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TASK 1

Examiner: Good morning! Take a seat, please.

How are you feeling at the moment?
How did you feel this morning when you woke up?
What will you miss most now that you’re leaving school?
Would you stay one more year? Why (not)?

Now I’m going to ask you a few questions. If you can’t understand me, I can repeat the
question once. Let’s get started.

A
How can we preserve the future for the next generation?
Probably by looking towards the past. And looking at how we used to live and not how
we could live, I think. Change is always happening but we don’t stop and think. If we
think about now and how things have changed, the simple thing of having a mobile
phone for instance. The mobile phone now means that nobody ever turns up on time for
a meeting because they send a text and they say, “I’m gonna be late”. Whereas in the
past, we just got there on time. And I think every now and then, for the future to be
good, we need to look at how things were done in the past.

Have you seen a film about the future?

Of course, I love science fiction. It’s probably the thing I try and read most of. And I
love all of it. I love the stuff that is close future, so looking at maybe five or ten years,
or looking at the Star Wars type scene where it’s just we will live on different planets and
I love it. And maybe I love it because it’s not real. It’s not here. If you read a book you
want to get out of your life, and how much easier can you get out of your life if it’s 3000
years into the future and on another planet?

Could there be another world war in the future?

Unfortunately, I think there will be. One of the most powerful countries in the world
created a war that we are never going to see the back of, a war of religion, of which
there are no answers, and a war of oil, and, so I can’t see it not happening. How can we
prevent it? I honestly don’t know.

Would you like to know what the future holds?

Probably no. As some of the future seems really scary, if you think about what’s
happening in the world now, with Iraq and America. But then on a personal level
sometimes it’s scary as well. Where will I be? Will I have a pension? But would I like to
know? No, I don’t think so. It’s much better to live life as it happens, or else it will be
boring, I think.

Will robots take our jobs?

Not in a million years. I can’t believe it. The sense of the world would just go down the
toilet if we ever did that. Will a robot ever be the goalkeeper for Manchester United?
They might be, but all the fun would go out of life if that ever happened. I’m sure that a
robot could do many jobs. But would we want them to? No, we wouldn’t want them to.

I see. Now let’s move on to the next topic, which is school.

B
Did you ever sleep in class?
I often have trouble staying awake after lunch, so any classes that I had after lunch were
sometimes a problem. I used to fall asleep in German class in the first years of high
school, which is weird because it was my favourite class. But my teacher used to just
throw chalk at my head or something to wake me up so it wasn’t a problem. And I
always had my homework prepared. Other than that, no, not very often.
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Did you play on any of the school’s sports teams?

I wasn’t very good at team sports, but I did like them. So I played volleyball, and
basketball, and I guess that’s it. I wasn’t good at it, but I thought it was fun to have that
group of friends and to have an excuse to run around on a field.

Do you still keep in touch with your best friend from elementary school?
Yes, I do keep in touch with her. We’re not in very good touch, but whenever we hear
from each other or see each other, we’re really excited about it. We keep in touch
maybe two or three times a year at most. The last time I saw her was probably a year
and a half ago.

How long did it take you to get to school?

Well, it depends on how I was going that morning. So I could walk in about 20 minutes,
my school was not far from my house. Recently if it was raining, my parents let me take
their car and, you know, then it is about three minutes to get to school. So, not very
long at all, which has been nice.

Who was your favourite teacher?

I think my seventh-grade German teacher was probably my favourite teacher. He had a
very big impact on me. Because that year was difficult for me, when you’re thirteen
years old, it’s hard, and we did a lot of creative writing in that class and a lot of my
thirteen-year-old emotions came out in my writing. But he was very kind and respected
what I wrote and took it seriously rather than being dismissive or worried about me
because I was a thirteen-year-old with strange emotions. He was a good teacher.

Well, I see. Now, let’s change the topic. We’re going to talk about fashion

C
Do you like window shopping?
The French have a word for window shopping that I really like, it means “to lick the
windows”, and it’s not a very nice image, but at the same time it’s quite accurate,
because you really want what’s inside the shop, but you can’t get at it, so you end up
licking windows. I’m not a great shopper, I don’t mind going shopping as long as I know
what I’m getting, and then I don’t really window-shop. I don’t look at things and go,
“Oooh, that’s a bit nice, oooh, that’s a bit nice, too”. I just sort of go in and get myself
what I want.

Do you think people feel different when they are wearing different clothes?
Yes! You know, there’s the expression “Clothes maketh man”. I think I feel different
when I wear smart clothes, I feel more professional than when I’m just slobbing around
the flat in a tracksuit. Obviously if you put on a uniform, like if you’re a policeman or
something like that, then it’s sort of part of your job, it’s like getting into a role, like an
actor or something.

What’s the most expensive piece of clothing you have ever bought?
I don’t know, I don’t spend a lot on clothes. Probably a coat or something, or a pair of
boots. I have a really nice pair of walking boots that I bought maybe four years ago.
They’re really really comfortable, they’re made by Salamon and they’re simply awesome.
But other than that I’ve never bought anything massively expensive.

Do you dress the same when you are depressed as you do when you are happy?
I don’t know really, that’s a difficult question. I mean I suppose when you’re depressed
you tend not to make an effort with your appearance, you know you don’t shave, and
you let your hair sort of go and you kind of wander around being miserable all day, so
you don’t really take much time with your appearance. But then I don’t know if you
change so much when you’re very happy, I mean, what do you do? Wear really bright
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colours? I don’t think it really makes a difference with me because I don’t pay much
attention to my clothes, so I don’t know.

What do you think of people who always and only wear black?
Well, I guess it’s sort of fashionable, but it’s kind of fashionable by not being fashionable.
So it’s a bit sort of boring I guess. I suppose people who just wear black are just saying
that they don’t really know what to wear, so they’re just going to put on black because
it’s the only thing they feel comfortable wearing. So I don’t know, I think it’s a bit boring
and I wouldn’t want a wardrobe composed of all black clothes.

Thank you, that’s the end of the first part of the test.

TASK 2

Now look at this situation. You can study the sheet for half a minute. When you are
ready, start a conversation with me. I am your friend.

Your friend would like to lose weight by changing his dietary habits. Give him some
advice on how to do this, considering the following:

 what to eat for breakfast

 how many times a day he should eat
 what to eat for dinner
 what he should avoid eating completely

- So, have you decided to change your diet?

- Yeah, I really want to lose some weight.
- OK, let’s see then. I think the secret of losing weight is having a relatively big
breakfast, which will keep you going during the day. Something substantial, but
not fatty, so maybe toast with some ham or just cheese, a cup of tea, and
perhaps some fruit. It’s much better to eat a lot in the morning than at any other
time of day.
- I see.
- Then the other really important thing is to eat at least five or six times a day. I
know it sounds weird, but if you want to lose weight, you need to eat a little many
times, not a lot a few times. Just small things like an apple or a banana, or some
vegetables.
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- Is there anything I should avoid eating?

- Yes, definitely. I think you need to forget about chocolate for a while. Also soft
drinks that have a lot of sugar in them. And candy, I think you should simply stop
eating candy for good.
- OK, I’ll try to keep that in mind. Thanks.
- You’re alright.

Thank you, that’s the end of the second part of the test.
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TASK 3

In the last part of the test, you will compare and contrast some pictures. Now you
have half a minute to look at these pictures and the prompts below them. When you
are ready, you will have three minutes to talk.

The pictures below show a city and some countryside landscape. Compare and
contrast them, including the following points:

 opportunities to work
 going out and entertainment
 health
 the people

Well, I need to say that both of these pictures are beautiful, but in real life cities
can look uglier than that. There is often smog in a bigger city and the air is not very
clean, so it’s not the healthiest place to live. And often if you live in the city centre, it’s
difficult to find some green space where you can do some sport, so the countryside is
definitely healthier in that respect.
Also, the people are usually a lot friendlier in the countryside, they will say hello
even if they don’t know you, and the atmosphere is generally much more relaxed. There
is also less crime usually, so it’s simply a nicer place to be.
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However, there are some things to be said for cities too. Especially in harsh
economic times like these, it is much easier to find a job in a city than in the countryside,
and there are also better possibilities for retraining.
Last but not least, a city offers much more in terms of entertainment: cinemas,
theatres, pubs and bars, museums and all sorts of exhibitions etc. I don’t mean to say
that you must be bored in the countryside because, especially if you have Internet, you
can entertain yourself with books and films and walks, but there is a much greater
variety of free time activities in cities.

Thank you, that’s the end of your test.