University of Warsaw Language Certificate Examination
English Language B2 Test
• For parts 1, 2 and 3.1 of the test (questions 1-45), write your answers on answer
sheet 1.
• For part 3.2 and 3.3 (questions 46-70) write your answers in the spaces provided on
answer sheet 2.
• Write your response to part 4 on answer sheet 3.
Total marks for the test: 140
Total time allowed: 180 minutes
Read carefully the instructions that appear at the beginning of each part of the test before
attempting to answer any of the questions in that section.
At the beginning of the examination you should receive the test booklet as well as three answer
sheets and a pencil.
Complete answer sheet 1 in the following way:
For each question there may be 3, 4 or 5 options provided, marked a, b, c, d, e.
For each question there is only ONE correct answer.
Using a pencil, for each question mark your answer on the answer sheet by completely filling in the
appropriate rectangle.
You may use the test booklet for rough work, but you must make sure you transfer your answers
onto the answer sheet.
Complete answer sheet 2 in the following way:
Use a biro/ballpoint pen to write your answers on this answer sheet.
You may use the test booklet for rough work, but you must make sure you transfer your answers
onto the answer sheet.
Part 4 should be completed on answer sheet 3 using a biro/ballpoint pen.
You may use the reverse side of the test booklet to plan and draft your writing.
You should leave yourself at least 40 minutes to complete this section of the test.
Remember to write clearly. Illegible answers will not be considered.
REMEMBER TO LEAVE YOURSELF ENOUGH TIME TO TRANSFER ALL YOUR ANSWERS
TO THE CORRECT ANSWER SHEET.
Test 1: Listening Comprehension (15 questions, 30 points)
1.1. You will hear a short talk twice. Before listening, carefully read through questions 1–8.
After you have heard the talk, for each question choose the best answer (a, b, c). You may make
notes in the question booklet while listening. Mark your answers on answer sheet 1.
1. The speaker tells us that he
a. has a Twitter account.
b. is an enthusiast of Twitter.
c. is an opponent of Twitter.
2. According to the speaker, Dickens and Balzac
a. would be less productive in our times.
b. would have been more productive if they had computers.
c. would have been equally productive with or without a computer.
3. The speaker says that his laptop is something
a. that made him more productive.
b. he is emotionally attached to.
c. he could easily do without.
4. The speaker's smartphone
a. has brought him closer to his family.
b. is his favourite gadget.
c. delivers e-mail messages faster.
5. The speaker claims that modern media technology
a. creates addictions.
b. radically changes our lives.
c. satisfies our emotional needs.
6. According to the speaker, the greatest advancement for humanity is
a. fast transport.
b. the Internet.
c. the smartphone.
7. According to the speaker, the miracle of speed-of-light communication was first achieved by
a. social media.
b. the telephone.
c. the telegraph.
8. The speaker believes that current tweets
a. will appear ridiculous in the future.
b. are as important as cars were in 1906.
c. help us to feel considerably less lonely.
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1.2. You will hear a short interview twice. Before listening, read through statements 9–15. While listening, decide which of the statements are TRUE (a) / FALSE (b). Mark your answers on
answer sheet 1.
9. David de Rothschild is a journalist. T/F
10. He set the speed record sailing to Australia. T/F
11. According to David, asking questions leads to adventure. T/F
12. When he was a child, he wanted to become a vet. T/F
13. He regrets the time spent in school. T/F
14. According to David, there is no such place in the world that he hasn't travelled to. T/F
15. David advises people to try hard not to fail. T/F
Test 2: Reading Comprehension (15 questions, 30 points)
2.1. Read the text below and answer questions 16-22 by choosing the right option. Only one of
four options is correct in each question. One of the questions refers to a word underlined in the
text. Mark your answers on answer sheet 1.
It’s a tried and tested technique used by writers and poets, but can psychology explain why the
first moments after waking can be among our most imaginative?
The best evidence we have of our mental state when we're asleep is that strange phenomenon
called dreaming. Much remains unknown about dreams, but one thing that is certain is that they are
weird. Also listening to other people's dreams can be deadly boring. They go on and on about how
they were on a train, but it wasn't a train, it was a dinner party, and their brother was there, as well as a
girl they haven't spoken to since they were nine, and... yawn. To the dreamer this all seems very important and somehow connected. To the rest of us it sounds like nonsense and tedious nonsense at
that.
Yet these bizarre monologues do highlight an interesting aspect of the dream world: the
creation of connections between things that didn't seem connected before. When you think about it,
this isn't too unlike a description of what creative people do in their work – connecting ideas and concepts that nobody thought to connect before in a way that appears to make sense.
No wonder some people value the immediate, post-sleep, dreamlike mental state – known as
sleep inertia – so highly. Later in the day, waking consciousness assumes complete control, which is a
good thing as it allows us to go about our daytime challenges: making plans, pursuing goals and
dealing rationally with the world. Life would be challenging indeed if we were constantly
hallucinating, believing the impossible or losing sense of what we were doing like we do when we're
dreaming.
Scientific methods – by necessity methodical and precise – might not seem the best of tools
for investigating sleep consciousness. Yet in 2007 Matthew Walker, now of the University of
California at Berkeley, and colleagues carried out a study that helps illustrate the power of sleep to foster unusual connections or remote associations.
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Participants were presented with six abstract items: A, B, C, D, E and F. Through trial and error they were taught the basic hierarchy, according to which A was better than B, B better than C, C
better than D, D better than E and E better than F. These were called the immediate comparisons.
While participants learnt these during their training period, they were not explicitly taught that because
A was better than B, and B better than C, they should infer that A was better than C, for example. This
hidden order implied relationships, described as distant, which were designed to mimic the remote
associations that drive creativity.
Participants who were tested 20 minutes after training got 90% of immediate comparisons but
only around 50% of distant comparisons right – the same fraction you or I would get if we went into
the task without any training and just guessed.
Those tested 12 hours after training again got 90% for the immediate comparisons, but 75% of
distant comparisons, showing the extra time had allowed the nature of the connections and hidden
order to become clearer in their minds.
But the real success of the experiment was a contrast in the performances of one group trained
in the morning and then re-tested 12 hours later in the evening, and another group trained in the evening and brought back for testing the following morning after a period of sleep. Both groups did
equally well in tests of the immediate comparisons. The researchers defined comparisons that required
understanding of two immediate relationships as easy, and those that required three or more as hard.
So, for example, A being better than C, was labelled as easy because it required participants to
remember that A was better than B and B was better than C. However understanding that A was better
than D meant recalling A was better than B, B better than C, and C better than D, and so was defined
as hard.
When it came to the harder comparisons, people who had a night's sleep between training and
testing got a startling 93% correct, whereas those who'd been busy all day only got 70%.
The experiment illustrates that combining what we know to generate new insights requires
time, something that many might have guessed. Perhaps more revealingly, it also shows the power of
sleep in building remote associations. Making the links between pieces of information that our
daytime rational minds see as separate seems to be easiest when we're offline, drifting through the dream world.
(Adapted from: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131205)
16. According to this article, dreams that people have
a. can be extremely boring for the person who is dreaming.
b. are rarely related to everyday events and people.
c. seem to make sense to the dreamer.
a. make an interesting topic of conversation.
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a. as soon as you fall asleep.
b. while you are sleeping most soundly.
c. just before you are fully awake.
d. at any time that you are resting.
18. In their study, Matthew Walker and his colleagues attempted to
a. investigate sleep consciousness.
b. train people to be creative.
c. help people to see connections between abstract ideas.
d. improve on methods used in studying sleep patterns.
19. The study carried out by Matthew Walker and his colleagues revealed
a. sleep did not affect the test results.
b. the time of day did not affect immediate comparisons.
c. making hard comparison right away was easier in the evenings.
d. people remembered information much better if they were tested shortly after training.
20. The word ‘infer’ (underlined in paragraph 6) means the same as
a. exemplify.
b. explain.
c. deduce.
d. interfere.
21. Which of the following conclusions does NOT arise from the article?
a. We need time to link ideas and develop new ones.
b. Sleep helps us make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.
c. While dreaming, we are most likely to link ideas we have not previously connected.
d. It is impossible to link familiar and previously unknown ideas during the daytime.
22. Which of the following titles would best suit this article?
a. Why creative people dream more
b. The link between sleep and creativity
c. Training people to be more creative
d. Are owls more creative than larks?
2.2. Read carefully the text below. Some of the phrases have been removed from the text. Choose
from the options provided below the text, which phrase fits each gap. For questions 23-26 choose
from the first set of options, while for questions 27-30 choose from the second set of options. In
each set there is one extra option that you will not need to use. The text should be cohesive.
Mark your answers on answer sheet 1.
A Toddler’s Brain
Scientists, based at King's College London and Brown University, Rhode Island, studied 108
children with normal brain development between the ages of one and six. They used brain scans to
look at myelin – the insulation layer that develops from birth within the brain. (23)__________ is
fixed from the age of four, suggesting the brain is most plastic in very early life. Any environmental
influences on brain development will be strongest in infanthood, they predict.
(24) __________ gives them the best chance of becoming fluent in both languages, the
research suggests. (25) __________ when environmental influence on cognitive skills may be greatest.
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Dr Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh, from King's College London, led the study. He told the BBC:
"Since our work seems to indicate that brain circuits associated with language are more flexible before
the age of four, early intervention for children with delayed language attainment should be initiated before this critical age. (26) _________ such as autism, since delayed language is a common early
trait."
Early childhood is a time when language skills develop very rapidly. Babies have a vocabulary
of up to 50 words at 12 months, (27) ________. Language skills are localised in the frontal areas of
the left-hand side of the brain. The researchers therefore expected more myelin to develop in the left-
hand side of the brain, as the children learned more language. In fact, they found it remained constant,
but had a stronger influence on language ability before the age of four, (28) _______.
"This work is important as it is the first to investigate the relationship between brain structure
and language across early childhood (29) ______ ," said Dr Sean Deoni from Brown University, a co-
researcher on the study. "This is important since language is commonly altered or delayed in autism
and other developmental disorders".
Commenting on the study, Professor Dorothy Bishop of the department of Developmental
Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford said the research added important new information
about early development of connections in brain regions important for cognitive functions. "There is
some evidence of links with language development (30) ______ ," she said. "Ideally we would need a
longer study following children over time to track how structural brain changes relate to language
function."
(Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-24446292)
For questions 23–26 choose from the list below. There is one extra phrase you will not need to
use.
A. It also suggests that there is a critical time during development
B. To their surprise, they found the distribution of myelin
C. This may be relevant to many developmental disorders
D. However, it doesn’t explain the fact that
E. This explains why immersing children in a bilingual environment before the age of four
For questions 27–30 choose from the list below. There is one extra phrase you will not need to
use.
A. which, in turn, supports the former claim
B. but by the age of six this has expanded to about 5,000 words
C. but it is too early to be confident about functional implications of the findings
D. suggesting there is a chance for interventions in developmental disorders
E. and to demonstrate how this relationship changes with age
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Test 3: Use of English (40 questions, 40 points)
3.1. For questions 31–45 read the text below and decide which option (a, b, c or d) in the table
below best fits each space. Mark your answers on answer sheet 1.
More quickly than almost anyone predicted, e-books are emerging as a serious (31) _____ to
the paper kind. Amazon, comfortably the biggest e-book retailer, has (32) _____ the price of its Kindle
e-readers to the point (33) _____ people do not fear to take them to the beach. The American e-
readers’ market is booming (34) _____ sales of e-books generating nearly a fifth of revenues.
(35) _____ released blockbusters may sell as many digital copies as paper ones. (36) _____ that fact,
many bookshops are closing.
For readers, this is splendid. (37) _____ as Amazon minimised distance by bringing a huge
range of books to out-of-the-way places, it is now saving us time, by (38) _____ readers to download
books instantly. Moreover, anybody can now publish a book (39) _____ Amazon and a number of
(40) ____ online publishers.
For publishers, (41) _____, it is a dangerous time. Book publishing (42) _____ the newspaper
business in the late 1990s, or music in the early 2000s. Although revenues are (43) _____ stable, the
climate is changing. Some of the functions of publishers – packaging books and promoting them to
shops – are becoming obsolete. The tide of self-published books (44) ____ to swamp the publishing
market. As bookshops close, they (45) _____, as the record companies did a decade ago, a near-
monopoly controlling digital distribution. Amazon’s control of the e-book market is like Apple’s
control of music downloads.(Adapted from: http://www.economist.com/node/21528628)
a
b
c
d
31
alternative
replacement
change
substitute
32
fallen
declined
dropped
lower
33
whose
why
which
where
34
about
throughout
with
for
35
Newly
Newest
Quick
Quickest
36
Because
Due to
Foremost
Thanks
37
Right
Rightly
Justly
Just
38
facilitating
letting
enabling
utilizing
39
by
from
through
within
40
other
the others
another
others
41
yet
however
whereas
although
42
recollects
remembers
reminds
resembles
43
fairly
much
better
further
44
intimidates
fears
threatens
worries
45
face
head
shoulder
hand
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3.2. For questions 46–60, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. Write your word on answer sheet 2.
Michelle Obama is pressing ahead (46) ________________ her campaign against child
obesity. Recently she made (47) ________________ clear that Sesame Street’s puppets would
promote fruit and vegetables rather (48) ________________ sugary and fatty fare. Cookie Monster
may
need
to
find
himself
(49) ________________
new
job.
Mrs
Obama’s
fight
(50) ________________obesity in children has several fronts but for the (51) ________________ time
marketing seems an important one. Last September she convened the first White House meeting on
marketing food to children. Their preferences ‘are being shaped (52) ________________ the
marketing campaigns you all create’, she told the assembled executives. ‘And that’s where the
(53) ________________ lies.’
To market anything (54) ________________ might appeal to young consumers is to risk
criticism. Advertising encourages children (55) ________________ drink and smoke, makes them fat
and sexualises them early, its critics claim. To advertise even wholesome products to children, some
think, is to exploit their naivety and thus to deceive them. Crusaders like Mrs Obama
(56) ________________ helped to embarrass companies. Coca Cola agreed (57) ________________
again to advertise to children younger than twelve (58) ________________ in the world. Last year
Disney promised not to promote junk food on television programmes for children.
Some of the many restrictions on marketing were imposed with youngsters in
(59) ________________. These are to (60) ________________ tightened.
(Adapted from: The Economist, Nov 23, 2013, ‘Cookie Monster Crumbles’)
3.3. For questions 61–70, read the text below. Use the words in square brackets to form a word
that fits the space next to it. There is an example at the beginning marked (0). Write the word
clearly on answer sheet 2. Remember to check the spelling is correct.
Example:
0 placements
Record numbers of graduate jobs will be reserved for students who have already enjoyed
(0) placements[place] at Britain’s top companies despite concerns that (61) ______________ [intern]
are being dominated by those with well-connected parents.
Research shows that vacancies for university (62) ______________ [leave] are set to soar to a
seven-year high this summer as employers boost (63) ______________ [recruit] levels for the first
time since the economic downturn. Over half the recruiters who took part in the research repeated their
(64) ______________ [warn] that graduates who have had no previous work experience at all are
(65) ______________ [like] to be successful during the (66) ______________ [select] process and
have little or no chance of receiving a job offer from their organisation for their graduate programmes.
The (67) ____________ [consider] increase in graduate vacancies at Britain’s top employers
demonstrate that job prospects for graduates are very good and that (68) ______________ [confident]
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in the UK economy has grown (69) ____________ [significant]. Businesses really value the skills the
UK’s first-rate graduates can bring to their companies in return for a (70) ______________ [reward]
career.
(Adapted from: http://www.economist.com/node/21528628)
Test 4: Writing (40 points)
Write a short composition (200–250 words) expressing your opinion on the following statement:
To encourage healthy eating, higher taxes should be imposed on soft drinks and junk food.
Do you agree? Why? / Why not?
Write your answer on answer sheet 3.
THIS IS THE END OF THE TEST
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1 A
2 C
3 B
4 B
5 A
6 A
7 C
8 A
9 b
10 b
11 a
12 a
13 b
14 b
15 b
16 c
17 c
18 a
19 b
20 c
21 d
22 b
23 B
24 E
25 A
26 C
(D not used)
27 B
28 D
29 E
30 C
(A not used)
31 A
32 C
33 D
34 C
35 A
36 B
37 D
38 C
39 C
40 A
41 B
42 D
43 A
44 C
45 A
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47 it
48 than
49 a
50 against
51 present
52 by
53 issue/problem/truth
54 that/which
55 to
56 have
57 never
58 anywhere/throughout
59 mind
60 be
61 internships
62 leavers
63 recruitment
64 warning(s)
65 unlikely
66 selection
67 considerable
68 confidence
69 significantly
70 rewarding
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1.1
I do not twitter, and yet there are thousands who wait for me to tweet. I'm sure you understood what I
mean – that, while I have a Twitter account, I almost never use it. I'm not sure why I don't. Partly
because there seems something embarrassing, self-advertising about it. Partly because I just don't have
the habit. My 14-year-old daughter not only sends tweets. She speaks tweets. Yet I have many Twitter
followers – only because everyone even marginally public does. And I leave them unsatisfied,
untweeted.
Technological transformation affects us emotionally. New gadgets are like new pets, new babies, but
transformational influence on our lives is, nevertheless, quite minimal. After the introduction of a new
device, or social media, our lives are exactly where they were before, save for the new thing or
service, which we now cannot live without.
I couldn't live without my laptop. The idea of going back to a typewriter is impossible to imagine. But
my professional writing life is neatly divided between the typewriting era and the word-processing era,
and I was exactly as productive when I was banging keys and struggling with correcting fluid as I am
now. The most productive writers who ever lived, lived even before the typewriter. I think that
Dickens or Balzac would have written as many lines with or without it, or with or without a computer.
To describe my relationship to my laptop I need the language of affection – I need it, I depend on it,
I'm attached to it – more than the language of real necessity. I couldn't do my work without it? Well, I
could. I did.
And, while I merely like my laptop, I love my smartphone. I clutch my phone tight to myself, I hold it
in my hand like a talisman – a feeling of panic overcomes me when in a strange city I find I have
mislaid it, or that I forgot to bring its charger. But has it altered the shape of my days?
No – less than a decade ago I had no smartphone at all, and nothing was significantly different in my
life... except for the possession of my phone. I never felt particularly remote from my family. I seemed
to get all the email I need. I talked to my wife as often, I worried about my kids as much, I was in the
same amount of contact, with my friends. Like so much modern media technology, it creates a
dependency without ever actually addressing a need.
And while information technology gets all the glamour, all the really great revolutions in modern
times have involved transportation more than information. It's true. That I can travel from New York
to London overnight really has changed my life. The speed of human travelhas changed, but once the
miracle of speed-of-light communication was achieved more than a century and a half ago by the
telegraph, each advance since has been, so to speak, has essentially been small in comparison.
The one thing about the future that we know for certain is that whatever seems most modern now will
look most comic in the future to come. Hashtags and twitter feeds will say "2014" as much as the
cranks on cars say, maybe, 1906, or fax machines the 1990s. Knowing that the future will laugh at us,
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we still cannot take part now in that laughter without being alienated from our age. So: I shall arise now, and twitter for the first time. I have in mind to tweet these simple words: Nothing is real.
(Adapted from: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26066325)
1.2
Interviewer: David de Rothschild is an adventurer, an environmentalist, and an explorer. He has
travelled across Antarctica, set a speed record crossing the Greenland ice cap, and reached the North
Pole with hungry polar bears following him. Now he's getting ready for his next adventure: sailing to
Australia in a boat made from recycled plastic bottles! It is good to have you with us today. Let's start
with when you were a child. What were you like as a kid?
David: I was very inquisitive, curious, and mischievous. I was always asking questions. Asking
questions really led me to where I am today. Asking questions leads you on adventures and adventures
are breeding grounds for stories. From stories we create our dreams. Adventures can be spending time
with your friends in a tent in the backyard. Kids are the agents of change. It's important to remember
that nothing is impossible.
I: Do you have a hero?
David: My uncle is my hero. He is Peter Robeson and an Olympic show jumper.
I: What do you daydream about?
David: I grew up on a farm and we all dreamed about being veterinarians. I have two dogs that go
everywhere with me and sleep in my bed and on my head. One is a miniature schnauzer named Nesta,
and the other is an English bull terrier named Smudge. But I still dream all the time and I think it's
important to let your mind take you where you want to go. And then act on them. It's also important to
pay attention in school. Looking back, I would have paid more attention in biology and geography.
I: How did you get into your field of work?
David: I studied natural medicine and it led me to questions of why we use the things we do and
thoughts of you are what you breathe. These kinds of questions led me to where I am today and led me
on an adventure.
I: What’s a normal day like for you?
David: I don't know what that means. I don't ever really have a "normal" day. My day usually starts very early in the morning and ends very late at night. I spend a lot of time talking to people, writing,
responding to lots of e-mails, and meeting with scientists and engineers working on the boat. And I
take time to stay fit and healthy—so it's a very full day.
I: What's the best place you've ever travelled to?
David: The best place is the place that I haven't travelled to. The world is so vast. I mean I'd love to go to Madagascar and back down to Antarctica again. But every place is an adventure. So ask me that
again when I am 70 years old!
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I: What's the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you that you can share with others?
David: There are two really. One is to be honest. Always treat other people the way you would want
to be treated. And the second one is don't be afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. You
aren't going to know if you don't try.
(Based on: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/david-de-rothschild/)
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