Review Test 1

Listening

Questions 1–5
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

1 The Glen family have been in the Connemara area since

A 1904.
B 1908.
C 1914.
2 The Connemara National Park is famous for its
A waterfalls.
B trees.
C grasses.
3 The speaker says the cottages are special because
A there are limited in number.
B they were designed by a well-known architect.
C they were the first buildings in the area to use solar energy.
4 For an extra fee, the management will
A maintain your garden.
B check your cottage regularly.
C rent your cottage to holidaymakers.
5 All Phase 1 cottages have
A three bedrooms.
B an open fire.
C two bathrooms.

Questions 6–10
Label the map below.
Write the correct letter, A–H, next to questions 6–10.

6 art gallery 9 Visitors’ Centre

7 museum 10 swimming pool
8 restaurant

Map of Glen Resort

A Car Park

B G

F
Pond

Picnic Area H E
Apple
C Tree

D
Cottages

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Review Test 1

Reading

Critical Thinking
Society has long cherished the ability to think beyond Moreover, while it’s tempting to view computers,
the ordinary, and in a world where knowledge is video games, and the internet in a largely good or bad
revered and innovation equals progress, those able way, the reality is that they may be both, and different
to bring forth greater insight and understanding are technologies, systems, and uses yield entirely different
destined to make their mark. results. For example, a computer game may promote
critical thinking or detract from it. Reading on the
‘Critical thinking as an attitude is embedded in
internet may ratchet up one’s ability to analyze while
Western culture. There is a belief that argument is the
chasing an endless array of hyperlinks may undercut
way to finding truth,’ observes Adrian West, research
deeper thought.
director at the Edward de Bono Foundation U.K., and
a former computer science lecturer at the University Exposure to technology fundamentally changes the way
of Manchester. people think, says Greenfield, who recently analyzed
more than 50 studies on learning and technology,
Although there’s little debate that information
including research on multitasking and the use of
technology complements – and often enhances – the
computers, the internet, and video games. As visual
human mind in the quest to retain information and
media have exploded, noticeable changes have
process an ever-growing tangle of bits and bytes,
resulted, she notes. ‘Reading enhances thinking and
there’s increasing concern that the same technology
engages the imagination in a way that visual media
is changing the way we approach complex problems
such as video games and television do not,’ Greenfield
and conundrums, and making it more difficult to
explains. ‘It develops imagination, induction, reflection,
really think. ‘We’re exposed to greater amounts of
and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary.’ However,
poor yet charismatic thinking, the fads of intellectual
she has found that visual media actually improve some
fashion, opinion, and mere assertion,’ says West. ‘The
types of information processing. Unfortunately, ‘most
wealth of communications and information can easily
visual media are real-time media that do not allow time
overwhelm our reasoning abilities.’ What’s more, it’s
for reflection, analysis, or imagination,’ she says. The
ironic that ever-growing piles of data and information
upshot? Many people – particularly those who are
do not equate to greater knowledge and better
younger – wind up not realizing their intellectual potential.
decision-making. What’s remarkable, West says, is just
‘how little this has affected the quality of our thinking.’ How society views technology has a great deal to do
with how it forms perceptions about critical thinking.
According to the National Endowment for the Arts,
And nowhere is the conflict more apparent than at
literary reading has declined 10 percentage points,
the intersection of video games and cognition. James
and the rate of decline is accelerating. Many, including
Paul Gee, a professor of educational psychology and
Patricia Greenfield, a UCLA distinguished professor
author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About
of psychology and director of the Children’s Digital
Learning and Literacy, points out that things aren’t
Media Center, Los Angeles, believe that a greater
always as they appear. ‘There is a strong undercurrent
focus on visual media exacts a toll. ‘A drop-off in
of opinion that video games aren’t healthy for kids,’ he
reading has possibly contributed to a decline in critical
says. ‘The reality is that they are not only a major form
thinking,’ she says. ‘There is a greater emphasis on
of entertainment, they often provide a very good tool
real-time media and multitasking rather than focusing
for learning.’ In fact, an expanding body of evidence
on a single thing.’ Nevertheless, the verdict isn’t
indicates that joysticks can go a long way toward
in and a definitive answer about how technology
helping children gain better reasoning skills. Games
affects critical thinking is not yet available. Instead,
such as Sim City and Civilization extend beyond
critical thinking lands in a mushy swamp somewhere
rote memorization, and teach decision-making and
between perception and reality; measurable and
analytical skills in immersive, virtual environments that
incomprehensible.
resemble the real world, Gee says. Moreover, these
Arriving at a clear definition for critical thinking is tricky. games – and some virtual worlds – give participants
One source describes it as ‘purposeful and reflective freedom to explore ideas and concepts that might
judgment about what to believe or what to do in otherwise be inaccessible or off limits.
response to observations, experience, verbal or written
It’s certain that in the digital age, critical thinking is a
expressions, or arguments.’ Overlay technology and
topic that’s garnering greater attention. As reading
that’s where things get complex. ‘We can do the same
and math scores decline on standardized tests, many
critical-reasoning operations without technology as we
observers argue that it’s time to take a closer look at
can with it – just at different speeds,’ West says.
technology and understand the subtleties of how it
affects thinking and analysis.

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Review Test 1

Questions 1–5 Questions 6–10

Do the following statements agree with the Complete the sentences below.
information given in the reading passage? Use ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each
Next to questions 1–5 write answer.
TRUE if the statement agrees with the
information 6 Adrian West maintains that despite being
FALSE if the statement contradicts the exposed to much more information, people do
information not have a greater amount of .
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this 7 According to Patricia Greenfield, there is an
emphasis nowadays on rather than
concentrating on individual jobs.
1 People are less interested in literary reading
nowadays than they were in the past. 8 West feels that using technology affects the
at which people are able to think
2 Experts have been able to define exactly what
critically.
impact technology has had on people’s critical
thinking skills. 9 Greenfield believes that real-time visual media
differ from reading in that they don’t allow
3 It is easy to clarify what exactly is involved in
people to use their .
critical thinking.
10 James Paul Gee thinks that as well as being
4 Dealing with hyperlinks in online texts
useful for purposes, computer games are
diminishes the reader’s ability to think seriously
also valuable as an educational tool.
about the text.
5 There is increasing evidence to suggest that
playing video games enhances children’s motor
skills among other abilities.

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Review Test 1

Writing

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

The graph below shows the number of male and female students
studying IT at university from 1985–2015.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features
and make comparisons where relevant.

Write at least 150 words.

Male and female students studying IT at university, 1985–2015

40,000

35,000

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Male students Female students

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 Review Test 1

Speaking

Part 1 Introduction and interview

[This part of the test begins with the examiner introducing himself or herself and
checking the candidate’s identification. It then continues as an interview.]
• What is/was your favourite subject at school and why?
• Which subjects do/did you dislike and why?
• Is it important for you to enjoy what you are studying?
• Which subject would you like to study in the future?

Part 2 Individual long turn

Candidate Task Card

Describe a person who inspires you.

You should say:
who the person is
what this person is known for, if anything
how this person inspires you
and explain what you will do due to this inspiration.

You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 minutes.

You have one minute to think about what you’re going to say.
You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Part 3 Two-way discussion

• Do you think it’s important for young people to be ambitious? Why/Why not?
• What types of subjects do young people need to study nowadays in order to be
successful in the future?
• How well do you think schools prepare young people for working life?
• To what extent do you think the internet is a valuable educational tool?

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Review Test 5

Listening

Questions 1–7
Complete the notes below.
Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

The Importance of Music

Background
The public perception of music in 1 is negative.
Best to ignore the difference between 2 music and pop music.
Speaker heard music produced by hitting metal containers with a 3 .
Babies react to music in the same way they do to 4 .
Music had a positive effect on prisoners’ 5 .

Advantages of teaching music

Music may be used to create a 6 between teachers and their students.
Research shows music leads to children having greater confidence and
7 in class.

Questions 8–10
Complete the sentences below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

8 A project in offered free music lessons to disadvantaged youth.

9 Children who learned to play the recorder subsequentally performed
better in .
10 people seem to be especially gifted at playing percussion
instruments.

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Review Test 5

Reading

Multitasking
In the social media era, we’re all required to do several things at once. But this constant
multitasking is taking its toll. Neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin talks about our addiction to
technology and its impact.
Our brains are busier than ever before. We’re assaulted Just having the opportunity to multitask is detrimental
with facts, pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and rumour, all to cognitive performance. Glenn Wilson, former visiting
posing as information. Trying to figure out what you professor of psychology at Gresham College, London,
need to know and what you can ignore is exhausting. calls it info-mania. His research found that being in
At the same time, we are all doing more. Thirty years situations where you’re making a concerted effort to
ago, travel agents made our airline reservations and concentrate on a task as an email sits unread in your
salespeople helped us find what we needed in shops. inbox reduces your effective Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Now we do most things ourselves. We’re doing a broad by almost 10 points. Wilson showed that the cognitive
spectrum of tasks while still trying to keep up with our losses from multitasking are even greater than the
lives, our families, our hobbies and our favourite TV cognitive losses from taking certain drugs.
shows, and helping us do all this is our smartphones.
Russ Poldrack, a neuroscientist at Stanford, found
They play a pivotal role – part of the 21st-century mania
that learning information while multitasking causes the
for cramming everything we do into every single spare
new information to go to the wrong part of the brain.
moment of downtime.
If students do their homework and watch TV at the
But there’s a fly in the ointment. Although we think same time, for instance, the information from their
we’re multitasking – doing several things at once – and schoolwork goes into the striatum, a region specialised
making a good job of it, this is a powerful illusion. Now for storing new procedures and skills, as opposed
new research shows that the mind can easily deal to facts and ideas. Without the distraction of TV, the
with two separate tasks at the same time, because it information goes into the hippocampus, where it’s
can channel them into the two separate parts of the organised and categorised in a variety of ways, making
front of the brain. However, when a third activity was it easier to retrieve.
introduced the mind became overloaded. Earl Miller,
To make matters worse, lots of multitasking requires
a neuroscientist at MIT and world expert on divided
decision-making: Do I answer this text message
attention, says that our brains are ‘not wired to multitask
or ignore it? How do I respond to this? It turns out
well … When people think they’re multitasking, they’re
that decision-making is also very hard on our neural
actually just switching from one task to another very
resources and that little decisions appear to take up
rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost
as much energy as big ones. One of the first things
in doing so’. So we’re not actually keeping a lot of balls
we lose is impulse control. This rapidly spirals into a
in the air like expert jugglers; we’re more like amateur
depleted state in which, after making lots of insignificant
plate spinners, frantically switching from one task to
decisions, we can end up making truly bad decisions
another, ignoring the one that’s not right in front of us
about something important.
but worried it’ll come crashing down any minute. Even
though we think we’re getting a lot done, ironically, In discussing information overload with Fortune
multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient. 500 leaders, top scientists, writers, students and
business owners, email comes up again and again
Multitasking has been found to increase the production
as a problem. It’s not a philosophical objection to
of the stress hormone cortisol as well as the fight-or-
email itself, but rather the mind-numbing number of
flight hormone adrenaline, which can overstimulate
communications that come in. When the 10-year-old
your brain and cause mental fog or scrambled thinking.
son of my neuroscience colleague Jeff Mogil at McGill
Multitasking creates a dopamine-addiction feedback
University was asked what his father does for a living,
loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus
he responded, ‘He answers emails’. Jeff admitted after
and for constantly searching for external stimulation. To
some thought that it’s not so far from the truth. Workers
make matters worse, the area of the brain known as
in government, the arts, and industry report that the
the prefrontal cortex has a novelty bias, meaning that its
sheer volume of email they receive is overwhelming,
attention can be easily hijacked by something new – the
taking a huge bite out of their day not only in terms
proverbial shiny objects that we use to entice infants, for
of answering them, but also prioritising which ones to
example. The irony here for those of us who are trying
answer. We feel obliged to reply our emails, but it seems
to focus amid competing activities is clear; the very
impossible to do so and get anything else done.
brain region we need to rely on for staying on task is
easily distracted.

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Review Test 5

Questions 1–4
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in the reading
passage?
Next to questions 1–4 write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks

1 People are making greater demands on their time than ever before.
2 The smartphone has become an indispensible device for our careers.

3 People have incorrect beliefs regarding their ability to multitask well.

4 The maximum number of tasks the mind can deal with successfully at a
given time to achieve a desired outcome is three.

Questions 5–10
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

5 Earl Miller uses the term ‘cognitive cost’ in the second paragraph
A to imply that multitasking may result in us missing vital information.
B to explain what actually happens in the brain during multitasking.
C to demonstrate the speed with which we work while multitasking.
D to suggest that multitasking adds to the time needed to complete a task.
6 What does the writer say about one particular hormone in relation to
multitasking?
A It causes people to lose their concentration.
B It triggers a part of the brain used for practical activities.
C It allows people to focus on several things simultaneously.
D It acts as a way of slowing down the front region of the brain.
7 According to Glenn Wilson, ‘info-mania’ means people
A place a strong emphasis on learning.
B rise to the challenge of performing well.
C find it difficult to resist the chance to multitask.
D become less competent at what they are doing.
8 What is suggested by Russ Poldrack’s research?
A There is some overlap in the brain’s zones.
B Television plays a useful role in education.
C There are benefits to doing uninterrupted study.
D Some people are better than others at recalling information.
9 What does the writer say about decision making?
A The brain has the ability to distinguish between big and small decisions.
B The brain struggles to deal with the questions involved in making a
decision.
C We often make mistakes when it comes to making decisions about
minor matters.
D We need equal amounts of brain power to make major and
unimportant decisions.
10 Which problem concerning emails does the writer mention?
A the quantity that has to be dealt with
B the difficulty in deciding when to respond
C the guilt experienced by failing to write a reply
D the boring nature of this type of communication

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Review Test 5

Writing

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

In many countries, some people earn very high salaries.

Some people think that this is good for a country.
Others believe that the government should not allow people to earn
salaries above a certain level.
Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own
knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.

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 Review Test 5

Speaking

Part 1 Introduction and interview

[This part of the test begins with the examiner introducing himself or herself and
checking the candidate’s identification. It then continues as an interview.]
• Do you have a favourite animal?
• Do you enjoy seeing animals in zoos?
• Why do some people have pets?
• Are there many chances to see wildlife where you live?

Part 2 Individual long turn

Candidate Task Card

Describe a sports person you admire.

You should say:
who the sports person is
which sport this person plays
what this person’s achievements are
and explain why you admire this sports person.

You will have to talk about the topic for 1 to 2 minutes.

You have one minute to think about what you’re going to say.
You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Part 3 Two-way discussion

• What motivates people to succeed?
• Having a job that satisfies you is more important than having a job that’s lucrative.
Do you agree?
• Which jobs do you think are most valuable to society?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of moving to a new place to work?

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