B1 Mintafeladat

Az olvasáskészség és nyelvismeret vizsgafeladatok megoldhatók a weboldalon.

Read the following text. Answer the questions (1-8) after the text in a maximum of FOUR words on the lines that follow the questions. There is an example (0) at the beginning.

DALI

Dali started creating from a young age. He was painting in oils by the time he was 10 and was producing accomplished works by the time he was 15.

Dali was a bit of a rebel and was thrown out of school because he thought he knew more than his teachers.

Dali not only did paintings, he turned his hand to writing and made surreal films including 'Un Chien Andalou' which included a weird collection of donkeys, ants and eyeballs.

Although born in Spain in 1904 he lived his later life in the USA working with Walt Disney and film director Alfred Hitchcock.

Dali designed one of the most famous sofas in the world in 1936; it was in the shape of a giant pair of red lips inspired by Hollywood actress Mae West. Dali was a larger than life character and wore flamboyant clothes; he was also well known for his curly moustache.

Unlike many artists Dali was recognised for his talent in his own lifetime and he could sell his work for lots of money. This was helped by his talent for self publicity.

Dali was part of a group of artists called the Surrealists, which also included Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte and Joan Miro. This group believed that the unexpected and the unbelievable could happen in art. They liked to combine strange objects together like Dali did with the lobster and the telephone. Dali called his paintings "hand-painted dream photographs". The melting clocks and group of ants in The Persistence of Memory are images that feature in many of Dali's paintings and show the weird dream-like quality of his work. Dali liked to do 'surreal' things outside of painting and once delivered a lecture in London in a diving suit! Nearly suffocating during the presentation, Dali had to be rescued by the young poet, David Gascoyne.

Read the following text. Parts of some sentences are missing from the text. Choose the most suitable part from the list (A-J) for each gap (1-8) in the text. There is ONE EXTRA part that you do not need to use. Write your answers in the gaps. There is an example (0) at the beginning.

African elephant

The African elephant is the largest mammal that lives on land.

Males can be up to four metres tall (0) . They have extra-large ears that they flap when (1) . Unlike their Asian cousins, both male and female African elephants have tusks.

These intelligent creatures talk to one another (2) - so low, in fact, that we can't even hear them. It's as if they had their own built-in mobile phones! This explains why two elephants can act as one, even if (3) . Elephants also make a sort of rumbling sound while digesting their food. If they are in danger they turn this sound off (4) .

Elephant trunks are the Swiss army knives of the animal kingdom, which act as a combined trumpet, water pistol, siphon, shower and feeding tool. They are strong enough (5) , yet delicate enough to pick up a berry. Elephants use their trunks to feed with, and their vegetarian diet consists of plants, shoots, twigs, leaves and fruit.

African elephants live in close groups of around 10 females and their calves. Females give birth to a single calf every two to four years. Elephants form close family bonds, and protect any younger (6). When the males (bulls) are about 12 years old they leave the group (7). Then they form their own groups or wander on their own.

People sometimes say that elephants never forget, and it's true that older elephants will show the younger ones (8) . This sort of knowledge is vital because an African elephant can drink as much as 50 gallons of water a day.

Read the following text. Choose the best word from the list (A-L) for each gap (1-10) in the text, and write its letter in the gap. There is ONE EXTRA word that you do not need to use. There is an example (0) at the beginning.

Visiting Washington this summer?

George Washington's plantation home lies about 20 kilometers south of Washington, (0) the Potomac River. But tourists have no (1) finding it.

It's Spring - prime tourist season in the Washington, D.C., area. But sweltering summer weather will (2) arrive along the Potomac River, and America's most famous farmhouse is ready. Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, the nation's first president, (3) air-conditioned.

What's so special about that? The owners of historic properties wrestle with a basic question: Should we preserve our treasure as close (4) possible to its condition when famous people lived or worked here? After all, we do things like scraping through layers of paint just to find and restore authentic colors from a century or two ago. Or should we bend our preservationist principles and make the place comfortable (5) visitors and staff?

The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association - the nation's first preservationist organization that once saved Washington's estate from ruin after the U.S. Civil War - struggled mightily with this dilemma. For years (6) members opposed any climate-control measures, noting that George and Martha Washington certainly never flipped on an air-conditioning switch. They also worried that the installation (7) a/c would damage plaster and wallpaper and wood.

When the Mount Vernon Ladies decided (8) go ahead and put in the cooling system a few years (9) , two key staff members resigned in protest. One called the move unethical. But renovation forces won out. Air conditioning would (10) preserve valuable furniture and musical instruments that heat and humidity were degrading, they argued.