(Avaliable in: https://theplaylist.net/matrix-4-keanu-reeves-script-20200608/ – text adapted specially for this test). 

An interview with Paolo Kwan, 20, from Hong Kong, who is improving his English while studying Business Administration at Sierra College in northern California.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO STUDY IN THE USA?

It provides a nice education in a beautiful country. When I was younger I used to watch American movies and I wanted to visit the United States. They always talked about the American dream, and I wanted to come and see it.

HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR INTENSIVE ENGLISH PROGRAM?

Sierra College is one of the biggest community colleges in northern California. It is in a quiet location but has a beautiful campus.

The college has a good business program. I can study for two years at Sierra College and then two years at my transfer school to earn my degree.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST?

I also enjoy the quality of the teaching at the college. There is a writing center where I can go at any time. The teachers can make suggestions to improve my essay, regarding grammar and my vocabulary. At the Math Center, they can explain in detail the problems.

WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST?

I miss the food and also my family.

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST SURPRISE?

I was surprised by the cultural difference. The taste and style of food is very different. The amount of food is a lot larger. A small portion in the USA is a large portion in Hong Kong. When people from America find out that I am from another country they ask a lot of questions. They are very interested in you and finding out about Hong Kong. 

... YOUR BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT?

I have not had any since I came here. 

HOW HAVE YOU HANDLED:

... LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES?

It is important not to be shy, as that does not help you when you are trying to improve your language. I make sure that I study, practice and speak as often as I can—that is the only way to improve. ...

FINANCES?

I am being supported by my family.

... ADJUSTING TO A DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM?

The American system is much more open. In Hong Kong you just learn what the teacher writes on the board. In America, you discuss the issues and focus more on ideas

WHAT ARE YOUR ACTIVITIES?

I am interested in traveling around the USA. I have been to San Francisco, which you can reach by train from Sierra College. In my free time I go out with friends. 

HOW EASY OR DIFFICULT IS MAKING FRIENDS?

It has not been that hard to make friends in the USA. Other people at the college are friendly and want to make friends as well.

HOW IS YOUR U.S. EDUCATION RELEVANT TO YOUR PERSONAL GOALS AND TO THE NEEDS OF YOUR COUNTRY?

I think that the U.S. education system will provide me with good resources and skills to be able to support myself in order to get hired in my own country

WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO OTHER STUDENTS?

An awesome life experience is waiting for you in the future. You will learn so much more than you think. Nothing is impossible, so go ahead and give it a try.

Adapted from: https://www.studyusa.com

Australia fires: What's being done to fight the flames?

Large parts of Australia __________ (devastate) by the worst wildfires the country __________ (see) in decades, with huge blazes tearing through bush, woodland and national parks. Record-breaking temperatures and months of drought __________ (help) the fires burn an estimated 10 million hectares (100,000 sq km) of land since 1 July.

Bushfire conditions EASED over the weekend, giving fire crews a period of temporary respite. But authorities __________ (say) the huge fires will persist until there is substantial rainfall. More hot weather is __________ (expect) next week and the risk was far from over, they said. Thousands of firefighters are still battling blazes across large swathes of Australia - ranging in size from small fires to infernos burning across hectares of land. Entire towns have been engulfed and residents across several states have lost their homes. At least 28 people have died.

State and federal authorities have been working together to try to stem the spread. While they have managed to contain some within a matter of days, the biggest blazes have been burning for months.

At least 3,700 firefighters are on the ground at any one time across the country during the worst periods, according to the country's state fire services. Most are in the worst-hit states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria. When fires have been at their worst, about 2,700 firefighters have been battling the blazes at any one time in NSW alone. Ben Shepherd, of the NSW Rural Fire Service, said his colleagues had dealt with 4.2m hectares of burning land this season, compared with the typical 300,000 hectares. "It's been an incredibly long campaign," he said.

Fire crews across the country have been joined by 3,000 army, navy and air force reservists who are assisting with search and rescue and clean-up efforts. Further support coming from the US, Canada, and New Zealand, who have sent additional teams and equipment to help.

                                         (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51008051 )

Instruction: Answer questions 41 to 53 based on the following text.

Why Learning Is A New Procrastination

1. The tremendous world of online courses, blogs, social media, free eBooks, podcasts, and
2. webinars provides the best ever opportunity to broaden your knowledge in almost every sphere
3. you can imagine. Thanks to technological advancement and the instant access to the internet,
4. everyone can now study from home. It seems like it would be foolishly not to seize this
5. opportunity and improve your skills and knowledge. Moreover, you are kind of forced to do so
6. since the contemporary world has raised the bar higher than ever before. It literally invited you
7. to gather the pace and ___________ even more.
8. It is not surprising that, ultimately, you try to be everywhere and do everything. No doubt,
9. you do your best to constantly gather tiny bits of information from as many channels as
10. possible, because you are afraid that you will fall behind if you stop. After all, you enter a
11. learning crunch mode. You do not afford to miss anything and try to read every book you could
12. get your hands on. You listen to every single podcast your smartphone could download and take
13. every online course your paycheck would allow to take.
14. All in all, you learn. As much as possible. As intense as you manage to. You learn how to
15. write and publish a new book. You learn how to launch a successful blog. You learn how to hit
16. your goal on Kickstarter. You learn how to build the next “unicorn”. You learn how to land a job
17. of your dream. You learn how to successfully sell thousands of items on Amazon. You learn how
18. to make millions of dollars in passive income.
19. However, the problem is that you do everything except taking action. All those activities do
20. not take you closer to the things you want to accomplish. Better knowledge does not make you
21. more influential, powerful, and successful unless you apply it. The key secret to success is not
22. ________ expertise, but the ability to use it.
23. Knowledge is worthless unless it is applied. Needless to say that studying is crucial.
24. However, the thing is that it should take the entirely new form now. You should stop learning
25. from someone else’s experiences, knowledge, failures, and wins and start learning from your
26. own mistakes, adventures, ___________, and bold actions.
27. Learning has become a major trend of the 21st century. Sadly, it has also become a new
28. form of procrastination. You consciously postpone the first step justifying this by your eagerness
29. to broaden the knowledge and learn new things. You put the start date off justifying this by
30. your desire to pick up new skills that would help you succeed faster. You procrastinate over
31. chasing your own aspirations because doing the things on your own and creating your own story
32. of success is far more complicated than reading about someone else’s one. Meanwhile, no one
33. would really reproach you for wasting your time. Also, you feel comfortable about staying within
34. this zone of ease and convenience forever.
35. However, the point is that you already have and know everything you need to start off. In
36. fact, there is nothing more you need to learn in order to take the first step. Embrace the truth.
37. No matter how good your theoretical knowledge is, you will face a lot of obstacles while
38. applying it. You will have to deal with issues that have never been described or covered in any
39. book. You will have to look for the solutions and make the spontaneous decisions that no one
40. probably has ever thought of. You will have to design your own road to success.
41. Transform your learning process from the continuous the procrastination into an
42. unstoppable process of absorbing invaluable expertise based on your own experience. It might
43. seem counterintuitive, but the old-fashioned way of learning is what holds you back. This is
44. what makes your triumphs suck.
45. Constant learning, evaluating of ideas, thinking, and visualizing your journey towards your
46. major aspirations will not take you far from the place you are now. Actions will. You can sit and
47. research, and research, and research, while someone else is already reaping huge rewards for
48. his or her fruitful and hard work. Stop learning now. Become bold enough to take the first step
49. and start learning from your own experience.

Source: https://medium.com/the-coffeelicious/why-learning-is-a-new-procrastination-104b53107e8b

INSTRUCTIONS: Read the following text carefully and then choose the correct alternatives that answer the questions.

Source:<https://www.newsweek.com/9-life-lessons-matt-kepnes-learned-being-nomad-ten-years-1448511>.  Access on: July 28th. 2019. Adapted.

While at home in Ireland my poor mother wept bitter tears at the thought of her daughter with the university education serving hamburgers to pop stars.

I had been working there about six months the night I met James. It was a Friday night, which was traditionally the night the OJs frequented our restaurant. “OJ” standing, of course, for Office Jerks.

At five o’clock every Friday, like graves disgorging their dead, offices all over the center of London liberated their staffs for the weekend so that hordes of pale, cheapsuited clerks descended on us.

It was de rigueur for us waitresses to stand around sneering disdainfully at the besuited clientele, shaking our heads in disbelieving pity at the attire, hairstyles, etc., of the poor customers.

On the night in question, James and three of his colleagues sat in my section and I attended to their needs in my normal irresponsible and slapdash fashion. I paid them almost no attention whatsoever, barely listened to them as I took their order and certainly made no eye contact with them. If I had I might have noticed that one of them (yes, James, of course) was very handsome, in a black-haired, green-eyed, five-foottenish kind of way. I should have looked beyond the suit and seen the soul of the man.

Oh, shallowness, thy name is Clare.

But I wanted to be out back with the other waitresses, drinking beer and smoking and talking about sex. Customers were an unwelcome interference.

“Can I have my stake very rare?” asked one of the men.

“Um,” I said vaguely. I was even more uninterested than usual because I had noticed a book on the table. It was a really good book, one that I had read myself.

I loved books. And I loved reading. And I loved men who read. I loved a man who knew his existentialism from his magi-realism.And I had spent the last six months working with people who could just about manage to read Stage magazine (laboriously mouthing the words silently as they did so). I suddenly realized, with a pang, how much I missed the odd bit of intelligent conversation.

Suddenly the people at this table stopped being mere irritants and took on some sort of identity for me.

“Who owns this book?” I asked abruptly, interrupting the order placing.

The table of four men were startled. I had spoken to them! I had treated them almost as if they were human!

“I do,” said James, and as my blue eyes met his green eyes across his mango daiquiri, that was it, the silvery magic dust was sprinkled on us. In that instant something wonderful happened. From the moment we really looked at each other, we both knew we had met someone special.

I maintained that we fell in love immediately.

He maintained nothing of the sort, and said that I was a romantic fool. He claimed it took at least thirty seconds longer for him to fall in love with me.

First of all he had to establish that I had read the book in question also. Because he thought that I must be some kind of not-so-bright model or singer if I was working there. You know, the same way that I had written him off as some kind of subhuman clerk. Served me right.

KEYES, Marian. Watermelon. New York: Perennial, HarperCollins, 2002 (Edited).

Instruction: Answer question based on the following text.

Matilda: an extra-ordinary bookworm! – Lesson Plan

Source: https://www.roalddahl.com/docs/MatildaLessonPlan201_1567179949.pdf