LANGUAGECERT IESOL

Reading and Writing

Expert Level – C1
Practice Paper HU6

Centre no Date

Time allowed: 2 hours and 40 minutes

- Reading

- Writing

Instructions to Candidates

- Answer all the questions.

- All your answers must be written in black or blue ink not pencil.

- Monolingual dictionaries are permitted.

- For the Reading Parts make sure you copy all your answers on the separate Answer Sheet.

For examiner’s use only

Parts W1 W2 Total

Candidate’s
score

RESULT:

REVIEWED:

Copyright © 2018 LanguageCert

LanguageCert Expert C1

Reading Part 1
Read the text and the statements. Some of these statements are true according to the text;
some of them are false. Choose the correct answer True (T) or False (F) for each statement.

‘But where’s Wilkins?’ inquired Marcus Chalfen, bending where the ceiling got low and tapping the
photo with a pencil. ‘1962, Wilkins won the Nobel in medicine with Crick and Watson. But no sign
of Wilkins in the photos. Just Crick and Watson. Watson and Crick. History likes lone geniuses or
double acts. But it’s got no time for threesomes.’ Marcus thought again. ‘Unless they’re comedians
or jazz musicians.’

‘Suppose you’ll have to be a lone genius, then,’ said Irie cheerfully, turning from the picture and
sitting down on a Swedish backless chair.

‘Ah, but I have a mentor, you see.’ He pointed to a poster-sized black and white photograph on the
other wall. ‘And mentors are a whole other kettle of fish.’

It was an extreme close-up of an extremely old man, the contours of his face clearly defined by
light and shade, hatchings on a topographic map.

‘Grand old Frenchman, a gentleman and a scholar. Taught me practically everything I know.
Seventy odd and sharp as a whip. But you see, with a mentor you needn’t credit them directly.
That’s the great thing about them. Now where’s this photo…’

While Marcus scrabbled about in a filing cabinet, Irie studied a small slice of the Chalfen family
tree, an elaborate illustrated oak that stretched back into the 1600s and forward into the present
day. The differences between the Chalfens and the Jones/Bowdens were immediately plain. For
starters, in the Chalfen family everybody seemed to have a normal number of children. More to
the point, everybody knew whose children were whose. The men lived longer than the women.
The marriages were singular and long lasting. Dates of birth and death were concrete. And the
Chalfens actually knew who they were in 1675. Her father could give no longer record of his family
than his father’s own haphazard appearance on the planet in the back-room of a Bromley public
house circa 1895 or 1896 or quite possibly 1897 depending on which nonagenarian ex-barmaid you
spoke to.

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LanguageCert Expert C1

1. Trios are equally acknowledged in all walks of life.

2. Despite his age, Marcus’s mentor is still mentally astute.

3. Marcus instantly laid his hand on the photo in the cabinet.

4. Marcus can trace his ancestors back to the seventeenth century.

5. Irie doesn’t know her grandfather’s age.

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LanguageCert Expert C1

Reading Part 2
Read the text. Use the sentences to complete the text. Choose the correct sentence for each
gap. There are two extra sentences you will not need.

Bringing up children

Bringing up children is no picnic. In fact, I think raising a child is the hardest, most responsible yet
most satisfying task a human being can face but the one for which we receive the least training.
Each person’s knowledge of how to bring up a child usually comes from one’s surroundings and
upbringing. (1)_________ Parents are the most influential role models children are likely to have.
Those who pay compliments and show respect, kindness, honesty, friendliness, hospitality and
generosity to their children will encourage them to behave in the same way. They should
continually express their unconditional love for their children.

Before having a child, it’s a good idea for both partners to understand each other’s attitudes to
parenting. Discipline is crucial when bringing up a child. All children need and want reasonable
boundaries. (2)_________ Setting boundaries for children's behaviour helps them to learn how to
behave in society. Discipline is difficult to deal with because it demands consistency. These rules
have to apply every day so parenting is a 24-hour job. Inconsistency and lack of discipline create
confused and rootless children who will test their parents constantly to find out what the world is
all about.

Every child needs quality time with its parents. (3)_________ In many households, parents have to
go to work while children are involved in school and other activities. Since fixed routines are
important for children, parents should try to arrange a regular time each day when the entire
family can be together. Mealtimes provide a perfect time to chat about the day’s events while
encouraging everyone to join in the conversation. (4)_________ It should be understood that
everyone eats together and stays at the table until everyone has finished eating.

When children want to talk or ask questions, they should be encouraged. It is important for them
to become aware of how things are connected to their own behaviour in terms of cause and effect.
(5)_________ If parents are dismissive or always too busy, children may stop wanting to share their
thoughts and if the family has a problem that concerns a child, he or she should be involved in
trying to find possible solutions. (6)_________ Being open to a child's suggestions and encouraging
him or her to join in the negotiations and decision-making will help develop confidence and
demonstrate the invaluable rules of good communication.

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LanguageCert Expert C1

A These also provide the continued support they need to become self-assured and happy.

B These should be discussed along with the possible consequences of each of them.

C These help children to learn what kind of behaviour is acceptable and what is not.

D This may mean that patterns from one’s own childhood are passed on to one’s children.

E This is something they need help with in order to understand and appreciate fully.

F This could be considered to have a negative effect.

G Unfortunately, finding time to spend together as a family can be difficult.

H It’s a perfect opportunity for parents to listen to what their children are saying.

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LanguageCert Expert C1
Reading Part 3
Read the four texts. Which text gives you the answer to each question? Choose the correct text
(A-D) for each question.
A B
Homeopathy is one of many relatively
cheap alternative therapies widely and
effectively used for a number of ailments.
A system of medicine based on treating the
individual with highly diluted substances
given in mainly tablet form, it triggers the
body’s natural system of healing. Based on
their background knowledge of the
symptoms, homeopaths will match the
most appropriate medicine to the patient.
It works on the controversial concept of
‘like cures like’ – that is, a substance that
would cause symptoms in a healthy person
is used to cure those same symptoms in
illness. For example, one remedy which
might be used in a person suffering from
insomnia is one made from coffee.
Scientifically, it cannot yet be explained
precisely how homeopathy works but new
theories in quantum physics are going some
way towards shedding light on the process.
C D
Various motions carried against
homeopathy at today’s conference of the
British Medical Association in Brighton have
caused dismay. Former tennis star, Annabel
Croft, was in accusatory mood. ‘I’m shocked
to hear that treatments that benefit tens of
thousands of people across the UK are
under threat. The option to choose a more
holistic approach to medicine should not be
taken away from millions of potential
patients who could benefit. While this
country grapples with serious challenges in
funding the National Health Service, the
BMA is choosing to launch an unfair attack
on a field of treatment that is efficacious in
a very cost-effective way,’ said Cristal
Sumner, Chief Executive of the British
Homeopathic Association. ‘It saddens me
that the BMA decided to pass motions that
could have a hugely detrimental effect on
their budget, not to mention the millions of
patients and thousands of doctors that use
homeopathy.’
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The scourge of complementary medicine,
Professor Edzard Ernst, may be facing the
closure of his unit at the Peninsula Medical
School in Exeter, ostensibly for economic
reasons. However, as an unusually outspoken
scientist, he has never made a secret of his
issues with the Foundation for Integrated
Health. Last week, he labelled it a ‘lobby group
for unproven treatments’. He believes he has
become persona non grata with Exeter since Sir
Michael Peat, the founder’s private secretary,
wrote to complain he had publicly ridiculed
their recent report. The university cleared him
but I, like Ernst, suspect they would still like to
see him go. Can we afford to lose him? No. He
is the only professor of complementary
medicine in the UK. St John’s Wort, used for
depression, got his seal of approval and he
found some benefits from acupuncture,
although he damned homeopathy and said
chiropractic treatment had the potential to
cause harm.
I’m writing to express my feelings of
uneasiness regarding the staged protests
outside well-known pharmacies throughout
the UK which stock homeopathic products,
where sceptics ingested massive ‘overdoses’
of tablets to show their lack of medicinal
value. They claimed that this would prove
that the ‘remedies’, which they call
‘scientifically absurd’, were mere placebos.
The Society of Homeopaths, on the other
hand, called it a ‘stunt’. From my point of
view, this kind of activity, along with the
throwing of public brickbats, does nothing to
highlight the importance of the issues. From
2005 to 2008, the NHS spent almost £12m on
homeopathic treatments. This is a lot of
money. It’s easy just to criticise. Let’s find out,
through proper research, if the money’s well
spent or not.
LanguageCert Expert C1

In which text does the writer:

1. include the implications of withdrawing financial support for homeopathy?

2. describe homeopathy’s underlying paradoxical principle?

3. mention a defence and criticism of a course of action?

Which text is saying the following?

4. Someone was found not guilty of an accusation.

5. Decisions affecting many people have been made wrongly and unjustly.

6. It’s unwise to trivialise a serious debate.

7. Developments in another discipline may partially explain homeopathy’s efficacy.

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LanguageCert Expert C1

Reading Part 4
Read the text and answer the questions. Use a maximum of five words for each question.

L S Lowry
Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist born in 1887. He is famous for painting scenes of life
in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century.
He developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled
with human figures often referred to as “matchstick men”.
He painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits and the unpublished
“marionette” works, which were only found after his death. Due to his use of stylised figures and
the lack of weather effects in many of his landscapes he is characterised by some art critics as a
naïve artist, a form of visual art that is created by an individual who lacks the formal education and
training that a professional artist undergoes. However, this perspective is vigorously challenged by
the galleries that have organised retrospectives of his works.
Lowry’s mother described her son as a “clumsy boy”. She had been brought up to expect high
standards by her stern father. Like him, she was controlling and, above all, intolerant of failure.
Much to her dismay, Lowry’s teachers reported that he showed negligible academic aptitude. His
father was affectionate towards him but was, by all accounts, a quiet man who was at his most
comfortable fading into the background as an unobtrusive presence. Lowry inherited these
characteristics.
After leaving school, Lowry began a career working for the Pall Mall Company, collecting rents. In
the evenings he took private art lessons and in 1905, he secured a place at the Manchester School
of Art, where he studied under the French Impressionist, Pierre Adolphe Valette. Lowry was full of
praise for Valette as a teacher, remarking “I cannot over-estimate the effect on me of the coming
into this drab city of Adolphe Valette, full of French impressionists, aware of everything that was
going on in Paris”. In 1915 he moved on to the Royal Technical Institute, Salford. There, he further
developed his interest in industrial landscapes. Lowry’s oil paintings were originally impressionistic
and were despondent in tone, but at Salford he was encouraged to move away from the sombre
palette he was using. Taking this advice on board, Lowry began to use a white background to his
pictures, and developed his distinctive idiosyncratic style of painting.
At the age of 22, Lowry moved to the industrial town of Pendlebury. Here the somewhat bleak
landscape comprised textile mills and factory chimneys rather than trees. Lowry later recalled: “At
first I detested it, and then, after years I got pretty interested in it, then obsessed by it…”
He was a secretive and mischievous man who enjoyed stories irrespective of their truth. His friends
observed that although his anecdotes were sometimes notable for their humour and mirth, for the
most part he set out deliberately to deceive. He invented acquaintances and other people as
frameworks on which to hang his tales.
While his art career was burgeoning, Lowry continued
8 his employment at the Pall Mall Company
and was able to somewhat disassociate himself from what he considered to be the pretentious
LanguageCert Expert C1

While his art career was burgeoning, Lowry continued his employment at the Pall Mall Company
and was able to somewhat disassociate himself from what he considered to be the pretentious
world of fine art, and pose as a common working man. However, Lowry was undoubtedly very
aware of major trends in 20th-century art. When he started to command large sums for the sale of
his works, Lowry purchased a number of paintings and sketches by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, who he considered to be his chief inspiration. Many of the other works he
purchased, and which were impactful on his painting, were portraits of Elizabeth Siddal, Jane
Morris and William Holman Hunt’s muse and inspiration Annie Miller.
When Lowry died in 1976, he bequeathed a considerable number of artworks by himself and
others to Carol Ann Lowry (unrelated to Lowry himself). He left a cultural legacy and the Lowry
museum in Salford was established in 2000. Named after him, this 2,000 square metre cultural
centre has a gallery which houses the world’s largest collection of his work, and hosts theatre
performances and a plethora of other events across the arts. An annual fixture in The Lowry’s
calendar is the LS Lowry Lecture, delivered by a critical commentator or artist working in any
discipline. The inaugural lecture, Why Lowry’s Art Lives, was delivered by distinguished writer and
curator Julian Spalding in 2006.

1. What do modern-day exhibitors think of Lowry’s status as a “naïve” artist?

2. How did Lowry’s mother view his educational progress?

3. How did Lowry feel about Manchester?

4. What colours did Lowry use in his early paintings?

5. What was the usual feature of Lowry’s stories about people?

6. What self-image did Lowry try to demonstrate?

7. Who was Lowry most influenced by?

8. What regular event does the Lowry museum host to mark his cultural legacy?

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LanguageCert Expert C1

Writing Part 1
You read the information below in a newspaper. Write a letter to the editor giving your views on
the possible social repercussions of these population changes, in particular the effects that the
ageing population could have on family life and responsibilities. Write between 150 and 200
words.

Expected population growth in a South Asian country

160
140

140
Population (millions)

120 Age groups

100

100 0-14
0-14

80 15-59
15-59
60

60 60+
60+

40
20

20
0 2000 2025 2050 2075 2100
Year
1 2 3 4 5
These statistics are based on estimated figures for population growth during the twenty-first century
and show projected data for the whole of the century, split into 25-year periods and focusing on three
main age groups.

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LanguageCert Expert C1

Task Grammar Vocabulary Structure

fulfilment

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LanguageCert Expert C1

Writing Part 2
Write a letter to a friend telling him/her about a film you have seen or a book you have read that
made you forget your troubles and realise how lucky you are. Explain why it affected you that
way. Write between 250 and 300 words.

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LanguageCert Expert C1

Task Grammar Vocabulary Structure

fulfilment

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