The Reading section, has several short passages. After you read each passage, choose the correct answer

I: Reading

In this section of the Placement Test, you will read some short passages and answer questions about them. Choose the word or words that best complete the sentence. For each item, choose your answer.

You will have 20 minutes to complete this section.

Passage 1: What are you doing this weekend?

1. This Saturday Mara’s going to:

EILEEN SWEET: I’m a hostess at a big restaurant. I greet people at the door and take them to their tables. Day after day, I always do the same thing. Someday I hope to have a more interesting job, but it’s OK for now.

2. Eileen thinks that her job is:

People who have the capacity for intense concentration have a great advantage. Such people have the ability to ignore stimuli (sights, sounds, or anything that can distract a person) and are more likely to stay with the task at hand and to solve it. This ability can make all the difference between winning and losing in certain situations – for example, for the championship runner competing for a gold medal at the Olympics.

According to one story, a Scottish boy watched the steam lift the top off his mother’s tea kettle and realized the power of steam to make machines work. That boy, James Watt, would then go on to invent the modern steam engine in 1769. Actually, the history of steam technology records the successful work of several scientists and engineers before Watt. For example, in 1698, Thomas Savery had introduced a simple steam pump to remove water from mines, and 14 years later Thomas Newcomen invented a better pump. But these pumps weren’t efficient because they used so much fuel. In 1769, the Scottish boy, James Watt, figured out a way to save three-quarters of the fuel. To honor him, his last name became the name of a unit of energy.

Visitors to the United States, especially those from Japan or the smaller countries of Europe, are likely to comment on the size and scale of everything. Although the downtown sections of some of the older cities suchas Boston and Philadelphia may look similar to their own larger cities, other aspects are likely to appear “out of scale.” For example, the average American farm is huge in comparison with the typical family farm of Europe and Asia. Across the Great Plains, farmers use great machines to plant and harvest enormous quantities of wheat. Such farms offer a dramatic contrast to the tiny farms of Europe or Asia, where intense human labor is more important. The main cities of the United States are connected by a vast system of high ways and super high ways moving end less streams of cars and trucks, while on the edge of the cities, sub urban developments and shopping centers with huge parking lots stretch for mile after mile. It’s as if Americans made everything larger, just to use up the available space.

8. To visitors, everything in the United States seems:

People don’t need to be in close physical contact to feel “connected” emotionally. Over the years, various means of communication have been used to enable human beings to keep in contact with one another. Letters, telegrams, and telephones have allowed individuals located in different places to share news and to interact with family, friends, and business relationships. In today’s world, with more and more people on the move, long-distance communication has become even more important. At the same time, changes in technology, particularly the introduction of computers and the increasing use of electronic mail, have made it easier than ever to stay in contact. There are two main reasons why e-mail has become so widespread: time and money. Although mail service and telephones can be found almost anywhere, a letter can take a long time to arrive and phone calls are often quite expensive. E-mail seems to be replacing other forms of communication for many purposes. As the use of computers has spread, many people use e-mail rather than regular mail to send personal messages. Because it has become so easy to send pictures and information via the Internet, it has also become commonplace to use e-mail in business. E-mail has even given rise to a new type of communication, the “chat room,” where groups of people who do not know each other personally can talk about topics of mutual interest. While some people are enthusiastic about communication in the modern age, others regret the growing depersonalization brought on by the use of e-mail. Communication has become so easy and yet so removed from the normal process of face-to-face interaction that researchers have concluded that a whole new culture of communication may be forming.

When biofeedback was first developed a number of years ago, it caused a lot of excitement. People hoped that biofeedback could be used to cure all kinds of physical and mental problems. Biofeedback is the name for a medical technique that helps people treat certain problems by becoming more aware of their own bodies. In biofeedback, instruments that measure bodily functions such as muscle tension, temperature, and blood flow are attached to the body. The instruments produce signals – for example, a series of sounds (beeps) or a flashing light – that the person can hear or see. The patient then uses the information to help gain control over the function. The most widely used biofeedback instrument is the electrom yograph, or EMG. The EMG is used to measure muscle tension. It is made up of several electrodes, which are placed on the skin near a particular area, depending on the symptom. For example, for headaches, a symptom often caused by excessive tension in the neck muscles, the electrodes are placed on the forehead or near the back of the neck. When the tension is present, the EMG produces a signal and the patient is taught to respond by relaxing the appropriate muscles. In many cases, the relaxation of these muscles causes the headache to go away. While biofeedback has not turned out to be a cure-all, it has been used successfully to treat a limited number of problems – especially those caused by chronic tension.

16. At first, people were very _________ biofeedback.

The Vocabulary & Grammar section, has 30 items. Choose the correct completion for each item.

Vocabulary & Grammar

In this section, you will answer questions about the use of English. Choose the word or words that best complete the sentence. You will have 15 minutes to complete this section.

1. “Are the bags ready?”“Yes, .”

The Listening section, you will hear nine conversations and answer one or more questions about each one. Before you listen to a conversation, read the question or questions. Then listen to the conversation. Answer the questions after the conversation ends. Choose the correct answer for each question. 

You will have 20 minutes to complete this section.

Situation 1: Ann and Tomas are at a coffee shop. They’re talking when Yoshicomes in.

Conversation 1

1. ________are meeting for the first time.

2. Sharon _____.

4. It’s hot and dry in _________.

6. Phil can’t play golf tomorrow afternoon because he _______.

8. Jill and her family usually _______.

10. Melanie is angry because _______.