FACOLTA’ DI STUDI UMANISTICI

PROVA SCRITTA LINGUA INGLESE 2

CDL Lingue e Comunicazione; Lingue e Culture per la Mediazione

Tutti i CdL vecchio ordinamento

Total Points ___/40 = ___/30

NAME ______________________________________ MAT. NO. ______________

2nd Year Exam – JANUARY 2020 - ONE HOUR

Reading comprehension – Open Question -Transformation questions – Verb Forms - Word

formation exercise

FINDING THE CAREER THAT FITS YOUR PERSONALITY

‘If you’ve finished your exams and have absolutely no idea what to do next, you’re not alone’, says
Sheridan Hughes, an occupational psychologist at Career Analysts, a career counselling service. ‘At
18, it can be very difficult to know what you want to do because you don’t really know what you’re
interested in.’ Careers guidance, adds Alexis Hallam, one of her colleagues, is generally poor and
‘people can end up in the wrong job and stay there for years because they’re good at something
without actually enjoying it.’

To discover what people are good at, and more fundamentally, what they will enjoy doing, Career
Analysts give their clients a battery of personality profile questionnaires and psychometric tests. An
in-depth interview follows in which the test results are discussed, and different career paths and
options are explored with the aid of an occupational psychologist. Career Analysts offers guidance
to everyone, from teenagers to retirees looking for a new focus in life. The service sounded just
what I needed. Dividing my time as I do between teaching and freelance journalism, I definitely
need advice about consolidating my career. Being too ancient for Career Analysts’ student career
option guidance and not, unfortunately, at the executive level yet, I opted for the career
management package. This is aimed at people who are established in their jobs and who either want
a change or some advice about planning the next step in their careers.

Having filled in a multitude of personality indicator questionnaires at home, I then spent a rather
grueling morning being aptitude-tested at Career Analysts’ offices. The tests consisted of logical
reasoning followed by verbal, mechanical and spatial aptitude papers. Logical reasoning required
me to pick out the next shape in a sequence of triangles, squares and oblongs. I tried my best but
knew that it was really a lost cause. I fared rather better when it came to verbal aptitude – finding
the odd one out in a series of words couldn’t be simpler. At least for a journalist! My complacency
was short-lived, however, when I was confronted with images of levers and pulleys for the
mechanical aptitude papers. My mind went blank. I had no idea what would happen to wheel X
when string Y was pulled.

Having completed my personality and aptitude tests, I sat down with Sheridan Hughes who asked
me fairly searching personal and professional questions. What do my parents and siblings do for a
living? Why had I chosen to do an English degree? ‘I need to get a picture of you as a person and
how you’ve come to be who you are’, she explained. ‘What we do works because it’s a mixture of
science and counselling. We use objective psychometric measures to discover our clients’ natural
strengths and

NAME ______________________________________ MAT. NO. ______________

2nd Year Exam – JANUARY 2020 - ONE HOUR,

abilities and then we talk to them about what they want from life.’ She explained, ‘the pattern for
you is strongly verbal and communicative.’ This was putting it rather kindly as I had come out
below average on logic, numerical, perceptual and mechanical reasoning. She suggested that I
should ‘widen the scope of your articles’ and that I consider ‘writing e-learning content for on-line
courses.’ An avenue that would never have occurred to me.
A) Reading Comprehension

1. Which one of the following is mentioned in the first paragraph?

a) People underestimate their own abilities.
b) People getting inappropriate advice.
c) People constantly changing their minds.

2. What does the writer say about Career Analysts in the second paragraph?

a) It is about to offer a service for people at executive level.

b) She was initially doubtful that it could be useful to her.
c) Only one of its services was relevant to her.

3. What happened when the writer took the aptitude tests?

a) She enjoyed doing them.

b) She didn’t understand what she was required to do on one of them.
c) She wasn’t surprised by what her main strength was.

4. The advice Sheridan Hughes gave to the writer included the suggestion that she should
a) think about taking a course on writing.
b) increase the number of subjects she writes about.
c) do something she had previously considered unappealing.

Points________/6

B) Choose ONE to answer. Indicate your choice; Question number_________.

1) Have you thought about what job you want to do after graduating? If so, what and why?
2) Would you consider doing Career Analysts’ personality and psychometric tests? What
results would you expect to get?
Write 50-80 words in your own words.
__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

GO ON TO EXERCISE C Points _________/4

NAME ______________________________________ MAT. NO. ______________

2nd Year Exam – JANUARY 2020 ONE HOUR

C) 5 key-word transformation questions

Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first. You must include the word in
bold print . Do not change the word given. Use NO MORE than 5 words including the word given.
Contractions (for example - isn’t- count as two words).

Example

0 What type of music do you like best?

FAVOURITE

What IS YOUR FAVOURITE__type of music?

1. When doing such questionnaires, it is best to answer spontaneously.

ADVISED

When doing such questionnaires, you ARE ADVISED/ TO

DO________________________ them spontaneously.

2. ‘I’ve never been to Career Analysts before.’ she said.

EVER

She said she HADN’T /EVER BEEN to Career Analysts before.

3. The mechanical aptitude test was so difficult the writer had no idea what some answers
were.

SUCH

The mechanical aptitude test was _____ SUCH A /DIFFICULT __ test that the writer had
no idea what some answers were.

4. When I finished my degree, I should have gone to Career Analysts to find out what job
suited me.

MIGHT

If I had gone to Career Analysts, I ___MIGHT HAVE/ FOUND OUT what job suited
me.
NAME ______________________________________ MAT. NO. ______________

2nd Year Exam – JANUARY 2020 ONE HOUR

5. Yesterday, I met an old university friend by chance and told him about Career Analysts.

RAN

Yesterday, I RAN INTO /ONE OF MY __old university friends by chance and told him
about Career Analysts.

Points ____/10

D) Verb forms Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense. When necessary, put the adverb
indicated into the correct position.

1. I wish I HAD HAD (to have) better career guidance when I was at college.

2. Exams results WILL HAVE COME OUT (to come out) by Friday this week.

3. Despite __BEING____________________ (to be) a mathematician, he didn’t do very

well on the logic test.
4. You ____CAN’T HAVE FINISHED___ (can/ to finish) already! That’s impossible!
You only started half an hour ago.

5. I _________HAVE JUST CALLED_______________________________ (just/to

call) Career Analysts to fix an appointment for next week.

6. My father is fed up with _____WORKING_________ (to work) as a chef and wants to

change career.

7. This time tomorrow, I ___WILL BE TALKING (to talk) to Sheridan Hughes at an

interview.

8. Unless you _____GET_______________________ (to get) a job soon, you should think
about further education.

9. Your jeans are all muddy! _______HAVE YOU BEEN

PLAYING_________________ (you/play) football in the park again?

10. I’m sure she’d have _____BEEN ABLE TO____________(to be able to) do that job if
they’d given her a chance.

Go on to exercise E Points____ /10

NAME ______________________________________ MAT. NO. ______________

2nd Year Exam – JANUARY 2020 ONE HOUR

Points ____/10

E) WORD FORMATION EXERCISE

Read the passage and use the word given in capitals at the end of each line to form a word that fits
grammatically in the numbered gap. You MUST change the word. The words are already in order.

WHEN BOSSES MAKE SPEECHES

Example (0) leading

For business managers, public speaking is part of the job. A survey of hundred (0) LEAD___
companies found that chief executives received on average 175
(1) ___ a year to speak at conferences. Some executives love public speaking 1) INVITE
but some have an enormous (2) ___ of it. (2) LIKE
There are plenty of experts giving (3) ___ to them on how to interest (3) ADVISE
(4) ___ . According to Carmine Gallo, author of a book on public speaking (4) LISTEN
, it is essential to avoid giving too much information and to keep the audience’s
(5) ___. He points to the example of John Chambers, the chief executive of Cisco (5) ATTEND
Systems, whose (6) __ involves walking off the stage and into the audience, (6) TECH
where he asks a question or rests a hand on a person’s shoulder in the style
of a television talk-show host. Speaking without notes, he (7) __ (7) SURE
that he maintains constant eye contact with his audience.
And then there is the (8) ___public speaker Herbert D Kelleher, former chief (8) LEGEND
executive of Southwest Airlines. He would gather his ideas (9) ___ (9) SHORT
before a speech, jotting notes on a pad. ‘People would ask after he spoke,
“Can I have a copy of the speech?”, said Edward Stewart, senior director of public relations at
Southwest. ‘We’d say, (10) _______, even Herb doesn’t have a copy”.’ (10) FORTUNATE

Write your answers here

1___INVITATIONS______________________
2 _____DISLIKE____________________
3 _____ADVICE_____________________
4 _____LISTENERS_____________________
5 ____ATTENTION______________________
6 _____TECHNIQUE____________________
7_____ENSURES______________________
8_______LEGENDARY__________________
9 _____SHORTLY_____________________
10______UNFORTUNATELY_____________________

Points ____/10

THIS IS THE END OF THE EXAM