Skills Test Unit 9 Test B

Name: ___________________________________________

Everyday English
1 Complete the dialogue with the missing words. Use one word in each gap.
Sally I was just 1____________ to Henry about the Isle of Wight Festival.
James Really? What did he say?
Sally He said that they’ve announced the bands that are going to play.
2
James ____________ wonderful! We'll have to go, won't we?
Sally Definitely! It 3____________ on the radio that the tickets will be on sale in two months’
time.
James Oh 4____________ ! I can't wait that long!
Sally Poor 5____________ . You hate waiting, don’t you? But just think – in two months’ time,
we’re going to be watching our favourite bands!
Mark: ___ / 5

Listening
2  Listen to four speakers talking about the media. Are the statements true (T) or false (F)?
1 The speakers are talking about which types of media they do and don't use. ___
2 All the speakers like tabloids. ___

3  Listen again. Complete the sentences with A, B, C or D. You can use each speaker more
than once.
1 Speaker _____ recently watched a film about celebrities.
2 Speaker _____ enjoys reading the newspaper on the train.
3 Speaker _____ likes soap operas.
4 Speaker _____ and Speaker _____ don’t read newspapers.
5 Speaker _____ talks about people doing several things at once.
6 Speaker _____ watches TV, but doesn’t read newspapers or use the internet.
7 Speaker _____ enjoys reading about celebrities.
8 Speaker _____ thinks broadsheets are better than tabloids.

Mark: ___ / 10

1
Reading
4 Read the text. Circle the correct answers (a–d).
William Randolph Hearst
George Hearst, an American businessman and politician, had become a multi-millionaire after finding gold in
California. He invested in a lot of different companies and projects which further increased his wealth. But not
all of his projects were successful. He acquired a newspaper called the San Francisco Examiner, which, at the
time, was unsuccessful and losing money, as payment for a gambling debt. In 1887, his only son, William,
begged his father to allow him to take control of the newspaper. George wasn’t keen on this idea at first, but
William was delighted to have the opportunity to run a newspaper. He had first become interested in
journalism when he was a student at Harvard University. Now his dream had come true.
Forty years later, William Randolph Hearst was the richest and most famous newspaper man in the United
States. In fact, it is said that by the mid-1920s one in every four Americans read one of his newspapers every
day. He had made a success of the San Francisco Examiner, and now he owned twenty daily newspapers and
eleven Sunday newspapers as well as well-known magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar. He
even had his own Hollywood film company and produced his own films. William Randolph Hearst’s
newspapers had become popular because he had introduced a new style of sensational news reporting which
was called ‘yellow’ journalism. All his newspapers published exciting stories about crime with lots of pictures
and large headlines, and many of the stories weren’t actually true. He also cut the prices of his newspapers to
get more and more people to buy them, and employed some of the best writers in America to write newspaper
columns and stories. It was the beginning of tabloid journalism, and it made William an extremely important
and powerful man in the world of politics and the media.
From the 1920s, William spent more and more time away from the public at his home in California. He
became famous in the United States for being a rich man who wanted to be alone and who never left his house.
He lived in a huge house which looked like a castle, and he spent millions of dollars building more and more
rooms, and filling the house with European paintings, and surrounding it with animals and plants from all over
the world. It was his way of escaping from the public world, a world that had never really loved him and had
rejected him when he tried to become a politician. In the early 1900s, William Randolph Hearst had told the
world that he was going to run for President of the United States. He had spent millions of dollars on political
campaigns, had failed to win an election to become mayor of New York, and had never become President. The
man who was once more powerful than anyone else in America spent the last few years of his life in his
mansion with few friends.

2
5 Read the text. Choose the correct option.
1 Which of the following events happened first?
a George Hearst acquired the San Francisco Examiner.
b George discovered gold in California.
c George gave his son a job at a newspaper.
d George started investing in lots of companies.
2 How did William feel about starting work at the San Francisco Examiner?
a He was worried about making a success of the newspaper.
b He was very pleased about getting the job.
c He hadn’t really thought about being a journalist before.
d He wanted to start as soon as he had started at university.
3 Which of the following did William Randolph Hearst own in the 1920s?
a the most successful newspaper in San Francisco
b over forty different newspaper titles
c a number of Hollywood magazines
d more daily newspapers than Sunday newspapers
4 Which of the following features of ‘yellow’ journalism is not true?
a There are a lot of crime stories.
b There are lots of pictures.
c The writers aren’t very good.
d The price is low.
5 According to the text, why did Hearst want to be alone?
a He didn’t have much money any more.
b He felt that people didn’t like him.
c He preferred to travel all over the world.
d He had strong political views.

Mark: ___ / 10

3
Writing
6 Write a review of a film you have seen that you enjoyed. Use the plan to help you.
Paragraph 1: Give some general information about the film, including the title, the cast, genre and
director.
Paragraph 2: Summarize the plot of the film, where the story takes place and any other details you
want to mention.
Paragraph 3: Give reasons why the film was good, in your opinion.

Paragraph 4: Summarize your opinion.

Mark: ___ / 15
TOTAL MARKS: ___ / 40

4
Challenge!
7 Circle the correct answers.
Twitter
There aren’t 1many / much people 2who / whose haven’t tried Twitter. It’s one of the most popular ways of
gathering news and spreading news in the world. Every day, people send over 350 million tweets. Did you
know that Twitter 3began / was beginning in 2006 when a young man called Jack Dorsey, who was a student
at New York University, had 4- / a brilliant idea? At a group meeting, he told his colleagues that he wanted 5to
start / starting a social networking site in which an individual was able to send messages to a small group.
Nobody had thought 6at / of doing that before. In March 2006, Jack sent the first tweet in history. He wrote:
‘Just setting up my twttr.’ By the end of the following year, millions of people all over the world 7used to
send / had sent a tweet. Twitter has created a new form of writing and a new way of keeping in touch which
has really 8done / made a difference to the way we communicate.