Politécnico Grancolombiano Name: ___________________________

Language Department Date: ____________________________

Diagnostic test level 3

I. LISTENING
Listen to these interesting facts about Ed Sheeran and take notes on at least 3
different facts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoRES051bwE

II. SPEAKING
Use your notes to record a 1-minute talk about 3 interesting things you learn
about him. You have 2 minutes to prepare your talk.

III. READING
Read the following text about part of Ed’s life and complete the paragraphs by
choosing the sentence (1-4) that fits in each space (A-D).

Ed Sheeran’s Life Story: How a Bullied Ginger Boy Became Britain’s

Biggest Music Success

Ever wonder how Ed Sheeran’s life story goes like? Well, he – like many of us – didn’t have it easy.
Dealing with his fair share of struggles from bullying, to inner battles, insecurity and shame, to
becoming an award-winning singer, ________________________ A

Edward Christopher Sheeran was born in February 1991 in Halifax, England. He had one older
brother and his parents were running an art consultancy at the time.
While he struggled with socializing in school, he had an interest in music from a very young age.
He became part of a church choir at 4 and soon started playing the guitar. At 11 he was already
writing songs, which was inspired by a backstage chat with Damien Rice.
__________________________B

Ed Sheeran was bullied every day at school, mainly for his stutter and oversized glasses.

As a kid, he had a surgery that went wrong and left him with a lazy eye and severe speech
problems. Whenever he tried speaking up in class, his mouth would freeze and no word would
come out. Other kids were mocking him about this. Soon, he stopped participating and raising his
hand at all.

Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case when it came to singing and making music. He enjoyed singing in
the local church and shares that playing the guitar in his room was the only time he felt in control.

His big leap was in 2010, and while it wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and everything
Ed Sheeran had done so far, social media made the success of the boy happen faster. He was
posting his videos online, and one of them was noticed by the rapper Example, who liked his style
so much that he invited him to tour together.

______________________ C. Soon the media started paying attention to the ginger boy with the
guitar and the amazing voice, and some big names and newspapers started mentioning him. That
allowed Ed Sheeran to start dreaming bigger. He knew that if he wanted to see progress, he had to
move to America.

He began sending out his music to anyone he could reach out to but received no answers. Until
one day, while on the show of a local radio host, he was brought to the stage. Terrified, he started
playing. 12 minutes later, he got a standing ovation.

Ed Sheeran’s life story is one of the modern inspiring tales that can bring back the hope in the
starving artist and the unpopular kid. He likes to remember the fact that one of the coolest kids
from his school later ended up being his plumber. ____________________D.
 1. That’s why he believes in being yourself rather than following the crowd or hiding your
differences.
2. Not only was his love for music obvious, but also his talent started being noticed by others
around him.
3. That helped him grow his online presence more and more, and people across the world
started tuning in to his YouTube videos.

4. Ed Sheeran’s story shows how the artist learned to embrace his uniqueness and overcame
his challenges in order to bring us one of the most beautiful voices of our time.

WRITING

Now, write a 120-word text about your life and comment how it has been similar or totally
different from Ed Sheeran’s.

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