Pre-parcial

I. READ THE TEXT AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS.

Edward Said (1935 –2003) Edward Said is one of the very famous Palestinian writers. He was born in 1935
in Jerusalem, Palestine. In the 1947 partition of Palestine, he and his family became refugees and moved
to Cairo where they lived with relatives. His father was strict about discipline in both work and study. His
hobbies as a young man were reading novels and listening to classical music. He learned to speak several
languages and to play the piano. He graduated form Princeton University (USA) where he received his
Masters Degree and then attended Harvard University (USA) where he received his Ph.D. He then took a
position in Columbia University (USA) as an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature. When the Arab-
Israeli war broke out in 1967, he began to review his career in Comparative Literature. He began thinking
of his own identity as a Palestinian. At this time his life changed and he began to get involved with his
cultural origins. He became intensely interested in literary scholarship and Palestinian rights. He was once
a member of the Palestine National Council and a leader in the Palestinian cause. Edward Said wrote many
important books, like Beginnings (1975), The Question of Palestine (1979), Orientalism (1980), Literature
and Society (1980), Musical Elaborations (1991), Out of Place (1999), Reflections on Exile (2000), etc. He
died on Thursday, September 25, 2003.

1. What did Edward Said do? ___________________________________________________________

2. What did he like to do when he was young? ______________________________________________
3. Where did he study his Ph.D? __________________________________________________________
4. Why did he begin to get involve with his cultural origins? ____________________________________
5. When did he die? ___________________________________________________________________

IV. Listen to the information about Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. Are the sentences true (T)
or false (F)? NAIO Beginner Track 30 test CD.

a) Roger Federer was born on August 8, 1981. ___

b) He started playing tennis when he was eight years old. ___
c) He won in the Sydney Olympics. ___
d) Maria Sharapova went to Florida in 1994. ___
e) She won Wimbledon for the first time in 2004. ___

II. Complete the text with the simple past form of the verbs. 1.0 point

James Dean 1 _____________ (be) born on February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana. When he was five years old,
he and his parents 2 ___________(go) to Los Angeles. After high school he 3 ____________ (study) at college
in California. He 4 ___________ (want) to become an actor, so he 5 ___________ (go) to Hollywood. He 6
____________ (do) some TV work and then, in 1954, 7 ___________ (play) Cal in the movie East of Eden. He
became a star and got money to buy a car. He bought a Porche, but then he 8 ___________ (have) an accident
and 9 ___________ (die). He 10 ___________ (be) only 24 years old.
Pre-parcial