
The raven was sitting on the top of a tall pine, quite close to the bivouac. The
hare was rather nervous: obviously the raven had been molesting it while Vatanen
was away working. Vatanen threw a stone at the raven but missed. It merely shuffled
aside, not even opening a wing. It switched trees only when Vatanen ran at the tree
35 with an axe and started chopping. If only he’d had a gun!

© Cambridge University Press 2017 Cambridge Checkpoint English 8: The Wider World 1

Practice Progression test P2_Insert.indd 1 7/31/17 1:32 PM

 Practice progression test 2: Insert (1 hour 10 minutes)

Vatanen opened another tin of meat, fried it in the pan and ate the rest of the
crispbread dry, without butter. As he ate his reduced repast, he eyed the raven
on its branch and heard it burping. An unassuageable black rage overwhelmed
him, and before settling to sleep he moved the knapsack under his head. The hare
40 hopped over to sleep beside it.
In the morning Vatanen carefully closed up the bivouac entrance with spruce
branches, hiding the knapsack inside after making sure the cord was tightly
fastened. When he returned in the evening, the camp had again been raided. The
raven had knocked the branches aside, dragged the bag outside the charred circle
45 of the camp-fire, torn one of the pockets open and eaten the cheese. The bird had
also snipped through the cord and gobbled up the contents of last-night’s meat-tin
and the rest of the crispbread. All that was left was a packet of tea, some salt and
sugar, and two or three unopened tins of meat. That evening supper was still more
frugal.
50 The pillage continued for several days. The raven succeeded in stealing the
knapsack’s victuals even though Vatanen covered it over with large pieces of log
before setting off for work: the raven always managed to worm its beak through
the cracks and get into the bag. The knapsack would have to be enclosed in a
concrete bunker if it was to be safe from the greedy bird’s ravages.
55 The raven became cheekier and cheekier, seeming to know that the man in
the bivouac had no way of stopping it. Try as he would to dislodge the bird with
ferocious roars and stones as big as a fist, the raven remained unperturbed, even a
little amused, by Vatanen’s impotent rage. The bird was rapidly putting on weight
and hardly bothered to shift from its branch, even in the daytime. Its insatiable
60 appetite forced Vatanen to frequent the food-van three times a week instead of two.
He worked out that the raven was costing him nearly fifty dollars a week.
This went on for two weeks. The bird had become grossly fat. It sat lazily and
impudently on a branch just a few metres away from Vatanen, puffed up like a
shaggy, well-fed sheep; its formerly greyish-black plumage had darkened and
65 developed a prosperous shine. At this rate, Vatanen’s forest clearance would bring
in a very poor return. He gave much cogent thought to ways of getting rid of the
bird, and finally he hit on the ultimate contrivance. The way to make the raven
renounce its iniquitous behaviour would be exceptionally effective. And cruel.

lean-to rough shelter attached to a support

bivouac temporary camp
cache hiding place

Copyright Acknowledgements:

Text for Section A © Arto Paasilinna; The Year of the Hare; Peter Owen Publishers; 1995.

© Cambridge University Press 2017 Cambridge Checkpoint English 8: The Wider World 2

Practice Progression test P2_Insert.indd 2 7/31/17 1:32 PM