Date: 15 / 02 / 2024

THE SELF-practicE TEST 

I. LISTENING (50 pts)

Part 1: Question 1-5 (10 points – 2.0 points/correct answer)
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LXAHGAmBao&t=103s
1. T 2. F 3. F 4. F 5. NG

Part 2: Question 1-5 (10 points – 2.0 points/correct answer)

Source: Expert proficiency
1. A 2. A 3. B 4. D 5. C

Part 3: Question 1-5 (10 points – 2.0 points/correct answer)

Source: IELTS Masterclass
1. 20,000 pounds/ £20,000
2. Antarctica
3. Aviators and air crew.
4. 160 km
5. 1770
Part 4: Question 1-10 (20 points – 2.0 points/correct answer)
Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/912044887/challenges-of-ensuring-diversity-in-coronavirus-
vaccine-trials
1. well-founded mistrust
2. misled
3. exclusion and mistreatment
4. wooed
5. overrepresented
6. shortcuts
7. taps into
8. less-than-willing participation
9. leading edge
10. outreach
II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (30 POINTS)
Part 1.
1. D 2. C 3. A 4. D 5. A

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6. C 7. A 8. B 9. A 10. C
11. B 12. A 13. B 14. B 15. A
16. D 17. A 18. C 19. C 20. A

Part 2.
1. watchword 6. riverine
2. abstention 7. ineradicable
3. heretical 8. fallibility
4. gaseous 9. appreciable
5. multicoloured 10. appraisees

III. READING (60 POINTS)

Part 1: Question 1-10 (15 points – 1.5 points/correct answer)
1. would 2. them 3. when 4. without 5. it / this/ that
6. What 7. over 8. their 9. out 10. such

Part 2: Question 1-10 (10 points – 1.0 point/correct answer)

1. D 2. A 3. A 4. C 5. A 6. B 7. D 8. B 9. A 10. A

Part 3: Question 1-13 (13 points – 1.0 point/correct answer)

1.Not given 2.Not given 3. True 4. Not given 5. False
6. acquired 7. differentiate 8. good 9. aroma 10. seasonings
13. chemical
11. flavour 12. indelible aromas

Part 4: Question 1-7 (7 points – 1.0 point/correct answer)

1. B 2. F 3. A 4. C 5. H 6. D 7. G

Part 5: Question 1-10 (15 points – 1.5 points/correct answer)

1. A 2. D 3. B 4. C 5. D
6. A 7. D 8. E 9. B 10. C

IV. WRITING (60 POINTS)

Part 1. Writing summary (15 pts)
Contents (10 pts)
- The summary MUST cover the following points:
The passage gives information about the heritage and the importance of protecing it.
+ Some Instances of heritage
+ The changes of heritage
+ The importance of protecting heritage
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- The summary MUST NOT contain personal opinions.
Language use (5 pts)
The summary:
- should show attempts to convey the main ideas of the original text by means of paraphrasing (structural
and lexical use)
- should demonstrate correct use of grammatical structures, vocabulary, and mechanics (spelling,
punctuations, ...)
- should maintain coherence, cohesion, and unity throughout (by means of linkers and transitional
devices)
Part 2: Chart description(15 pts)
Contents (10 pts)
- The report MUST cover the following points:
* Introduce the charts (2 pts) and state the overall trends and striking features (2 pts)
* Describe main features with relevant data from the charts and make relevant comparisons (6 pts)
- The report MUST NOT contain personal opinions
Language use (5 pts)
The report:
- should demonstrate a wide variety of lexical and grammatical structures,
- should have correct use of words (verb tenses, word forms, voice...) and mechanics (spelling,
punctuations...)
Suggested answer:
Overview:
As the age increases

• Food, drink, and entertainment expenditure rose.

• Food and drink kept climbing >< entertainment peaked (61-75 group) before declining (age 76+)

Body paragraph 1:
Regarding food and drink

• Under 30: over 5% and consistently increased with age.

• The 76+ group: 23% (highest percentage)

As for entertainment expenditure

• Grew similarly with age: Age group 30 (6%); age group 61-75 (23%)
• 76+ group: suddenly dropped by 10%

Body paragraph 2:
Turning to restaurant and hotel expenditure

• Under 30: the most significant proportion (almost 15%)

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 • Aged 46-60: the figure declined slightly to 12%
• Aged 61-75: Plummeting to only 2%
• 76+ age group: bounced back to roughly 6%, but it still the lowest.

Part 3. Essay Writing (30 pts)

The mark given to part 3 is based on the following criteria:
1. Task achievement: (10 points)
a. ALL requirements of the task are sufficiently addressed.
b. Ideas are adequately supported and elaborated with relevant and reliable explanations,
examples, evidence, personal experience, etc.
2. Organization: (10 points)
a. Ideas are well organized and presented with coherence, cohesion, and unity.
b. The essay is well-structured:
• Introduction is presented with clear thesis statement.
• Body paragraphs are written with unity, coherence, and cohesion. Each body
paragraph must have a topic sentence and supporting details and examples when
necessary.
•Conclusion summarises the main points and offers personal opinions (prediction,
recommendation, consideration,…) on the issue.
3. Language use: (5 points)
a. Demonstration of a variety of topic-related vocabulary
b. Excellent use and control of grammatical structures
4. Punctuation, spelling, and handwriting (5 points)
a. Correct punctuation and no spelling mistakes
b. Legible handwriting
TAPESCRIPT
Part 1
Humanity has confronted countless crises – and many have led to profound and sometimes unexpected
change. It was the economist Milton Friedman who once said - “Only a crisis – actual or perceived -
produces real change." But what kind of change can we expect in the aftermath of the coronavirus
pandemic? And will it be change for the better? History may give us some answers By the summer of
1349 the Black Death had killed nearly 50 % of the population of England. There was a “second
wave” of the plague in 1361 which killed another 20%. A disaster, yes, but the plague did something
which had begun to look impossible: It stopped the 100 Years' War – the series of bloody conflicts
between England and France. There was also a profound labour shortage – because so many people
had died - which put those who survived in a stronger position. Eventually, the exploitative feudal
system - under which peasants swore allegiance to lords in exchange for a patch of land and some
protection- collapsed. Fast forward to 1918, and another devastating wave of disease was sweeping
the world. The so-called Spanish flu – although it didn’t actually come from Spain - spread through
crowded troop transports and munitions factories towards the end of the First World War. By the
end of the pandemic, more than 50 million people had died. But it did give rise to a new understanding of
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infectious diseases. And that spurred the development of public health systems across the developed
world, as scientists and governments realised that the best defence against pandemics was at a societal
rather than an individual level. Calls for a unified medical service in the UK date back even earlier
but it wasn’t until after the Second World War, in 1948, that Britain’s National Health Service was
launched. According to the NHS’s official historian, Charles Webster, the Luftwaffe “achieved in
months what had defeated politicians and planners for at least two decades”. We only gave you part of
Milton Friedman’s famous quote earlier. He went on to say: "When that crisis occurs, the actions that are
taken depend on the ideas that are lying around." As well as the launch of free universal healthcare in the
UK, the post-war period saw the adoption of other radical ideas that were ‘lying around’ at the time,
including the rapid nationalisation of industry and the creation of the modern welfare state. Globally,
institutions such as the United Nations were set up, determined to prevent future wars through
international co-operation and diplomacy. Will the aftermath of coronavirus leave us with similarly fertile
ground in which new ideas might flourish? Will it kick start new ways of living, working and travelling?
Or make us think again about our attitudes to consumption or our responsibilities to one another? Will
ideas such as a universal basic income, virtual education or even healthcare delivered by robots
become logical next steps in a profoundly altered world? Or will we pick up where we left off, as if
nothing had happened? And if there is to be change, who will decide if it’s change for the better?
After all: not all the ideas lying around will prove to be the right ones.
Part 2
lnt: In the studio tonight, I have the sociologist John Farrendale and philosopher, Lois Granger and we're
going to be discussing attitudes towards work. Tonight's discussion was prompted by an email from a
listener who, amongst other things, asks why people tend to become depressed if made redundant - as if
work were the be all and end all -rather than seeing that situation as an opportunity to do something else.
John?
J: Well, it can't be denied. I'm afraid, that unemployment is one of those misfortunes, like soured
relationships and chronic pain, that most affect long-term happiness. Work is good because it gives
people meaning, self-respect and the chance to make a contribution; unemployment conversely robs them
of all that, which can come as a blow. So while I don't doubt, as our listener suggests, that there are
people out there who might cope well with redundancy - see it as a chance to change direction or
whatever - for the majority the opposite is the case. I mean, that's the reality, isn't it, Lois?
L: Well, one rarely meets anyone embracing redundancy, John. But I guess what our listener is getting
at is the fact that paid employment isn't the sole provider of purpose, self-worth and engagement
and I'd go along with that to an extent. Indeed, a job can work against us if the experience is tedious
and it feels irrelevant. Work is vital to your happiness if work is what you want and if it's fulfilling. But
we mustn't forget that tying too close a knot between meaningful activity and paid employment can be
perilous, as we know from people who lose all sense of meaning when they retire. And this can affect
those who love their jobs just as much as those who see them as a means to an end.
J: And indeed, there are people like that - who view work simply as that, a way of funding other things
they want, as opposed to something that holds intrinsic value. Doing a well-paid job that lacks
excitement but one which allows you to do exciting things in your spare time, might work perfectly
well for some - and I'd say good luck to them as long as they get on with the job whilst they're
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there. Where's the harm in it? But I'd say it's preferable to earn less doing something you love, because
work actually takes up an awful lot of your waking life. But if you want the good things in life and
haven't found the kind of meaningful work that can provide them directly, then you have some thinking to
do: the trade-offs are treacherous, and some of what you value may have to be sacrificed along the way.
Int: You mention attitudes to work John, we do tend to come down heavily on slackers - people who don't
pull their weight - don't we?
J: We do. And amongst the many career options we have to choose from, one is almost taboo. As the
listener who suggested this week's topic put it, someone tempted to work as little as possible is likely to
be 'afraid of being judged as a useless slacker'. This taboo seems to have grown as our work options have
multiplied. Now work is no longer destiny, determined at birth by the social standing of your
parents; how we earn a living reflects more of our individual qualities and choices, and we're
judged accordingly. But perhaps these judgments are distorted by confusing sound reasons for
thinking work is important with the false belief that honest labour is inherently virtuous.
L: That's right. I mean think of Freud, the famous psychoanalyst, who's widely attributed with the quote:
'Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.' - although it's actually a paraphrase by Erikson.
What Freud actually said is that 'the compulsion to work' was 'created by external necessity'. In
other words, the imperative to work springs from practical demands. not immutable psychic needs.
There's nothing valuable in work per se. Indeed, the philosopher Bertrand Russell went so far as to claim
that immense harm is caused by the belief that work~ is virtuous - that if we work more than we need to,
we deprive ourselves of the time and opportunity for learning, self-development, relationships and many
other things that make for a better world. If we must work, or choose to do so, what matters is that it
serves the goal of living well, rather than detracts from it.
lnt: At that point, I'd like to bring in …
Part 3
Sandy: Good afternoon. I’m Sandy Raymond and I’m going to be talking about a remarkable timepiece
called the Breiding Emergency Watch. Some of you may remember it as the watch that Richard
Brenson auctioned off on eBay, raising £20,000 for charity, after he’d lent it to Steve Possett for his
non-stop round the world flight. Perhaps more significantly, though, it was the kind of watch being
worn last year by two British pilots whose helicopter crashed into the sea just off Antarctica. Finding
themselves in a lifeboat with no other means of communication, they activated the transmitters inside
their watches. The signals were picked up by a Chilean aircraft, which homed in on them and then
organized a rescue that saved the men’s lives. And these are just the people the watch was designed
for: aviators and air crew who suddenly find themseves on the ground or in the water after a forced
landing. The watch has a built-in microtransmitter which can broadcast a signal for up to 48 hours on
121.5 megahertz, the aircraft emergency frequency. It’s water resistant, too. Even with the transmitter
operating, it can be used at depths of up to 30 metres. The operating range depends to a great extent on
whether there are any obstacles between the transmitter and the rescue aircraft. On flat terrain with few
trees, for instance, the signal can be picked up at 160 kilometres away, and it’s the same on water as
long as the seas are calm, while from the top of a mountain it has a range of up to 400 kilometres. It’s
not a particularly bulky or heavy items to wear, though; at 16 millimetres thick and measuring 43 in
diameter, it’s just 85 grams, which is about the normal weight for this kind of wrist watch. So, what
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makes this watch tick, as it were? The answer to that is two separate mechanisms: one quartz electronic
with an LCD digital display, and the other a self-winding mechanical system that turns the hands. This
is driven by an oscillating weight that swings in time with the movements of the wrist, thus creating the
energy to rewind the watch automatically. I should point out here that this is hardly a new invention,
as it dates back to 1770 when the Frenchman Abraham-Louis Perrelet first made a watch of this kind.
Incidentally, an example of his work is still keeping good time today, over two hundred years later.
Part 4
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Black and Latino people in the U.S. have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. That's a big
reason pharmaceutical companies want and need to include minority volunteers in clinical trials for their
coronavirus vaccines. Recruitment efforts are happening, but that often means overcoming deep-
seated and well-founded mistrust of the medical system. And as Blake Farmer of WPLN in Nashville
found, that's not something that can necessarily be done at warp speed.
BLAKE FARMER, BYLINE: Half a dozen patients snack on turkey sandwiches and potato chips around
a conference table. They're visiting with their doctor, Vladimir Berthaud, at Meharry Medical College.
VLADIMIR BERTHAUD: So what's the best hope to get rid of this virus?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Vaccination.
BERTHAUD: Vaccination. So raise your hand if you would like to take the vaccine.
FARMER: He senses some hesitation. All of these patients are Black.
LANETTE HAYES: I ain't going to be the first one, now.
FARMER: That's Lanette Hayes. Katrina Thompson says she does want to get a shot for protection
against the coronavirus. People in her apartment building aren't doing the basics of covering their coughs.
KATRINA THOMPSON: The word vaccination don't scare me. The word trial do.
FARMER: Black Americans have reason to be suspicious. Beyond the well-known Tuskegee
experiments, where syphilis patients were misled for decades, they've also faced an ongoing
exclusion and mistreatment by medical providers. But Dr. Berthaud, who is Black and from Haiti,
appeals to a sense of duty. Plus, he's recruiting in Nashville and wants more than 300 people of color.
BERTHAUD: If you don't have enough people like you in those vaccine trials, you will not know if it
works for you. You will not know.
FARMER: For most of the COVID vaccine trials, recruitment is happening online, which often results in
mostly white people enrolling. But Meharry, which is a historically Black school, is one of the few
places in the country where Black patients are being wooed with a personal invitation to take part.
And this trial doesn't even start until October. Meanwhile, other pharmaceutical companies are nearly
done recruiting. Moderna is publicizing its demographic statistics. They're somewhat better than the
typical clinical trial but still not a good representation of the diversity in the U.S. And the National
Institutes of Health has suggested minorities should be overrepresented in testing the COVID
vaccine.
DOMINIC MACK: We say we want everybody to be included.
FARMER: Dr. Dominic Mack of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta is working with the NIH to
make sure people of color are included in COVID research.
MACK: Really, the effort for the vaccinations, in a sense, are started the same way they always been.
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FARMER: Mack says there are no shortcuts if medical research is to reflect the diversity of the U.S.
It takes time to build trust and meaningful relationships with people who've been excluded.
MACK: Now, that being said, the only thing we can do is what we're doing.
FARMER: The primary effort taps into existing trial networks that were designed for HIV research
and convincing patients of color to help with COVID. Reverend Ed Sanders of the Metropolitan
Interdenominational Church in Nashville has helped educate Black clergy about HIV. But he says it's not
his job to preach trial participation from the pulpit.
EDWIN SANDERS: I am not going to do anything more than make sure people are able to make an
informed choice.
FARMER: And there's a danger that lunging for big diversity goals could result in less-than-willing
participation. Professor Rachel Hardeman studies health equity at the University of Minnesota.
RACHEL HARDEMAN: I think there's a lot of potential for more harm because of the quick timeline if
we don't have the - again, the right people.
FARMER: Historically Black medical institutions in the country are uniquely positioned to do this work.
While they haven't been on the leading edge of the vaccine trial recruitment, they mean to play an
important role. The president of Meharry Medical College is himself an infectious disease researcher.
But instead of working on the vaccine trials being hosted on his campus, Dr. James Hildreth plans to
participate as a patient.
JAMES HILDRETH: I think my role is more important in advocating for people to be involved in the
vaccine studies than to be one of the leaders of the study.
FARMER: Back in that cramped conference room, Dr. Berthaud won over the holdouts.
ROBERT SMITH: Oh, yeah. Where's the line? Where do we sign?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: You don't have to yet. Wait until...
FARMER: That's Robert Smith with his young grandson in tow. And Smith says he'll participate for no
other reason than he trusts his longtime physician.
SMITH: He's not only my doctor, he's proven to me that he cares about me.
FARMER: Convincing hundreds of thousands to sign up will be difficult. But even for those who
don't participate, researchers hope their outreach efforts will at least result in more minorities
ultimately taking the vaccine when it's available. For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville.
PFEIFFER: This story comes from NPR's partnership with Kaiser Health News and Nashville Public
Radio.

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