I E Reading tasks the 1st of March, 2021
1. (15 points, 1 point per item). You are going to read a text about a coin and banknote specialist. For
questions 1-15, complete the text with the words from the box below. There are three words which
you do not need to use. There is an example (0).
Stewart Thain is a coin, medal and banknote (0) ____specialist____. His passion for numismatics is
evident and it is (1) ___hard___ to believe that he fell into this world accidentally. "My involvement
with coins happened by (2) ___chance_______," he confesses. "My schoolboy interest had been in
collecting (3) ____stamps_______, and coin study was new to me when I began. It's been a matter
of (4) ___learning___ everything along the way." It was the discovery of two medieval coin
collections in the (5) __centre__ of Aberdeen in the 1980s which was the twist of fate that attracted
Stewart to this field. In 1983, workmen were (6) ___preparing_____ the foundations for a shopping
centre when one (7) ___worker___ noticed a glint of silver in the soil. Aberdeen's archeology
department was called in and Stewart was (8) ___given____ the task of searching through the
mountain of earth in order to recover every coin he could find. "It was quite (9)___exciting___ but
not always enjoyable. I was also (10) __worried___ that I might miss some coins because they were
so tiny and not always easy to see. After this find and a (11) __important___ discovery in 1984, it
was thought that somebody ought to (12) ___take___ over the collection," Stewart says with a
laugh. "I was selected to be a (13) __last___person to take on the role and I've been doing it ever
since!" Stewart is in a very good (14) ___position___because Aberdeen is one of the most (15)
___suitable___ centres in Europe for medieval coin finds.
centre chance happy exciting given hard important
last learning position preparing second specialist
stamps suitable take worker worried taken
2. (5 points, 1 point per item). You are going to read an article about cheerleaders*. Five sentences
have been removed from the text. For questions 1-5, choose from the sentences A-G the one which
best fits each gap (1-5). Write your answers in the table below. There is one extra sentence which
you do not need to use. There is an example (0).
"Rah rah rah! Hoo-rah! Minn-e-so-tah!" So roared Johnny Campbell, the first ever cheerleader, on
November 2, 1898, at a football game at Minnesota University. There are now more than 4m
cheerleaders in the United States. (0) ___G___ Teenagers can be found pirouetting along sidelines
from India to Greece, and there are over 5,000 cheerleaders in the UK. Cheerleading originally was
the privilege of boys and men. It was only in the 1920s that women gymnasts became involved.
Today the average cheerleader is a bubbly, bronzed teenage girl. (1) ___C___ It also generates
problems. "There can be jealousy," admits Lauren White, a veteran from New Orleans. "The
nationals can be brutally competitive. A lot of people go away crying." Being chosen for the team is
the top of social success and happiness. (2) __D___Pressure to be the best is intense: top
cheerleaders train for up to three hours daily to perfect their chants, jumps, and pyramid-building.
Gone are the boxy 1950s-style woollen skirts. (3)__ B.__ Perhaps the best known among them is
the scorpion, an elaborate move in which a person raises one foot and touches the back of her
head, mimicking a scorpion's tail. (4) _F__Should it be a sport or an athletic activity? Sport status
could mean more funding, but it could also mean coaches lose some control in favour of school
sports committees. (5) __A___ Many universities now offer cheerleading scholarships, and children
as young as four or five are joining junior teams. The National Cheerleaders Association holds a
competition every spring, where the best make their way into cheerleading history.
* Cheerleaders are people (usually girls) performing dance-like movements at sports events, e.g. basketball or football, to support
the participating teams and to lead the cheering crowd.
A Either way, it is being taken very seriously.
B They have been replaced by tiny costumes to perform acrobatic stunts.
C But the idea is the same: to lead a crowd in support of an athletic team and to generate pride in
the community.
D Winners, however, are very well-paid.
E But behind the smiles there often lies hard work.
F There is ongoing debate about cheerleading's classification.
G Cheerleading has also become popular in many other countries.
