Practice Tests for National Team – Nguyen Hoang Lan - MA

READING PRACTICE TEST

Part 1. For questions 1 - 18, read the three texts below and decide which answer (A. B, C or D) best fits each gap.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
Classical music and the young
Classical music in Britain leaves young people (1 )....... researchers have warned. An entire
generation of young fans are being (2).... by the formality, stuffiness and affluent atmosphere of
concert settings. The study found that concert attendances by young British people had plummeted
since 1990. Younger audiences distrusted cultural institutions, including orchestras, which they (3 )....
as authoritarian. The researchers found that only 12% of British people went to a classical concert last
year. This was a sharper fall than in festivals, the visual arts or the theatre, suggesting people who
went into a concert hall did not like what they found and did not (4 ).... a second visit.
(5 ).... , younger generations were not picking up the live classical music habit as they grew older,
despite the fact that nearly 40% of 18-24 year-olds (6).... in to classical music radio stations.
1 A dry B still C sick D cold
2 A held back B put off C set aside D pulled up
3 A perceived B observed c countenanced D envisaged
4 A take B pay c offer D afford
5 A Even so B Given this c Worse still D Nevertheless
6 A dialled B clicked c switched D tuned

Coaching
Coaching. It‘s a word that brings to mind boxers going on early morning runs trailed by a man on a
bike. But, despite the cliches, coaching has probably never enjoyed a better (7 ).... in the UK, with
sports coaches being brought over from abroad and hailed for their messianic ability to transform their
team‘s fortunes. In addition, some more forward-thinking businesses are beginning to see the (8) ....
of coaching, both for themselves as corporate (9 )...., and for individual employees or departments.
Nowadays, coaching in a personal or business (1 0).... is concerned with change and
development. Coaches can help identify (11).... of behaviour, or obstacles that are preventing people
from achieving their (1 2) But coaches don‘t necessarily provide definitive answers - being more
concerned with establishing a dialogue and encouraging clients to provide their own solutions.
7 A publication B broadcast C press D report
8 A profits B benefits C improvements D returns
9 A entities B objects c units D items
10 A condition B reference c context D background
11 A orders B plans c designs D patterns
12 A potential B capacity c competence D prospect
Leonardo da Vinci
Bom in Italy in 1452, Leonardo da Vinci began his career as a painter, but his ambitions led him far
beyond the decorative arts. Leonardo was an individual whose genius (13).... the whole range of
human creative endeavour. The fields to which his inventions (1 4).... include anatomy, nautical
engineering and linguistics. His handwritten notebooks resemble nothing less than a modern
encyclopaedia of technology, yet they were put together before printing had come of (1 5)......
By the same token, a (1 6).... number of Leonardo‘s inventions anticipate advances in modem
technology by several centuries: his flying machine, rolling mill and pendulum clock, to (1 7).... but a
few. Acute observation and the precision of his anatomical drawings enabled him to arrive at insights
concerning the working of the human body not matched by medicine for another century and a half.
His extraordinary vision takes us in a single (1 8).... from the mindset of the 16th Century into

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modernity.
13 A engulfed B spanned C engrossed Dswamped
14 A furnished B offered C contributed Ddedicated
15 A time B age C being Dlife
16 A remarkable B prominent C profound Dserious
17 A name B state C pick Dlabel
18 A spring B leap C dive D sprint
Part 2. For questions 1–8, fill each gap with ONE suitable word to complete the text.
INTERPRETING HISTORY
One of the most common problems students face in learning to become thoughtful readers of historical
narrative is ridding (1)_______ of the desire to find the one ‗right‘ answer, the one essential fact, the one
authoritative interpretation. These problems are, of course, deeply (2)_______ in the way textbooks present
history; as a(n) (3)_______ of facts marching straight to a settled outcome. To overcome these problems
requires teaching students to look at more than one source; to use the rich (4)_______ of historical
documents available that present alternative accounts, voices, and (5)_______ on the past. Because history
is a dialogue amongst historians not just about what events took place in the past, but about how and why
those events (6)_______ what we know and believe about the past constantly changes. Because of this,
some philosophers argue that history is too subjective to be of much (7)_______. But absolute truth is a rare
commodity in this world. It is no less available from history than it is from other academic fields, like science.
Conscientious historians are aware of the pitfalls in their (8)_______ for historical truth and try to avoid them.
Likewise, students of history aware of the subject‘s inherent limitations are better prepared to study and
interpret it.
Part 4. Read the text below and answer questions 9–29.
THE RISE AND FALL OF YOUTH SUBCULTURES
A
Ask anyone British in their 50s, 60s and 70s to look back at their youth and they will doubtless name a
plethora of different subcultures. There were the Mods (Modernists) with their tailor-made suits, motor
scooters and R&B music, and their great rivals, the Rockers, a biker subculture, who wore leatherjackets and
listened to Rock and Roll. Hippies, who emerged in America and spread across the world, represented a
more peaceful group. With their longhair and garish clothes, they opposed all forms of violence and the
‗establishment‘, as they called mainstream society. Jumping forward to the 1970s, we see the rise of Punk.
Instantly recognisable with their drainpipe jeans, kilts, safety pins and Mohicans, they perhaps more than any
of their predecessors embodied youth rebellion, sometimes literally spitting in the face of the world in which
they had grown up.
B
These days, the average 15-year-old has probably never seen a Mod or Rocker in the flesh. These youth
subcultures from that era have all but disappeared, existing only in films and television for today‘s young
people. Sadly, today‘s youth, at first glance at least, look more homogenous, seemingly having lost their
tribalism. So what happened? Where have all the colourful youth subcultures gone? It was in the 1990s that
many older commentators started to point out that the youth movements had lost their fire and had become
conventional. The colourful ‗tribes‘ of the previous years were disappearing and the young appeared to have
stopped rebelling.
C
To explain this phenomenon we need to look at the reasons why conditions were ripe for the emergence of
youth cultures in the mid-twentieth century. It was the post-war period that saw the rise of distinctive
subcultures. Elvis Presley and the advent of Rock and Roll generated the Teddy Boys in the UK, who in turn
influenced both Mods and Rockers. It was a time when conventional social values were being questioned and
after the austerity of the war, young people found themselves with more freedom. Fuelled by American
culture, Britain‘s youth suddenly had something to say and a desire to express themselves.
D

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These days American culture is still a dominant force, but in many ways the world is so different. Rises in
levels of prosperity have robbed many young people of something to rebel against, and the development of
the internet and its widespread availability from the 1990s onwards has fundamentally changed how young
people interact with the world. Things change so quickly that young people no longer commit to one look and
style of music in order to find their identity. Influences from all over the world – not just America – mean that
young people have a vast array of choices in terms of fashion, music and even attitudes and beliefs. Although
the younger generation of today has been called ‗identity-less‘, that is not actually the case. The identities
they create are more individual and subtle, with a wider range of influences. Teenagers today spend a lot of
their time developing their own sense of self through social media. They are free to slip in and out of identities
and scenes, which is more liberating than being tied to a specific tribe.
E
Common to all those subcultures of the mid- to late twentieth century was a desire to rebel: against parents,
government policies and established society. Marking yourself out as different and separate through your
clothes and hairstyle is something that does not chime so resonantly with the globalised generation born in
the nineties and noughties. Today‘s young people are more tolerant and international thanks to globalisation,
but that does not mean they are apathetic. In fact, it can be argued that they are more likely to contribute
towards actual change, which again has been made possible by the internet. They set up and sign online
petitions and share information about demonstrations on social media. They take part in charity events such
as sponsored runs or shave their heads to raise awareness as well as money. The global phenomenon which
was the Ice Bucket Challenge*,for example, raised over $100 million for motor neurone disease and raised
awareness of that terrible condition which affects, among others, world renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking.
F
There is one subculture that seems to have endured better than the others: the bikers. Characterised by their
longhair, scruffy denim jeans, leather jackets and Harley Davidson motorbikes, the most marked feature of the
group nowadays is that they are no longer young. At biker rallies in the 2010s,the average age is probably
around 50. What sets them apart is that they never grew out of the identity of their youth. Seeing them
gathered together invokes a strong sense of nostalgia in those of us who remember the days of youth
subcultures.
G
While it is sad in many ways to see the vibrant cultures of our youth consigned to the history books, it is, when
examined closely, a development which is as positive as it is inevitable. Young people today are free to adopt
aspects from a huge range of cultures and continually reinvent themselves. The symbolic rebellions of dress
and hairstyle have been replaced by meaningful action which impacts on political and social decision-making
at the highest levels. Rather than being without identity as a generation, today‘s youth are typically broad-
minded and well informed, each individual having created their own unique style and set of beliefs, which they
are free to change at any moment. But those of us who recall the heady days of the Mods and Rockers, the
Punks and Teddy Boys, will always feel a slight regret at their passing.
*Ice Bucket Challenge: a charity action that involved filming yourself pouring ice cold water over your head in
order to raise money for charities related to Motor Neurone Disease
For questions 9–15, choose the correct heading for each paragraph (A–G) from the list of headings (i–
x). There are three headings you do not need to use.
List of Headings
i. A different type of identity
ii. Fighting for change in new ways
iii. Identity-less youth of today
iv. Out with the old and in with the new and improved
v. Regret for a lost era
vi. Survivors of a lost age
vii. The decline of youth subcultures

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viii. The ice bucket challenge raises millions
ix. Why young people formed their own social groups
x. Youth subcultures in the second half of the 20th century
1. Paragraph A: _______
2. Paragraph B: _______
3. Paragraph C: _______
4. Paragraph D: _______
5. Paragraph E: _______
6. Paragraph F: _______
7. Paragraph G: _______
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the text? For questions, write:
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
8. 20th-century youth movements had their own distinct way of dressing.
9. It is unfortunate that many of the sub-cultures are disappearing.
10. Today‘s youth are less effective at changing society than their predecessors.
11. Young people waste too much time on social media.
In which section(s) of the text (A–G) are the following mentioned?

a discussion of the identity of today‘s young people 12. _______ 13. _______

a subculture that has passed the test of time 14. _______

an example of the internet being used to raise money and inform people 15. _______

an explanation for the rise of youth subcultures 16. _______

descriptions of various youth groups‘ fashion and music preferences 17. _______

the causes of a broader outlook in today‘s young people 18. _______ 19. _______

thefact the older generation began to think youth subcultureswere declining 20. _______

the influence of the US on youth culture in Britain 21. _______

Part 4. You are going to read an extract from a book about sports journalism. For questions 34 - 40,
choose
the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Mark your answers on the
separate answer sheet.
Sports Photographer

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Sports journalists - writers and photographers both - rather pride themselves on their lack of
imagination. They boast about a kind o f gritty professionalism: an ability to supply the required commodity
absolutely on time. From such people you get your eight paragraphs bang on the final whistle, along with your
perfectly sharp photograph of the goal-scorer. Who could ask for anything more than that? Few sports editors
do.
On the other hand, perhaps the readers themselves, some of whom do actually have a modicum of
grey matter, could want a little more. Sports journalists tend to get submerged by their own deadlines, and by
their subject: nothing but sport and the recording o f sport seems to matter. No unsporting thoughts ever enter
the heads o f such professionals, you would think from their work. It is more than their jobs are worth, for a
start. Back at the editorial office, the men who judge the material produced are equally slaves to the ‗news
value‘ of events, to the entire myopic philosophy o f gritty professionalism.
Sports journalists are not required to go beyond the recording of the day-to-day trivia o f sporting life. If
you are a photographer, you must get stuck in with your ultra-long lenses and your motor-drives and come
back with a hard, sharp picture of a sporting hero. It is perfectly possible for a photographer to do more: the
best can use their craft to convey the pleasure and pains of sport. The great English writer Dr Johnson once
said that the point of art was to teach us how better to enjoy life, or how better to endure it. But on the whole,
it is better not to use the term ‗art‘ to people in newspapers. They tend to shy away from it like frightened
racehorses. The point here is that sports journalism tends not to go beyond the ordinary because o f a kind o f
conspiracy of ordinariness between its practitioners.
Eamonn McCabe is one o f the photographers to have cracked this conspiracy. He has worked for
many years at The Observer newspaper, taking the kind o f sports pictures that would have given a fit o f the
horrors to a man too much a slave to news values: but in an immensely fruitful association much o f his finest
work has been used bravely, boldly, imaginatively and memorably. That newspaper doesn‘t insist on a picture
o f the winner: they will use a picture o f the man who came 71st if it is a picture that means something. A
touch o f art has infiltrated sports journalism: frightening thought.
People in sports journalism talk about ‗an Eamonn McCabe shot‘ even when McCabe did not take the
picture. They are talking about a style, a vision, a way of looking at sport. Take his famous picture of a boxer‘s
hands. If you wrote ‗Eamonn McCabe‘ over it in letters of fire, it would not make its provenance more obvious.
No one else would have bothered to take the photograph; or even if they had, they would not have got
it quite like that.
While decrying the tyranny of news values - McCabe has had people say: ‗We can‘t use this brilliant
picture o f that footballer getting tackled as he was about to score, because he was on the winning side. We
could only have used it if they had lost‘ - McCabe has known many occasions when the hard news
photograph really was the only thing that could be run. There are times when boxers‘ hands, or bald
goalkeepers, or tennis players eyeballing each other - all famous pictures by McCabe - are an irrelevance,
and a newspaper photographer must simply record events. If he can use his talents to make the event more
real, more understandable, that is a great bonus. But he must, above all, get the picture.
McCabe‘s record o f getting the picture for the major and unexpected event is impressive. Indeed,
there are moods in which he will pride himself more on the big story pictures than on his genuinely innovative
photography. He takes his own vision, his ability to take ‗Eamonn McCabe shots‘ for granted. After all, it is
innate. But the skill of getting a major news shot has also been acquired: a matter of good timing, good luck,
and good professional habits. He was, for example, the only working photographer to get a picture of the
Cambridge University crew sinking in the Oxford versus Cambridge Boat Race in 1978.
McCabe o f course, being the man he is, will tell you that he has been ‗lucky‘ with the number of major
news photographs he has got. But as the old adage goes: the more you practise, the luckier you get. There is
more than coincidence, and there is more than experience, behind McCabe‘s ‗luck‘. It is something to do with
McCabe‘s attitudes towards whatever it is he is photographing. He becomes emotionally bound up in the
event, and has an intuitive understanding of what is happening and, crucially, what will happen next. That is
why, time and again, pictures happen for him, the timing of the comedy is perfect and the people seem
inevitably to form
into patterns for him.
1. What comment does the writer make about spons journalists in the first paragraph?
A They are too set in their ways to be able to change.
B They believe in doing the minimum amount of work.
C They ara limited in their work-related ambitions.
D The content of their work is of little concern to them.
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2. The writer implies that the attitude of sports journalists
A is calculated to frustrate the effoM of their bosses.
B leads to work that is not all that it could be.
C can be explained by the lack of respect for their profession.
D makes them lose sight of what they have been instructed to do.
3. What point does the writer make about mediocrity in the third and fourth
paragraphs2
A Even the best newspapers are affected by it.
B Too many sports photographers have settled for it.
C Even great journalists can occasionally succumb to it.
D Certain photographers are desperate to avoid being tagged with it.
4. What point does the writer make about Eamonn McCabe in the fiRh paragraph? A
People credit him with photographs he did not take.
B He is reticent about putting his name on his pioures.
C He always improves upon similar photographs by other journalists.
D His name is synonymous with a particular type of sports photograph.
5. The writer uses the example of the player getting tackled to illustrate A
a practical disadvantage of McCabe's artistic methods.
B the importance of not showing bias to a particular team or competitor.
C an unsuccessful attempt by McCabe to photograph a less abstract subject.
D the desire of some editors to avoid material with a potentially misleading message.
6. What does the writer say about McCabe's 'genuinely innovative photography' (lines 3&39)?
A It doesn't prevent him from excelling in more basic slots.
B It no longer challenges him in the way it used to.
C His ability to achieve it depends on his frame of mind.
D He derives great personal satisfaction from it.
7. In the final paragraph, what impression do we get of the writer's axitude towards
McCabe2
A He admires McCabe for his relentless attention to detail.
B He attributes McCabe's success to good fortune.
C He respects McCabe for his involvement in his work.
D He values McCabe's independence of spirit.

Part 5. Read the article below about the English sense of humour. Seven paragraphs have been
removed from the article. For questions 30–36, write letters A–G in the correct gap to show where
each paragraph belongs. There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT BEING EARNEST
English anthropologist Kate Fox analyses an aspect of her nation’s sense of humour
There is an awful lot of guff talked about the English sense of humour, including many patriotic attempts to
prove that our sense of humour is somehow unique and superior to everyone else‘s. Many English people
seem to believe that we have some sort of global monopoly, if not on humour itself, then at least on certain
‗brands‘ of humour—the high-class ones such as wit and especially irony.
1. _______
In other cultures, there is ‗a time and a place‘ for humour; it is a special, separate kind of talk. In English
conversation, there is always an undercurrent of humour. We can barely manage to say ‗hello‘ or comment on
the weather without somehow contriving to make a bit of a joke out of it, and most English conversations will
involve at least some degree of banter, teasing, irony, understatement, humorous self-deprecation, mockery
or just silliness.
2. _______
At the most basic level, an underlying rule in all English conversation is the proscription of ‗earnestness‘.
Although we may not have a monopoly on humour, or even on irony, the English are probably more acutely
sensitive than any other nation to the difference between ‗serious‘ and ‗solemn‘, between ‗sincerity‘ and
‗earnestness‘.

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3. _______
Once you have become sufficiently sensitised to these fine nuances, the English ‗Importance of Not Being
Earnest‘ rule is really quite simple. Seriousness is acceptable, solemnity is prohibited. Sincerity is allowed,
earnestness is strictly forbidden. Pomposity and self-importance are outlawed. Serious matters can be spoken
of seriously, but one must never take oneself too seriously.
4. _______
To take a deliberately extreme example, the kind of hand-on-heart, gushing earnestness and pompous, Bible-
thumping solemnity favoured by almost all American politicians would never win a single vote in England—we
watch these speeches on our news programmes with a kind of detached and self-satisfied amusement,
wondering how the cheering crowds can possibly be so credulous as to fall for this sort of nonsense.
5. _______
We expect politicians to speak largely in platitudes, of course—ours are no different in this respect—it is the
earnestness that makes us wince. The same goes for the gushy, tearful speeches of American actors at the
Oscars and other awards ceremonies, to which English television viewers across the country all respond with
the same finger-down-throat ‗I‘m going to be sick‘ gesture.
6. _______
And Americans, although among the easiest to scoff at, are by no means the only targets of our cynical
censure. The sentimental patriotism of leaders and the portentous earnestness of writers, artists, actors,
musicians, pundits and other public figures of all nations are treated with equal derision by the English, who
can detect the slightest hint of self-importance at twenty paces, even on a grainy television picture and in a
language we don‘t understand.
7. _______
And we are just as hard on each other, in ordinary everyday conversation, as we are on those in the public
eye. The tiniest sign that a speaker may be overdoing the intensity and crossing the fine line from sincerity to
earnestness will be spotted and greeted with scornful cries of ‗Oh, come off it!‘. In fact, if a country or culture
could be said to have a catchphrase, I would propose ‗Oh, come off it!‘ as a strong candidate for England‘s
national catchphrase. Jeremy Paxman‘s candidate is ‗I know my rights‘—well, he doesn‘t actually use the
term catchphrase, but he refers to this one frequently, and it is the only such phrase that he includes in his
personal list of defining characteristics of Englishness. I take his point, and ‗I know my rights‘ does beautifully
encapsulate a peculiarly English brand of stubborn individualism and a strong sense of justice. But I would
maintain that the armchair cynicism of ‗Oh, come off it!‘ is more truly representative of the English psyche than
the belligerent activism suggested by ‗I know my rights‘. This may be why, as someone once said, the English
have satire instead of revolutions.
(Adapted from ‘Watching the English – The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour’ by Kate Fox)
A
And with good reason, some may say. You will rarely see these people‘s English counterparts indulging in
such over-emotional, heart-on-sleeve displays—their acceptance speeches tend to be either short and
dignified, or self-deprecatingly humorous, and even so they nearly always manage to look uncomfortable and
embarrassed. Any English thespian who dares to break these unwritten rules is ridiculed and dismissed as a
‗luvvie‘.
B
Humour is our ‗default mode‘ if you like: we do not have to switch it on deliberately, and we cannot switch it
off. For the English, the rules of humour are the cultural equivalent of natural laws—we obey them
automatically, rather in the way that we obey the law of gravity.
C
My findings indicate that while there may indeed be something distinctive about English humour, the real
‗defining characteristic‘ is the value we put on humour, the central importance of humour in English culture
and social interactions.
D
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The ability to laugh at ourselves, although it may be deep-seated in a form of arrogance, is one of the more
endearing characteristics of the English. At least, I hope I am right about this if I have overestimated our ability
to laugh at ourselves, this book will be rather unpopular.
E
The English ban on earnestness, and specifically on taking oneself too seriously, means that our own
dignitaries and celebrities have a particularly tough time. The sharp-eyed English public is even less tolerant
of any breaches of these rules on home ground, and even the smallest lapse will be picked up on
immediately.
F
The latter is in fact more appropriate, as the most noticeable and important ‗rule‘ about humour in English
conversation is its dominance and pervasiveness. Humour rules. Humour governs. Humour is omnipresent
and omnipotent. I wasn‘t even going to do a separate chapter on humour, because I knew that, like class, it
permeates every aspect of English life and culture, and would therefore just naturally crop up in different
contexts throughout the book. It did, but the trouble with English humour is that it is so pervasive that to
convey its role in our lives I would have to mention it in every other paragraph, which would eventually
become tedious—so it got its own chapter after all.
G
This distinction is crucial to any kind of understanding of Englishness. I cannot emphasise this strongly
enough: if you are not able to grasp this subtle but vital point, you will never understand the English—and
even if you speak the language fluently, you will never feel or appear entirely at home in conversation with the
English. Your English may be impeccable, but your behavioural ‗grammar‘ will be full of glaring errors.
H
When we are not feeling smugly disdainful, we are cringing with vicarious embarrassment: how can these
people bring themselves to utter such shamefully pretentious clichés, in such ludicrously solemn tones?

Part 6. Part 4: Read the article about a team of computer experts who fight cyber crime. For questions
37–46, choose A, B, C or D to show which section of the article is referred to.
THE HACKER HUNTERS
An elite battalion of largely twenty-something experts are on the front line of corporate cyber defence
Section A
Somewhere deep within PwC‘s doughnut-shaped headquarters in the shadow of London‘s Tower Bridge, a
projection flickers on the whitewashed wall of a meeting room. Its uniform multi-coloured dots form an image
that would not look out of place on one of Damien Hirst‘s production lines. But this is not art; it is science.
Each lilac and rose-coloured spot represents one step of a mesmerising track on the hunt for hackers. For the
members of PwC‘s newest security team – a pack of cyber sleuths mostly still in their twenties – these bright
lights are flares of corporate danger.
The cyber response team at PwC, the professional services firm, is part of a broadening frontier in private
security. A growing number of companies are seeking protection against cyber fraud, activism and industrial
espionage, perpetrated by unseen enemies who can be thousands of miles away. PwC has responded in
kind, launching a hiring spree over the past two years to create an in-house battalion of more than 80 youthful
experts from across the UK and abroad. They are part of a world-class team: the firm‘s cross-border cyber
security unit has been ranked number one globally in 2013 by Gartner, the independent information-
technology research company.
The men who form its ranks are now tasked with a Sisyphean challenge: raise the barricades against
business-like crime gangs, teenage hacktivists and, increasingly, nations that deploy cyber troops as a way
for state-owned enterprises to compete on a global stage with the private sector.
Section B

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Cyber protection has become one of PwC‘s fastest-growing revenue streams, according to the firm, fed in no
small part by the increasing number of such attacks and deepening sense of bewilderment and fear within
private corporations over who is profiting from these secret cyber wars.
―There‘s blurring of the threat and a blurring of who‘s behind it,‖ says David Garfield, managing director of
cyber security at BAE Systems Detica, which manages the cyber threat for the defence company and other
clients. ―There used to be a clear delineation between the bedroom hackers, hacktivists, industrial espionage
and the state-sponsored stuff. Now there‘s a blurring across all of these. Maybe one is recruited by the other.‖
Hackers want to steal the secrets and money and damage the reputations of the companies they target.
Recent research shows their persistence pays: the UK Cabinet Office estimates that the cost of cyber crime to
the country‘s economy alone reaches £27bn annually, while a White House white paper on cyber policy this
year estimated that data theft to US businesses costs close to $1tn.
Inside the sleek glass corridors of PwC, John Berriman was one of the first in the firm to gauge the private
sector‘s losses from cyber crime – and recognise the market potential in fighting it. Two years ago, Berriman –
a PwC lifer who looks more like the archetypal management consultant than some of his newest digital-
forensics recruits – began preaching to his fellow senior partners that investing in cyber specialists could
improve the firm‘s bottom line. He has since been charged with doubling the integrated cyber teams‘ revenues
over the next couple of years. Berriman now oversees every facet of PwC‘s cyber crusade, from hiring front-
line analysts to solicitors who advise on data-protection laws to management consultants who are dispatched
to try to explain the various threats to the country‘s top executives.
Section C
Dan Kelly, a 28-year-old former farm boy turned forensic investigator of computer code, sees clues that form
what is known as threat intelligence. His team has pinpointed a one-man hack attack amid a string of dots,
numbers and letters.
―This is malware that‘s been tied to several campaigns, which targeted people in the western and eastern
hemispheres,‖ says Kelly, who left school at 16 having completed all his qualifications early. Malware is
shorthand for the malicious software that is the stock-in-trade of hackers worldwide. ―What we‘ve actually
managed to do is tie the malware and the campaigns back to an individual.‖
Kelly, an expert in reverse engineering – taking code apart to deduce its origin and purpose – points out that
the image projected on the team‘s meeting room wall is also telegraphing something personal about his prime
suspect. Much like a graffiti artist, the hacker tagged his work, embedding his moniker within the malware. As
the malware spread, Kelly and the other crew members could see ―that malware is now being used to target
human-rights activists, governments and industry. So it looks very, very much like it was state-sponsored.‖
Section D
Hiring the right talent has been among his biggest challenges – even for a man once responsible for PwC‘s
―milk round‖ in the 1980s, when the firm would scour the UK‘s best universities and try to lure their brightest
graduates. Cyber experts – some of whom try out for jobs in simulated sessions of ―ethical hacking‖ or
―penetration testing‖, where they attempt to hack into replications of companies‘ systems to find any
vulnerabilities – are something of a breed apart for the conventional corporation, he says.
―Do we expect some of these younger tech-savvy people to adjust to our world of management consultants or
do we recognise that we have to change?‖ Berriman ponders. ―A bit of each, I‘d say.‖
Stephen Page, who advises both the UK government and PwC on the digital issues facing boards, offers a
slightly more nuanced job description of what is needed in a tech detective, no matter the age. ―We need
people who are not only technically agile but also people who are totally trustworthy. The kind of employees at
PwC are the same kind of people you see at GCHQ or the NCA,‖ referring respectively to the UK intelligence
services‘ signals and communications arm, and to the UK‘s new National Crime Agency, which targets cyber
crime.
Sometimes, however, even government agencies‘ trust can be misplaced, no matter the rigour of their
background checks – as in the case of Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor
whose actions have sparked a worldwide debate over privacy and security. PwC tries to ensure that leaks of
highly sensitive and classified information will never be perpetrated by any of its recruits by submitting them to
extensive interviews and background checks. Those who work on the most top-secret client information can

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 Practice Tests for National Team – Nguyen Hoang Lan - MA
be subject to so-called developed vetting, which includes credit and criminal-record checks, scrutiny of
references and qualifications, and often requires the subject to have been resident in the UK for more than a
decade.
Insider risk is all too real for the analysts within the cyber security team. For all the new technology they are
faced with, many cyber-enabled frauds or atta
cks they review rely on old-fashioned human vulnerabilities.
―The most dangerous cases from an organisational perspective are the volunteers [insiders] who want to give
information away,‖ explains Jay Choi, a polyglot 29-year-old who heads up the PwC cyber team‘s ―insider
threat‖ analysis. ―But how, from an organisational point of view, you deal with that requires a different mindset
altogether.‖
Section E
The poster boy of PwC‘s cyber efforts is Kris McConkey, a 31-year-old who has been obsessed with
computers since primary school. McConkey – whose just-so hair, designer stubble and sharp shirts dispel any
notion of the hoodie- wearing geek – grew up on a family farm in a rural corner of Northern Ireland and bought
his first computer at age 13.
The first thing he did, somewhat disconcertingly to his parents, was pull it apart. Luckily, the young teenager
also figured out how to fit all the pieces back together. Within the year, he was learning how to dissect
computer viruses and malware. By the time he left school, McConkey had set up his own software company.
―I was always trying to work out how stuff worked, and take things to bits – whether it was machinery, or
radios or anything – just to figure it out. I started doing that with computers, and with computer programs as
well,‖ he explains in a soft brogue. ―I‘ve pretty much done that either as a hobby or as my job for 16 years
now; just trying to work out what the bad guys are up to and how to defend against it.‖
McConkey eventually became the first forensic technology employee at PwC‘s Belfast outpost. He is now the
team‘s elder statesman and heads up the London-headquartered cyber response team. His foot soldiers are
not PwC‘s typical graduate recruits. Some have gone to university. Others didn‘t bother; they already had
offers from the UK intelligence services. Some speak several languages. For most, only one language
matters: computer code. All use social media effortlessly and for them, the internet is like oxygen; an
unremarkable, unconscious part of life. […]
(Adapted from ‘Financial Times’)
In which section (A–E) does the writer mention the following? The sections may be chosen more than
once.
1. a method of assessing the suitability of those wishing to join the team
2. a natural talent that has been put to good use
3. a stereotypical image not confirmed by the appearance of one team member
4. evidence that suggests the identity of one particular criminal
5. increasing levels of concern amongst those targeted by cyber criminals
6. one team member‘s particular area of technical expertise
7. research that confirms the level of damage inflicted by cyber criminals
8. the decision to embark on an intensive recruitment campaign
9. the personal qualities required of potential team members
10. the visual representation of an ongoing investigation

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