GRADE:

UNIVERSIDAD PONTIFICIA BOLIVARIANA

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
LANGUAGE CENTER
ENGLISH IV MIDTERM EXAM
PERCENTAGE OF THE TEST: 30%
DURATION OF THE EXAM: 1 HOUR AND 30 MINUTES

NAME: ___________________________________ ID: ____________ DATE: _____________

PURPOSE: To test students´ communicative competence for this level by means of oral and
written tasks related to describing past habits, life changes, hypothetical or unlikely future
situations by talking about history, nature, travel and holidays, as well as a production of a
descriptive paragraph about childhood memories or a forum entry about winning the lottery.
ORAL COMPREHENSION (15 POINTS)

A. Listen to Neil, Harry and Catherine talking about the places they would love to visit for
a dream holiday and answer the following questions by writing the appropriate name on
the line (3 points, 1 each)
Taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/lower-intermediate/unit-24/session-4

1) Who would like to do something really active?_______________________

2) Who would like to be free from technology?_________________________
3) Who would like to look at some sea creatures?______________________

B. Listen to the speakers again and complete the following statements by using second
conditionals (5 points, 1 each)
Taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/lower-intermediate/unit-24/session-4

Speaker 1 : Neil

1). I've got a terrible sense of direction, so it wouldn't really matter if__________________

2). if I went to the Arctic Circle, cycling, I _______________________________________

3) If I didn't have children, I _______________________________________ this summer

Speaker 2 : Harry

4). If I Harry could go on vacation, He __________________________________________

Speaker 3 : Catherine

5). If I could go anywhere in the world, I ________________________________________

6). If I was on safari, I _____________________________________________________

C. Listen to the woman discussing a holiday. Then circle the best option. (6 points, 1
each) Taken from: http://www.ngllife.com/student-zone-grammar-practice-worksheets/pre-intermediate Unit 10 lesson 10b

1) The woman couldn’t have relaxing holiday because she didn’t stop thinking about work.

True False Don’t say

2) The woman felt frustrated with the hotel service because she was ignored several times.

True False Don’t say

 3) In the woman’s holiday, there was a woman who talks all the time.

True False Don’t say

4) The friendly waiter at the hotel tell jokes to the guests and all of them are amused.

True False Don’t say

5) The woman felt uncomfortable when she danced with the waiter because everyone was
looking at them.

True False Don’t say

6) The woman flew the next day and she felt depressed to be home.

True False Don’t say

WRITTEN COMPREHENSION (15 POINTS)

A. In the reading “Wild weather”, there are some examples of direct questions. Change
these direct questions into indirect questions. (3 points, 1 each). Taken from:
http://www.ngllife.com/wild-weather-0

1). What is happening to our weather?

____________________________________________________________________________

2). Why are people talking about it these days?

____________________________________________________________________________

3). Are they caused by human activity and its effects on the Earth’s climate?
____________________________________________________________________________

Wild Weather
What is happening to our weather?

What is ‘extreme’ weather? Why are people talking about it these days?
Extreme’ weather is an unusual weather event such as rainfall, a drought or a heat
wave in the wrong place or at the wrong time. In theory, they are very rare. But these
days, our TV screens are constantly showing such extreme weather events. Take just
three news stories from 2010: 28 centimetres of rain fell on Rio de Janeiro in 24 hours,
Nashville, USA, had 33 centimetres of rain in two days and there was record rainfall in
Pakistan.

The effects of this kind of rainfall are dramatic and lethal. In Rio de Janeiro,
landslides followed, burying hundreds of people. In Pakistan, the floods affected 20
million people. Meanwhile, other parts of the world suffer devastating droughts.
Australia, Russia and East Africa have been hit in the last ten years. And then there
are unexpected heat waves, such as in 2003 in Europe. That summer, 35,000 deaths
 were said to be heat-related.

So, what is happening to our weather? Are these extreme events part of a
natural cycle? Or are they caused by human activity and its effects on the Earth’s
climate? Peter Miller says it’s probably a mixture of both of these things. On the one
hand, the most important influences on weather events are natural cycles in the
climate. Two of the most famous weather cycles, El Niño and La Niña, originate in the
Pacific Ocean. The heat from the warm ocean rises high into the atmosphere and
affects weather all around the world. On the other hand, the temperature of the Earth’s
oceans is slowly but steadily going up. And this is a result of human activity. We are
producing greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This heat
warms up the atmosphere, land and oceans. Warmer oceans produce more water
vapour – think of heating a pan of water in your kitchen. Turn up the heat, it produces
steam more quickly. Satellite data tells us that the water vapour in the atmosphere has
gone up by four percent in 25 years. This warm, wet air turns into the rain, storms,
hurricanes and typhoons that we are increasingly experiencing.

Climate scientist, Michael Oppenheimer, says that we need to face the reality
of climate change. And we also need to act now to save lives and money in the future.
Keywords: 
air (n) the mixture of gases that is around the Earth and that we breathe
atmosphere (n) the air around the Earth
climate (n) the general weather conditions that are typical of a place
cycle (n) a series of things that are repeated again and again
death (n) the end of life
drought (n) a long period of time without rain
event (n) something that happens, especially something important or unusual
heat (n) the quality of being warm, or the temperature of something that is warm
hit (v) to have a bad effect on someone or something
lethal (adj) extremely dangerous and causing death
rainfall (n) the amount of rain that falls
steam (n) the hot mist that forms when water boils

B. Read text of wild weather and choose the correct option. (3 points, 1 each)
1). What happened after the extreme rain in Rio de Janeiro?
a. There were major floods.
b. There were many deaths.
c. Millions of people were affected.
2). What caused many deaths in 2003?
a. a period of hot weather
b. floods that followed a bad summer
c. a long drought
3). Where does atmospheric water vapour come from?

a. the land
b. the ocean
c. greenhouse gases

C. Read text of wild weather again and re-write the content of the statements in reported
speech. (3 points, 1 each)
 1). Helen said, “In Pakistan, the floods affected 20 million people”.
______________________________________________________________________
2). Peter said, “The most important influences on weather events are natural cycles in
the climate”
_____________________________________________________________________

3). Peter said, “We are producing greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth’s
atmosphere”
_____________________________________________________________________
READING 2

A. Read the article “Ecotourism”. Put the headings a–f in the correct place 1–6 in the
text.. (3 points, 0.5 each). Taken from:
http://www.macmillaninspiration.com/new/files/2012/05/Culture_NI_3_Your_holidaytheir_home.pdf

a) Is more infrastructure always bad?

b) What is ecotourism?
c) Is tourism always good?
d) How popular is ecotourism?
e) What exactly does ecotourism mean?
f) Is ecotourism really possible?

B. Read the article “Ecotourism” again and circle True or False according to the
information in the text (3 points, 1 each). Taken from:
http://www.macmillaninspiration.com/new/files/2012/05/Culture_NI_3_Your_holidaytheir_home.pdf

1 The writer thinks that tourism should be stopped. True / False

2 Ecotourism is about making more money from tourists. True / False
 3 More roads and buildings are built because of tourism. True / False

WRITTEN PRODUCTION (10 POINTS)

Select one of the topics below and write a 12 lines composition about it.

Topic 1: Think about your childhood memories, write about what you used to do when you were
a child and what you do not do now. Use the form of used to, past simple and past perfect
tenses. Also, use appropriate connectors.

Topic 2: What would you do if you won the lottery? Imagine you have won the biggest lottery
prize ever, write about the ways you would spend the money by using second conditional. Also,
use appropriate connectors.

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

GRADING CRITERIA
Your written production is going to be assessed through these criteria.

QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT
Needs
Criteria Score Very
Excellent Good Average to
good
improve
1. Grammar use _____ / 2.5
2. Vocabulary use and spelling _____ / 2.5
3. Text extension _____ / 2.0
4. Content and coherence _____ / 3.0
TOTAL SCORE _____ / 10

ORAL INTERACTION (10 POINTS)

In this section, you will have a group interview with your teacher and classmates. You will
be asked about different topics in which you will have to use the contents and forms
studied in class. Your oral interaction is going to be assessed through these criteria.

VOCABULAR
TASK ACCURAC PRONUNCIATIO COMPREHENSIBILIT Y, GRAMMAR
TOTA
COMPLETIO Y AND N AND Y, COHERENCE AND AND USED
ASPECT L
N FLUENCY INTONATION COHESION EXPRESSION
S TO S
ASSESS
/2.0 /2.0 /2.0 /2.0 /2.0 /10

Feedback comments:
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________