APTIS READING TEST 3

PART 1
Choose the right word to complete the text.
Dear family,
How are things? Remember that I said / told / asked you I had enrolled in a school of arts?
Well, I had my first class yesterday and it was a big / great / large experience.
Our teacher is very patient and incredibly talented. I’m looking / waiting / watching forward to our
next lesson.
In the meantime, I’m practicing some of the techniques I’ve learnt. I could / should /might not be an
artist, but painting helps me relax after college and I have made / done / caught some new friends.
But I miss you all! Hope to see you soon
Love,
Gareth

PART 2
Order the sentences to make a story. The first one has been done for you.
Marie Curie
A. Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867.
B. But she couldn’t attend the University of Warsaw, so she agreed with her sister that they would
help each other pay for their studies
C. After graduating, she married Peter Curie, and they started to experiment with radioactivity.
D. So, for years Marie worked as a tutor to pay for her sister’s studies, and then her sister helped
Marie enroll in the Sorbonne.
E. These experiments granted her the Nobel Prize, becoming the first woman to win it.
F. There she graduated in physics and mathematics.
G. She was an exemplary student who excelled at school.

1. __A__ 2. _____ 3. _____ 4. _____ 5. _____ 6. _____ 7. _____

PART 3
Read the text and complete the gaps with words from the list. The first one is done for you.
There are more words than you need.

Hotel Rainbow is experiencing a delicate situation, with 90% of its ___________________ on strike
for better conditions and the hotel itself facing severe ______________________ problems.
However, the manager, Mr Smith, is optimistic about the outlook of the company and says that they
are __________________ no effort to solve their problems. He is also __________________ that the
hotel will not give in to the demands of employees unless an effort is made from both sides to
___________________ this crisis. In a recent TV interview, he advocated for a consensual solution:
‘We will ___________________ to solve this conflict one way or another, but the only way to attain a
satisfactory solution for both ___________________ is by negotiation’.
overcome adamant succeed staff wasting
economic manage economical parties sparing

PART 4
Read the text and match each heading to a paragraph. There is one extra paragraph you don’t
need.
Headings
A. The beginning of a long civil strife
B. Betrayal, death, and sorrow
C. The rise of a new regime
D. Destitute despite aristocrat origins
E. A point of no return
F. A common misconception
G. What the term meant at the time
H. back home, power raises suspicion and distrust
I. A great soldier, a bad ruler

Julius Caesar
1. ______ Julius Caesar is often described as an emperor when, in fact, it was his nephew-grandson
and successor Octavio Augustus who first held this title. Julius Caesar was a Roman consul (pontifex
maximum) and dictator who ruled during the Republican period, which ended with his death, thus
marking the beginning of the Imperial government.

2. ______ Caesar cam form an impoverished, albeit noble family whose wealth had diminished over
time. He grew up in Suburra, one of the most cosmopolitan and populated neighbourhoods in Rome,
and a hotbed for crime. His crave for restoring the good name of his family, and his lack of funds
pushed him to seek a rapid rise in the cursus honorum, the Roman political career, from military
tribune to consul and eventually, dictator.
3. ______ In Ancient Rome, tough, dictators did not obtain control by force. They were magistrates
granted absolute power by the Senate to deal with a military emergency or undertake specific duties.
The rest of magistrates had to submit to their authority, or Imperium. The dictatorship was temporary:
it ended once the crisis was over or after a term of six months. Caesar was appointed dictator for a
one-year term, then for a ten-year term, and eventually, for life.

4. ______ Caesar had made a fortune after his eight-year campaign in Gaul, and gained great
popularity among his soldiers. The Senate of Pompey, the first consul in Rome, saw him as a
menace. Hence he was ordered to dismantle his army before entering Italian soil. Caesar disobeyed
this command, and on January 11 AC 49, he crossed the Rubicon, the natural frontier between Gaul
and Italy while pronouncing the famous words Alea Iata Est (the die is cast). This fateful decision
would change the faith of an entire nation.

5. ______ Rubicon is a short torrential river which flows into the Adriatic Sea. However, by crossing
this modest river, Caesar became a public enemy. The senate was so fearful of Caesar that
appointed Pompey to lead the army against him and his faithful legionnaires, who were making their
way to Rome at a brisk pace. But unwilling to fight Caesar in Rome, Pompey fled to southern Italy,
where he intended to wait for Caesar and his troops. By doing so, he left the city defenseless and
initiated a long, drawn-out war with Caesar and this with Pompey and Rome itself.

6. ______ Caesar pursued Pompey and the rest of his adversaries. Some died, others gave in and
submitted to him. The war extended for five long years. Only Pompey was still offering resistance. He
had sailed to Egypt in search of protection from his ally Ptolemy, the Egyptian ruler. However, he was
assassinated by three of the king’s advisers who expected to gain Caesar’s favour. Instead, he
took offense and ordered the execution of the traitors for their despicable act.

7. ______ Upon coming back to Rome, Caesar was welcomed as a hero. Victorious and no political
rivals left, he took over control of the Senate. Now he was a sole consul, a dictator with supreme
power, the mighty lord of Rome, a fearsome and threatening figure for his enemies, who had qualms
about his true intentions. Would he acquiesce to being a dictator, or did he secretly aspire to become
a king?

8. ______ Rome had always taken pride in having overthrown monarchy; therefore, when Caesar’s
power was at its height, a group of senators conspired to plan his assassination. On March 15 BC,
they awaited Caesar in the great hall of the Theatre of Pompey and stabbed him to death. They
thought they were saving the republic. Nevertheless, after Caesar’s death, his heir Octavio, a
seemingly harmless young man, defeated his uncle’s assassins and established the Imperium. He
added the name of Caesar to his own and from then on, all the future emperors would take the name
of Caesar. The same word from which modern terms like Kaiser and Tsar derive.
KEY
PART 1
told, great, looking, might, made
PART 2
1A, 2G, 3B, 4D, 5F, 6C, 7E
PART 3
staff, economic, sparing, adamant, overcome, manage, parties
PART 4
1F, 2D, 3G, 4E, 5A, 6B, 7H, 8C