0SJS Writing 1

1 For questions 1–5, think of one word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences.

1 Joe fastened his jacket against the ……..…………. air, realising all at once that he was shivering.
With the blockade now lifted, vital medical supplies and ……..…………. materials are starting
to reach the areas worst affected.
We savoured the rough garlic sausage and ……..…………. onion, served with hunks of bread.

2 The curtains were pulled across the windows, allowing only a single ……..…………. of light to cut
through the gloom.
Staring at the others, Martin secured his hair with a ……..…………. at the nape of his neck
and then collapsed with laughter.
We wanted to keep the ……..…………. together, but our drummer left.

3 Brian Yarrow has got money to ……..…………., that’s his trouble.

For goodness sake, try not to ……..…………. yourself out on this project!
Every night, the lights ……..…………. in the window to guide the sailors home.

4 Grangers, the restaurant chain, is taking advantage of ……..…………. property prices to snap
up new outlets in the north-west.
Depression can leave the mother feeling ……..…………. for much of the time, often crying
for no reason.
That was a rather ……..…………. trick you played on me at the company dinner, putting me next
to the managing director.

5 Quinn’s storyline is too ……..…………. for my liking, through there have been several favourable
reviews.
The horses broke ……..…………. last night and must be halfway to Mexico by now.
I don’t suppose you’ve got any ……..…………. change in your pocket, have you?

2 Complete the missing words in the sentences below.

Example: We went on a package tour to Greece last year.

1 This article h………...……. the problems facing young scientists today.

2 You must take into a………...……. both the advantages and disadvantages presented in the text.
3 The programme e…….…..……. the possibility that there was once life on Mars.
4 The journalist a………..……. for the need for continued print publication of newspapers in this
electronic era.
5 In your essay you should a………………. the issue of homelessness and its effects.
6 His argument s…….…..……. the claim that little was done to prevent the spread of the disease
in cattle.
7 The reporter went so f………...……. as to accuse the Prime Minister of causing the delays
in the progress of the Bill.
8 Paragraph one f………...……. on distinguishing between a discovery and an invention.
 0SJS Writing 2

3 Complete the sentences using the phrases listed below.

1 He has ……………………………. losing his job and says he will try to start his own business.
2 If you ……………………………. my wallet, can you let me have it, please?
3 The pilots ……………………………. the cabin crew during the one-day strike.
4 She’s ……………………………. a brilliant idea to copy the latest fashions from Paris off the Internet.
5 Phil had a huge argument with his girlfriend’s father – I think they ……………………………...
6 Tickets for the concert are free and will be distributed on a ……………………………. basis.
7 This chairman is good at making promises but he hardly ever ……………………………...
8 I’d always dreamt of owning my own boat, but I never thought it would ……………………………..
9 Tony and Lynne have ……………………………. – these days they can’t even afford proper holidays
any more.
10 No witnesses to the accident have ……………………………. yet, despite the report on the TV.

come forward comes up with the goods come across came out in sympathy with
come true came to blows come down in the world come up with
first come, first served come to terms with

PART 4: For questions 1–6, complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning
to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between
THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.

1 Explaining what you mean to an audience can be difficult.

across
It’s sometimes difficult ................................................................................... to an audience.

2 If something’s worrying you, you should tell me about it now.

chest
If you have a problem, why don’t you ……………….............................................................. now?

3 I think you should confront your boss right now with how you feel about this.
out
Why don’t you …………………………………………………………………………. your boss right now?

4 Anna had decided Tom was not telling the truth about what happened.
teeth
Anna was sure Tom .............................................................................. about what happened.

5 Perhaps my sister was bad-tempered because she was tired.

fact
I put my sister’s ................................................................................................. she was tired.

6 I think you need to work hard to make a relationship a success.

more
I think ......................................................................................................, the better it will be.
 0SJS Writing 3

PART 5: Read the extract from a novel set in Botswana called The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith below. For questions 1–6, choose the answer (A, B, C, or D) which you
think fits best according to the text.

ALL THOSE YEARS AGO

A
We don’t forget, thought Mma Ramotswe. Our heads E
may be small, but they are as full of memories On the other side of the road was the beginning
as the sky may sometimes be full of swarming bees, of the plain that stretched out into the Kalahari. It was
thousands and thousands of memories, of smells, a featureless land, cluttered with low thorn trees,
of places, of little things that happened to us and which on the branches of which there perched the horn bills
come back, unexpectedly, to remind us of who we are. and the fluttering molopes, with their long trailing tail-
And who am I? I am Precious Ramotswe, citizen feathers. It was a world that seemed to have no end,
of Botswana, daughter of Obed Ramotswe who died and that, I think, is what made Africa in those days
because he had been a miner and could no longer so different. There was no end to it. A man could walk,
breathe. His life was unrecorded; who is there to write or ride, forever, and he would never get anywhere.
down the lives of ordinary people?
F
B I am sixty now, and I do not think God wants me to live
I am Obed Ramotswe, and I was born near Mahalapye much longer. Perhaps there will be a few years more,
in 1930. Mahalapye is halfway between Gaborone but I doubt it; I saw Dr Moffat at the Dutch Reformed
and Francistown, on that road that seems to go Hospital in Mochudi who listened to my chest. He
on forever. It was a dirt road in those days, of course, could tell that I had been a miner, just by listening,
and the railway line was much more important. and he shook his head and said that the mines have
The track came down from Bulawayo, crossed many different ways of hurting a man. As he spoke,
into Botswana at Plumtree, and then headed south I remembered a song the Sotho miners used to sing.
down the side of the country all the way to Mafikeng, They sang: ‘The mines eat men. Even when you have
on the other side. left them, the mines may still be eating you: We all
knew this was true. You could be killed by falling rock
C or you could be killed years later, when underground
As a boy, I used to watch the trains as they drew was just a memory, or even a bad dream that visited
up at the siding. They let out great clouds of steam, you at night. The mines would come back for their
and we would dare one another to run as close as we payment, just as they were coming back for me now.
could to it. The stoker would shout at us, So I was not surprised by what Dr Moffat said. Some
and the station master would blow his whistle, but people cannot bear news like that. They think they
they never managed to get rid of us. We hid behind must live forever, and they cry and wail when they
plants and boxes and dashed out to ask for coins realize that their time is coming. I do not feel like that,
from the closed windows of the trains. We saw and I do not weep at the news the doctor gave me.
the white people look out of their windows, like The only thing that makes me sad is that I shall be
ghosts, and sometimes they would toss us one of their leaving Africa when I die. I love Africa, which is my
Rhodesian pennies – large copper coins with a hole mother and my father. When I am dead I shall miss
in the middle – or, if we were lucky, a tiny silver coin the smell of Africa, because they say that where you
we called a tickey, which could buy us a small tin go, wherever that may be, there is no smell or taste.
of syrup.
G
D But I can look back over my sixty years and think
Mahalapye was a straggling village of huts made of everything that I have seen and of how I started with
of brown, sunbaked mud bricks and a few tin-roofed nothing and ended up with almost two hundred cattle.
buildings. These belonged to the Government And I have a good daughter, a loyal daughter, who
or the Railways, and they seemed to us to represent looks after me well and makes me tea while I sit here
distant, unattainable luxury. There was a school run in the sun and look out to the hills in the distance.
by an old Anglican priest and a white woman whose When you see the hills from a distance, they are blue;
face had been half-destroyed by the sun. They both as all the distances in the country are. We are far
spoke Setswana, which was unusual, but they taught from the sea here, with Angola and Namibia between
us in English, insisting on the pain of a thrashing that us and the coast, and yet we have this great empty
we left our own language outside in the playground. ocean of blue above and around us. No sailor could be
lonelier than a man standing in the middle of our land,
with miles and miles of blue about him.
 0SJS Writing 4

1 What is the writer implying in the first paragraph?

A Memories need to be recalled to make sure they do not disappear.
B We have no control over our memories but they are a part of us.
C Few people are interested in the lives of ordinary people.
D Obed Ramotswe was a most unfortunate man.

2 What is suggested about the local boys?

A They often tried to rob the people.
B The railway employees had little control over how they behaved.
C They were reluctant to get too close to the railway track.
D The passengers were rather irritated by their presence.

3 When talking about Mahalapye, Obed paints a picture of

A a group of houses reflecting a social divide.
B a village which was arranged neatly around the railway line.
C children receiving an education which was inadequate.
D local children who were encouraged to pursue their own culture.

4 What point is Obed making in paragraph F?

A The doctor was reluctant to tell him any bad news.
B He refuses to despair when hearing bad news.
C People react to bad news in very similar ways.
D Bad news is never as bad as it seems.

5 What does Obed imply in the last paragraph?

A He would like to see more of his only child.
B His life has been a hard struggle to make ends meet.
C He has found living in Africa a solitary experience.
D Despite problems, his achievements have been praiseworthy.

6 The overall impression Obed gives of life in Africa in his day is that it was a land where
A the problems of everyday life could easily be forgotten.
B there were opportunities for people to take advantage of.
C the geography had a profound effect on people’s character.
D strong family ties and loyalties were paramount.
 0SJS Writing 5

PART 6: Read a newspaper article about maths below. Seven paragraphs have been removed
from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A–H the one which fits each gap (1–7). There is one
extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

THE MAN WHO PROVED THAT EVERYONE IS GOOD AT MATHS

The French academic Marc Chemillier has shown that humans have remarkable innate skills with numbers.
Reporter Alex Duval Smith accompanies him to Madagascar to see this at first hand.

Maths is simple. But to discover this requires with the seeds costs 10,000 ariary (£3), then a price
travelling to the ends of the earth where is discussed for the cure. It seems there is nothing
an illiterate, tobacco-chewing teller lives in a room Raoke cannot achieve for the top price of one or two
with a double bed and a beehive. As the sun rises zebus – Malagasy beef cattle that cost about £300
over the hut belonging to Raoke, a 70-year-old each – though some remedies are available
witch doctor, a highly pitched din heralds bee rush for the price of a sheep.
hour. The insects he keeps shuttle madly in and out
(4)
through the window. This bizarre setting, near
nowhere in the harsh cactus savannah of southern Given the thousands of plant species in Madagascar
Madagascar, is where a leading French academic, that are still undiscovered by mainstream medicine,
Marc Chemillier, has achieved an extraordinary it is entirely possible that Raoke holds the key
pairing of modern mathematics and illiterate to several miracle cures. But Mr Chemillier is
intuition. not interested in the pharmacopaeic aspect
of the fortune teller’s work.
(1)
(5)
Mr Chemillier argues in this ground-breaking work
that children should be encouraged to do maths The startling reality of the situation is explained
before they learn to read and write. ‘There is to me. Raoke can produce 65,536 grids with his
a strong link between counting and the number seeds – Mr Chemillier has them all in his computer
of fingers on our hands. Maths becomes now. ‘But we still need to do more work
complicated only when you abandon basic to understand his mental capacity for obtaining
measures in nature, like the foot or the inch, or even the combinations of single seeds and pairs,’ he says.
the acre, which is the area that two bulls can plough
in a day.’ (6)

(2) Over the years, Mr Chemillier has earned respect

from Raoke and other Malagasy fortune tellers.
With a low table covered in pieces of wood – each ‘Initially they thought France had sent me to steal
of which has a particular medicinal virtue – Raoke their work in an attempt to become the world’s
sits on his straw mat and chants as he runs his most powerful fortune teller. But once I was able
fingers through a bag of shiny, dark brown tree to share grids with them that had been through my
seeds. ‘There were about 600 seeds in the bag computer program, we established a relationship
to begin with but I have lost a few,’ he says. ‘They of trust,’ says Mr Chemillier.
come from the fane tree and were selected for me
many years ago. The fane from the valley (7)
of Tsivoanino produces some seeds that lie
When not consulting clients, the diminutive fortune
and others that tell the truth so it is very important
teller spends hours with his seeds, laying them
to test each seed. I paid a specialist to do that,’ says
in different formations and copying the dots down
the father of six.
in pencil. Those grids have value and Raoke sells
(3) them to other fortune tellers. He is indeed a most
remarkable man, and the full value of his work is,
From this selection of wood pieces before him, one suspects, something that even Chemillier may
Raoke can mix concoctions to cure ailments, banish take years to fathom.
evil spirits and restore friendships. A basic session
 0SJS Writing 6

A E

This is indeed impressive. The way in which Raoke Raoke duly felt able to reveal that a divine power
poses questions over the seeds requires the same shows him how to position the seeds. He does
faculties for mental speculation as might be not understand why ‘Monsieur Marc’, and now this
displayed by a winner of the Fields Medal, which is other visiting white person, keeps asking him why
the top award any mathematician can aspire to, he lays the seeds in a certain way. Yet it is clear
according to Mr Chemillier. from a stack of grimy copybooks he keeps under his
bed that he is kept very busy indeed as a receiver
of divine messages.
B

Indeed, I can see it is the lack of memory

F
and computer aids that helps keep Raoke’s mind
sharp. In the developed world people are over- To make his point, Mr Chemillier chose to charge
reliant on calculators, dictionaries, documents. up his laptop computer, leave Paris and do
And also the developed world is wrong to ignore the rounds of fortune tellers on the Indian Ocean
the basic human connection with numbers that Island because its uninfluenced natural biodiversity
goes back to using the fingers on your hands also extends to its human population. Divinatory
and relating them to the environment around you. geomancy – reading random patterns, or sikidy
to use the local word – is what Raoke does, when
not attending to his insects.
C

In his book, Les Mathématiques Naturelles,

G
the director of studies at EHESS (School
for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences) argues that He is, after all, a mathematician, not a scientist.
mathematics is not only simple, it is ‘rooted ‘Raoke is an expert in a reflexive view of maths
in human, sensorial intuition’. And he believes that of which we have lost sight in the West,’ he says.
Madagascar’s population, which remains relatively ‘Even armed with my computer program, I do
untouched by outside influences, can help him not fully comprehend Raoke’s capacities for mental
to prove this. arithmetic.’

D H

‘A white man came from Réunion with a stomach Raoke proceeds from explanation
ailment that the hospitals in France could not cure. to demonstration, pouring a random number
I gave him a powder to drink in a liquid. He vomited on to his mat, then picking them up singly or in twos
and then he was cured,’ says Raoke. and laying them in a grid from right to left. Each
horizontal gridline has a name – son, livestock,
woman or enemy – and each vertical one has
a name, too: chief, zebu (cattle), brother and earth.
Whether one or two seeds lie at the intersection
of two gridlines determines the subject’s fortune
and informs Raoke as to the cure required, and its
price.