E test 11

THE CORPORATION FOR FINANCING AND
PROMOTING TECHNOLOGY
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E N G L I S H T E S T
Time allowed: 60 minutes
50 questions
PART ONE
You are going to read a magazine article about friendship. Choose from the list A-H the sentence
which best summarizes each part (1-6) of the article. There is one extra sentence which you do not
need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Mark your answer on the separate answer sheet.
A Relationships with best friends provide more than just fun.
B Friendships with best friends develop naturally.
C Relationships with best friends continue for longer than other relationships.
D Relationships with best friends can become strained.
E It is easy to overcome problems in relationships between best friends.
F It’s a shame to go through life without a best friend.
G Best friends value their relationship with each other.
H People sometimes neglect their relationship with best friend.
TH E JOY OF BE ST FRIENDS
0 H
We may complain and worry about love and romance, but how many of us spend time and effort
on the one relationship that can make the difference between a rich and happy life and feeling
lonely and depressed- the relationship we have with our best friend?
1
A relationship with a best friend may not match the highs and lows of a love affair, but in most
cases it is a far more solid and reliable commiment, which will outlast even the most passionate
romance. Debbie and Sally have been best friends since school. As teenagers they went shopping
together on Saturday mornings and then sat in cafes all afternoon, giggling about the idiotic
behaviour of the boys at school. Now in their early thirties, they talk on the phone two or three
times a week and meet once a fortnight to catch up on each other’s lives. While boyfriends have

come and gone, their friendship has outlasted them all.
2
English test – C3
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‘Sally knows me better than anyone else,’ says Debbie. ‘When I get fed up and everything looks
hopeless, she sits and listens when I tell her what’s getting me down. When we’ve had a good chat,
or spent hours laughing, I go home feeling on top of the world.’ Sally feels the same. ‘A couple of
years ago, Debbie was thinking of going to Australia to work. I was devastated. It made me realise
how important our friendship is. I remember thinking that if she had decided to go, it would have
been like losing my right arm.
3
While a night out with your closest friend might be the best guarantee of a good time, there is a
serious side to all of this. Having a best friend to turn to and confide in can have positive effect on
your emotional health. In fact, your best friend can prevent you from developing serious
psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety, and if you do find yourself depressed, he
or she can be the major force that enables you to get over it.
4
But best friendships aren’t all sweetness and light. As the old saying goes, ‘there’s a thin line
between love and hate’, and the person you care about the most can also be the one who can hurt
you most deeply. Jealousy and competition are major sources of difficulty. Two friends who have
been close for years, sharing a similar lifstyle, can find their relationship threatened if one
suddenly has a change in fortune.
5
Best friendships evolve with time- you cannot go out and pick your best friend. We become friends
with someone usually because we spend more time with them than with anyone else, and because
we can confide in them intimately.
6
Best friends have usually known each other for years and stuck together through good and bad
times. If you haven’t got one, perhaps you are being too distant with people, or focusing too much
on work or love affairs. That’s a sad loss, because a best friend gives the best relationship many

people ever have.
PART TWO
For questions 7-21 read the text below and then choose the best answers. Put the letter you choose
for each question in the correct box on your answer sheet. The exercise begins with an example
(0).
Example:
0
C
English test – C3
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The Body Clock
Scientists used to believe that our 24-hour cycle of sleeping and waking was (0)… entirely by
external factors. The most notable of these, they thought, were the rising and (7)… of the sun. But
they have now (8)… that there is a daily rhythm to a (9)… range of biological functions- including
temperature, digestion and mental (10)… - which are regulated internally by a special time-
keeping mechanism within the brain.
The main function of this ‘body clock’ is to anticipate and (11)… for external changes so that, for
example, our body temperature starts to rise (12)… dawn, gearing us up for the day, and begins to
(13)… in the early evening, winding us down for sleep.
Some people’s body clocks (14)… poorer time than others, which can greatly disturb their lives
and even (15)… their health. Insomnia, depression, fatigue, poor work performance and even
accidents can all be (16)… or aggravated by inaccurate body clocks.
(17)… severe problems can result from the difficulties of (18)… to different time zones and
working by night instead of day. Shift workers are known to run a higher-than-average (19)… of
having a number of health problems and the disruption of (20)… body rhythms is one possible
(21) … for this.
0 A conducted B steered C governed D managed
7 A descending B diving C plunging D setting
8 A established B fixed C settled D assured
9 A wide B various C far D grand

10 A operation B activity C process D occupation
11 A dispose B scheme C steady D prepare
12 A beside B approximately C around D nearly
13 A fall B reduce C lessen D subtract
14 A keep B hold C support D preserve
14 A decline B spoil C injure D threaten
16 A put B formed C caused D made
17 A Parallel B Equally C Alike D Compared
18 A altering B adjusting C fitting D suiting
19 A risk B danger C threat D hazard
20 A common B conditional C normal D used
21 A explanation B solution C account D source
PART THREE
Read the following passage and choose the best answers to the questions 22-34
It was the Victorians who were really obsessed with travel. They lived at a time when travel really
did harden the body and improve the spirit. It took a rare breed of men to trudge through some
malaria-infested swamp in a pith helmet after the native bearers had drunk all the whisky, stolen
the rations and run off with the compass.
English test – C3
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Since then, travelers have thought of themselves as faintly noble and they look down on mere
tourists who stay in comfortable hotels and ride in air-conditioned buses. To travelers it is a mark
of pride to suffer as much as possible. They get a perverse joy from spending all day squatting over
a sordid cesspit.
Paul Theroux, a best-selling travel writer is one of the people caught up in the myth: “The nearest
thing to writing a novel is traveling in a strange country.” Travel, he declares, is a creative act. It
isn’t. It may be fun. It may be interesting, but travelers get no insight into eternal truths.
Travellers learn a lot about shopping (good in Singapore, bad in China). They learn how to
avoid the young boys that follow you everywhere begging (look at them with a condescending
smile). They discover how to find a pension in Spain or what sort of Mexican food to sample.

In doing so they find out very little about Orientals, Spaniards or Mexicans. A knowledge of
Indian railway time tables and hotel prices is not the same as understanding Indian culture.
Travellers acquire useless skills, such as how to make trivial conversation with new
acquaintances- discussing cameras or makes of car is a sure-fire way of provoking long and
boring discussions. Many people use travel as an idiotic form of escapism. Oxford graduates,
who would not be remotely interested in getting to know British working-class people on
council estates, find it uplifting to go sightseeing among the poor of the Third World.
The worst travelers are the long-term ones- often people with personal problems who are keen,
not so much to see the world, as to avoid returning home. As a rule, the only people who travel
for more than a year are simpletons, social inadequates, or New Zealanders.
Travel can sometimes close the mind altogether. I once hitched a lift with a van-load of
Aborigines. They had already picked up a hitch-hiker who had been traveling round the world
for four years. He had no fixed home and no fixed job and didn’t care what his next destination
was.
English test – C3
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I- Which adjective best sums up the mood of the passage?
22. A hilarious B disparaging C superficial D argumentative
Choose the best answer to the questions below.
23. Those of us who are best adventurous in our attitude towards traveling should feel
A guilty
B reassured
C self-satisfied
D resentful
24.To the Victorians travel was something
A addictive
B commonplace
C to be avoided
D compulsory
25. Modern travelers have a tendency to regard themselves as

A scapegoats
B casualties
C tormentors
D martyrs
26. The knowledge travelers have of the world is
A imperative
B inaccurate
C insufficient
D invaluable
27. The writer dismisses the motives of many travelers as being
A paradoxical
B unadventurous
C inexplicable
D uninteresting
28. The hitch-hiker’s main interest is
A the beauty spots of the world
B somewhere to sleep
C the length of time he had been traveling
D the desire to put down roots somewhere
English test – C3
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