- VIII

15. 2010.

/ CODE: ______________________
TIME: 20 min.
X. 8 points / MIN. 6

READING COMPREHENSION TEST

Please dont call me and I wont call you
My name is Jim Shelley and I am an addict
With these words I began to solve the problem, the problem of my telephone addiction. You see,
I used to phone, make calls, ring people up talk, talk, talk. I used to call people all the time. From the
moment I woke up to the time I went to sleep, I waited to be phoned, I wanted to phone. Just one more
call.
It started socially I suppose a few calls each day. It seemed harmless, just a quick chat.
Gradually though, the situation got worse. Soon it was frequent use, then compulsive calling, until,
finally, addiction.
And it began to affect my work. I was spending all of my lunchtime phoning. During the day I
would disappear for a quick call. I spent days waiting for the phone to ring. I got agitated. In the end, I
would ring someone, then someone else, telling myself just one more.
I was phoning people and leaving messages to guarantee enough calls to see me through the day.
I used to arrive at friends homes and before the door was closed, go straight for the phone with the
words Is it OK if I just use the phone? One night I found it impossible to sleep, thinking I could hear
the phone ringing downstairs. I jumped out of bed and ran down only to be faced with dead silence.
Things were so bad I often rang people and asked them if they had been trying to ring me. I had a
business line installed. I bought an answerphone, then borrowed money so I could buy a car and have a
carphone. At work, I became hostile and violent when colleagues tried to stop me using the phone. And
one day I hit my supervisor (with the phone). I was dismissed and offered to be either paid a fair amount
or given one weeks free calls which I accepted. Finally, when a phone box took my last 1 coin, the
police caught me destroying it and I was ordered to see a psychiatrist.
I havent had a phone in the house for three weeks now, and its several days since I used a phone
box. I also try not to watch TV because there are always people on it making phone calls. My name is
Jim Shelley and I am an addict.


- VIII
15. 2010.

/ CODE: ______________________
TIME: 20 min.
X. 8 points / MIN. 6

READING COMPREHENSION TEST

Circle the most appropriate option:
1. Jim Shelley:
A) is a drug addict
B) admits being an addict
C) denies being an addict of any kind
D) claims that he is an alcoholic

2. His problem first began with:

A)
B)
C)
D)

chatting all day long

compulsive calling
several short calls a day
his friends frequent every-day calls

3. This habit also badly influenced his work:

A)
B)
C)
D)

when his phone disappeared

because he spent days at home phoning instead of going to work
because he couldnt control his need for phone calls any more
because his friends were very agitated

4. He was leaving messages to others:

A) hoping to get enough return calls later
B) in order to be able to use their phone later
C) whenever he couldnt sleep
D) because he needed to see them urgently
5. The things became so bad that:
A) he got angry if his friends didnt allow him to use their phone
B) he couldnt sleep one night because the telephone kept ringing all the time
C) a friend of his didnt want to open the door and let him in
D) he had to arrange the rest of his life according to his need for phoning

6. After hitting his supervisor with a phone:

A)
B)
C)
D)

Jim was given some money

Jim lost his job
Jim retired
Jim was sent home for a week to get some rest

7. He was caught destroying a phone box:

A) when he lost his last pound in it
B) because he was trying to take his one-dollar coin out of it
C) which belonged to his company
D) after the police ordered him to visit a psychiatrist
8. Jim is now trying to cure himself by:
A) not watching TV at all
B) not using the phone several days a week
C) avoiding phones in all sorts of ways
D) visiting his psychiatrist every three weeks


- VIII
15. 2010.

/ CODE: ______________________
TIME: 20 min.
X. 7 points / MIN. 4

LISTENING COMPREHENSION TEST - TEXT

THE BOWER BIRD

A male bird of paradise must be one of the most beautiful sights in the jungle. He shows
off his long tail and colourful wings to attract a female. The bower bird, however, which also
lives in the same jungles, uses a different method. Instead of having a colourful body, when the
male bower bird wants to find a partner he builds an amazing nest, which is known as a 'bower'.
He chooses a spot on the ground and begins to build a nest sometimes more than twice his
height. It takes a long time and a lot of skill to get the walls just right and when he's satisfied, he
begins to decorate his bower. He collects various coloured items, such as feathers, berries and
even bits of plastic. In fact, he will often steal items from other bowers and add them to his
collection, in spite of the risk of being attacked by other males. There are even some bower birds
that crush berries and paint their bowers with the juice.
It seems that building such a complicated nest is meant to give the female bower bird
information on how healthy the male is and prove him a good choice as a mate.


- VIII
15. 2010.

/ CODE: ______________________
TIME: 20 min.
X. 7 points / MIN. 4

LISTENING COMPREHENSION TEST - QUESTIONS

THE BOWER BIRD
Circle the most appropriate option:

1. A male bird of paradise attracts a female by:

a.
b.
c.
d.

guiding her through the beauties of the jungle

using his long tail and colourful wings
building an amazing nest
using very unusual methods

2. What is a 'bower' ?
a. A special method used by some birds to attract females
b. The name for a special kind of colourful birds
c. A kind of nest
d. Another word for a bird's partner

3. The bower bird's nest:

a.
b.
c.
d.

sometimes has spots to be more attractive

can be two times higher than the male bird himself
is made high above the ground
takes little time and skill to build

4. The bower bird uses coloured feathers:

a.
b.
c.
d.

to attract a female bird of paradise

to hide bits of plastic from the female
to hide berries under them
to make his nest more beautiful

5. The bower bird often:

a.
b.
c.
d.

destroys other birds' nests

collects other birds' bowers
attacks other males
uses items stolen from other bowers

6. Some bower birds use berries:

a.
b.
c.
d.

to protect themselves from other jungle creatures

to help them survive
to feed females with the juice from the berries
to decorate their bowers with the juice

7. Male bower birds build complicated nests:

a.
b.
c.
d.

to prove that they are the strongest birds in the jungle

to keep themselves in good health
to prove to be good mates for the females
to be able to choose the best females


- VIII
15. 2010.

/ CODE: ______________________
TIME: 45 min.
X. 30 points / MIN. 24

I Circle the correct option (a, b, c or d):

1. They can stay _________ they like.

a) as far as

b) as soon as

c) as long as

d) so long

2. The more I wait here, ________ patience I have.

a) the less

b) the least

c) the most

d) the last

3. Last year, my favourite singer had 3 big hits ______ .

a) in tune

b) tour

c) in the charts

d) listing

4. I don't feel like ________ to the beach, I'm so tired.

a)

we go

b) going

c) to go

d) gone

5. I never buy ________ albums. You don't get the same quality of sound as you do with a studio recording.
a) live

b) living

c) lived

d) lively

c) its meaning

d) you mean

6.. I don't understand what _________.

a) this meaning

b) do you mean

7. It was so dark that I couldn't ________ out which way to go to my room.

a) making

b) make

c) made

d) to make

8. Charlotte Bront, who wrote Jane Eyre, was one of the most famous British ________.
a) writer

b) writing

c) writers

d) writings

9. I'm so _____________ about going to that concert!

a) exciting

b) excitement

c) excitingly

d) excited

10. Come on kids, hurry up! What are you waiting _______?
a) to

b) for

c) at

d) on

II Read the following text. Use the word in brackets to form a word that fits in the gap in the text.
There is an example at the beginning.
Example: We were planning to visit the most important ______attractions_______ (attract) in that city.

An email fan
I think the computer is such a (1) _______________ (use) invention. Take email, for example. It's such
an easy and (2) _______________ (pain) way to write letters. When I was younger, I (3) _______________
(rare) ever put pen to paper. Now, though, you can't keep me away from the keyboard. I can spend hours
typing away on my computer, all types of messages to all types of people.
One of the (4) _______________ (bad) disadvantages for me of writing by hand was always feeling (5)
_______________ (embarrass) because of my (6) _______________ (tidy) handwriting and careless (7)
_______________ (spell). Now, of course, thanks to the spellcheck, I can edit what I've (8) _______________
(write) quickly before (9) _______________ (send) it off. I just can't get over how wonderfully fast everything
is. (10) _______________ (Teen) nowadays take all this for granted, but when I was their age, none of this
existed. Young people don't realise how fortunate they are.

III Read the text first. Then fill in the appropriate forms (tenses) of the verbs in brackets in the active or
passive voice. Do not use modal verbs in the forms which you write.

The World's Languages

We cannot say for certain how many languages
but it

(2)

(1)

____________________ (speak) in the world today,

____________________ (say) that the number is somewhere between three thousand and ten

thousand. Why is it so difficult

(3)

____________________ (tell)? There are several reasons. Firstly,

even today in some remote parts of the world particularly in South America and Africa new
languages

(4)

____________________ (discover) by scientists. Secondly, because languages can

____________________ (become) extinct remarkably quickly, it is not always

easy

(5)
(6)

____________________ (know) whether a language which already (7) ____________________ (record)

by scientists is still being used by native speakers. Thirdly, there is not always agreement between
linguists over whether the language (8) ____________________ (speak) by a certain group of people is a
language in its own right, or is just a dialect of another language. There is no known language in the
world, for example, which (9) ____________________ (make) questions by reversing the word order of
sentence, or which (10) ____________________ (not have) subjects and verbs.