Đề thi thử CEFR C1 số 1: CEFR C1 Mock Test 1

Use of English (45 phút)

Part 1: Multiple-choice cloze

Read the text below and decide which answer best fits each gap.

The attention economy

It has become something of a commonplace to say that we live in an attention economy. Information, once hard to come by, is now so abundant that the truly (1) ____ resource is the time and focus we are able to give it. Every app, advertisement and headline is, in effect, competing for a (2) ____ of our limited concentration.

Critics argue that this competition has had a (3) ____ effect on public life. When success is measured in clicks, there is a strong temptation to favour content that provokes outrage over content that informs. Careful arguments, which require readers to (4) ____ judgement until they have weighed the evidence, are at a clear disadvantage.

Not everyone (5) ____ this gloomy view, however. Some researchers point out that people have complained about information overload ever since the invention of printing, and that societies have invariably adapted. Others note that the very same technologies have made high-quality material available to anyone with an internet connection, (6) ____ of where they live or how much they earn.

What is beyond (7) ____ is that the ability to direct one's own attention has become a skill worth cultivating. Some schools have begun to teach it explicitly, on the (8) ____ that a mind which cannot focus will struggle to learn anything else.

1. Gap 1: the truly ____ resource is the time and focus we are able to give it
   • scarce
   • thin
   • slim
   • sparse
2. Gap 2: competing for a ____ of our limited concentration
   • quota
   • share
   • rate
   • ratio
3. Gap 3: this competition has had a ____ effect on public life
   • vicious
   • malicious
   • mischievous
   • detrimental
4. Gap 4: which require readers to ____ judgement
   • conserve
   • retain
   • reserve
   • preserve
5. Gap 5: Not everyone ____ this gloomy view
   • splits
   • parts
   • shares
   • divides
6. Gap 6: available to anyone, ____ of where they live
   • nevertheless
   • regardless
   • notwithstanding
   • despite
7. Gap 7: What is beyond ____ is that...
   • dispute
   • disagreement
   • conflict
   • quarrel
8. Gap 8: on the ____ that a mind which cannot focus will struggle
   • merits
   • reasons
   • terms
   • grounds

Part 2: Open cloze

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only ONE word in each gap.

Into the deep

It is often said that we know more about the surface of the Moon than about the floor of our own oceans. (9) ____ this may be something of an exaggeration, it is not entirely without foundation. The deep sea is dark, cold and subject to crushing pressure, and for most of human history it was simply (10) ____ of reach.

That began to change in the twentieth century, (11) ____ new technology allowed scientists to send cameras and, eventually, people into the depths. What they found overturned many assumptions. Far (12) ____ being lifeless, the deep ocean turned out to be home to a remarkable variety of creatures, many of (13) ____ had never been seen before. Some survive (14) ____ any sunlight at all, relying instead on chemicals that escape from cracks in the seabed.

Today, much exploration is carried out by robotic vehicles, which can stay underwater far longer than any human crew. Even so, researchers estimate that the vast majority of deep-sea species have yet (15) ____ be described. (16) ____ anything, the more we discover, the more we realise how little we know.

1. Gap 9: ____ this may be something of an exaggeration, it is not entirely without foundation
2. Gap 10: it was simply ____ of reach
3. Gap 11: That began to change in the twentieth century, ____ new technology allowed scientists...
4. Gap 12: Far ____ being lifeless
5. Gap 13: many of ____ had never been seen before
6. Gap 14: Some survive ____ any sunlight at all
7. Gap 15: have yet ____ be described
8. Gap 16: ____ anything, the more we discover...

Part 3: Word formation

Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals to form a word that fits the gap.

Hot cities

Cities are generally warmer than the surrounding countryside, a phenomenon whose (17) ____ (SIGNIFY) has grown as summers become hotter. Concrete and asphalt absorb heat during the day and release it slowly at night, so that (18) ____ (RESIDE) of dense neighbourhoods may get little relief even after dark. The effects are far from (19) ____ (HARM): prolonged heat can be dangerous for elderly people and those with health problems.

Urban planners have proposed a range of measures. Planting trees is (20) ____ (ARGUE) the simplest, since shade can lower street temperatures considerably. Roofs painted white reflect sunlight rather than absorbing it, an approach that is both cheap and (21) ____ (REMARK) effective. In some cities, (22) ____ (REGULATE) now require new buildings to include green roofs or walls.

Critics warn, however, that such schemes can have (23) ____ (INTEND) consequences. When a neighbourhood becomes greener and more pleasant, property prices tend to rise, which may lead to the (24) ____ (PLACE) of the very residents the changes were meant to help.

1. Gap 17: a phenomenon whose ____ has grown (SIGNIFY)
2. Gap 18: so that ____ of dense neighbourhoods may get little relief (RESIDE)
3. Gap 19: The effects are far from ____ (HARM)
4. Gap 20: Planting trees is ____ the simplest (ARGUE)
5. Gap 21: both cheap and ____ effective (REMARK)
6. Gap 22: In some cities, ____ now require new buildings to include green roofs (REGULATE)
7. Gap 23: such schemes can have ____ consequences (INTEND)
8. Gap 24: may lead to the ____ of the very residents (PLACE)

Part 4: Key word transformations

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. Use between THREE and SIX words, including the word given.

1. I'm sure it wasn't Tom who broke the window. Key word: CAN'T It ____ who broke the window.
2. The film was so boring that we left before the end. Key word: SUCH It ____ that we left before the end.
3. People believe that a former employee stole the painting. Key word: BELIEVED The painting ____ by a former employee.
4. As soon as she arrived, the meeting started. Key word: SOONER No ____ the meeting started.
5. It was wrong of you to criticise him in public. Key word: SHOULD You ____ him in public.
6. I didn't realise how difficult the course would be. Key word: IDEA I ____ difficult the course would be.

Reading (55 phút)

Part 1: The uses of nostalgia

Read the article. For each question, choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.

For much of its history, nostalgia was regarded not as a pleasant indulgence but as a disease. The word itself was coined in the late seventeenth century by a Swiss medical student to describe the illness of soldiers serving far from home, whose symptoms were said to include fever, fainting and an inability to eat. Even well into the twentieth century, psychologists tended to treat it as a sign of an inability to cope with the present, a retreat from reality that was, at best, unproductive.

That view has shifted considerably over the past two decades. A growing body of research suggests that nostalgia, far from being a symptom of distress, may function as a kind of psychological resource, one that people draw on precisely when they need it most. In a typical experiment, participants are asked to recall a cherished memory from their past and then complete questionnaires about their mood and outlook. Compared with those asked to recall an ordinary event, the nostalgic group tend to report feeling more connected to others, more optimistic about the future and more convinced that their lives have meaning.

What is striking is when nostalgia tends to occur. People report feeling it more on cold days, when they are lonely, and during periods of change or uncertainty, such as moving to a new city or starting a new job. This has led some researchers to argue that it acts rather like a thermostat, switching on when our sense of security drops and helping to restore it. On this account, the homesick soldiers of the seventeenth century were not ill because they were nostalgic; they were nostalgic because they were suffering, and their longing for home was an attempt, however inadequate, to cope.

It would be a mistake, though, to conclude that nostalgia is invariably beneficial. Researchers distinguish between personal nostalgia, the fond recollection of one's own experiences, and a broader, collective variety, in which a whole society looks back on an imagined golden age. The latter can be politically potent and, its critics argue, potentially harmful, since the past it idealises is often selectively remembered, its hardships quietly edited out. A sentimental attachment to 'how things used to be' can make it harder to address the problems of the present, or even to acknowledge that they exist.

There is also a question of degree. A brief, warm recollection of a childhood holiday seems to lift people's spirits; dwelling constantly on a lost past, comparing it unfavourably with every aspect of the present, is another matter altogether. Some psychologists suggest that the difference lies in what people do with the feeling. Nostalgia appears to be most useful when it reconnects us with values and relationships that we can carry forward, and least useful when it simply confirms that the best is behind us.

Advertisers, needless to say, have not been slow to notice the power of the past. Products from previous decades are relaunched in their original packaging; television series are revived for audiences who watched them as children. Whether this commercial exploitation cheapens a genuinely valuable emotion or simply reflects it is a matter of debate. What does seem clear is that the old medical diagnosis got things almost exactly the wrong way round. Nostalgia is less a disease than one of the ways in which the mind tries to heal itself.

1. What does the writer say about the early understanding of nostalgia?
   • It was seen as an illness with physical symptoms.
   • It was believed to affect only older people.
   • It was considered a harmless form of homesickness.
   • It was studied mainly by psychologists.
2. According to the research in the second paragraph, people who recalled cherished memories
   • were more likely to feel lonely afterwards
   • found it harder to complete the questionnaires
   • reported stronger feelings of sadness than those who recalled ordinary events
   • felt more positive about their relationships and their lives
3. The writer compares nostalgia to a thermostat in order to suggest that it
   • is triggered mainly by cold weather
   • responds to a fall in people's sense of security
   • is controlled by conscious decisions
   • becomes weaker as people get older
4. What point does the writer make about the seventeenth-century soldiers?
   • Their symptoms were greatly exaggerated by the doctors who described them.
   • They recovered once they returned home.
   • Their nostalgia resulted from their suffering rather than causing it.
   • Their experience proves that nostalgia is harmful.
5. What concern does the writer raise about collective nostalgia?
   • It is less common than personal nostalgia.
   • It can give a distorted picture of the past.
   • It makes people less interested in politics.
   • It cannot be studied scientifically.
6. According to the fifth paragraph, nostalgia is most helpful when it
   • focuses on memories of childhood
   • is shared with other people
   • is experienced only rarely
   • connects people with things they can take into the future
7. What is the writer's conclusion?
   • Nostalgia should be treated with caution in all its forms, personal or collective.
   • More research is needed before any conclusion can be drawn.
   • The original medical view of nostalgia was largely the reverse of the truth.
   • Advertisers have damaged the value of nostalgia.

Part 2: Raising the barn

Read the article. Five sentences have been removed from the article. Choose the sentence which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

For three summers, Eleanor Price has spent her weekends on top of a ladder, taking apart a building that has stood for nearly four hundred years. The barn at Holloway Farm, a vast structure of oak beams and weathered boards, was on the point of collapse when she first saw it. The roof sagged, the walls leaned outwards and several of the main timbers had been eaten away by beetles. (8) ____

Instead, the owners contacted the small charity Eleanor works for, which specialises in restoring historic timber buildings using the methods by which they were originally made. That means no steel brackets, no power tools for the main joints and, wherever possible, no new timber unless the old cannot be saved. 'People assume that restoration means replacing everything with new materials that look old,' she says. 'We do almost the opposite. (9) ____'

The approach is painstaking. Each beam is numbered, drawn and photographed before it is taken down, so that the whole frame can be reassembled exactly as it was. Damaged sections are cut out and replaced with pieces of seasoned oak, joined to the original with wooden pegs. (10) ____ Done properly, a repair of this kind can last for centuries; a badly fitted joint can fail within a decade.

One of the more surprising aspects of the work is how much it reveals about the people who built the barn in the first place. On many of the timbers, Eleanor has found marks scratched into the wood by the original carpenters, numbers in a simple system of strokes that told them which beam belonged where. (11) ____ 'You realise these weren't anonymous labourers,' she says. 'They were highly skilled people solving the same problems we're solving now.'

Not everyone is convinced that such meticulous work is worth the cost. Restoring the barn will take roughly three times as long as rebuilding it in modern materials, and the expense is considerable. Eleanor accepts the criticism but rejects its premise. (12) ____ 'Once these skills are lost, they're lost for good,' she says. 'Every barn we save is also a training ground. Half the volunteers here had never held a chisel before.'

The barn is due to be finished next spring, when it will be used as a venue for concerts and community events. Eleanor has already found her next project: a seventeenth-century granary on the other side of the county, in, she says cheerfully, even worse condition.

1. Which sentence fits gap 8?
   • There are also occasional traces of something more personal: a set of initials, a date, a rough drawing of a horse.
   • Most people would have recommended pulling it down and starting again.
   • We keep as much of the original as we can, and only add what is absolutely necessary to make it stand.
   • The joints have to be shaped by hand to fit within a millimetre or two, which can take a skilled carpenter several days.
   • The real question, as she sees it, is not what the barn costs, but what would be lost if nobody did this kind of work any more.
   • The beetles responsible, she explains, belong to a species that is now protected by law, which complicates the work on the barn considerably.
2. Which sentence fits gap 9?
   • There are also occasional traces of something more personal: a set of initials, a date, a rough drawing of a horse.
   • Most people would have recommended pulling it down and starting again.
   • We keep as much of the original as we can, and only add what is absolutely necessary to make it stand.
   • The joints have to be shaped by hand to fit within a millimetre or two, which can take a skilled carpenter several days.
   • The real question, as she sees it, is not what the barn costs, but what would be lost if nobody did this kind of work any more.
   • The beetles responsible, she explains, belong to a species that is now protected by law, which complicates the work on the barn considerably.
3. Which sentence fits gap 10?
   • There are also occasional traces of something more personal: a set of initials, a date, a rough drawing of a horse.
   • Most people would have recommended pulling it down and starting again.
   • We keep as much of the original as we can, and only add what is absolutely necessary to make it stand.
   • The joints have to be shaped by hand to fit within a millimetre or two, which can take a skilled carpenter several days.
   • The real question, as she sees it, is not what the barn costs, but what would be lost if nobody did this kind of work any more.
   • The beetles responsible, she explains, belong to a species that is now protected by law, which complicates the work on the barn considerably.
4. Which sentence fits gap 11?
   • There are also occasional traces of something more personal: a set of initials, a date, a rough drawing of a horse.
   • Most people would have recommended pulling it down and starting again.
   • We keep as much of the original as we can, and only add what is absolutely necessary to make it stand.
   • The joints have to be shaped by hand to fit within a millimetre or two, which can take a skilled carpenter several days.
   • The real question, as she sees it, is not what the barn costs, but what would be lost if nobody did this kind of work any more.
   • The beetles responsible, she explains, belong to a species that is now protected by law, which complicates the work on the barn considerably.
5. Which sentence fits gap 12?
   • There are also occasional traces of something more personal: a set of initials, a date, a rough drawing of a horse.
   • Most people would have recommended pulling it down and starting again.
   • We keep as much of the original as we can, and only add what is absolutely necessary to make it stand.
   • The joints have to be shaped by hand to fit within a millimetre or two, which can take a skilled carpenter several days.
   • The real question, as she sees it, is not what the barn costs, but what would be lost if nobody did this kind of work any more.
   • The beetles responsible, she explains, belong to a species that is now protected by law, which complicates the work on the barn considerably.

Part 3: Learning from failure

Read what five scientists say about failure in research. For each question, choose the correct scientist. Each scientist may be chosen more than once.

A. Ana Ruiz, marine biologist My first big project involved placing sensors on the seabed to monitor water temperature over three years. Eighteen months in, a storm of a kind nobody had predicted tore most of the equipment loose, and we never recovered it. I was devastated, and for a while I seriously considered leaving research altogether. It was a colleague in the next office, rather than anyone more senior, who sat me down and pointed out that eighteen months of data was still more than anyone had collected in that location before. She was right. The paper we eventually wrote was more modest than the one I had imagined, but it has been cited far more often than I expected.

B. Tomasz Wilk, chemist For almost six years, I was convinced that a particular compound would make a more efficient solar cell. Every result that seemed to support the idea, I took seriously; every result that did not, I explained away. Looking back, I think I had told so many people about the idea that I could not bear to admit it was wrong. It took a new doctoral student, who had no personal stake in the theory, to ask the obvious question I had been avoiding. I dropped the project the following month. It was painful, but I have rarely felt more relieved.

C. Priya Raman, geneticist There is a fashion at the moment for talking about failure as if it were something to be proud of in itself. I am wary of that. Most failures teach you very little, other than that you designed your experiment badly. That said, my most important finding came out of something that went wrong. A batch of samples was contaminated through my own carelessness, and instead of throwing them away, I looked at why the contamination had produced such an odd pattern. That question has occupied me for the past decade.

D. Michael Osei, physicist Senior academics like me can afford to fail. We have permanent positions and reputations that can survive a few dead ends. My younger colleagues are in a very different situation. They are on short contracts, and if a project produces nothing publishable, they may simply not be employed next year. Part of the problem is the journals, which overwhelmingly publish positive results. Anyone reading them would think that experiments almost always work, which is very far from the truth.

E. Hannah Lindqvist, psychologist In my lab, we hold a meeting once a month where each person presents something that has gone wrong. At first, people found it excruciating, but it has become one of the most useful things we do. Problems that one person has struggled with for weeks are often solved in ten minutes by someone else. I have also changed how I supervise doctoral students. I now ask them, at the very start, to describe what result would prove their idea wrong. If they cannot answer, the project is not ready to begin.

1. Which scientist thinks that published research gives a misleading impression?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
2. Which scientist describes a failure caused by events beyond their control?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
3. Which scientist admits that reluctance to lose face prevented them from seeing a mistake?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
4. Which scientist says that an error led to their most significant work?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
5. Which scientist believes that younger researchers are under particular pressure?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
6. Which scientist encourages people to share problems openly within a team?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
7. Which scientist was persuaded by a colleague that their work still had value?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
8. Which scientist abandoned an idea they had pursued for a long time?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
9. Which scientist is sceptical about praising failure for its own sake?
   • A (Ana Ruiz)
   • B (Tomasz Wilk)
   • C (Priya Raman)
   • D (Michael Osei)
   • E (Hannah Lindqvist)
10. Which scientist has changed the way they train students?
    • A (Ana Ruiz)
    • B (Tomasz Wilk)
    • C (Priya Raman)
    • D (Michael Osei)
    • E (Hannah Lindqvist)

Part 4: Lost and found in translation

Read the essay by a translator. For each question, choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.

There is an old and rather weary joke that poetry is what gets lost in translation. Like most jokes that survive for a long time, it contains a grain of truth wrapped in a good deal of exaggeration. Anyone who has tried to carry a poem from one language into another knows the peculiar frustration involved. A word in the original may carry two or three meanings at once, each of them essential; its counterpart in the target language carries only one. A rhyme that seems effortless in one language becomes, in another, either impossible or so forced that it draws attention to itself. The rhythm of a line, which may be half its meaning, rarely survives the journey intact.

Faced with these difficulties, translators have tended to divide into two broad camps. The first holds that the translator's duty is to the literal sense of the original: to render each line as accurately as possible, accepting that the result may read awkwardly and will almost certainly lose the music of the poem. The second argues that a poem which no longer works as a poem has not really been translated at all, and that the translator must be prepared to change words, images, even whole lines, in order to recreate the effect the original has on its readers. The danger of the first approach is a translation that is faithful but lifeless; the danger of the second is one that is lively but is no longer, in any meaningful sense, the poem the author wrote.

My own view, after twenty years of translating poetry from Portuguese, is that both camps are asking the wrong question. They assume that the translator's task is to produce a single, definitive version that somehow replaces the original. But no translation can do that, and the attempt to do so produces exactly the anxieties that have made the subject so fraught. A translation is better understood as a reading: one person's considered response to a poem, set down in another language. Like any reading, it will notice some things and miss others. It is not a substitute for the original but a way into it.

Seen in this light, the existence of many different translations of the same poem is not a sign of failure but of richness. Each new version brings out something the others neglected. A reader who compares three translations of a single short poem will often understand it better than one who reads any of them alone, precisely because the differences between them point to the places where the original is most complex. In this sense, what is supposedly lost in translation can sometimes be found again in the gaps between translations.

None of this means that anything goes. A translation that ignores the plain sense of the original, or that imposes on it the translator's own preoccupations, is a poor reading, just as a careless interpretation of a poem in its own language is a poor reading. The translator still has an obligation to the text. But it is an obligation to engage with it honestly and attentively, not to achieve the impossible feat of reproducing it exactly.

I sometimes think the joke would be more accurate if it were reversed. Poetry is not what is lost in translation; it is what makes translation worth attempting. If poems could be carried from one language to another without loss, they would hardly be poems at all. It is precisely because they resist translation that we keep trying, and in trying, discover how much they contain.

1. The writer refers to the 'old joke' in the first paragraph in order to
   • introduce a view that is partly but not entirely accurate
   • suggest that poetry should not be translated
   • show that translators have a good sense of humour
   • criticise readers who prefer the original
2. According to the first paragraph, one difficulty in translating poetry is that
   • few people speak more than one language well
   • a word in the original may have several meanings at once
   • most languages do not use rhyme
   • translators rarely understand the rhythm of the original
3. What is the main weakness of the first approach described in the second paragraph?
   • It ignores the literal meaning of the poem.
   • It changes too many of the original images.
   • It may produce a version that is accurate but dull.
   • It is too difficult for most translators.
4. What does the writer criticise about both camps?
   • They wrongly assume a translation can replace the original.
   • They ignore the opinions of readers.
   • They are too concerned with reproducing the rhythm and rhyme of the original.
   • They have little experience of translating poetry.
5. What does the writer mean by describing a translation as 'a reading'?
   • It should be read aloud to be appreciated.
   • It must be checked by other translators.
   • It is mainly intended for students.
   • It is one person's interpretation of the poem.
6. According to the writer, comparing several translations of a poem
   • usually shows that one is clearly the best
   • makes it unnecessary to read the original
   • can show where the original is most complex
   • is confusing for most readers
7. In the fifth paragraph, the writer makes the point that
   • translators should express their own concerns
   • translators still have a duty to treat the original seriously
   • every translation is as valid as any other, since all are personal readings
   • careless readers cannot appreciate poetry
8. What does the writer suggest in the final paragraph?
   • The old joke should no longer be repeated.
   • Translation will eventually become unnecessary.
   • Poems that are easy to translate are of higher quality than those that resist it.
   • The resistance of poems to translation is part of their value.

Listening (40 phút)

Part 1: How the railways changed time

You will hear part of a lecture about the history of standard time. Complete the sentences. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

1. Before the railways, noon in each town was when the ____ was at its highest point.
2. Bristol's local time was about ____ behind London.
3. Different local times along a line created a serious risk of ____.
4. The Great Western Railway began using London time in ____.
5. Guards on the trains carried ____ set to London time.
6. Some critics called railway time a kind of ____ imposed by the capital.
7. The Corn Exchange clock in Bristol has two ____.
8. Standard time became the legal time across Great Britain in ____.
9. In the United States, time zones were organised by the ____ rather than the government.
10. At the conference in Washington, the line through ____ was chosen as the prime meridian.

Part 2: A second life for buildings

You will hear an interview with an architect who converts old buildings. For each question, choose the answer which fits best according to what you hear.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

1. What does Joseph say about working with existing buildings?
   • The limitations they impose can encourage creativity.
   • They are usually cheaper than new buildings.
   • They rarely contain unexpected problems.
   • They give the architect complete freedom.
2. What point does Joseph make about the environmental impact of buildings?
   • Concrete and steel can easily be recycled.
   • Heating and lighting are the main sources of a building's emissions.
   • New buildings are always less efficient than old ones.
   • People overlook the carbon involved in construction itself.
3. What is Joseph's view of demolition?
   • It is usually the cheapest option.
   • It is acceptable only for industrial buildings.
   • It should not be the automatic choice.
   • It is never justified.
4. What does the example of the textile mill illustrate?
   • Skilled workers are hard to find.
   • Information about old buildings can be unreliable.
   • Clients are often impatient.
   • Materials for conversions are very expensive.
5. How has Joseph's practice changed as a result of such experiences?
   • It now investigates buildings more thoroughly before starting.
   • It now works only on buildings for which reliable drawings are available.
   • It now asks clients for larger budgets.
   • It now refuses to work on very old buildings.
6. What does Joseph say about the character of converted buildings?
   • It is the main reason people choose them.
   • It is often destroyed by conversion.
   • It is less important than basic comfort.
   • It makes up for practical disadvantages.
7. What concern does Joseph express about recent buildings?
   • They are too large for their purpose.
   • They have too little character.
   • They will not last a hundred years.
   • They may be hard to adapt to new uses.

Part 3: Citizen science

You will hear two podcast presenters, Maya and Owen, discussing citizen science. For each question, choose the answer which fits best according to what you hear.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

1. Why did Owen originally start counting butterflies?
   • A scientist asked him to help.
   • His daughter was keen to take part.
   • He wanted a reason to exercise regularly.
   • He had always been interested in insects.
2. What concern does Owen express about citizen science data?
   • Volunteers may exaggerate their results.
   • Volunteers may not identify species correctly.
   • There are too few volunteers for it to be useful.
   • Scientists rarely make use of it.
3. How does Owen respond to Maya's point about mistakes cancelling out?
   • He says it fails when many people make the same mistake.
   • He insists that training cannot help.
   • He agrees with her completely.
   • He says asking for photographs makes the problem disappear.
4. What does Maya consider the most important benefit of citizen science?
   • the money it saves research teams
   • the large amount of data it produces
   • its effect on the people who take part
   • the training that volunteers receive
5. What does Owen say has changed since he began counting?
   • He has started visiting other parks.
   • He has persuaded the council to plant more flowers.
   • He has trained other volunteers.
   • He has become more aware of his surroundings.
6. What reservation does Maya express?
   • Not everyone who takes part will become a campaigner.
   • Activism by volunteers can damage the credibility of the science.
   • Hobbies cannot be a serious form of science.
   • Volunteers should not contact the council.
7. What problem do both speakers identify with who takes part?
   • Volunteers rarely attend meetings.
   • Wealthy volunteers expect to be paid.
   • Some areas may end up being studied much more than others.
   • Younger people find the surveys boring.

Part 4: The art of mediation

You will hear an interview with a professional mediator. For each question, choose the answer which fits best according to what you hear.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

1. What does Clara see as the main strength of mediation?
   • The mediator can impose a fair solution.
   • People are more committed to agreements they reach themselves.
   • It costs less than other methods.
   • Decisions are usually made much more quickly than in a court of law.
2. According to Clara, negotiations often get stuck because people
   • refuse to make any offer at all
   • ask for far more money than they need
   • do not trust the mediator
   • focus on their demands rather than their real concerns
3. What does Clara advise when the other side makes an unreasonable first offer?
   • Explain clearly why it is unreasonable.
   • Avoid treating it as the starting point for discussion.
   • Respond immediately with a counter-offer.
   • End the negotiation until a better offer is made.
4. What does Clara say about emotions in disputes?
   • Apologies are rarely sincere.
   • Good negotiators keep their emotions hidden.
   • Money is usually the main source of strong feeling.
   • Acknowledging people's feelings can be decisive.
5. Why could Clara not resolve the dispute over the water supply?
   • The leaders gained from the conflict continuing.
   • There was simply not enough water to supply both of the towns.
   • The two towns could not afford a solution.
   • She was not given enough time.
6. What is Clara's advice for everyday negotiation?
   • Speak first in order to set the tone.
   • Plan your arguments carefully in advance of the conversation.
   • Pay full attention to what the other person says.
   • Avoid showing any emotion.

Writing (70 phút)

Part 1: Essay

You must answer this question. Write your answer in 220 to 260 words in an appropriate style.

1. Your class has attended a panel discussion on how local governments should spend money to improve the quality of life in cities. You have made the notes below. Areas for investment: - public libraries - sports facilities - public transport Some opinions expressed in the discussion: 'Libraries are about far more than books these days.' 'If people are healthier, everyone saves money in the long run.' 'No facility is any use if people cannot get to it.' Write an essay discussing TWO of the areas in your notes. You should explain which area is more important for local governments to invest in, giving reasons in support of your answer. You may, if you wish, make use of the opinions expressed in the discussion, but you should use your own words as far as possible.

   Tối thiểu 220 từ.

Part 2: Proposal

Write your answer in 220 to 260 words in an appropriate style.

1. The principal of your college is concerned about student wellbeing and has invited students to submit proposals. Write a proposal for the principal. In your proposal you should: - describe the main pressures that students at your college face - suggest two or three practical changes the college could make - explain how these changes would benefit students.

   Tối thiểu 220 từ.