Questions 1–6 Complete the form below. Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Guitar Group

Coordinator: Gary 1…………………

Level: 2…………………

the 3…………………
Place: 4………………… Street
First floor, Room T347

Time: Thursday morning at 5…………………

Recommended website: ‘The perfect 6…………………’

Questions 7–10 Complete the table below. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.
A typical 45-minute guitar lesson

Time Activity Notes

5 minutes tuning guitars using an app or by 7…………………

10 minutes strumming chords using our thumbs keeping time while the teacher is 8…………………

15 minutes playing songs often listening to a 9………………… of a song

10 minutes playing single notes and simple tunes playing together, then 10…………………

5 minutes noting things to practise at home

Questions 11–15 Working as a lifeboat volunteer
11 What made David leave London and move to Northsea?
A He was eager to develop a hobby.
B He wanted to work shorter hours.
C He found his job in website design unsatisfying.
12 The Lifeboat Institution in Northsea was built with money provided by
A a local organisation.
B a local resident.
C the local council.
13 In his health assessment, the doctor was concerned about the fact that David
A might be colour blind.
B was rather short-sighted.
C had undergone eye surgery.
14 After arriving at the lifeboat station, they aim to launch the boat within
A five minutes.
B six to eight minutes.
C eight and a half minutes.
15 As a ‘helmsman’, David has the responsibility of deciding
A who will be the members of his crew.
B what equipment it will be necessary to take.
C if the lifeboat should be launched.
16 As well as going out on the lifeboat, David
A gives talks on safety at sea.
B helps with fundraising.
C recruits new volunteers.
Questions 17 and 18 Which TWO things does David say about the lifeboat volunteer training?
A The residential course developed his leadership skills.
B The training in use of ropes and knots was quite brief.
C The training exercises have built up his mental strength.
D The casualty care activities were particularly challenging for him.
E The wave tank activities provided practice in survival techniques.
Questions 19 and 20 Which TWO things does David find most motivating about the work he does?
A working as part of a team
B experiences when working in winter
C being thanked by those he has helped
D the fact that it keeps him fit
E the chance to develop new equipment
READING PASSAGE 1 The Industrial Revolution in Britain
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the mid-1700s and by the 1830s and 1840s has spread to many
other parts of the world, including the United States. In Britain, it was a period when a largely rural, agrarian*
society was transformed into an industrialised, urban one. Goods that had once been crafted by hand started
to be produced in mass quantities by machines in factories, thanks to the invention of steam power and the
introduction of new machines and manufacturing techniques in textiles, iron-making and other industries.
The foundations of the Industrial Revolution date back to the early 1700s, when the English inventor Thomas
Newcomen designed the first modern steam engine. Called the ‘atmospheric steam engine’, Newcomen’s
invention was originally used to power machines that pumped water out of mines. In the 1760s, the Scottish
engineer James Watt started to adapt one of Newcomen’s models, and succeeded in making it far more
efficient. Watt later worked with the English manufacturer Matthew Boulton to invent a new steam engine
driven by both the forward and backward strokes of the piston, while the gear mechanism it was connected to
produced rotary motion. It was a key innovation that would allow steam power to spread across British
industries.
The demand for coal, which was a relatively cheap energy source, grew rapidly during the Industrial
Revolution, as it was needed to run not only the factories used to produce manufactured goods, but also
steam-powered transportation. In the early 1800s, the English engineer Richard Trevithick built a steam-
powered locomotive, and by 1830 goods and passengers were being transported between the industrial
centres of Manchester and Liverpool. In addition, steam-powered boats and ships were widely used to carry
goods along Britain’s canals as well as across the Atlantic.
Britain had produced textiles like wool, linen and cotton, for hundreds of years, but prior to the Industrial
Revolution, the British textile business was a true ‘cottage industry’, with the work performed in small
workshops or even homes by individual spinners, weavers and dyers. Starting in the mid-1700s, innovations
like the spinning jenny and the power loom made weaving cloth and spinning yarn and thread much easier.
With these machines, relatively little labour was required to produce cloth, and the new, mechanised textile
factories that opened around the country were quickly able to meet customer demand for cloth both at home
and abroad.
The British iron industry also underwent major change as it adopted new innovations. Chief among the new
techniques was the smelting of iron ore with coke (a material made by heating coal) instead of the traditional
charcoal. This method was cheaper and produced metals that were of a higher quality, enabling Britain’s iron
and steel production to expand in response to demand created by the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) and the
expansion of the railways from the 1830s.
The latter part of the Industrial Revolution also saw key advances in communication methods, as people
increasingly saw the need to communicate efficiently over long distances. In 1837, British inventors William
Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented the first commercial telegraphy system. In the 1830s and 1840s,
Samuel Morse and other inventors worked on their own versions in the United States. Cooke and
Wheatstone’s system was soon used for railway signalling in the UK. As the speed of the new locomotives
increased, it was essential to have a fast and effective means of avoiding collisions.
The impact of the Industrial Revolution on people’s lives was immense. Although many people in Britain had
begun moving to the cities from rural areas before the Industrial Revolution, this accelerated dramatically with
industrialisation, as the rise of large factories turned smaller towns into major cities in just a few decades. This
rapid urbanisation brought significant challenges, as overcrowded cities suffered from pollution and
inadequate sanitation.
Although industrialisation increased the country’s economic output overall and improved the standard of living
for the middle and upper classes, many poor people continued to struggle. Factory workers had to work long
hours in dangerous conditions for extremely low wages. These conditions along with the rapid pace of change
fuelled opposition to industrialisation. A group of British workers who became known as ‘Luddites’ were British
weavers and textile workers who objected to the increased use of mechanised looms and knitting frames.
Many had spent years learning their craft, and they feared that unskilled machine operators were robbing
them of their livelihood. A few desperate weavers began breaking into factories and smashing textile
machines. They called themselves Luddites after Ned Ludd, a young apprentice who was rumoured to have
wrecked a textile machine in 1779.
The first major instances of machine breaking took place in 1811 in the city of Nottingham, and the practice
soon spread across the country. Machine-breaking Luddites attacked and burned factories, and in some cases
they even exchanged gunfire with company guards and soldiers. The workers wanted employers to stop
installing new machinery, but the British government responded to the uprisings by making machine-breaking
punishable by death. The unrest finally reached its peak in April 1812, when a few Luddites were shot during
an attack on a mill near Huddersfield. In the days that followed, other Luddites were arrested, and dozens were
hanged or transported to Australia. By 1813, the Luddite resistance had all but vanished.
* agrarian: relating to the land, especially the use of land for farming
Questions 1–7 Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Britain’s Industrial Revolution
Steam power
● Newcomen’s steam engine was used in mines to remove water.
● In Watt and Boulton’s steam engine, the movement of the 1………………. was linked to a gear system.
● A greater supply of 2………………. was required to power steam engines.
Textile industry
● Before the Industrial Revolution, spinners and weavers worked at home and in 3………………. .
● Not as much 4………… was needed to produce cloth once the spinning jenny and power loom were invented.
Iron industry
● Smelting of iron ore with coke resulted in material that was better 5………………. .
● Demand for iron increased with the growth of the 6………………. .
Communications
● Cooke and Wheatstone patented the first telegraphy system.
● The telegraphy system was used to prevent locomotives colliding.
Urbanisation
● Small towns turned into cities very quickly.
● The new cities were dirty, crowded and lacked sufficient 7………………. .
Questions 8–13 TRUE – FALSE – NOT GIVEN
8 Britain’s canal network grew rapidly so that more goods could be transported around the country.
9 Costs in the iron industry rose when the technique of smelting iron ore with coke was introduced.
10 Samuel Morse’s communication system was more reliable than that developed by William Cooke and Charles
Wheatstone.
11 The economic benefits of industrialisation were limited to certain sectors of society.
12 Some skilled weavers believed that the introduction of the new textile machines would lead to job losses.
13 There was some sympathy among local people for the Luddites who were arrested near Huddersfield.
READING PASSAGE 2 Athletes and stress
A It isn’t easy being a professional athlete. Not only are the physical demands greater than most people
could handle, athletes also face intense psychological pressure during competition. This is something that
British tennis player Emma Raducanu wrote about on social media following her withdrawal from the 2021
Wimbledon tournament. Though the young player had been doing well in the tournament, she began having
difficulty regulating her breathing and heart rate during a match, which she later attributed to ‘the
accumulation of the excitement and the buzz’.
B For athletes, some level of performance stress is almost unavoidable. But there are many different
factors that dictate just how people’s minds and bodies respond to stressful events. Typically, stress is the
result of an exchange between two factors: demands and resources. An athlete may feel stressed about an
event if they feel the demands on them are greater than they can handle. These demands include the high
level of physical and mental effort required to succeed, and also the athlete’s concerns about the difficulty of
the event, their chance of succeeding, and any potential dangers such as injury. Resources, on the other hand,
are a person’s ability to cope with these demands. These include factors such as the competitor’s degree of
confidence, how much they believe they can control the situation’s outcome, and whether they’re looking
forward to the event or not.
C Each new demand or change in circumstances affects whether a person responds positively or
negatively to stress. Typically, the more resources a person feels they have in handling the situation, the more
positive their stress response. This positive stress response is called a challenge state. But should the person
feel there are too many demands placed on them, the more likely they are to experience a negative stress
response – known as a threat state. Research shows that the challenge states lead to good performance, while
threat states lead to poorer performance. So, in Emma Raducanu’s case, a much larger audience, higher
expectations and facing a more skilful opponent, may all have led her to feel there were greater demands
being placed on her at Wimbledon – but she didn’t have the resources to tackle them. This led to her
experiencing a threat response.
D Our challenge and threat responses essentially influence how our body responds to stressful situations,
as both affect the production of adrenaline and cortisol – also known as ‘stress hormones’. During a challenge
state, adrenaline increases the amount of blood pumped from the heart and expands the blood vessels, which
allows more energy to be delivered to the muscles and brain. This increase of blood and decrease of pressure
in the blood vessels has been consistently related to superior sport performance in everything from cricket
batting, to golf putting and football penalty taking. But during a threat state, cortisol inhibits the positive effect
of adrenaline, resulting in tighter blood vessels, higher blood pressure, slower psychological responses, and a
faster heart rate. In short, a threat state makes people more anxious – they make worse decisions and perform
more poorly. In tennis players, cortisol has been associated with more unsuccessful serves and greater anxiety.
E That said, anxiety is also a common experience for athletes when they’re under pressure. Anxiety can
increase heart rate and perspiration, cause heart palpitations, muscle tremors and shortness of breath, as well
as headaches, nausea, stomach pain, weakness and a desire to escape in more extreme cases. Anxiety can also
reduce concentration and self-control and cause overthinking. The intensity with which a person experiences
anxiety depends on the demands and resources they have. Anxiety may also manifest itself in the form of
excitement or nervousness depending on the stress response. Negative stress responses can be damaging to
both physical and mental health – and repeated episodes of anxiety coupled with negative responses can
increase risk of heart disease and depression.
F But there are many ways athletes can ensure they respond positively under pressure. Positive stress
responses can be promoted through the language that they and others – such as coaches or parents — use.
Psychologists can also help athletes change how they see their physiological responses – such as helping them
see a higher heart rate as excitement, rather than nerves. Developing psychological skills, such as visualisation,
can also help decrease physiological responses to threat. Visualisation may involve the athlete recreating a
mental picture of a time when they performed well, or picturing themselves doing well in the future. This can
help create a feeling of control over the stressful event. Recreating competitive pressure during training can
also help athletes learn how to deal with stress. An example of this might be scoring athletes against their
peers to create a sense of competition. This would increase the demands which players experience compared
to a normal training session, while still allowing them to practise coping with stress.

Questions 14–18 Which paragraph contains the following information?

NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 reference to two chemical compounds which impact on performance
15 examples of strategies for minimising the effects of stress
16 how a sportsperson accounted for their own experience of stress
17 study results indicating links between stress responses and performance
18 mention of people who can influence how athletes perceive their stress responses

Questions 19–22 Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
19 Performance stress involves many demands on the athlete, for example, coping with the possible risk of
……………………… .
20 Cortisol can cause tennis players to produce fewer good ……………………… .
21 Psychologists can help athletes to view their physiological responses as the effect of a positive feeling such
as ……………………… .
22 ……………………… is an example of a psychological technique which can reduce an athlete’s stress responses.

Questions 23 and 24 Which TWO facts about Emma Raducanu’s withdrawal from the Wimbledon tournament
are mentioned in the text?
A the stage at which she dropped out of the tournament
B symptoms of her performance stress at the tournament
C measures which she had taken to manage her stress levels
D aspects of the Wimbledon tournament which increased her stress levels
E reactions to her social media posts about her experience at Wimbledon

Questions 25 and 26 Which TWO facts about anxiety are mentioned in Paragraph E of the text?
A the factors which determine how severe it may be
B how long it takes for its effects to become apparent
C which of its symptoms is most frequently encountered
D the types of athletes who are most likely to suffer from it
E the harm that can result if athletes experience it too often

Questions 1 – 11. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Accommodation request
Name: Anna Black
Type of accommodation: a house
Preferred location: the 1___________ of the town
Facilities required: furnished property with a 2 _______________
Period of time required: one year
Start date of rental period: 3_______________
Present address: 56, Stone Street
Phone number : (mobile) 07942 326 584
Reference from: her 4 _______________
Maximum rent: 5 £____________ per month
Applicant’s job: 6_____________
Documents to be supplied
ID check: applicant’s passport
Credit check: a 7______________
Viewing arrangements
Address of property: 33, 8__________ Street
Viewing day and time: Saturday 4 p.m
To check: Is there a 9 ___________ in the house?
Is there a 10 ____________ nearby?
Questions 11-14 Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
Information for fire wardens
11 The company is having this meeting about fire procedures because
A employees did badly in the last annual fire drill.
B there have been changes in the building layout.
C new staff have joined the company.
12 There has been a recent upgrade to
A the sprinkler system.
B the fire extinguishers.
C the alarm system.
13 During the minor fire in January, some staff working in the factory
A were unable to read fire notices.
B left fire doors open.
C were unwilling to start the fire alarm.
14 In the fire in January, the problem with office staff was that they
A refused to leave personal items behind.
B moved too slowly during the evacuation.
C did not move far away enough from the building.
Questions 15 – 20 What comment does the speaker make about each of the following aspects of fire safety?
Comments
A It should be a priority for fire wardens
B It will be dealt with by an external specialist
C It does not require attention
Aspects of fire safety
15 ensuring there are no obstacles in fire escape routes.........................................
16 checking that fire doors are easily opened.........................................
17 showing staff how to look after each other.........................................
18 training staff to use fire extinguishers correctly.........................................
19 checking that staff are aware of evacuation points.........................................
20 checking that flammable liquids are properly stored.........................................