B2 first practice test Reading Skills and Use of English 8

FCE Course Lesson 26 – B2 first practice test Reading Skills and Use of English 8.

In this lesson you will listen to a recording of the first certificate test on “Twitter” with tips to help you in the first certificate language practice. Reading and Use Of English Activity 5 is called multiple choice text. Here the main emphasis is on the understanding of a text, and more specifically on the understanding of opinion, main idea, detail, tone, purpose, attitude, implication and essence. You are given 6 multiple-choice questions (plus 1 example). Each of these 6 questions contains 4 options to evaluate the candidate’s understanding of the structure and content of the text, in other words, the ability of a candidate to read.

Dialogue 26: Twitter

Nowadays, it is rare to come across someone who doesn’t use the social networking site; “Twitter”. It is now a popular page for millions of people and in the last few years, thousands of celebrities have jumped on the bandwagon. For 6 years, it has been a vehicle for self-promotion of celebrities who relish the opportunity to share snippets of their lives with fans and friends, at no more than 140 characters per tweet.

However, in the past few years, the website has taken a dangerous turn, as social networking sites often do. There has been an influx of Twitter ‘trolls’ who are users of the website who take advantage of the opportunity to interact with the rich and famous by abusing them on a daily basis. When I say ‘abusing’, I am talking about vitriolic attacks on innocent human beings. They don’t just receive negative comments which leave a bitter taste in the mouth, they are targeted and taunted in such a personal and poisonous way that it has forced some celebs to abandon the site.

There is the argument that things like this are the price of fame. I can see the truth in that statement to that extent, especially when it comes to C list celebrity wannabes who go on shows like “Geordie Shore” and “The Valleys” in order to boost their profiles and enjoy their 15 minutes of fame. For this type of celebrity, although nasty abuse still isn’t justified in any way, we could say that they have to tolerate the negativity they receive because life in the public eye is what they wanted and they therefore have to accept the bad that comes with the good.

However, what if we take a look at more dignified celebrities. Those who have a talent and whose careers are based on using their talent to not only make themselves happy in doing what they love, but to make others happy by giving them something to help them escape from their daily, mundane lives. Those who have been made famous by the industries of film, television, music and journalism. Those who have opened up their lives to give fans an insight into what they do. Do they honestly deserve to have cruel people making their lives hell?

The latest celebrity to have given up on Twitter is comedian Matt Lucas, who became a national treasure after the success of his hilarious sitcom “Little Britain”. Lucas, who is openly gay, was an avid user of Twitter, before being struck by the curse of Twitter trolls who targeted him after the death of his partner. The cruel words of one person in particular got to Lucas, those of a 16-year old who made a joke about Kevin McGee’s suicide. Lucas has stated in interviews since the incident that he could no longer be involved in an Internet community where such heartless views from such a young person could be expressed. Although he received an apology from the teenager and tons of support from fans and fellow celebrities who had the hashtag “We love you Matt Lucas” trending, this wasn’t enough to deter Lucas from making the decision to leave the world of Twitter behind.

When it comes to such personal issues like suicide that are being taunted on the Internet, we have to wonder how far the cruel jibes will be able to go before Twitter steps in. Some users are standing by the campaign to set up a filter on the site, which ‘tweets’ will have to go through before being authorised and sent out into the networking hemisphere. Here at Daily Talk, we back that idea 100% and believe that something needs to be done before more people are victimised and hurt.

Vocabulary Reading Skills and Use of English 8

ENGLISH	SYNONYM or DEFINITION
to jump on the bandwagon	(figurative) to join a popular cause
to relish	to enjoy greatly
a snippet	(figurative) a scrap of information
an influx	flowing in, mass arrival
to abuse someone	to insult, to mistreat
vitriolic	(figurative) caustic, spiteful
to taunt	to tease
poisonous	(figurative) malicious, harmful
a wannabe	somebody who aspires, a would-be
nasty	(person, comment) cruel, spiteful
dignified	(person) having dignity
mundane	boring, everyday
openly	publicly
heartless	(person, action) cruel, unkind, lacking compassion
a jibe	a taunt, mock, insult
a filter	(Computing) a piece of software that processes text (to remove something unwanted)

Exam tips Reading Skills and Use of English b2 first practice test 8.

EXAM TIP FOR First Reading Skills and Use of English 8

Reading and Use of English 5: Multiple-Choice Text

Multiple-Choice Text Activity

Reading and Use of English part 5 is called Multiple-Choice Text. Here the primary emphasis is on comprehension of a text, and more specifically understanding opinion, main idea, details, tone, purpose, attitude, implication, and gist. You are given 6 multiple-choice questions (plus 1 example). Each of these 6 questions contains 4 options to test the candidate’s understanding of text structure and content, in other words a candidate’s reading ability.

The questions follow the same order as the information presented in the text. You can therefore follow the logic and structure of the text when answering the questions.

What type of questions will you be presented with? You will be tested on:

understanding references, such as pronouns
recognising examples and/or comparisons
naming the tone of a text and/or of the writer’s purpose
drawing conclusions from clues given in the text, finding a meaning inferring
singling out specific information
identifying general information from the text as a whole

Advice:

Try reading through the whole text before looking at the questions.
Read each question twice so as to be fully aware of what you are looking for in the text.
Do be careful as questions sometimes contain the same word as in a question. This does not mean that that answer is the correct one.
Make sure that the answer is complete and does not just offer a partial response.
To practise before your exam, read interviews, reviews, and other text types that contain opinions, and that represent a variety of attitudes and feelings.