Mock Exam 2 - English Past Paper PDF

# Schriftliche Reife- und Diplomprüfung Englisch ## Mock Exam 2 ### **Lesen** **Task 1** 7 Pt. **Read the text about school-leaver schemes carefully and look at the start of the sentences (1-7). Choose the correct ending to each sentence (A, B, C or D) and put a cross (X) in the correct box on th...

# Schriftliche Reife- und Diplomprüfung Englisch ## Mock Exam 2 ### **Lesen** **Task 1** 7 Pt. **Read the text about school-leaver schemes carefully and look at the start of the sentences (1-7). Choose the correct ending to each sentence (A, B, C or D) and put a cross (X) in the correct box on the answer sheet. The first one (0) has been done for you.** **University or school-leaver schemes?** **Why students are better-off pursuing university or college than going straight into work with school-leaver schemes** 1. School-leaver schemes have been a hot-topic of discussion since the rise of tuition fees. The Big Four accounting firms - along with investment banks and law firms - have offered bright students a way of skipping higher education by hiring them straight after their A-levels. 2. I was on such a scheme at one of the Big Four firms for almost a year before deciding to resign and go to university. The decision for me wasn't particularly difficult because there are fundamental issues with these programmes. 3. First of all, there is a huge stigma attached to joining a school-leaver scheme. I found that, far too often, people would question why I wasn't attending university (with the assumption, in most cases, being that I wasn't capable) and if I had thoroughly thought my decision through. 4. The rhetoric of "I didn't like the idea of being in debt", and "I would have worked at a firm like this after university anyway" began to run dry - especially against the most common responses of "What about job security?", and "What about life experience?" 5. The job security question is an interesting one. Don't be fooled by the so-called "five year programme" - these firms will be happy to let you go if they think you're under-performing or the business can't afford to keep you. [...] 6. You also have to ask yourself: "Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?" Once you're in and doing well, you don't tend to move and, in my opinion, there are two big reasons for that: there isn't much flexibility on your CV, and you also don't know much different. You've worked for the same firm since the day you left college and your skill set, relatively speaking, is very small. **So why did I join? Clever marketing sold me the idea of being on an accelerated scheme where I would progress through the company very quickly and have huge amounts of responsibility very young. This was, unfortunately, completely incorrect.** **At the firm where I worked, it would take me five years to finish the necessary qualifications to become an "executive", making me 23, whereas it would take a typical graduate three years to achieve the same, making them 24. That's not exactly acceleration.** **In terms of actual learning and development, I only had 14 days of planned and time-tabled training in total. The rest of the time was taken-up with needless hours of filing, photocopying, and printing documents.** **I was told I wouldn't be making cups of tea which, to be fair, was true, but the work was incredibly mundane and was very rarely anything to do with finance. It was predominantly just admin.** **Contrast this with university and the learning curve, in terms of both education and life experience, has been endless. The freedom to do what you want, when you want and how you want is not something you'll experience anywhere else - and it does help define who you are.** **The couple of years I've had at university, so far, have been great and have played-up the cliché of being "the best years of my life" - and I'm glad I didn't miss out.** **The three years at university also go a long way in terms of career development too. You make a lot of friends who end up being future colleagues or potential clients, so don't underestimate the importance of this. [...]** **Schemes such as the one I was on are fantastic in many respects and do offer an alternative, but to any student who is considering joining one, I would have some advice: think carefully before you commit, be aware of what you're missing out on, and prepare yourself for a long slog.** *From: Shehab Khan: Why students are better-off pursuing university or college than going straight into work with school-leaver schemes. In: independent.co.uk, 7 August 2015.* *http://www.independent.co.uk/student/istudents/why-students-are-better-off-pursuing-university-or-college-than-going-straight-into-work-with-school-10444037.html* *** ### **Lesen** **Task 2** 7 Pt. **Read the text carefully about the problem facing the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Complete the sentences (1-7) using a maximum of four words - these can be from the text or your own. Write your answers in the spaces provided on the answer sheet. The first one (0) has been done for you.** **Safari roadkill** Kruger National Park wants to end mobile apps on where to spot wildlife as speeding motorists are killing animals 1. South Africa's flagship safari park wants to ban phone apps that give tourists real-time tips about animal sightings that encourage people to speed and kill the very animals they want to see. 2. Officials at Kruger National Park have hit out following a spike in speeding, road kills, road rage and traffic jams as visitors race to get the best position. The reckless rubbernecking and speeding of motorists responding to alerts has caused a growing list of victims including cheetah, hippo and antelope to be left dead and bleeding on the tarmac. 3. "These mobile applications induce an unhealthy sense of eagerness for visitors to break the rules and, we are exploring legal mechanisms to curtail their use," said Hapiloe Sello, a парк executive director told MailOnline. 4. The culture of game viewing at the South African reserve had changed as a result of technology, she added. "Most guests appreciate the leisurely drive through the parks and the potential reward of a good sighting as a key element of the visitor experience," she said. 5. The speed limit in the massive park, which is roughly the size of Belgium, is between 25 and 30 miles per hour, depending on the road surface. 6. Animals often cross the tarmacked network of roads as they hunt or just head to a new waterhole. **But this limit is now being broken on a regular basis, according to William Mabasa from SANParks. Congestion around good sightings - such as lion feeding on prey or herds of elephants - has led to road rage as drivers fight over the best positions to take pictures. He told MailOnline, "Not only are people rushing to these sightings after receiving a tip, when they get there the altercations can start.** **"People are impatient for a good view and road rage can break out. Obviously people cannot get out of their cars because they are in the vicinity of wild animals, but they open their windows and begin shouting and gesticulating at one another. The congestion can build up and no one can see or move. The behaviour is causing problems for us as managers of the park.** **"The risk of accidents and killing animals on the roads is greater as a result of all the rushing. Until we can find a solution, we are calling for people to find game on their own, take their time, enjoy the peace and quiet and not rely on tips from their phones."** **A Youtube video posted by Africa Adventures shows more than half a dozen cars navigating their way down a narrow Kruger road, which compares the jam to early morning traffic in Johannesburg.** **Now a number of phone aps which alert tourists to good animal sightings are available in addition to a Facebook page which users update with GPS coordinates and photographs. Ms Sello added: "We appreciate the fact that technology has evolved and that guests are taking advantage of it, however this is compromising the values of good game viewing in national parks."** **The Kruger Park, which borders Zimbabwe and Mozambique, is home to about 1,500 lions, 12,000 elephants and 5,000 rhino which are now regularly targeted by poachers.** **Prince Harry worked as part of the Kruger's elite anti-poaching unit in December last year and was pictured next to the body of a rhino slaughtered for its horn.** **The park was established in 1898 and the first motorist was allowed in the park in 1927, and now each year more than 1.6 million visitors pass through its gates.** *From: Jane Flanagan: Safari roadkill: Kruger National Park wants to end mobile apps on where to spot wildlife as speeding motorists are killing animals. In: MailOnline, 11 June 2016. MailOnline.* *1 tarmac(adam) = the material on the surface of asphalt roads* *2 poacher = someone who illegally hunts and kills animals* *** ### **Lesen** **Task 3** 7 Pt. **Read the text about a bicycle scheme in Kenya. First decide whether the statements (1-7) are true (T) or false (F). Mark the correct box on the answer sheet with a cross (X). Then find the sentence which supports your decision and write the first four words of it into the space provided on the answer sheet. If there is more than one sentence possible, only select the best one. The first one (0) has been done for you.** **Kenyan girls get on their bikes in pursuit of an education** A scheme that provides bicycles to children who would otherwise face long journeys to school is enabling kids to spend more time learning 1. Jacqueline Nasimiyu used to wake in the early hours and, after making breakfast and fetching water, she would trek down valleys, push through bushes and wiggle under barbed wire fences to cover the 6 km to Mahanga K secondary school in western Kenya. 2. There were no school buses and no paved roads around her village of Mawa in Kakamega county. 3. The 17-year-old's parents could not afford to pay for the only form of transport, motorbike taxis, known as boda boda. 4. "I would wake up as early as 4 am to do chores and still manage to arrive in school on time. I never had time to study," says Jacqueline, who would like to become an agricultural officer when she finishes her studies. 5. Today, girls in the region are able to get to school under their own steam. 6. World Bicycle Relief, a not-for-profit organisation, has launched a bicycles for education empowerment programme to help children travel between home and school. **As part of this scheme, 100 locally assembled Buffalo bicycles were donated to Jacqueline's school. These bicycles are designed for rough roads, and are tested and assembled in Africa.** **Matt Pierce, World Bicycle Relief's creative director, says reducing the time it takes students to travel to and from school frees them to spend more time in class and doing homework.** **"In rural villages across Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia where we have donated bicycles for schools, we have reduced the commute time to school by 75%," says Pierce.** **Under the bicycle scheme, local committees select the most needy pupils, who must all live at least 6 km from the school.** **"When I received a bike I was so happy. Now I have time to study, travel comfortably to school, and still help with the chores. I also ride my little brother to and from school," says Jacqueline, whose grades have improved from an average C+ to B+ since she got her wheels.** **According to a UN report last year, 63 million adolescents of lower secondary school age are out of school..** **"Out-of-school rates for children of primary and lower secondary school age fell between 2000 and 2007, but this progress has stalled since 2007, with the primary and lower secondary out-of-school rates stuck at around 9 and 17% respectively," says the report.** **In rural Kenya, children face obstacles to education including poor infrastructure, poverty and gender inequality,** **Judith Okungu of World Vision, a partner organisation in the project, says 917 bicycles have so far been donated across Kakamega county.** **"In a household where there is a boy and a girl, the boy will wake and get ready for school while the girl will attend to house chores and then get ready for school. That's why girls take a bigger percentage of the bicycles – 75% are given to girls," Okungu says.** **According to a report by the UN committee on the rights of the child, a large number of children in Kenya are living in child-headed households; Kakamega county is ranked second, with more than 21,600. Keya [Jacqueline's headteacher] says this makes it difficult to keep children in school, while early marriage and child labour can also prematurely end girls' education in Kenya.** **World Bicycle Relief, working with its partners and the Ministry of Education, distributed more than 3,000 bicycles to 22 schools in Uasin Gishu, Kakamega and Siaya counties last year [...].** *From: Robert Kibet: Kenyan girls get on their bikes in pursuit of an education. In: theguardian.com, 24 June 2016. Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2017.* *** ### **Lesen** **Task 4** 9 Pt. **Read the text about why many American teenagers stop playing sports. There are gaps in the text where parts have been taken out. Choose the correct part (A-L) for each gap (1-9) and write your answers in the boxes provided on the answer sheet. There are two parts which are not used. The first one (0) has been done for you.** **Why 70 percent of kids quit sports by age 13** 1. According to a poll from the National Alliance for Youth Sports, around 70 percent of kids in the United States stop (0) by the age of 13 because "it just not fun anymore." I have three kids, all of whom play sports, and my oldest is about to turn 13. I may not have understood why this was happening a few years ago, but sadly, (1). 2. The mass exodus of 13-year-olds from organized sports makes perfect sense to me. Here are the reasons I think it's become less fun for kids to play sports and why they are taking an early retirement: (2). *** ### **Lesen** **Task 2** 40 Pt. **You work for a British marketing company and you have been asked by your boss to write a report about the future of tourism in the UK. You have found the following diagram on the Internet and want to use the information in your report.** **Tourism is predicted to grow...** * +6% **International demand growth p.a.** * +1.5% **Outbound demand growth p.a.** * +3% **Domestic demand growth p.a.** **...and be worth £257.4bn providing 3-7m jobs by 2025 ** **9.9% UK GDP** **3.8% Tourism GDP CAGR: +630,000 more tourism jobs** >*Source: Tourism. Jobs and growth. Deloitte November 2013* >*Annotations:* >*GDP = gross domestic product* >*CAGR = compound annual growth rate* **In your report you should:** * **analyse the information in the diagram** * **discuss the importance of tourism to the country** * **consider the negative aspects of the predicted growth in tourism for the UK** * **Write around 300 words.** *** ### **Schreiben** **Task 3** 40 Pt. **You are spending six months at an American school and have just arrived at your hosts' house in Los Angeles. The organisation you are involved with asks participants to write regular articles in English for their homepage. You decide to write your first one about your expectations and experiences so far.** **In your article you should:** * **explain why you wanted to go abroad and how this opportunity arose** * **provide details of your journey from Austria to your hosts' home in L.A.** * **compare the image you had of L.A. before going there with your first impressions while looking at the view from your hosts' garden** * **Write around 350 words**