ESCUELA SUPERIOR POLITECNICA DEL LITORAL

Centro de Lenguas Extranjeras

CELEX – ESPOL
Basic B
Mejoramiento v2

I. Reading Section (20 marks)

Read the following paragraphs.

“MY THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY PARTY”

REBECCA: I live in Perth, Australia, with my parents and my three brothers. Yesterday was my thirteenth
birthday and about forty friends were here. There was a lot of food and drink – burgers, chicken, Coke and
orange juice. It was a great party, and my Mum and I were really happy because my grandmother’s here from
England. There were only two things wrong. My grandfather wasn’t here for my party and my other two
brothers are in the USA, so they weren’t here either.

Taken from “Face2Face Elementary”

HELEN: I was born in England in a village near Liverpool. I was thirteen in 1975 and I remember my party
very well. Our house wasn’t very big, so my party was in the village hall. It wasn’t a very nice place and there
wasn’t much to eat. Only about twenty people were there – and there weren’t any boys. So the party was a bit
boring.

Taken and adapted from “Face2Face Elementary”

Are these statements TRUE or FALSE? (10 marks)

1. Rebecca and her parents live in England. ___

2. There were a lot of children at Rebecca’s birthday party. ___

3. There were hamburgers and Coca Cola to eat and drink at Rebecca’s birthday party. ___

4. Rebecca lives with her grandmother. ___

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5. Rebecca has two brothers that weren’t there at her birthday party. ___

6. Helen was born in Liverpool, England. ___

7. Helen was born in 1962. ___

8. Helen’s thirteenth birthday party was in her house. ___

9. There were more than twenty people in Helen’s thirteenth birthday party. ___

10. Helen’s party was not fun. ___

Read the following paragraph about Paul and his family.

Alison, Paul and Erin live in Toronto, Canada. Alison works at the airport and she always meets Paul when
he gets home from Antarctica. Paul works as an engineer at a weather station over there and he works six
days a week, but then he has three months off a year and the money’s good. When he is in Antarctica and has
some free time, Paul doesn’t read a lot and he doesn’t listen to music, but he watches a lot of sport on TV. He
also goes skiing and running, and he takes a lot of photos. They’re very good! Erin is always happy to see her
father come home. He buys her a lot of presents and they go to the cinema or play tennis in the evenings.
When her husband is away Alison watches TV all the time, but she doesn’t watch it when he’s at home.
Alison doesn’t have a lot of holiday, but they usually go to a hot country for two weeks before Paul goes back
to Antarctica.

Taken and adapted from “Face2Face Elementary”

Answer the following questions. (10 marks)

11. Does Alison work at Toronto’s airport?

12. What does Alison do when Paul gets home from Antarctica?

13. Does Paul stop working for four months every year?

14. / 15. What doesn’t Paul do when he is in Antarctica?

16. / 17. What does Paul do when he is in Antarctica?

18. How does Erin feel when her father comes home?

19. What do Erin and his father do in the evenings when he is at home?

20. What do Alison, Erin and Paul usually do before he goes back to his job?

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II. Use of English Section (40 LIZ: Danny, are / is 36 you busy?

marks) DANNY: Well, er, I am writing / write 37 a

letter.
Fill in the gaps with the past simple of
the verbs in parentheses. (5 marks) LIZ: Can you take notes at the

JIM: I ___ (win) 21

a weekend for two in meeting, please?

Paris. My girlfriend, Naomi, and I ___ DANNY: Why me? Look, Bob is reading /

(go) 22
to the airport in a really big reads 38 the newspaper. Ask him.

limousine. We ___ (travel) 23 first class and LIZ: He doesn’t read / isn’t reading 39

we ___ (have) 24
champagne on the plane. the newspaper. He studies / is

Then we ___ (stay) 25

in a very expensive studying 40 the business pages.

hotel near the River Seine. The weather DANNY: Well, I am waiting / wait 41 for a

___ (be) 26
quite hot all weekend and the phone call from New York.
food and wine ___ (be) 27
really good. On LIZ: They don’t work / aren’t working 42
Saturday morning we ___ (want) 28
to go in New York now, Danny. It is /
up the Eiffel Tower but the queues ___
is being 43 5:00 a.m. there!
(be) 29
too long, so we ___ (have) 30
coffee
DANNY: OK, OK, I am going / go 44 now.
by the river.
Which room?
Taken and adapted from “Face2Face Elementary”
Taken and adapted from “Face2Face Elementary”

Fill in the gaps with the comparative

form of the adjectives in brackets. (5 Complete the following text with the proper
marks) words. (11 marks)
31) Which country is _____ (small):
Hello everybody and welcome to San Marino
Switzerland or Germany?
Shopping Center!
32) Which capital city is _____ (big): Rio
de Janeiro or Medellin? At San Marino Shopping Center, you will find all the
best shops and facilities you could imagine. In the
33) Which country is _____ (expensive):
Spain or Japan? ground floor, you can find a n_____ 45
where you
will find the most important Ecuadorian
34) Which capital city is _____ (modern): newspapers. In the first floor, we have many
New York or Paris?
s_____ s_____ 46
where you will find all types of
35) Which country’s football team is shoes from running to casual shoes. You can also
_____ (good): Ecuador or Peru? find Marathon Sports, which is the biggest s_____

Choose the correct verbs. (9 marks) s_____ 47

in our premises. The t_____ 48
are right in

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front of the s_____ 49
that will take you to our Complete the table using the words from the
second floor or if you don’t feel like walking, you table below. (10 marks)
can get on our new e_____ 50
which as you can see chicken lamb prawns
is opposite Fybeca, one of the five different p_____51 fish pastries
you can shop in while visiting and shopping at our peas lentils berries
shopping center. In our second floor, you will find a plum spices

our Apple store – our newest c_____ s_____ 52 which

just opened yesterday. You will find MNG and
DKNY in the second floor too, so all you ladies can Meat Seafood
go into those c_____ s_____ 53
and have a 56. 61.
wonderful time. And for those of you who love
music, in the third floor you can find Musicalisimo,
57. 62.
one of the most known m_____ s_____ 54
all around Vegetables Fruit
Guayaquil. And to finish this little tour, let me
58. 63.
remind you that we have signs which show clearly
where the nearest i_____ 55
booth is. Therefore, feel 59. 64.
free to stop and ask if you lose your way.
Carbohydrates Other
Once again welcome to San Marino Shopping
60. 65.
Center. We hope you have a great time!

III. Listening Section (20 marks)

Are the sentences TRUE or FALSE? (8 marks)

1. Jason was away last weekend. ___

2. Jason didn’t go to Los Angeles last weekend. ___

3. Jason liked the city. ___

4. The weather in the city wasn’t pretty nice. ___

5. Jason’s vacation wasn’t more exciting than Barbara’s last vacation. ___

6. Barbara travelled on her last vacation. ___

7. Barbara didn’t enjoy her last vacation. ___

8. Barbara didn’t do any exercise in her last vacation. ___

Listen and answer the questions: (8 marks)

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Part A: 9) Does Liz dislike rap?

10) Does Tom like Eminem?

11) Does Eminem play the piano?

12) Does Liz like pop music?

13) Does Tom like Celine Dion?

Part B: 14) Does Liz like a lot of different groups?

15) Is “The Beatles” Tom’s favourite group?

16) Does Tom think “The Beatles” music is very interesting?

Listen and choose the correct answer: (4 marks)

17) Dan is the person who doesn’t go / goes to sports events all the time.

18) Jean is the person who doesn’t spend / spends more than two hours a day exercising.

19) Jean is the person who does aerobics / doesn’t do aerobics three times a week.

20) Phil is the person who is almost always / is almost never good at any sporting events.

IV. Writing Section (20 marks)

QUESTION ONE: Write about the things you are interested in and the things you want
to do or would like to do.

QUESTION TWO: Write about your last birthday.