DOC4LTANGSS0001 Page 1
Level 4 Test N° 1
Waiting for Free Meals, Talking of Lost Dreams
Some of the people in the line for a free meal at a homeless shelter in Newark, New Jersey, recently shared their stories.
Text 1 For three years, Richard Stewart has been staying with friends, a couple of nights here, a couple of nights there. “I try not to stereotype myself as homeless,” said Mr. Stewart, 43. “I keep my nails and hands clean, I try to keep my hair cut at all times and try to look like I’m not so desperate.” But dental care is an unaffordable luxury; he is missing several teeth.
Last year, Mr. Stewart said, his father died in October of heart failure, his brother
in November from an infection, and his son in December, in a gang shooting. “I lost like my three best friends, the only men I can really talk to,” he said.
Mr. Stewart eats at the soup kitchen, and helps clean up as well. “You see the smiling faces, the blessings that are coming to them,” he said as he surveyed the line. “But after the food is gone, you see the same sadness. It’s like a desperate look. I’ve looked in the mirror and had that look.”
Text 2 She has a wide smile and wears wide-framed glasses around her light brown eyes.
She learned she had the virus – H.I.V. – two years ago. "I call it the vapours," said Carolyn Strickland Bell, 48. "It's still kind of new to me."
She lives in subsidized housing and goes to adult medical day care centres and programs for the mentally ill. Ms. Bell said she had some nieces who live nearby, but when she visits them, she is uncomfortable. "You feel obsolete," she said. "They no longer need you. When you come over, they can’t wait for you to leave.” "If you ask me what I want, I would say salvation, rejoicing, jubilation," she said.
Text 3 Charles Polite, 32, takes a piece of folded paper from his pocket. Inside, there is a brassy, bent clip of metal. It's the back of the shell of a bullet, and he found it in his sneaker after he was shot in the foot a week ago during an argument.
The web of scars over Mr. Polite’s left eye is a result of a car accident in 1992.
He went through the windshield. "They said I was pronounced dead and came back to life,"
he said. But Mr. Polite said that experience did not change him. "The next month I went to jail,"
he said. “That’s what changed me." It was for a violation of probation, and it was not the first time he had been locked up. The first time he was twelve, and had been stealing cars.
"I had a lot of dreams,” he recalled of his childhood. “I wanted to be a college professor, that’s the kind of dreams I had. I was a little nerd until I was 10. I had glasses and a hearing aid in one of my ears then I started doing what I do.”
“I was 11 years old, doing things that p eople who are 50 are doing, everything I had to do to survive. My father left my mother, and I had to tell on my mother because she was using drugs.”
"I was good all the way from preschool until seventh grade, then my world just crumbled. I couldn’t really control it."
The New York Times, Dec.2, 2OO6
DOC4LTANGSS0001 Page 2 Comprehension Questions
A/ For each of the following false statements find a detail/sentence in the text showing it is false.
1- According to Richard, having a free meal gives the homeless long-lived joy.
………
2- Because he is homeless, Richard doesn’t care about hygiene.
………
3- Carolyn’s relatives look forward to her visits.
………
4- As a child Mr Polite never had any disability.
………
B/ Complete the table with information about Mr Polite.
His primary school performance
………
His ambition ………
Family background Parents: They were………
Mother: She was………
C/ Complete the following cause-effect table about Mr Polite.
Cause Effect
………..
………..
He was jailed
D/ Express the following sentence differently using your own words.
“My whole world crumbled” (end of text 3)
………
E/ What do the words underlined in the text refer to?
It (text 2) Î ……….
That experience (text three) Î ………
F/ Find a word that has almost the same meaning as the following:
No longer needed (text 2) = ……….
G/ Which of the three people do you feel most sorry for? Why?
DOC4LTANGSS0001 Page 3
………
II-LANGUAGE
A/ Fill in the blanks with 10 words from the box below.
old-style / inability / assisting/ throughout / attending / commitments / aside / up /enrol /require / does / get /
If the biting cold has made you reluctant even to leave the sitting room, then chances are that you won't want to head outside to ……… in a night course. However, you can ……… educated without the accompanying chilblains by taking a distance-learning course. Many of us are less and less able to commit to rigid classes that
……… us to be at a certain location at fixed times and days
………an academic year. Family and work ………, living in the backend of nowhere and the new January TV schedule all contribute to this
……… . With distance learning, you avoid all the hassle that accompanies ……… a class.
Distance learning has moved on from the ……… correspondence course of the past, now making use of telephone conferencing, email, the Internet and video tuition to impart knowledge. Distance learning ……… require you to have self-discipline. To get the most out of a course, you should try and set
……… time for study and choose a subject that really interests you - this will help to keep your motivation levels up.
B/ Supply the right tense / form of the bracketed words.
A new book, which is the brainchild of the Public Catalogue Foundation, is to be published. It brings together 2,500 state-(own) ………
paintings scattered around the world from Whitehall ministries to diplomatic buildings as far apart as Santiago and Moscow on to its 319 illustrated pages.
It (feature) ……… famous portraits such as images of Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots and Winston Churchill alongside landscapes, seascapes and abstract pieces. The book represents the (late)
……… phase in the Public Catalogue Foundation’s push to photograph and publish all the 200,000 oil, acrylic tempera paintings held in publicly-owned (collect) ………in the UK. So far, the Foundation , which (set)
………up years ago and is based in the national gallery in London, (record) ………about 40,000 pictures.
The catalogue also reveals some paintings whose (history)
……… value matches the aesthetic worth. “It’s wonderful to see all our paintings (reproduce) ……… together for the first time in one catalogue,” said Penny Johnson, the director of the Government Art Collection. “the images stimulate the imagination and reveal the (broad) ………
of the collection in a new (access) ……… way.” The Public Catalogue Foundation’s next goal is to get 60,000 pictures on to the internet by spring 2009.
DOC4LTANGSS0001 Page 4 III-WRITING 1
Complete the following interview with Joe Duffy, presenter of a TV program and a keen night course participant.
Interviewer: What evening class did you take and where was it on?
Joe Duffy: I’ve done numerous courses – I did half my Leaving Cert by night in a different school and then I did one in advertising.
Interviewer:
………?
Joe Duffy: At the Rathmines College of Commerce.
Interviewer:………?
Joe Duffy: I was working in advertising at the time and I wanted to better myself.
Interviewer:
……….?
Joe Duffy: Loved it. Loved the college. Loved the library. Loved the idea of studying at night and I learned a lot.
Interviewer: Would you recommend it to other people?
Joe Duffy: Yes, absolutely. Attending a night course
………..
………
Interviewer: What
courses………?
Joe Duffy: I’ll probably take D.I.Y or car mechanics lessons.
DOC4LTANGSS0001 Page 5
Writing 2
You are interested in taking a summer English course in Britain. Write a letter to the head of the Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language at Lancaster University to enquire about the admission fees, the accommodation, the length of the course, the dates and any other details you would like to know.
Use the following name and addresses:
Your Name: Najah Najah Your address : P.O.Box777 1003 Tunis, Tunisia Write to:Head of Department
DLMEL, Lancaster University, LA1AYT,UK
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
………
DOC4LTANGSS0001 Page 6
………
………
