You will hear an interview in which two journalism students, called Matthew and Tracy, are talking about fact and opinion in the news. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear.

Question 1. Matthew believes it is difficult to differentiate fact from opinion because _______.

Question 2. The use of various media means that _______.

Question 3. What did Tracy make use of when preparing their questionnaire?

Question 4. What did Tracy and Matthew do to help people distinguish facts from opinions?

Question 5. Matthew checks everything carefully when writing factual articles _______.

Question 6. What does Tracy point out about using photos or videos when reporting news?

Question 7. What is the decisive factor in the amount of visual support in the news?

Question 8. Matthew’s style of writing when expressing his opinion depends on _______.

You will hear a man, David, being interviewed about his life as a professional footballer. For questions 9- 16, mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.

Question 9. How many games has David played for the club?

Question 10. How long has he been included in the club?

Question 11. What does David do in a normal day?

Question 12. What do they always do at weekends?

Question 13. What are the videos that the team watch about?

Question 14. What does David say about the diet of a footballer?

Question 15. What is true about David’s down time?

Question 16. What does David say about his future ambitions?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Harry Houdini, who died in 1927, was the entertainment phenomenon of the ragtime era. He could escape from chains and padlocks, from ropes and canvas sacks. They put him in a strait-jacket and hung him upside down from a skyscraper and he somehow untied himself. They tied him up in a locked packing case and sank him in Liverpool docks. Minutes later he surfaced smiling. They locked him in a zinc-lined Russian prison van and he emerged leaving the doors locked and the locks undamaged. They padlocked him in a milk chum full of water and he burst free. They put him in a coffin, screwed down the lid, and buried him and… well, no, he didn’t pop up like a mole, but when they dug him up more than half an hour later, he was still breathing.

Houdini would usually allow his equipment to be examined by the audience. The chains, locks and packing cases all seemed perfectly genuine, so it was tempting to conclude that he possessed superhuman powers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes was the very paragon of analytical thinking but Conan Doyle believed that Houdini achieved his tricks through spiritualism. Indeed, he wrote to the escapologist imploring him to use his psychic powers more profitably for the common good instead of just prostituting his talent every night at the Alhambra. However, Houdini repeatedly denounced spiritualism and disclaimed any psychic element to his act.

The alternative explanation for his feats of escapism was that Houdini could do unnatural things with his body. It is widely held that he could dislocate his shoulders to escape from strait-jackets, and that he could somehow contract his wrists in order to escape from handcuffs. His ability to spend long periods in confined spaces is cited as evidence that he could put his body into suspended animation, as Indian fakirs are supposed to do.

This is all nonsense. If you ever find yourself in a strait-jacket, it’s difficult to imagine anything less helpful than a dislocated shoulder. Contracting your wrists is not only unhelpful but, frankly, impossible because the bones of your wrist are very tightly packed together and the whole structure is virtually incompressible. As for suspended animation, the trick of surviving burial and drowning relies on the fact that you can live for short periods on the air in a confined space. The air shifted by an average person in a day would occupy a cube just eight feet square. The build-up of carbon monoxide tends to pollute this supply, but, if you can relax, the air in a coffin should keep you going for half an hour or so.

In other words, there was nothing physically remarkable about Houdini except for his bravery, dexterity and fitness. His nerve was so cool that he could remain in a coffin six feet underground until they came to dig him up. His fingers were so strong that he could undo a buckle or manipulate keys through the canvas of a strait-jacket or a mail bag. He made a comprehensive study of locks and was able to conceal lock-picks about his person in a way which fooled even the doctors who examined him. When they locked him in the prison van he still had a hacksaw blade with which to saw through the joins in the metal lining and get access to the planks of the floor. As an entertainer he combined all this strength and ingenuity with a lot of trickery. His stage escapes took place behind a curtain with an orchestra playing to disguise the banging and sawing. The milk chum in which he was locked had a double lining so that, while the lid was locked onto the rim, the rim was not actually attached to the chum. Houdini merely had to stand up to get out. The mail sack he cut open at the seam and sewed up with similar thread. The bank safe from which he emerged had been secretly worked on by his mechanics for 24 hours before the performance.

All Houdini’s feats are eminently explicable, although to explain them, even now, is a kind of heresy. Houdini belongs to that band of mythical supermen who, we like to believe, were capable of miracles and would still be alive today were it not for some piece of low trickery. It’s said of Houdini that a punch in his belly when he wasn’t prepared for it caused his burst appendix. Anatomically, it’s virtually impossible that a punch could puncture your gut, but the story endures. Somehow the myth of the superman has an even greater appeal than the edifice of twenty-first century logic.

Question 17. The writer mentions Houdini’s burial alive to illustrate the fact that _______.

Question 18. The word “imploring” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _______.

Question 19. The word “pop up” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.

Question 20. How does the writer say people regard Houdini nowadays?

Question 21. In the first paragraph, the writer say Houdini managed to _______.

Question 22. The writer states that when Houdini escaped from the milk chum _______.

Question 23. What can be concluded about Houdini?

Question 24. The writer implies that Conan Doyle _______.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best completes each of the following exchanges.

Question 25. Anita is asking for permission to play the guitar at Malcolm’s home.

– Anita: “Is it all right if I play the guitar in here while you’re studying?”

– Malcolm: “______”

Question 26. Two friends, Jayden and Geoffrey, are talking about their last driving test.

– Jayden: “I failed my driving test yesterday.”

– Geoffrey: “______”

Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the word or phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.

Question 28. She was one of those people who observed the rules and was never irresponsible.

Question 29. Police officers walk the beat every night in order to make sure no one is committing a crime.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions.

Question 30. We were relieved to discover that we didn’t owe as much money as we had thought.

Question 31. There is no doubt that Amanda is the best candidate for the job.

Question 32. John failed the examination for having been absent quite often.

Question 33. “Could you please reschedule £.250m of borrowings? Otherwise, our company won’t be able to stay afloat,” said Mrs. Archibald to the bank manager.

Question 34. Many have said that if he had not needed the money as a writer, he would have had the freedom to explore his potential.

Question 35. Doing more than managing the library, the city librarian must help to plan puppet shows for children.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best combines each pair of sentences in the following questions.

Question 36. The capital asset of the farm had little importance for most areas. In some others, the value was certainly substantial though.

Question 37. Douglas became the president of the company. He felt a strong sense of responsibility towards his employees.

Question 38. The whole point of education is to give students the knowledge to be who they want to be. This quote should be posted in schools for kids to see and live by.

Question 39. Lucia was sure that something strange had happened to her in her dream. However, she couldn’t remember what it was.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Question 40. The incidence of anorexia, _______, is growing in industrially advanced societies.

Question 41. Liquids such as milk, coffee, tea, soups and eggs may be dried by pouring them over a _______ horizontal steel cylinder or by spraying them into a chamber through which a current of hot air passes.

Question 42. Falsely arrested and charged, in a strange country and all alone, Mark was truly at his _______’ end.

Question 43. He walked _______ a great job straight after university because his father is a big fish in city politics.

Question 44. Trends in spending and investment suggest that there _______ a gradual economic recovery recently.

Question 45. While backpacking in a quiet, traditional region, I came across the seemingly _______ fast food ads typical of my hometown.

Question 46. Fame and fortune _______, Donna never forgot her hometown.

Question 47. She was scared by the depression which threatened to _______ her.

Question 48. The employees are staging a _______ rally in the city center to demand higher wages.

Question 49. He hurried back to our car as we saw the clouds _______ over the mountains.

Question 50. The house has changed _______ three times in the last two years.

Question 51. I wish Charles worked as hard as Mary _______.

Question 52. _______, the driver couldn’t make out the road signs.

Question 53. We had been walking for over 20 miles, and we were _______ exhausted.

Question 54. _______ the two companies are planning a merger.

Question 55. Thinker and poet, _______ the Brinker prize for his poem ‘Alexander’ in 1976.

Question 56. _______ including climate, mineral content, and the permanency of surface water, wetlands may be mossy, grassy, scrubby, or wooded.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in the position of primary stress in each of the following questions.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer for each of the questions.

Nature has always provided a stimulus for inventive minds. Early flying machines clearly were an attempt to emulate the freedom of birds. Architects and engineers have often consciously modeled buildings on forms found in nature. A more recent example of the inspiration given by nature is the invention of Velcro®. The inventor of this now common fastening device noticed that small burrs attached to his dog’s coat grasped the hairs by means of tiny hooks. This led him to invent a synthetic fabric whose surfaces mimic the clasping properties of this natural seedpod.

Animals and plants have evolved solutions to the kinds of problems that often interest engineers and designers. Much current research in material science is concerned with actively examining the natural world, especially at the molecular level, for inspiration to develop materials with novel properties. This relatively new field of study is sometimes known as biomimetics, since it consciously attempts to mimic nature.

Researchers have investigated several interesting areas. For example, they have studied how the molecular structure of antler bone contributes to its amazing toughness, how the skin structure of a worm contributes to its ability to crawl, how the sea cucumber softens its skeleton and changes shape so that it can squeeze through tiny gaps in rocks, or what gives wood its high resistance to impact. These investigations have led to several breakthroughs in the development of composite materials with remarkable properties.

Predictions for future inventions that may be developed from these lines of research include so-called smart structures that design and repair themselves in a similar way to a variety of processes in the natural world. For example, engineers have envisaged bridges that would detect areas heavily stressed by vehicle movement or wind. The bridge structure would then automatically add or move material to the weak areas until the stress is reduced. The same principle might be used to repair damaged buildings. Other new materials that have been imagined are substances that would copy photosynthesis in green plants in order to create new energy sources. The potential impact of biomimetic research is so great that the twenty-first century may come to be known as the “Age of Materials.”

Question 60. According to the passage, which of the following would NOT be a useful biomimetic product?

Question 61. What does the word “This” in paragraph 1 refer to?

Question 62. What do investigations in biomimetics suggest?

Question 63. The word “emulate” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.

Question 64. What is the passage mainly about?

Question 65. What can be inferred from the passage about a product that mimics photosynthesis?

Question 66. Why does the author mention “Velcro” in paragraph 1?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the word or phrase that is OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.

Question 70. Negotiation could sometimes defuse these situations and produce more acceptable consequences for both parties.

Question 71. It’s like walking a tightrope at the moment; one mistake and festival could be cancelled.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions.

Question 72. In their own dossiers, I found a few suggestible hints to the effect that Rains and Kruger were hardly spotless.

Question 73. At the moment, students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are required to pay for both their tuition fees and life expenses.

Question 74. GISs allow geographically oriented information about disease distribution and occurrence to be visually and analytically linking to images of the environment.

Question 75. Anyone reproducing copyrighted works without permission of the holders of the copyrights are breaking the law.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that best fits each numbered blank.

Disruptive technologies are now dictating our future, as new innovations increasingly blur the lines between physical, digital and biological realms. Robots are already in our operating rooms and fast-food restaurants; we can now use 3D imaging and stem-cell (76) _______ to grow human bones from a patient’s own cells; and 3D printing is creating a circular economy in which we can use and then reuse raw materials.

This tsunami of technological innovation will continue to (77) _______ change how we live and work, and how our societies operate. In what is now called the fourth Industrial Revolution, technologies that are coming of age – including robotics, nanotechnology, virtual reality, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and advanced biology – will (78) _______. And as these technologies continue to be developed and widely adopted, they will bring about radical shifts in all disciplines, industries and economies, and in the way that individuals, companies and societies produce, distribute, consume and dispose of goods and services.

These developments, (79) _______, have provoked anxious questions about what role humans will play in a technology-driven world. A 2013 University of Oxford study estimates that close to half of all jobs in the US could be lost to automation over the next two decades. On the other hand, economists such as Boston University’s James Bessen argue that automation often goes hand in hand with the creation of new jobs. So which is it – new jobs or massive structural unemployment?

At this point, we can be certain that the fourth Industrial Revolution will have a disruptive impact on employment, but no one can yet predict the scale of change. So, before we (80) _______ all of the bad news, we should look at history, which suggests that technological change more often affects the nature of work, rather than the opportunity to participate in work itself.

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