Reading

(25 questions - 30 minutes)

Question 1 of 5
Choose one word (A, B or C) for each space and write the letter on the answer paper.
The first one (0) is done for you as an example with the answer A marked on your answer paper.

0. A. pupils B. teachers C. classmates

1. A. last B. first C. second
2. A. titled B. named C. called
3. A. travelling B. going C. coming
4. A. nice B. shy C. strong
5. A. word B. note C. postcard

Dear Peter,

My school has organised an exchange programme with (0) ______ from a school in France.
The French students are coming to stay with us (1) ______ and then we will go to France next month.
The exchange student staying with us is (2) ______ Andre and he is 16 years old.
He is going to stay with us for one week and we are (3) _____ to take him to London for a day trip.
I hope he is (4) _____ and friendly because I am excited about making a new friend.
When I am in France, I will send a (5) ______ to you.

Best wishes,

John
Question 2 of 5
The sentences below are from a website. Put them in the right order. The first one is done for
you.

BISCUITS

0. A

6. ___

7. ___

8. ___

9. ___

10. ___

Question 3 of 5
The sentences below are from some instructions. Put them in the right order. The first one is
done for you.

0. A

11. ___

12. ___

13. ___

14. ___

15. ___
Question 4 of 5: Opinion matching
Match four people's opinions to seven statements by choosing the correct person from the list.

Who:
16. prefers to be alone and not go out with friends? ____
17. can only have lots of friends round once a year? ____
18. likes informal celebrations? ____
19. quite enjoys to self-cater? ____
20. renews old friendships on their birthday? ____
21. once had a themed birthday party? ____
22. doesn't get on with their parents sometimes? ____
Question 5 of 5
Read the text quickly. Choose a heading (A-H) for each numbered paragraph (23-29) from the box.
There is one more heading than you need.

The Pacific Gyre

0. The Pacific Ocean in the top part of the Northern Hemisphere contains a series of ocean
currents which all connect together and form a clockwise pattern. This is called the North
Pacific Gyre. There are four different currents which seem to represent each point of the
compass. They are the North Pacific Current to the north, the California Current to the east,
the North Equatorial Current to the south and the Kuroshio Current to the west. This 'circle'
surrounds approximately ten million square miles of ocean.

23.The first current of this gyre is the North Pacific Current. This current carries warm water slowly
from west to east. It is formed by the force of two other currents: The Kuroshio Current, which
comes off the coast of Japan, and the Oyashio Current, which comes down from the sub-arctic
area and travels in a counter-clockwise direction along the western part of the North Pacific Ocean.
Along the western coast of North America we can find the California Current, which flows south,
taking cold water to the coast in the south. The North Equatorial Current is caused by the rotation
of the Earth, which makes the flow of water go from east to west.

24.The fourth current in the Pacific Gyre is the Kuroshio Current. This current goes past the east
coast of Taiwan and then goes up, past Japan, where it merges with the North Pacific Current.
This current takes warm tropical water towards the Polar Regions. Kuroshio in English means
Black Stream, which this current is often referred to. It is these warm waters that allow life on the
Japanese coral reefs to survive. These coral reefs are the northern-most reefs in the world.
These warm waters also allow Japan to have a big fishing industry.

25.If you were to travel to the centre of the North Pacific Gyre, you would be extremely surprised
to see that the water is relatively stationary. The circular rotation of the Gyre forces all waste
material to travel inwards towards the centre. It is for this reason that fishermen avoid the centre
as the water doesn't have enough nutrients for fish to live on, so fishing there would not be
profitable. Sailors avoid this area as well, mainly because very little wind blows there, so sailing
would be pointless.

26.This rotation in question has also caused a lot of flotsam, such as driftwood, man-made
rubbish, cargo lost from ships to accumulate in the middle. All this rubbish has formed a floating
sea of waste. In the past, most of this rubbish has biodegraded but there are large quantities of
plastic. The main problem is that plastic does not biodegrade. Instead, it photodegrades, which
refers to the absorption of photons, like infra-red radiation and ultra-violet light.

27.Photodegrading causes the plastic to break into smaller pieces. These small pieces then begin
to look like small drifting organisms which jellyfish feed on. In some parts of the gyre there are six
times as many plastic particles as there are drifting organisms. The fish also think that this is food
and eat these particles. This sadly results in a lot of fish dying.
28.Sometimes the currents in the gyre make a small temporary adjustment, which usually sends
rubbish outwards and then subsequently wash up on beaches around the gyre. In 1990, a cargo
ship got caught in a big storm while crossing the Pacific. Twenty-one containers fell overboard
eventually resulting in the appearance of 80,000 Nike trainers and boots washing up on beaches
in British Columbia-Canada, Washington-USA, Oregon-USA and Hawaii-USA, over a period of
three years.

29.The National Ocean and Atmospheric Authority of the USA has analysed the movement of the
rubbish travelling around the gyre and have predicted that a piece of rubbish travelling from
Japan will take 3 years to get to the western coast of USA. Curtis Ebbesmayer noticed that the
currents can change drastically from time to time. He concluded that if two bath toys are thrown
into the middle of the Pacific Ocean at the same time, one might wash up in Hawaii and the other
one could end up in an Arctic floating island of ice in the North.
30.

A. Sustaining life in the coral reef

B. A threat to the food chain
C. Water contamination
D. Drifting ashore
E. Unpredictable patterns of movement
F. Moving around in a circle
G. A change for the better
H. Inhospitable environment for fish
I. Introduction (Example)