SiBootcamp Placement Test

Listening Audio part 01 :

Listening Audio Part 02 :

Listening Part 01:
You will hear people talking in eight different situations. For questions 1-8, choose the best answer (A, B, or C).

1. You hear part of radio play. Where is the scene taking place?

2. You overhear the beginning of a lecture. What subject are the students taking?

3. You overhear a conversation in a college. Who is the young man?

4. You hear a woman on the radio talking about a cookbook. What does she regret?

5. You hear someone talking about the day he met someone famous. How did he feel after meeting Chris Turner?

6. You hear a woman talking on the phone. Why has she called?

7. You overhear an extract from a radio play. What is the young woman’s relationship with the man?

8. You hear someone telling a story about a strange thing that happened in the mountains. What point does the story prove?

Listening Part 02 :
You will hear part of a talk about dolls. For questions 9—18, complete the sentences.

Dolls

9. The first known dolls were found in (9) ………………….in ancient Egypt.

10. The earliest dolls in the museum date from the (10) …………………….

11. Early European dolls were dressed like (11) ……………………

12. On the 17th-century dolls, you can see details like the (12) ……………………

13. 17th-century dolls may cost as much as (13) ………………………….. each.

14. Collectors look for examples in perfect condition, with their (14) …………………..

15. 19th-century dolls had (15) ………………….. and real hair.

If you can take off the doll’s hair, you may see the (16) …………………. underneath.

17. Before the 20th century, all dolls were (17) ………………., not babies.

18. From the 1930s, dolls were made of (18) …………………..

Reading

For questions 19 – 26, read the text below, and decide which answer best fits each gap.

The oldest leather shoe in the world
Archaeologists report that a perfectly preserved 5,500-year-old shoe has been discovered in a cave in Armenia in south-west Asia. It is (19) …….. to be the oldest leather shoe ever found. The shoe was made of a single piece of leather, stitched at the front and back, and was shaped to fit the wearer’s foot. It had been (20) …….. with grasses, either for warmth or to make sure it kept its shape. ‘The shoe is relatively small but we can’t say for (21) …….. whether it was worn by a man or a woman,’ says Dr. Ron Pinhasi, an archaeologist on the research (22) ……… ‘We thought at first that it was about 600-700 years old because it was in such good shape.’ Shoes of this type from later periods have turned (23) …….. in archaeological excavations in various places in Europe, and shoes of a very similar design were still being used on the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland as (24) …….. as the 1950s. It’s (25) …….. a style which (26) …….. popular for thousands of years.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

For questions 27 – 32, complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.

27. Paula can’t wait to hear the band’s new album.

FORWARD

Paula is really ………………….. the band’s new album.

28. Buying a daily newspaper seems pointless to me.

POINT

I can’t ……………………………… a daily newspaper.

29. Daniel thought the flight would be more expensive than it actually was.

NOT

The flight ………… as Daniel thought it would be.

30. It’s a shame I’m not able to come to your party on Saturday.

COULD

I ………………………. to your party on Saturday.

31. There were no trainers left in Denzel’s size anywhere on the website.

SOLD

The website had ……….…………… trainers in Denzel’s size.

32. Gwenda deleted her sister’s photographs by accident.

MEAN

Gwenda ……………………………… her sister’s photographs.

You are going to read an article about a woman who trains actors in fighting skills. For questions 15– 20, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Kombat Kate

James Stanton meets ‘Kombat Kate’ Waters, who trains theatre actors in how to ‘fight’ on stage.
There must be a few occasions when it would be really rude to refuse an invitation to head-butt someone you’ve just met! But I’m in one of those right now.

I’m in a rehearsal room in a theatre with a group of actors, facing up to stage fighting director Kate Waters. I’ve already dragged her around the room and slapped her on the arm. Now she wants me to head-butt her. But fear not, this is all strictly pretend!
‘Imagine there’s a tin can on my shoulder,’ she says. ‘Now try to knock it off.’ I lower my head as instructed, then lift it sharply, aiming for the imaginary can, hoping desperately that I don’t miscalculate the angle and end up doing damage to her face. To my amazement, I get it right. ‘That was good,’ says Waters. ‘Now maybe try it again without smiling.’
Waters, known in the industry as Kombat Kate, is showing me how actors fight each other without getting hurt, and that includes sword-fighting. (She inspires fierce devotion: when I tweet that I’m meeting Waters, one actress friend responds: ‘She’s amazing. She taught me how to be a secret service agent in two days.’)
Perhaps the most famous play Kate has worked on recently was called Noises Off. She taught the cast how to fall downstairs without breaking any bones. One of the fight scenes is fairly close, Kate tells me, to the one we’re trying out now. ‘I’ve just slowed it down a bit,’ she says tactfully, before inviting me to throw her against the wall. I obey, making sure I let go of her quickly, so she can control her own movement. Push your opponent too hard, and they will hit the wall for real. I watch her hit the wall before falling to the ground. She’s fine, of course. ‘That’s my party trick,’ she says with a grin. ‘Works every time.’
Once the lesson is over Kate tells me how she became one of only two women on the official register of stage fight directors. Already a keen martial arts expert from childhood, Kate did drama at university, and one module of her course introduced her to stage combat.
When she made inquiries about the possibility of teaching it as a career, she was told about the register and the qualifications she’d need to be accepted onto it.
Line 22: It was no small order: as well as a certificate in advanced stage combat, she would need a black belt in karate and proficiency in fencing, a sport she’d never tried before.
But she rose to the challenge and taught the subject for several years at a drama college before going freelance and becoming a fight advisor for the theatrical world. The play she’s working on is Shakespeare’s Richard III.
Line 30: This involves a famous sword fight. With no instructions left by the great playwright other than – Enter Richard and Richmond: they fight, Richard dies – the style and sequence of the fight is down to Kate and the actors.
‘I try to get as much information as possible about what a fight would have been like in a particular period,’ Kate explains. ‘But because what I’m eventually doing is telling a dramatic story, not all of it is useful. The scene has to be exciting and do something for the audience.’
Ultimately, of course, a stage fight is all smoke and mirrors. In our lesson, Kate shows me how an actor will stand with his or her back to the audience ahead of a choreographed slap or punch. When the slap comes it makes contact not with the skin but with air: the actor whacks his chest or leg to make the sound of the slap.
In the rehearsal room, I can’t resist asking Kate how she thinks she would fare in a real fight. Would she give her attacker a hard time? She laughs, ‘Oh, I’d be awful,’ she says. ‘I only know how to fake it.’ I can’t help thinking, however, that she’s just being rather modest.

33. In the first paragraph, the writer is aware of

34. How does the writer feel when Kate mentions the tin can?

35. When Kate and the writer repeat the fight scene from Noises Off, we learn that :

36. What does the phrase ‘no small order’ (line 22) tell us about stage combat?

37. What does the writer tell us about the sword fight in the play Richard III?

38. What does ‘it’ refer to in line 30?