Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 17 to 23.
People travel for a lot of reasons: Some tourists go to see battlefields or religious shrines. Others are looking for culture, or simply want to have their pictures taken in front of famous places. But most European tourists are looking for a sunny beach to lie on. Northern Europeans are willing to pay a lot of money and put up with a lot of inconveniences for the sun because they have so little of it. Residents of cities like London, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam spend a tot of their winter in the dark because the days are so short, and much of the rest of the year in the rain. This is the reason why the Mediterranean has always attracted them. Every summer, more than 25 million people travel to Mediterranean resorts and beaches for their vacation. They all come for the same reason, sun! The huge crowds mean lots of money for the economies of Mediterranean countries. Italy’s 30,000 hotels are booked solid every summer. And 13 million people camp out on French beaches, parks and roadsides. Spain’s long sandy coastline attracts more people than anywhere else. 37 million tourists visit yearly, or one tourist for every person living in Spain. But there are signs that the area is getting more tourists than it can handle. The Mediterranean is already one of the most polluted seas on earth. And with increased tourism, it’s getting worse. The French can’t figure out what to do with all the garbage left by campers around St. Tropez. And in many places, swimming is dangerous because of pollution. None of this, however, is spoiling anyone’s fun. The Mediterranean gets more popular every year with tourists. Obviously, they don’t go there for clean water and solitude. They tolerate traffic jams and seem to like crowded beaches. They don’t even mind the pollution. No matter how dirty the water is, the coastline still looks beautiful. And as long as the sun shines, it’s still better than sitting in the cold rain in Berlin, London, or Oslo.
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 30 to 36. \
People used to know more or less how their children would live. Now things are changing so quickly that they don’t even know what their own lives will be like in a few years’ time. What follows is not science fiction. It is how experts see the future. You are daydreaming behind the steering wheel; is it too dangerous? No! That’s no problem because you have it on automatic pilot, and with its hi-tech computers and cameras, your car “know” how to get you home safe and sound. What is for lunch? In the old days you used to stop off to buy a hamburger or a pizza. Now you use your diagnostic machine to find out which foods your body needs. If your body needs more vegetables and less fat, your food-preparation machine makes you a salad. After lunch, you go down the hall to your home office. Here you have everything you need to do your work. Thanks to your information screen and your latest generation computer, you needn’t go to the office any more. The information screen shows an urgent message from a co-worker in Brazil. You can instantly send back a reply to him and go on to deal with other matters.
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 43 to 47. EXAM ADVICE
In Part Three of the Speaking Section you work together with a partner. You have to do a (43)______ task which usually lasts about 3 minutes. One possible task is “problem solving”, which means you have to look at some (44)______information and then discuss the problem with your partner. You may be shown photos, drawings, diagrams, maps, plans, advertisements or computer graphics and it is (45) ______ that you study them carefully. If necessary, check you know exactly what to do by politely asking the examiner to repeat the instruction or make them clearer. While you are doing the task, the examiner will probably say very little and you should ask your partner questions and make (46) ______ if he or she is not saying much. If either of you have any real difficulties, the examiner may decide to step in and help. Normally, however, you will find plenty to say, which helps the assessor to give you a fair mark. This mark depends on your success in doing the task by competing with your partner, which includes taking (47) ______ in giving opinions and replying appropriately, although in the end it may be possible to “agree to disagree”. You have to do a (43)______ task which usually lasts about 3 minutes.