Lazarescu Ionela Adriana

Liceul Teoretic Novaci

Test initial clasa a10a nivel B1

INTEGRATED SKILLS

I. Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.

“Once upon the time there was a man called Mwananchi. Now this guy had one talent. As
a youngster, he would stand on a street corner of Booroo housing estate and tell stories. Booroo
estate was the newest and largest estate in Nairobi, built to house the new generation of forward-
moving Kenyans.
Kids from phase one to four of the housing estate would pass by his ‘joint’ when sent to
the shops by their parents. His joint was an abandoned old car, which sat next to a lampshade he
had decorated himself in Manchester United football team’s colours. He told his stories
sometimes in Sheng, the version of Swahili that all the cool people spoke, or sometimes in that
hip Nairobi English teachers laughed at.
Parents hated him. They wanted him to be exiled to some small village somewhere:
whatever it took to get him away from their children, who would come home with all sorts of
crazy ideas, funny new slang. Some tried to get hold of his parents to complain about him , but
his parents seem allusive – promising to come for meetings and never showing up[…].
What made his stories special is how they managed to capture the place the kids lived in.
Their parents still with one foot in their home village, still with colonial hangovers, busy
building the nation, had no real idea how their world worked. This was the first generation of
kids in independent Kenia, the first generation to be born in a city. There were no books about
them, films about them. They didn’t even see themselves on television.”
(adapte from According to Mwangi by Binyavanga Wainaina)

1. Mwananchi was
A. a teacher
B. a parent
C. a youngman
D. a student

2. The kids were passing by his joint

A. when they came back from school
B. to pay him a visit
C. when they were going shopping
D. to say hello to him

3. The children were listening to Mwananchi’s stories because

A. the stories were about the colonialism
B. their parents asked them to listen to his stories
C. he was their teacher
D. the stories captured the atmosphere of the village
 4. Mwananchi was telling stories
A. at school
B. at the Booroo estate
C. at the meetings
D. in a car

5. the stories were about

A. Manchester United
B. English teachers
C. The place were they lived
D. Sheng

II. Read the text again and write a narrative- descriptive essay (200-220 words) in which
you have to imagine one of the stories Mwananchi may have told to the kids in his joint.

Barem de corectare
Subiectul I

I. 1.C 2. C 3.D 4.D 5.C