Test 1Reading & Writing

Part A

Time: 60 minutes

Answer all the questions

Write all your answers on this question paper

You must not speak to the other candidates

LEVEL C1 OPERATIONAL PROFICIENCY

Candidate Number:

Test 1 – Reading & Writing Part A

Task One: Headings (10 minutes) – Question 1-6

On this page and the next page is an article about the early life of Professor J. C. Wells.Choose the best paragraph heading for each paragraph. The first one has been done for you.

Professor J. C. Wells Example My father was born in South Africa in 1909. His own father

had died shortly after his birth, and my grandmother then brought the family to England. My father’s mother and brothers later returned to South Africa, but my father remained in England until his death in 1974. My mother, Winifred, born 1910, was from Yorkshire. Her father was a schoolteacher, and her mother was from the small village of Dent in the Yorkshire Dales.

1 My parents met as undergraduates at the University of Leeds. After graduating, my father entered theological college. Upon ordination he served as curate in Liverpool. Meanwhile my mother had qualified as a teacher and found her first job. They were married in 1937. In that year my father was appointed to be a vicar.

2 Between the ages of five and nine I attended Notre Dame Roman Catholic primary school in Wigan. From 1948 onwards I attended boarding schools, first Broadwater Manor House preparatory school in Worthing, Sussex, and then, from 1951, the (minor) public school St John's Leatherhead, Surrey. My parents could not have afforded from their own resources to educate me at independent schools, but I was supported from the age of nine onwards by scholarships.

3 At sixteen I decided to teach myself Esperanto. I quickly attained fluency and read widely: not only original works of

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The best

answer is

heading C

A SUBSIDISED EDUCATIONB GIVING UP AN ACADEMIC

APPROACHC EXAMPLE – FAMILIAL ROOTSD A BRIDGE TO WORLD LITERATUREE EXPANDING ACADEMIC

KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGEF PARENTS IN FINANCIAL

DIFFICULTIESG IMMERSION LANGUAGE

LEARNINGH PARENTAL OCCUPATIONS

Test 1 – Reading & Writing Part A

literature but also translations which gave me a nodding acquaintance at least, via Esperanto, with some of the masterpieces of the literatures of Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Finnish and Japanese. By the time I went up to Cambridge I had read Mickiewicz and Madách.

4 I also taught myself shorthand: not the Pitman shorthand commonly used in Britain, but Gregg shorthand. I achieved a respectable speed in writing it. The snag was that in class I tended to write down indiscriminately what the teacher said, instead of producing a précis as the longhand user has to. This made my notes too prolix. Once I realised the problem I decided to use shorthand only when a verbatim note was required.

5 Leaving school in 1957, I had a few months to spare before going up to university. Given that I was interested in languages my parents arranged an exchange with a German family. I spent six weeks in Kiel with the von Briskorns. This was my first trip abroad, and I was determined to put it to good use. Both Klaus and I took the task of my learning German very seriously.

6 It was at Cambridge that I first came seriously into contact with phonetics and linguistics. For the third year we had to choose between philosophy, archaeology, history, literature and language. I chose language. This mainly meant comparative philology under the guidance of Sidney Allen who introduced us to linguistics. Latin and Greek had hitherto been purely written languages for me and it was a revelation to be taught that they had phonemic systems and allophones.

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Test 1 – Reading & Writing Part A

Task Two: One long text (30 minutes)

Read the following text and then write one - three paragraphs of continuous prose (about 150-200 words) that includes answers to the following questions:

1 What did Roger do in his life apart from singing, touring and song writing?

2 What musical successes did Roger have in non-English speaking countries?

Note: not all the information in the text is relevant for the tasks; it may not be necessary to read the whole text.

Please feel free to mark the text if you wish. Do not include information that does not specifically answer these

questions. Do not include any direct or indirect spoken quotations within your

answer. Do not include any directly copied-out pieces of original text within your

answer.

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Test 1 – Reading & Writing Part A

Roger Whittaker: a life of song

Saul Denman reviews the life of singer and songwriter, Roger Whittaker.

Since 1962 Roger Whittaker has become an outstanding star all over the world, enjoying a series of highly acclaimed albums and a string of hit singles that includes such classics as Durham Town, New World in the Morning and The Last Farewell. He has amassed worldwide record sales nearing 50 million. His success has embraced the United States and Canada as well as Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Holland, Belgium, France and Austria. In Germany alone, more than 10 million albums have been sold in the last six years.

Roger was born in Kenya in 1936. His parents came from Staffordshire in England: his father originated from a family of grocers; his mother was a teacher. The music of East Africa left a mark on Roger's childhood. "In over 30 years of singing and playing musical sounds - the wonderful drumming and those marvellous, infectious rhythms - have played a great part in everything I have ever written and sung." In school he was a member of the school choir and gained top grades. He wanted to become a teacher or a doctor

However, after leaving school Roger was conscripted into the military and spent the next two years in the army. In 1956 Roger was demobilised and decided that it was time to concentrate on a career in medicine. He enrolled at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, but he wasn't ready for study. After 18 months he left the

university and joined the civil service education department to try teaching. "It was a very exciting time. I was teaching -and loved it! However, this was just an apprenticeship. He could go no further because he had no qualifications. He applied and obtained a place at the University of Bangor in Wales.

Roger arrived in Britain in 1959. For the next three years, he studied zoology, biochemistry and marine biology. However, during his early days of teaching in Africa, Roger had continued to sing and he had by now started to write his own songs. He made a demo track that found its way to a major music publisher. Before he knew it, Roger was back in the studio recording his first single, The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Faced with the dilemma of which career to choose, Roger chose music. Finding himself an agent and manager, Roger set out to establish his name and almost immediately was booked for a summer season in Northern Ireland. He then spent the next five years learning his trade. In the spring of 1964, Roger met his future wife, Natalie. By 1967, Roger was slowly beginning to make his name. He had enjoyed several record releases, though a big hit single still escaped his clutches. Still, he was earning a healthy living and appearing occasionally on radio and television. Roger was asked to join a British team for the annual music festival at Knokke, Belgium. Singing If I Were a Rich Man and his own composition Mexican Whistler he helped Britain to win the

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Test 1 – Reading & Writing Part A

competition. He also emerged as the hit of the entire contest and picked up the coveted and highly prestigious Press Prize. Mexican Whistler soon reached number one in three different European countries. Suddenly, Roger was inundated with offers to tour Europe and star on the major television programmes.

In Britain, however, he was still virtually unknown. In 1969, his British record company issued a new single; another of his own compositions with the unusual title of Durham Town. "I just didn't have any faith in that song at all," Roger admits. "Far from promoting the single in Britain, I went off to Finland for a cabaret season and television appearances." By the time he returned in November, Durham Town was rapidly climbing the British charts.

One of Whittaker's best-loved songs is The Last Farewell. The lyrics to the song were written by a Birmingham silversmith, who had entered a competition in which the winning lyrics would be sent to Whittaker and recorded. Although The Last Farewell was not the winner, the song was nonetheless included on an album along with the winner. The Last Farewell went on to become a massive hit all over the world, reaching the coveted Number One slot in 11 different countries. Germany, particularly, has been a highly successful market for Roger over the years. It all started back in 1976 when he undertook his first major concert tour of the country, following the success of The Last Farewell. Record success, however, has established Whittaker's name in the country and hoisted him to superstardom.

His sings and records in the German language. Indeed, in 1985 he was acclaimed as the country's most successful recording artist, singing in the German language, a distinction no other major international record star could claim.

In conjunction with his first American tour in 1980, Roger launched a major international song writing competition, Children Helping Children, from the United Nations in New York through UNESCO. Children from all over the world were asked to submit lyrics and poems on the subject of promoting peace and understanding, the best of which Roger would put to music and record.

In 1997 Roger released A Perfect Day, His Greatest Hits and More. The title track to this album features Roger singing a sentimental duet with his daughter Jessica. Now established at the very pinnacle of international stardom the sheer magnitude of the demand to see Roger Whittaker performing in concert or on tour or on television has resulted in an extensive almost non-stop round of engagements all over the world, making him one of the most travelled entertainers in show business history.

In 1982 Roger was persuaded to make a movie in his native Kenya. It was an ambitious project, and for six weeks the film cameras followed him throughout the East African country as Roger related the story of Kenya's history - the British colonial development and the rediscovery of his homeland - through his own unique words and music.In 2001, after an extensive German tour Roger decided on

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retirement. However, having moved to Ireland and settling down by the River Shannon, he was soon inspired to start writing again, and needless to say, like all

artists missed the roar of the crowds. So, in 2003 he again toured Germany to great acclaim and has recorded a new German Christmas album .

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Request for Planning PermissionBrighton Leisure plc have requested permission to turn 148b Churchill Road

into a bar and restaurant. Further information about this planning application

can be found at the City Council office.

Any comments in support of or in opposition to the request for planning

permission must be presented by 30th April.

Dear Neighbour,

Have you seen this?!

What a disgrace. I’m trying to get as many people as possible to write to the council and complain. Please join our campaign; we must stop this. I’ve added some of my notes to the leaflet to give you some ideas.

Thank you for your help in fighting this terrible plan.Marge WatkinsHead of local residents’ association

Great news! We are planning to open a fantasticnew restaurant in your area. This will mean:

an atmospheric place to spend your evenings more customers for local shops a great continental atmosphere

Please support our plan to inject a new burst of life into the neighbourhood.

Task Three: Writing (20 minutes)

You have seen the following notice in the local paper.

You’ve also received this letter from the local residents’ committee:

Enclosed with the letter is a copy of this leaflet with some of Marge’s notes on a “Post-it”.

Using the information above:

Fun? for who exactly?What about our local pub - loss of business?More customers? Or more vandalism?Chairs on streets? Litter?Noise? How late open? Crime?We don’t need any more life!

Test 1 – Reading & Writing Part A

Write a letter to the local council opposing the application, including some of this information and anything else you wish to add. Write 120-150 words.

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