Exercise 1

You are going to read a magazine article about careers advice. For questions 1-9
choose from the people in the box (A-D). The people may be chosen more than once.
Write your answer in the corresponding box, like in the example at the beginning (0).

Which of the people suggest the following?

A) THE WRITER
B) DONNA LANEY
C) JULIET GREENE
D) AMANDA MARGETTS

0. I wasn’t keen on what was suggested. 0 D

1. I couldn’t see how the tests could provide the necessary information. 1

2. I have a different attitude since making some changes. 2

3. I discovered a skill I didn’t know I had. 3

4. I would have made my career change without advice. 4

5. I found my performance in some tests a bit disappointing. 5

6. I heard things I was already aware of. 6

7. I’m about to make a major change. 7

8. Circumstances gave me the chance to reconsider my career choice. 8

9. One of the techniques helped me a lot. 9

 Careers Advice
You’re not happy in your job at the moment, but you don’t know how to change? Kitty Doherty
gives some good advice.
__________________________________________________________________

The answer for more and more people who want to change their job is to turn to a careers
adviser. You will be asked to write a brief history of yourself and sit through a number of tests
known as “psychometrics”. A summary of the findings is then given and various careers are
suggested, as well as the possible retraining needed.

5 I decided to try out Career Analysts, one of the largest organisations giving career advice.
Taking the careers test was like being back in my science exams. I was with a group of about ten
people and we were answering questions against the clock. I had to remember that it wasn’t about
passing or failing. It was hard to see how the psychometrics would give an accurate picture of me.
They involved things like picking out mistakes in lists of names and numbers matching up similar
10 shapes in a set.

I then had a long chat with an adviser and from this, plus the results of the test, he produced
a report giving his observations and recommendations. I agreed with most of the adviser’s
conclusions, though I was a little dismayed to find out that I had done quite badly in the scientific,
technical and practical tests. I am sure that a lot of sick people are glad that I never became a nurse.
15 It was reassuring, though, to be told that I had made the correct decisions as far as journalism was
concerned.

Rethinking your career needn’t involve a massive change of direction. Last March, after
working as a marketing manager with a large insurance company for five years, Donna Laney, 25,
lost her job. Her friends suggested she go to Career Analysts for help. “Losing my job was the
20 perfect opportunity for me to take a step back and look at my career to date. I wanted to re-examine
the skills and interests I have,” says Donna. Some of the results were surprising. “I hadn’t realised
that I had such a gift for design. But in the end I had to balance the cost of retraining in design
against my financial commitments,” she says. Other suggestions were put forward, such as taking a
year off and working in the Far East.

25 “I decided to use the skills I already had and move into something more suited to me than
insurance. I am now working as a Public Relations officer. I am sure I would have got to this point
without Career Analysts but they helped me realise, objectively and independently, what I definitely
wanted to do. I have sent half a dozen friends there, who are all happy with the service.”

There are those who feel that they definitely would not have got to that point without help.
30 A visit to Career Counselling Services led 26-year-old Juliet Greene to make some life-changing
decisions. “After working for a major bank for six years, I decided my job was dull and I needed a
new challenge. I had no idea what I wanted to do so I went to Career Counselling Services with a
completely open mind. I took the tests, which showed I was interested in sciences”, she says. “I had
four sessions with an adviser. The third session was taped, which I found very useful, as you forget
35 many of the things you say. After the fourth meeting, having listened carefully to what the results of
the tests were telling me, I made the decision that I wanted to do geology and I plan to start a degree
course in it later this year. I think that the advice given by Career Counselling Services was well
worth the fee. I’m a lot happier now and far more positive.”

However, careers advice doesn’t work for everyone. Amanda Margetts, a 24-year-old
40 sales representative, says: “I had reached a stage in my career where I didn’t know where to go. I
thought a careers adviser might suggest something I had never thought of. Although I was given a
host of new ideas, I rejected them as they either required a substantial drop in salary or considerable
retraining. I wasn’t told anything about myself that I didn’t know,” she says. “You have to provide
the adviser with an enormous amount of personal information and I just felt that if I had told a
45 friend the same thing, they would have given me similar advice.”
Exercise 2

You are going to read an extract from a book. For questions 1 – 7, choose the answer
(A, B, C, or D) which you think fits best according to the text, and write it in the
corresponding box, like in the example at the beginning (0).

0. At the end of his trip, the writer said “Never again” because 0 C
A he felt ill.
B he disliked trains.
C he was tired from the journey.
D he had lost money.

1. What does the writer mean by “this way of looking at life” in line 11? 1

A Worrying about your clothes.

B Throwing unwanted things away.
C Behaving in an anti-social way.
D Looking after your possessions.

2. Why did the writer originally buy an Inter-Rail ticket ? 2

A To go on a tour of Europe.
B To meet other young people.
C To see a lot of famous places.
D To get to one place cheaply.

3. What the writer liked about travelling without his parents was that 3

A he could see more interesting places.

B he could spend more time sightseeing.
C he could stay away from home longer.
D he could make his own decisions.

4. On his first trip, the writer found that the other young Inter-Railers were 4

A selfish.
B irresponsible.
C rather disorganised.
D concerned about money.

5. What does “it” in line 30 refer to? 5

A A name.
B The city.
C The train.
D The station.
6. According to the writer, other people’s holiday photos can be boring if 6

A they are badly taken.

B they are similar to your own.
C you haven’t visited the same place.
D you could have done better yourself.

7. What does “this” in line 37 refer to? 7

A To discover anything new.

B Europe is a big place.
C Inter-Rail gives people the last opportunity.
D It is a valuable personal experience.
 Inter-Rail holiday
I was dirty, smelly, hungry and somewhere beneath all that, suntanned. It was the end of an Inter-
Rail holiday. My body couldn’t take any more punishment. My mind couldn’t deal with any more
foreign timetables, currencies or languages.

“Never again,” I said, as I stepped onto home ground. I said exactly the same thing the following
5 year. And the next. All I had to do was buy one train ticket and, because I was under twenty-five
years old, I could spend a whole month going anywhere I wanted in Europe. Ordinary beds are
never the same once you’ve learnt to sleep in the corridor of a train, the rhythm rocking you into a
deep sleep.

Carrying all your possessions on your back in a rucksack makes you have a very basic approach to
10 travel, and encourages incredible wastefulness that can lead to burning socks that have become too
anti-social, and getting rid of books when finished. On the other hand, this way of looking at life is
entirely in the spirit of Inter-Rail, for common sense and reasoning can be thrown out of the window
along with the paperback book and the socks. All it takes to achieve this carefree attitude is one of
those tickets in your hand.

15 Any system that enables young people to travel through countries at a rate of more than one a day
must be pretty special. On that first trip, my friends and I were at first unaware of the possibilities of
this type of train ticket, thinking it was just an inexpensive way of getting to and from our chosen
camp-site in southern France. But the idea of non-stop travel proved too tempting, for there was
always just one more country over the border, always that little bit further to go. And what did the
20 extra miles cost us? Nothing.

We were completely uninterested in culture. But this was a first holiday without parents, as it was
for most other Inter-Railers, and in organising our own timetable we left out everything except the
most immediately available sights. This was the chance to escape the guided tour, an opportunity to
do something different. I took great pride in the fact that, in many places, all I could be bothered to
25 see was the view from the station. We were just there to get by, and to have a good time doing so. In
this we were no different from most of the other Inter-Railers with whom we shared corridor floors,
food and water, money and music.

The excitement of travel comes from the sudden reality of somewhere that was previously just a
name. It is as if the city in which you arrive never actually existed until the train pulls in at the
30 station and you are able to see it with your own tired eyes for the first time.

Only by actually seeing Europe, by watching the changing landscapes and seeing the differences in
attitudes and lifestyles, can you really have an accurate picture of the continent in your mind.
Everybody knows what is there, but it is meaningless until you view it yourself. This is what makes
other people’s holiday photos so boring.

35 While the train trip won’t allow you to discover anything new in the world sense, it is a valuable
personal experience. Europe is a big place, and Inter-Rail gives people the best opportunity to
recognise this... though in our case it didn’t happen immediately.
 

Exercise 1

1. – A 2. – C 3. – B 4. – B 5. – A 6. – D 7. – C 8. – B 9. C

Exercise 2

1. – B 2. – D 3. – D 4. – C 5. – B 6. – C 7. – B