Part 2

You are going to read an article about a woman who is a downhill mountain-bike racer. Seven
sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A – H the one which fits
each gap (9 – 15). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Downhill racer A I’ve fallen off more times than I care to E The attitude was: how much skill do you
remember. need to sit on a saddle and point a bike
Anna Jones tells of her move from skiing to downhill mountain biking and her rapid rise up
in the same direction for a few minutes?
the ranks to her current position as one of the top five downhill racers in the country. B I usually have to stop during practice
At the age of seven I had learnt to ski and When you’re riding well, you are right on the sessions. F I finished last, but it didn’t matter as I
really enjoyed it.
by fourteen I was competing internationally. edge, as close as you can be to being out of
C The courses were twice as long and the
When I was eighteen a close friend was injured control. 12 However, you quickly learn crowds were twice as big. G Nothing could be further from the truth.
in a ski race, and as a result, I gave up how to do it so as not to injure yourself. And it’s
f c e h a n d b o o k f o r te ac h e r s | pa p e r 1 : r e a d i n g | sa m p l e pa p e r – te s t 1

competitive skiing. To fill the gap that skiing part of the learning process as you have to push D I’m not strong enough in my arms, so I’ve H It’s not all stardom and glamour, though.
been doing a lot of upper-body training
had left I decided to swap two planks of wood for yourself and try new skills to improve. this year.
two wheels with big tyres.
Initially, downhill racing wasn’t taken seriously as a
My first race was a cross-country race in 1995. mountain-biking discipline. 13 But things
It wasn’t an amazing success. 9 After are changing and riders are now realising that
entering a few more cross-country races, a local they need to train just as hard for downhill racing
bike shop gave me a downhill bike to try. I as they would do for cross-country.
entered a downhill race, fell off, but did
The races are run over ground which is generally
reasonably well in the end, so I switched to
closer to vertical than horizontal, with jumps,
downhill racing.
drop-offs, holes, corners and nasty rocks and
I think my skiing helped a lot as I was able to trees to test your nerves as well as technical
transfer several skills such as cornering and skill. At the end of a run, which is between two
weight-balance to mountain biking. This year I’m and three minutes in this country your legs hurt

Test 1 Part 2 (questions 9–15)

riding for a famous British team and there are so much they burn. 14 But in a race,
races almost every weekend from March through you’re so excited that you switch off to the pain
to September. 10 In fact, there’s quite a until you’ve finished.
lot of putting up tents in muddy fields.
A lot of people think that you need to spend
Last season I was selected to represent Great thousands of pounds to give downhill mountain
Britain at both the European and World biking a go. 15 A reasonable beginner’s
Championships. Both events were completely

PAPER 1: READING
downhill bike will cost you around £400 and the
different from the UK race scene. 11 I basic equipment, of a cycle helmet, cycle shorts
was totally in awe, racing with the riders I had and gloves, around £150. Later on you may
been following in magazines. The atmosphere want to upgrade your bike and get a full-face
was electric and I finished about mid-pack. crash helmet, since riders are now achieving
speeds of up to 80 kilometres per hour.
Mountain biking is a great sport to be in. People
ask me if downhill racing is really scary. I say,
‘Yes it is, and I love it.’ Every time I race I scare
myself silly and then say, ‘Yeah let’s do it again.’

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