University Foundation Program English Level 3 Practice Final Examination Examination Time: 120 Minutes Name: ID Number: Section: Teacher: Class Time: Listening Reading Dialogue: Homestay Lecture 1: The Pyramid of Human Needs Lecture 2: Adult Numeracy Reading 1: Great Writers: Joseph Conrad Reading 2: Alternative Forms of Communication / 10 / 10 /10 / 15 / 15 Total / 60
Listening Task 3: Adult Numeracy Suggested Time:10 minutes Questions 21-30: Use your notes to answer the questions. Complete the missing information using NO MORE THAN ONE WORD, A NUMBER OR A WEBSITE, or choose the correct answer. Write your answers on your answer sheet. Part One: Figures (showing levels of adult numeracy in England, 2003) Very Poor Poor (22) Good (21) (5%) 5 million (16%) 25% (23) Part Two: (24) One: Adults didn t do well in math at school Two: Their (25) didn t help them. Three: Rely too much on technology Part Three: Effects (26) Poor numeracy affects people s employment and. (27) According to the lecture, people with low levels of numeracy often get jobs. Part Four: Solutions (28) One difficulty is trying to get adults to. a. accept that they have a problem b. ask their children for help with math c. talk about their negative experiences (29) The speaker mentions that teachers of adult numeracy classes need to make their lessons. a. challenging b. fun c. useful (30) Which website does the speaker recommend? Score /10 2
Reading Task 1 Suggested Time: 35 minutes Read the text below and then use the information in the text to answer the questions. Great Writers: Joseph Conrad A. For the third in our series of articles on great writers in the English language, we re looking at the life of that truly great novelist, Joseph Conrad. It is difficult enough to write a novel in one s own language, so it seems almost impossible to succeed in writing books in a second language. Yet the success of Joseph Conrad, who wrote many well-loved novels in English, shows that, with talent such as Conrad s, it is indeed possible to be a success writing in a second or even third language. B. Conrad was born Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857, in an area of present-day Ukraine, which was then a part of Poland. He grew up in a multilingual family and was exposed to several languages. His father translated written texts into Polish from French and English. He encouraged his son Conrad to read widely in both his first language, Polish, as well as French. Like many wealthy Polish people at the time, Conrad learned French early in life and most probably knew some Russian as well. C. Both Conrad s parents died of tuberculosis, and he became an orphan at the age of eleven. He went to live with an uncle who supported him for many years. Conrad s uncle hired a student from Cracow University to continue his education, tutoring him in Latin, Greek, geography, and mathematics. However, Joseph disliked academic lessons and, at the age of 14, he decided that he wanted to be a sailor. When he was 16, his uncle allowed him to travel to France, where he began his career as a seaman. His French language skills enabled him to work during the four years he spent in France. After France, he went to live and work in England. D. He became a seaman on an English steam ship at the age of 20 and, later, used some of his experiences at sea in his stories. He didn t know any English at that time, but he did not need to speak it very much. Ordinary seaman on ships spoke many different languages and developed their own mixed language to communicate. By reading in English as much as he could, Conrad became good enough to pass all the written tests required to become a captain of a ship. Later, in 1886, he became a British citizen, when he was thirty-one years old. E. During his life, Conrad used English more for reading and writing than for speaking. He started to learn English at the age of 20, but despite his extraordinary skills in English writing, he did not like to speak it. He kept a strong Polish accent throughout his life which, as his wife and children said, often made him hard to understand. French remained the language he spoke with greatest ease and no foreign accent, until the end of his life. 3
F. By the time his first novel was published in 1895, there was no doubt that English was the language in which he would write. His style was unique and he had a large vocabulary. Some of his famous novels, especially Heart of Darkness, written in 1902, and Nostromo, from 1904, are still accessible to the modern-day reader. Conrad never wrote creatively in either of the languages that he learned earlier, Polish or French. Research indicates that multilingual people often link some aspects of life with one language and other aspects with another. Psychologists have guessed that Conrad connected these other languages with unpleasant experiences, such as his parents deaths. Also, the experiences that shaped Conrad s earliest novels were those lived in English. English might have been established in Conrad s mind as the language of adult experience. G. By the time he died, at the age of 67, Conrad had become a famous English writer. Although critics said at the time that he was not really English, Joseph Conrad remains one of the greatest English writers of the 20th century. Finding the Information Questions 31-35: Which paragraphs contain the following information? Write the letter of each paragraph on your answer sheet. (31) Conrad worked as a captain of a ship. (32) Conrad had a private teacher for his formal education. (33) As a child, Conrad learnt to speak French. (34) His novels can be easily understood today. (35) Conrad had problems speaking clearly in English. Sentence Completion Questions 36 40: Complete each sentence with ONE WORD OR A NUMBER. Write your answers on your Answer Sheet. (36) The area where Conrad was born was part of. (37) Conrad s parents died when he was years old. (38) In the year, Conrad became a citizen of Great Britain. (39) Conrad spoke at least languages. (40) He wrote all his novels in. 4
True/False/Not Given Questions 41 45: Decide if the sentences are true (T), false (F) or not given (NG). Write your answers on the Answer Sheet. (41) Conrad s father was good at languages. (42) Conrad began his life at sea in England. (43) At that time, sailors communicated together using a mix of languages. (44) Conrad may have linked sad experiences with Polish and French. (45) Multilingual people tend to write in their first language. Score /15 Reading Task 2 Suggested Time: 35 minutes Read the text below and then use the information in the text to answer the questions. Alternative Forms of Communication A. When language is mentioned, most people think of speech or the written word. True, these are the most common ways of communicating using language. However, the ways in which human beings communicate are much more varied than just these two. B. One form of written language that does not actually use letters or words is the logogram. A logogram is basically a picture or a symbol that communicates a meaning. For instance, the $ sign or the symbol % can be easily understood without knowledge of the language surrounding it. Another example would be the pictures that most people encounter on a daily basis. People searching for the toilet in a mall often look for a picture rather than words. The No Smoking sign is yet another logogram found in public areas. With both these signs, knowledge of the actual words or language used is unnecessary because the idea can be communicated without them. C. Body language is a kind of non-verbal communication that most people use effectively without any training. Instead of using words, thoughts and feelings are expressed using physical behavior. Facial expressions clearly show feelings and can easily cross ordinary, spoken-language barriers. A smile is positive, no matter the language or location. Gestures, movements made with hands, fingers and arms, give additional information about what a person is trying to communicate. On the other hand, gestures can be connected with culture, so a gesture in one country may have a different meaning in another. For example, if you see a person nod their head, you probably think they mean 'yes' but, in India, nodding of the head means 'no'; also, hand gestures to mean 'come here' vary from country to country. 5
D. Unlike body language or logograms, Morse code is a system of communication that requires a little training to use and understand. Morse code was invented in the United States in the 1830s, well before the telephone, and provided a convenient way of transmitting information over long distances. A Morse code user can send information as a series of sounds, lights, or clicks. Each letter or numeral is represented by a unique sequence of dots and dashes, so words must be spelled letter by letter. Surprisingly, it is still in use today: pilots need to understand it, boats in the navy continue to use it, and it has been used to help some disabled people communicate. E. Deaf people rely on their hands, arms, body, and facial expressions to communicate their thoughts through sign language. Sign languages are much more complicated than the other systems of communication listed above, as they have each developed vocabularies and grammars, just as rich as those of spoken languages. There is more than one sign language. Each country generally has its own, native sign language, though often some signs can be understood across several sign languages. F. Some people mistakenly think that sign languages are dependent on spoken language, or even that sign language was invented by people who can hear. However, sign languages are considered natural languages, which means that they developed on their own by the people who use them. American Sign Language and British Sign Language, though both from English-speaking countries, are quite different. A person who signs in ASL cannot understand a person who signs in BSL. On the other hand, countries with a single spoken language can have multiple sign languages. G. Whistling is the production of sound by blowing a stream of air from your mouth. It can be musical, or, as in certain parts of the world, a form of communication. Silbo Gomero is the name of a whistled language used by the people of La Gomera, an island off the coast of Morocco. Silbo Gomero is based on Spanish, but each vowel or consonant in a word is replaced with a whistling sound. The sound of whistling carries much farther than the speaking, shouting, or yelling in some cases up to five kilometers. Whistled languages have been found in countries in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and generally are used in areas with few people and in places where it is difficult to travel. The farmers and hunters in these communities could communicate across long distances using whistles. Many whistled languages are dying out, mostly because of simpler ways of transferring information over long distances the telephone and the Internet, for example. However, in La Gomera, Silbo Gomero is currently taught in schools to preserve the island s cultural heritage. 6
Paragraph Topics Questions 46 50: Write the letter of the paragraph that is the best match for each topic. Write your answers on the answer sheet. (46) An unusual form of communication found on an island (47) How signs and symbols are used to replace words (48) A useful form of communication in the past and now (49) Using body language in different situations (50) How sign languages developed Multiple Choice Questions Questions 51 55: Choose the correct letter. Write your answers on the answer sheet. (51) Which of the following is not a logogram? a. No Smoking b. c. d. % (52) What is one disadvantage of using gestures to communicate? a. They can only express simple ideas. b. They vary from culture to culture. c. People need to have training to use them. d. People use hands, fingers and arms. (53) Why was Morse code a useful tool when it was created? a. Words had to be written letter by letter. b. Pilots needed to understand it. c. It required more training than logograms. d. It could send information long distances. 7
(54) Which of the following is not true about sign languages? a. They have both grammar and vocabulary. b. They are invented by people who can hear. c. Places with one spoken language can have many sign languages. d. Facial expressions are used in sign languages. (55) Which one of the following forms of communication is taught in schools? a. Morse code b. body language c. Silbo Gomero d. logograms Summary Questions 56 60: Complete the summary below. Choose one word from the box for each gap. Write your answers on the answer sheet. communicate number words regions young read gestures symbol cities deaf Although speaking and writing are the most common forms of language, human beings actually use many other ways to (56). The first example is the logogram, which is a picture or (57) that can show a meaning. Another example is body language, which can include facial expressions or (58). A third system is Morse code. Originally developed in the United States, it is now used around the world. Finally, the article explains two very complicated languages: sign languages and whistled languages. The first of these is used by (59) people, who need to use their bodies to explain their thoughts. The second has been found in various (60) around the world, but usually places without a large population. This is the end of the practice exam. Score /15 8