B1 Practice test 2
KGL Contest in English
B1
Listening, Reading and Writing
Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Instructions
Read each part carefully.
To answer a question click on the answer. To change your answer click on another answer.
To go to the next part click Next. To go back click Back.
You can go back to check you work until the end of the test.
Listening
There are two parts to the listening test. To start the test click START LISTENING.
You will hear each part twice. You have time to look at the questions before each part.
After part two you have one minute to check your work.
When you hear ‘This is the end of the listening test’, click NEXT to go to the next part of the test.
Writing
Click in the blank page on the right side of the screen and type your answer. You can delete and retype any part of your answer.
There is a word count at the bottom of the screen.
Clicking on Exit ends the test.
You must answer all questions.
To start the test click on the button below.
Part 1 - Listening
Listening Part 1
Questions 1–5
You will hear Grace talking about an online video she saw recently.
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Part 2 - Listening
Listening Part 2 Questions 6-10
Listen to an interview with Tom Brank about unusual jobs he has done.
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Part 3 - Reading
Part 3
Questions 11–15
Complete the gaps in the text. Choose A, B, C or D
The Sapporo Snow Festival
In early February each year, the town of Sapporo in Japan is transformed
(11) an unforgettable winter wonderland of snow and ice sculptures, skating rinks, giant snow slides, and snow domes. At night-time the sculptures are (12) up until about 10 pm and take on a magical appearance. All this of course, under the careful eye of the Ice Queen.
There's a (13) of sculptures to see and events to enjoy across three sites in Sapporo and it's not surprising that this event is now famous internationally for its size, variety, and amount of fun available for all visitors.
There is no fee to view, however, (14) large crowds. Temperatures average around -10oC and is snowing most of the time. It's a good feeling if you are warmly dressed. (15) rain, you don't get wet.
These amazing ice sculptures are made by locals and by people who come from all over the world to compete.
Part 4 - Reading
Part 4
Questions 16–20
Complete the exchanges. Choose A, B, C or D
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Part 5 - Reading
Part 5
Questions 21-25
Read the text and answer the questions. Choose A, B, C or D
More Than Just a Name
A person’s name is usually the first thing we learn about somebody. So, do we make judgements about a person based on their name? In other words, do we form an opinion based on their name? It appears that this may indeed be the case. We know for instance that we may form an opinion very quickly when we meet someone for the first time but what is particularly interesting is that perhaps we start forming these judgements right from the moment we hear a person’s name. And those judgements are important because they may influence us in a positive or negative way when we deal with this person in the future.
Now imagine that two people are starting work at a bank on the same day. Let’s assume they are very similar in many ways, (same age, same sex, same educational background etc.) but they do, of course, have different names. One of them has a very common and easy name but the other has a difficult name. There is evidence that over the course of their career, the person with the simpler name will climb the banking ladder more quickly. And by about the eighth or ninth year after leaving university the person with the easier name is about seven to ten percent more likely to be more successful.
There’s a very famous effect in psychology known as the party effect. And this relates to us all. The basic idea is that if you’re at a party and even if the room is full of people having conversations, when someone mentions your name anywhere in the room you will hear it. Somehow, your own name rises above all the noise in the room and reaches you. Why is this you may ask? Well, according to experts this is down to the fact that your name means so much to you, that it catches your attention while other sounds do not.
There is also strong evidence that we tend to like the letters in our name, especially the first letters, our initials, more than we like other letters of the alphabet. So, for example Sam Smith would tend to prefer the letter S. If you gave Sam Smith a list of all the letters in the English alphabet and asked him to pick his favourite letters, he would almost surely choose S first. It’s interesting that this is the case not only for English of course, but across countries and different alphabets. It is estimated that approximately 50 percent of the people would choose the letters of their own initials first if this experiment was carried out on a global scale.
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Part 6 - Reading
Questions 26-30
Four NASA experts tell us about spacewalking.
Read and choose A, B, C or D
A Any time an astronaut gets out of a vehicle while in space, it is called a spacewalk.
Astronauts go on spacewalks for many reasons. Spacewalks let astronauts work outside their spacecraft while still in space. Astronauts can do science experiments on a spacewalk. Experiments can be placed on the outside of a spacecraft. This lets scientists learn how being in space affects different things.
Spacewalks also let astronauts test new equipment. They can repair satellites or spacecraft that are in space. By going on spacewalks, astronauts can fix things instead of bringing them back to earth to fix. The first person to go on a spacewalk was Alexei Leonov. He was from Russia. The first spacewalk was on March 18, 1965. It was 10 minutes long.
The first American to go on a spacewalk was Ed White. His spacewalk was on June 3, 1965, during the Gemini 4 mission. White's spacewalk lasted 23 minutes.
C When on a spacewalk, astronauts use safety tethers to stay close to their spacecraft. Tethers are like ropes. One end is hooked to the spacewalker. The other end is connected to the vehicle. The safety tethers keep astronauts from floating away into space. Astronauts also use tethers to keep tools from floating away. They tether their tools to their spacesuits.
Another way astronauts stay safe during spacewalks is by wearing a SAFER. SAFER stands for Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue. SAFER is worn like a backpack. It uses small jet thrusters to let an astronaut move around in space. If an astronaut were to become untethered and float away, SAFER would help him or her fly back to the spacecraft. Astronauts control SAFER with a small joystick, like on a video game.
B When astronauts go on spacewalks, they wear spacesuits to keep themselves safe. Inside spacesuits, astronauts have the oxygen they need to breathe. They have the water they need to drink. Astronauts put on their spacesuits several hours before a spacewalk. The suits are pressurized. This means that the suits are filled with oxygen.
Once in their suits, astronauts breathe pure oxygen for a few hours. Breathing only oxygen gets rid of all the nitrogen in an astronaut's body. If they didn't get rid of the nitrogen, the astronauts might get gas bubbles in their body when they walked in space. These gas bubbles can cause astronauts to feel pain in their shoulders, elbows, wrists and knees. This pain is called getting "the bends" because it affects the places where the body bends. Scuba divers can also get "the bends."
When astronauts get ready to go on a spacewalk, they leave the spacecraft through a special door called an airlock. They go through the first door and lock it tight behind them. They can then open the second door without any air getting out of the spacecraft. After a spacewalk, astronauts go back inside through the airlock.
D One way astronauts train for spacewalks is by going for a swim. Floating in space is a lot like floating in water. Astronauts practice spacewalks underwater in a large swimming pool. The pool is called the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, or NBL. It is near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The pool holds 6.2 million gallons of water. Astronauts train seven hours in the pool for every one hour they will spend on a spacewalk.
Another way astronauts practice for a spacewalk is by using virtual reality. This is sort of like playing a video game. Astronauts wear a helmet with a video screen inside. They also wear special gloves. A video of what they will see during a spacewalk is shown on the screen inside the helmet. When the astronaut moves, the special gloves allow the movements to be shown with the video. The virtual reality simulation looks and feels just like a spacewalk
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Part 7 - Reading
Questions 31–40.
Complete the sentences about William Shakespeare.
Choose A, B, C or D
William Shakespeare
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Part 8 - Writing
Writing
Write between 150 and 160 words only