English Class Test No.

X – Year 10

Name: ___________________________ Date: ___________________________

Erster Prüfungsteil: Hör- Sehverstehen

1 Hör-Sehverstehen
You are going to watch an American reporter interviewing with Jacina Ardern, former Prime
Minister of New Zealand, about becoming a working mum.

• First read the tasks.

• Then watch the report.
• While you are watching, tick the correct box or fill in the information.
• At the end you will watch the report again.
• Tick only one box.
• Now read the tasks. You have 90 seconds to do this.

• Now watch the report and do the tasks.

1. At the time of the interview, Jacinda Ardern was _________________ years old.

2. People around the world are surprised to hear that she’s pregnant. Why?

a) c The leader of a country is not allowed to have a baby while in office.

b) c There has only been one world leader before her to have a baby while in
office.
c) c No female Prime Minister had ever given birth to a child while in office.

3. In New Zealand women have been allowed to vote …

a) c for 20 years.
b) c since 1920.
c) c 20 years earlier than the women in the US.

4. Jacinda Ardern thinks that …

a) c she will be betraying her voters if she takes maternity leave.

b) c she is able to be Prime Minister and a mother at the same time.
c) c her mum can take care of the child.

5. Clarke Gayford, the father of Jacinda Ardern’s future child, is a professional

__________________________________________________________________________
 6. Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford aren’t married. Why?

a) c They haven’t been together for a very long time.

b) c They want to but just haven’t set a date for their marriage yet.
c) c They don’t want to get married.

7. When Ardern wanted to become Prime Minister, she …

a) c joined forces with another political party.

b) c was 17 years old.
c) c was very conservative.

8. The comparison of her with Donald Trump in the context of immigration made Ardern …

a) c very confused.
b) c really upset.
c) c extremely proud.

9. What does the term „Jacinda-Mania“ mean?

a) c People are enthusiastic about Jacinda Ardern.

b) c People are afraid of Jacinda Ardern.
c) c People are offended by Jacinda Ardern.

In 30 seconds you will hear the excerpt again so you can check your answers.

Zweiter Prüfungsteil: Leseverstehen - Wortschatz – Schreiben

2 Leseverstehen

New Zealand bans swimming with dolphins in Bay of Islands by John Bilstein

Too much interaction with humans puts the animals under stress, claims New Zealand’s
Department of Conservation.

The Bay of Islands about 200 miles north of Auckland, New Zealand, is very popular because of its
warm weather and crystal clear water. It is also a playground for bottlenose dolphins, and
5 swimming with these sociable animals is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many of us.

Dolphins are very curious by nature, so they will approach boats and people just to see what's
going on, but having too much contact with humans can apparently be harmful to them.
The number of dolphins visiting the Bay of Islands has gone down by 66 per cent since the 1990s,
and the calf mortality rate is the highest in the world at 75 per cent.

10 The New Zealand Department of Conservation believes that humans are "having a significant
impact on the population's resting and feeding behaviour." They claim that too many swimmers
and boats are preventing the bottlenose dolphins in the Bay of Islands from leading normal lives,
which may result in stress and anxiety.
 New Zealand's government has therefore banned tourists from swimming with bottlenose
15 dolphins in the area, and dolphin-watching tour operators have to follow strict guidelines. To
minimise the stress levels of the animals, tourists on dolphinwatching boats may only interact with
them for a maximum of twenty minutes either in the morning or in the afternoon. The animals
then have to be left alone for the rest of the day.

The government is even thinking of creating a marine mammal sanctuary in the bay by banning
20 tour boats altogether, but experts say that properly trained tour guides may actually help to
monitor the situation. Who knows what swimmers and private boat owners might get up to if
nobody keeps an eye on them?

The ban only applies to bottlenose dolphins because they like to swim close to the shore and are
therefore more vulnerable than other dolphin species.

25 If the programme proves successful, New Zealand may extend the ban to other parts of the
country. According to the BBC, Hawaii may take similar measures to protect its dolphin population.

(taken from ‘Read On’, November 2019)

For a school project you are supposed to do some research about wildlife in New Zealand. You have come
across the article about the problems with the bottlenose dolphins.

• Tick the correct box and give one piece of evidence by quoting short passages from the text.

1. The Bay of Islands is a natural habitat of bottlenose dolphins.

This statement is … c true c false

One piece of evidence from the text:

____________________________________________________________________________

2. Dolphins are interested in everything and afraid of nothing.

This statement is … c true c false

One piece of evidence from the text:

____________________________________________________________________________

3. Compared to 30 years ago, there are half as many dolphins in the Bay of Islands.

This statement is … c true c false

One piece of evidence from the text:

____________________________________________________________________________
4. Experts think that people are the reason for …

a) c dolphins leaving the area.

b) c dolphins getting sick.
c) c dolphins acting differently.

One piece of evidence from the text:

____________________________________________________________________________

5. The new rules have been introduced by a volunteer organisation.

This statement is … c true c false

One piece of evidence from the text:

____________________________________________________________________________

6. Tour boats are now only allowed to visit the dolphins …

a) c once a day.
b) c twice a day.
c) c for a maximum of 40 minutes each day.

One piece of evidence from the text:

____________________________________________________________________________

7. Some specialists believe that tourism operators can protect dolphins by being like …

a) c body guards.
b) c jail guards.
c) c security guards.

One piece of evidence from the text:

____________________________________________________________________________

8. This project is likely to be copied in the United States.

This statement is … c true c false

One piece of evidence from the text:

____________________________________________________________________________
Wortschatz
What to do if you get bullied
Here you find some information about bullying and how to get along with it.

• Fill in suitable words or tick the correct box. In no. 2) and 10) fill in suitable words and tick the
correct box.

Unfortunately everybody can end up in a situation with a bully.

1. Bullying is one of the most __________________________ problems in schools.

2. In most situations, it happens in places like __________________________ and often

c a) during c b) while c c) inside c d) among

the breaks.

3. In most cases there isn’t a

c a) ground c b) reason c c) opinion c d) possibility
why a person is bullied.

4. Bullies often want to feel ________________________ by humiliating others.

5. They might feel

c a) bored c b) hurt c c) jealous c d) mischievous
of their peers.

6. Also, they might not feel ____________________________ by their own family.

7. So what can you do about this _______________________________?

8. Don’t show that you are

c a) agonized c b) innocent c c) annoyed c d) exhausted.

9. Bullies like it if their victims show ______________________________.

10. If the bully doesn’t _________________________ teasing you,

c a) tell c b) share c c) look c d) talk
to a person you trust.

11. It’s also good to find people who

c a) oppress c b) supply c c) support c d) serve
you.
4 Schreiben
Maggot Boy

We had to walk from where I lived, through the poorer neighbourhood with its rickety1
houses, to get to our bus stop in the mornings. Lots of times we had to wait for ages for the
bus. We had stone-kicking competitions, and sometimes we picked on somebody. Most
often, when he was there, we picked on Maggot Boy. Maggot Boy was long and skinny, with
5 pale skin, and white, white hair. He looked like a maggot2.

Maggot Boy lived down the clearing. His mother wore funny clothes and drove a rusty old car.
The grass outside his house was higher than the fence, and the letterbox was falling over. My
mother said that his mother needed to wash her hair.

He got the name of Maggot Boy because my friend Ben - who was nearly a whole year older
10 than me - said that if we touched him, we'd get infected with his dirty maggots too. Ben
would touch Maggot Boy himself, and then wipe his hands onto one of us. The game was to
wipe the maggots off onto someone else, and no one wanted to be the one left with the
maggots when the bus got there. Maggot Boy sat by himself on the bus. No one wanted to sit
with him.

15 Then one Saturday, I had absolutely nothing to do. I got on my mother's nerves, and she said,
“Go outside and play with your friends.” So I went outside, but none of my friends were
around. I wished that Ben was home. I wanted to play with his new Action Man. It had plastic
bombs strapped to its wrist, and could go hand over hand down a rope strung from the dog
kennel3 to the fence.

20 I kicked a stone towards the clearing. “Hey,” said a voice from behind a clump of yellow
flowers at the edge of the willows. “Want a turn with my magic glasses?”

“Go away,” I said crossly. “You've got dirty maggots.” But I wanted to know more about the
magic glasses.

I put them on, and guess what? Everything still looked the same. “I can't see anything,” I said.

25 “That's because you're not using your imagination,” said Maggot Boy. “See that lady bending
over, weeding4 her dahlias? That's really an elephant's arse that you're looking at.”
I looked hard through the magic glasses, and suddenly I saw an elephant bending over, pulling
out weeds with its trunk. And the nosy old lady hanging over the fence waiting to talk to
someone started neighing like a horse.

30 “Cool!” I said, and we started playing.

We went down to his broken-down house. It didn’t look anything like the houses in my street;
the corrugated iron roof had holes like Swiss cheese and most of the apricot paint on the
walls had flaked off long ago. First, we played hide and seek outside in his long grass and in
the rusty old cars by the fence. I nearly made it home to base, but Maggot Boy saw me, and
35 jumped out at me from behind a big hump of dirt. “Freeze, sucker, or I'll put you in jail like my
dad!” he said, crooking his thumb and pointing his two top fingers at me. I put my hands in
the air, and he put his imaginary pistol to his lips and blew across the barrel, before
pretending to stick it back in his belt.

Maggot Boy was thirsty, so we went inside. There were piles of dirty dishes in the sink, and
40 even stacks of dirty pots down on the floor. Dirt was on the window sills, and I could smell cat
pee behind something. Maggot Boy rinsed two glasses, and we had a drink of lemonade.
“How come your house is so dirty?” I asked. Maggot Boy said it was because his mum didn't
do much cleaning.
45 Afterwards, we got some cardboard boxes from his shed, and stamped them down flat so
that we could slide down the hill on them. It was awesome. I went head first, but I got a
graze5 all the way down my arm from skidding too fast across the grass. The knees in my
pants were ripped too, and I knew that my mum was going to be mad.

When I went home, I said, “Catch you later, Maggot Boy.” And he said, “My name's Jordy.”

50 On Monday, Ben said on the bus, “Come over after school, and play with my new Action
Man.”
“Nope, I'm going to play with Jordy.”
“Who?” said Ben.
“There's a taniwha6 in the river, and we're going to set a trap for it
55 “Eee, yuck, I'm not your friend anymore, if you're going to play stupid fantasy games with
Maggot Boy,” said Ben. “You can't play with my Action Man.”

(from Festival of Miracles by Alice Tawhai, 2005; abridged and edited)

1
rickety – klapprig, baufällig
2
maggot - Made
3
dog kennel – Hundehütte
4
to weed – Unkraut jäten
5
graze - Schürfwunde
6
taniwha – Drachen oder Schlangen ähnelnde Fabelwesen in der Māori-Kultur
Writing
• Read the tasks carefully.
• Make sure to write about all the aspects presented in each task.

1. What do you get to know about Maggot Boy? Describe his appearance, his behaviour and where he
lives.
(8 Punkte)

2. Explain how the relationship between Maggot Boy and the narrator develops thoughout the story.
Focus on their friendship before the weekend, on the Saturday they spend together and after the
weekend.
(10 Punkte)

3. You have a choice here. Choose one of the following tasks.

option a)

An old English proverb is “Money can’t buy happiness”.

Comment on this proverb from your point of view.

Include the following aspects:
• examples of situations in which you can have fun without money
• why many people believe that you can’t have fun without money
• your personal opinion based on examples from your life
(12 Punkte)

option b)

That Saturday evening, the narrator thinks about what he has experienced that day before he goes
to bed. Imagine you are the narrator.
Write the narrator’s diary entry.
Include…
• the events of the day (i.e. what happened, which activities you did together with Maggot
Boy, your opinion of the day and of Maggot Boy)
• how different Maggot Boy’s home and life is compared to your better standard of living
• your plans for the coming weeks for you and your new friend to strengthen your friendship
(12 Punkte)

option c)

“You can‘t play with my Action Man.”

Write a suitable ending to the story and include the following aspects:
• the narrator’s immediate reaction to Ben’s statement
• how the narrator tries to convince Ben to get to know Maggot Boy better, based on the
narrator’s experiences on the Saturday
• Ben’s reaction to the narrator’s suggestion that they all play together

(12 Punkte)