Practice Test One TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The bar chart below shows the results of a survey conducted by a personnel department at a major company. The survey was carried out on two groups of workers: those aged from 18 – 30 and those aged 45 – 60, and shows factors affecting their work performance. Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below. You should write at least 150 words Taken from one survey carried out by a personnel department, this bar chart reveals the results of several main reasons affecting the workers’ performance for two-aged group, one is between 18 and 30 years old, and the other is from 45 to 60 years old. As can be seen from the chart, the most striking feature is that many factors are cited in various degrees be different groups. To illustrate this, relaxed working environment, which is far more considered by younger group with 80% number of employees, is a mere 36% of those from older group. Chance for personal development, promotion prospects and job security also show the same tendency. However, the tendency is reverse in respect from colleague’s factor where older group have more consideration than their younger colleagues do. About 44% of older employees concern about this, whereas there are just 40% of young employees think this is important. There are also some similarities in both groups. Take the qualifications of team spirit, competent boss, job satisfaction, work environment and money as illustrations, in almost cases the number of workers in both aged group give the approximately same attitudes. Particularly for team spirit and work environment as they are equally chosen by both aged group. 207 words TASK 2 You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Too much attention is paid to and too much money is spent on keeping pets, while people throughout the world are starving. Discuss the arguments for and against keeping pets. To what extent do you agree? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. You should write at least 250 words In time of high standard of living, many people show a tendency to spend more money on raising their pets. Other people, who are of the concern about global issues, find it hard to understand why money is spent extravagantly for pets while starvation is threatening a large proportion of human race. Before a judgment can be made, it is better to consider the two – sides of this concern. It is true that starvations, poverties, unstable political organizations along with other factors are challenging the human race in numerous aspects. Broadly speaking, every year, millions of people die because of those, and this figure seems to be increasing. Seriously, some developing countries are buried in debts because of being underdeveloped. This matter will be deteriorating if there is no more help from other countries, or even from other wealthy people. On this basis, money, which is used for many rich people’s pets, should be shared for many people who are in endangered circumstances. However, there is another way of looking this issue. For elderly people who are being alone, without anyone who could make them happy, pets are more than their feeding animal, they are friends. Imagining, a person who would live to the end of their life, being lonely, that could be a disaster. On this situation, a tendency of raising pets should be sympathized. From all things mentioned to a conclusion that money which spent for pets should share a large proportion for a poorer to rescue them from miserable situation, and only a relative amount for pets as they are friends of human, especially for elderly people. 270 words. Practice Test Two TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The table below shows the figures for imprisonment in five countries between 1930 and 1980. Write a report for a university, lecturer describing the information shown below. You should write at least 150 words. This bar chart, which contains the imprisonment’s statistics amongst five countries from 1930 to 1980, shows that over the period, obviously, there were two trends, namely: upwards trends regarding to Great Britain and United States, and downwards trends which were shown in New Zealand, Australia and Canada. As regard the first trend, both Great Britain and United Stated showed the spectacular increases over the 50 years period. Britain, starting at mere 30,000 prisons in 1930, in just 30 years this number has rose up to 50,000 and kept increasing until 1980 to reach over 80,000. The number is far out-weighting in the United States where 100,000 people committed the crimes in 1930 and increasing to 130,000 people in the following decade. Although, there were a fluctuation in number in the subsequent 30 years to stand at just under 100,000 prisoners in 1970, from this time the number rocketed to outstrip its number in 1940, over 130,000 prisoners recorded. Turning to the second trend, as can be seen New Zealand saw the most obvious decline in prisoners’ number over the period in comparison with the other two countries. Having exactly 100,000 prisoners in 1930, after 50 years this number in New Zealand went down to approximately 50,000. In Australia and Canada, the figures were almost 70,000 and 120,000 respectively in 1930, then falling to 50,000 and 90,000 in 1980. 228 words TASK 2 You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic: In some countries, young people are encouraged to work or travel for a year between finishing high school and starting universities studies. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages for young people who decide to do this Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. You should write at least 250 words It has been recently showed that students who have just finished their high school are encouraged to take a year off to work or travel before encountering to universities. On the question of whether or not this trend is truly advantageous, it is advisable to consider both advantages and draw back of doing this. Working is, somehow, rather an effective way for students to gain knowledge, experiences, and especially social skills which are hardly taught or even mentioned in educational environment where studying is the only matter. To clarify for this, as my experience, many people often feel remorseful, as they did not work earlier in their life because some of them feel terribly shocked, as the working environment is, in some extent, very different from educational environment. If they work sooner, even a part – time job, they may get familiar with working atmosphere and so less being shocked in later life. On this basis, taking a year off to work part – time or engaging into vocational training are strongly recommended. There is also more benefit when deciding to have one-year gap before attending universities for scholars. Traveling, according to many study have revealed, is one kind of relaxing therapy, and this is obviously worthwhile for some who feel stressful after many long days preparing for the University Entrance Examination. By way of going to somewhere else, students may discover many new things, learning many precious knowledge and experiences that they may not find in their whole lives if they do not decide to travel. Therefore, like working traveling should be also taken into consideration. However, many people are of the concern that some students will misuse a year – off for extravagant entertainment’s purpose. This concern is certainly possible, and now expanding in popularity. Some students think that if they passed the exam, it means that they are good and so it is no need to study more. Keeping this attitude, many students forget their study duties and devastating their enterprises by taking part in everyday parties. To recapitulate, there are both beneficial and disadvantageous of taking a year – off. Some may use it for good purposes, for example working and traveling, but others might not. Thus, the way students use it will depend on the question whether they want it is beneficial or not. 387 words Practice Test Three TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The charts below show the main reasons for study among students of different age groups and the amount of support they received from employers. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. You should write at least 150 words. The first bar chart provides various main reasons for studying in a wide range ages, from under 26 to over 49 years old. While the second chart reveals how much support is each aged group received from their employers. As regard the first chart, the most striking feature is that, while older people have more consideration on their interests when deciding to study than their younger scholars, younger students pay more attention on their future careers than older students do. Almost 80% of students from youngest aged group, who are under 26 years old, choose studying for their future prospects; also respectively 70% and approximately 60% of students from age between 26 and 29 and from 30 to 39 show the same consideration. On the contrary, the oldest aged group, over 49 years old, shows that hefty 70% of them choose interests as their justification for studying, opposed with a mere 30% belonged to career’s consideration. People from age 40 to 49, equally, take career prospect and favor as their studying reason. Turing to the second bar chart, it is obvious that from under 26 years old to 39 years old, employees are received less supports as they are becoming older. Almost 70% under 26 years old employees receive time off and finance help compared with just a modest 30% of their 30 – 39 years old colleagues have this benefit. However, from this age to over 49 years old, employees are given more slightly help from their employers. 248 words TASK 2 You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Are computers an essential feature of modern education? What subjects can be better taught using computers? Are there aspects of a good education that cannot be taught using computers? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. You should write at least 250 words Never before in the human’s history has life been changing so much since the introduction of computers in various ways, finance, economics, military, and education for example. Education, in particular, has been improved basically by the use of computers. However, some people are of the question that whether education could be completely based on this high programmed machines in every aspects. It is obviously true that computers cannot be replaced totally the role of teachers in education, but it is indispensable to explain why. The first thing that needs to be noted is at the elementary level, computers seem to be very efficient for both students and teachers. That is patent to understand; computers are machines that have abilities to store a huge source of lessons, and therefore, it can be applied in education as a tool to illustrate lessons in order to help students acquire knowledge easier and more effective. Beyond this, computers can be used by students as their knowledge’s storages. Students can forget their lessons or knowledge that they have learned at school after a relative time, however if those thing are stored into computers, those cannot be “forgot”, of course except for virus attacking cases. There are many aspects where computers are showing weakness or inefficiencies. Practical education, for example vocational or social skill training, cannot be absolutely depended on the power of computers. To clarify for this, computers, used as virtual tools for illustrating lessons, can give scholars knowledge, but not skills. Skills are practical knowledge by which I mean that they are something that cannot be taught by a machine without emotion and experiences, and with this level of education, teachers are truly essential. Mention should also be made of further educations say master degrees or bachelor diploma; at these fields, computer using is surely inadequate. By way of explanation, computers are purely programmed machines that totally depend on what they have been programmed. On this basis, it may give the answer for questions that have been installed in its memory, but no explanation can be made by this kind of machine itself. All the following points to the conclusion that, computers, which are considered as an essential part of human life, can help education by various degrees, especially for elementary level as perfect data storage and an efficient tool for indicating lessons. However, with the higher level of education, computers are not reliable in term of efficiency, as the studying demands are higher and more elaborated. 413 words Practice Test Four TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The graphs below show the types of music albums purchased by people in Britain according to sex and age. Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below. You should write at least 150 words. These three bar charts show clearly that in different age, 16 to over 45, music purchasers in Britain find different interesting in three surveyed categories, namely: Pop, Rock and Classical Music; however, overall, it also shows that more men than women buy those. The most striking feature is that of all the investigated aged groups, customers from age 25 to 34 years old show their interest in all three kinds of music with, respectively, 32%, 30%, and 16% purchasing Pop, Rock, and Classical Music. Differentiate from the first mentioned group; other groups seem to be in favor of just one or two music genres. By way of illustration, 16 – 24 – year – old and 35 – 44 – year – old customers buy Pop and Rock Music far more than Classical Music, while the vast majority of the oldest aged group, purchasers over 45, buy Classical Music, opposed to a mere 8% of them buy Rock and 7% buying Pop Music. 157 words TASK 2 You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Some people think that children should begin their formal education at a very early age and should spend most of their time on school studies. Others believe that young children should spend most of their time playing. Compare these two views. Which view do you agree with? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. You should write at least 250 words People learn through their entire lives by which curiosity is always the basic characteristic of a human being, the urge to break limits and learn more, and this lead to an agreement in some people that children should spend most of their time on playing and discovering new things. On the contrary, others are of the opinion that children should begin their formal education at a very early age and spend most of their time on school studies to help them succeed in the future. It is worth stating at this point that children who begin to study at a very early age are likely to have more chances to succeed in later life. Apart form this, studying sooner gives them opportunities and more time to perfect their knowledge and experiences, which are priceless and valuable for their enterprises or even become the virtuous citizens. However, there are other ways of looking this issue. One thing is certain that children should have childhoods. Through this precious period, children can learn many new things by ways of playing and communicating with their friends and parents. Such basic qualifications as kindness, self-confidence or even a good sense of humor cannot be gained from studying. Beyond the childhood’s matter, children should also have more time with families, playing and learning with their friends. Imagining a child instead of playing with his friends does his homework and then feels exhausted and tired. Another important aspect to note is that children at their early ages need more exercise for their body’s developments. All these points to the conclusion that, as the writer’s view, children should have happy childhood without any responsibilities and concerns about studying. Moreover, playing give them chances to develop their well – being as well as many valuable characteristics. 296 words . Practice Test One TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The bar chart. they are friends of human, especially for elderly people. 270 words. Practice Test Two TASK 1 You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. The table below