F1 June Practice VI

General English

No. of pages: 8
Name:_________________ ( ) Total Mark: 160

Part I: Comprehension – 50 marks

Passage A Read the following passage carefully. Then use your own words to
answer all the questions in complete sentences. (10 marks)

A Soldier with a Secret

Lyons Wakeman (1843-1864)

Among the hundreds of American Civil War soldiers buried in Chalmette National
Cemetery lies one soldier with a tombstone that reads “Lyons Wakeman, N.Y.”. If you
researched Lyons Wakeman, you might think at first that he was an ordinary soldier of
the time. He wrote home to his parents, telling them about battles and marches. He
described what it was like to march 200 miles in 10 days, and how it felt to experience
the heat and humidity of the South for the first time. In one letter, he wrote, “I don’t
know how long before I shall have to go into the field of battle. For my part, I don’t care.
I don’t feel afraid to go.” The soldier did not end up dying in battle, but from a lengthy
illness called dysentery (chronic, lengthy, non-stop diarrhea) which was caused by
drinking contaminated water. This soldier was only 21 when he passed away, in 1864.

For years, his New York family did not speak much of Lyons Wakeman. It was not until
a great-nephew found the soldier’s letters that a well-kept secret was revealed: Lyons
Wakeman was actually a woman. Her name was Sarah Rosetta Wakeman. Her parents,
ashamed of her ‘unfeminine’ nature, had hidden her letters and tried to make her younger
siblings forget about her. Rosetta had served in the military and was buried in a soldier’s
grave without her secret ever being revealed to those who knew her as a private in the
Army. And she was not alone. Research had shown that at least 400 women dressed as
men served in the war, and there may have been many more. These women had different
reasons for joining the army. Some wanted to be with their husbands or brothers. Some
wanted to fight for the cause of freeing the slaves or protecting the confederacy. Some
wanted adventure.

Rosetta was born in 1843, the first child of a large farming family. Her letters reveal that
she wanted to earn more money for her financially struggling family. She left home in
August 1862 and found work on a coal barge. She wrote home and sent part of her pay
with every letter. On a trip up the river, Rosetta met a group of soldiers from the 153rd
Regiment of the New York State volunteers. They encouraged the ‘boatman’ to enlist.
Rosetta was paid an enlistment bonus of $152, which was more than a year’s wages for
most men of the time. She continued to send home her Army pay until her death, and her
reports to her parents speak of her pride in being able to drill, march, and fight.

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If you are thinking that someone should have noticed that Rosetta was short, beardless
and had a higher voice than most men, you are both right and wrong. Rosetta was
described in her enlistment papers as ‘five feet tall with fair complexion and brown hair,
blue eyes, and an occupation of a boatman.’ By the time Rosetta enlisted, the army was
routinely accepting younger men and even boys. Smooth skin, shortness, and higher
voices were common and gave no cause for suspicion. If her fellow soldiers thought that
‘Lyon’ had a secret, they would assume he was a young teen who had lied about his
age…not that she was a farm girl who had decided to earn a man’s wages.

The American Civil War was full of tragic losses and stories of bravery on both sides of
the battle. Perhaps more stories will come to light about the special bravery of women
like Rosetta who were determined to fight alongside men in this historical struggle.

Questions
1. Why was Lyon’s secret not revealed until many years later? (1 mark)
2. What was Lyon Wakeman’s real identity? (1 mark)
3. Did many women serve as soldiers in the Civil War? How do you know? Quote
the relevant sentence from the passage to support your answer. (2 marks)
4. Why did Wakeman join the army? (1 mark)
5. How do you think Wakeman would have felt serving in the army? Quote from the
passage to support your answer. (2 marks)
6. Why did the army never suspect that Wakeman was a woman? (2 marks)
7. What did most fellow soldiers believe to be Wakeman’s secret? (1 mark)

Passage B True,false or not given (10 marks, 1 mark each)

Read the passage and decide whether the statements are true, false or not given
according to the passage.

More young Hongkongers seek treatment for mental health problems

(SCMP, 16 May 2016, adapted)

The number of young people (those under 15 years of age) seeking treatment for mental
health problems at public facilities has been increasing steadily. From 2010 to 2015, the
number has increased by 78 per cent.

Dr Ivan Mak, a psychiatrist, said the figure was “worrying” because it shows young
people are increasingly suffering from mental illness in Hong Kong.

“Not only are more youngsters having mental illnesses, the age is going down,” he said.

Among those between 15 and 17, there were 4,200 patients seeking treatment at the
psychiatry department in 2014-15, a 45 per cent rise from the figure in 2010-2011.

A total of 5,900 patients between 18 and 22 sought treatment in 2014-15, an increase of

23 per cent on the figure four years earlier.

Mak said the rising numbers could be caused by stress from studying, parents having
higher expectations of their children, and internet communication leading to young
people feeling detached from society.

But Dr Cindy Chan, a clinical psychologist, said the increases could also be caused by
greater awareness of mental health issues. “People now understand that mental illness is
not shameful and can be treated, thanks to public education.”

“On top of that, the authority has better manpower to take in more patients than in
previous years.”

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“People are more familiar with symptoms of mental health problems now, so they are
more likely to notice when they are suffering, and seek help,” she said.

“Mental patients can get better if they are accepted and supported by people around
them,” Chan said. “In fact, many sufferers manage their conditions well with treatment
and are able to work and lead happy lives.”

She urged those concerned that they might be suffering from mental illness to have an
open attitude and talk to family and friends, and seek professional help.

Mak said he hoped the Education Bureau would introduce lessons on stress management
and mental health in secondary schools.

Statements
1. The number of young Hongkongers seeking mental treatment has been going up.
2. Dr Ivan Mak is worried that the public hospitals in Hong Kong may not have
enough manpower to handle the increasing number of mental cases.
3. According to Dr Ivan Mak, mental patients are getting younger.
4. 4,200 patients sought treatment at the psyhiatry department in 2010-2011.
5. The number of patients seeking mental treatment is expected to increase by a
further 23 per cent four years from now.
6. Stress from studying and the high expectations of parents are reasons for mental
illness in young people.
7. According to Dr Cindy Chan, public education has been ineffective in making
people understand the truth about mental illness.
8. There are both positive and negative reasons for the increase in the number of
young people seeking mental treatment.
9. According to Dr Cindy Chan, many mental patients are able to work and live
happily. Many of them become very good parents.
10. Dr Ivan Mak thinks that students should have lessons on stress management and
mental health in secondary schools.

Passage C Multiple Choice Cloze (15 marks, 1 mark each)

Read the passage and select the best answer to the following questions.

Who discovered America?

The world-renowned traveler Christopher Columbus is generally considered the (1)___

who discovered America, but there is no doubt that there were at least two other (2)___
there long before him.

The native Indians, after all, had been in America for fifteen thousand years before
Columbus. And (3)___ before Columbus, in 986, a little-known Norseman named Biarni
Heriulfson discovered Labrador and Baffin island, now (4)___ of Canada. In the year
1000, another Norseman, Leif Ericsson, landed in America. In 1009 he established a
settlement in America and the first Caucasian white child in America was born in the
same (5)____.

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Most scientists believe that the native Americans came from Asia fifteen thousand years
ago when ocean (6)___ were much lower and Siberia was connected to Alaska by (7)___.
Over the (8)____ these migrants from Asia moved farther south, always looking for new
hunting (9)____.

Most (10)___ in the United States do not accept the scientific (11)____ that their
(12)____ came from Asia. Their (13)____ are that they descended from wandering
seafaring (14)____ like the Polynesians, Phoenicians or Chinese. Physically, they
resemble other Asian groups of Chinese (15)____ with their dark eyes and black hair.

No one knows exactly how many Native Americans were living in the Americas when
Columbus arrived in 1492, but based on reports by European settlers and explorers,
historians guess that there must have been at least forty million Native Americans living
in the Americas when the Europeans first arrived.

1. A. man 2. A. men 3. A. five hundred year

B. mankind B. gangs B. five hundred years
C. people C. groups C. five hundred of years
D. human D. crowds D. fives hundred years

4. A. part 5. A. year 6. A. levels

B. piece B. period B. heights
C. place C. time C. depths
D. portion D. age D. surfaces

7. A. earth 8. A. centuries 9. A. spot

B. soil B. century B. grounds
C. space C. age C. place
D. land D. time D. location

10. A. nativemen 11. A. evidences 12. A. parents

B. of natives B. evidence B. founders
C. native C. evidencing C. descendants
D natives D. signs D. ancestors

13. A. guesses 14. A. people 15. A. ancestral

B. theories B. humans B. ancestry
C. theory C. inhabitants C. ancestors
D. plans D. persons D. blood

Passage D Open Cloze

Fill in the following blanks with the most suitable word from the box below. No
word is used more than once. (15 marks, 1 mark each)

another similarities unexpected reality rare legendary

periods most creatures utensil either eating
era several sense preserved fly conserving

How do we know what dinosaurs looked like?

Dinosaurs were, we probably all agree, rather magnificent animals. We can get a great (1)
of their power and form from fossil skeletons, even when only a few bones have been (2).
From the towering titanosaurs to brutally efficient velociraptor hunters – we all have
ideas about dinosaurs that would fit easily into movies and glossy posters.
But how close is the Hollywood image to the (3) of dinosaur life in the Mesozoic? What
do we know about how they really lived, what they looked like and what they actually

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got up to? As we’ll see, researchers have learned a lot about all of these aspects of
dinosaur biology, but not necessarily from studying the grandest and largest fossils so far
discovered.

In fact, some of the (4) interesting insights have come from poo.

Karen Chin, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been studying fossilised
dinosaur faeces – called coprolites – for 25 years. “Dinosaur faeces are pretty (5) but we
do find them in some places,” she says. “If they are preserved they can tell us some of the
things that the dinosaur had been (6).”

No surprise here, surely, you might think. Dinosaurs (7) ate leaves – or each other, right?
Although Chin does cite one coprolite which shows exceptionally well preserved muscle
tissue – meat – she has found evidence of (8) meals, too. In some fossil faeces belonging
to plant-eating dinosaurs, Chin has found evidence that they had been eating wood.

There was so much of it that Chin concluded the dinosaurs hadn’t simply ingested a little
wood when stripping leaves from trees. In fact, as more of these wood-containing
coprolites are found, preserved from different time (9), it’s beginning to look like eating
wood may have been a seasonal habit for these (10), though Chin can’t yet be sure.

The dinosaurs might have eaten this wood, which appears to have been covered in
fungus, as a way of getting extra resources during an (11) when large plant-eaters didn’t
have much else to graze on – grass didn’t become common on Earth until the final stages
of the dinosaur era.

One of the big revelations in dinosaur palaebiology during the past 30 years has been the
discovery of many feathered fossils – further emphasising the (12) between dinosaurs and
birds. Few historical depictions of dinosaurs – if any – showed them with feathers, but it
is now clear to scientists that (13) species did have some, even if they didn’t use them for
flight like birds do.

Many feathered dinosaurs clearly wouldn’t have been able to (14). But their feathers
could well have been used for communication – perhaps with one dinosaur displaying
visual signals to (15) during fights or courtship. The feathers might even have been useful
during nesting.

There are many secrets that dinosaurs took with them to the grave. But the more we know
about the things they left behind – from fossilised poo to fossilised feathers – the better
we get at knowing what they were really like, and how they really lived.

Part II : Grammar - 110 marks

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A. Tenses (20 marks, 1 mark each)
Complete the following passage using the correct forms of the verbs in brackets. Do
not change the voice. Study the example given.

Elderly Delivery Man Died After Being Hit by Drunk Driver

(SCMP, 16 May 2016, adapted)

An elderly man (e.g.die) after being hit by a drunk driver while delivering oranges near
the century-old Yau Ma Tei fruit market, early on Saturday morning.

The man, 76, (1.deliver) a wooden cart full of oranges on Canton Road near the Yau Ma
Tei police station at around 5.40am, when a private car (2.hit) him. A passerby (3.call)
the police.

Two police officers soon (4.come) on the scene and (5.arrest) the driver. Tests later
(6.show) that the alcohol content in his bloodstream was three times over the legal limit.

“The private car (7.hit) the wooden cart and (8.knock) the man down,” (9.say) Inspector
Sun, adding that a major wound on the back of the man’s head (10.be) the cause of death.
The hospital (11.certify) him dead at 6.37am.

The famous market, which (12.supply) much of the fruit to local hawker stalls and fruit
vendors, (13.be) busiest from midnight till sunrise, with carts of fruit stacked out on the
streets.

In an interview with SCMP, Inspector Sun (14.point) out that the spot (15.be) not a traffic
black spot. “Right now, we (16.investigate) the case and (17.question) the arrested driver.
We (18.make) an announcement to the public after we (19.solve) the case.”

Traffic Department statistics (20.show) that 81 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents
in the whole of 2015, with 49 of them aged 65 or above.

B. Parts of Speech (20 marks, 1 mark each)

Read the following passage. State clearly the parts of speech of the words in bold
according to their usage in the passage.

(1)Tender green leaves cloaked the willow tree in the Garden of Green Gems (2)beyond
the Inner Court. Bright blossoms, like the pink-and-white clouds of the sunset, covered
the (3)fruit trees there. The waters of the little brook that (4)fed the lotus pond was ‘as
clear as a teardrop’ as Halmoni described it. On the damp (5)garden path the earthworms
had come forth to take their first (6)looks at the Spring. All day the girls played
blindman’s buff and the boys spun their tops in the garden.

Out beyond the city the hillsides were (7)carpeted with red, white and purple (8)azaleas.
On bright afternoons little processions of picnickers (9)wound their way out to them to
(10)view the mountains and valleys in their spring beauty. Yong Tu had already brought
back many azalea petals for the women to dry and use in making sweet, (11)spicy cakes.

‘This is a happy season,’ Halmoni said to the children one morning. The old woman was
sitting on the (12)steps of her little veranda, breathing in the soft scented air of late
spring.

‘And this is a happy day, Halmoni. It’s the Eighth Day of the Fourth Month. You know
what day that is?’ Ok Cha looked (13)eagerly into her grandmother’s calm face. The old
woman seemed thoughtful. There was a (14)twinkle in her dark eyes, but she also tried to
look (15)puzzled.

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‘Oh yes, it’s the birthday of the Great Buddha,’ Halmoni replied, smiling at little Ok Cha,
for Halmoni knew (16)well that this old meaning of the day was not what Ok Cha had in
mind. She enjoyed gently teasing her (17)beloved granddaughter.

‘No, Halmoni, no. It’s the Day of the Toys. What toys have you bought for (18)our
holiday (19)this year?’ the Korean girl’s black eyes danced with (20)delight at the
thought of the pleasures of this holiday that was particularly for children like her.
(from Tales of a Korean grandmother by Frances Carpenter)

C. Conditionals (10 marks, 1 mark each)

Expand the sentences using either a type 0 or type 1 conditional or ‘unless’.

Example
Question : (you) heat butter/ melt
Answer : If you heat butter, it melts

1. (Unless) (you) get parents’ permission/ go rafting

2. (You) Throw ice in water/ melt
3. (she) continue to eat in the classroom/ bugs appear
4. (she) read my diary/ I be very angry
5. (she) feel much better/ take medicine as directed
6. (you) whisk egg white/ form peaks
7. (he) not keep quiet/ I scream
8. (Unless) (you) wear school uniform/ not allowed to enter the school
9. (you) eat plain food/ want to lose weight
10. (you) hurt ankle/ take the lift

D. Prepositions (5 marks, 1 mark each)

Complete the following sentences with the most suitable prepositions.

1. Please respond _____ my question. Give me an answer.

2. I am suffering _____ hay fever. Do you have some medicine for me?
3. My parents punished me _____ coming home very late last night.
4. I am sorry for what I have said. Please forgive me _____ being impolite.
5. Sally is interested _____ languages and she is planning to learn Russian.

E. Phrasal Verbs from Units 4-8 of Upstream (20 marks, 2 marks each)
Fill in the blanks with a suitable phrasal verb. Use the correct verb forms.

1. You should (1) for pickpockets when you are in crowded places.
2. While I was cleaning the store room I (2) the biggest spider I had ever seen.
3. When you choose a pet cat, (3) one with a friendly personality.
4. This is a great idea that you must (4) in the meeting.
5. The bus I was on (5) so everyone had to get off and wait for the next one.
6. Some burglars (6) the actress’s apartment and stole all her jewelry.
7. John became rich after (7) a huge sum of money after his father died.
8. Coming to this playground always (8) happy childhood memories.
9. Can I trust you not to (9) our secret?
10. After hours of pleading, Dad finally (10) and let me go to the party.

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F. Reported speech (10 marks, 1 mark each)
Report the following words said by different people last week.

1. ‘I did not go to school yesterday because I was ill,’ said Peter.

2. ‘Which country are you from?’ asked Mary.
3. ‘I will be visiting Beijing next year,’ said Jane.
4. ‘Close the window before it rains,’ Mother said to me.
5. ‘Should I bring warm clothes for our London trip?’ Pam asked Amy.
6. ‘Your cough is caused by a nasty virus,’ Doctor Chan told me.
7. ‘Have you returned the book to the library?’ Kate asked Jane.
8. ‘Stand up for the school hymn,’ the Head Prefect ordered us.
9. ‘I can only write properly with this pen,’ said Tom.
10. ‘Let’s meet at 8 tomorrow,’ Kitty said to me.

G. Question tags (5 marks, 1 mark each)

Complete the sentences with a suitable question tag.

1. You should wake up now, _______________?

2. I am not an irresponsible person, _______________?
3. You will have a new laptop, _______________?
4. It didn’t rain when you were in Korea, _______________?
5. Most of the water we drink comes from China, _______________?

H. Proofreading (20 marks, 1 mark each)

Please see answer sheet.

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