Skills Test 2A*

5 The town is quieter in the winter

Listening and lots of are closed.
Track 3 6 Max doesn’t go kite surfing often
because it’s .
1 Listen to a talk about three
successful businessmen. Are the Kayla, 17, Simon’s Town
sentences true (T) or false (F)? 7 Kayla loves watching penguins
1 Adam, Richard and Jon became and otters on the .
friends at school. 8 There are many ships in Simon’s
2 Before they set up their business, Town because it is a(n)
they all had well-paid jobs. naval base.
3 They decided to make a product 9 protect Simon’s Town
for people like themselves. from the winds and rain.
4 They tested their smoothie on the 10 In Kayla often goes hiking.
public for the first time in 2008.

5 They put a banner next to a stall ___/10 marks

at a festival.
6 There were ‘yes’ and ‘no’ bins
next to the banner. Reading
7 The next day they left their jobs. Text 1
8 They sent letters to hundreds of 3 Read the article. Complete the
people asking them for funding. summary with a word or a number
in each gap.
9 Someone offered to invest
£215,000 in their business. Krakatoa, West of Java
10 They sell more 2,000 bottles of One of the most famous volcanic eruptions in
history was that of Krakatoa, a small island volcano
smoothie every week. between the larger islands of Java and Sumatra. On
20 May 1883 people saw steam coming from the
___/10 marks volcano. Hot ash shot six kilometres into the
atmosphere and people heard the eruptions
160 kilometres away. Then, at the end of May, the
Track 4 volcano became quiet.

2 Listen to a talk about two people Krakatoa started erupting again around the middle
who live near the sea. Complete the of June and large rocks fell into the Indian Ocean.
sentences. Use one word in each A black cloud covered the area for five days and
gap. earthquakes shook the ground. A Dutch engineer
tried to find out what was happening. On one of the
islands near Krakatoa there was half a metre of ash
Max, 16, Weston-super-Mare covering the ground and all the trees and plants
1 A lot of visit Weston- were dead, so he warned people to keep away from
super-Mare. the area.
2 A(n) destroyed the Grand
By 25 August, there were more eruptions. There
Pier in 2008. was a huge black cloud of ash, and this time it shot
3 The Grand Pier opened again in up even higher. Explosions were happening every
. ten minutes. Ships’ captains 20 kilometres away
4 In the summer, there are reported that ash and rocks were falling onto their
festivals in Weston-super-Mare. ships and into the sea around them. A small
tsunami reached Java and Sumatra.
Then on 27 August four enormous eruptions took Text 2
place. They were so loud that people heard them
over 3,000 kilometres away and there were 4 Read the article and answer the
tsunamis over 30 metres high. The final explosion questions.
was so powerful that ash shot 80 kilometres into 1 Who was the first person to travel
the air. It was a disaster. Villages were destroyed to outer space?
and thousands of people were killed by lava, ash,
falling rocks and poisonous gases. But the biggest
killers were the tsunamis. At least 36,417 people 2 How many kilos of rocks and dust
died and the number may have been as high as did Armstrong and Aldrin collect?
120,000. Two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa
disappeared. 3 When might humans land on
But that is not the end of the story. In later years
Mars?
volcanic eruptions continued under the sea. A
number of new islands formed above the water and 4 What percentage of the Martian
then disappeared again. Then in 1930, a fourth atmosphere is carbon dioxide?
island appeared. It was named Anak Krakatoa:
‘Child of Krakatoa’, and it has been growing ever
since.
5 How long will it take to travel to
Mars?

Krakatoa, West of Java 6 How long will the astronauts

Krakatoa was a volcanic island probably be away from home?
between 1 and Sumatra.
It erupted a number of times in 7 How long will it take for a
2
. In May of that year message to get from Mars to
people could hear the explosions Earth?
many 3 away. At the end
of May the volcano became 8 Why will people on a Martian
4
. Then in the middle of mission need to get on well
June, the volcano started erupting together?
again and there were 5 as
well. A Dutch 6
wanted to 9 Why did some astronauts who
see what was happening in the area. took part in the Mars500
He discovered a thick layer of experiment have difficulty
7
and dead plants and sleeping?
trees on one island, so he warned
people not to go there. Towards the 10 What kinds of tests did Mars500
end of August, Krakatoa erupted volunteers have?
again. This time the explosions were
bigger. The biggest eruptions occurred
on 8 August. They were ___/10 marks
heard more than 3,000 kilometres
away. Some people were killed by Yuri Gagarin was the first man to travel to outer
lava, ash and poisonous gases, but space in April 1961. Eight years later, on 20 July
1969, Apollo 11 carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz
most were killed by 9 . Aldrin and Michael Collins to the Moon.
Two-thirds of Krakatoa 10 . Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon’s
Forty-three years later, another surface, collected 21.5 kilos of rocks and dust and
volcano, Anak Krakatoa, appeared made history.
above the surface of the sea where
Scientists now hope that people will land on Mars
Krakatoa used to be. some time in the 2030s. Of course, there will be
difficulties. The mission could cost between twenty
___/10 marks and forty billion dollars. Secondly, the Martian
atmosphere is very thin, and 95 per cent of it is A Arrange a meeting place outside
carbon dioxide. It is also cold: the average for all the family.
temperature is –50 degrees Celsius. Thirdly, it will
take six months to get there and six months to get B Check it regularly and learn how
back. In addition, astronauts will probably stay on to use it.
the planet for about eighteen months, so they will C Give your address clearly and
be away from home for two and a half years. That’s wait.
a long time. D If it feels hot, try and find another
There will also be other problems. Communication way out.
will be slow because it will take ten minutes for a E Put a woollen blanket or towel
message to travel from Earth to Mars and ten around you and leave the
minutes for a reply to get back. That means it will house/flat quickly.
be difficult for astronauts to talk to friends and F Then drop to the ground and roll
family. It will also be difficult to live with the same
people in the same space day after day, but the back and forth until your clothes
astronauts will need to get on if they want to work stop burning.
well together. G They will make a very loud noise
if a fire starts.
Between 2007 and 2011, an experiment called
Mars500 took place to see what such a long trip
would be like. One part of the experiment was
designed to copy the conditions of a real manned How to survive a fire
Mars space mission. Three Russians, two
Europeans and a Chinese volunteer spent 520 days Put smoke alarms in your home. 1
in a closed space like a spacecraft. They had Buy a fire extinguisher. Put it where everyone can
medical, physical and psychological tests every day reach it. 2
and they watched DVDs, read books and played Never leave a fire burning in the fireplace when
computer games in their free time. you go to bed.
Never put clothes near a fire to dry.
The results of this experiment were interesting. Make sure you know two ways to get out of your
People need to experience day and night every house/flat. Imagine there is a fire and practise
twenty-four hours to sleep normally. However, in a leaving the house/flat. 3
spacecraft it isn’t possible to have real day and
night and four of the astronauts had serious
problems sleeping. They spent more and more time When you hear the smoke alarm or smell or see a
in bed as the days passed. They became less active fire, don't stop to get dressed. 4
and more bored. Only two of the men did well. It is Don’t open a hot door. 5
clear that the astronauts who travel to Mars will If your clothes catch fire, stop and put your hands
need to be chosen carefully. over your face. 6

Go to the meeting place.

Writing Call the fire brigade. 7
Do not go back into the house/flat for any reason.
5 Read the information leaflet. Write
the correct heading at the beginning
of each paragraph. ___/7 marks
If a fire starts
Make your home safe
When you are safe 7 Put the words in the correct order.
1 we / in Spain / this summer / visit
/ definitely / our grandparents /
___/3 marks
will

6 Read the information leaflet again.

Match the missing sentences (A–G)
with the gaps in the text (1–7).
2 am / to England / going to /
probably / in the middle of August
/ come back / I

3 my parents / will / until

September / I think / in Spain /
stay

4 maybe / return / my sister / will /

with me

5 I / enjoy / my holiday / will /

certainly

___/5 marks

8 Write a letter to a friend about

your plans for the summer.
• What will the weather be like?
• Are you going to travel
anywhere? If so, how will you get
there?
• Who are you going to spend the
summer with?
• What are you going to do?

___/15 marks

Total: ___/70 marks