1. Leslie Silver International Faculty
School of Languages
PRE-ENTRY ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEST 2
FOR
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
TEST 2
Student Name:
___________________________________________________
Proposed Course: ________________________________________
Contact Name/Admissions Tutor: ________________________________
Your e-mail: _________________________________________________
This test has 3 parts:
Parts Focus Marks
Part 1 Reading, Vocabulary and Grammar (pass: 60)
Part 2 Reading Comprehension (pass: 18)
Part 3 Writing Pass Fail
James Roy, Principal Lecturer, ELT,
School of Languages
Leslie Silver International Faculty
2. Part 1 Reading, Vocabulary and Grammar
Time: 60 minutes (recommended)
Task 1
There are 30 blank spaces in the text below. Read the text and for each blank space insert ONE
appropriate word. The words you need are all ‘grammatical’: articles; verbs; prepositions;
pronouns; conjunctions etc.
Total marks: 30 (1 mark per correct answer)
You should spend between about 10 minutes on this task.
Drafting and revising
Writing is difficult 1 ________ very few people 2 _________ the ability to write 3 __________
essay at one sitting 4 ____________ a form that 5 _____________ adequate. If you want 6
___________ write well you should therefore 7 ____________ prepared 8 ________ write
several drafts and 9 _________ read 10 __________ revise each carefully, trying as far 11
___________ possible to undertake revisions objectively.
Unfortunately, 12 ____________ fact that writing involves mental 13 __________ physical
effort, more so 14 ____________ does speaking, means that we 15 _____________ very often
reluctant 16 ___________ rewrite what we 17 ____________ written. The skill of writing 18
_________ rewriting is, however, one of 19 ______ ________ most important skills that the
successful author can acquire. Its importance is such that many educationists now recommend
20 ___________ the arts of drafting 21 __________ redrafting be practised by children 22
_________ the primary school, let alone 23 __________ secondary and higher education levels.
Indeed, the art 24 __________ drafting and revising is now part of the National Curriculum in
Primary Schools in England 25 ________ Wales. If you 26 __________ producing a serious
piece 27 _____________ writing that 28 __________ intended to represent 29 ___________ best
efforts, then you need to see the writing process as one that consists 30 __________ several
stages.
The above text is slightly adapted from Fairbairn GJ and Winch C (1996, 2 nd edition) Reading,
Writing and Reasoning: a Guide for Students Buckingham: Open University Press. Page 61.
Marks Obtained in Task 1:
Possible Total Actual Total
30
2
3. Task 2
There are 10 blank spaces in the text below. Choose the best option from the possible selection
of verb forms and write the answer in the space provided under the text.
You should spend about 10 minutes on this task.
Total marks: 10 (1 mark per correct answer)
This book is about the experience of learning as 1 ___ __________ from the student’s point of
view. But in this chapter that experience 2 _____________ first from perspectives adopted by
other groups – lecturers, psychologists, and educational researchers in an attempt 3 _________
the meaning of learning as it 4 ___________ by these different interested groups. The student’s
perspective 5 _____________ in subsequent chapters as a way of 6 ______________ a new
conceptualisation of learning, but always it 7 ____________ important to recognise the
continuing existence of alternative frameworks for 8 _____________ learning in higher
education.
Each group and, ultimately, each individual, 9 ____________ an interpretation of reality which is
in some sense unique. And yet effective communication 10 ____________ on shared
assumptions, definitions, and understanding.
This text is taken from page 3 of Entwistle N (1997, 2nd edition) Contrasting Perspectives on Learning in Marton, F, Hounsell D,
Entwistle N (eds) The Experience of Learning: Implications for Teaching and Studying in Higher Education, pp 3 – 22, Edinburgh:
Scottish Academic Press
Task 2: Possible answers YOUR answer
1. a) being seen b) seeing c) seen
2. a) is examined b) is examining c) examines
3. a) to being explored b) to explore c) exploring
4. a) is understood b) is being understood c) was understood
5. a) to be used b) will be used c) are used
6. a) developing b) to develop c) being developed
7. a) will be being b) will to be c) will be
8. a) understanding b) to understand c) to be understood
9. a) is having b) has c) have
10. a) depends b) is depending c) is being depended
Marks Obtained in Task 2:
Possible Total Actual Total
10
3
4. Task 3
In most lines of the following text, there is one unnecessary word. For each numbered line, 1 -
15, write the unnecessary word in the space at the side of the text. Some lines are correct.
Indicate these lines with a tick (4). The task begins with two examples.
Total marks: 15 (1 mark per correct answer)
You should spend about 10 minutes on this task.
TEXT ANSWERS
0. Not only should what you to write be clear in its meaning ,
0. it should also make some sense beyond the level of the statement;
1. it should make the sense as a text.
2. This requirement is easier to state than it is to be describe briefly.
3. At the core of the idea of coherence is the need for the overall message or argument
4. that you are conveying to be hang together and be consistent.
5. You should not to contradict yourself either explicitly or implicitly.
6. As we have already to said, when you are reading you rely on the author
7. to supply all the relevant many information that you need to understand the text.
8. This means that when you are to writing,
9. you need to be comprehensive in providing all of that is needed for the reader
10. to understand what you have be written.
11. As a writer you have a variety of the sources of information available to you:
12. your memory, files, notes, reference books and so on.
13. One the danger faced by an inexperienced writer is that of mistakenly assuming
14. that since she has access to multiple sources of information,
15. her readers also have of them available.
The above text is adapted from Fairbairn GJ and Winch C (1996, 2 nd edition) Reading, Writing and Reasoning: a Guide
for Students Buckingham: Open University Press. Pages 58 & 59.
Marks Obtained in Task 3:
Possible Total Actual Total
15
4
5. Task 4
20 words have been removed from the text below. Each one fills one of the blanks, 1 – 20, in the text.
Fill the blanks with the correct letter of the right missing word which is needed in order to complete the
text.
You should spend about 10 minutes on this task.
Total marks: 20 (1 mark per correct answer)
TEXT WORDS REMOVED
‘Public Relations and the Age of Spin’
Professor Anne Gregory, Director of the Centre for Public
Relations 1 ___________ at LMU, delivered her first
2 __________ as the UK’s only full-time Professor of PR to a
3 _______________ audience at Beckett Park recently. In her
inaugural lecture ‘Public Relations and the Age of Spin’,
4 __________ by Professor Gaynor Taylor, Anne 5 __________ A force
the role and importance of public relations as a 6 ____________ B asks
for good and a moral agent for building dialogues between C Studies
organisations and their 7 ________________. D career
E employs
As one of the top three 8. ___________ choices for new F packed
graduates, public relations is a 9 _____________ industry that G audience
10 ___________ over 30, 000 people in the UK. “So why has its H government
reputation not progressed with its growth?” 11 _________ Anne. I lecture
The answers are easy to see in most modern 12 ___________: J accountability
spin, ambivalent relationships with the 13 ____________ and K argued
political PR that makes the public distrustful of its 14 L organisations
_____________ all contribute to the 15 ___________ light in M stakeholders
which PR is seen. N taking
O negative
Presenting to an 16 __________ that included PR practitioners, P press
journalists and alumni of LMU’s PR courses, Anne suggested that Q introduced
current models of practice are 17 ___________ as corporate R practitioners
social responsibility and 18 ____________ are becoming more S outdated
important to the public. Anne wants to engage in debate to move T growing
the industry forward, and suggests a new model of practice in
which educated and ethical PR 19 _____________ work with the
public, for the public and in public.
Also present at the lecture was John Aspery, current President of
the Institute of Public Relations, a role Anne will be 20 ________
up herself next year.
Taken from The News (LMU news magazine) 09/05/03, no. 59, page 4.
Marks Obtained in Task 4:
Possible Total Actual Total
5
6. 20
Task 5
In most lines of the following text, there is either ONE spelling or ONE punctuation error. For each
numbered line, 1 - 15, write the correctly spelled word or show the correct punctuation in the column at the
side.
Some lines are correct. Indicate these lines with a tick (√).
Total marks: 15 (1 mark per correct answer). The answer begins with one example.
You should spend about 10 minutes on this task.
0. A well-known scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described √
1. how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn orbits around the
2. centre of a vast collection of stars called our gallaxy. At the end of the lecture,
3. a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: ‘What you have told
4. us is rubbish? The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a
5. giant tortoise.’ The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, ‘What is
6. the tortoise standing on?’ ‘You’re very clever, young man, very clever, said
7. the old lady. ‘But its tortoises all the way down!’
8. Most people would find the picture of our universe as an infinite tower of.
9. tortoises rather ridiculous, but why do we think, we know better? What
10. do we know about the universe and how do we know it? Recent
11. breakthroughs in physiques, made possible in part by fantastic new
12. technologies; suggest answers to some of our oldest questions. One
13. day these answers may seem as obvious to us as the earth orbitting the
14. sun – or perhaps as ridiculous as a tower of tortoises: only time (whatever
15. that maybe) will tell.
This text is taken from Hashemi L (1995) CAE Practice Tests 2. Cambridge: CUP. Page 78.
Marks Obtained in Task 5:
Possible Total Actual Total
15
6
7. Task 6
Below is a short text taken from the book ‘Mars and Venus: Together Forever’. However, the
words in the text have been all mixed up and now no longer make sense. Re-write the short
paragraph in the space provided using all the words below in a way that makes sense.
Total marks: 10 (for a fully constructed, grammatically correct answer).
You should spend about 10 minutes on this task.
All original punctuation has been left in its original place. The original paragraph is made up of
3 sentences.
JUMBLED TEXT
having as confessed more passion of I probably a my growing up, had serious. father to
started when secretly moment was divorce. a the In fifties, I he an became out was What
asked mother my that affair. gradually He for
From Gray J (1996 edition) Mars and Venus: Together Forever page 1. London: Vermilion
MY CORRECTED VERSION:
Marks Obtained in Task 6:
Possible Total Actual Total
10
Marks Obtained in Part 1:
Possible Total Actual Total
100 (60 = pass)
7
8. Part 2 Reading Comprehension
Total Time: 40 minutes
Text 1
This task should take you about 20 minutes. Read the text and answer the comprehension
questions which follow.
Micropropagation
If you’ve bought a garden plant recently, the odds are that it started life as a green blob in a sterile
dish in a laboratory. Micropropagation – the rapid multiplication of plants using tissue-culture
technology – is becoming big business.
One of its disadvantages is speed. Take a small piece of plant, put it in a medium which
encourages it to form multiple shoots, then repeat the exercise.
One plant becomes tens of thousands or even millions in a matter of months. And every copy of
the plant is a genetically uniform clone.
This can be a boon to horticulturists and gardeners. New varieties reach the market place in
record time, and the technique also generates disease-free stock. Micropropagation is also playing
an increasingly important role in the conservation of rare plants. But there is one application that
carries a serious ecological risk.
Micropropagation of forest trees is a superficially attractive proposition. Most tree species show
enormous variability in growth rates, shape and almost every other economically important
character. Conventional selective-breeding methods to improve them are at best slow and at worst
completely impractical. Breeders may have to wait 10 years before they can assess the
performance of new varieties. Some species, such as oaks, may take 40 years to produce the crop
of seeds that will show whether desirable characters will be inherited.
But micropropagation could soon change all that. By cloning in a test tube the biggest and best
trees, plantations could be established with a limited range of varieties that satisfy commercial
forestry’s narrow criteria for the ideal tree. Tissue culture technologists have already begun to
clone eucalyptus, oak, birch, poplar, willow, pine and fir.
These developments also pave the way for new possibilities for genetic engineering in forestry.
Experimental poplars which contain foreign genes that give insect and herbicide resistance
already exist.
If all this goes strictly according to plan, we could look forward to a new breed of weed-free,
insect-free forests of cloned trees – a sterile habitat formed from shoots multiplied in sterile
culture.
That’s the medium-term risk. The longer-term hazard arises if it all goes wrong and the pests and
diseases retaliate. The history of international agriculture is littered with examples of famine and
disasters precipitated by epidemics of insects, fungi and bacteria that have mutated and
overwhelmed the man-manipulated defences of genetically uniform crops. As I write, the
grapevines in California’s Napa Valley, which are clonally propagated by cuttings, are being
sucked dry by a new strain of aphid.
8
9. This is why maintaining diversity in crops is at least as important as conserving biodiversity in
natural ecosystems. It’s our only long-term insurance policy against such disasters.
Sudden pest ‘pandemics’ affecting monocultures of tree clones would be particularly damaging.
Slow-growing forests occupy land that remains relatively undisturbed for decades. This
accumulates a wider range of plant and animal species and has a much higher ecological value
than land disturbed by annual cycles of intensive cropping.
While the sudden loss of an annual crop usually has little effect on wildlife, the consequences of a
rapid decline of a species can be dramatic. It may be that someone, somewhere, is assessing the
potential risks that micropropagation in forestry holds for wildlife, and that these will be balanced
against commercial advantage. But somehow, I doubt it.
Question Answers Your Answer
For questions 1 – 5, choose the 5 positive aspects of the micropropagation of plants mentioned in the
article, from list A to H.
Positive Aspects Mentioned: Choose the 5 positive aspects mentioned in the article from the list
of 8 below.
ALL interchangeable:
A produces more abundant crops
1 __________ B means that the public has rapid access to new plant varieties
C produces young plants which do not have diseases
2 __________ D speeds up research
E offers higher profit margins for plant breeders
3 ___________ F can aid the conservation of endangered plant species
G results in easier working conditions for foresters
4 ___________ H can produce plants which resist attack by certain pests
5 ___________
2 marks for each correct answer.
For questions 6 – 8, choose the 3 negative aspects of the micropropagation of plants mentioned in the
article, from list A to F.
Negative Aspects Mentioned: Choose the 3 negative aspects mentioned in the article from the list
of 6 below.
ALL interchangeable:
A is not a practical possibility for some plants
6 __________ B could lead to practices which reduce the variety of plants and
animals
7 __________ C creates crops which are vulnerable to wholesale destruction by pests
D is causing the market to become flooded with new species
8 __________ E may lead to a reduction in the workforce
F may lead to the creation of forests which support no other living
things
2 marks for each correct answer
Taken, and slightly adapted from Hashemi L (1995) CAE Practice Tests 2. Cambridge: CUP. Pages 71 - 72.
Marks Obtained from Text 1:
Possible Total Actual Total
16 (2 marks per correct answer)
9
10. Text 2
This task should take you about 20 minutes.
Read the text and answer the questions which follow.
Characteristics of Open and Distance Learning
A __________________________
Open learning is generally seen as a goal of education, characterised by increasing flexibility of
methodological and administrative practices in the interests of maximising the options and
support available for students. Distance teaching is characterised by four things: 1) the need to
individualise learning; 2) the use of a range of teaching and supervisory strategies which are not
primarily face-to-face; 3) the need to determine, in advance of teaching, the activities,
interactions and resources necessary to achieve the purposes of a course unit or subject, and 4) an
openness to the educational possibilities afforded by developments in computer and
communications technologies.
B ________________________________
The major educational distinction between on-campus and distance teaching is the reliance on
group-based strategies in the former and the obligation to individualise instruction in the latter.
These individualised strategies also need to be supported by a compatible administrative system.
For academics whose experience is primarily of study on-campus, there is some challenge in
distance education, because the assumptions which underpin individualised learning may be quite
different from those with which they are familiar. The Distance Education Centre provides
support to academics who are teaching students at a distance with the aim of helping them
understand the different demands of this kind of teaching.
C ________________________________
Major differences between the teaching modes result from the following factors:
• The logistics of communication
• The degree to which the lecturer is able to respond to student input
• The role of the peer-group influence
• Student access to learning resources
• The complexity of the administrative arrangements which support the programme of learning
• The extent to which the lecturer can influence the learning environment of the student
The university believes that good teaching requires that these distinctive characteristics be
recognised.
D ________________________________
Perhaps the most critical element of this view of distance education is the reliance it places on
students taking a greater degree of responsibility for their own learning than is generally the case
for on-campus study. This expectation sits reasonably comfortably with elements of adult
learning theories which encourage respect for students and their experience as well as the familiar
patterns of higher degree study.
E ________________________________
It is important to understand that there is a general movement in higher education towards the
individualisation of learning generally. Old distinctions between internal and external enrolments
will have less meaning over time as the range of resources and strategies in both on-campus and
distance teaching are increasingly shared between these modes. While some administrative
10
11. distinctions will necessarily prevail, the characteristics of good teaching will increasingly be
those which allow individual students to pursue their studies in flexible and supportive ways.
This text was adapted slightly from Gibson C, Rusek W & Swan A (1996) IELTS Practice Now, University of South Australia,
Adelaide: CALUSA. Page 98.
Text 2 Questions
In the box below is a list of headings for the 5 paragraphs in Text 2. For questions 1 – 5, choose
the appropriate heading for each paragraph and write the corresponding number i – vii next to the
appropriate Paragraph.
Total marks: 13
These questions were adapted from Gibson C, Rusek W & Swan A (1996) IELTS Practice Now, University of South Australia,
Adelaide: CALUSA. Pages 99 - 100.
Paragraphs: Headings Possible Headings
i: Anticipated Changes in Course Delivery
ii: Factors Influencing the Difference Between
1. Paragraph A: __________________ On-Campus and Distance Teaching
2. Paragraph B: __________________ iii: Problems Experienced by Academics
3. Paragraph C: __________________ iv: Why Support is Important
4. Paragraph D: __________________ v: How Academics Adjust to Distance
Teaching
5. Paragraph E: __________________
vi: Student Responsibility
1 mark for each correct answer .
vii: The Main Features of Teaching at a
Distance
On the next page, the major characteristics of on-campus (OC) and Distance Learning (DL) are
listed below, together with those features which are common to both modes (BM). Sort these
characteristics, based on Text 2, into their groups by writing OC (on-campus); DL (Distance
Learning) or BM (common to both modes) next to the 8 characteristics listed.
11
12. Characteristics
6. There are opportunities for the exploitation of communication technologies ______________
7. The lecturer is able to treat the class as a group ________________
8. Academics may experience difficulty with a different mode of delivery ________________
9. The teaching methods are familiar ____________________
10. Administrative and support services need to consider students’ personal learning
needs _____________________
11. Students need to be independent learners _________________
12. Individual students are encouraged to pursue their studies in the ways which suit them
best __________________
13. There is increasing flexibility in the way students are encouraged to achieve their
goals ___________
1 mark for each correct answer
Marks Obtained from Text 2:
Possible Total Actual Total
13 (see each question for marks allocated)
Marks Obtained in Part 2:
Possible Total Actual Total
29 (18 = PASS)
12
13. Part 3 Writing
Total time: 70 minutes
Task 1
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Present an argument to an educated reader with no specialist knowledge of the following topic.
Too much attention is given to headline–grabbing disasters like earthquakes and floods. Governments
should concentrate their resources on educating people about the risks they face nearer to home, which can
cost far more lives.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
You should use your own ideas, knowledge and experience to support your arguments with examples and
relevant evidence.
You should write at least 250 words.
Taken from Sue O’Connel (2002) Focus on IELTS. Longman. Page 211
Task 2
You should spend about 30 minutes on this task.
Below is a table which shows the causes of injury by age and their percentage contribution to
total deaths during a 12-month period in Australia. Some of these injuries may be termed
accidental and and some may not.
Describe the information in the table. You should write at least 150 words.
Injury Age Category
Cause
0- 14 15-39 40-64 65+ Total
Motor vehicle 40% 45% 29% 21% 34%
Poisonings 1% 4% 2% 2% 2%
Falls 3% 2% 6% 42% 11%
Drownings 19% 3% 4% 2% 5%
Suffocation/ 14% 1% 3% 2% 2%
Asphyxiation
Suicide - 26% 31% 17% 27%
Homicide and 5% 5% 4% 1% 4%
Violence
All other causes 16% 12% 20% 13% 14%
Taken from Gibson C, Rusek W & Swan A (1996) IELTS Practice Now, University of South Australia, Adelaide: CALUSA. Page
123
Recommended Result from Part 3 (markers refer to general criteria sheet)
Fail π Pass π
Unsatisfactory: Satisfactory: Very Good: Excellent:
FAIL PASS GOOD PASS Outstanding Pass
13