MOCK EXAM 15
SIMULA UN ENTORNO TRANQUILO DURANTE CUATRO HORAS Y MEDIA
COMO SI ESTUVIERAS EN EL EXAMEN. DURANTE ESE TIEMPO:
1. ELIGE UN TEMA Y REDÁCTALO SIN MIRAR APUNTES, SIMULANDO
EXAMEN REAL.
2. ELIGE TRES PREGUNTAS DE LAS SEIS DEL TEXTO.
GOOD LUCK!
PRACTICAL EXAM:
There was once, in the city of Kahani in the land of Alifbay, a boy named Luka who had
two pets, a bear named Dog and a dog named Bear, which meant that whenever he called out
‘Dog!’ the bear waddled up amiably on his hind legs, and when he shouted ‘Bear!’ the dog
bounded towards him wagging his tail. Dog the brown bear could be a little gruff and bearish at
times, but he was an expert dancer, able to get upon to his hind legs and perform with
subtlety and grace the waltz, the polka, the rhumba, the wah-watusi and the twist, as well as
dances from nearer home, the pounding bhangra, the twirling ghoomar (for which he wore
wide mirror-worked skirt), the warrior dances known as the spaw and the thang—ta, and the
peacock dance of the south. Bear the dog was a chocolate Labrador, and a gentle, friendly dog,
thought sometimes a bit excitable and nervous; he absolutely could not dance, having, as the
saying goes, four left feet, but to make up for his clumsiness he possessed the gift of perfect
pitch, so he could, sing up a storm, howling out the melodies of the most popular songs of the
day, and never go out of tune. Bear the dog and Dog the bear quickly became much more
than Luka’s pets. hey turned into his closest allies and most loyal protectors, so fierce in his
defence that nobody would ever have dreamed of bullying him when they were nearby, not
even his appalling classmate Ratshit, whose behaviour was usually out of control.
This is how Luka came to have such unusual companions. One fine day when he was
twelve years old, the circus came to town — and not just any circus, but the GROF, Great Rings g
of Fire, itself, the most celebrated circus in all of Alifbay, ‘featuring the Famous Incredible Fire ',
Illusion’. So Luka was at first bitterly disappointed when his father, the storyteller Rashid
Khalifa, told him they would not be going to the show. ‘Unkind to the animals’, Rashid
explained. ‘Once it may have had its glory days but these days the GROF has fallen far from
Grace’. The Lioness had tooth decay, Rashidrtold Luka, and the Tigress was blind and the
Elephants were hungry and the rest-(of the circus menagerie was just plain miserable. The
Ringmaster of the Great Rings of Fire was the terrifying and enormous Captain Aag, aka
Grandmaster Flame. The animals were so scared of the crack of his whip that the Lioness with
toothache and the blind Tigress continued to jump through hoops and play dead and the skinny
elephants still made Pachyderm Pyramids for fear of angering him, for Aag was a man who was
quick to anger and slow to laugh. And even when he put his cigar-smoking head into the
Lioness's yawning mouth, she was too scared to bite it off just in case it decided to kill her from
inside her belly.
Rashid was walking Luka home from school, wearing, as usual, one of his brightly
coloured bush shirts (this one was vermillion) and his beloved, battered panama hat, and
listening to the story of Luka’s day. Luka had forgotten the name of the tip of South America
and had labelled it ‘Hawaii' in a geography test. However, he had remembered the name of his
country’s first president and spelled it correctly in a history test. He had been smacked on the
side of the head by Ratshit’s hockey stick during games. On the other hand, he had scored two
, MOCK EXAM 15
goals in the match and defeated his enemy’s team. He had also finally got the hang of snapping
his fingers properly, so that they made a satisfying cracking noise. So there were pluses and
minuses. Not a bad day overall; but it was about to become a very important day indeed,
because this was the day they saw the circus parade going by on its way to raise its Big Top
near the banks of the mighty Silsila. The Silsila was the wide, lazy, ugly river with mud-coloured
water, which flowed through the city not far from their home. The sight of droopy cockatoos in
their cages and the sad dromedaries humphing along the street touched Luka’s generous young
hearth. But saddest of all, he thought, was the cage in which a mournful dog and a doleful bear
stared wretchedly all about. Bringing up the rear of the cavalcade was Captain Aag with his
pirate’s hard black eyes and his barbarian’s untamed beard. All of a sudden Luka became angry
(and he was a boy who was slow tanger and quickly to laugh). When Grandmaster Flame was
right in front of him Luka shouted out at the top of his voice, ‘May your animals stop obeying
your commands and your rings of fire eat up your stupid tent’.
SOURCE: The Terrible Thing That Happened on the Beautiful Starry Night by Salman Rusdie.
1. Explain the meaning of FIVE phrasal verbs from the text and write a
complex sentence using each one, in a context different from this text.
2. Explain the narrative style of the fragment.
3. Translate till “her belly.”
4. Find words in the text for the following definitions:
1. Hanging down.
2. A sudden, sharp sound.
3. Hit with open hands. .
4. A sound used to express dislike or indignation.
5. A collection of animals for displaying.
LANGUAGE USE ACTIVITIES
1. Add the suitable verbs to make the correct phrasal verbs:
BREAK – COME – DO – DROP – GET – GO – JUMP – LIE – PUT – SETTLE – TAKE
– THROW – TICK – TURN – WORK
1. Mike’s interest in practising karate _____ off rather quickly and the boy
started to look for a new hobby to take up.
