اختبار آيلتس تجريبي.. Test E

اختبار آيلتس أكاديمي تجريبي كامل ومجاني من دليلك (Test E): القراءة (3 نصوص، 40 سؤالًا) والاستماع (4 أجزاء، 40 سؤالًا) والكتابة (مهمتان) والمحادثة (3 أجزاء). الإجابة الصحيحة والشرح تحت كل سؤال بضغطة على «اعرض الإجابة»، لمن يستعد للآيلتس ويريد يتدرّب ويراجع أخطاءه.

حل الأسئلة أولًا ثم افتح الإجابة، أو ابدأ الاختبار التفاعلي بالوقت ليُصحَّح تلقائيًا مع باند تقديري. أصوات الاستماع تعمل في الاختبار التفاعلي، ونصها هنا تحت كل جزء.

القراءة الأكاديمية.. Reading

3 نصوص و40 سؤالًا في 60 دقيقة.

ابدأ الاختبار التفاعلي بالوقت

Passage 1: Trade Along the Silk Road

AThe term "Silk Road" was not used by any of the traders who once travelled it: it was coined only in 1877, by the German geographer and explorer Ferdinand von Richthofen, to describe the vast, loosely connected network of overland trade routes that had linked China to the Mediterranean world for well over a thousand years. Rather than a single road, the network was a shifting web of caravan trails threading through deserts, mountain passes and oasis towns, stretching in total more than six thousand kilometres from the ancient Chinese capital of Chang'an to ports on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Regular long-distance traffic along these trails is usually traced to the second century BCE, when the Han-dynasty official Zhang Qian was sent west on a diplomatic mission and returned with detailed reports of kingdoms and markets the Chinese court had barely known existed.

BSilk, woven in China from at least the third millennium BCE, gave the network its later name, but it was only one of many goods that moved along it in both directions. Merchants carried fine glassware and woollen textiles westward from the Roman world, while spices, precious stones, and eventually paper and gunpowder travelled the opposite way from China and India. Central Asian horses, prized by Chinese armies for their strength and speed, were exchanged for Chinese silk in such volume that the arrangement became known to later historians as the "silk-horse trade". No single merchant travelled the network's full length; instead, goods typically changed hands many times, passing through a relay of local traders before reaching their final market, often months or years after leaving their point of origin.

CAmong the many peoples who profited from this relay trade, the Sogdians, based in the oasis cities of what is now Uzbekistan, became particularly indispensable. Fluent in several languages and skilled negotiators, Sogdian merchants established trading colonies along the routes stretching from the borders of China to the Black Sea, and for several centuries they dominated the overland silk trade so thoroughly that Sogdian became something close to a common commercial language across Central Asia. Caravans of camels, capable of carrying heavy loads across arid terrain for days without water, were the network's principal means of transport, and way stations known as caravanserais, offering food, water and shelter, were built at intervals of roughly a single day's journey to support the long and often dangerous crossings.

DThe Silk Road carried more than merchandise. Buddhism spread from northern India into Central Asia and then China along these same routes, carried by monks who travelled with merchant caravans for safety, and later Nestorian Christian and Islamic communities followed similar paths eastward. Technologies moved just as readily as beliefs: papermaking, a Chinese invention, is generally thought to have reached the Islamic world following the Battle of Talas in 751 CE, when Chinese prisoners with papermaking skills were reportedly among the captives, and from there the technique eventually spread on to Europe centuries later. Such transfers were rarely instantaneous; a technology might take generations to travel from one end of the network to the other, adapting to local materials and conditions at every stage of its journey.

EThe network's fortunes rose and fell with the political stability of the regions it crossed. Its most secure period is often dated to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the Mongol Empire's control over much of Eurasia produced what historians have called the Pax Mongolica, a period in which a single set of rules and protections allowed merchants to travel unusually long distances with comparatively little fear of banditry. Once the Mongol Empire fragmented into rival successor states, however, overland trade became more hazardous and less predictable, and the network never fully recovered its earlier volume. Its gradual eclipse was hastened from the fifteenth century onward by the rise of maritime trade: Chinese fleets under the admiral Zheng He, and later European ships rounding the Cape of Good Hope, offered routes to Asian markets that avoided overland tolls, middlemen and the political risks of crossing so many different territories.

FThough the overland network had faded into relative obscurity by the modern era, its name has proved remarkably durable. Archaeologists continue to excavate sites along its former routes, uncovering manuscripts, coins and textiles that document the scale of the exchange it once supported, and in 2014 a corridor of the network spanning China and Central Asia was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its historical significance. The term has also been revived in a very different, modern context: in 2013, the Chinese government launched the Belt and Road Initiative, a programme of infrastructure investment across Asia, Africa and Europe explicitly framed by its planners as a modern successor to the ancient network, even though the new initiative bears little physical resemblance to the caravan routes it invokes.

caravanserai:
a roadside inn where travellers could rest and find food, water and shelter
oasis:
a fertile area in a desert where water is found

أسئلة النص 1

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? Write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

  1. 1The term "Silk Road" was first used by traders who actually travelled the network.

    TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    FALSE

    "'it was coined only in 1877, by the German geographer and explorer Ferdinand von Richthofen' (Paragraph A)"

    ليش صحيح: العبارة تدّعي أن التجار استخدموا المصطلح، بينما النص ينفي ذلك صراحة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست TRUE بسبب التناقض الصريح، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن أصل التسمية مذكور بوضوح.

  2. 2Zhang Qian returned from his diplomatic mission with information about kingdoms the Han court had not previously known about.

    TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    TRUE

    "'returned with detailed reports of kingdoms and markets the Chinese court had barely known existed' (Paragraph A)"

    ليش صحيح: إعادة صياغة مباشرة لحقيقة مؤكدة في النص.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست FALSE لعدم وجود تناقض، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن الحقيقة مذكورة صراحة.

  3. 3Sogdian merchants were required by local rulers to learn Chinese before they could trade in Chinese markets.

    TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    NOT GIVEN

    "'Fluent in several languages... Sogdian became something close to a common commercial language across Central Asia' (Paragraph C)"

    ليش صحيح: النص يذكر تعدد لغاتهم وانتشار لغتهم التجارية، لكنه لا يذكر أي إلزام بتعلم الصينية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست TRUE لعدم وجود ذكر لهذا الإلزام، وليست FALSE لعدم وجود نفي صريح له.

  4. 4Caravanserais were generally built close enough together to be reached in a single day's travel.

    TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    TRUE

    "'way stations known as caravanserais... were built at intervals of roughly a single day's journey' (Paragraph C)"

    ليش صحيح: إعادة صياغة مباشرة لمسافة التباعد المذكورة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست FALSE لعدم وجود تناقض، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن المسافة مذكورة صراحة.

  5. 5Papermaking reached Europe before it reached the Islamic world.

    TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    FALSE

    "'reached the Islamic world following the Battle of Talas in 751 CE... and from there the technique eventually spread on to Europe centuries later' (Paragraph D)"

    ليش صحيح: النص يذكر أن العالم الإسلامي سبق أوروبا بعدة قرون.. عكس ما تدّعيه العبارة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست TRUE بسبب التناقض المباشر، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن الترتيب الزمني مذكور بوضوح.

  6. 6Overland trade became safer and more predictable once the Mongol Empire split into separate successor states.

    TRUE / FALSE / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    FALSE

    "'Once the Mongol Empire fragmented into rival successor states, however, overland trade became more hazardous and less predictable' (Paragraph E)"

    ليش صحيح: النص يقول عكس ما تدّعيه العبارة تمامًا.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست TRUE بسبب التناقض الصريح، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن النتيجة مذكورة بوضوح.

Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

The name "Silk Road" was coined by the geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in (7) ________.

Zhang Qian undertook a (8) ________ mission for the Han court that revealed lands further west.

Central Asian (9) ________ were exchanged for Chinese silk in such quantities that the exchange became known as the silk-horse trade.

Camels could cross arid terrain for days without needing (10) ________.

Buddhism spread into China carried largely by (11) ________ who travelled with merchant caravans for safety.

Papermaking is thought to have reached the Islamic world following the Battle of (12) ________ in 751 CE.

The network's safest era is often linked to a period of Mongol-enforced stability known as the Pax (13) ________.

  1. 7Question 7

    اعرض الإجابة

    1877

    "'it was coined only in 1877, by the German geographer and explorer Ferdinand von Richthofen' (Paragraph A)"

    ليش صحيح: الرقم مأخوذ حرفيًا من النص.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: أي تاريخ آخر غير مذكور ويناقض النص.

  2. 8Question 8

    اعرض الإجابة

    diplomatic

    "'Zhang Qian was sent west on a diplomatic mission' (Paragraph A)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة لوصف نوع البعثة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: كلمات أخرى مثل 'military' غير مذكورة في هذا السياق.

  3. 9Question 9

    اعرض الإجابة

    horses

    "'Central Asian horses, prized by Chinese armies... were exchanged for Chinese silk' (Paragraph B)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة للسلعة المتبادلة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: أي كلمة أخرى غير مذكورة في هذا الموضع.

  4. 10Question 10

    اعرض الإجابة

    water

    "'camels, capable of carrying heavy loads across arid terrain for days without water' (Paragraph C)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة المستخدمة حرفيًا في النص.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: كلمات أخرى مثل 'food' غير مذكورة في هذا الموضع تحديدًا.

  5. 11Question 11

    اعرض الإجابة

    monks

    "'Buddhism spread... carried by monks who travelled with merchant caravans for safety' (Paragraph D)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة لمن نقل البوذية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: كلمات أخرى مثل 'traders' غير مذكورة كناقل رئيسي للديانة هنا.

  6. 12Question 12

    اعرض الإجابة

    Talas

    "'following the Battle of Talas in 751 CE' (Paragraph D)"

    ليش صحيح: الاسم الدقيق للمعركة المذكورة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: أي اسم آخر غير مذكور في هذا الموضع.

  7. 13Question 13

    اعرض الإجابة

    Mongolica

    "'what historians have called the Pax Mongolica' (Paragraph E)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة المكملة لاسم الفترة التاريخية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: أي كلمة أخرى غير مذكورة في هذا الموضع تحديدًا.

Passage 2: Breaking Down Plastic: The Promise of Enzyme Recycling

APlastic pollution has become one of the most visible symbols of humanity's environmental impact, and few materials illustrate the problem as starkly as polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, the plastic used in most drink bottles and a large share of synthetic textiles. Global production of PET runs into tens of millions of tonnes each year, yet only a modest fraction is ever recycled into new products; much of the remainder is incinerated, buried in landfill, or left to accumulate in rivers and oceans, where it can persist for centuries without fully breaking down. Conventional mechanical recycling, in which used plastic is shredded, melted and reformed, offers only a partial solution, since the process gradually degrades the quality of the polymer, so that most PET can be mechanically recycled only a limited number of times before it becomes unsuitable for further use.

BA breakthrough of a different kind emerged in 2016, when researchers examining sediment samples from a plastic-recycling facility in Japan identified a previously unknown bacterium, subsequently named Ideonella sakaiensis, that appeared to use PET as a food source. The bacterium produces an enzyme, since named PETase, capable of breaking the chemical bonds that hold the PET polymer together. The discovery excited considerable scientific interest, not because bacteria capable of degrading plastic were entirely unprecedented, but because this particular enzyme worked with unusual efficiency on a material that had been in mass production for barely half a century, far too short a time, in evolutionary terms, for such a capability to have arisen by ordinary means; some researchers suspect the enzyme evolved from a related one that originally broke down a naturally occurring plant compound with a similar chemical structure.

CWhat distinguishes enzymatic recycling from its mechanical counterpart is the depth at which it operates. Rather than simply melting and reshaping the existing polymer chains, engineered versions of PETase break PET down completely into its two founding chemical building blocks, terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. These monomers can then be purified and repolymerised into PET of a quality indistinguishable from that made from newly extracted fossil fuels, a property mechanical recycling cannot match. In principle, this means that the same batch of plastic could be recycled indefinitely without any loss of quality, breaking the steady decline that limits conventional recycling and opening the possibility of a genuinely closed loop in which old bottles become the raw material for new ones, over and over again.

DTurning this laboratory promise into an industrial reality has proved considerably harder than isolating the enzyme itself. Natural PETase works slowly and only within a narrow temperature range, so laboratories have spent years re-engineering its structure to withstand the higher temperatures and more concentrated plastic streams that industrial recycling requires, without losing the very properties that made it effective in the first place. Feedstock remains a further obstacle: enzymatic recycling performs best on relatively clean, well-sorted PET, and the collection and sorting infrastructure needed to supply it at scale does not yet exist in most countries, meaning that even a perfected enzyme could struggle to find enough suitable material to process economically.

EWhether enzymatic recycling ultimately transforms the plastics industry may depend less on the chemistry, which appears increasingly solved, than on economics and policy. At present, PET produced through enzymatic recycling generally costs more than PET manufactured directly from fossil fuels, a gap that is likely to persist until production facilities reach a far larger scale than currently exists; the French company Carbios, among the furthest along in commercialising the technology, has argued that reaching that scale will require sustained investment well before the process becomes reliably profitable on its own. This pattern is not without precedent: early solar panels were similarly uneconomical against fossil-fuel electricity for decades before sustained investment and gradually improving technology brought their costs down to a competitive level, and advocates of enzymatic recycling argue that a comparable trajectory, though not guaranteed, remains entirely plausible.

polymer:
a substance made of long chains of repeating molecular units
monomer:
a small molecule that can join with other identical molecules to form a polymer

أسئلة النص 2

Reading Passage 2 has five sections, A-E. Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.

  • iA newly discovered bacterium capable of breaking down plastic
  • iiThe economic hurdle still standing in the way
  • iiiWhy ordinary recycling cannot solve the plastic problem
  • ivEngineering an enzyme for industrial conditions
  • vA process that returns plastic to its original ingredients
  • viGovernment bans on single-use plastic bottles
  • viiThe environmental cost of manufacturing new plastic

  1. 14Section A

    اعرض الإجابة

    iii.. Why ordinary recycling cannot solve the plastic problem

    "'Conventional mechanical recycling... offers only a partial solution, since the process gradually degrades the quality of the polymer' (Section A)"

    ليش صحيح: الفقرة تشرح لماذا لا تكفي إعادة التدوير التقليدية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: i تخص اكتشافًا عرضيًا (B)؛ v تخص عملية التفكيك (C)؛ باقي العناوين تخص فقرات لاحقة أو غير مذكورة.

  2. 15Section B

    اعرض الإجابة

    i.. A newly discovered bacterium capable of breaking down plastic

    "'researchers examining sediment samples... identified a previously unknown bacterium' (Section B)"

    ليش صحيح: الفقرة تتمحور حول تحديد بكتيريا جديدة قادرة على تفكيك البلاستيك.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: iii تخص قصور إعادة التدوير التقليدية (A)؛ v تخص التفكيك الكيميائي (C)؛ باقي العناوين لا تطابق.

  3. 16Section C

    اعرض الإجابة

    v.. A process that returns plastic to its original ingredients

    "'engineered versions of PETase break PET down completely into its two founding chemical building blocks... These monomers can then be purified and repolymerised' (Section C)"

    ليش صحيح: الفقرة تصف عملية تعيد البلاستيك إلى مكوناته الأصلية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: i تخص الاكتشاف نفسه (B)؛ iv تخص هندسة الإنزيم (D)؛ باقي العناوين لا تطابق.

  4. 17Section D

    اعرض الإجابة

    iv.. Engineering an enzyme for industrial conditions

    "'laboratories have spent years re-engineering its structure to withstand the higher temperatures... that industrial recycling requires' (Section D)"

    ليش صحيح: الفقرة تشرح تحديات هندسة الإنزيم للظروف الصناعية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: v تخص عملية التفكيك نفسها (C)؛ ii تخص التحدي الاقتصادي (E)؛ باقي العناوين لا تطابق.

  5. 18Section E

    اعرض الإجابة

    ii.. The economic hurdle still standing in the way

    "'PET produced through enzymatic recycling generally costs more than PET manufactured directly from fossil fuels... will require sustained investment' (Section E)"

    ليش صحيح: الفقرة تناقش العائق الاقتصادي المتبقي أمام التقنية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: iv تخص التحدي الهندسي (D) لا الاقتصادي؛ باقي العناوين لا تطابق محتوى E.

Complete the summary below. Choose the correct letter, A-G, from the box below. Write the correct letter in boxes 19-22 on your answer sheet.

  • Arecycled
  • Btemperatures
  • Cmonomers
  • Dquality
  • Ebacteria
  • Fpressure
  • Gpackaging

PET plastic is common but only partly (19) ________, because mechanical processing steadily lowers the (20) ________ of the polymer.

In 2016, scientists identified a bacterium producing an enzyme that could break PET down into its original (21) ________.

Engineered versions of this enzyme must now be adapted to survive the higher (22) ________ used in industrial recycling.

  1. 19Question 19

    اعرض الإجابة

    A.. recycled

    "'only a modest fraction is ever recycled into new products' (Section A)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة تطابق معنويًا الجزء المحدود الذي يُعاد تدويره فعليًا.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: باقي الخيارات (B-G) لا تصف حالة إعادة التدوير نفسها.

  2. 20Question 20

    اعرض الإجابة

    D.. quality

    "'the process gradually degrades the quality of the polymer' (Section A)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة لما يتراجع تدريجيًا.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: باقي الخيارات لا تصف الخاصية المتراجعة في هذا السياق.

  3. 21Question 21

    اعرض الإجابة

    C.. monomers

    "'break PET down completely into its two founding chemical building blocks... These monomers' (Section C)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة مطابقة حرفيًا لنتاج التفكيك.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: E (bacteria) تخص مصدر الإنزيم لا نتاج التفكيك؛ باقي الخيارات لا تصف المكونات الأصلية.

  4. 22Question 22

    اعرض الإجابة

    B.. temperatures

    "'re-engineering its structure to withstand the higher temperatures... that industrial recycling requires' (Section D)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة للظرف الصناعي المذكور.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: F (pressure) غير مذكورة في هذا السياق؛ باقي الخيارات لا تصف الظروف الصناعية.

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

  1. 23According to the passage, one reason mechanical recycling is limited is that

    1. A. it cannot process PET bottles at all.
    2. B. it steadily reduces the quality of the polymer.
    3. C. it requires the plastic to be heated to extremely low temperatures.
    4. D. it produces plastic of a higher quality than virgin PET.
    اعرض الإجابة

    B. it steadily reduces the quality of the polymer.

    "'the process gradually degrades the quality of the polymer' (Section A)"

    ليش صحيح: إعادة صياغة مباشرة لسبب المحدودية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A يناقض النص؛ C معلومة غير مذكورة؛ D يناقض النص مباشرة.

  2. 24The bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis was first identified

    1. A. in a controlled laboratory experiment designed to create it.
    2. B. in sediment samples taken from a Japanese recycling facility.
    3. C. inside the digestive system of a marine animal.
    4. D. by researchers studying naturally occurring plant enzymes.
    اعرض الإجابة

    B. in sediment samples taken from a Japanese recycling facility.

    "'researchers examining sediment samples from a plastic-recycling facility in Japan identified a previously unknown bacterium' (Section B)"

    ليش صحيح: إعادة صياغة مباشرة لمكان الاكتشاف.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A يناقض النص (الاكتشاف عرضي)؛ C وD معلومتان غير مذكورتين.

  3. 25What advantage does enzymatic recycling have over mechanical recycling, according to the passage?

    1. A. It works at a lower cost than any current method of production.
    2. B. It can produce PET of a quality equal to that made from fossil fuels.
    3. C. It removes the need for any plastic collection or sorting.
    4. D. It requires no further scientific development to be industrially viable.
    اعرض الإجابة

    B. It can produce PET of a quality equal to that made from fossil fuels.

    "'repolymerised into PET of a quality indistinguishable from that made from newly extracted fossil fuels' (Section C)"

    ليش صحيح: إعادة صياغة مباشرة للميزة الرئيسية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A معلومة غير مذكورة (التكلفة أعلى فعليًا)؛ C وD يناقضان محتوى Section D.

  4. 26The writer compares the current cost of enzymatic recycling to

    1. A. the early cost of solar panel technology.
    2. B. the historical cost of mechanical plastic recycling.
    3. C. the cost of transporting plastic waste internationally.
    4. D. the cost of producing PET from fossil fuels a century ago.
    اعرض الإجابة

    A. the early cost of solar panel technology.

    "'early solar panels were similarly uneconomical against fossil-fuel electricity for decades' (Section E)"

    ليش صحيح: المقارنة صريحة ومباشرة في النص.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: B/C/D معلومات غير مذكورة إطلاقًا.

Passage 3: Forgetting: Not a Flaw but a Feature

For most of the twentieth century, memory researchers treated forgetting as a problem to be explained away rather than a phenomenon worth explaining in its own right. The dominant assumption, inherited from early laboratory studies of nonsense-syllable recall, was that memories are stored somewhere in the brain in a roughly fixed form, and that forgetting occurs when that storage degrades: traces fade with time, or newer memories interfere with older ones, or the retrieval pathway to a memory simply becomes harder to locate. On this view, an ideal memory system would forget as little as possible, and the various forms of forgetting people experience in daily life, from a missed appointment to a half-remembered name, were treated as failures of an otherwise well-designed system, no different in kind from a photograph that has faded or a filing cabinet whose drawers have become disorganised.

In the past decade, however, a body of neuroscience research has begun to challenge this picture directly, arguing that forgetting is not merely tolerated by the brain but actively produced by it, through identifiable biological mechanisms that operate whether or not any decay or interference is taking place. Working memory researchers Blake Richards and Paul Frankland, whose 2017 review of the evidence proved particularly influential, argue that the brain possesses dedicated mechanisms whose function is to weaken or remove specific memories, and that these mechanisms are every bit as deliberate, from an evolutionary standpoint, as the mechanisms that form and strengthen memories in the first place. If this is correct, then forgetting is not a bug in the system, to borrow a piece of computing terminology the authors themselves have used, but a feature that a well-functioning brain requires.

The strongest evidence for this view comes from studies of sleep, during which large numbers of synaptic connections formed during the preceding day are selectively pruned away. Far from being random attrition, this pruning appears to be systematic: connections encoding information judged, by processes not yet fully understood, to be less relevant to future behaviour are more likely to be eliminated than connections encoding information likely to remain useful. Researchers studying this process in animal models have found that blocking it experimentally does not simply preserve more memories intact; it instead appears to impair the animal's subsequent ability to apply what it has learned flexibly to new situations, a finding that sits awkwardly with any account in which forgetting is purely a cost with no corresponding benefit.

A separate line of argument draws on the idea of generalisation. An animal, or a person, that remembered every specific detail of every past experience with equal clarity would struggle to extract the general patterns that make experience useful for predicting the future: a species that recalled the precise appearance of every predator it had ever encountered, down to the individual markings, might fail to recognise a related but visually distinct predator as dangerous. By this account, selective forgetting of specific, idiosyncratic detail is what allows the brain to retain and apply the broader regularities that generalise across situations, a computational trade-off closely related to a problem long recognised in artificial intelligence research, where machine-learning models that memorise their training data too precisely, a failure mode known as overfitting, often perform worse on new, unseen data than models that retain a somewhat looser grip on the specifics.

None of this implies that all forgetting is beneficial, or that memory loss in conditions such as dementia should be reinterpreted as some form of healthy adaptation; the mechanisms Richards and Frankland describe are switched on selectively and operate within otherwise intact biological systems, a description that plainly does not extend to the widespread and largely indiscriminate neural damage seen in neurodegenerative disease. The claim is narrower and more specific: that the everyday forgetting healthy people experience, often regarded with mild embarrassment or frustration, reflects a set of mechanisms that a well-functioning brain requires in order to operate efficiently, not a set of failures that a hypothetically perfect memory system would somehow avoid.

If the reframing proves durable, it carries implications well beyond neuroscience. Educational and self-improvement literature has long treated the retention of information as an unqualified good, encouraging techniques designed to minimise forgetting at every stage of learning; a view of forgetting as functional suggests instead that the goal should be a more selective one, retaining what will prove useful for future decisions while allowing the rest to fade, and that some of the frustration people feel at their own memory's apparent unreliability may rest on a mistaken picture of what a well-functioning memory is actually for.

synaptic:
relating to the connections between nerve cells in the brain
overfitting:
a failure mode in which a computational model matches its training data too closely and performs worse on new, unseen data

أسئلة النص 3

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3? Write YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer, NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer, NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.

  1. 27Twentieth-century memory researchers generally regarded forgetting as evidence of a well-designed memory system.

    YES / NO / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    NO

    "'the various forms of forgetting people experience in daily life... were treated as failures of an otherwise well-designed system' (Paragraph 1)"

    ليش صحيح: النص يذكر أن النسيان كان يُعتبر فشلاً لا دليلاً على تصميم جيد.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست YES بسبب التناقض المباشر، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن الموقف السائد مذكور بوضوح.

  2. 28Richards and Frankland argue that the brain contains mechanisms whose specific function is to weaken or eliminate memories.

    YES / NO / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    YES

    "'the brain possesses dedicated mechanisms whose function is to weaken or remove specific memories' (Paragraph 2)"

    ليش صحيح: إعادة صياغة مباشرة لما يقوله الباحثان.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست NO لعدم وجود نفي، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن الفكرة مذكورة صراحة.

  3. 29Richards and Frankland's 2017 review was based primarily on studies conducted with human adult volunteers.

    YES / NO / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    NOT GIVEN

    "'whose 2017 review of the evidence proved particularly influential' (Paragraph 2); دراسات التقليم لاحقًا استخدمت 'animal models' (Paragraph 3) دون ربط صريح بنوع عينة المراجعة نفسها."

    ليش صحيح: النص لا يحدد نوع المشاركين الذين استندت إليهم المراجعة تحديدًا.. نقطة ارتكاز مجاورة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست YES لعدم وجود تأكيد، وليست NO لعدم وجود نفي صريح أيضًا.

  4. 30The pruning of synaptic connections during sleep occurs randomly, without regard to which memories are more likely to remain useful.

    YES / NO / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    NO

    "'Far from being random attrition, this pruning appears to be systematic' (Paragraph 3)"

    ليش صحيح: النص ينفي صراحة أن التقليم عشوائي.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست YES بسبب النفي الصريح، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن الكاتب يوضح موقفه بشكل قاطع.

  5. 31Selective forgetting may help the brain avoid the kind of overfitting problem seen in machine-learning models.

    YES / NO / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    YES

    "'a computational trade-off closely related to a problem long recognised in artificial intelligence research... a failure mode known as overfitting' (Paragraph 4)"

    ليش صحيح: الكاتب يربط صراحة بين النسيان الانتقائي وتجنب مشكلة الإفراط في المطابقة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست NO لعدم وجود نفي، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن الربط مذكور بوضوح.

  6. 32The writer believes that memory loss caused by dementia should be understood as a healthy form of adaptive forgetting.

    YES / NO / NOT GIVEN

    اعرض الإجابة

    NO

    "'None of this implies... that memory loss in conditions such as dementia should be reinterpreted as some form of healthy adaptation' (Paragraph 5)"

    ليش صحيح: الكاتب ينفي صراحة هذه الفكرة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: ليست YES بسبب النفي الصريح، وليست NOT GIVEN لأن الكاتب يوضح موقفه بشكل قاطع.

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below. Write the correct letter in boxes 33-36 on your answer sheet.

  • Aweaken or eliminate specific memories as a deliberate, functional process.
  • Bencode information judged less relevant to future behaviour.
  • Cfade with time, interference, or a degraded retrieval pathway.
  • Dstruggle to recognise a related but visually different predator as dangerous.
  • Ebe more easily preserved through structured revision techniques.
  • Frely entirely on damage to the brain's neural architecture.

  1. 33The traditional twentieth-century view held that forgetting resulted from traces that

    اعرض الإجابة

    C.. fade with time, interference, or a degraded retrieval pathway.

    "'traces fade with time, or newer memories interfere with older ones, or the retrieval pathway to a memory simply becomes harder to locate' (Paragraph 1)"

    ليش صحيح: إتمام مباشر يطابق التفسير التقليدي حرفيًا.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A تصف النظرية الحديثة لا التقليدية؛ F مبالغة غير مذكورة؛ باقي الخيارات لا تلائم المعنى.

  2. 34Richards and Frankland's 2017 review argues that the brain contains mechanisms designed to

    اعرض الإجابة

    A.. weaken or eliminate specific memories as a deliberate, functional process.

    "'the brain possesses dedicated mechanisms whose function is to weaken or remove specific memories... every bit as deliberate' (Paragraph 2)"

    ليش صحيح: إتمام مباشر يطابق حرفيًا فكرة المراجعة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: C تصف نتيجة دراسات النوم لا مراجعة 2017؛ باقي الخيارات لا تتعلق بموضوع الجملة.

  3. 35Studies of sleep suggest that synaptic pruning selectively removes connections that

    اعرض الإجابة

    B.. encode information judged less relevant to future behaviour.

    "'connections encoding information judged... to be less relevant to future behaviour are more likely to be eliminated' (Paragraph 3)"

    ليش صحيح: إتمام مباشر يطابق آلية التقليم حرفيًا.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A تصف آلية عامة للنسيان لا خاصية التقليم أثناء النوم؛ باقي الخيارات لا تتعلق بالنوم.

  4. 36According to the passage, an organism that remembered every specific detail of past experience with equal clarity might

    اعرض الإجابة

    D.. struggle to recognise a related but visually different predator as dangerous.

    "'a species that recalled the precise appearance of every predator it had ever encountered, down to the individual markings, might fail to recognise a related but visually distinct predator as dangerous' (Paragraph 4)"

    ليش صحيح: إتمام مباشر يطابق المثال المذكور حرفيًا.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: باقي الخيارات (A/B/C/E/F) لا تصف نتيجة تذكر كل تفصيل بدقة متساوية.

Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

In artificial intelligence research, a model that memorises its training data too precisely is said to suffer from (37) ________.

The writer states that the mechanisms described by Richards and Frankland operate within otherwise intact biological (38) ________, unlike the damage seen in dementia.

The writer suggests that some of the (39) ________ people feel about their own forgetfulness may rest on a mistaken idea of what memory is for.

The writer argues that the goal of memory should be (40) ________ retention of only what will prove useful, rather than retaining everything.

  1. 37Question 37

    اعرض الإجابة

    overfitting

    "'a failure mode known as overfitting' (Paragraph 4)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة المستخدمة حرفيًا لهذه المشكلة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: أي كلمة أخرى ليست المصطلح التقني المستخدم في هذا الموضع.

  2. 38Question 38

    اعرض الإجابة

    systems

    "'operate within otherwise intact biological systems' (Paragraph 5)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة المستخدمة حرفيًا في هذا الموضع.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: كلمات أخرى مثل 'structures' ليست الكلمة المستخدمة حرفيًا هنا.

  3. 39Question 39

    اعرض الإجابة

    frustration

    "'some of the frustration people feel at their own memory's apparent unreliability may rest on a mistaken picture' (Paragraph 6)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة المستخدمة حرفيًا لوصف الشعور المذكور.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: كلمات أخرى مثل 'embarrassment' مذكورة في مكان آخر من النص (الفقرة الخامسة) لا في هذا الموضع.

  4. 40Question 40

    اعرض الإجابة

    selective

    "'the goal should be a more selective one, retaining what will prove useful for future decisions' (Paragraph 6)"

    ليش صحيح: الكلمة الدقيقة المستخدمة حرفيًا لوصف الهدف المقترح.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: أي كلمة أخرى ليست الكلمة المستخدمة حرفيًا في هذا الموضع.

الاستماع.. Listening

4 أجزاء و40 سؤالًا في 32 دقيقة تقريبًا. في الاختبار التفاعلي يُشغَّل الصوت مرة واحدة فقط.

ابدأ الاختبار التفاعلي بالوقت

Part 1

A customer phones Bridgeway Home Insurance to get a quote for buildings-and-contents cover on his house.

Example.. Type of cover requested → Buildings and contents cover

Complete the form below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Bridgeway Home Insurance.. Quote Form

Type of cover requested: Buildings and contents (Example)

Customer's first name: (1) ________

Surname: (2) ________

Contact number: (3) ________

Property postcode: (4) ________

Year house was built: (5) ________

Number of bedrooms: (6) ________

Security feature installed: (7) ________

  1. 1Question 1

    اعرض الإجابة

    Owen

    "Sure, it's Owen."

    ليش صحيح: الاسم الأول مذكور مباشرة وواضح بعد سؤال الوكيلة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا يوجد خيارات أخرى في هذا السؤال (إكمال فراغ حر).

  2. 2Question 2

    اعرض الإجابة

    Doyle

    "It's Doyle... D-O-Y-L-E."

    ليش صحيح: الاسم يُهجّى حرفًا بحرف مع تأكيد الوكيلة عليه.. علامة الإجابة المضمونة حسب تكنيكة 12.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل؛ يجب كتابة التهجئة الدقيقة كما سُمعت.

  3. 3Question 3

    اعرض الإجابة

    07822 441199

    "it's oh-seven-eight-two-two, four-four-one, one-nine-nine.. OK so that's 07822 441199?.. That's the one."

    ليش صحيح: الرقم الثاني هو الرقم الصحيح والمؤكَّد من الطرفين.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: الرقم الأول (oh-seven-three...) فخ تصحيح فوري.. العميل يوقفه بنفسه قبل إكماله فهو غير صالح.

  4. 4Question 4

    اعرض الإجابة

    BN21 4RT

    "It's BN21 4RT... BN21 4RT, got it."

    ليش صحيح: الرمز البريدي مذكور ومؤكَّد بوضوح مباشرة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  5. 5Question 5

    اعرض الإجابة

    1985

    "It was built in 1998... actually, no, hold on... it was actually built in 1985... OK so 1985 for the original build."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو تاريخ البناء الفعلي بعد التصحيح.. فخ تغيير الرأي.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: 1998 هو الرقم الأول المذكور خطأً ثم أُلغي صراحة لأنه يخص الامتداد وليس المبنى الأصلي.

  6. 6Question 6

    اعرض الإجابة

    four / 4

    "Four bedrooms... Four bedrooms, noted."

    ليش صحيح: العدد مؤكَّد مباشرة بتكرار الوكيلة له.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  7. 7Question 7

    اعرض الإجابة

    burglar alarm

    "we've got a burglar alarm fitted, that's it really, no cameras."

    ليش صحيح: هذه هي الميزة الأمنية الوحيدة المذكورة والمؤكدة صراحة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: cameras مذكورة لكن العميل ينفيها صراحة (no cameras).

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

  1. 8What is the total annual price Owen will pay, including accidental damage cover?

    1. A. £280
    2. B. £325
    3. C. £410
    اعرض الإجابة

    B. £325

    "the basic buildings and contents package comes to 280 pounds a year... an extra 45 pounds a year... that's the basic package plus accidental damage cover for you then... basic-plus-accidental-damage sounds like plenty for us."

    ليش صحيح: الرقم النهائي (325) غير مسموع مباشرة في الصوت.. يُحسب من جمع السعرين المذكورين صراحة (280 + 45 = 325)، وقد اختار العميل صراحة هذه الباقة تحديدًا؛ فخ حسابي حقيقي.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A (280) هو السعر الأساسي فقط دون التغطية الإضافية؛ C (410) سعر الباقة الفاخرة المذكورة صراحة لكن العميل يرفضها بوضوح.

  2. 9Which excess amount does Owen decide to go with?

    1. A. £100
    2. B. £250
    3. C. £500
    اعرض الإجابة

    B. £250

    "we offer three options: 100 pounds, 250 pounds, or 500 pounds... most of our customers go for the middle option, the 250 pounds... OK, that sounds sensible, let's go with that."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو الخيار الذي يوافق عليه العميل فعليًا بعد توصية الوكيلة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A (100) و C (500) خياران متاحان مذكوران صراحة لكن لم يتم اختيارهما.

  3. 10How does Owen choose to pay for the policy?

    1. A. Monthly by direct debit
    2. B. Full amount upfront in one payment
    3. C. Quarterly instalments
    اعرض الإجابة

    A. Monthly by direct debit

    "how would you like to pay.. monthly by direct debit, the full amount upfront in one go, or spread across quarterly instalments?.. I think monthly, that's easier for us."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو خيار الدفع الذي يختاره العميل صراحة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: B وC مذكوران كبدائل متاحة لكن العميل يستبعدهما بوضوح باختيار الدفع الشهري.

نص الاستماع (Transcript).. Part 1

Insurance Agent (Claire): Good afternoon, Bridgeway Home Insurance, this is Claire speaking, how can I help you today?

Customer (Owen Doyle): Hi there, yeah, I'd like to get a quote for home insurance, please.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Of course. Are you looking for buildings cover, contents cover, or both together?

Customer (Owen Doyle): Both, please.. buildings and contents.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Perfect, buildings and contents cover it is. Let me just open a new quote for you… Right, could I take your first name to start?

Customer (Owen Doyle): Sure, it's Owen.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Lovely, and your surname?

Customer (Owen Doyle): It's Doyle.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Sorry, would you mind spelling that for me?

Customer (Owen Doyle): No problem.. D-O-Y-L-E.

Insurance Agent (Claire): D-O-Y-L-E… is that "Y" as in "yellow"?

Customer (Owen Doyle): That's right, yes.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Great, got that.. Owen Doyle. And a contact number, in case we get cut off?

Customer (Owen Doyle): Yeah, it's oh-seven-three… actually, sorry, hang on, that's my old number.. let me give you the right one, it's oh-seven-eight-two-two, four-four-one, one-nine-nine.

Insurance Agent (Claire): OK so that's 07822 441199?

Customer (Owen Doyle): That's the one.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Great. Now, the property's postcode?

Customer (Owen Doyle): It's BN21 4RT.

Insurance Agent (Claire): BN21 4RT, got it. And what year was the house built, roughly?

Customer (Owen Doyle): It was built in 1998… actually, no, hold on, I'm thinking of the extension.. the house itself is older, it was actually built in 1985.

Insurance Agent (Claire): OK so 1985 for the original build.

Customer (Owen Doyle): Yes, 1985.

Insurance Agent (Claire): And how many bedrooms does the property have?

Customer (Owen Doyle): Four bedrooms.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Four bedrooms, noted. Any security features installed.. alarm, cameras, anything like that?

Customer (Owen Doyle): Yeah, we've got a burglar alarm fitted, that's it really, no cameras.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Great, burglar alarm noted. And roughly what would you say the contents are worth, for the contents side of the cover?

Customer (Owen Doyle): Maybe around thirty thousand pounds.

Insurance Agent (Claire): OK, thirty thousand for contents.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Right, let's talk about the price. The basic buildings and contents package comes to 280 pounds a year.

Customer (Owen Doyle): OK.

Insurance Agent (Claire): That covers the structure and standard contents, but if you'd like accidental damage cover added on top, that's an extra 45 pounds a year.

Customer (Owen Doyle): Oh yeah, we'd like that, we've got young kids, accidents happen.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Great, so that's the basic package plus accidental damage cover for you then.

Customer (Owen Doyle): Yes, basic package plus the accidental damage.

Insurance Agent (Claire): We also offer a premium package with legal expenses and home emergency cover included, but that one comes to 410 pounds a year.. probably more cover than you need at this stage.

Customer (Owen Doyle): No, the basic-plus-accidental-damage sounds like plenty for us.

Insurance Agent (Claire): Now, a couple more questions. In terms of the excess.. that's the amount you pay yourself if you make a claim.. we offer three options: 100 pounds, 250 pounds, or 500 pounds. The higher the excess, the lower your monthly premium, but most of our customers go for the middle option, the 250 pounds, because it balances the two nicely, so that's what I'd recommend and what most people end up choosing.

Customer (Owen Doyle): OK, that sounds sensible, let's go with that.

Insurance Agent (Claire): And finally, how would you like to pay.. monthly by direct debit, the full amount upfront in one go, or spread across quarterly instalments?

Customer (Owen Doyle): I think monthly, that's easier for us.

Insurance Agent (Claire): No problem, monthly by direct debit it is. Let me just get your bank details…

Part 2

The events coordinator at Fenwick City Museum announces a late-night opening event, describing new galleries and facilities, then the workshop schedule.

Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Fenwick City Museum.. Late-Night Opening Notes

Ancient Egypt gallery

Reopening with a (11) ________ never shown to the public before

Science gallery

New (12) ________ gallery added on the ground floor

Old gift shop moved to (13) ________

Timings

Closing time extended to (14) ________ at night

New facilities

New (15) ________ opening for the first time, with citywide views

Cloakroom

Old location: by the (16) ________

New location: next to the (17) ________

  1. 11Question 11

    اعرض الإجابة

    mummy case

    "reopening specially for the late-night event with several new artefacts on display, including a mummy case that's never been shown to the public before."

    ليش صحيح: هذه هي القطعة الأثرية المحددة صراحة كأول عرض للجمهور.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل أخرى مذكورة لهذا التفصيل.

  2. 12Question 12

    اعرض الإجابة

    science / interactive science

    "We've also added a brand-new interactive science gallery on the ground floor."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو نوع القاعة الجديدة المذكور صراحة؛ (interactive) صفة مصاحبة مقبولة ضمن حد الكلمتين.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل أخرى؛ الكلمة الأساسية المطلوبة هي (science).

  3. 13Question 13

    اعرض الإجابة

    upstairs

    "the shop's been moved upstairs to make room for it."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو الموقع الجديد الذي انتقل إليه المتجر.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  4. 14Question 14

    اعرض الإجابة

    eleven / 11

    "normally we close at five, but for this one night only, we'll be open until eleven at night."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو وقت الإغلاق الجديد المخصص لليلة الحدث.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: (five) هو وقت الإغلاق المعتاد القديم، وليس وقت هذا الحدث.

  5. 15Question 15

    اعرض الإجابة

    rooftop terrace

    "There's also a new rooftop terrace that's opening for the first time, with views across the whole city."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو الاسم الدقيق للميزة الجديدة المذكورة صراحة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  6. 16Question 16

    اعرض الإجابة

    main entrance

    "It used to be located right by the main entrance."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو الموقع القديم للكلوكروم قبل النقل.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: (the lecture theatre) هو الموقع الجديد وليس القديم.

  7. 17Question 17

    اعرض الإجابة

    lecture theatre

    "we've relocated it to a space next to the lecture theatre."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو الموقع الجديد الذي انتقل إليه الكلوكروم.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: (the main entrance) هو الموقع القديم فقط.

Complete the table below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Mummy Wrapping6 pmDr. Patel(18) ________
Stargazing8 pm(19) ________Free
Science Lab Live(20) ________Dr. Osei£10
Late-Night Gallery Tour9 pmRachel£5

  1. 18Question 18

    اعرض الإجابة

    eight pounds / £8

    "six pounds per person.. actually, sorry, that's last year's price, it's gone up slightly to eight pounds per person this year."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو السعر الحالي المصحَّح بعد أن صحّحت راشيل نفسها فورًا.. فخ تغيير الرأي.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: (six pounds) هو سعر العام الماضي الذي صرّحت المتحدثة بأنه غير صحيح الآن.

  2. 19Question 19

    اعرض الإجابة

    Marcus

    "the Stargazing session on the rooftop terrace, that's at eight in the evening, led by our astronomy volunteer, Marcus."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو اسم القائد المسؤول عن جلسة رصد النجوم.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: (Dr. Patel) و(Dr. Osei) يقودان ورشتين أخريين، وليس هذه الجلسة.

  3. 20Question 20

    اعرض الإجابة

    7 pm / seven pm

    "the Science Lab Live workshop, for families, that runs at seven in the evening."

    ليش صحيح: الوقت مسموع حرفيًا كما هو مطلوب، وضمن حد الكلمتين/الرقم المسموح به.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل؛ الأوقات الأخرى (6 pm، 8 pm، 9 pm) تخص ورشًا أخرى.

نص الاستماع (Transcript).. Part 2

Events Coordinator (Rachel): Good afternoon everyone, thanks for tuning in. I'm Rachel, I'm the events coordinator here at Fenwick City Museum, and I wanted to tell you all about our upcoming late-night opening event, which is happening on the last Friday of this month.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): So first, let's talk about what's new. We've completely refurbished the Ancient Egypt gallery.. it's been closed for almost a year, and it's reopening specially for the late-night event with several new artefacts on display, including a mummy case that's never been shown to the public before.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): We've also added a brand-new interactive science gallery on the ground floor, right where the old gift shop used to be.. the shop's been moved upstairs to make room for it. The science gallery has hands-on exhibits, so visitors can actually touch and operate some of the displays, which is quite different from the rest of the museum.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): Now, for the late-night event itself, we've extended our usual closing time.. normally we close at five, but for this one night only, we'll be open until eleven at night.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): There's also a new rooftop terrace that's opening for the first time, with views across the whole city.. that's going to be a lovely spot for visitors to relax between galleries, and we'll have a small café up there serving drinks and snacks.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): One more update before I get to the schedule.. the cloakroom. It used to be located right by the main entrance, but we've relocated it to a space next to the lecture theatre, so it's a bit further in, but it's much bigger now and can hold far more coats and bags.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): Right, now let's go through the workshop schedule for the evening, because there's quite a bit on.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): We'll start with the Mummy Wrapping workshop. That's running at six in the evening, led by our Egyptology curator, Dr. Patel, and it's currently.. let me just check.. six pounds per person.. actually, sorry, that's last year's price, it's gone up slightly to eight pounds per person this year.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): Next we've got the Stargazing session on the rooftop terrace, that's at eight in the evening, led by our astronomy volunteer, Marcus, and that one's free.. no charge at all, since it's just using the telescopes we already have.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): Then there's the Science Lab Live workshop, for families, that runs at seven in the evening, led by our science gallery lead, Dr. Osei, and that's ten pounds per person, which includes all the materials for the experiments.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): And finally, the Late-Night Gallery Tour runs at nine in the evening, led by Rachel herself, and that's five pounds per person.

Events Coordinator (Rachel): That's everything for the schedule.. if anyone has questions about tickets or accessibility, please do get in touch through the museum website.

Part 3

Two engineering students, Sam and Maddie, discuss and finalise the design decisions for their pedestrian-bridge coursework project.

What did the students decide about each design element below? Choose the correct letter, A, B or C, next to Questions 21–25. You may choose any letter more than once.

  • AWill be included in the final design
  • BWill be tested with a scale model first
  • CWill not be used

  1. 21Steel suspension cable system

    اعرض الإجابة

    A.. Will be included in the final design

    "I think we should just go with it for the final design... let's commit to that one properly, no need to test alternatives at this point."

    ليش صحيح: كلا الطالبين يتفقان صراحة على استخدام نظام الكابلات في التصميم النهائي مباشرة دون اختبار.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: B مستبعد لأن Maddie تنص صراحة (no need to test alternatives)؛ C غير منطقي لأنهما اتفقا على استخدامه فعليًا.

  2. 22Concrete beam supports

    اعرض الإجابة

    B.. Will be tested with a scale model first

    "let's test that one with a scale model first before deciding properly... so that's a model test then, not a final decision yet."

    ليش صحيح: القرار النهائي هو اختبار النموذج المصغر أولًا قبل الالتزام الكامل.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A مستبعد لأنه لم يُقرر استخدامه نهائيًا بعد؛ C مستبعد لأنهما لم يستبعداه بل أجّلا القرار للاختبار.

  3. 23Timber decking

    اعرض الإجابة

    C.. Will not be used

    "let's just drop it, it doesn't really work for this site... OK, so timber decking is out."

    ليش صحيح: القرار النهائي الصريح هو استبعاد هذا الخيار تمامًا بسبب ضعف أدائه في الطقس الممطر.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A وB مستبعدان لأن سام يغيّر رأيه من الإعجاب الأولي إلى الرفض الكامل.. فخ تغيير الرأي.

  4. 24Glass balustrade railings

    اعرض الإجابة

    A.. Will be included in the final design

    "let's commit to using them in the final design, they'll really improve the look of the whole structure... let's put those in as part of the main design."

    ليش صحيح: كلا الطالبين يلتزمان صراحة بإدراجها في التصميم النهائي رغم التردد الأولي بسبب التكلفة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: B مستبعد لأنه لم يُذكر أي اختبار لها؛ C مستبعد لأنهما قررا استخدامها فعليًا.

  5. 25LED lighting strip

    اعرض الإجابة

    B.. Will be tested with a scale model first

    "I think we still need to test it on a small section before committing either way... let's leave that one as a test for now, not a final decision."

    ليش صحيح: القرار هو اختبارها على قسم صغير قبل اتخاذ قرار نهائي، بسبب عدم اليقين من أدائها في الخارج.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: A مستبعد لأنه لا قرار نهائي بعد باستخدامها؛ C مستبعد لأنهما لم يستبعداها بل أجّلا القرار.

Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

The bridge is planned to span at least (26) ________ metres.

The total budget for the project is (27) ________.

The bridge site is located just north of (28) ________.

The design aims to make the crossing accessible for pedestrians, cyclists and (29) ________.

The project is being supervised for final assessment by (30) ________.

  1. 26Question 26

    اعرض الإجابة

    40 / forty

    "We're planning for the bridge to span at least 40 metres, since that covers the full width of the river at that point."

    ليش صحيح: الرقم مذكور صراحة كحد أدنى لطول الجسر.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  2. 27Question 27

    اعرض الإجابة

    £85,000 / 85,000 pounds

    "We're working with a total budget of 85,000 pounds for the whole project, materials and labour included."

    ليش صحيح: المبلغ مذكور صراحة كميزانية إجمالية للمشروع.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  3. 28Question 28

    اعرض الإجابة

    Elmwood Park

    "It's just north of Elmwood Park, crossing the river right behind the old mill building."

    ليش صحيح: اسم الموقع مذكور صراحة كنقطة مرجعية لموقع الجسر.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: (the old mill building) وصف إضافي للموقع وليس الاسم المطلوب في هذا السؤال.

  4. 29Question 29

    اعرض الإجابة

    wheelchair users

    "We want to create a crossing that's accessible for wheelchair users and cyclists, not just pedestrians on foot."

    ليش صحيح: هذه هي الفئة المحددة المذكورة صراحة إلى جانب الدراجين والمشاة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل أخرى مذكورة لهذا الهدف التصميمي المحدد.

  5. 30Question 30

    اعرض الإجابة

    Professor Hendricks / Prof Hendricks / Hendricks

    "That's Professor Hendricks in the structural engineering department, he's already looked at our first draft."

    ليش صحيح: الاسم مذكور صراحة كالمشرف على تقييم المشروع النهائي.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

نص الاستماع (Transcript).. Part 3

Student (Sam): So, we need to finalise a few things about the bridge design before Friday's submission, right?

Student (Maddie): Yeah, let's go through the list. First thing, the main structure.. the steel suspension cable system. What are we thinking?

Student (Sam): I'm actually really happy with the cable system, I think we should just go with it for the final design, it's stronger than anything else we looked at and it fits the span perfectly.

Student (Maddie): Yeah, I agree, let's commit to that one properly, no need to test alternatives at this point.

Student (Sam): Great, that's decided then. What about the concrete beam supports at the base?

Student (Maddie): Hmm, I'm honestly not sure about those yet. I'm a bit worried about the load calculations we did.

Student (Sam): Yeah, fair point.

Student (Maddie): Maybe we should build a small-scale model first and actually test it before we commit to using it in the real design.

Student (Sam): Yeah, actually, that makes sense.. let's test that one with a scale model first before deciding properly.

Student (Maddie): OK, good, so that's a model test then, not a final decision yet. What about the timber decking we talked about for the walking surface?

Student (Sam): Right, the idea was to use timber because it looks nicer and it's cheaper than composite materials.

Student (Maddie): I did like that idea at first, but, actually, thinking about it more, timber doesn't hold up well in wet weather, and this bridge is going to be exposed to rain most of the year.

Student (Sam): Yeah, I'm with you on that now.. let's just drop it, it doesn't really work for this site.

Student (Maddie): OK, so timber decking is out. What about the glass balustrade railings?

Student (Sam): We were also considering those, weren't we, along the sides of the bridge.

Student (Maddie): And how confident are you about that one?

Student (Sam): I'll admit I was hesitant to start with, because of cost, but after our last meeting I think we're both on board.. let's commit to using them in the final design, they'll really improve the look of the whole structure.

Student (Maddie): Yeah, definitely, let's put those in as part of the main design.

Student (Sam): And finally, you mentioned the LED lighting strip along the handrail.

Student (Maddie): Oh.. right, yeah, we did think about that, but, honestly, we haven't decided anything yet.. I think we still need to test it on a small section before committing either way, because we're not sure how it'll hold up outdoors.

Student (Sam): Yeah, let's leave that one as a test for now, not a final decision.

Student (Maddie): OK, that all sounds like a solid plan.

Student (Maddie): Now let's think about the practical details.. dimensions, budget, that kind of thing.

Student (Sam): We're planning for the bridge to span at least 40 metres, since that covers the full width of the river at that point.

Student (Maddie): Good number. And what about the budget?

Student (Sam): We're working with a total budget of 85,000 pounds for the whole project, materials and labour included.

Student (Maddie): And where exactly is the site again?

Student (Sam): It's just north of Elmwood Park, crossing the river right behind the old mill building.

Student (Maddie): That's a great location to have. Now, in terms of the report, what's our main design objective again?

Student (Sam): We want to create a crossing that's accessible for wheelchair users and cyclists, not just pedestrians on foot.

Student (Maddie): And do we have a target completion date for the model?

Student (Sam): We're aiming to have the physical scale model finished by the second week of next month.

Student (Maddie): And who's supervising our project for the final assessment?

Student (Sam): That's Professor Hendricks in the structural engineering department, he's already looked at our first draft.

Part 4

A university lecturer discusses the excavation, significance, challenges and phased management of a mediaeval trading shipwreck site.

Answer the questions below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

  1. 31In what year did systematic excavation of the wreck begin?

    اعرض الإجابة

    1994

    "systematic excavation didn't actually begin until 1994, once funding had been secured for a proper archaeological survey."

    ليش صحيح: السنة مذكورة صراحة كبداية التنقيب المنهجي.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: (1978) هو عام الاكتشاف الأولي فقط من قبل غواصين هواة، وليس بداية التنقيب المنهجي.

  2. 32What material sealed the hull and cargo away from oxygen?

    اعرض الإجابة

    silt / fine silt

    "the ship went down in a layer of fine silt, which sealed the wooden hull and its cargo away from oxygen."

    ليش صحيح: هذه هي المادة التي حفظت الحطام والشحنة العضوية من التلف.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل أخرى مذكورة لهذا الدور الوقائي.

  3. 33What construction method was used to build the ship's hull?

    اعرض الإجابة

    clinker construction / clinker

    "the hull was built using a method called clinker construction, where the planks overlap each other."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو الاسم الدقيق لأسلوب البناء المذكور صراحة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  4. 34Approximately how deep is the water where the wreck lies?

    اعرض الإجابة

    eighteen metres / 18 metres

    "the wreck sits in around eighteen metres of water."

    ليش صحيح: العمق مذكور صراحة كموقع الحطام.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل رقمية أخرى مذكورة لهذا السياق.

  5. 35What kind of programme do local schools run to help monitor recovered timber?

    اعرض الإجابة

    adopt a timber

    "a number of local schools have started running "adopt a timber" programmes, where students help monitor individual pieces of recovered wood."

    ليش صحيح: هذه هي العبارة الدقيقة المستخدمة لاسم البرنامج التعليمي.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Fenmouth Trader Excavation.. Phase Notes

Initial phase: (36) ________.. mapping the wreck's position and condition

Second phase: (37) ________.. lifting smaller objects like pottery and tools

Third phase: main activity is (38) ________

Final phase: (39) ________.. slowly drying out recovered timbers

Finds now housed at: (40) ________

  1. 36Question 36

    اعرض الإجابة

    site survey

    "In the initial phase, the main task was what's called a site survey, mapping the wreck's exact position and condition on the seabed."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو الاسم الرسمي للمرحلة الأولى المذكورة صراحة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  2. 37Question 37

    اعرض الإجابة

    artefact recovery

    "In the second phase, archaeologists focused on artefact recovery, which usually meant carefully lifting smaller objects like pottery and tools."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو النشاط الرئيسي المذكور صراحة للمرحلة الثانية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  3. 38Question 38

    اعرض الإجابة

    hull recording

    "By the third phase, the main activity became hull recording, and this is usually when most of the detailed photographic documentation of the ship's timbers took place."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو النشاط الرئيسي المذكور صراحة للمرحلة الثالثة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  4. 39Question 39

    اعرض الإجابة

    conservation treatment

    "in the final phase, the main task has been conservation treatment, which involves slowly drying out the recovered timbers under controlled conditions."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو الاسم الرسمي للمرحلة الأخيرة المذكورة صراحة.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل.

  5. 40Question 40

    اعرض الإجابة

    Portbridge Maritime Museum

    "the artefacts recovered from the Fenmouth Trader are now housed at the Portbridge Maritime Museum."

    ليش صحيح: هذا هو اسم المتحف المذكور صراحة كموقع حفظ القطع الأثرية.

    ليش الباقي خطأ: لا بدائل؛ لم يُذكر أي متحف آخر في هذا السياق.

نص الاستماع (Transcript).. Part 4

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): Good afternoon, everyone. Today's lecture continues our look at maritime archaeology, and I want to focus on a particularly well-studied case: the wreck known as the Fenmouth Trader, a mediaeval merchant ship that sank off the south coast in the fourteenth century.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): Let's start with some background. The wreck was first discovered in 1978 by a group of amateur divers, although systematic excavation didn't actually begin until 1994, once funding had been secured for a proper archaeological survey.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): Now, why is this particular wreck so significant? Well, there are several reasons. First, cargo preservation.. the ship went down in a layer of fine silt, which sealed the wooden hull and its cargo away from oxygen, and this means an unusually large amount of organic material survived, including wool bales and even some preserved timber barrels. Second, there's the trade-route evidence.. the cargo itself, which included wine jars from the Bordeaux region and wool destined for Flemish markets, gives archaeologists direct proof of the trading routes operating across the Channel at that time. And third, there's the construction technique.. the hull was built using a method called clinker construction, where the planks overlap each other, and this particular ship is one of the best-preserved examples of that method from the period.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): Of course, excavating a site like this comes with real challenges too. The first major challenge is visibility.. the wreck sits in around eighteen metres of water, and the silt on the seabed means visibility for divers is often less than a metre, so most of the detailed recording has to be done using photographic surveys rather than direct observation.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): The second challenge is funding. Underwater excavation is extremely expensive compared to excavating on land, and the project has depended heavily on grants.. commonly renewed on a five-year cycle, although this varies depending on what's being funded that particular season.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): Third, there's the issue of conservation. Because waterlogged wood becomes extremely fragile once it's brought to the surface, timber recovered from the site has to be kept submerged in special tanks and treated very slowly.. often over a period of years rather than months, to prevent it from cracking as it dries out.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): Fourth.. and this surprises a lot of people.. there's an educational benefit that wasn't originally planned. A number of local schools have started running "adopt a timber" programmes, where students help monitor individual pieces of recovered wood in the conservation tanks, which has become a really popular way of teaching young people about both history and science.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): Now let's look at how the excavation itself has been managed across its different phases. In the initial phase, the main task was what's called a site survey, mapping the wreck's exact position and condition on the seabed. In the second phase, archaeologists focused on artefact recovery, which usually meant carefully lifting smaller objects like pottery and tools before any larger structural work began. By the third phase, the main activity became hull recording, and this is usually when most of the detailed photographic documentation of the ship's timbers took place. And then, in the final phase, the main task has been conservation treatment, which involves slowly drying out the recovered timbers under controlled conditions to stop them from cracking.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): Finally, let's talk about where the material ended up.. the artefacts recovered from the Fenmouth Trader are now housed at the Portbridge Maritime Museum, which built an entire dedicated gallery around the wreck, and the museum actively supports ongoing research through public access to its finds archive.

Lecturer (Dr. Whitfield): That brings us to the end of today's lecture.. next week we'll look at coastal wreck sites from the early modern period.

الكتابة.. Writing

مهمتان في 60 دقيقة: Task 1 (20 دقيقة، 150 كلمة على الأقل) وTask 2 (40 دقيقة، 250 كلمة على الأقل).

ابدأ الاختبار التفاعلي بالوقت

Writing Task 1

The graph below shows the average number of cinema visits per person per month, by age group, in 1995, 2005, 2015 and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Average monthly cinema visits per person, by age group, 1995-2025 (visits per person per month)
1995200520152025
15-243.22.81.60.9
25-441.81.91.41
45+0.60.80.90.7
اعرض الإجابة النموذجية (Band 9)

The line graph illustrates how the average number of monthly cinema visits per person changed among three age groups - 15-24, 25-44 and 45+ - over a thirty-year period from 1995 to 2025. Overall, the youngest age group experienced the sharpest and most sustained decline in cinema-going of the three, while the two older groups moved far more modestly, with the 45+ group rising then easing back. As a result, the wide gap that separated the age groups in 1995 had almost disappeared by 2025. In 1995, 15-24-year-olds were comfortably the most frequent cinema visitors, averaging 3.2 visits per month, compared with 1.8 for the 25-44 group and just 0.6 for those aged 45 and above. Over the following decade this pattern held broadly steady, with the youngest group still leading at 2.8 visits in 2005. From 2005 onwards, however, the 15-24 figure fell sharply, dropping to 1.6 visits by 2015 and then to only 0.9 by 2025 - a decline of more than two-thirds from its 1995 peak. Meanwhile, the 25-44 group's figure remained comparatively stable, dipping only slightly from 1.9 in 2005 to 1.4 in 2015 before settling at 1.0 in 2025. The 45+ group followed the opposite trajectory to the youngest group in the earlier years, climbing gradually from 0.6 to a high of 0.9 in 2015, before easing back to 0.7 by 2025. By the end of the period, the three age groups' figures sat within a single visit of one another, with the 25-44 group narrowly the most frequent cinema-goers overall.

TA (Band 9): key features are fully covered and clearly highlighted - the response selects exactly the two data-licensed features (the youngest group's steep, sustained decline + the overall convergence/reordering of the three groups) and every comparative claim is supported using figures/data, staying inside the given data with no invented reasons for the decline. CC (Band 9): four functionally distinct paragraphs give clear progression throughout, with varied cohesive devices (meanwhile, however, as a result, by the end of the period) replacing mechanical sequencers. LR (Band 9): precise, varied trend vocabulary (sharpest and most sustained decline, settling at, comparatively stable, easing back) used with sophisticated control and no propagated template slips. GRA (Band 9): tense matches the visual's time frame throughout (simple past for dated points, past perfect for the near-disappearance of the gap by 2025), with a wide range of structures - comparative and relative clauses, subordination - used with full flexibility and control.

قائمة الفحص للتقييم الذاتي
  • TAهل بدأت بفقرة overview منفصلة تلخص أبرز اتجاه وأبرز فرق/تقارب بدون أرقام تفصيلية فيها؟
  • TAهل كل جملة مقارنة في تقريري مدعومة برقم فعلي من الرسم الخطي؟
  • TAهل تجنبت ذكر أي سبب أو تفسير من عندي غير موجود في الرسم؟
  • GRAهل استخدمت الزمن المناسب لكل فترة (ماضي بسيط للأحداث المكتملة، Past Perfect عند المقارنة بنقطة سابقة)؟
  • CCهل نوّعت أدوات الربط ولم أكرر نفس الكلمة (Firstly/So/Also) في كل فقرة؟
  • TAهل عدد كلماتي 150 كلمة على الأقل بدون حشو أو تكرار غير مفيد؟
  • TAهل وصفت فقط أبرز 2-3 عناصر بدلاً من سرد كل رقم في الجدول؟
  • LRهل نوّعت مفردات الاتجاه (fell/declined/dropped مقابل rose/climbed/increased مقابل levelled off/settled) بدل تكرار نفس الفعل في كل جملة؟

Writing Task 2

Write about the following topic: Nowadays, an increasing number of students choose to complete their entire university degree in another country rather than in their home country. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this trend? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.

اعرض الإجابة النموذجية (Band 9)

It has become increasingly common for students to travel abroad to complete a full degree rather than studying in their home country. While this trend brings clear personal and academic benefits, it also carries significant costs and risks that students should weigh carefully before committing to it. The principal advantage of studying abroad is exposure to a genuinely international environment. Students who spend three or four years living and studying in another country typically leave with fluent command of a second language, direct experience of a different culture, and a network of contacts spanning several nationalities - assets that are increasingly valued by multinational employers. In addition, some universities are simply the strongest available in a given field: a student determined to specialise in marine engineering, for instance, may find far better facilities and researchers at a leading institution overseas than at any university in their own country. Nevertheless, these benefits come at a considerable price. Tuition fees for international students are frequently two or three times higher than those charged to domestic students, and living costs abroad - accommodation, travel, insurance - add a further substantial burden that many families struggle to sustain for the full length of a degree. Beyond the financial dimension, students living far from home often experience real isolation in their first year, as they adjust simultaneously to an unfamiliar academic system, a new language of instruction, and the absence of the everyday support that family and old friends once provided. Some struggle to adapt quickly enough to perform well academically, and a minority return home without completing their degree at all. On balance, I believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for students who research their destination carefully and prepare financially and emotionally in advance, but the trend is far from risk-free, and it clearly does not suit every student equally.

TR (Band 9): both the advantages and disadvantages required by the prompt are addressed in full, closing with an explicit, reasoned overall judgement rather than a vague summary, directly answering the question while taking a clear stance; ideas are relevant, fully extended and well supported with concrete mechanisms and examples (the marine-engineering case; the specific cost items of tuition, accommodation, travel, insurance). CC (Band 9): four single-function paragraphs give clear overall progression with genuine logical shifts marked by devices (Nevertheless, Beyond the financial dimension, On balance), avoiding the Band-6 cap of illogical paragraphing. LR (Band 9): sophisticated, precise vocabulary (multinational employers, considerable price, sustain for the full length of a degree) with no unvaried repetition of key nouns. GRA (Band 9): a wide range of complex structures - relative clauses, concessive subordination, fronted clauses - used with full flexibility and control and essentially error-free.

قائمة الفحص للتقييم الذاتي
  • TRهل غطّيت الإيجابيات والسلبيات كلتيهما كما يطلب السؤال بالضبط؟
  • TRهل ختمت المقال برأي واضح ومبرر وليس بملخص عام فقط؟
  • TRهل كل فكرة مدعومة بمثال أو تفصيل حقيقي وليست جملة عامة فقط؟
  • CCهل بدأت كل فقرة بجملة موضوع (topic sentence) واضحة؟
  • LRهل تجنبت تكرار نفس الكلمة (مثل studying abroad) بدون بدائل؟
  • GRAهل استخدمت جملاً معقدة متنوعة (شرطية، وصلية، relative clauses) وليس فقط جملاً بسيطة متتالية؟
  • TRهل عدد كلماتي 250 كلمة على الأقل بدون نسخ عبارات من نص السؤال؟
  • CCهل خاتمتي توازن بين الجانبين قبل تقديم رأيي النهائي دون تكرار حرفي للمقدمة؟

المحادثة.. Speaking

3 أجزاء في 14 دقيقة تقريبًا.

ابدأ الاختبار التفاعلي بالوقت

Part 1 (4-5 min)

Let's talk about reading.

  • Do you enjoy reading in your free time?
  • What kind of things do you like to read?
  • Do you prefer reading on paper or on a screen? (Why?)
  • Did anyone encourage you to read when you were a child?

Let's move on to talk about music.

  • What kind of music do you usually listen to?
  • Do you listen to music while you're doing other things?
  • Is music an important part of your life? (Why?)
  • Did you learn to play a musical instrument when you were younger?

Part 2 (cue card)

Alright? Remember you have one to two minutes for this, so don't worry if I stop you. I'll tell you when the time is up.

Describe a useful app or website you often use.

  • what it is
  • how you found out about it
  • what you use it for

and explain why you find it useful.

You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. · You have one minute to think about what you're going to say. · You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Rounding-off questions

  • Do you think you'll still use it in a few years?
  • Would you recommend it to a friend?

Part 3

We've been talking about a useful app or website you often use. I'd like to discuss with you one or two more general questions relating to this topic.

Let's consider first of all how technology has changed the way people live. 1. How has technology changed the way people spend their free time? 2. What kind of everyday tasks have become easier because of technology?

  • How has technology changed the way people spend their free time?
  • What kind of everyday tasks have become easier because of technology?
  • Is that a recent change, do you think?
  • Why do you think technology has made such a difference to those tasks specifically?
  • Do you think this trend will continue in the same direction in the future?

Finally, let's talk about how much people depend on technology. 3. Do you think people rely on technology too much nowadays? 4. What might happen if people suddenly had no access to their devices?

  • Do you think people rely on technology too much nowadays?
  • What might happen if people suddenly had no access to their devices?
  • What do you think of people who try to reduce their screen time?
  • Can you tell me a little bit more about why that dependence has grown so quickly?
  • Do you think future generations will find it even harder to live without technology?
اعرض الإجابة النموذجية.. Part 2 (Band 6)

OK, so, um, the app I want to talk about is a language app called, um, one of those vocabulary apps, I don't remember the exact name, but it's the one with the green bird logo. I found out about it because, um, my friend showed it to me on his phone, he said it was helping him a lot, and also I saw an advert for it on social media, and also I saw it in the app store when I was looking for something else. I use it mainly to learn new English words, and, um, sometimes I use it before I go to sleep, like ten minutes every day, and also sometimes on the bus when I'm going to work. It's useful for me because, um, it reminds me every day with a notification, so I don't forget, and also it's like a game, so it's not boring like a textbook, and also I can see my progress, like how many days I did it, and that makes me want to continue. Yeah, so that's basically the app, and I think it's helped my vocabulary a little bit, um, especially for words I use in daily conversation.

FC: keeps going and demonstrates a willingness to produce long turns, but coherence dips through repeated 'um' and the connective-spam pattern 'and also... and also... and also' (a Band-5-leaning FC marker per standards/ielts/speaking.md §4's synthesis) that Band 6 tolerates only because it rarely impedes communication. LR: word choice sometimes inappropriate ('one of those vocabulary apps') but meaning is clear; paraphrase ability is not really tested since the candidate simply forgot the name rather than working around a real gap. GRA: mix of short and complex forms with limited flexibility; clauses are strung together with 'and'/'so' rather than true subordination, errors rarely impede communication. P: chunking generally appropriate but rhythm affected by frequent filled pauses.

اعرض الإجابة النموذجية.. Part 2 (Band 8)

The app I'd like to talk about is a note-taking and organisation tool that I now use for pretty much everything, from work projects to grocery lists. I stumbled across it almost by accident.. a colleague was demonstrating it in a meeting to show how she'd organised an entire project timeline inside it, and I was immediately struck by how flexible it seemed, so I downloaded it that same evening. I use it primarily to break down large tasks into smaller, manageable steps, and to keep a running log of ideas I don't want to lose track of; I've also started using it to plan my weekly schedule, linking related notes together so nothing exists in isolation. What makes it genuinely useful, I think, is that it removes the mental clutter of trying to remember everything yourself.. instead of carrying a dozen half-finished thoughts around in my head, I can offload them the moment they occur to me and trust that they'll still be there, organised, whenever I need them. It's also changed the way I approach bigger projects at work, because breaking things down visually makes overwhelming tasks feel far more achievable, and I've noticed I procrastinate noticeably less as a result. So, if I'm honest, it's gone from being a small convenience to something I'd genuinely struggle to work without at this point, and I'd recommend it to almost anyone who feels disorganised or constantly overwhelmed by everyday tasks.

FC: fluent, rare repetition/self-correction, coherent and relevant development across a single unbroken narrative arc (discovery, use, why it matters, outcome). LR: wide, ready, flexible use with skilful idiomatic items ('stumbled across it', 'mental clutter', 'offload them'). GRA: wide range, flexible; majority of sentences error-free with dense accurate subordination. P: wide range implied by long unbroken clause chains and sustained rhythm across long utterances, consistent with the model's fuller sustained-2:00 length.

اعرض الإجابة النموذجية.. Part 3 (Band 8)

Examiner: Do you think people rely on technology too much nowadays? Candidate: I'd say so, yes.. a lot of everyday functions that people used to manage independently, like remembering directions or doing mental arithmetic, are now almost entirely outsourced to a device, so the dependence runs a lot deeper than most people realise. Examiner: Can you tell me a little bit more about why that dependence has grown so quickly? Candidate: I think it's largely because devices have become so seamlessly integrated into daily routines that using them barely registers as a choice anymore.. it's simply the default option, so the habit builds without anyone consciously deciding to rely on it. Examiner: Do you think future generations will find it even harder to live without technology? Candidate: Almost certainly, yes.. younger generations are growing up never having known a world without constant connectivity, so for them the baseline expectation of technology will be even higher, which suggests the gap will only widen over time.

FC: hesitation occasionally content-related only; each turn is a fully extended, logically connected response rather than a bare opinion, and all three turns stay on the single technology-reliance theme rather than jumping topic. LR: effective paraphrase ('outsourced to a device' reframes the prompt's 'rely on technology') and precise exam-register collocations ('the baseline expectation', 'the gap will only widen'). GRA: majority of sentences error-free with correct hedging modality ('I'd say so', 'Almost certainly') and comparative/causal structures under time pressure. P: sustained rhythm and flexible stress/intonation implied across long, unbroken multi-clause turns.

قائمة الفحص للتقييم الذاتي
  • FCهل تحدثت بشكل متواصل بدون توقفات طويلة تبحث فيها عن كلمة؟
  • FCهل وقعت في «الربط الزائد».. تكرار and then... and then أو and also... and also بدل روابط متنوعة؟
  • LRهل استخدمت إعادة الصياغة عندما لم تعرف الكلمة الدقيقة، بدل التوقف الصامت؟
  • LRهل تجنبت الكلمات العامة جدا مثل one of those apps واستبدلتها بمفردات أدق؟
  • GRAهل جربت جملا مركبة (subordinate clauses) بدل جمل قصيرة متكررة فقط؟
  • GRAراجع كثافة الأخطاء في جملك المعقدة تحديدا.. الجمل البسيطة قد تكون صحيحة لكن الجمل المعقدة هي الفارق بين باند 5/6 و 7/8
  • Pهل قسّمت كلامك إلى وحدات معنى واضحة (chunking) بدل كلام متصل بلا فواصل نطقية؟
  • Pهل حافظت على إيقاع ثابت دون تسريع الكلام بشكل يفقده وضوحه؟