TEST 1

TASK 3 Reading

Read the questions (1-8) and try to find the answers to them in the text on the next page. Indicate the

paragraph (A-F), in which you found the information, next to the question. Some paragraphs

correspond to more than one statement.

Which paragraph

1. gives the reason why Tesla had to leave school? ________

2. explains why Tesla and Edison became enemies? ________

3. has information about the system which is nowadays widely used? ________

4. mentions Tesla’s exceptional skill as a child? ________

5. proves that Tesla’s inventions were not dangerous? ________

6. gives the definition of ‘a patent’? ________

7. could have the title ‘An unpaid job’? ________

8. could have the title ‘An experiment on oneself’? _______

Nikola Tesla – a talented scientist

A. Nikola Tesla is one of the most important inventors in history. Tesla is the author of over 120
inventions. Most of them are still used today in one form or another. He invented fluorescent lamps -
lamps that give natural light, sun-powered engines, robots, the first electric clock, and many other
things.
However, Tesla’s fundamental invention was Alternating Current electricity, or AC. This electrical system
is used in every home, factory and office in the modern world. Yet most people do not even know who
Nikola Tesla was.

B. Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia. Nikola was an unusual child. He had a
photographic memory - he could remember whole pages of books after he looked at them very quickly.
He also liked to write poetry. When Tesla was five, he built a waterwheel; he also tried to fly in a
homemade plane. As a child, Nikola was often sick with mysterious illnesses that doctors couldn’t cure.
After his elder brother’s unexpected death, Nikola started to behave strangely.

C. At the age of eight Nikola already spent nights reading books. Later, when he was a student at the
University of Prague, he studied from three o’clock in the morning until eleven o’clock at night. For most
of his life, Tesla slept for only two hours a night. When Tesla’s father died, he had to leave school and
find a job. Tesla went to work for a telephone company in Budapest. While working as an engineer for
the company, he offered them one of his inventions but the company wasn’t interested in it.
D. Tesla went to the United States to talk to a great American inventor, Thomas Edison, about his
invention. But Edison who was the inventor of the Direct Current (DC) system of electricity didn’t like
Tesla’s idea. Yet Edison gave Tesla a project he thought was impossible to accomplish. Tesla started his
day at half past ten in the morning and stopped working at 5 o’clock the next morning. He did this seven
days a week. Sometimes he worked for two or three days without stopping. When Tesla completed the
project, Edison refused to pay him the 50,000 US dollars he had promised. After this, Edison and Nikola
Tesla turned into enemies.

E. Nikola Tesla created the Tesla Electric Light Company and received 40 patents for his AC
equipment. Patents are legal papers that give a person the right to make or sell a new invention. Then
Tesla sold the patents to George Westinghouse, the head of Westinghouse Electric Company, for more
than four million US dollars from future sales. Both Tesla and Edison did their best to prove which
system, AC or DC, was the best. Thomas Edison tried to make people think Tesla’s AC system was bad.
He actually told the press that the AC system was dangerous.

F. Meanwhile Nikola Tesla gave speeches around the USA. He also invited the press to his laboratory to
show that his inventions were safe. Once, Tesla let one million volts of electricity pass through his body
without using a wire. As a result the bulb lit in his hand. A few years later, Westinghouse Company used
AC generators at Niagara Falls, a huge waterfall on the US and Canadian border, to send electric power
35 kilometres away to the city of Buffalo. This made Nikola Tesla world famous.

TASK 4 READING

Read the text and the questions below. For each question mark the correct answer A, B, C or D.
This is a true story told by a lucky lottery winner.

May 28, 2014 was the day which completely changed my life - I won the EuroMillions lottery and
became the lucky winner of Britain’s largest lottery jackpot worth 157 million US dollars.
It was an ordinary Friday evening. I was having supper after a hard day at work and watching the
lottery game live on TV. And suddenly I realised that my numbers had come up. I sat paralysed for a
moment looking at the screen with my eyes wide open. It was too hard to believe that I wasn’t
dreaming. To be honest, I wasn’t quite optimistic because winning seemed to be one in a million
chance. After all, it was already the third time I’d played that lottery and besides I had never thought
of myself as lucky. I would often joke that with my luck, I’d lose even if I bet on the only horse in a
one-horse race. But on that day luck was on my side, and although it was hard to believe, the
numbers on the TV screen and on my lottery ticket matched. All the winning numbers which I’d
picked without thinking were right in front of me on the TV screen. The only special number I’d
chosen was 18, because it was the date of my girlfriend’s birthday.
Now I have great plans for the future. With all this money I can do the things which I could only
dream about before. My parents live in Portugal so I’m going to buy a house and start a new life
there. My girlfriend and I are going to get married next year. We’ve been together for over four years
and I’ve already bought her a small engagement ring but now we’re going to buy a more impressive
one and have a big wedding too. And because I’m a big fan of the English football club Chelsea, one
of the first things I’m going to buy is a season ticket to attend all the matches of the club. And that’s
not all - my future wife has agreed to have a special room in our new house filled with Chelsea
pictures, posters, autographs and many other sports souvenirs.
It’s all so exciting but the most important thing is that now I can also happily give away much of my
money. First of all, I want to donate a big part of my winnings to homeless children’s fund and I’m
also going to make about 20 friends of mine plus all my family members millionaires by giving them
one million each. I hope every single cent is spent for a good cause so that it makes all the difference
for people’s lives.

1. What is the article about?

A. Lottery rules
B. How to win a lottery
C. The best lottery games
D. The winner of a lottery

2. Where did the writer learn about the news from?

A. The radio
B. Television
C. A newspaper
D. A magazine

3. How did the writer react to winning the lottery?

A. Felt proud.
B. Cried.
C. Was shocked.
D. Was disappointed.

4. The lottery winner

A. had always been lucky.
B. had never played EuroMillions before.
C. was optimistic about winning.
D. didn’t expect to win.

5. How did the winner choose most of the lottery numbers?

A. With a careful thought and planning
B. With no particular system
C. By the most important dates
D. By the birthday dates of his relatives

6. With the lottery money the writer is going to

A. buy a house in Portugal.
B. buy the English football club.
C. give all his money to his friends.
D. open a school for poor children.

7. Why does the author feel excited about winning the lottery?
A. He can create homeless children’s fund.
B. He is one of the richest people in the world.
C. He can financially help many people.
D. He doesn’t have to work anymore.

8. Which of the following would be the best title for the article?
A. The owner of EuroMillions lottery
B. A new life of a new millionaire
C. The largest jackpot in history
D. Sudden wealth may cause problems

TASK 5- VOCABULARY
Read the text and fill the gaps with the words given below. Use each word only once. Two words are
extra.
abroad (A) necessary (F) specialist (K)
age (B) need (G) thing (L)
energy (C) means (H) understand (M)
environment (D) original (I) wider (N)
literature (E) official (J)
A foreign language in our life

There are many reasons why we should learn a foreign language. In the ………. (1) of globalisation
knowing a foreign language is especially important. Learning a foreign language is not an easy ………. (2).
It is a long and slow process that takes a lot of time and ………. (3). Nowadays it is especially important to
know a foreign language. Some people learn languages because they ………. (4) them for their work,
others travel ………. (5), and for some other people studying languages is just a hobby. Everyone, who
knows a foreign language can speak to people from other countries and read foreign writers in the
……….(6) language, which makes your vision ………. (7). It is not surprising that many intellectuals and
welleducated people are polyglots, which ………. (8) they know more than one foreign language. The
great
German poet Goette once said, ‘He, who doesn’t know a foreign language, doesn’t know his own one’.
That’s why in order to ………. (9) oneself and the environment one has to learn a foreign language.
I personally study English because it is the most popular foreign language. Over 300 million people speak
it as their native language. The United Nations Organisation has several ………. (10) languages and English
is one of them. English is the language of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. Half of the world’s
scientific ………. (11) is in English. It’s also the language of computer technology. I think that to know
English today is absolutely ………. (12) for every educated man, for every good specialist

TASK6- GRAMMAR

Read the text and fill the gaps with one of the following: an article, a preposition, a
conjunction or
a relative pronoun. Note that in each space you should insert only ONE word.
Do not copy the words from the text on the answer sheet.
Stolen paintings found in Zurich

Swiss police have confirmed that two paintings which were stolen a week ago have been discovered in
an abandoned car. The pictures ………. (1) well-known painters Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet,
were among four paintings worth 160 million dollars stolen ………. (2) a private museum collection. They
were discovered on the back seat of a white Mercedes outside a hospital in Zurich. Three masked,
armed men stole ………. (3) paintings from the museum last week. The police say that the three robbers
entered the museum at the end of ………. (4) day on Friday. One of the men used a gun to force the ten
remaining visitors to the floor. The other two men took the four paintings from a ground-floor hall.
Witnesses say the robbers put the pictures into a white car ………. (5) was parked in front of the museum
and drove off. It was over in three minutes. The two paintings found by the police were in good
condition ………. (6) they were immediately returned to the museum. The two other stolen paintings are
still missing. After the robbery, the director said the paintings were so well-known ………. (7) it would be
impossible to try and sell them ………. (8) the open market. The three thieves ………. (9) stole the
paintings are still unknown, ………. (10) the police promised not to give up their efforts to find them.
TASK7-