SFL/METU May, 2012

Dept. of B.E.
Testing Office A Time: 20 mins.

Pop-Quiz 218 INTERMEDIATE GROUP

A. Read the text below, and mark the best alternatives.

Sally Beamish
What do you do if you get robbed? Take up composing music? Although it sounds strange, this is
what Sally Beamish did. The thief has never been caught, and her viola and video-player have never
been recovered.
The robbery took place in London, where she was very active as a freelance player. Six months
earlier, she ____(1)____ music for a set of six poems by Irina Ratushinskaya. This strengthened
Beamish in her belief in herself as a composer. The shock of the theft of the invaluable 1747
Gabriella viola, ____(2)____ even her own but on loan, finally made her decide to leave the urban
stress of London and head for the country of her husband, Scotland. After she ____(3)____ London,
she began a completely new life in Scotland.

1. a) has composed 2. a) being 3. a) elected

b) had composed b) which was b) negotiated
c) was composed c) was not c) abandoned
d) has been composing d) which was not d) embedded
Sally Beamish was born in 1956 into a musical family. She ____(4)____ write musical notes before
writing the letters of the alphabet. At the age of seven, she wrote an opera, or “opra” as she called it
then, ____(5)____ a story she had read. Her grandmother taught her to sight-read music at the
piano, but it was her mother who encouraged (and later discouraged) her interest in the violin,
____(6)____ Sally, at 15, to take up the viola. ____(7)____ in North London, she had the chance to
come together with a precocious band of chamber-music players, seen as one of those useful
musicians that could turn their hand proficiently to the violin, viola or piano.
At the Royal Northern College of Music, she ____(8)____ with the Principal, who recommended
her to attend the musical composition course given by Anthony Gilbert. Gilbert suggested that, as
an experienced composer who had already gained ____(9)____ into music, she should go her own
way. However, this was not easy for her. Her work had no relation to ____(10)____ was then
fashionable, and she didn’t have enough confidence.
4. a) can 5. a) based on 6. a) led
b) could b) when based on b) lead
c) is able to c) was based on c) leading
d) might d) what was based on d) to lead

7. a) Live 8. a) related 9. a) insight

b) Lived b) consented b) prejudice
c) Living c) approved c) hierarchy
d) Having lived d) consulted d) collaboration

10. a) how
b) what
c) when
d) why
PLEASE TURN OVER
Beamish stopped composing. She became a busy viola player. She now recognizes this period as a
very unhappy one when, ____(11)____ her talent as a performer, she had nothing special to say. A
chance encounter with the Scottish composer Martin Dalby proved to be a turning point for her.
Looking at the music she had written, he encouraged ____(12)____ once again that she could be a
composer. However, it was not until two years later that she ____(13)____ her first professional
commission. Her panic was so great that when she came to attend the final rehearsal of Dances and
Nocturnes, she took out her pen and made an attempt to cut out several bars of music, because she
wanted to avoid being subject ____(14)____ the criticism that her work wasn’t professional. Later,
Beamish entered a competition. She didn't win, but afterwards she met the composer Oliver
Knussen, who remembered her work. She still ____(15)____ the invaluable help Knussen gave her,
discussing her compositions and crises of confidence. Her composition No, I Am Not Afraid, had its
first performance six months before her viola was stolen. Shortly after the robbery, she heard that
the Arts Council had awarded her a grant of £2,500 to support her effort to compose more music. It
bought one year's child care for her five-month-old baby and allowed her ____(16)____ Commedia,
which is a striking work.

11. a) despite 12. a) to believe her 13. a) was received

b) in spite b) believing her b) received
c) due to c) her to believe c) has received
d) though d) her believing d) used to receive

14. a) in 15. a) soars 16. a) write

b) to b) curbs b) writing
c) of c) emerges c) to write
d) on d) appreciates d) to be written

Today she lives in Scotland and continues to compose music. A second child and the lack of a
publisher for her music ____(17)____ the flow of compositions. She feels no sense of disadvantage
as a woman. ____(18)____, she appears to enjoy the discipline of having to compose fast during the
few hours a day when the babysitter is present, while praising the limitless patience and support of
her husband. Beamish appears serenely happy. Last month alone, ten performances of her work
took place.
So what is next? Beamish's works have been mostly for chamber music groups. She is writing a
new violin concerto and she ____(19)____ it by this time next year. However, her real ambition is
to write an opera. No one has commissioned it yet. Perhaps an offer from the viola thief
____(20)____ appropriate.

17. a) stops 18. a) Likewise

b) will probably stop b) Instead
c) must have stopped c) Nonetheless
d) haven’t stopped d) For example

19. a) has probably completed 20. a) might be

b) will probably be completed b) has to be
c) will probably have completed c) could have been
d) is probably going to be completed d) should have been
SFL/METU
Dept. of B. E. May, 2012
Testing Office Time: 20 mins.
Pop-Quiz 218 INTERMEDIATE GROUP

ANSWER KEY

A.
A Copy
1. b 5. a 9. a 13. b 17. d
2. d 6. c 10. b 14. b 18. b
3. c 7. c 11. a 15. d 19. c
4. b 8. d 12. c 16. c 20. a