English Department

Handelsschule KV Aarau

Sample Entry Test

Certificate in Advanced English
Regulations
Time 80 minutes
Aids No dictionaries or other aids allowed

Results Students wishing to join the CAE-Course have to pass an

entry test. The aim of this sample entry test is to show
students interested in joining the course what to expect in
the real entry test.

This sample test consists of three parts and you can score a
total of 80 points. The key to the exercises and the points
allocated to each task can be found at the end of the test.

Candidates who reach a benchmark of 50% are admitted to

the course.

The decision whether you can join the CAE-class is solely

based on your performance in the entry test - not the
sample test. The decision cannot be appealed.

Scoreboard

Entry Test Points Your Score

Paper 1 – Listening 12
Paper 2 – Reading 30
Paper 3 – Use of English 38

Total 80
Total Percentage 100%
Required Percentage 50%
for admission to the =
CAE-Course 40
Paper 1: Listening

Part 1 (Total Score: 12 Points)

o You will hear three different tracks

o For questions 1 – 6, choose the best answer A, B or C
o Write your answer into the boxes provided
o Every correct answer is awarded two points

Extract One

You hear two guests on a radio programme discussing travel and holidays.

1. What do they agree about?

A Watching television can spoil a holiday.

B Holidays are for getting away from it all. 1
C It's important not to lose touch with reality
on holiday.

2. How does the woman feel about travelling?

A It's always enjoyable.

B It's not the best part of a holiday. 2
C It generally makes her restless.

Extract Two

You hear part of an interview with a Formula One driver.

3. What does the driver say about keeping fit?

A Working out in the gym tends to bore him.

B Playing other sports helps develop key muscles. 3
C Driving is actually a good way to maintain
general fitness.

4. In his opinion, what makes a great Formula One driver?

A an outstanding natural ability behind the wheel

B enough mechanical knowledge to help design 4
cars
C the flexibility to perform in a range of vehicles

Sample Entry Test: CAE 2 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Extract Three

You hear two people on a radio programme talking about a

short story competition.

5. The presenter says that each finalist in the competition will

A win a money prize.

B be invited to a prestigious event. 5
C have their story published in the press.

6. Moira advises those entering the competition to

A writing about their own life and experiences.

B base their story on one by a well-known writer. 6
C avoid being over-ambitious in the scope of
the story.

Sample Entry Test: CAE 3 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Paper 2: Reading

Part 1 (Total Score: 12 Points)

o You are going to read an extract from a famous travel book. Six
paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the
paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap 1 - 6. There is one extra
paragraph that you do not need to use.
o Every correct answer is awarded two points.

The Long Way Home

On the last day, I walked down to the harbour. when we had been in Mongolia. It was mid-
Having slept late, I had breakfast on my own and, afternoon and we were riding through a
as Charley was still sleeping, went for a wander. I beautiful valley. I pulled over and got off my
wanted to get to the ocean: I needed to see the bike. Charley ahead of me, stopped, too. He
Pacific. I stumbled down the hill, through rows of swung his bike around and rode back towards
tenements, nodding, smiling and waving at the me. Before he even arrived, I could feel it
people I passed, eventually arriving at the coming off him: why are we stopping? We're
waterfront. I turned round and lifted my camera to not getting petrol, we're not stopping to eat:
my eye and took a photograph. why are we stopping?
1 4

I walked on. The path led to the beach. Although It was where we were going to stop at in the
it was the last day of June, it was the first day the middle of an afternoon so that we would cool
sun had shone in Magadan that year. Three our sweaty feet in the water while catching
weeks earlier, it had snowed. But that day, the air fish that we'd cook that evening on an open
was warm and soft, the sky a cloudless blue. fire under a star-speckled sky. I'd seen that
Women wore bikinis and small children were spot half an hour earlier. There was no
running naked across the sands. Families were question at all that it was the one. A beautiful
eating picnics or cooking on barbecues. I walked expanse of water and nobody for hundreds of
past them all, along the entire length of the miles. And we'd ridden past it.
beach, until I came to the harbour. 5
2
Then we got back on our bikes and moved
All we knew then was that we wanted to get from on. A few weeks later, we arrived at the first
London to Magadan. With the maps laid out in big river in Siberia. It was too wide, too fast
front of us, Charley and I drew a route, arbitrarily and too deep to cross on a motorbike. There
assigning mileage to each day not knowing was a bridge, but it had collapsed.
anything about the state of the roads. Time and 6
again we were told by experienced travellers that
our plans were wildly optimistic and that we didn't I understood now that it didn't really matter
know what we were letting ourselves in for. I'd that we hadn't stopped beside that cool, fast-
never ridden off-road and Charley had never flowing Mongolian river. The imperfections in
properly camped. The chances of failure were our journey were what made it perfect. And
high, they said. maybe we wouldn't be in Magadan now if
3 we'd not had that burning desire to keep
going. After all, the river would always be
I thought back to the day a month or so earlier there. Now that I knew what was out there, I
could always return.

Sample Entry Test: CAE 4 Handelsschule KV Aarau

A Yet here we were in Magadan, as far E I thought Charley would be itching to
around the globe from home as it was get ahead, impatient with the hold-
possible to go, and we'd arrived one up. But he was in his element. He
knew that someone or something
day ahead of our schedule.
would be along to help. The delays
were the journey. We'd get across it
B We then guessed our way from west to when we got across it.
east, across two continents, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, as far as it was F I sat down for five minutes, just
possible to ride a motorbike in a needing to look at the countryside
straight line. around us. The countryside that we
often didn't have time to take in
because were always so intent on
C I walked away from Charley. I didn't keeping to our schedule.
want to tell him it was because we'd
passed the place. The place that had G There, I climbed up on to the quay
been in my dreams. The place we'd and sat on a mushroom-shaped
fantasised about months before we'd bollard. An Alsatian came over and
even set off from London. A place with sat next to me. I scratched its head
for a while, gazed out at the ocean
a river of cool, white water and a field
and thought back to the day when
nearby to pitch our tents. Charley and I had sat in a little
workshop in west London,
D There it was: Magadan, Siberia. The surrounded by motorbikes, with
place that had been in my dreams and dreams of the open road in our
thoughts for two years, like a mythical heads.
city forever beyond my reach. I wanted
to capture it, somehow hold on to it,
take a part with me when Charley and I
began the long journey back.

Sample Entry Test: CAE 5 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Part 2 (Total Score: 18 Points)

o You are going to read a text about authors and novels. For questions
7-15, choose from the books (A - E). Each text may be chosen more
than once. There is an example at the beginning. (0)
o For every correct answer you receive two points

A = Something Like a House

B = The Tenderness of Wolves
C = Waterland
D = Welcome to Hard Times
About which novel is the following stated? E = Eclipse of the Sun

It was written by somebody who chose to visit the area only briefly. 0 C

It attracted a criticism which pleased its author. 7

It contrasts the lives of people living in different locations. 8

¥
It was the author's first book of this type. 9

It fails to make all of its local references clear to the reader. 10

It is really a type of crime novel. 11

It is regarded as one of the best novels of its type. 12

It contains at least one inaccurate detail. 13

It was praised for the way it describes the life of ordinary people. 14

It was written by someone who lacked the financial resources to travel. 15

Sample Entry Test: CAE 6 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Gullible's Travels
Novels are works of the imagination. But what happens when an author writes about a part of the
world they've never been to?

A few years ago, presenter Mark Lawson several generations of Fenlanders. The Crick
conducted a memorable radio interview with the family lacks ambition and drive, driven to
author Sid Smith, who had just won an award for "unquiet and sleep-defeating thoughts" by the
his debut novel Something Like a House. Set insistently flat, monotonous land; while the
during the Cultural Revolution, the novel received Atkinsons, who live on the only hill, get "ideas",
critical acclaim for its evocation of pleasant life. spot gaps in the market, and make a fortune
Lawson, impressed by Smith's depiction, asked if brewing beer. As an example of how
he spoke fluent Chinese. Smith said no, he didn't. landscapes shape characters, it is perhaps
Lawson asked if he'd worked in China. No, he unmatched in contemporary fiction. Yet Swift is
hadn't. At this point Lawson became agitated. not a Fenlander, and according to his agent
"But you've been to China," he said. There was a made just a few fleeting visits to the Fens after
short pause, followed by Smith's calm assertion he'd begun his novel. Swift lives in London and
that actually he hadn't. Lawson was right to be presumably could have travelled to the Fens
astounded. Although set in the past and through more often had he wished to. Is it possible that
an Englishman, the story is full of odd details a partial knowledge of the place suited him?
about life in the China of the period that you'd
think would take years of first-hand experience to American novelist E.L. Doctorow wrote his
note. Not just physical things, such as the river western Welcome to Hard Times "never
sand in the bottom of a cup of tea, but social having been west of Ohio". Although it's a
niceties such as Madame Tao judging her wholly satisfying example of the genre, such an
neighbours by how far up the valley they collect approach is vulnerable to errors. After the book
their water. What was most enjoyable about the came out, an old lady from Texas wrote to
interview, though, was Smith's refusal to be even Doctorow to say that she could tell he'd never
slightly apologetic. He found his China in the been out west because of the character who
London Library - from films, newspapers and the "made himself a dinner of the roasted haunch
Internet. Who's to say that this gave him any less of a prairie dog", a prairie dog's haunch, she
valid picture of China than one he might have said, "wouldn't fill a teaspoon". Doctorow was
gained on a trip to modern-day Beijing? delighted and let the line stand in future edition,
being "leery of perfection". Too much accuracy,
Another novel written by a foreigner who's never he realised, might suck the life out of the novel.
set foot in the country concerned is Stef Penney's
The Tenderness of Wolves. Set in the icy Too ardent a straining for accuracy is a charge
wilderness of Northern Ontario, it's essentially a that could be levelled at Phil Whitaker's novel
whodunit: A local boy goes missing after a murder Eclipse of the Sun. Set in a fictional town in
is committed and his mother sets off into the an imagined India (Whitaker has said that he
snowbound forests to find him and prove his couldn't afford the trip), the novel has clearly
innocence, with the help of an Indian tracker. It's been meticulously researched. He has grasped
a novel in which the landscape plays a crucial the implied insult of answering in English a
part as individuals pit themselves against it and question passed in Marathi; that Indians love
the fierce weather. Penney excuses herself the word "auspicious". He gives us bidis,
slightly by setting the novel in 1867 - a place no rikkas, and lakhs, plates of jalebi and the
author can get to. She also uses outsiders' eyes - performances of yagnas, while resisting the
Mrs Ross, and most of the inhabitants of the urge to explain. The BBC's India correspondent
frontier settlement, are Scottish immigrants Mark Tully found no fault in its depiction of
(Penney herself is Scottish). She notices what small-town India. Yet Whitaker runs the risk of
they would - like the surprise of iced-up making his characters too Indian, too perfect.
moustaches, and how quickly a cup of tea loses Perhaps if he'd been to India he'd have found a
its heat in sub-zero temperatures. people that were odder, less typical, than the
country he discovered through research. Or
A novel often cited as exemplary in depicting a perhaps, if he'd gone to India, he wouldn't have
place is Waterland, Graham Swift's saga of written the book at all.

Sample Entry Test: CAE 7 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Paper 3: Use of English

Part 1 (Total Score: 12 Points)

o Read the following text about the Carolinas and choose the correct
word for each space (1 - 12).
o For each question, circle the letter next to the correct word at the
bottom page – A, B, C or D.

Vacation in the Carolinas

Roaring across the bay in a motorised rubber boat, we were told by the captain to keep our
eyes open. With the engine turned off, it wasn't long before half a dozen dolphins came
swimming around us. Eventually, two came up (1) _______ beside the boat and popped
their heads right out of the water to give us a wide grin.
Dolphin watching is just one of the many unexpected attractions of a holiday in the Carolinas
in the USA. These states have long been popular with golfers and, with dozens of (2) _____
in the area, it is (3) _____ a golfer's paradise. But even the keenest golfer needs other
diversions and we soon found the resorts had plenty to (4) _____.
In fact, Charleston, which is midway along the (5) ______, is one of the most interesting
cities in the USA, and is where the first shots in the Civil War were (6) _______. Taking a
guided horse and carriage tour through the quiet back streets you get a real (7) _______ of
the city's past. Strict regulations (8) ______ to buildings so that original (9) ______ are
preserved.
South of Charleston lies Hilton Head, an island resort about 18 km long and (10) _______
like a foot. It has a fantastic sandy beach (11) _____ the length of the island and this is
perfect for all manner of water sports. Alternatively, if you feel like doing nothing, (12) _____
a chair, head for an open space and just sit back and watch the pelicans diving for fish.

1 A direct B right C precise D exact

2 A courses B pitches C grounds D courts
3 A fully B truly C honestly D purely
4 A show B provide C offer D supply
5 A beach B coast C sea D shore
6 A thrown B aimed C pulled D fired
7 A significance B comprehension C sense D meaning
8 A apply B happen C agree D occur
9 A points B characters C factors D features
10 A formed B shaped C made D moulded
11 A lying B running C going D following
12 A charge B lend C hire D loan

Sample Entry Test: CAE 8 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Part 2 (Total Score: 10 Points)

o For questions (13 - 22) read the following text about skateboarding.
Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form
a word that fits the gap in the same line.
o There is an example at the beginning.

Skateboarding  in  the  USA    

   
The  (0)__development___  of  the  sport  of  skateboarding  can  be   DEVELOP  
traced  back  to  the  early  1890s,  when  children  in  California  first  used    
wooden  boards  to  'surf'  the  streets.  During  the  Fifties,  the  popularity    
of  skateboarding  increased  and  manufacturers  began  producing  the    
first  factory-­‐made  boards.  By  the  late  Sixties,  the  sport  had  gained  an    
(13)  __________  following,  not  just  in  the  United  States  of  America,   IMPRESS  
but  (14)  _________.   WORLD  
   
However,  by  1965,  concerns  about  (15)  ___________  resulted  in   SAFE  
regulations  being  introduced  to  ban  skateboarding  in  most  public    
places  in  the  USA.  This  (16)  ___________  killed  the  sport  there  for  the   EFFECT  
next  decade.  Companies  that  had  been  making  a  fortune  selling    
skateboards  suddenly  faced  huge  (17)  __________  and  many  went   LOSE  
out  of  business.  Over  the  next  eight  years  a  few  (18)  __________   ENTHUSIASM  
continued  practising  the  sport  but,  although  they  tried  hard  to  raise    
its  profile,  they  were  (19)  _________  in  their  efforts.   SUCCESS  
   
Then  in  1973,  some  technological  breakthroughs  revolutionised  the    
sport.  The  invention  of  new  materials  meant  that  manufacturers    
could  (20)  _________  the  boards  but  at  the  same  time  make  them   STRONG  
lighter  and  more  manoeuvrable.  Such  (21)  __________  also  made  the   IMPROVE  
boards  less  dangerous  and  (22)  ___________  from  an  increasing   PRESS  
number  of  users  led  to  the  installation  of  special  skateboarding  parks.    
Despite  the  various  setbacks  it  has  suffered  over  the  years,  the  sport  
is  now  stronger  than  ever.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sample Entry Test: CAE 9 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Part 3 (Total Score: 16 Points)

Sentence Completion
o For questions (23 - 30), complete the second sentence so that it has
a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given.
o Do not change the word given. You must use between three and six
words, including the word given.
o There is an example at the beginning.
o Every correct sentence is awarded two points.

Example: Anna refused to wear her sister's old dress.

not
Anna said that she would not wear her sister's old dress.

23 He's likely to lose his job if he keeps disagreeing with his boss.
DANGER
If he keeps disagreeing with his boss, he's __________________________
from his job.

24 "Remember to write or phone," Marta said as she waved goodbye to her

friend.
TOUCH
"Don't _______________________________;" Marta said as she waved
goodbye to her friend.

25 I don't mind whether we go to the seaside or not this year.

DIFFERENCE
It doesn't _______________________________ whether we go to the
seaside or not this year.

26 It hasn't snowed quite as much this year as it did last year.

SLIGHTLY
This year, there has ________________________________ than there
was last year.

Sample Entry Test: CAE 10 Handelsschule KV Aarau

27 It's important to consider everyone's opinion before a final decision is made.
ACCOUNT
Everyone's opinion must ______________________________ before a
final decision is made.

28 People say that the celebrities will arrive in the next half an hour.
EXPECTED
The arrival _______________________________ in the next half an hour.

29 There has been a sharp rise in the price of petrol this year.
RISEN
The ____________________________________ this month.

30 They say John's grandfather was an extremely skillful chess player.

SUPPOSED
John's grandfather is _________________________ an
extremely skillful chess player.

Congratulations – You Have Made It!

This is the End of the Sample Entry Test

Sample Entry Test: CAE 11 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Key
Maximum Score: 80 points

Paper 1: Listening (Total: 12 Points)

Part 1 (12 Points)

Two points are awarded for every correct answer.

1 C
2 B

3 A
4 C

5 B
6 C

Sample Entry Test: CAE 12 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Paper 2: Reading (Total 30 Points)

Part 1 (12 Points)

The Long Way Home

Two points are awarded for every correct answer.

1 D
2 G
3 A

4 C
5 F
6 E

Part 2 (18 Points)

Gullible's Travels
Two points are awarded for every correct answer.

7 D
8 C
9 A

10 E
11 B
12 C

13 D
14 A
15 E

Sample Entry Test: CAE 13 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Paper 3: Use of English (Total 38 Points)

Part 1 (12 Points)

Vacation in the Carolinas

One point is awarded for every correct answer.

1 B RIGHT
2 A COURSES
3 B TRULY

4 C OFFER
5 B COAST
6 D FIRED

7 C SENSE
8 A APPLY
9 D FEATURES

10 B SHAPED
11 B RUNNING
12 C HIRE

Part 2 (10 Points)

Skateboarding in the USA

One point is awarded for every correct answer.

13 IMPRESSIVE
14 WORLDWIDE
15 SAFETY

16 EFFECTIVELY
17 LOSSES
18 ENTHUSIASTS

19 UNSUCCESSFUL
20 STRENGHTEN
21 IMPROVEMENTS

22 PRESSURE

Sample Entry Test: CAE 14 Handelsschule KV Aarau

Part 3 (16 Points)

Sentence Completion
Two points are awarded for a completely correct sentence.
One point is awarded for sentences that contain minor mistakes.

23 If he keeps disagreeing with his boss, he's in danger of getting

fired /sacked from his job.

24 "Don't forget to stay / keep / in touch," Marta said as she

waved goodbye to her friend.

25 It doesn't make any difference to me whether we go to the

seaside or not this year.

26 This year, there has been slightly less snow than last year.

27 Everyone's opinion must be taken into account before a final

decision is made.

28 The arrival of the celebrities is expected in the next half an

hour.

29 The price of petrol has risen sharply this month.

30 John's grandfather is supposed to have been an extremely

skillful chess player.

THE END

Sample Entry Test: CAE 15 Handelsschule KV Aarau